Malay heartbreak in the Malay heartland

Kelantan is much bigger than Selangor in size, but Selangor has a bigger population of 5.8 million and is far ahead in terms of physical development and urbanisation.

Selangor also has much better facilities and infrastructure, and better public access to housing and logistic services. Land values, in turn, are relatively higher.

A price of RM100 per square foot, for instance, is common in many suburban areas in Selangor, whereas in Kelantan land is still sold on a per acre basis. Even in the urban areas of Kota Bharu, land values struggle to reach RM50 per square foot, because of poor demand and few potential buyers.

Commercially speaking, Kota Bharu is not on par with Selangor’s capital Shah Alam: similarly, other smaller towns like Pasir Mas or Pasir Putih, though famous, have much smaller demand, signifying its insignificant land value.

While several parcels of agricultural land in Selangor have been converted for residential, industrial or commercial use, most land in Kelantan has remained largely agricultural.

Land value has little chance of going up and in fact, these lands have been abandoned and are now unproductive, primarily because Kelantan’s youth have migrated. Those left behind are not provided with incentives such as grants or soft loans to venture into agriculture or agribusiness.

The major cause of this economic predicament in Kelantan is related to logistics. It is the only state in Malaysia without an expressway. That makes travel to Kelantan a lengthy, cumbersome and expensive task in terms of time and money.

Such a logistical issue limits any potential for investment in the state despite cheaper land. The agricultural sector in Kelantan still fails to attract any new investors when compared with areas in Selangor.

Distance to the marketplace is a big hindrance. Logistics is a big problem for Kelantan farmers as well as other commercial enterprises, and has been a long-standing issue not addressed by past and current politicians in control.

The distance between KL and Kota Bharu is 438km by a single-lane road via Kuala Lipis and Gua Musang and the journey takes about 6.5 hours. At weekends and during festive seasons, travel times may even be double, which can put off many motorists.

Another option to get to Kota Bharu from KL is to go through the new East Coast Highway via Terengganu. But this route length is 143km longer. At 581km distance, it will take about 7-8 hours to travel there. On a highway, speed and road capacity are no longer the issues but there are tolls to pay and fuel bills will be higher.

But the East Coast expressway ends just after Kuala Terengganu. From there, motorists have to use the old single lane road for over 126km to get to Kota Bharu. Why don’t they continue the expressway all the way? Or build a new expressway via Kuala Lipis and Gua Musang?

Can any PAS MP tell us the answer?

What’s their plan to develop road infrastructure for Kelantan so that the logistics problems are improved? Do they have any economic blueprint for Kelantan? They should be concerned that many youths in Kelantan have no jobs. But how can there be jobs created when no companies want to locate themselves there. What are their plans about creating jobs in Kelantan?

Without an expressway Kelantan is almost isolated. The state also suffers from poor water supply. Not all households in rural areas are supplied with electricity. There are no proper drainage systems too. The state doesn’t have the means and ability to control the river water levels, which often leads to widespread flooding during the monsoon season.

Kelantan’s misfortune can be attributed to the politicians in power, past and present. I would even say the main reason for the suffering of the state and its people is that of poor political leadership.

Yet Kelantan has had a fair share if not the most number of Cabinet ministers.

We often hear that most of these politicians campaign about Malay unity. Their development agenda for the Malay heartland is often peppered with spirituality and unnecessary rhetoric on religion.

We now know that combining politics with religion has not worked as Kelantan is a shining example of how deeply-rooted religious politics have failed the state and its people.

It has failed to formulate and implement economic development of the state, arrest social disparity and provide social welfare to the have-nots and solved many of the social and cultural issues. The Malay agenda remains unfulfilled and the failure to upgrade the economic wealth of the Malays is fully exposed.

The Malay heartland of Kelantan is fast turning into a Malay heartbreak: under-developed, abandoned, rural and poor with no job opportunities in sight.

At the current rate, the long and winding road to Kota Bharu will continue to be synonymous with the state’s political complexities; fragmented, fractured and full of potholes. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of us.