Malaysia’s Islamic party shapes up for crucial test

By Jalil Hamid

PENGKALAN PASIR, Malaysia (Reuters) – Malaysia’s ruling
coalition sought to push the nation’s fundamentalist Islamic
party further into the political wilderness on Sunday with the
start of its campaign for a crucial state by-election.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s Barisan Nasional
coalition is contesting the December 6 poll in northeastern
Kelantan state, the last stronghold of Parti Islam se-Malaysia
(PAS), which rules the state legislature with a two-seat
majority.

The poll in the rural state seat of Pengkalan Pasir is the
first since Abdullah won a thumping general election victory in
early 2004 on a pledge to clean up corruption and cronyism.

It is also a major test for PAS, which wants Malaysia to
become an Islamic state based on the Koran but has been
weakened by its poor showing in the general election. In that
poll, it lost Terengganu state and narrowly clung onto
Kelantan.

“If the voters of Pengkalan Pasir want to start a big
change in Kelantan, this is the time and opportunity to choose
Barisan,” Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak, leading the
campaign, told reporters at the start of the Barisan campaign.

A defeat in Pengkalan Pasir would leave the PAS state
government, led by cleric Nik Aziz Nik Mat, with a one-seat
majority and pressure it to call for a snap state election.

Barisan officials say the coalition hopes to recapture
Kelantan by the next general election due in 2008. Kelantan is
one of Malaysia’s economically backward states, sits next to
the Thai border and has been ruled by PAS since 1990.

PAS is banking on former deputy prime minister Anwar
Ibrahim and the party’s new set of younger leaders to regain
support after its major setbacks in 2004 polls.

“It’s a referendum on PAS. It’s a test to see how far they
have come, whether the people have accepted their new image,”
said Terence Chong, a fellow at Institute of South East Asian
Studies in Singapore.

Anwar, 58, is due to address a rally later on Sunday in
support for PAS as he returns to the election hustings for the
first time since he was jailed six years ago, PAS officials
said.

Freed from jail last year, Anwar is trying to make a
political comeback despite his ousting from the ruling
coalition and his ban from holding party or political office
until 2008.

PAS Vice-president Husam Musa said Barisan’s election
promises, including an offer to build a public university in
Kelantan, was unlikely to sway voters, many of them farmers.

“People just won’t buy the idea,” he told reporters.