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Minister in the Prime Minister's Office and Second Minister for Foreign Affairs Maliki Osman completed a five-day working visit to the northeastern Malaysian states of Kelantan and Terengganu.

Both states happen to be governed at the state level by the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), an important member of the largest opposition coalition Perikatan Nasional in the Malaysian Parliament.

Road trip

The visit comes as part of Singapore's efforts to strengthen its longstanding relations with Malaysian states and explore new areas of cooperation, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Notably Maliki met with the Sultan of Terengganu and the Tengku Mahkota (crown prince) of Kelantan on this trip.

He met with several Malaysian politicians from PAS as well as Bersatu, PKR, and UMNO and numerous state leaders, while also touring local sights, like Kuala Terengganu's Chinatown, or Kelantan's Batik workshops.

He also visited Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, where he met with local students.

Resumption of visits

This is one of the most substantial visits by a Singaporean politician to the two states, prominent strongholds of Pariti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS), in recent years.

Malaysia-Singapore visits are particularly dense at the moment, likely due to the resumption of face-to-face diplomacy as the Covid-19 pandemic ends.

This year alone has seen Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim visit in January, as well as numerous visits by his cabinet ministers, such as Transport Minister Anthony Loke, and Investment, Trade, and Industry Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz.

During Anwar's visit, he had also advocated for Singapore to expand its cooperation with Malaysian states.

Singapore has engaged in reciprocal visits, such as President Halimah Yacob making her first official state visit to Malaysia, after the Malaysian Agong visited Singapore in October 2022.

There have been ministerial level visits as well to individual Malaysian states.

Maliki's visit is one example, as is Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan paying an official visit to the Sultan of Johor in March.

Six states

The visit also comes in the runup to a series of six state elections that are due to take place this year, which include Kelantan and Terengganu, but also include the Pakatan Harapan-held states of Penang and Selangor.

The current Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, is from the Pakatan Harapan coalition. The states of Kedah (under PN) and Negri Sembilan (under PH) are also holding elections.

Some analysts are confident that PN will not face significant challenges in the states of Kelantan, Terengganu, and Kedah.

This includes former Malaysian Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, who while at a conference in Singapore, highlighted the rocky road ahead in state elections for the governing PH-BN alliance.

Penang and Selangor, held by PH since 2008, now face strong challenges as from PN as well.

But recent polling surfaced by Malaysia analyst James Chin seemed to indicate that Anwar's government may have turned a corner, with over two-thirds believing the country was on the right track since the 2022 General Election.

If this is true, then the "green wave" is over ...
But polling in Malaysia is notoriously difficult ...
click here for details:https://t.co/KKOtTyGvTI pic.twitter.com/umupoigOda

— James Chin (@jameschin110) April 19, 2023

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Top image via Maliki Osman/Facebook