PARTY ACTIVISTS AND PARTY PROGRAMS AT GRASSROOTS LEVEL: THE INTERTWINED EFFECT

Purpose of the study: This study explored how party activists retain their high activism with the party through their involvement with party activities. It also attempted to explore party programs at the grassroots level that helps maintain continuous grassroots support for the party. The strong symbiosis between party activists and party programs at the grassroots level was a secret formula to win elections. Methodology: Being qualitative in nature, this study conducted in-depth interviews with thirty two party activists. The PAS and UMNO party activists in Terengganu were selected as units of analysis using the purposive sampling technique. The interview data were thematically analysed through the content analysis method. Main Findings: This study yielded that Community and Welfare programs, and Electoral Works were two impactful party programs to fish votes and maintain voters’ support at the grassroots level. On party efforts to maintain the motivation of its activists, this study found four main party programs namely internal programs, political training, involvement outside party, and joining special programs. Applications of this study: This study concludes that ensuring party activists at their highest level of motivation by designing various programs are equally important with organizing party programs with the voters at local levels. When party activists are highly motivated, party programs at local levels would be successfully run, while organizing party programs at the local level without the presence of highly motivated party activists would be worthless. Novelty/Originality of this study: Party activists are often neglected by party leaders, as much focus has been given to party manifesto, choosing winnable candidates, and encountering electoral issues. Neglecting party activists often leads to frustration, thus party programs cannot be properly organized without committed party activists.


INTRODUCTION
Party programs are a lifeline to political parties. They help boost the political legitimacy of the party by showing that the party is rooted in the concerns of the people and instil the profound understanding among the locals that the party exists and functions in the area (Cross, 2016). Meanwhile, party activists that organize party programs consist of loyal, committed, and faithful party members (Blake, Carty, & Erickson, 1991). Party programs and party activists perform a strong symbiosis. Literatures alarmed political parties that planned party programs would be a vain attempt when committed party activists are absent. Eventually, good government policies would not be able to reach the ground when party activists at the local level are motivationally weak and party programs are structurally unorganized (Fisher, Cutts, Fieldhouse, & Rottweiler, 2017;Junaidi, 2017;Malike, Mohd Fo'ad, & Musliza, 2013). Political parties appear to survive by higher activity levels among the members and activists (Spier, 2013), and party strength is measured by its activists' capacity to undertake a fixed menu of local party programs (Low, 2014).
As evidence, the decline in members' levels of activism in the British Labour Party in 1999 was 11 percent, Conservative Party declined by 17 percent, and Liberal Democrats declined by 26 percent (Seyd & Whiteley, 2004;Whiteley, 2009). Another intercontinental study using cross-sectional data was conducted on 36 democracies, where similar declines in membership and activism were recorded (Whiteley, 2002). Yet, political parties are fortunate because they appear to survive despite losing so many members because it is compensated by highintensity level of political activities among the remaining members and activists (Spier, 2013), and party strength is measured by its activists' capacity to undertake a fixed menu of local tasks (Low, 2014). The General Incentives model argues that one of the solutions to the decreasing number of party activists is by incentivizing them with selective process incentives. They are the satisfaction of affirming a partisan preference. It is a result of members being entrusted with various tasks on the ground in helping the party gain victory (Whiteley & Seyd, 2002). The feeling of enjoyment over-involvement in political activities is felt when they meet like-minded friends and politicians, engage in interesting political and intellectual discussions, join meetings and circles, become party delegates, and organize party programs, as platforms for them to meet political figures and ordinary voters. They produce the feelings of belongingness and friendship, mould their political identity, and increase their self-esteem and probably selfactualization (Riker & Ordeshook (1968), Whiteley, Seyd, & Billinghurst, (2006) ;Granik, (2005)).

