In a bid to wrest Kelantan away from the clutches of PAS come the next general election, Umno has embarked on an aggressive campaign and has set up 115 branches in the state capital of Kota Bharu alone.

According to the partys state secretary Mohd Nawi Mamat, the strategy appears to be working as scores of PAS members are crossing over into Umnos fold.

Seventy PAS members from Kampung Celagi are expected to hop over the fence this Saturday, he told malaysiakini today.

The party leader added this would be the second crossover since last month. On Feb 16, 58 PAS members from Kampung Telipot had joined Umno.

Elaborating on the aggressive campaign, Nawi said: We are using numerous groups to convince people to join Umno, such as non-governmental organisations (ranging from youth movements to welfare organisations), government staff and teachers.

Apart from utilising NGOs and civil servants to achieve its aim, Nawi added the party has also set up 115 branches in Kota Bharu.

Umno here is undergoing a kind of reform and I must say the Kota Bahru branch members are now more easily approachable than before, said Nawi.

With Umno in the forefront, ruling coalition Barisan Nasional had governed Kelantan for 12 years  from 1978 to 1990  before it was captured by PAS.

The partys hope of recapturing the eastern state was dealt a crushing blow in the 1999 election where Umno only managed to retain one parliamentary seat and won two state seats.

Kelantan has 13 parliamentary seats and 43 state seats.

Effective governance

Despite the political differences and historical rivalry, Nawi conceded that certain aspects of PAS governance proved to be effective, namely concerning minority groups.

There were some details we had overlooked especially concerning land acquisition which was beneficial to the Chinese, he said.

In a malaysiakini report yesterday the Chinese in Kelantan expressed their happiness over the state governments clear policy on land acquisition which came into effect two years ago.

Under this policy, the state or Federal government cannot acquire land belonging to non-Malays unless it is to be used for social projects such as a hospital or public library.

Land acquisition, under PAS rule, is also open to all regardless of race, religion, state of origin and length of stay in the state.

Meanwhile, Nawi said in order for BN to win back the support of the Kelantan people, the ruling coalition has to project its multi-racial concept.

That is why whenever we have programmes, we incorporate the concept of BN. The component party leaders go down to meet the grassroots together, he said.

We also motivate one another. The Malays cannot seem to be disciplined by a Malay but they can be disciplined by a Chinese. But the Chinese have a lot to learn from the Malays, added Nawi.

Still relevant

The Umno leader maintained that his party was still relevant in Kelantan but lamented that its leaders had suffered a setback and were de-motivated after the 1999 defeat.

The defeat was largely attributed to internal conflict between branch members and Nawi stressed that Umno leaders should be strong to avoid this politically cancerous situation.

He said a wind of change was needed to alter the peoples attitude  from hatred to love for Umno.

PAS had the benefit of two big winds of change: The setting up of Semangat 46 in the early 80s and the Anwar Ibrahim saga, which helped the party sweep Kelantan he said.

We in Umno also need that kind of wind to conquer PAS, he added.

Semangat 46 was an Umno splinter party formed by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah after a fallout with Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad. The party later disbanded and its leaders returned to Umno.

Ironically, Tengku Razaleigh is now the sole Umno MP in Kelantan.