Rohaida Yasin sits on a high platform, patiently peddling keropok lekor to customers at the Pasar Besar Kedai Payang.
The 42-year-old has been selling the traditional fish snacks since leaving school.
Her mother, Ramlah Hassan, 72, who has been selling various wares
including the current keropok for about three decades, sits at the next
platform.
“Those days you can be well-off if you had such a business. Now, what you earn is just enough to get by,” said Rohaida.
“I really don’t care who is in power. I malas nak tau (I don’t want
to know). Even this time around, it’s just political play. People like
me can’t do anything. If they really cared, they wouldn’t be doing
this.”
She is, of course, referring to the recent political drama that has
once again brought nationwide spotlight to the east coast state.
Once led by Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Wan Mokhtar Ahmad of Barisan
Nasional (BN), his 25-year hold on the helm ended when the state fell to
PAS in 1999 but regained it in 2004.
BN won back the state in the 2013 general election with a lesser
majority, winning only 17 of the 32 seats. PAS has 14 seats while Parti
Keadilan Rakyat has one.
A little more than a year after the general election, Mentri Besar
Datuk Seri Ahmad Said resigned following an agreement that he would do
so and more drama ensued.
This is not the first time Ahmad has been drawn into controversy. In
2008, he wrangled the position after Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin swore
him into the post.
Then prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s choice of Datuk Seri
Idris Jusoh was rejected. Ahmad went ahead and started his job and after
a standoff between Umno and the palace, he kept his job.
Kuala Terengganu Umno division chairman Datuk Mohd Sabri Alwi
lamented that the state is Umno’s to lose citing the in-fighting between
the upper echelons of leadership in the state.
“It was stable under Wan Mokhtar and Idris. But now it isn’t. We need
to be united. And it is up to YB Razif to bring us together. He needs
to do and not just talk,” he said.
He said the political scenario was such that while there were PAS
supporters, it was the fence sitters that one had to fight for.
“You see even now PAS is not making much noise. It is a problem for us when Umno fights,” he said.
A local political observer said cracks were deepening and the state
BN, specifically Umno, had the next three years to improve matters.
“Razif, as head, should drive the state into boosting the economy for
the urban, rural and suburban people,” he said, adding that oil royalty
should be used to this end.
Former politician Tan Sri Wong Foon Meng said BN’s declining popularity had caused the current situation.
“In Terengganu, the opposition is not strong. In a way, it is the
factions within BN. It was not that serious in the 1970s, 80s or 90s,”
said the former Bandar assemblyman.
The former MCA secretary-general added that the state fell to PAS in
1999 due to events like Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim getting a bruised eye
while detained.
He added that PAS had made some inroads in the last general election.
The state, he said, had come a long way from being the poorest to having development.
“Improve the livelihood. Development should be for all across the board,” he said.
Audrey Edwards, Malay Mail Online
Home »
POLITIC WORLD
,
Politics
,
Politics (Malaysia)
,
Politics (Terengganu)
,
POLITIK
,
Terengganu
» In Terengganu, inertia rolls over Umno’s political storm
Post a Comment