METHODOLOGY
This qualitative study adopts an in-depth face-to-face interview. The informants were recruited based on a purposive sampling method, in which a deliberate choice of informants was due to the qualities the informants possessed. The researcher browsed 'UMNO Terengganu' and 'PAS Terengganu' official Facebook accounts to trace potential party activists, and approached the members who were active and constant in giving comments and 'likes' over party posts, photos and posting their pictures of joining various party programmes. This technique was more practical and convenient as wider coverage of potential party activists could be reached due to unrestricted access to their social profiles. Private messages were sent to more than 200 potential informants, and upon their responses, they were briefed about the nature of the research.
Of forty -five responses from potential informants, only thirtytwo of them fit to proceed with the interview. They included nineteen male party activists and thirteen female party activists, ranging from 23 years old until 72 years old, representing two Malay political parties in Terengganu, Malaysia. The interviews were guided by an interview guide to ensure all interviews cover the same range of topics and all significant points were asked. It was prepared based on the research questions of the study, with heavy references to the interview guides and survey questions of a number of researches on social and political activism, including Cammett, (2011); Gallagher et al., (2002); Ribeiro, (2014); Whiteley & Seyd, (2002), and Weber, (2016). A pilot interview was conducted with a close friend who was an UMNO party activist to find any loophole in the interview guide and to familiarize the researcher with the interview. The questions mainly touched on: • Informants' daily, and weekly partyrelated activities as party activists.
• Informants roles/ positions in the party, and how do they perceive those roles.
• Informants experiences when the election is near.
• How those party activities help parties garner votes.
• Informants' feelings and contentment of being heavily involved with political activities.
The interviews were in fact not really confined to the questions in the interview guide. As the interview progressed, more subject matters were explored, allowing the researcher to undertake new areas of inquiry that were not originally included in the interview guide. All but three informants agreed that the interviews would be audio-recorded. On the issue of the confidentiality of the informants when reporting the data, only six of them agreed to be publicly traceable. Saunders, Kitzinger, & Kitzinger, (2015) identified that people's names, places, religious or cultural backgrounds, occupations/positions, and family relationships are among the factors related to the issue of anonymity. In the context of this research, compromises had been made between the researcher and the informants, in that their names and party branches would be treated anonymously, as they did not want their circle of political party friends and relatives to be aware that they had been involved in the interviews.

The Unit of Analysis
Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) and United Malay National Organization (UMNO) are two traditional rivals in a predominantly Malay state of Terengganu. As the names suggested, PAS is an Islamicbased political party while UMNO is an ultra-nationalist and conservative Malay political party. These political parties, with the Terengganu setting, were selected as a case study because political trends and electoral outcomes in this state is the most difficult to gauge compared to other Malay-belt states in Malaysia like Kelantan and Perlis (Shaharuddin & Mujibu, 2013). The first General Election in Terengganu in 1959 after the independence of Malaya was won by PAS. However, due to several internal and external factors such as defamation and sabotages, PAS was ousted. UMNO became a new ruling government, which was prospered and strengthened by the discovery of offshore oil in Terengganu. After 37 years of ruling the state, the party lost to PAS in the 1999 general election. PAS, unfortunately, could only rule the state for one term, after being defeated by UMNO again in 2004. Interestingly, even though UMNO has been ruling the state for more than three decades, the presence of PAS was ultimately significant as they always won an average of 40% of popular votes. Parallel with the national trends, UMNO Terengganu lost its two-thirds majority in the 2013 General Election and became opposition when PAS recaptured the state in the 2018 General Election with the huge mandate ( Even though there is a huge difference in terms of the numbers of registered members between UMNO and PAS in Terengganu, the arena of political contestation and politicization in the state is extremely critical, which elevates the high-intensity political activism among party activists from both parties. Their enthusiasm is not shaken despite fractions in Pakatan Rakyat 2 , and leadership and internal crises involving UMNO Terengganu 3 . Their loyalty was tested when a few UMNO leaders in Terengganu left the party due to the party's internal conflict, and a group of PAS party stalwarts formed a new political party when PAS was fractionated into two camps. Despite these significant political events, the development of political party activism in the state has not received much scholarly attention. A handful of available works on Terengganu politics unleashed a flurry of analyses of who voted how, why, and with what significance for the polity Yet, little is known about party activists and their works, especially at the grassroots level.

