THERE’S no place for Pakatan Harapan (PH) in Kelantan, said voters in the PAS-governed state as DAP’s newly minted sttae chief Zaid Ibrahim leads a charge to change the locals’ mindset towards the party.

The one-term Kota Baru MP wants to wean fellow Kelantanese away from the decades-long stereotype about the party being anti-Islam and out to champion only the Chinese.

And this view is well-entrenched among voters, as The Malaysian Insight found out while speaking to the people about the Zaid’s role as the new state DAP chief.

“DAP often issues provocative statements and the strange thing is, PH acts as if they only have DAP politicians,” said Yusrizal Ahmad, 35, a food deliverer from Tumpat.

Johari Mamat, 65, also believes that DAP is opposed to Islam.

“We cannot accept DAP because they attacked PAS when Pakatan Rakyat broke up in 2015,” said the Kg Sg Gali fisherman.

He said the Kelantanese will not forget DAP for opposing the implementation of hudud in the state.

The Islamist party was part of the Pakatan Rakyat pact before dissolving over differences on the implementation of the Islamic penal code.

One-term government

Johari said it is increasingly likely that PH will be a one-term government.

In the two years since PH took over, there has been no assistance given to fishermen in his village.

“The previous government gave some aid but there has been nothing so far.

“Only the state government has given some money for nets but nothing from PH so far.”

Zulkifli Abdullah, 38, said there has been no assistance given to local residents although the Amanah state liaison committee is headed by Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu.

Amanah is a PAS splinter party formed by Mohamad and moderates from the party.

“He has only come once and has not come back since then,” said Zulkifli.

Although PH managed to win the 14th general election, the coalition lost badly in Kelantan and could not win a single seat. Most of its candidates even lost their deposits.

In GE14, PAS won nine federal seats while Barisan Nasional took the remaining five. At the state level, PAS has 37 out of 45 seats.

Why Pakatan lost

Rashid Wahab, 50, believes that PH will suffer the same fate in the next general election.

The Kg Sg Gali resident said the Kelantanese are defensive about their state and are parochial minded.

“This is something unique to Kelantan and is the reason people still pick PAS,” said Rashid.

He said the Kelantanese don’t trust PH and don’t believe the coalition can defend Islam.

“We don’t like Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad due to his history with us. Added to the issue that PH is a DAP tool, the rejection is very strong.

“Even those who work outside of Kelantan will come back to defend PAS.”

They believe that only PAS can defend Islam even though the state is poorly run.

“Although, we have many issues such as the water problem, the Kelantanese will just accept it by buying their own pumps to improve the water pressure.

“They feel it’s a small issue as DAP is seen as being anti-Islam,” said Rashid. – January 22, 2020.