Kedah PAS under Seige

By Noor Adzman Baharuddin  | noadzman@nst.com.my

GARGANTUAN TASK: Azizan has little time to get his house in order

THE past few weeks have been a very testing time for Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Azizan Abdul Razak.

The “rebellion” at KUIN, the state-owned Kolej Universiti Insaniah, is far from over. PAS’ unit amal, the party’s volunteer corp, had to be deployed to keep away 10 KUIN “rebels”, who had claimed the management was corrupt, when Azizan was giving away excellence service awards to staff at its main campus in Kuala Ketil recently.

Azizan’s once trusted No. 2 in Kedah PAS, Datuk Phahrolrazi Nawawi, was “abducted” when the menteri besar’s camp learnt that he was to give a ceramah last Saturday.

Also labelled as a rebel, Phahrolrazi, who failed in his attempt to oust Azizan as Menteri Besar two years ago, was on his way to the ceramah and later forced to an Islamic religious school where he was held “captive” for two hours.

Azizan’s loyalists had feared Phahrolrazi, who enjoys good ties with the PAS leadership, would take pot shots at the Menteri Besar as he had done on a number of occasions in the past.

Neither Phahrolrazi nor anyone from Azizan’s camp has denied the “abduction” bid. However, Phahrolrazi has described his illegal confinement from attending the ceramah, held in Sungai Limau — Azizan’s state constituency — as a friendly warning against entering the menteri besar’s “territory”.

Azizan too is under attack by some of his party members, especially at the grassroots level.Once considered only as pockets of protest, the dissent against Azizan is growing steadily.

Calls by the rebellious groups for Azizan to quit as Kedah PAS Commissioner are also getting louder.A spokesman for them, Asri Ahmad, said they were also disappointed with Azizan’s performance as Menteri Besar.

“He has failed in many areas.Kedah PAS is in disarray and the state too has been poorly managed,” he said.

Azizan’s leadership is definitely under scrutiny and word is out that even the Kedah Dewan Ulama, of which he is a member, was very concerned at the malaise besieging Kedah Pas.

With the 2013 general election clock fast ticking away, Azizan has a gargantuan task to get his proverbial house in order before the people (read: voters) go to the polls and decide if the majority of them had made a poor call in the 2008 general election.

It does not help also that Azizan has stayed away from the local press corp, giving one the impression that he is trying to avoid queries on the slew of controversies affecting him and his leadership.

Azizan could also expect a rebellion-of-sorts among the very people (read: voters) who had put his party and its cohorts, Parti Keadilan Rakyat and DAP, in power.

The large section of Chinese community in the state which had thrown its support behind the Pakatan Rakyat state government is now an anxious lot.

With economic opportunities far and few in between these past five years, the Chinese community was forced to strictly observe the Pas-led state government’s no-women-performers ruling when they celebrated the Chinese New Year last month.

Businesses and Chinese non-governmental organisations considered the ruling a farce and a violation of their customs.Still reeling from the shock, the Chinese community felt they were shortchanged again when the Alor Star City Council imposed a RM30 annual dog licensing fee on pet owners.

The new fee is in addition to the RM20 vaccine shots charged annually for their pets.

Together with fence-sitters and traditional Barisan Nasional supporters who had abandoned UMNO and its allies in Kedah five years ago, the Chinese community might just help tip the scale in favour of the “dacing” symbol when they cast their ballot papers soon.