Data Analysis
In order to ensure systematic and transparent procedures during data processing, to clarify unclear points, to avoid bias, erroneous interpretations, and personal judgments, and to establish credibility, the research data are analysed following the six steps underlined by Ritchie, Spencer, & O'Connor, (2003). The first step was to transcribing the interview transcripts into a written text. The transcripts were then manually labelled based on main themes and codes, with heavy © Ghapar and Razali references on six classifications of highintensity political activities underlined by (Whiteley & Seyd, 2002). The codes were continuously 'define', 'refine' and 'revise' during the coding process. New codes were created when new themes emerged, and codes deemed no longer useful were deleted or merged with other codes. Identifying the essence of what each theme was about and by determining what aspect the theme captured was the most fundamental task in a qualitative research and the process was the most tedious and laborious for this study. The next step was to validate the coding scheme, by checking the coding consistency based on the researcher's understanding of the themes. The fifth step was the most critical step. Its success relied almost wholly on the researcher's reasoning abilities. This step involved making sense of the themes or categories identified, making inferences, and presenting the researcher's reconstructions of meanings derived from the data, exploring the properties and dimensions of themes, identifying relationships between themes, uncovering patterns, testing themes against the full range of data, and crossing-referencing case analysis to discover similarities and differences between participants. Lastly, the research findings were presented.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
As the aims of this study are to explore party programs at local levels that help the party retain grassroots supports and to provide the analysis of forms of party programs that could help boost the motivations of party activists to maintain their activism with the respective political party, the results are organized according to two main themes identified: Party activities at the local level, and Party programs to boost the motivation of party activists.

Party Activities at Local Level
There are two sub-themes discovered under the theme of party programs at the local level namely Welfare and Community Programs, and Electoral Works. Table 1 illustrates the two main themes and respective sub-themes that emerged from the data.

