The Kuala Besut state seat by-election is beginning to see the split in PAS between the veteran fundamentalists and young liberals as the party crawled slowly behind Barisan Nasional (BN) aggressive onslaught.
Terengganu PAS members are not active compared to their Kelantan counterpart who can be seen sleeping in tents pitched on empty fields around the constituency.
Most aggressive campaigners in PAS seem to be those from Kelantan, probably because the by-election director is Datuk Husam Musa, who is the Salor assemblyman in Kelantan.
PAS president himself and few other Terengganu leaders are said to be out of the country performing their umrah and would be back only after polling day.
Thus, Husam and his Kelantan followers are the ones conducting the campaign to win the seat for Terengganu, where the candidate Azlan Yusoh is said to be his ‘boy’.
The campaigners came from Bachok and Pasir Putih, the two areas bordering Besut, which is some 30 minutes drive from Kuala Besut.
Whether Terengganu PAS knew early that the seat is a lost case or not, the fact seems clear that Kelantan PAS seems to be more prevalent and prominent in the campaign trail.
The history of Besut is very interesting but so far none has confirmed it that Besut was once a part of Kelantan but the Sultan gave it away when he lost in a cock fight to Terengganu Sultan.
The history is ancient and has no record whatsoever but old folks in the many kampungs heard the story which was passed from generation through talks.
Whatever the history is, it seems Kelantan PAS is fighting the war for Terengganu with a local who is said to be Husam’s candidate.
With no issues that interest the local voters who do not even seemed to be interested in attending the nightly ceramahs held by PAS, the victory for BN seems to be clearer and nearer.
Although BN is working on bigger majority at present, no one knows what last minute tricks PAS can throw to off-set BN’s confidence.
