LETTER | How PAS is set to avenge Umno’s 1977 betrayal

LETTER | There are decades where nothing happens and there are weeks where decades happen. Nothing exemplifies the first weeks of 2021 better than this timeless quote by Vladimir Lenin.

After all, this has got to be the first time a state of emergency was proclaimed in such dubious circumstances. A majority lost yet a power exponentially gained by the executive? Unprecedented.

However, upon closer inspection, our current nationwide darurat actually strikes an eerie resemblance to the infamous events of 1977. A dark period in Malaysian history which saw among others, the vote of no confidence against a pengkhianat and an election postponed due to an emergency invoked.

History has a habit to repeat itself and for those that lived through the Kelantan darurat of 1977, this must be deja vu. Even the major players in the 1977 emergencies, Umno and PAS are present in the current federal version, albeit in different roles. Well, the way events are unfolding, perhaps this is the revenge that PAS has been waiting 44 years for!

Back in the 1970s, PAS was also in the federal government as they are now. If today it is the Perikatan Nasional, during that period it was the newly formed Barisan Nasional, a rebrand of the original Perikatan coalition formed after Merdeka.

Specifically, in 1972, then prime minister Abdul Razak invited PAS and other opposition parties to form a grand coalition to make up a new government to replace the National Operations Council (Mageran) rule following yet another darurat caused by the May 13 riots.

PAS, then a new component party in BN had to make certain sacrifices that did not sit well with the party’s leadership and supporters. These include giving up traditional seats in Kelantan to Umno and MCA during the 1974 election, relinquishing autonomy to abide by BN’s orders and the appointment of the Kelantan menteri besar post-GE1974.

You see, PAS preferred Wan Ismail bin Wan Ibrahim as the new menteri besar while Umno wanted Mohamad Nasir. Both were prominent PAS leaders at the time. However, with orders from Abdul Razak, Mohamad Nasir was eventually selected as menteri besar, to the dismay of PAS leaders.

Throughout Mohamad Nasir’s tenure as Kelantan’s menteri besar, his actions came under scrutiny by his party superiors. Among others, he called for investigations to alleged corruption of some PAS members and even cancelled a timber company’s lease that benefited the party. Perhaps the most significant of these was Mohamad Nasir’s failed attempt to become PAS president in June 1975.

Factions were created within PAS with many accusing Nasir of being closer to Umno than to his own party and demanded he resigned as menteri besar. Worse, it worsened relations between PAS, Umno and BN as a whole.

The tragic death of Abdul Razak in 1976, the leader responsible for the merger of the two parties in the first place also saw the coalition lose a charismatic mediator.

After mounting pressure from his party, Mohamad Nasir promised that he would step down as menteri besar but he never did. This prompted PAS to table the dreaded motion of ‘no-confidence’ in the Kelantan state assembly on Oct 15, 1977. The motion passed successfully, but Nasir was defiant and instead requested for the state legislative assembly to be dissolved.

According to the Kelantan state constitution, if a vote of no confidence is passed, the menteri besar can ask for the dissolution of the assembly but the discretionary power to do so lies with the sultan of Kelantan. However, during that time, the sultan was elected as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong. Therefore, the duty of being the Kelantan head of state lied with the Kelantan regent.

Nasir’s request for the dissolution of the assembly was not responded to by the regent. This silence and inaction were interpreted as a refusal by legal experts.

With the assembly not dissolved and Nasir’s refusal to resign as menteri besar, a political impasse happened. Negotiations between Umno and PAS ensued led by Dr Mahathir Mohamad, as a representative of then prime minister Hussein Onn for Umno. It was rejected by PAS.

By then, chaos has begotten the state. As of Nov 8, 1977, curfews, public rallies and demonstrations led to 19 people seriously injured, 35 properties damaged and 280 arrests made.

A second negotiation followed this time Hussein Onn himself met with PAS delegations. The third prime minister gave a 72-hour ultimatum for PAS to accept his proposal or federal rule will be imposed over Kelantan.

On Nov 8, 1977, darurat was proclaimed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong after he was “satisfied that a grave an emergency exists whereby the security and economic life of a part of the federation, to wit, the state of Kelantan, are threatened”.

During the darurat, the constitution of the state of Kelantan was suspended and the state was ruled by the federal government for a four-month period to quell unrest.

On Feb 12, 1978, the act was repealed and emergency rule on Kelantan was lifted. The full governing powers of Kelantan were returned to menteri besar Mohamad Nasir and on Feb 13, 1978, the state legislative assembly of Kelantan was dissolved. A snap state election in Kelantan occurred on March 11, 1978.

With the vote of no-confidence, Mohamad Nasir was no longer a PAS member and he subsequently formed a new party called Berjasa. The snap election saw a three-way fight between Umno, PAS and the new party.

Umno ended up victorious, winning 23 seats while Berjasa won 11 and PAS only two. Claims of foul play during the election were aplenty but nothing substantial ever came up from them. Umno ruled the state of Kelantan for the first time in 1978 and Berjasa joined BN after the elections. Mohamad Nasir became a senator and a minister in the federal government. PAS, betrayed by Umno and their own leaders that supported Berjasa, officially left BN in December 1977.

While decades have passed, old wounds run deep. Many within PAS, especially those from the older generation, have never forgiven Umno for their role in 1977. Yet relations between the two parties took a peculiar turn when Umno lost a general election for the first time in its history.

Suddenly two old sworn enemies rewrote history to say that their past battles were nothing more than a lovers’ quarrel. Lovers that are reunited again. A muafakat was formed and a successful coup saw both parties stand side by side in the government again. Yet, the status quo is now different. PAS has learned from the past and will only show their cards at the very last.

Some 44 years later, there is another pengkhianat in the mix. Bersatu is to Umno what Berjasa was to PAS all those years ago. While Umno has publicly rejected Muhyiddin Yassin and his party, Abdul Hadi Awang knows that the divided Umno is not the force it used to be.

At this point, Umno needs PAS more than the other way around. Furthermore, Muhyiddin has seemingly been successful in infiltrating Umno seeing how many dissenting leaders are openly rebelling against the party’s leaders. These opportunists are more than happy to be ‘absorbed’ by Bersatu in turn for positions in the government.

There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen. Soon, the moment PAS has been waiting decades for will finally happen. The betrayal of 1977 will at long last be avenged.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.