From Libya to Tok Bali.........

Post Script :

We had a nice briyani dinner at 'Spice of India' last night. I thought Nadzru and Dato' Rahim would 'slaughter' me outright for labelling them 'ignorant',but was quite assured since TS Min was there.I could trust him that he would be a decent referee as most Oxbridge product would do.
Surprisingly thing was a wee bit tame last night.....We were able to agree to disagree on the issue of Libya.

Four 'budu' people, all beyond their prime, discussing from amongst other things, how to substantially persuade the current Federal Government of Najib Tun Razak,[ his late fatherthe Tun, was as far as we all could recall, a real perfect gentleman, no hanky panky, no nonsense ], to really be fair to 1.5 million ummah from Kelantan, all mainly 'budu' eating people, and all praying to the same God as NTR and Tun.

Under Dr M, Kelantan already lost a big Pet Chem project as big as Kertih ,or even bigger to rookie in the oil business, Thailand, by then really unprepared and unstable Southern Thailand and that was some 15 years ago. That to me was the most 'daftest' ever decision made by a PM [ my personal opinion here and I certainly stand corrected ].One just need to take a drive from the sleepy town of Bachok to Tok Bali and internalise the level of rural unemployment, high level of dadah addiction from youths in this areas of real rural poverty, to really comprehend the deleterious effect of that one stroke of the pen from a thoughtless old man who should know better than just think about winning in elections.

We Kelantanese have practically left all that behind us but for this scribe it still hurt thinking about all the lost opportunities, the pain and the suffering of the common people, the Mat Stopas and the thousands of Mat Nordin Rhejabs who could have done better.

Let bygone be bygone, I used to say to myself, but one cannot help pitying this old man who at 86 now would need to answer to his God one of this days !

Back to oil business I have been told by my friends at the dinner table that by current production capacity of 110,000 barrels of petroleum and petroleum derivatives equivalent[ gas,LNG etc and etc] per day over so many years since the inception of Petronas, I reckoned , if translated over ringgit and sen that would be around 150 million RM per year of income to Kelantan for that many years. Time that by 35 over years that would be 5 billion RM.

All and sundry know now that The Kelantan State govt will be taking Petronas and the Federal Government to court. On a good day with a full complement of fair judges on the bench, insyaallah, I got the 'fihrasat' in my dream last night that tells me that Kelantan will ultimately win.

With damages, accrued interest and all that jazz,I would not be surprised if the settlement figure could well breach 15 billion. But knowing Tok Guru, I think he would be just contented to settle out of court for a mere 5 billion RM. He could be persuaded I believe as this can be taken in the spirit of between 'adik beradik'. No need interest, no need damages no need 'lost opportunities'.....Just 5 billion Rm...'kito kiro adek kakok'

You guys in the Federal Govt cannot go on cheating the Kelantan people forever. Truth will prevail.We believe Petronas is sincere about settlement . The problem remain with it's political boss. We have got to learn lessons from Libya, Yemen and Egypt.
Insyaallah !


Nik Howk


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An interesting addendum from Dato' Rahim Kamil :

We were men of honour, united by a sense of deprivation by the Great Leader who was inspired to check the tide of a revolution that begun with the people of the horses.

We had no intention of slaughtering Dr Nik.

So let's pause and think of what Kelantan has versus the royalty we do not yet have. A little creativity and innovation of the Islamic fiqh on land and natural resources will unleash the true wealth of Kelantan.

I am not saying that we forget about oil royalty. We should continue with our demand as a member of the Federation which If we had not joined, the issue would have been settled. Period.

So we can demand that Putrajaya respect the Federation Agreement.

We already have something equally valuable as oil royalty. It will unleash our spirit of innovation and industry. In my early days in Petronas I learned to appreciate the genius of Allahyarham Tun Razak. If he had handled our oil with the usual practice of granting concession to taukes and tycoons (as in timber and tin) we would not have a hydrocarbon economy. Once our oil is depleted by excessive production the T&Ts would have migrated south or east, living off their wealth with 8 concubines.

Tun Razak ingeniously innovate on the principle that oil is common wealth, as Islamic fiqh requires. He formed Petronas and asked a Kelantanese prince to manage it. The PSC were forced to recreate economic value with downstream activities. As the pioneering Petronas staff we remember well the scorn and doubts thrown literally at our faces. I was told by a tauke not to bother trying to market kerosene and cooking gas. Just supply the taukes and they would do their magic of distribution and retailing. Engineer Ru went into refining and engineer Ghohing started marketing.

Kelantan has timber and minerals but Kelantan continue with the practice of concession, made worse without requiring concessionaires to go downstream and recreate economic value. When our timber, manganese etc are depleted we will be abandoned by the taukes once again. Why can't the Kelantanese government be true to their Islamic credentials, invoke and innovate on fiqh and create Perkayu, Pergalian etc etc. Run it efficiently with zero-corruption.

For God's sake the natural resources of Kelantan belong to you and me as our common wealth. Why do we perpetuate the same Ali Baba practice.

Dr Nik, look around you and start blogging.

I am passionate about this neglected fiqh. I am trying to prove this with my insistence on treating land as resource and capital for my own project in Kelantan.

Ru is fond of saying that constitutional activism and agitation form the basis of "Islamic" government. Let us see whether we can move beyond legislating separate counters for men and women, heaven and hell and move into the realm of economics.

Wassalaam

RKS


Related Articles on past blog :

Mustaffa Apakahnamadiadah ? click here
ToK Guru in Conversation click here