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Even without a general elections, the presence of Kelantan Mentri Besar and spiritual leader Nik Aziz Nik Mat in any Malay-Muslim ceramah (political gathering) is guaranteed to attract a crowd.

So when he appeared without much public notice at a PAS dialogue in support of the party's candidate in Samariang, a predominantly Malay constituency in Kuching, on the eve of nomination day in Sarawak's eighth state elections, the crowd came early - despite gloomy skies - to listen to his talk.

Dressed in his traditional garb, the Muslim cleric who has been his state's chief minister for 10 years, mesmerised the largely Malay crowd in Kampung Lintang on the North Bank, opposite the bright lights of Kuching city with his religious sermon and references to Quranic verses, and interpretations, indirectly taking a swipe at some of the unreligious ways of the Barisan Nasional government.

Each time he took a swipe at the party's critics and opponents, he had the crowd applauding, apparently enjoying his rhetoric throughout the session.

With his down-to-earth-style of speech-making, Nik Aziz left little doubt in the minds of his listeners as to what he was referring to, or when replying to criticisms, suspicions or doubts over PAS' policies.

For instance, when he mentioned that PAS had just celebrated its 51st anniversary of its formation, and that over the years, it has seen its ups and downs in its struggle to promote Islam in the country, he was clearly trying to tell the Kuching Malay crowd that the party will not be disheartened even if it fails to win a single seat this time.

"We will continue with our struggle, as we always have," he told them

Kelantan not intolerant

He went on to answer critics who said PAS' Kelantan is intolerant towards other religions by pointing out such claims have no basis because, for example, Southeast Asia's largest Buddha statue is to be found in Kelantan, and that in recent weeks 100,000 devotes from Malaysia, Thailand and travelled to Kelantan to visit the statue.

"Did I stop them?" he asked.

When years ago, BN's MCA alleged that Chinese rights in Kelantan were being trampled, it created enough concerns for DAP that the opposition party sent a fact-finding delegation to meet him, and Nik Aziz told them to talk to the Chinese community in the state to find out the real situation.

"The Chinese in Kelantan still read Chinese newspapers, they can learn and speak Chinese, they can continue to worship, they can still eat pork, drink alcohol and so on," he told the crowd. "We have not stopped them from reading Chinese newspapers, stopped them from eating pork and drink alcohol."

At the end of the DAP's fact-finding mission to Kelantan, they were convinced that the MCA's allegations were without any basis at all, said the PAS leader.

However, Nik Aziz explained that the PAS government in Kelantan does not allow gambling.

He said this might benefit a few towkays and bring a lot of harm to individuals and families as a lot of money is thrown away to gambling and people who lost their money, could and would even resort to stealing, even murder.

At the same time, however, the crowd must have wondered too when PAS seems to put so much emphasis on upholding the virtues and principle of Islamic teachings and, at the same time, without giving much attention to physical development under a PAS government.

One listener told malaysiakini that this is clearly the stark difference between the Tok Guru's style of campaigning with the more fiery brand of politicians from PAS like its Kelantan MP Mafuz Omar who also spoke and wasted little time in attacking the Umno government on what he described as many of its wasteful expenditure on several infrastructure projects in Kuala Lumpur.

TONY THIEN is malaysiakini correspondent in Sarawak.