A strong undercurrent has been building up since last year between Terengganu Menteri Besar Ahmad Said and some of the Umno state representatives.

And it culminated in the boycott by 10 state representatives of the Terengganu state assembly sitting on Tuesday.

nawi-mohd-mug The 10, according Hulu Besut assemblyperson Nawi Mohamad ( photo ), were angry with Ahmad and had their reasons in seeking to oust the menteri besar.

Nawi said the 10 had felt that they had been sidelined by Ahmad ever since he was made the menteri besar after the general election last year.

Nawi attended the sitting on Tuesday but supported the ‘boycott' move by his fellow colleagues.

The 10 missed the Tuesday sitting after claiming that three of them had received life-threatening SMS warning them not to proceed with their intentions of calling for a vote of no-confidence against Ahmad.

They however returned to the assembly yesterday, which was the last day of sitting, after being instructed to do so by Prime Minister and Umno president Najib Abdul Razak.

The 10 anti-Ahmad faction state representatives are Rosol Wahid (Ajil), Din Adam (Bukit Besi); Alias Abdullah (Alur Limbat); Zawawi Ismail (Kuala Berang); Abd Halim Jusoh (Permaisuri); Ramlan Ali (Jabi); Zakaria @ Mohd Ariffin Abdullah (Paka); Muhammad Ramli Nuh (Tepuh); Muhammad Pehimi Yusof (Kota Putera) and Wan Abdul Hakim Wan Mokhtar (Air Putih).

Intense power struggle

All 10 of them are aligned to former Menteri Besar Idris Jusoh, who is also an assemblyperson for Jertih.

Ahmad replaced Idris as the MB with the backing of the palace, but not the state representatives.

ahmad said mb terengganu 100409 The new man has been an unpopular menteri besar and has been accused of marginalising all state representatives who had opposed his appointment in March last year.

When contacted today, Nawi said that Ahmad had totally sidelined these 10 state representatives by not giving them any posts.

He added that they were not even allowed to be party coordinators in their respective constituencies.

"They were also disappointed because the menteri besar did not appoint them to become the Umno committee members for additional tasks just because they lost in the party election last year," he told Malaysiakini .

Apart from that, he said that Ahmad failed to give the 10 any authority to appoint the village security and development committee members in their respective seats.

These powers were granted to the Umno division chiefs. Nine of the assemblypersons were not division chiefs.

"Now we can see that the one who wins, wins all and the one who loses, loses all," said Nawi.

Ahmad can weaken Umno

Nawi also expressed his concerns that Ahmad's attitude against the state representatives who had opposed him could only weaken Umno in the state.

"How could they strengthen Umno if they are not given the appropriate roles in their own constituencies?" he asked.

It is strange, said Nawi, as to why the assemblypersons themselves were not appointed as the coordinators since they are already familiar with their areas.

"How could they strengthen Umno if they are not given these chances?" asked Nawi.

Meanwhile, state BN backbenchers club secretary Alias Abdullah, who is the Alor Limbat assemblyperson reiterated that the 10 ‘rebels' want Ahmad replaced immediately.

In a related development, both Ahmad and Idris met Najib separately at the Prime Minister's Office in Putrajaya this morning.

Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin was also present in the meetings.