KUALA BESUT, July 15 — Terengganu had awarded four Barisan Nasional (BN) politicians one-hectare plots of land each facing the balmy South China Sea, PAS’s Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said today in what seems an attempt to highlight the wealth of the ruling elite against its working-class populace in the race for votes.

The PAS central working committee member named former Besut MP Datuk Seri Professor Dr Abdullah Md Zin, his successor Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh — who was then Jertih assemblyman — Hulu Besut assemblyman Nawi Mohamad and former Kota Putera assemblymen Muhammad Pehimi Yusof, but failed to provide any documents to back his claims.

“This is what we call the tradition of putting political enforcers first, not the people,” Dzulkefly told reporters here.

“We challenge them to explain this away... Whether this is a fact.”

The four politicians allegedly hold four adjacent plots numbered PT 6902, 6903, 6904, and PT 6964 in the Dendong territory under the Besut district.

According to Dzulkefly, the plots were awarded before Election 2008, but he did not disclose whether it happened during Idris’ stint as Terengganu mentri besar, or during the time of his political rival and current mentri besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Said.

The Malay Mail Online visited the plots today and found that they are still undeveloped, and currently serve as a shooting range for the nearby Sri Tembila reserve army camp.

Facing the South China Sea, the plots offer a perfect view of the ocean and access to the still pristine Dendong beach, which is one of the locals’ best-kept secrets.

The land is also located just 3km from a RM400 million education hub called Taman Ilmu (Knowledge Park), which Idris had initiated when he was Terengganu mentri besar.

It was announced back in March 2011 that a RM1 billion township was planned around the area to support the Knowledge Park.

Dzulkefly explaining the alleged land grab in Kuala Besut today.

For now though, a solitary two-lane road connects the beachfront to Kampung Pengkalan Kubor, with mostly oil palm plantations, fish ponds, vegetable farms and swiftlet houses along the way.

The only major construction project beside the road was the Besut campus for Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA), part of the delayed Knowledge Park.

With ruling coalition Barisan Nasional’s (BN) opponent PAS bringing up Kuala Besut’s land ownership issues in its by-election campaign, a revelation of riches allegedly hoarded by BN statesmen might hurt the coalition’s chances.

Dzulkefly today had contrasted the land plots awarded to BN politicians against the poor folk of Kuala Besut who had their land taken away and their homes destroyed after BN snatched Terengganu from PAS in Election 2004.

On Saturday, PAS also had accused BN of perpetuating “politics of poverty”, claiming that the ruling coalition was keeping Kuala Besut folk poor to keep its hold on the community.

According to PAS secretary-general Datuk Mustafa Ali, the area is deep in poverty, and has remained unchanged since the last Kuala Besut by-election in 1979.

BN’s Tengku Zaihan Che Ku Abdul Rahman faces local boy from PAS, Azlan Yusof, for the Terengganu state seat in the July 24 by-election which was called following the death of BN’s Dr A. Rahman Mokhtar on June 26 from lung cancer.

In Election 2013, Dr Rahman had defeated PAS’s Napisah Ismail with a comfortable 2,434-vote majority.

The state seat has 17,679 registered voters, of whom 98 per cent are Malays.