Man with a plan: Terengganu Mentri Besar Ahmad Samsuri is a technocrat from an Islamist party who is on a mission to correct misconceptions about his party, PAS, and his state. — AZLINA ABDULLAH/The Star
A modern Islamist with big plans
By ZAKIAH KOYA
Sunday, 17 Dec 2023
TERENGGANU Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar is not what you would expect from a party known for its mullahs and Islamist agenda. The 53-year-old PAS vice-president is an aerospace engineer and sports nary a beard, jubah nor skullcap.
After winning the Kemaman parliamentary seat with a thumping majority on Dec 2, 2023, Ahmad Samsuri is now considered prime minister in waiting by Perikatan Nasional should the Opposition coalition take over Putrajaya in the next general elections.
Even Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who has been butting heads with Perikatan, called Ahmad Samsuri – who is in his second term as MB – “the moderate one who can cool the nation’s political tensions”.
Speaking to Sunday Star earlier this week in an exclusive interview, the former political secretary of PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi plays down the praise showered on him and focuses on his plans for the state.
> Did you ever plan on becoming an active politician?
It was never my intention to be a state assemblyman or an MP - not even in my wildest dreams. But at some point in life, people hope for you to take up certain roles and challenges for you to do your part in the community.
This is a responsibility of a Muslim, to assist the community for the general well being of the country.
> Are technocrats a rare breed in PAS?
In PAS, we have an abundance of qualified people, in scientific fields such as physics or in economic fields. Many of these technocrats remain backstage, strategising for PAS leaders to move forward. I was one of them.
> How do you juggle being a state assemblyman, Kemaman MP, and the MB of Terengganu?
I take it all positively as motivation. It is not just working hard but working smart, using the connections I have in the agencies and the machinery on the ground.
If I can summarise everything that I learned at university and during my teaching days, you need an analytical mind, analytical skills and interpersonal skills when you are heading a state.
> What is your priority as Terengganu MB?
In my first term as an MB, I had a choice either to demolish everything and build up from scratch or reorganise and see what could be salvaged. I took the second route – but then I needed to prioritise. Do I start with the roof repairs or fix the kitchen?
I could have exposed the failure of the previous government but that would not have helped to solve anything. Witch-hunting was not the way.
In my second term, I called all the heads of the state agencies and said, “jump to gear three” not “gear two”. We stepped up by getting investors and finding extra revenue for the state to reduce our dependence on petroleum and its royalties.
In my first term, we did reduce that by 3% to 4%. Now, I have decided to enhance tax collection and look at minerals to increase the range of state revenue. I want to get more revenue from green initiatives such as cooperating with Petronas on hydrogen. I even visited Sarawak to look at their green initiatives.
It is not going to be easy but I hope these will work out.
> Are the Terengganu people really poor?
In terms of household incomes, we are not doing that badly. That being said, earning RM2,000 a month in Terengganu should not be compared with earning the same in Putrajaya. The poverty in those parts is actually worse than in the big cities. On paper, it may come under the poverty range but living standards differ in Terengganu.
This is one of my roles, to collect real data on the people.
> But Terengganu has an image of being one of the country’s poorest states – why is that?
We are dealing with push and pull factors. While we want to push out the information that the people are not as poor as our opponents portray them to be, that information gets “pulled down” and suppressed from being communicated to the outside world.
For example, our GDP in 2022 was 5.9%, the highest for Terengganu in 15 years. We need to push out this information to outsiders for them to come and see it for themselves. I have met first-timers in Terengganu who tell me how the reality is totally different from the propaganda.
> What is your priority for the state?
We have about five years. My short-term priority is getting the state’s oil royalties, which have not been paid since the change of the Federal Government [in the 15th General Election in November 2022]. At the same time, I am pushing really hard for investors to come into the state for manufacturing and biotechnology.
> What kind of industries are you looking at for Terengganu?
Times have changed with the IoT (Internet of Things). In the past, an investment of RM100mil may have created 500 jobs. Now, with RM100mil, you will get much fewer jobs.
My masters is in combustion and energy. The “energy” part is what I want to push in my green initiative so that the PAS-ruled government’s economy is a model.
I have good a relationship with the Federal Government and that would work well with my ambitions to boost the biotechnology industry in Terengganu.
Terengganu is still struggling with increasing Internet connectivity. We have priorities when we choose investors, such as agriculture and chemicals. As for electronic investments, we would need to have different models such as better Internet connection.
