Rich State but poor rakyat.

In the 1990s, a well-known Malaysian business magazine reported that Terengganu is the second richest state after Selangor but its rakyat are the second poorest after Perlis. The Kelantan Menteri Besar, Tok Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat, retorted that Kelantan may be poor compared to Terengganu, but its people are rich. “Kekayaan Kelantan di tangan rakyat,” said Nik Aziz. Kelantenese, Nik Aziz stressed, do not need to depend on the government. They will travel far and wide, even to Singapore, to earn their living. And they will send money back to the state to help prop up its economy.

In 1999, the Terengganu voters decided to give the state to the opposition for a change. A few months later, the federal government punished Terengganu by withdrawing its 5% oil royalty that it was entitled to under the Petroleum Development Act 1974. The money, which at that time came to RM800 million a year, was handed over to Idris Jusoh, the head of Umno Terengganu, to manage; and from 2000 to 2004 he managed the money as his personal petty cash.

The Terengganu voters realised that they could get their hands on what had now grown to RM1 billion a year only if they gave the state back to Umno. And they did just that in March 2004 and Idris Jusoh was installed as the new Menteri Besar. But while the state went back to Umno, the RM1 billion a year did not go back to the state. The money remained in the hands of the Prime Minister's Department and control of the money shifted from Idris Jusoh to Wan Farid Wan Salleh, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's Political Secretary, and Patrick Lim, whom Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad calls Patrick Badawi.

On 8 March 2008, the Terengganu people wanted to hand the state back to the opposition. Umno knew this and what was at stake was not just control of the state but control of the RM1 billion a year that came with it. So thousands of Bangladeshi voters were 'imported' into Terengganu to ensure that Umno would be able to make a clean sweep of the state. And the hundreds of bus-loads of voters were escorted into Terengganu by police and army trucks to ensure that the opposition supporters would not be able to make any 'citizens' arrest' of phantom voters. And so Umno, yet again, swept the state like it did four years before that in March 2004.

Terengganu has only about four years left. According to Petronas, after 2012 there will be no more oil in Terengganu. Four years at RM1 billion a year is merely RM4 billion. This RM4 billion will disappear in four years if Idris Jusoh is installed as Menteri Besar. And, in 2013, Terengganu will revert to being just a fishing village like what it was in 1973 before they discovered oil.



source: Malaysia Today