KELANTAN Caretaker Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said it is 'jihad' for the people of Kelantan to reject PAS in the 13th general election (GE13) because the party had resulted in the people in the state becoming backward.

He said the PAS-led Kelantan government was also a very weak government and totally incapable of bringing development to Kelantan although it had been given the mandate for the past 23 years.

"This is the time for BN to win in Kelantan. This is a jihad that must be carried out by the people of Kelantan to reject the backwardness and weaknesses that had occurred in the state.

"Allah will not change the fate of a particular ethnic group if that race itself, especially the people of Kelantan, do not make the change," he said at the official opening of the Manek Urai new bridge, in Kuala Krai today.

More than 7,000 people attended the official opening ceremony for the new bridge costing RM17 million.

NONEMuhyidddin said if the BN were to win in GE13 on Sunday, Mustapa Mohamed (right) was the best candidate for selection as the new Kelantan Menteri Besar who could take Kelantan to greater heights.

"I promise to communicate with Tok Pa (Mustapa Mohamed) every week to find out about what is happening in Kelantan. We will help the people of Kelantan to resolve their problems.

"This is not a false promise and this is a promise that we will implement because it is a trust placed on us," he said.

He said the people of Kelantan have several more days left to decide and Sunday would be the best day for the people to change the existing PAS government in the state.

"We want to choose a government for the next five years and do believe that only the BN government is capable of changing the environment which the PAS government cannot," he said.

'Think deeply'

Muhyiddin said the people of Kelantan must think deeply and gauge who Menteri besar Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat actually was, whether the PAS spiritual leader was an ulama.

"If you support PAS, you will go to heaven, this is not right. Nik Aziz said the religious deeds performed by Umno people will not be rewarded, and I want to ask back, is he a 'tok guru', is he an ulama.

NONE"My father had a 'pondok' in Johor and he had never said that those joining Umno were infidels. What is the difference between 'tok guru' Nik Aziz (right) and Mat Yassin (Muhyiddin's father)?

"I'm puzzled, this is not a joke, it is something that is not right. If a tok guru has deviated, even if he recites wrongly during the prayers, we have to correct him and if he has been in the wrong for a long time, logically we have to reject the tok guru," he said.

He said it was puzzling that PAS leaders were making many promises such as wanting to build roads which certainly PAS could not implement.

'A promise fulfilled'

Muhyiddin said the road construction agenda was what the BN would champion for when it succeeded in winning Kelantan and the federal capital in the general election.

Commenting on the new bridge, Muhyiddin said it was an example of a 'promise fulfilled' when the BN government pledged to build it in the by-election for the Manek Urai state seat in 2009.

He added Kelantan must be placed in the developed state cluster in line with the mainstream development and that was why although it was under the opposition administration, the BN government had never marginalised Kelantan all this while.

"I'm sad that some people had slandered me, saying that the bridge would not be implemented but eventually, this had been proven wrong when construction of the bridge had been completed today," he said.

Construction of the 200-metre long bridge over the Lebir River began in 2010 and was completed for use a week ago.

Besides the bridge which was promised during the by-election in 2009, the federal government had also upgraded the Kampung Temalir Mosque costing RM600,000 and the Sports Complex at Kampung Manjor also at a cost of RM600,000.

- Bernama