Terengganu's New Rides

I got the heads-up over this issue at Rocky's Bru, where he had, tongue-in-cheek, called it Progress In Terengganu.

For those of you who aren't too familiar with our political administrative machinery, let me give you the low-down on this entire story.

Terengganu used to belong to PAS, prior to the recent elections. Frankly, it should be the richest state in Malaysia, as it has a tremendous wealth of oil reserves, off its shores.

But in good ole Bolehland, the federal government belonging to the ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional, takes all the royalty and metes it out on its own discretion. And to punish the people of Terengganu for voting in PAS, they were denied of the royalty for years.

Now that Terengganu is back in the hands of Barisan Nasional, the administration is making some fancy purchases. This led Rocky to question if this oil royalty was the money with which they were buying their new rides - some very nice Mercedes E200 Kompressors.

They have since denied it, an effort which has led to a series of other bumbling faux pas. The Mentri Besar's words on why Terengganu bought Mercedes cars:

“Please understand that the Proton Perdanas go through continuous long-distance journeys. It’s costing us a lot of money due to high cost of maintenance.

“We are not saying that the national car is not good but in reality we are coughing up more money for maintaining the Proton Perdanas, particularly the gear boxes,” he said.

Ahmad cited the example of the Proton Perdana of state Commerce, Industry and Environment committee chairman Toh Chin Yaw, which has twice undergone expensive repairs costing RM50,000 within 36 months.

“In the long run, Mercedes cars are cheaper to maintain and could also save us fuel costs.

“This is the state’s long-term plan – we are farsighted. The cars could also fetch a high market price, when sold as second-hand cars.

If indeed they were replacing the cars for efficiency, they have indirectly asserted that Proton cars are lousy. Not that it's something we don't know. :)

But regardless of what the man says, I'm banking on oil royalty.

Sultan Disses Terengganu MP

Frankly speaking, this post should be entitled, "Barisan Nasional disses The Yang Di-Pertuan Agong" because that's what it really is.

You certainly won't see this in the BN controlled mainstream media.

Malaysia's ruling party in tussle with palace over state chief

A political crisis was developing in Malaysia on Sunday after royalty in one of the country's states appointed a new chief minister in defiance of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's wishes.

Terengganu is the only state that has yet to install a government head 14 days after elections in which Abdullah's United Malays National Organisation (UMNO)-led ruling coalition suffered its worst ever results.

Abdullah's weakened Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition retained control of the northern state's assembly but his nominee for chief minister, incumbent Idris Jusoh, was unacceptable to the palace, who appointed UMNO assemblyman Ahmad Said instead.

"Ahmad Said has been appointed as the new chief minister and we are in the midst of stripping him of UMNO membership because he has defied the wishes of the party and president," UMNO state liaison secretary Rosol Wahid told AFP.

"We have already submitted a memorandum to the palace indicating that 22 out of the 24 BN state assemblymen support Idris Jusoh as chief minister," he said.

Rosol said members of the assembly were also planning a no-confidence motion against Ahmad.

The Sultan of Terengganu is at present the Malaysian King and has by law delegated his powers to his son who is only eight years old and so co-reigns with a three-member Regency Advisory Council.

Ahmad received his appointment letter from the Council early Sunday morning and is scheduled to be sworn in on Wednesday, according to palace officials.

Analysts say the clash between the Terengganu palace and Abdullah's government is symptomatic of the prime minister's weakened position after the large poll losses.

"Abdullah was already weak to begin with and the crisis in Terengganu it just shows how much more worse off his position is," Tricia Yeo, who heads the centre for public policy studies, told AFP.

"It shows the rampant infighting within the party that is now preventing the government from getting down to rule the country," she added.

"It is definitely a low point for UMNO."

It seems that UMNO can do no right.

As far as I can remember, this is the first time a Sultan has disagreed with Barisan Nasional's choice of candidate as Menteri Besar.

This time, the Sultan happens to be the Agong, the supreme ruler.

It doesn't seem to worry UMNO the least bit to go against his wishes in spite of all the thrashing they've received in the hands of the citizens.

The concept of "Daulat Tuanku" is the last thing on their minds.

This is beyond menderhaka. This is flashing a finger to the YDP Agong when they boycott his decision to appoint Ahmad Said as MB of Terengganu.

In fact, it has ascended to the very heights of super-biadap!

Of course, it's very interesting that the Agong flatly refused to re-appoint the incumbent, Idris Jusoh.

The news on the ground is that Idris Jusoh was hopelessly corrupted and practised blatant discrimination against those constituencies in Terengganu that were under the rule of PAS.

And then, his deplorable handling of the Batu Buruk issue evidently did not go unnoticed.

The Sultan of Terengganu obviously had been observing in silence. The Constitution provides that he does not issue public statements, so we generally have no idea of his stand on certain issues.

But I think his action has spoken volumes this time.