Dr Mahathir’s masterstroke

ARCHIVES 2012

By MT Webmaster On Oct 24, 2012

Then Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad stirred the pot to see what surfaces from the bottom of the pot. And this shows that Dr Mahathir is savvier than the PAS politicians. Dr Mahathir said that PAS promised — if they manage to take over Terengganu — that they would implement Islamic laws. Now that PAS has taken over Terengganu where are these Islamic laws? PAS is utter bullshit, said Dr Mahathir.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

This whole thing started about 12 years ago soon after the November 1999 general election when PAS retained Kelantan, which it won in 1990, and added Terengganu as the second state to fall to the opposition.

Losing Kelantan or not being able to retake Kelantan was not as disastrous as losing Terengganu. This is because Kelantan is poor and it needs federal aid and grants to develop the state. Terengganu, however, has oil and gas and it contributes to about 50% of Petronas’ income.

Hence losing Terengganu is extremely bad news. Terengganu has only eight Parliament seats, which is no big deal. But it is not the Parliament seats or the state government that is the issue. It is the RM800 million to RM1 billion a year Oil Royalty that the opposition is going to get its hands on. Imagine that amount of money in the hands of the opposition.

And this RM800 million to RM1 billion a year represents only 5% in ‘Royalty’ mind you. To know what the total revenue is, you need to multiply that figure by 20. And that figure is huge for a state that has only about one million or so inhabitants.

(Just to digress a bit: and that was why Dr Mahathir withdrew the Oil Royalty merely five months after GE11 and changed it to ‘Wang Ehsan’, which was then managed by Umno — meaning Idris Jusoh — and no longer by the state government. And that was also why His Highness the Sultan of Terengganu did not want Idris Jusoh as the Menteri Besar — because of his mismanagement of Terengganu’s ‘Wang Ehsan’).

Terengganu is supposed to be the second richest state after Selangor. Terengganu even beat Penang and Johor. This was what a Malaysian business magazine reported back in the mid-1990s. However, said the same business magazine, the Terengganu citizens are second poorest after the people in Perlis.

I was still in Terengganu then. We rushed out to buy copies of that magazine but found that none of the local newsagents or bookshops had any copies left. They had sold out every copy. Then we discovered that the Menteri Besar had instructed his office to buy up every copy.

We then called up Kuala Lumpur and managed to get the people there to help buy some copies and put them on the next plane out to Kuala Terengganu. Hence we had to wait another day before we could read that most damaging report.

Basically, the issue that the Terengganu State Government wanted to hide from us is that Terengganu was the second richest state (in terms of state wealth) but the second poorest (in terms of the people’s wealth).

And, a couple of years later, on 29th November 1999, Terengganu fell to the opposition because the people were pissed big time that the state was so rich but the people were still very poor. In short, money talks and bullshit walks, and the people had had enough of the Umno bullshit.

PAS knew this. So, as soon as they took over the state in November 1999, they abolished the toll charges on the Terengganu bridge, they abolished council tax, they gave scholarships to poor students, and much more. Basically, PAS tried to turn Terengganu into a welfare or socialist state, so to speak.

The Menteri Besar, Tok Guru Abdul Hadi Awang, was also very careful about the perception he gave. First of all, he never referred to the Terengganu government as ‘Kerajaan PAS’ or the PAS Government. He would refer to it as ‘Kerajaan BA’ or the Barisan Alternatif Government.

Then he appointed non-Muslims to head certain committees and held meetings with the Christians, Hindus and Buddhist before changing any policies or before implementing any new policies. (I know because I helped arrange some meetings between Hadi and the church groups from Kuala Lumpur, as Goh Kiat Peng can confirm).

For example, when the state wanted to ban liquor and gambling, Hadi called the non-Muslims for a meeting and asked them what they had to say about the matter. The non-Muslims agreed that gambling is bad. Gambling was one of the causes of families breaking up, they said. So they have no problems if gambling is banned as long as the Chinese could still play Mah Jong in the privacy of their own homes.

As for liquor, the non-Muslims want to still be allowed access to liquor in the state. Hadi agreed to this on condition that only non-Muslims were allowed access to liquor and not the Muslims.

In other words, ‘public’ gambling is banned. Gambling in the privacy of your homes is not. Liquor is banned only for Muslims. Non-Muslims were still free to sell and drink liquor. Pubs and clubs could still operate in Terengganu on the basis of ‘For non-Muslims Only’ — just like coffee shops selling pork have to post ‘Non-Halal’ signs whether in Terengganu or Kuala Lumpur.

This worked well. Both PAS and the non-Muslims appeared happy with the arrangement. PAS will not deny non-Muslims their rights. Non-Muslims, however, must not involve Muslims in their ‘vices’ or do things in public. Gamble at home and drink in the pubs/clubs (or at home). Don’t ‘go public’ or do all this in front of the Muslims.

Hadi suddenly forgot that he had always called the Terengganu government ‘Kerajaan BA’ and not ‘Kerajaan PAS’. In fact, he had told his people to do the same — say ‘Kerajaan BA’ and not say ‘Kerajaan PAS’. But now, with Dr Mahathir’s goading and provocation, Hadi and PAS forgot all this and suddenly announced that the PAS government of Terengganu was going to implement Islamic laws in Terengganu.

Why ‘the PAS government of Terengganu’? Was it not ‘the BA government of Terengganu’? BA includes PKR and DAP as well. But this is not a BA decision, explained Hadi. This is a PAS decision.

When I heard this I shuddered. This was the beginning of the end for BA. And I said so in the articles I wrote back in 2000. And I got whacked for saying that, by none other than Anwar Ibrahim himself, who told me to back off and not attack PAS.