Welfare and Community Programs
Community activities are vital as they are the ways of linking and connecting political parties with the community. People vote for a particular political party with elevated expectations that their daily problems are heard and not being selfishly sought after only when elections are around. Such community involvement is likely to reinforce their effectiveness as local campaigners on behalf of their party. As the closest party agent with the people at the grassroots, they seem to try extremely hard to please the people, or at least give hope that their problems would be further considered. Maintaining good rapport with the masses is crucial in the context of Malay politics, as their main measurement to party's key performance indicator is mainly based on their promptness to be present when people face problems, and the frequencies of visits made by the elected representatives and their entourages, not on their articulation in the legislative assembly (Junaidi, 2017; Malike, Mohd Fo'ad, & Musliza, 2013).
The social and economic settings in Terengganu that highly dependence with government subsidies and aids have led the community programs organized by UMNO and PAS to share a similar pattern, in which the only glaring difference is UMNO won the race as they are the ruling party with strong financial capacity, manpower, access to various government agencies and allocations. As elections are held every five years, frequent and consistent welfare programmes are vital throughout the duration to win the hearts of voters. The party with the most visible presence whenever voters are in need becomes the most preferable to be considered a vote in an election. The interviews yielded that the welfare and community programs are divided into planned and ad-hoc activities. The planned programs are divided into periodic namely daily, weekly, monthly and seasonally. Daily programs involve party programs that are held in different branches that equal to the number of villages. UMNO, for instance, has 1,058 branches that equal to 1,058 villages in the state. It is expected that when the election is approaching, all branches/villages will be visited by party activists. The tentative of the visit includes house-to-house visits especially visiting the sick, the poor, and widows accompanied by the respective village heads. Prior to the visits, the party representative from the village would screen the selected houses to be visited. The visits also usually accompanied by a doctor to perform simple diagnoses like checking up blood pressure, and level of sugar, while party activists brought goods and money. UMNO visits are extravagant as they receive various allocations from offices of Members of Parliament and State Assemblymen, Tabung Darul Iman, corporates, party headquarters and government allocations for the poor and disabled. The visit usually ends at noon.
Apart from field visits, other daily programs include sending patients to the hospital by party service centre van, sending the deceased to the grave and distribution of free meals (lunch/dinner). The party service centre is open daily 8 am -5 pm that provides services like paying utility bills, forms to apply government aids, the signature of confirmation, and instant goods like rice, Maggi and eggs. The informant mentioned: It is the routine of our team in Kuala Terengganu to offer free basic medical check-up. We bring along the doctors and visit different UPU every day. Other than that, we provide 250 packs of free lunches to the local community on the street. People also can come to our service centre that we always try to solve their problems like rice runs out (Informant 1: PAS).
Meanwhile, the weekly welfare and community programs include recitation of Yaseen (the Chapter of the Quran) on a rotation basis that is held on a villager's house, attended by female villagers. The session, joined by 20 -30 participants, ends up with short tazkirah (religious advice) by an appointed ustazah (religious teacher) and light meals. The Muslimat PAS -Yaseen session is attended by PAS women only, held at member's house or PASoperated surau (small prayer premise). None of UMNO women attends the session even if it is held beside their houses. Similarly, the UMNO women's Yaseen recitation is attended by UMNOfriendly women supporters only and recipients of government aids. The political race over whose championing Islam in order to appeal to the Malay-Muslim voters has led severe disunity in a community, even a small Yaseen recitation in a village is divided based on party ideology. Other than that, there are frequent meetings between UMNO party activists and Village Community leaders (JKKK) discussing community matters and the progress of planned welfare and community programs. Simultaneously, the majority of the village community leaders are also UMNO committee members and party activists at the branch level. In most state constituencies, there are free sewing and baking classes held at the training room beside the UMNO operation centre.
In addition, there are seasonal programs in conjunction with special seasons such as the distribution of school uniforms and bicycle, hair cutting and circumcisions for boys before the new school term opens, breaking fast in the month of Ramadan together with the Assemblymen which is held almost every night in a different branch, celebrations of Hari Raya at a different branch, celebration of Islamic days like cooking Asyura porridge and Prophet Muhammad birthday, the celebration of Independence Day and National Sports Day. The informants mentioned: The race between party activists to be the first to arrive has greatly benefited the people. There are times where people receive double aids, that they become a place to dump aids from various political parties. These devised welfare programmes and social services that are to build close informal linkage with targeted communities and expand the support to the party (Hamayotsu, 2015; Malike et al., 2013) always negatively receive normative assumption that these helps are politically insincere, as parties want to keep the community dependent on their political patrons for survival, thus exposing them to exploitation and coercion (Karim, 2001;Scott, 1986). Hamayotsu (2015) argued that this is not detrimental to the interests of underprivileged voters as these welfare and social services given to the people could improve their conditions and well-being.
Contrary to UMNO that is popular with welfare programmes by handing cash and goods, the interview data yielded that PAS extends its welfare services and touches the hearts of the voters mostly through religious activities. Apart from weekly Yaseen recitation, their Islamic credential is most sought by the people. PAS activists are often invited to religious programmes like leading the funeral prayer, congregational prayers, perform slaughtering of animals during qurban and giving short tazkirah after Maghrib prayer. They are also the person-in-charge for Tabung Khairat Kematian, a volunteer fund to ease the process of the deceased. There is a popular proverb among Terengganu folks that if one has worldly problems, they can find UMNO. When it involves rituals and religious matters, find PAS people. Even though these gestures seem simple and small, they do leave an enormous impact to the Malay-Muslim folks. This has forced UMNO to focus on religious activities too by conducting similar Yaseen recitation, and brought the Assemblyman himself to deliver a short tazkirah after Maghrib prayer. Unfortunately, the redundancies between PAS and UMNO religious programmes have defeated the purpose when they are attended by party supporters only.

