Kelantan Menteri Besar Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat came under fire from MCA Youth today for reportedly calling on the people to donate money for the construction of the Kota Bharu-Kuala Krai highway in exchange for 'divine reward'.

NONE "In the past, Nik Abdul Aziz spurred voters to select the hardline party on the ballot slip with its simplistic claim that a vote PAS will secure entry to heaven," MCA Youth chief Wee Ka Siong said in a statement today.

"In this scenario, the PAS spiritual head exerts subtle pressure by applying a 'guilt trip' on the local populace - that if they do not contribute for the highway or vote PAS, they may suffer retribution in the afterlife," Wee said.

Nik Abdul Aziz is reported to have said that the Kelantan government would build the RM1.8 billion highway, which has been put off for 26 years after the federal government did not proceed with its construction, with donations from the people.

This call, said Wee, was merely to cover up the state government's failures, which he claimed had put off investors from investing in the state.

'Kelantan more concerned with moral policing'

An example, he said, was that Kelantan was more concerned with moral policing instead of creating a business-friendly environment.

"If the Kelantan government had utilised its existing state coffers prudently to generate investment and not dubiously, for example spending a portion of the RM600 million federal loan on state exco members and officials to go on foreign trips... there would not be a need to infer the name of God to solicit public donations," Wee said.

The New Straits Times in a report today quoted Kelantan People's Action Council president Azmi Ali as saying that a state exco member and other officers had gone on trips to Europe and Asia with the federal funds intended to tackle the state's water problem.

PAS was embroiled in controversy in the run up to the 2004 general election when Nik Aziz was reported to have said that those who supported the Islamist party would go to heaven .