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Mein Kampf - Malaysian Style

On reading the recent emotional ranting of the architect of modern Malaysia (a person whom I admire for his tenacity, determination and foresight in managing issues), I could not help but detect certain strands and themes that seem to parallel the infamous Fuehrer. Mein Kampf (My Struggle) by Adolf Hitler was spoken by Hitler and written by Rudolf Hess while Hitler was in prison in 1925. This book crystallized Hitler's thoughts and became the blueprint which the National Socialist Party (Nazi) would use to gain power. Although Austrian by birth, he championed German Supremacy, i.e., the idea that Germans are a superior race, and was accepted by the Germans as one of them (as Austria is a Germanic nation). Hitler kicked out a corrupt government, brought Germany out of recession and reignited the pride of the German people of that time, the 1930s. We should remember that Volkswagen and the Autobahn are his legacies, among others. He carried out his plans per his writings in Mein Kampf, mesmerizing the people with simplistic rhetoric and inspirational tones on grand stage sets. The Malay Dilemma was written by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad in 1970, after he lost his seat in parliament and after the May 13, 1969 riots. This book crystallized his thoughts and became his blueprint in running the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) and the country. The book's basic message was that the Malay race was a gentle and a laid-back race, taken advantage of by foreign arrivals. To overcome that, the Malays had to aspire to develop themselves and be the dominant force in the country through state support. Although of Indian Muslim heritage, he is classified as Malay, and the Malaysian constitution recognizes him as a Malay, as being a Muslim and practicing Malay customs are defined as being Malay. The other native races are not defined as Malays but instead are labeled as Aborigines (Orang Asli/Pribumi), even though they could be Muslim and practicing Malay customs. Mahathir became Prime Minister in 1981 (resigned in 2003), and he went on to eliminate the power of the Royals in parliament. He fanned the flames of Malay supremacy (Ketuanan Melayu) and continues to do so right up to this very day. His legacies are Proton (Malaysian national car maker), the North South Expressways and the Petronas Twin Towers among others. His greatest success was overcoming the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 by implementing radical measures such as capital and exchange controls. However, the greatest criticism of his tenure as PM was the nullification of the separation of powers on which a democratic state is based on, making the Judiciary report into the Government. During his tenure, the perception grew that the Royal Malaysian Police and the Anti Corruption Agency were his personal tools, and this perception gained mass acceptance after the arrest and brutal beating of the then Deputy Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, while in the custody of the police. Mahathir could influence an audience with his simple down to earth banter. Unlike Hitler however, he could not do it wholesale to the entire nation as the nation was fragmented into camps that had little common ground. So it was divide and rule. One message for the Malays was that the Chinese would grab all the wealth and the Malays becoming a subjugated race, pointing to Singapore as an example of lost Malay territory. For the Chinese and Indians, it was to fear conservative Islam in the form of PAS, painted by the mass media as a Taliban like Islamic party. And so he ruled merrily until he stepped down in 2003. It should be noted that his successor won more than 70% of the popular vote in the general election that followed his departure, indicating the euphoria the nation had of finally getting him out after 22 years in office and the expectation of reforms post-Mahathir. Back to Hitler. Hitler said in Mein Kampf that the masses find it difficult to understand politics, their intelligence being small. Therefore all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points. The masses will only remember only the simplest ideas repeated a thousand times over. "If I approach the masses with reasoned arguments, they will not understand me. In the mass meeting, their reasoning power is paralyzed. What I say is like an order given under hypnosis." In Mein Kampf, the whole state organization of education and training is to instill into the hearts and brains of the youth entrusted to it the racial instinct and understanding of the racial idea. Hitler needed a fall guy and so he pointed to the Jews as being responsible for all the evils befalling the Germans. Hitler alleged that the Jews had been responsible for losing the First World War. Hitler believed that the Jews were involved with Communists in a joint conspiracy to take over the world. Hitler claimed that 75% of all Communists were Jews. Hitler ranted that Jews, who were a minority in Germany, were slowly taking over the country. They were doing this by controlling political parties, many of the leading companies and several of the country's newspapers. The fact that Jews had achieved prominent positions in a democratic society was, according to Hitler, an argument against democracy and the need for state control. This warped thinking of Hitler won over many adherents through his rhetoric and stagecraft especially from the dispossessed and fearful. A similar warped logic runs through Mahathir's articulation that the Chinese were becoming the masters of Malaysia. This tune was sung a long time ago, penned into the Malay Dilemma. And like Hitler postulated, this message is kept simple and it is repeated a thousand times and drummed into the heads of the populace. Doing thus, Mahathir's original intentions in the Malay Dilemma have now spun out of control into state sanctioned racial discrimination and further develop into utter corruption of the institutions of the state. An affirmative action program called the National Economic Policy (NEP) was created in the early 70s (and was to end in 1990) to facilitate Malay participation in the economy where licenses and funding were provided by taxpayers. However this was hijacked by opportunists and cronies and this NEP is now institutionalized as a right and a privilege for the Malays. Thus a two tiered citizenry has emerged with the privileged citizens and normal citizens. The privileged citizens are guaranteed special rights over non-Malays in access to various facilities such as scholarships, education and licenses. Education and the mass media are hijacked to the extant that the population learns only what the political masters want them to know. As Hitler desired in Germany, so in Malaysia race predominates all activity; from eating, shopping for food, education, work, filling forms and access to opportunities. The population is tuned to think along racial lines, to better support the racial parties that form the ruling alliance. Mother tongue education is bandied about as the key to retaining a person's culture, heritage, intelligence and religion and is the most often used sword, slashing away at the people, separating them into nice little pockets of Malay, Chinese and Indian voters. Today, even most opposition politicians fall into this trap, with politicians from the affected race championing pig abattoirs and saving Indian villages. Kristallnacht and Operation Lalang were used in Nazi Germany and today's Malaysia respectively to capture dissidents. The Gestapo, Brownshirts (Nazi Youth) and the Police were used to coerce, intimidate and control the population in Nazi Germany. In today's Malaysia, the Police, the MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission), the FRU (Federal Reserve Unit, a riot squad) and the ISA (Internal Security Act) are used to intimidate and detain citizens (rabid, rabble, reporters, aides etc.) for the better good of the nation. In short, racial dominance and apartheid, fear of another race dominating, formatting the citizens mindsets through education and the mass media, and bringing in the goodies through a successful economy are the common themes of Nazi Germany and today's Malaysia. The concept of the individual is utterly lacking in this country, save for a handful of thinking citizens. http://www.thoughts.com/rottenegg/blog/mein-kampf-malaysian-style--342746/