VETERAN politician Husam Musa is ready to give room to younger candidates to contest in the 15th general election while indicating his desire to step down.

The Kota Baru Amanah chief and former party vice-president said he was willing to coach young candidates to become better elected representatives.

“Competing (in election) is no longer my main consideration, if there is a list of young candidates who are more competent, honest and with quality, I will support them completely.

“It doesn’t have to be me. We are like a football team, the coach doesn’t necessarily play football, he cannot run and can’t even score a goal, better for him to train other boys to play football.

“The important thing is to score goals. The team wins and the stadium is full,” the 62-year-old told The Malaysian Insight.

He was commenting on his political career after his decision to resign from party post two years ago.

Husam who defected to Amanah from PAS is among the party’s most senior members. He has served as Kubang Kerian MP (1999-2004), Kijang state rep (2004-2008) and Salor state rep (2008-2018). He was also a senator (2018-2021).

He said his political career was coming to an end due to his age.

He added his focus currently was with the Save Kelantan Movement as it exposes the suffering of Kelantanese due to the weakness of the state government.

However, Husam denied that he was disappointed with Amanah because he was seen as distancing himself and resigning from the party.

“My resignation (as vice-president) was because I am old, I am almost retired from politics.

“But I am still the Amanah Kota Baru chairman. It is like I used to herd buffalos in a large field but as I grow older, I now herd 20 to 30 chickens,” he said.

He said his loyalty was still with Amanah, especially in his area but has no intention to go active at the federal level.

Husam sparked controversy by resigning as party vice-president and Kelantan Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman in September 2020, supposedly due to differences between him and party president Mohamad Sabu.

After resigning, Husam set up the Save Kelantan Movement.

The party leadership has said that it has nothing to do with the movement.

Pakatan needs to garner support

Meanwhile, Husam said that PH must win over the support of Kelantan voters if it wants to rule the state which has been in the hands of PAS since 1990.

He said currently voters continued to vote for PAS as they had no choice.

Citing the last general election as example, Husam said PH failed to make inroads in Kelantan despite the people’s sentiment against Barisan Nasional was strong.

“However, they see that PH still cannot get full support in Kelantan and they felt if in three-cornered contests, Umno will win.

“So they voted for PAS on purpose, the intention was not to allow Umno to win,” he said.

He also refused to comment on Kelantan Amanah’s plan to appoint Tengku Razaleigh Tengku Hamzah to lead the opposition in Kelantan in GE15.

He described his relationship with Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah as very special, especially when the Umno veteran was willing to be with PAS in demanding oil royalties from the federal government.

“Tengku Razaleigh and I are very close. He once helped our movement in oil royalty claims. At that time, he was still a strong BN and Umno member of Parliament.

“But he was willing to come and speak at the Sultan Muhammad Stadium, sharing a platform with the late Nik Aziz Nik Mat. So Tengku Razaleigh and I have a ‘special bond’.” – May 25, 2022.