SAZMI Miah believes that his unique track record in Umno will help him stand out from his rivals in what is shaping up to be one of the fiercest parliamentary contests in Kelantan.

Unlike his former colleagues in the ruling Malay party, Sazmi said he never stole money or accepted bribes while he served in the Barisan Nasional federal government.

“I am clean as a white sheet. I have no political baggage. I have never stolen government money and I didn’t take bribes,” said Sazmi who is now with Bersatu, one of the four component parties that make up the opposition Pakatan Harapan coalition.   

“So, the only thing my opponents can use against me is to attack my personality,” said the former parliamentary secretary.

That, he said, is a plus point when contesting in the parliamentary seat of Machang which was won by 805 votes in the 13th general election.

Like two-thirds of Kelantan’s 14 parliamentary and 45 state seats, Machang will see three-cornered contests among coalitions that are of almost equal strength.

Machang is a seat won by Barisan Nasional with a razor-thin majority from the Pakatan Rakyat coalition in GE13. PR was made up of PAS, PKR and DAP but the latter two have since ended ties with the Islamist party.

In the 14th general election, BN will have to defend it from PAS, which rules Kelantan, and PH, the main opposition coalition made up of former members of PAS and BN.

Academics said historically, in multi-party contests, BN, which controls the federal government, usually benefits as votes going to the opposition are split.

Kelantan, however, is different as the incumbent government is PAS, while both the BN and PH are opposition parties.

Surveys have revealed that Kelantanese residents are angry with the PAS state government for what they claim are poor local council services and a lack of infrastructure development.

There are signs that PAS could lose Kelantan in GE14 but it is still unclear whether BN or PH would get enough seats to form the next government.

Sazmi said he also has a track record of speaking out against the excesses in the PAS government, particularly its logging of the state’s pristine rainforests.

“I did it while I was parliamentary secretary for the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry in 2007.”  

Everyone knows Umno    

Sazmi is no stranger to Machang. He was elected its MP in the 2004 elections. In the 2008 polls, he was defeated by PKR’s Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.

Sazmi was ejected from Umno in October 2016 for protesting against the RM2.6 billion so-called “donation” channelled into party president Najib Razak’s bank accounts.

Najib’s critics and American prosecutors said the funds were siphoned off from his brainchild 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). Najib has denied this, claiming the money is a donation from a Saudi royal.

The Malaysian authorities have also cleared Najib.

Sazmi believes that Umno’s reputation among locals as a party of corrupt individuals will help him and PH in their campaign for Machang.   

This notoriety, he said, is evident from the ambitious East Coast Railway Link (ECRL) to even small-scale public amenity projects spread throughout Kelantan funded by Putrajaya.

For instance, the Kelantanese have always demanded a new highway from Kota Baru to Gua Musang, the main land route connecting the state to Pahang and then Kuala Lumpur.

“We’ve been asking for decades but suddenly they say they will build the ECRL instead,” he said of the RM55 billion project that took many Kelantanese by surprise.

“Planning for the ECRL will take two years but it is a politically motivated project.”

The 688km railway project will link Kelantan to Kuala Lumpur via Pahang and Terengganu.

Even small projects, such as street lamps along the road from UiTM Machang to the town itself, he said, carry the taint of personal interest.

“To me, that project is unnecessary,” he said, adding that such ventures are federally funded through the Federal Development Department under the Prime Minister’s Office.

“The unit handling these projects are controlled by Umno.

“People can see that Umno leaders are corrupt from the division chief to his deputy to the Umno Youth and Wanita Umno leaders. They have no permanent jobs but have huge houses and luxury cars.” – March 5, 2018.