Yes, Dr Mahathir engaged PAS in a staring competition and PAS blinked first. PAS announced it was going to implement Islamic laws in Terengganu. But in the same breath they also announced that they have not quite formalised these laws yet.

In other words, they have no idea yet what these laws are going to look like. This was merely a ‘pre-emption’ announcement. Announce first and sort out the details later. Even Tun Salleh Abas, the one-time Lord President, admitted this. So what more could I say? This was hara kiri. This was political suicide. And I wondered why they could not see this.

Basically, Dr Mahathir laid a trap and PAS walked into that trap and got caught. Now, instead of sorting out the financial welfare of the people of Terengganu, they focused on the issue of Islamic laws.

But the people wanted to talk about money. They didn’t want to talk about Islamic laws. And they found that as more and more PAS talked about Islam, their pockets became emptier and emptier.

(Of course, the withdrawal of the Oil Royalty and handing the money to Idris Jusoh as ‘Wang Ehsan’ for the exclusive use of Umno helped accelerate this financial disaster. But that was the intention in the first place).

Then, on 21st March 2004, the Terengganu people kicked out PAS and gave the state back to Umno. And the reason why the Terengganu voters made PAS/BA a one-term government is all because of money, or rather the lack of it.

In the meantime, Barisan Alternatif broke up. DAP left the opposition coalition and went independent. And 2004 was the worse election performance in history for the opposition.

This all started 12 years ago as a contest of ‘one-upmanship’ between Umno and PAS. It was a contest to see who can be more Islamic than the other. It is like two peacocks showing of their feathers, each thinking it is more beautiful than the other.

This was a contest that would go nowhere. PAS can demonstrate all it wants that it is more Islamic than Umno by announcing that it is going to implement Islamic laws in Terengganu. But as had been proven almost a decade earlier in Kelantan, it cannot be done unless Parliament approves these new laws first. And there is no way Parliament is going to approve it.

Once PAS and Umno were done with flexing their muscles and showing off their peacock feathers, this thing should have died a natural death — like what had happened in Kelantan almost ten years earlier.

Back in the early 1990s, when PAS announced the implementation of Islamic laws in Kelantan (and which Parliament blocked), no one cared. No one said a damn thing (other than Zaid Ibrahim who took the matter to court). It was not even discussed, debated or argued. The only two groups that were quarrelling over it were Umno and PAS. And soon that quarrel ended and died a natural death when they got tired or arguing over a non-starter.

Surprisingly, though, when PAS did the same thing in Terengganu almost ten years later, the whole issue did not die there. It was no longer just a PAS-Umno issue like ten years earlier. The non-Muslims got involved.

Why did the non-Muslims not express outrage when Kelantan did the same thing back in the early 1990s? Why ten years later express outrage when it was done in Terengganu? Terengganu just did what Kelantan did almost ten years earlier. But for Kelantan it was a non-issue. For Terengganu it was such a big issue that resulted in the breakup of Barisan Alternatif.

Maybe this was because the 1990 Kelantan Government was a PAS-Semangat 46 government while the 1999 Terengganu Government was a BA Government (which means DAP was supposedly part of it although they did not win a single seat in Terengganu).

Whatever it may be, Dr Mahathir laid a trap and PAS and DAP walked right into it and got caught. Now, in 2012, 12 years on, the trap is still working. Today, the non-Muslims are talking about the matter more than even the Muslims themselves.

What Dr Mahathir wanted was to goad PAS and make them do something that would upset the non-Muslims. PAS did what Dr Mahathir had hoped and the non-Muslims got upset as Dr Mahathir had hoped. And that proves Dr Mahathir is a far better politician than those from Pakatan Rakyat.

Today, the non-Muslims are giving their opinions regarding Islam. And this just upsets the Muslims, even those who are pro-opposition. Dr Mahathir, as he always said, wants the Malays to unite. He means, of course, to unite under Umno, not PAS.

But he failed to get them to unite. Race just can’t seem to unite the Malays. However, religion can because most Malays (more than 50% according to the poll) consider themselves Muslims first, Malays second, and Malaysian third.

Hence what Dr Mahathir started 12 years ago in 2000 has finally succeeded. The non-Malays have jumped onto the Islamic law bandwagon and are offering their ‘expert’ opinions regarding Islam.

It is the right of non-Muslims to talk about Islam. Even if Islamic laws only affect the Muslims and not the non-Muslims the non-Muslims still have a right to talk about it and must talk about it. The non-Muslims are merely trying to save the Muslims who will be subjected to barbaric and outdated laws from the Dark Ages if Islamic laws are implemented. The Muslims must be allowed the freedom to do what they want even if it is to leave Islam, drink liquor, eat pork, etc.

Yes, the non-Muslims are merely trying to help the Muslims. The non-Muslims want the Muslims to have the same rights as the non-Muslims and not have to suffer discrimination and persecution under separate (Islamic) laws. The non-Muslims are sincere and only have the interest of the Muslims at heart. Malaysia is a Secular State and not an Islamic State so Islamic laws have no place in Malaysia.

Whatever it may be, the Muslims are now very divided. In fact, they have always been divided since 1,400 years ago anyway. The question is are the Muslims divided between Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat or divided between Islam and Kafir?

I suppose the coming general election will reveal the answer to that question and we shall find out whether Dr Mahathir’s strategy that was launched 12 years ago has finally borne fruit. Dr Mahathir was hoping that the non-Muslims would become kay poh. And now the non-Muslims have become kay poh much to the delight of Dr Mahathir.