How will the ruling Barisan Nasional fare in Kedah?

Producer: Yvonne Gomez
First broadcast: 1 March 04, Radio Singapore International

As election fever heats up in Malaysia, Kedah state has emerged as an important pawn in the struggle between the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) or National Front coalition, and opposition Parti Islam SeMalaysia, or PAS.

Yvonne Gomez finds out why in this report.

In the 1999 general elections in Malaysia, UMNO suffered the devastating loss of Kelantan and Terengganu states to the Islamic conservatives, PAS.

The loss was widely attributed to unhappiness over the way then-Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, sacked his Deputy, Anwar Ibrahim.

Determined not to lose yet another state, Kedah, to PAS, Malaysia's new Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is on a goodwill visit to the state.

What has been PAS's influence in Kedah up until now? A question I

Yvonne Gomes put the question to Dr P Ramasamy from University Kebangsaan Malaysia in Selangor state.

PR: Apart from Kelantan and Terengganu, I think PAS had made inroads in Kedah much earlier. The other thing is that I think Kedah's poverty rate is quite high, compared to the rest of Malaysia, compared to other West Coast states. So I think what PAS is trying to do is on the basis of using the support that is already there. If you remember, at the last elections, the BN even denied the 2/3 majority, so I think Kedah is a contentious state and I think UMNO is very keen to wrest this majority, compared to the last elections and I think Kedah will be a tough fight. But I don't know to what extent Dr Mahathir's influence will be there, since he's no more in power.

YG: You just mentioned that PAS has made some inroads there. So how can the UMNO or the BN come in, and try to get the votes back in their favour?

PR: I don't think PAS can sort of sweep the state, this may not be possible. Of course UMNO is trying to ensure that they get the majority in Kedah, as well as to win back Kelantan and Teregannu. I'm not sure if this is possible in Kelantan and Terengganu, but the case in Kelantan has always been 50-50, and this is where I think you can see a very keen contest for the polls. And I think PAS will do its utmost to make sure that even if it can't win Kedah, it will have a better performance than the last elections.

And what does PAS think about the fight for Kedah? I spoke to Mr Nasharudin Mat Isa, Secretary-General of Parti Islam SeMalaysia for his view.

NMI: Surveys can be done by anybody and everybody. So to us, it's not really significant to us, about the swing of votes, as far as Kedah is concerned. If you were to compare our programmes in Kedah, and the response we've got from these programmes, that survey is not relevant at all.

YG: Can you tell me why the BN is so interested in Kedah. I mean, one of the theories is that PAS has made certain inroads in Kedah, so can you elaborate on this?

NMI: This is for the very simple reason that they do not want to lose another state to PAS, so since we've already got Kelantan and Terengganu, so heavy concentration is given to Kedah to ensure that they don't lose any other states.

YG: How would you rate PAS's current popularity in Kedah?

NMI: Looking at the programmes that we've been organizing, and the support that these have received, I think we are quite confident of winning the whole state.

YG: What strategy are you going to employ to win votes in Kedah, and elsewhere?

NMI: It's a mixed society, compared to Kelantan and Terengganu. The percentage of non-Malay, non-Muslims is also quite high in Kedah, so what we're doing now is to engage our staff in many dialogue sessions and going to the grassroots level, and approaching them door-to-door. So that's some of the strategies we're using.