Electoral Work
The main objective of all political parties is to win elections. Of all components of the political party, party activists at grassroots level are the backbones, as they provide information from the ground. The electoral work at the grassroots level that specifically planned to appeal for votes, according to the data, is divided into three sub-themes namely before the election, campaign period, and on Election Day. Electoral programmes that specifically focus on fish votes have been scheduled a year before the Parliament is speculated to be dissolved. The parties' main focus is definitely on welfare programmes that are perpetual, and would be doubled up on election year. Visiting the sick, attending wedding feasts and hand-outs giving ceremonies are the most common meet-and-greet gestures by political parties that are significant in fishing votes during a critical period before election commenced, with UMNO obviously has a wider edge. As the line between ruling government and ruling party is hazy, UMNO as a ruling party receives political mileage when constituents regard the government's welfare and financial assistance as coming from UMNO. Apart from perpetual welfare programs, surveillance of voters' data and preferences is the most significant and intense. The simulation, that was held in every parliamentary seat, is important to forecast the election results, predict how many voters would swing to other parties compared to the last general election, and identify the weakness and strength of the party. It also helps party activists to double up their campaign efforts, and identify unfamiliar names in the electoral rolls. As party activists know each and every voter in their constituency, any unfamiliar names would be scrutinized to know their status. Suspicious names would be brought up for objection. This tedious process requires full commitment from party activists as each objection costs RM10. UMNO's most efficient teams, Jalinan Rakyat, Skuad Sayang, and Salam Sayang apply an elaborate surveillance system through which every ten village households are monitored by a local woman activist (Case, 2001). The leader of each team knows in detail all information about the family and she would ensure the families and their households under her guardianship would vote for UMNO by all means.
The surveillance project ends with election simulation that provides the ability to understand and discuss the intricacies of electoral systems may be in part a result of the different ways the characteristics of systems were presented to party activists (Whiteley, 2009). The party activists pretended they were on election period, where they went from house to house for the campaign, canvassed votes to predict the individual preference of every voter, marked white, grey, or black marks on every house they visited, and counter the issues raised by the opponents. They mentioned: In order to ensure all voters get a personal touch with the candidate within a short period of time, party activists would usher the candidate to meet the locals at eateries, mosques, markets and visit their houses. They also arranged the most crucial small group gatherings with voters that allowed the candidate to ask for final appeal.
On Election Day, party activists mobilized the voters by driving them off to polling stations and sending them home together with a lunch pack, cooked by women party activists in the morning. This was to increase the number of turnouts, and the opportunities to be together on the van were fully utilized to ask for final appeal as there were still undecided voters who had yet to finalize the party to vote for. The informants also shared that the very final vote appeal happened in front of the polling station even though the election laws disallow any campaign in a radius of 50 meters from the polling station. Of the catchy phrases that caught the attention of the voters were "keluar Barisan, masuk Bulatan/ Exit Barisan Nasional (queue), enter PAS (circle)" and "Timbang dengan Dacing/ weight with double-pan balance scale (a Barisan Nasional symbol)".

Party Programs to Boost Motivation of the Party Activists
Political activism is definitely costly, that costs party activists their time, effort, and financial expense. It is publicly perceived that being a party worker is a platform to gain material rewards and career advancement. Consequently, parties will see massive outflows of unfaithful members when they no longer receive material gains (Poletti et al., 2018;Teske, 1997& Wagner, (2016 or when the performance of the party is deteriorated. However, literature shows that incentivizing party activists with selective process incentives are more contented, and ensure the motivations of party activists remain constant despite the fluctuate performance of the party. Costantini & Valenty, (1996) ;Fiorina, (2002) & found that the more party activists are driven by a desire to strive for the future of the party, the more tendency Whiteley, Seyd, & Billinghurst, (2006)y they have to become party loyalist. One of the selective process incentives to maintain party activists' motivation is party programs, that are specifically designed to nurture the feeling among party activists that they are significant, valued and honoured. The interview data yielded that the party activities that retain the party activists' momentum are internal party programs, internal training, involvement outside party activities, and special programs (See Table 2).

