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Malaysia’s Terengganu To Lose Revenue
by Kazi Mahmood for IslamOnline
JAKARTA (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – The Malaysian province of Terengganu will not receive revenues from the vast oil reserves in the region as Mahathir Mohamed’s the central government has ripped the Islamicly run state of its main source of income, but will, instead, enact stricter laws, the Party Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) promised this week.
The PAS has inaugurated a few Islamic firsts in Malaysia, forcing a departure from the Westernization that has captivated the country since its independence 43 years ago.
There are now checkout counters for men and women at supermarkets, and no more unisex hair salons, but exclusive salons for men and women.
Nightspots have disappeared. Wine and other alcoholic products have also been banned. Chinese are allowed to rear pigs with laws that do not disturb their lifestyle, applying to Muslims in particular, but may also be extended to non-Muslims depending on circumstances.
Yet the financial drought imposed on the PAS with the retraction of oil revenue from offshore drilling operations has meant strict rules but no opulence.
The state government led by Chief Minister Hadi Awang promised this week to explore all avenues to force Mahathir’s regime to pay back the people's oil revenue worth millions of dollars.
A Terengganu official confirmed state plans to sue the Malaysian government in order to try and recover the said revenues, adding that Terengganu’s state government seems to have exhausted all avenues to get back the oil royalty.
Actions to bring the government to court will be taken within the next six months. A legal committee has been formed and the PAS would enlist the help of other legal experts.
The withdrawn revenue comprised a significant amount of the state’s income, losing the direct injection of approximately $200 million in the past six months.
It had plans to develop the state into a fully functional Islamic model state, rich in oil revenues with the people living in opulence under strict Islamic law.
It also intended to use the oil money to develop a PAS infrastructure within the region and in Kelantan, a bordering state controlled by the PAS for more than 10 years.
Other plans were to fuel PAS machinery in capturing more states and to show that an Islamic based party can run states in Malaysia.
The federal government had also said it would directly invest money to help the people of the state.
PAS’s president Fadzil Noor said in an interview to an opposition online magazine that Muslims and non-Muslims alike do not understand the term “Islamic state” properly, adding that it is not a concept that can be achieved immediately or in the very near future.
”The real definition and practice of an Islamic state has been left far behind by the Muslims, especially after the fall of the Uthmaniyan [Ottoman] Empire and also with the rise of European civilization.
”To come back to the true concept of an Islamic state, a long time is needed,” he said, adding that the original concept of an Islamic state is a state run according to guidelines provided by the Qur’an and Sunnah.
The PAS has succeeded in imposing a series of Islamic (Shari’ah) based laws in both Terengganu and Kelantan.
However, its plans for the future were short circuited when Mahathir’s government stepped in and “hijacked” the oil royalty, sparking storms of protests from the PAS and the opposition alliance Alternative Front (AF).
The Malaysian government defended itself saying the state had no legal right to oil royalties since its oil reserves were too far offshore.
It said the annual payment from the national oil firm Petronas had always been a “goodwill contribution” for the development of Terengganu under the control of the ruling coalition of Mohamed and the National Front (NF).
Over the last 22 years, under the Mahathir's rule, the state received billions of dollars in oil royalties.
The federal government said this week it is readying itself to face any court challenge by the PAS on the oil royalty. The Mahathir regime is adamant it will never allow the PAS to control such a huge amount of money that could help the Islamic party undermine its rule in other states.
''The federal government fears that with the oil money, we can deliver what we promised to the people,'' said Mustafa Ali, Terengganu's economic minister said, countering the claims of the federal government.
''They want to cut the lifeline so that we can't move. That is the strategy.''
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