analysis
Imagine a Terengganu with better roads and transport service, high-rise buildings, low-cost houses, factories, hospitals and a diversity of jobs.Difficult, maybe, but this should have been the outlook of the state if its economics translated directly into the peoples everyday life.
The state contributes to 64 percent of Malaysias proven oil reserves. And based on its second position for gross domestic product per capita by state, Terengganu with a 880,000 population is the richest after Kuala Lumpur, the countrys capital with a 1.3 million population.
But instead, Terengganu has an abundance of large families living in dilapidated, puny wooden houses in rural areas, with almost no proper health or education services. It remains the poorest of all states in Malaysia, with 33 percent of its people living in poverty. Some 95 percent of the population are Malay-Muslims.
Political analysts and pundits, when explaining the victory of Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) in Terengganu in the 1999 general elections, often overlook how Terengganus appalling underdevelopment under the Barisan Nasional government for 40 years had given rise to grassroots support to the Muslim opposition party.
The sacking and subsequent jailing of former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim, an Islamic populist, as it seems now, was just the final straw that broke the camels back.
Taps turned off
When flabbergasted PAS first took over Terengganu, it was eager to show the nation that it could develop the states economy into a viable one. Master plans were drafted and there were confident talk about them everywhere.
That was when the PAS government was still expecting to receive a five percent cut from the states annual oil and gas production, which totals some RM250 million a year.
Then the taps were turned off. The federal government led by the United Malay National Organisation (Umno) announced its decision to stop paying the oil royalties and instead give out goodwill money to the Terengganu people through two newly formed action committees.
According to Umno president and Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, this was to ensure that Terengganu people benefit direct from the states revenue.
PAS, in response, accused the defeated Umno of being vindictive. The state government has taken legal action over this and the case is pending at the High Court.
Oil now becomes the cause of friction between the PAS state government and the Umno-led federal government. In between the quarreling parties, those anticipating changes in Terengganu are getting impatient.
Oil dependent
The state government should know that their honeymoon period is over. They should not get carried away with the victory and spend too much time on the dispute over oil money, said Terengganu Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (TCCCI) vice-president Chong Fah Ming.
Not that he agreed with the abolishment of the traditional oil royalties. I hope the federal government would treat us equally and not like some stepchild.
But PAS has to think of solutions, not just problems, he stressed.
Among the pressing problems include an unemployment rate of five percent. Even among the 312,323 employed persons, many of them are still considered untrained workers and from the low income group comprising farmers, loggers, livestock breeders and fishermen.
Chong said TCCCI at previous dialogues with the state government had presented suggestions to promote a labour-intensive economy, namely attracting more factories which could help produce both skilled workers and better job opportunities in the state.
The state now is too dependent on the oil industry which utilises more technology than labour. This does not give people better jobs and pay, he said.
He stressed that agriculture is important but the sector had to be run in a more professional way involving research work and marketing for a better price.
Nowadays, only older people are working as farmers. They dont plan ahead and would grow anything simply to make a living, he said.
Unprecedented move
However, the state government was said to be slow and not responsive enough to these suggestions, as was with similar suggestions to boost the states tourism industry.
Due to a somewhat rigid mind set, for example as in the case of banning entertainment outlets, state policies have neither created more tourist attractions nor helped to draw in more tourists, said Chong.
Though the new government is trying its best to promote a cleaner administration, there are still limits to its governance due to a lack of experience and as such the government fails to produce impressive results, he added.
From the other side, financial difficulties continue to be an obstacle in implementing various plans. Ng Chai Heng, the state governments inter-racial relations officer, said the federal government is not making things any easier.
Recently, the Terengganu government was informed that a loan that it applied for from the federal government to expand the states water treatment project was approved but at a two percent interest, a condition described by Ng as unprecedented .
To be fair, the PAS government has taken measures to cut costs, such as putting on hold a multi-million ringgit mosque project proposed by the former state government, he said.
Other measures include switching on the air-conditioning system of the 18-storey state government building half an hour later and turning it off half an hour before offices closes, as well as setting a ceiling to extra claims that civil servants are entitled to.
In both instances, the government managed to save tens of thousands of ringgit but this pales in comparison to larger financial problems it faces, such as reclaiming land mortgaged to banks.
The various parcels of land for construction projects were previously awarded to individuals with political connections but were abandoned after PAS took over the state from the Barisan Nasional.
Litmus test
Reactive, rather than a proactive stance to economic problems is not doing the PAS government in Terengganu any good. Already Umno local leaders have started attacking PAS for being slack and enriching its party coffers.
In the coming general elections, votes from the younger generation, many who are now working in the urbanised west coast, may swing to Umno due to the perceived inability by PAS to develop the state.
The older generation, meanwhile, may return Barisan Nasional to power because they believe PAS is enriching its coffers and doing nothing more.
The next general elections, speculated to be held next year, shall be a litmus test for how much footing has PAS retained, or lost, among the Malays.
This is the fifth and final part on 'PAS in Terengganu: three years after'. Malaysiakini s full interview with Menteri Besar Abdul Hadi Awang can be found in the Opinions/Features section.