In Malaysia, we still need employment for our people as our infrastructure for IoT is still not ready fully. IR4.0 is happening but we have to balance what we offer to our people.
> Terengganu folk have a reputation for being rather laidback – how would you change that?
Changing mindsets is the most difficult part of my job. Some of the things I do may not be so popular with the people but it has to be done anyway.
For example, I met a keropok lekor seller who runs his business from the back of his house. When a federal agency offered to assist in expanding the business, the seller was not keen as it involved harder work. But when I asked him if his graduate children would want to continue his business if he mechanised the process in an airconditioned place, he said yes.
> What exactly is State Government 4 (SG4), the economic body representing Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis and Terengganu?
The Federal Constitution spells out the sharing of power. However, due to politics, there tends to be “discriminatory practices” from Putrajaya when it comes to Opposition states. Some states have advantages over others and there is too much politicking when the country should be working as one.
How do we work together? That is where the idea of SG4 comes in – after much discussion with party leadership and unofficial adviser Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
And SG4 has no politics in it. Even when Dr Mahathir went visiting the four states, we never discussed politics.
It is not a political initiative but an initiative by four state governments. We had to get all the civil servants involved as well as various agencies and federal authorities. We had to depart from the old way of doing things.
I would stress and point out that while the Terengganu state government does not have any problems with working with the Federal Government, the voice of one state alone is a little bit small. With four state governments as one entity, it would be a bit louder so that we can achieve our objective, which is to develop our economies.
> What kind of investments is SG4 looking for?
Anything that is interesting, but we want these investments to come into these four states quickly. Of course, industries which are haram to Muslims, such as any involving alcohol, are not what we seek. We have engaged with diplomats from China, Japan and South Korea to get their companies to talk to us.
> Are the people in the SG4 states ready to embrace change?
PAS members also want to see better economic development in their states. The prejudices against them in the past have clouded the judgement of outsiders towards PAS people. This is my role, to break up that cloud of negative perception.
> How do you work around the fact that an Islamist party does not create much confidence among businessmen and non-Muslims?
The long history of prejudice against PAS is because people tend to equate us with Islamist parties from other parts of the world. This is 100% wrong.
Those Islamist parties have issues and problems in their respective countries whereas PAS understands the structure of Malaysia will always be multiethnic, multireligious. Compared with other Islamist parties, we are the most relaxed Islamists in a country with multiple ethnicities.
PAS has all the potential to be a modern Islamic party. Equating us with the Taliban and such is so wrong. We understand well that we have to work as Malaysians. PAS is at an integral phase now.
> Is there backlash from the PAS grassroots against a more modern PAS?
PAS is now at a crossroads where we are no mere kampung party – we are more than just a political party. [PAS is now considered Perikatan’s main driver as the party with the biggest number of MPs and the biggest election machinery on the ground.]
We have come so far and we have to keep moving forward. We are not perfect but then PAS has people from various backgrounds, including those who have never been exposed to governing a state, let alone a country. We are very homogeneous. We do get some minor discontentment from those who are not keen on us moving forward.
> Are you the Opposition’s prime minister in waiting?
I have no qualities to consider myself prime minister material. If people push me to, I would rather others take up the post. PAS is, however, ready to take over Putrajaya as part of Perikatan.
> Has PAS put aside the idea of imposing hudud (Islamic criminal) law and forming an Islamic state?
For PAS, the Federal Constitution reigns supreme and there should be no fear that we will implement these just like that by disregarding the Constitution.
At this point in time, we need to prioritise what should come first. The ideas of hudud and Islamic state are sensitive and need more time for people to understand.
PAS also realises that it can never come to power without working with other parties, other races and other religions. There will be discussions and give and take, as this is what democracy is. The fear of PAS being an extremist government is unfounded.
> Would you work with DAP again, as PAS once did in the 2008 general elections?
We need to differentiate between personal relationships and party relationships. At the moment, PAS has no party relationships with DAP. Personally, I have no problems with DAP ministers and those in charge of federal agencies.
We must remember politics is very dynamic. Who ever thought that Umno would work with DAP?
Should DAP tone down on certain issues and make itself acceptable to us, who knows? But at this point, it is no to DAP as its attacks against PAS are detrimental to Malays and Muslims.
> What about working with Umno as PAS did prior to 2018’s 14th General Election?
Muafakat Nasional is still alive as PAS will always push for all Malays and Muslims to unite regardless of their political affiliations. [Muafakat Nasional was a political coalition formed by Umno and PAS in 2019 against Pakatan Harapan which had come into power after the 2018 general elections.
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