The following is an exclusive excerpt from Chapter 23 of ‘Lim Kit Siang: Malaysian First, Volume One: None But the Bold’, a new biography by Kee Thuan Chye.

Trouble blew up in Kelantan in 1977 that would severely affect relations between PAS and Umno for a long time afterwards.

It had its roots in 1973, when PAS joined BN. It was agreed then that Kelantan would remain under PAS control while it gave up some of its traditional seats there to Umno and the MCA for the 1974 general election. This caused many PAS members to feel disgruntled.

Also, not well-received was the appointment of the menteri besar for the state after the elections. PAS president Mohd Asri Muda wanted Wan Ismail Wan Ibrahim for the post, but his choice was overruled by Prime Minister Abdul Razak who preferred Mohamed Nasir. PAS began to feel that being part of the BN coalition was making it lose its effective control over Kelantan.

To make matters worse, Mohamed Nasir went after allegedly corrupt PAS members and cancelled projects that benefited the party, thereby aggravating his own party’s resentment towards him. Many of his party colleagues began to accuse him of being more aligned to Umno than to PAS.

In mid-September, the party gave him an ultimatum to resign as MB or face a vote of no-confidence in the state assembly. He refused to resign. So the party moved the no-confidence motion on Oct 15, and it was passed with the support of 20 PAS assemblymen. But Umno’s 13 assemblymen and the MCA’s sole representative walked out in...