Kelantan's 'heavy-duty' politics

'Pas is Islam and Islam is Pas' resulted in the destruction of brotherhood ties within the community

WHENEVER I go to Kelantan, where I was born about 70 years ago, I notice that characteristically the Malay society which makes up 95 per cent of its population has not changed much in terms of their outlook on politics, religion and governance.

The strong hold on religion and later also democratic beliefs played a major role in moulding the community.

The society has become more outspoken and aggressive, and the intensive rendition of religious teachings had driven them into the mad circle of twists and turns where half of them seem to believe that they are holier than the other half within the same faith.

That holier-than-thou syndrome was made to be felt when Pan Malaysia Islamic Party (Pas), through their serial and systematic sermonisation over the years, managed to brainwash their followers to think so.

This kind of religious indoctrination by well-known religious bigots, rallying behind the slogan "Pas is Islam and Islam is Pas", resulted in a permanent destruction of brotherhood ties within the Kelantan Islamic community. It was completely endemic, with no end in sight.

Most prayer houses were normally patronised by die-hard Pas followers, and non-Pas members were sidelined as sacrilegious and looked down upon as second-class Muslims.

Historically, Kelantan was well known for its unique centres of fundamental Islamic studies through a system built in deep faith and sacrifices, and therefore remained sacrosanct within the faithful.

The pondok system was the centrifuge where students lived in small huts huddled around the house and surau where the religious teacher or Tuan Guru lived.

The system produced hundreds of Tok Lebai or religious scholars and Islamic fundamentalists who, after completing their studies, would qualify to become imam and little gurus in mosques and surau.

Students from all over the country studied in the little pondok (huts), living on the meagre supply of foodstuffs from home such as rice and salted fish. Where there was land around the pondok the students planted vegetables for their own consumption.

The Tok Gurus were people with very deep knowledge of the religion, acquired particularly from Mecca and Medina where they studied informally for many years under the guidance of some well known ulama, gurus and scholars. Famous names within the pondok system include the late Tok Kenali, who was revered for his holiness and long list of dedicated followers, who in turn became religious leaders in villages all over the country, not only in Kelantan but also in Terengganu, Kedah and even as far as Sarawak.

The pondok system has thrived until today and more centres were set up not only in Kelantan but in neighbouring states. Over the last three decades, however, the concept and character of the system have undergone some changes.

The little huts are more presentable and living conditions much better with a lot of help from donors and sympathisers.

The students are also prepared for qualifying exams in Arabic to enable them to get into universities in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Jordan and Egypt. It was said that Pas thrived very well within the pondok heartland, and being opposed to the secular system of education, the graduates of the pondok system do not normally join the mainstream of modern society.

They were nevertheless able to make the necessary contributions to Islamic society in the field of religion and worship. Their numbers were big enough to form the exclusive clan within their own society, not bothered much by the world of materialism and modernism.

I had a short stint in the pondok system at the tender age of four. My father was a teacher in a Malay school 10km from Kota Baru, and he encouraged me to hang around the pondok, which was just 500m from where we lived.

I was not formally enlisted as a student as I was too young then, so I just sat there as and when I wanted to and listened to the teachings of the Tok Guru.

I had the opportunity to learn the primary text of the Quran and the foundation in the Quran recital helped me later in life to read and master the whole text with ease and comfort.

According to the latest national census, Kelantan has a population of 1,509,601,00 out of which 1,507,129,00 are citizens. That population could have been much more. It is a fact that at least 500,000 Kelantanese have left Kelantan in search of livelihood outside the state, a majority of whom are in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Penang and Johor. A number of them did well and made a name for themselves both in the public and private sectors.

A few thousand Malay Muslims who maintained their Malaysian citizenship status, meanwhile, are staying in southern Thailand.

When I was chairman of the Election Commission (EC), I made an effort through certain contacts in Thailand to trace voters who were staying permanently in Thailand and managed to get a list of at least 30,000 voters.

These people would cross Sungai Golok on polling day to get to the polling stations, mostly in the constituencies of Rantau Panjang, Tumpat, Jeli and Kota Baru.

Among the non-resident voters living outside the state, many maintained the voting areas they were originally registered on their "qualifying" date.

This explains why the voter population in Kelantan remained very high, despite the exodus.

According to the 2012 (March) electoral roll, Kelantan has approximately 872,829 electors. That figure may have reached 890,000 by now. The 2010 census showed that people above 21 years of age should be around 820,000 only. How do we explain the difference of 52,000 voters over and above the eligible number of voters, especially going by the "residence" qualification requirement of the Federal Constitution?

The extras, I believe, are residing outside Kelantan and not covered by the 2010 census record.

The party leaders of both Pas and Umno have always regarded "outside" voters as a very important element in elections, especially when the results of the 2004 general election showed that Pas had a very narrow victory (Umno 21 seats and Pas 24 seats).

In the subsequent by-election of Pengkalan Pasir, Pasir Mas, Umno won the state seat and increased its number to 22 against 23 for Pas. In the 2004 election six seats were won by Pas candidates by a very narrow margin of less than 500 votes. One of them won only by a two-vote majority. The phantom voter or undi hantu issue had been blown completely out of proportion, obviously for political reasons.

When busloads of non-resident voters came in from outside to cast their votes the suspicion had always been that they were "phantom" voters.

Immediately after the 2004 general election when Pas lost Terengganu to BN and Kelantan Pas won only by a three-seat majority, some Pas leaders went into a state of frenzy. The Election Commission became the main target of their attack, and was accused of assisting the BN in bringing "phantom" voters. Party activists and little gurus carried the bizarre tales in mosques and surau and in small kampung gatherings.

When asked for an explanation and evidence, nothing came, even until this day. It was obviously a gimmick to put the blame to anything most convenient to hide party weaknesses, and EC was the nearest punching bag.

As the EC chairman then, I was mercilessly ostracised and demonised. I found solace somehow when a professor of Islamic Study phoned to ask me to be patient as those people, with their uncanny and unIslamic behaviour, had proven that the "holier-than-thou" trumpet they were blowing was churning out an "unholier-than-thou" tune.

The undi hantu issue continued to be used as a very effective weapon to elicit sympathy from voters. When Pas won all but six of the state seats in the 2008 election, nothing was said about undi hantu as most of the votes from Kuala Lumpur and southern Thailand went to them. During the 2008 election, I was told that not less than 100 buses were hired to ferry voters to Kelantan from outside the state. Pas also did the same but on a smaller scale. Pocket money was also promised.

The story goes that only a few of those who took the offer did get the money from Umno, but instead got theirs from the Pas camp.

The story continued that most of the 20,000 voters who were ferried to Kelantan voted for Pas, and Umno -- instead of capturing the state -- got the biggest humiliation ever in the history of elections in modern Kelantan.

Umno obtained only six out of the 45 seats. Apparently the weaknesses of the simple electoral system work on all parties and not just the opposition, when at times the number of seats won do not really measure well on their success showed by the total number of votes obtained. The votes obtained had not reduced the percentage of Umno's traditional support i.e approximately 38 per cent to 42 per cent over the years. Pas support remained constant at 40 per cent to 42 per cent.

Pas continued to earn its fortune continuously in three elections at least. In 1997, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah formed a new party, Semangat 46, and its combined force with Pas caused disaster for BN during the subsequent election. But when Semangat 46 got out of the scene, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's Pakatan Rakyat came in a small way during the 2004 election and in a big way during the 2008 election and again Pas gained enough support to win seats.

- New Straits Times