Coalition government – NO WAY, says PAS Vice President

(Malaysian Times) – PAS vice-president Datuk Husam Musa has rubbished suggestions that PAS form a coalition government with UMNO  to rebuild parts of Kelantan which have been hard hit by the worst floods in recent memory.

He  said the federal government should pay oil royalties it owed the state so that the Kelantan PAS government can rebuild.

“How about Petronas, which has enriched itself from oil off Kelantan’s shores without paying a single sen to Kelantan, give the state RM3 billion in the spirit of humanitarianism?” asked Husam in a statement today.

Husam has in the past led campaigns to demand that Putrajaya pay Kelantan royalties from petroleum it has extracted from the state’s waters the same way it pays Terengganu.

Kelantan PAS has repeatedly claimed that Putrajaya purposely holds off paying them royalties because they are a non-Barisan Nasional (BN) state government.

Husam, who is the Salor assemblyman, was responding to a statement by influential Bahasa Malaysia media baron Datuk Dr Hussamuddin Yaacub who had urged PAS and Umno to put their political rivalry aside to rebuild Kelantan.

In a story in Malay-language daily Sinar Harian yesterday, Hussamuddin, who is Kelantanese, had said PAS and BN should form a coalition government at the state level just to rebuild Kelantan.

“Its time that Umno and PAS leaders at the state level, not the federal level, stop politicking for the sake of the people of Kelantan to rebuild the state,” Hussamuddin, who founded the Karangkraf Media group, had said.

Karangkraf owns Sinar Harian and some of the most popular Bahasa Malaysia magazines in Malaysia.

Hussamuddin also blamed the 35-year-old political rivalry between Umno and PAS on the backwardness of Kelantan.

PAS took over the state government in the 1990 general election and has ruled Kelantan ever since.

In response to this suggestion, Husam, a former state executive councillor, said it would be better if Putrajaya just pay oil royalties to the state.

“As I was waiting for a helicopter at the Kota Baru airport, I could see rows of helicopters who are tied to Petronas oil rig operations in Kelantan’s waters.

“This is the right time for Petronas to settle its debts with the Kelantan people,” Husam had said.