ZUBAIDAH ABU BAKAR: A matter of divine inspiration
BN component parties, such as the MCA and Gerakan, are likely to exploit the issue of hudud among the Chinese, who make up about 11 per cent of the Kuala Terengganu electorate.
ZUBAIDAH ABU BAKAR, New Straits Times
CONTROVERSIES over religion are once again rearing their ugly head in Terengganu.
Amid the sparring between Umno and Pas for the hearts and minds of the Malay voters, the politicians are sounding like a broken record.
Political observers said this was bound to happen when two Malay-based parties fight for support from the same community — as they are now in the run-up to the Jan 17 Kuala Terengganu by-election — they would inevitably resort to religion.
Such is the tendency in the Malay-belt states — Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah and Perlis — to mix religion and politics.
It started out with hudud and qisas and now has expanded to sin, and heaven and hell.
It was the revered Tok Guru — Pas spiritual leader Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat — who set off the accusations and counter-accusations at the launch of the Kelantan Pas machinery for the by-election at Masjid Hiliran in Kuala Terengganu last week.
Umno leaders quickly joined the chorus by rebutting the Kelantan menteri besar's claim that voters who chose Pas would be rewarded by God since the party was fighting for Islam.
Terengganu Menteri Besar Datuk Ahmad Said is fighting back and told Wanita Umno vote canvassers on Saturday to counter the claim of religious endorsement "nicely".
"Nik Aziz says God will reward those who vote for Pas but he didn't say voting for Umno is a sin.
"Explain nicely. We want to woo voters to our side, not scare them."
Ahmad's rejoinder came after Barisan Nasional candidate Datuk Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh hit out at Pas for intimidating voters.
Nik Aziz is denying that Pas is using religion out of desperation, insisting that party leaders are merely informing the public about Islam.
For decades, Pas leaders have been baiting voters with promises of heaven if they voted for the party.
Former Election Commission chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman warned that using religion for political purposes was an offence under the Election Offences Act 1954, which could cost victors their seats.
Whether religion is successfully politicised before Kuala Terengganu's 80,229 registered voters go to the polls remains to be seen.
Religion can influence voting, especially when it is couched in the pronouncements of respected scholars.
Nik Aziz had, in 2002, declared Kelantan people who voted for Pas in the 1990 general election stood to gain pahala (rewards) as they had freed the state of riba (usury).
Pas won the state in 1990 and Nik Aziz, appointed the menteri besar, ordered the state government to withdraw its funds from commercial banks and deposit them in Bank Islam.
The party remains in control of Kelantan, although it nearly lost to BN in 2004.
When Nik Aziz was asked in an interview with the New Straits Times before the March 2008 general election whether he would woo voters with religion, his reply was: "In Islam, every good deed will be rewarded, what more in helping an Islamic party form a government?"
But BN component parties, such as the MCA and Gerakan, are likely to exploit the issue of hudud among the Chinese, who make up about 11 per cent of the Kuala Terengganu electorate.
Malay voters, however, are likely to ignore the issue as Muslims are obliged to respect the laws of God.
But the electorate, wiser for having seen it all before, will not be easily fooled by the political games.
It won't be long before they decide what their champion should stand for.
