[perakan] Kelantan: Reversal of fortunes

Sun, 23 Jul 2006 19:01:11 -0700

Sunday July 23, 200
 
Reversal of fortunes
 
The top Umno man in Kelantan took a tumble from a superbike while the PAS ground heaves a sigh of relief that their political state of siege may be over, writes JOCELINE TAN. 
 
DATUK Seri Annuar Musa is still recovering from his superbike mishap. 
He is back on his feet but any sort of heavy activity is still out for the Kelantan Umno chief who broke one rib and cracked two others in an accident that was the talk of Kota Baru town for days. 
 
He had been part of a superbike convoy headed towards his Kok Lanas constituency house when he felt the motorcycle going out of control and he decided, rather impulsively, to leap off the machine. 
DOWN BUT NOT OUT: Although hospitalised with a broken rib, Datuk Annuar Musa held an Umno meeting from his hospital bed. — Bernamapic
He landed on his right side, knocking his chest against a concrete edge by the side of the road. 
 
His old friend and state Umno information head Datuk Alwi Che Ahmad quipped: “When he got on the bike he thought he was still 15, but when he fell, he realised he was already 50.” 
 
And Kelantan politics being what it is, warung-style versions of his accident ranged from him landing in a drain to his bike skidding off the road because of a monitor lizard. 
 
Some of these versions were of course loaded with ominous implications of his political future. 
 
But Annuar seems made of hardier stuff. 
 
Just days after the accident, he chaired a state liaison meeting from his hospital bed, with needle and tube still sticking from his left hand. 
 
RELUCTANT MAN: Datuk Husam Musa has shown little interest in the Mentri Besar post
Earlier this week, he was at an Umno gathering when the emcee invited him onstage “to say a few words”.  
He got up rather gingerly and had to be helped up the stage by two people. But the moment he took the mike, he stunned everyone by going on full blast for a good 40 minutes. 
 
The crash had evidently not dented his oratory style. 
Mentri Besar Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat, was among the first to visit him. 
 
Just two years ago to the month, it had been Nik Aziz who was flat on his back after a heart attack, with Annuar visiting him in hospital. 
 
It was a reversal of situations for the two political rivals.  
 
In fact, Nik Aziz has also had a sort of reversal of fortunes.  
 
Barely two months ago the PAS government had been under siege as it held on to power by a one-seat majority.  
 
According to one PAS politician, it had felt like “we were sitting on a leaf.”  
“I'm confident the state government will hold until the next general election,” said PAS deputy president Nasharudin Mat Isa. 
 
That is, barring any acts of God. 
 
PAS leaders think the Barisan Nasional is no longer as keen on a snap state polls following the outcome of the Sarawak election and given that Umno is still trying to sort out the situation created by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. 
 
Besides, it is clear the incumbent PAS assemblymen are quite above any form of worldly persuasions. None of them have been tempted to quit their seats despite reportedly being offered huge sums of money.  
 
“Money can buy a lot of things but not everything,” said Kelantan Legislative Assembly Speaker Datuk Wan Rahim Wan Abdullah. 
 
But what PAS leaders are looking forward to is the cut-off point stipulated in the election laws whereby any vacancies that occur three years after the last
general election need not result in a by-election. 
 
That cut-off point will be April next year. 
 
But according to Annuar, the stipulation only holds if the vacancy has no effect on the status of the state government.  
 
“The state of tension will still be there,” said Annuar who is also Kok Lanas assemblyman. 
 
The PAS administration is no longer wobbling on a leaf but neither is it on solid ground. 
 
It is fighting a very powerful opposition that has some RM100mil in projects to implement under the 9th Malaysia Plan. 
 
The Kelantan university, a brainchild of former state Umno chief Datuk Mustapa Mohamed, will begin operations from a temporary campus in October and start intake by July next year. 
 
Other projects in the pipeline include a hospital in Gua Musang, port in Pasir Puteh and rehabilitation centre in Machang. 
 
“The university was an election promise. We are going ahead with it even though we lost,” said Annuar. 
 
Umno is now on a charm campaign. Rather than punishing the people for supporting PAS, Annuar is advocating development in constituencies where Umno won with strong margins in 2004. 
 
PAS, on its part, is grappling with the issue of succession. 
 
It is no secret by now that this is Nik Aziz’s final term as Mentri Besar.  
The 74-year-old leader has made no bones about his preference for Datuk Husam Musa as the next Mentri Besar.  
 
Husam is PAS vice-president and also state exco for financial planning. The Universiti Malaya economics graduate has done a good job by most accounts but his drawback is that he is not an ulama and does not fit into the party ideology of “leadership by the ulama.” 
 
He has openly said at various fora that he is not interested in the post and has advocated that it should go to the current Deputy Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yaacob. 
 
As though to further reinforce his disinterest, he often goes about in loose, short-sleeved shirts and wears the kopiah only when he goes to the mosque or to speak at ceramah. 
 
Locals also talk about his rather eccentric hobbies – keeping plants from bonzai to wild orchids and rare trees as well as birds, tortoises, goats and even monitor lizards. 
 
He has often said that his interests lie in national issues and he was, indeed, one of the most watched MPs before he was put in a state seat in the last general election. 
 
But it is not just Husam's own reluctance that stands in the way of high office. There are undercurrents within the party in Kelantan who are pushing for an ulama Mentri Besar, someone more malleable and less open to the secular world. 
 
The central leader is equally concerned and is said to have carried out an internal survey to gauge feelings on the ground regarding the prospect of a non-ulama Mentri Besar. 
 
The internal politics over the issue of succession is gaining momentum because PAS leaders are predicting an early general election. 
 
Succession will be one of the chief issues for Nik Aziz in the coming year, and Umno politicians are watching it with great interest. 
 
Umno’s Annuar was only about 30 and a rising star in Umno when he first took on PAS and Nik Aziz in the 1980s. Nik Aziz was then a spritely fiftysomething and still relatively unknown outside of Kelantan. 
 
There will be yet another reversal of roles in the next polls with Annuar as the seasoned figure taking on a younger rival, namely, Husam. 
 
“The grand finale between Umno and PAS will take place in the next general election,” said Alwi.  //Thestar

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