Even in death, former Kuala Terengganu MP Razali Ismail’s name echoes on as both contesting parties try to capitalise on the popular deputy education minister’s past.

Umno is trying to portray its candidate, Wan Ahmad Farid Salleh, as someone who can live up to Razali’s apparent good track record as a people-orientated MP.

Wan Ahmad Farid himself has pledged to continue Razali’s legacy, such as by continuing free tuition classes for the underprivileged.

razali ismail PAS, on the other hand, seeks to highlight Razali’s ( left ) image as a ‘clean’ politician in a corrupt party who was eventually ostracised and sidelined for refusing to succumb to vote buying in the party polls.

At a ceramah at Pantai Tanjung last night, Terengganu PAS commissioner Mustaffa Ali told a crowd of some 5,000 people that Razali was a victim of conspiracy within Umno.

kuala terengganu by election pakatan ceramah perdana 060109 mustafa ali andanwar Mustaffa ( centre in photo ) claimed that it was inconceivable for Razali's, a high-profile deputy minister, to have his choice of delegates to the Umno general assembly (known as the G7) all rejected.

"He refused to use money so he could not succeed in the (Kuala Terengganu Umno) division elections. He is a deputy minister, but even his choice of G7 were defeated. It is because he refused to use money.

"Later on, he tried to contest for the vice-chair of the Kuala Terengganu division. Eventually, he lost to someone without any government posts.

"If Umno can do this to Razali, how can they claim to respect him if they had treated him as such when he was alive?” asked Mustaffa.

Hadi ‘appreciates’ Razali

kt by election 070109 wan farid walking The Kuala Terengganu Umno division is headed by Wan Ahmad Farid ( right ) - who is the party candidate for the Jan 17 by-election - while his elder brother, Wan Hisham, defeated Razali at the divisional polls last year.

Even PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, another speaker at the beach-side ceramah last night, waxed lyrical on Razali’s ‘clean’ image.

"I'm very appreciative of Razali. He is like us. If he is still alive, he would have joined our party," he declared.

Abdul Hadi was among the three top Pakatan Rakyat leaders at the ceramah alongside PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim and DAP’s Lim Kit Siang.

kuala terengganu by election pakatan ceramah perdana 060109 lim kit siang In Lim’s speech, the veteran opposition leader said that should Kuala Terengganu voters deliver the seat to Pakatan, the fledgling coalition would become stronger and be in a better position to topple the Barisan federal government in the future.

He also claimed that should Barisan fail to retain Kuala Terengganu, it was very likely that incoming Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak would call a snap election soon after taking power.

On the hudud controversy, Anwar says that the harsh Islamic criminal code cannot be challenged by Muslims. However, he added that such laws cannot be imposed on non-Muslims.

He conceded that all three Pakatan coalition partners differ on the issue but denied that the coalition is fractured over it.

“Umno is using the media to distort the matter in order to cause disharmony in Pakatan,” he said.