Is a forgiven Husam on course for rehab?

In the Malay political chess game of feint-and-manoeuvre, whose Kelantanese variant is more complex than its peers, former PAS state executive councillor Husam Musa has made what has traditionally been known to be the prelude to a concatenation of moves.

Surprisingly not included in the list of executive councillors announced last week by newly-installed Menteri Besar Ahmad Yacob, a development attributed to his being deliberately excluded by design of his compatriots or at the behest of the sultan, Husam earlier this week left for Mecca to perform the umrah.

Though there is no precise dictionary by which to interpret gestures in the Malay political chess game, since every nonverbal expression depends for meaning on the variants of both the individual using it and the culture in which it takes place, there was no mistaking the import of the letter emanating from the palace a day or two after Husam left for the holy land and addressed to Husam.

The missive said that Husam was being forgiven for unspecified transgressions and that a ceremony of contrition and forgiveness would be held at a Kota Bharu mosque next week after the man himself returned from performing the minor haj.

Straightaway, observers began to cross out one theory about why Husam, a fixture in the Kelantan state exco since 2004, was dropped from the state cabinet of new MB Ahmad Yakob.

This speculation held that rivals within the ruling elite in Kelantan PAS had waited until his patron, Nik Aziz Nik Mat, gave up the office of MB immediately after the May 5 polls to make their distaste for him plain by seeing to it that he was not selected.

This theory held that they had been sore with him for a long time but could not do anything about it because of Husam's close ties to Nik Aziz who viewed the economist with a mixture of paternal affection and awe at his ability.

With his patron gone, there was no one around to remind the new MB that Husam was well nigh indispensable and no PAS state cabinet could conceivably do without him.

Mounting hospital bills

But when the letter on royal forgiveness for Husam was sent to him by the palace earlier this week, this theory of party intrigue rather than royal displeasure as having had more to do in Husam being dropped began to recede.

Still, there were pundits who held on to this theory as being more credible though they had to concede that some years back, Husam may have furnished the cause for the current sultan's apparent angst against him.

Husam had attempted to raise money to pay the mounting bills incurred by the present sultan's father at a private hospital in Singapore where the gravely ill royal had been admitted for treatment.

The costs of care had reached a level where both the palace in Kota Bharu and the state government were concerned about the burden when weighed against the negligible prospects of the sultan's father's recovery.

Soon both royal father and heir were embroiled in a wrangle over succession with the latter emerging victorious, not only within the praetorian council of advisors but also in the special courts that adjudicate royal disputes.

So when the palace sent a letter to Husam informing him that he was to be forgiven for unspecified transgressions, interpreters pointed to Husam's efforts to defray the costs of the present sultan's father's lengthy medical stay in Singapore as having rankled some quarters presently close to palace.

Even if this interpretation accords with the actual facts behind the published news, there ought to wariness about accepting it in full because Kelantanese adept at the game of feint-and-manoeuvre are skilled at riding piggy on the royal wagon.

Economic adviser to the MB?

Suffice, the word about royal forgiveness for Husam to be enacted in a public ritual next week at a mosque means that the path has been cleared for Husam to play a role in the new administration of Ahmad Yacob.

Increasingly, the talk in Kota Bharu is that he will be made an economic adviser to the MB, a post with executive powers.

Will this turn out to be the same role that Pakatan Rakyat supremo Anwar Ibrahim was given in the Selangor state administration, a role that turned to be more ceremonial than substantive?

Nobody can say for sure how things would turn out. But the general tendency in a political culture to commune by semaphore rather than by substantive motion means that there is diffused around the major players the nimbus of constant conjecture.

All are enveloped by it, even someone as titanic in stature as Nik Aziz.

When a caller at his humble abode in Pulau Melaka in the state capital departed from inquiries about the old man's health to venture on the subject of Husam Musa and the untoward fate that had befallen him, the host politely informed the visitor that his visit had come to an end.

The caller quickly bowed his obeisance and departed, not quite certain if it was his question that had given rise to the host's consternation or whether the host was himself exercised over the way Husam has been treated.