Terengganu is as good as gone

By MT Webmaster Last updated Oct 10, 2015

It is actually a brilliant move by Pakatan Harapan. Demolish PAS in Terengganu by giving the state to Umno. Then blame Hadi for it and force him to resign. Pakatan Harapan would be blameless because they signed a MoU. PAS, however, did not sign the MoU (because they were not invited to sign it). So PAS is at fault here and must take the blame.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

There are eight parliament seats and 32 state seats in Terengganu, a state that fell to the opposition Barisan Alternatif for just one term in 1999 — and then went back to Barisan Nasional, or rather Umno, in 2004, and which Umno held for another two elections after that in 2008 and 2013.

Terengganu is more an Umno state than a Barisan Nasional state because Umno contested all the eight parliament seats and all but one of the 32 state seats. MCA was given just one seat, the state seat of Bandar or what the locals call ‘Kampung Cina’ (Chinese village), the area with the largest Chinese community in the state.

Umno Terengganu, just like in Selangor, is in turmoil. There is serious factionalism within Umno Terengganu, which is divided into at least three or four camps. Actually, Umno Terengganu can be said to be spilt into eight because of the very high ‘semangat kedaerahan’ or parochialism.

For example, the people from Kuala Terengganu cannot accept someone, say, from Besut (and vice versa) while the people from Kemaman cannot accept, say, someone from Kuala Terengganu (and vice versa). A Besut person is a Besut person (not a Terengganu person) while a person from Kemaman is a Kemaman person.

And the same goes for places such as Kuala Berang, Dungun, Kijal, etc. You are not ‘local’ unless you are born in that town/district. Being born in Terengganu is not good enough. And this is the problem Terengganu has been facing for almost forever — you are an ‘orang luar’ even if you were born in the state but are from outside the town/district.

In the 2013 general election, Umno won four parliament seats and 17 state seats (MCA lost the only seat they contested, which they had won in 2008) while PAS also won four parliament seats and 14 state seats (one state seat was won by PKR to give Pakatan Rakyat 15 seats versus 17 for Umno).

In three of the 32 state seats there were three-corner fights between Umno, PAS and PKR. Pakatan Rakyat says that the three-corner fights resulted in split votes. If not it could have been 16-16 in the ‘hung’ Terengganu State Assembly or maybe even 17-15 in favour of Pakatan Rakyat (rather than 17-15 in favour of Barisan Nasional).

The issue is, if there had not been any three-corner fights then Pakatan Rakyat and not Barisan Nasional would now most likely be the Terengganu State Government. So that is why Pakatan Harapan signed the Memorandum of Understanding (SEE THE NEWS BELOW) to make sure that in the next general election there would be only straight fights between Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan and no three-corner fights like in the past.

But the MoU was signed between DAP, PKR and PAN. DAP has never contested in Terengganu thus far. So does this mean that in the next general election DAP would be contesting the Bandar seat against MCA (a seat that is currently under PKR)?

If PKR is still going to contest the Bandar seat then what has DAP got to do with that MoU? The MoU should have been signed between PKR, PAN and PAS (those who would be contesting in Terengganu).

Umno would most likely contest all eight of the parliament seats and 31 of the 32 state seats (giving MCA the Bandar seat). On the other side will be Pakatan Harapan, comprising of DAP, PKR and PAN.

PAS would most likely contest all eight of the parliament seats and all 32 state seats. So it is going to be three-corner fights between Barisan Nasional, Pakatan Harapan and PAS in all 40 state/parliament seats.

In such a situation, Umno would most likely grab five or six of the eight parliament seats and 20-25 of the 32 state seats. That would basically kill PAS’ chances of taking Terengganu (and PAS feels it could take Terengganu if there were no three-corner fights with Pakatan Harapan ‘kacau daun’, as the Malays would say).

So the purpose of this MoU is not really to enhance Pakatan Harapan’s chances of winning Terengganu. With three-corner fights in all 40 seats the opposition cannot win Terengganu. It is to kill off PAS in Terengganu, the home state of the PAS President, Abdul Hadi Awang.

And with that pressure can be put on Hadi to resign his post (just like what happened to Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi when he lost his home state, Penang, in 2008).

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(Sinar Harian) – PKR, Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) dan DAP di Terengganu menjadi negeri pertama menandatangani Memorandum Persefahaman (MoU) bagi membentuk Pakatan Harapan Terengganu, selari dengan gabungan yang telah pun dibentuk di peringkat Pusat.

Perjanjian itu ditandatangani Pengerusi PKR Terengganu, Azan Ismail, Pengerusi Amanah Terengganu, Datuk Raja Kamarul Bahrin Shah dan juga Pengerusi DAP Terengganu, Ng Chai Hing.

Azan ketika bercakap kepada media selepas majlis tersebut memberitahu, MoU itu merupakan inisiatif awal untuk mengelak perlawanan tiga penjuru dalam pilihan raya umum akan datang khususnya melibatkan ketiga-tiga parti.

“Sebagaimana kita tahu, kita di Terengganu telah berpengalaman merasai pengalaman itu (pertandingan tiga penjuru) pada pilihan raya yang lepas. Oleh kerana itu kami bersepakat menggerakkan inisiatif awal untuk mengelakkan kemungkinan itu berlaku lagi.

“Jadi kerjasama petang ini (semalam) dizahirkan dalam bentuk MoU yang dipersetujui bersama ketiga-tiga parti,” katanya kepada pemberita di Hotel Prinzpark, Kuala Ibai, di sini. (READ MORE HERE).

Raja Petra Kamarudin RPK