Internal Programs
Internal party activities are frequent party activities that gather party activists in a small and localized form, and not accessible to ordinary members and voters in general. These activities aim to rejuvenate the spirit amongst party members so that the missionary and propaganda activities of the party could be intensified even further. The data yielded that the informants are frequent to three internal party programmes, designed exclusively for the activists of the party only, namely tarbiyyah (education), party meetings, and party annual general meetings.
Tarbiyyah programs were intended to bring PAS members together and encourage them to understand, develop, and propagate the ideology of the party (Farish, 2003). The PAS Tarbiyah programmes consist of usrah (study circles) that is held twice a month, liqa' fikri (intellectual discussions and gatherings), mukhayyam tarbawi (Islamic training camps), and rehlah (excursions). These programs are led by the naqib (group leader), guided by a Manhaj Usrah syllabus that includes tafsir (explaining) the Quran, review of the books written by renowned Islamic scholars, and the discussion of current political issues in the country and the world. As an Islamic party, it is understood that Islamic syllabus becomes an additional component to a party's internal training. The impacts of consistently attending those tarbiyah programmes are essential in increasing informants' understanding of party struggle, strengthening their political identity and loyalty to the party, comprehending that party works are equal to work on Allah's way and improving their knowledge of Islam. Party meetings are coded under internal programs of the party because they are a closedoor discussion that is not open to non-members. Attending meetings is time costly and it is usually held frequently, if not weekly, to discuss arising matters relating to the party (Whiteley & Seyd, 1996). Usually, they are held at night, as most of the meeting members are free at night. More frequent meetings are held when there are events to be conducted or when the election is near.
Meetings are basically in a formal form, but the situation was quite informal. We are joking and mocking each other. Usually, it is held at party operation centre. Near election times, meetings are held days and nights. We have monthly meetings, the Chairman chairs the meeting, the secretary keeps the agenda, takes the minutes, and checks the minutes.
There are many things we discuss…regarding party matters, current issues, financial, and manpower. (Informant #29: UMNO).
In the context of an inter-party relationship, party meetings tied the camaraderie between party activists tighter as time spent on party meetings is longer. Their closeness is a great factor to ensure that all planned party programmes could be held successfully. In addition, the opportunities to raise up issues, or contribute opinions over party matters by which they are accepted by meeting members produced a feeling of being honoured and significant. Joining meetings convey a message that someone is busy and valuable, the feeling that motivates party activists to attend lengthy meetings. Interestingly, all women informants mentioned that meetings at nights and sacrificing weekends do not slow down their activism, despite the argument that attending meetings that lasted until midnight might not be proper for women activists (Verba et al., (1993 The last activity coded under the theme internal program is the party annual general meeting (AGM). The UMNO's AGM, Perhimpunan Agung UMNO, and PAS' AGM, Muktamar Tahunan PAS, are not merely a ritual in fulfilling the requirements of the party's calendar. Rather, it is a great resolve to implement the process of reflection and rejuvenation by rectifying weaknesses, strengthening the party machinery, enriching the direction of the organization, and thus ensuring the survival of the fold. At the local level, each UMNO branch elects for ten representatives to represent the Division at the party AGM. Similarly, 196 PAS divisions send approximately 1,300 delegates to Muktamar and these delegates elect party top posts every three years. Half of the informants mentioned that they have become party delegates representing their divisions, while others never being selected as delegates since they are party activists at grassroots levels and that their power and positions are up to local branches only. Nonetheless, they never missed the party AGM, by becoming mere observers. Attending AGM, either as delegates or observers, was always meaningful because being in the ocean of party activists, wearing the same colour of party uniforms, meeting the fellow activists that share the same enthusiasm, chit-chatting with party leaders, singing party's anthem and directly listening to leaders' speeches are treasurable and momentous.
knowledge, confidence, and skills. All informants became a PACABA (Polling, Counting and Barung agent) on Election Day, therefore, they had to attend a short course organized by the Suruhanjaya Pilihanraya (Election Commission). The SPR also organized the election simulation exercise for party activists on how the election processes take place. They also had to attend briefings organized by local police officers on how to heighten security during elections. Yet, all informants mentioned that the most crucial training is the election simulation. The party activists also went ahead with checking and scrutinizing the electoral rolls that are equally important to election simulation. The party would spend RM10 for each objection on suspicious names. Strong suspicions that tampering with Terengganu's electoral roll contributed to PAS' defeat in the 2004 election (Teik, 2014), was always being the alarm for PAS party activists.
Despite training related to the running of electoral works, party activists also sent for tamrin (retreats). Party retreat, usually a weekend powwow is to chart strategies for the party and an action plan for the next general election. It could be an opportunity to deploy political tactics to coax dissenting members, finalize their team line-up, read into their competitor's move and brainstorm party strategies to win the next election. Held twice a year, the retreats, regarded as vitamins to party activists, also hold to solve internal party disputes between different camps and to forge closer relationships between party activists through various activities such as group discussion, motivational talks, congregational prayers and retreat resolutions.

