PAS blames Ku Li’s ‘betrayal’ for Orang Asli woes
GUA MUSANG Oct 30 — PAS started attacking Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah in Galas 
, blaming the Gua Musang MP for Orang Asli’s woes in the vast constituency.
PAS election campaign adviser Datuk Wan Abdul Rahim Wan Abdullah said the veteran politician popularly known as Ku Li was responsible for the Orang Asli when he was part of the Kelantan government — between 1990-96 while leading the now-defunct Semangat 46.
“We depended a lot on Ku Li and Semangat 46 for all Orang Asli affairs in Gua Musang. We agreed to let them contest and handle the Orang Asli affairs,” Wan Rahim told The Malaysian Insider.
“But when Ku Li dissolved Semangat 46 and returned to Umno, we were not in possession of the files on Orang Asli and we did not know where to start,” he added.
Semangat 46 was formed officially in 1989, two years after the former finance minister lost in the 1987 Umno presidential race against Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, leading to a major break-up in Umno.
A court tussle led to the deregistration of Umno, leading to both Dr Mahathir and Ku Li forming new entities, Umno Baru and Semangat 46 respectively, both claiming the mantle of the old Umno.
Semangat 46 worked together with PAS in Election 1990 and helped the Islamist party win Kelantan.
The 1996 dissolution of Semangat 46 led to its leaders like present Cabinet ministers Datuk Seri Rais Yatim and Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek, along with Ku Li rejoining Umno.
“What Ku Li did to us was a betrayal, dissolving Semangat 46 and rejoin Umno, but we still continued our work in helping the Orang Asli,” Wan Rahim said.
During his visit to an Orang Asli settlement in Gua Musang, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin blamed the PAS’s Kelantan government for its failure to address the Orang Asli issues.
The Barisan Nasional (BN) deputy chairman said the state government has also failed to compensate the Orang Asli for acquiring their land and has not protecting their settlements from intrusion.
There are 1,889 Orang Asli voters in Galas which has 11,426 registered voters. In Election 2008, BN won 64 per cent of the Orang Asli votes.
During Election 2008, PAS’s Che Hashim Sulaima who died last month won Galas with 4,399 votes, defeating incumbent Saufi Deraman.
In that general election, PAS was able to capture 38 of the 45 state seats in Kelantan while BN won six and PKR managed one.
The Malays make up 61.63 per cent of the 11,553 voters in the state constituency, while the Chinese have 20.08 per cent, Indians 1.6 per cent, and other communities are approximately 17 per cent of the electorate.
Two other state seats in the Gua Musang constituency — Nenggiri and Paloh — were won by BN with majority of 2,090 vote and 2,833 votes respectively.
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