Involvement outside Political Party
For a party which is so communityfocused like UMNO and PAS, some of its activists are likely to be local notables, who serve in prominent positions in non-political organizations (NGOs), civil society, and quasi-political organizations; among others the activists' union (Persatuan Veteran ATM), youth associations (Majlis Belia Malaysia and Belia 4B), welfare groups for women (Kelab Ibu Tunggal), children, and the disabled (Persatuan Anak Permata Syurga Terengganu), sports-based associations (Bukit Berangan FC), school alumni, and neighbourhood associations. Their affiliations with these organizations could give positive impacts to the party, as the party could spread its wings and penetrate into these organizations. Personally, holding such public offices is another way of becoming locally prominent, which definitely can give them electoral advantages when it comes to running for office. This is congruent with the findings from scholars like Whiteley and Seyd (2002), Klein, (2006), and Spier, (2015) that the political party activists are locally well-known individuals. This research found that UMNO activists are relatively busier and more demanding compared to their PAS counterparts, as they are from the ruling government. They look more resourceful and influential, and this would facilitate them in their party works and allow them to climb party ladders.
Their positions in those governmentsrelated NGOs gave them wide access to various government programmes, community programmes, and government offices, that made them look significant and important, hence becoming the most sought after by the people. This widespread political interference in administrative decisions and the politicization of bureaucratic decision making has greatly helped UMNO, through its party activists, tighten its domination of the Malay voters. The practice of patronage politics has moulded the people's perception that under the recommendation by UMNO activists, their problems can be heard, and applications can be accepted (Crouch, 1996;Mahadzir, 1980;Scott, 1986;Shamsul Amri, 1983).
PAS informants are also active outside political parties, but not as extensive as their UMNO counterparts because they are not the party in power. All PAS male informants except one are active with the party action unit called Unit Amal that serves as a voluntary uniformed team consisting mainly of PAS youth. The objective of the establishment of the Unit Amal focuses on voluntary and charitable activities, and is commonly well known for their roles in maintaining stability and security during major ceramah and public events, such as the BERSIH rallies, nomination days, campaigning days, and on the Election Day itself, and supervising polling centres by weeding out the 'phantom voter' phenomenon (Liow, 2011;Weng & Maszlee, 2016). They are also among the first to arrive at disaster areas, such as flood, and landslides. Even though they are unpaid, they mentioned the ultimate satisfaction of being the altruists and mini ambassador to the party.

Special Programs
Maintaining party activists' momentum by working on the grounds alone is inadequate to keep them motivated. Therefore, special party events like mega carnivals, large-scale street demonstrations, and mass political gatherings are held to gather party activists and keep their momentum up. Study shows that larger political protests can both strengthen the party and help advance the political and policy agenda of the party ( platform for them to release anger and loathsomeness towards the government. The opportunities to shout, to dodge tear gas, and to meet like-minded friends are self-fulfilling rewards that non-demonstrators would never understand. Even though they were threatened by the ruling government for breaching the country's laws, they felt proud in displaying support by wearing demonstration-related t-shirts and uploading their participation without fear on social media Unlike PAS, UMNO does not rejuvenate its activists in the form of street rallies and demonstrations, because those actions signify their disagreement with their own government policies. This will just reinforce the arguments brought by the Opposition and be a major credit to them. Yet, its party activists are relatively occupied with various mega official state programmes, that always indirectly turned into party programmes. The latest state mega carnival, the 8days Terengganu Expo "Molek Doh", initially organized to display the success stories of the state government in the fields of education, business, sports, and social welfare, was turned into a celebration of UMNO's success in ruling the state. Hence, the frequency of having party programmes on a big scale is not as significant as PAS. Nonetheless, most of the UMNO informants participated at the Himpunan Sambutan 71 Tahun UMNO at Stadium Bukit Jalil on May 2017, a special gathering to boost members' motivations before the 14 th election due to the political sentiments at that time that was not favourable to UMNO.

CONCLUSION
Winning elections are not solely depending on the election manifesto, current issues, and winnable candidates. This study has suggested that only the combination of strong and highly motivated party activists and structured and wellplanned party programs at local levels as the best formula for political parties to remain strong and win elections. These two main premises suit the socially and economically distant Terengganu that are strongly surrounded by subsidy minded voters that depend heavily on subsidies and aids. Taking the situation prior to the 2018 election, PAS, as the opposition, had a high spirited team yet lacked allocations and access to government agencies, while UMNO as the ruling party had a strong team, with wide access to various government channels yet lost traction after abandoning personal touch with the voters. Meanwhile, the current situation in the state witnesses how Parti Amanah Negara as a ruling government offers good policies and programs, yet unable to reach the voters due to a lack of highly motivated party activists.

LIMITATION AND STUDY FORWARD
The discussions of the study did not put into consideration the demographic profiles of the informants namely gender, rural-urban locality, economic status, educational background, marital status, and the length of being party activists. Therefore, future studies on political party activists could specifically consider these demographic factors.