“The point of modern propaganda isn't only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.”

― Garry Kasparov, Russian chess grandmaster

COMMENT | So, this spin maestro (a long-time friend) aligned with Bersatu took me to task for referring to Bersatu members as “Najib refuseniks”. 

“Can’t you people (“you” people?) understand that he is trying to save the country,” he went on. I cautioned him that when a propagandist starts believing his own propaganda, he should quit the business but we have been friends for many years and he did raise some interesting issues that I am always willing to discuss.

People got all hot and bothered when Negeri Sembilan Menteri Besar Mohamad Hasan told youths to take physical action against those who slander BN but forget when rowdy Bersatu members disrupted a Pakatan Harapan Negeri Sembilan convention after they got butthurt over “being allocated the least number of state seats among the four component parties.” Talk about your Umno DNA.

I asked this friend, would he prefer it if I referred to Bersatu as the Malay vanguard because that is the perception that the party is attempting to generate.

Bersatu leader Mohd Rafiq Naizamohideen attempts to do just that when he waxes lyrical about what the old Umno stood for and how young leaders shaped the direction of the party.

What he leaves out is that the hegemon nurtured young talent through a system of patronage, grooming young men and women to whisper the poisoned words of old grey-haired men to a polity racked with religious and class divisions.

I know people in the #UndiRosak crowd, NGOs and outlier political and social activists whom I could make the case that they are the Malay vanguard but unfortunately, I cannot say the same for Bersatu. 

This, of course, has nothing to do with the demographic that Bersatu needs to win Putrajaya.

Mukhriz Mahathir really should not feel bad about playing the race card. After all, that is the function of Bersatu in Harapan in its quest to oust Najib, isn’t it? The race card, unfortunately, is more than just a diversionary tactic.

It’s what sustains the Umno hegemon and any party which chooses to replace it. So potent is this card that anyone wishing political power in this country has to use it - or so conventional political wisdom goes.

Political analyst Kamarul Zaman Yusoff had to remind people that he did not wet himself when he met the old maverick but he is a construct of Mahathir and Umno politics, which truth be told is not mutually exclusive.

Maybe he should have wet himself a little when he met his maker. Kamarul, after all, is a child of what the Mahathir era wrought. All of Umno is. Everyone who supports Umno, including those who vote for them, is. They are all Mahathir’s children.

The sacred cows

And people like Kamarul are ungrateful. In fact, the whole of Umno is ungrateful. The non-Malays can point to the old maverick and claim that he is all that is wrong with the country but for your average Malay (who in some cases have votes that carry more weight), they owe it all to the old maverick.

Mahathir gave them everything. He taught them how to think, how to maintain power, how to use legislation to curb dissent.

Folks may complain about the Election Commission (EC) delineation chicanery but Mahathir literally defined the political landscape.

He can rightfully take credit for creating the Malay middle class and he can rightfully take credit for creating “Malay” citizens whose geographical location and religious leaning made them easier to assimilate into the Umno body politic. Of course, these days he demurs but reality and history say otherwise.

But let us concentrate on Kamarul for a minute. Muhkriz acknowledges – for political reasons – that whenever Umno could not address big issues, they relied on demonising the DAP and let us go further, they would demonise the Chinese community. This is an old trick but one that people like Kamarul have expanded on. Children adapt, as they say.

Kamarul’s attack against DAP, more specifically the "evangelical DAP", is a coordinated attack using religious sentiment as a basis to discredit Mahathir, Bersatu and Amanah as protectors of that most sacred of Malay rights, the right to use religion as a means of stifling dissent by non-Malays and the “puak liberal” in the Malay community. 

This, of course, is a dangerous game but because Mahathir poses such a significant threat, dangerous methods are needed. This is why Bersatu has to defend itself against attacks that it is not Muslim enough. Remember these were the same attacks that Umno had to defend itself against back in the day from PAS.

However, since these days PAS is simpatico with Umno, they have turned their attention against Bersatu and any other Malay party which works with the DAP, whose reputation - partly self-inflicted and partly damaged by Umno propaganda – is damaged in the eyes of the demographic that Bersatu is courting.

Great debt to Dr M

The children of Mahathir, specifically the Umno-aligned intelligentsia, these days find it difficult to mount a successful attack against their maker.

The civil service has become a demographic of their own which understands the great debt they owe Mahathir but more importantly are troubled by the profligate scandals which threaten their livelihoods. 

This is why Umno has to spend so much money on them while Mahathir just has to float about them reminding them that back in the good old days, their job security was not threatened by the numerous scandals that engulfed Umno.

The Malay petite bourgeoisie - unlike the Malay haute bourgeoisie who still pander to Umno the party as opposed to Umno the man (Mahathir) - still believe that Mahathir is a powerful totem.

People always talk about the feudalistic mindset of the Malay community but buried beneath it is a resentment of the sacred cows that we are told are, well, sacred to the Malay polity.

Umno and its allies are always trying to draw the royalty into their political conflicts. The reality is that Mahathir has done his fair share of curtailing the powers of the royalty and although this was a tricky endeavour, he and his party have found support in the demographic, we are told, hold these things sacred. There is a reason for that.

Mahathir always successfully portrayed himself as the little guy going against higher powers for the benefit of the Malay rakyat and if you think that his wife and him returning all those royal awards mean nothing, then you are underestimating the symbolism of the act and the simmering class resentment in the Malay community that Umno these days, with all its financial scandals, is acutely aware of.

If Bersatu is a nest of Najib refuseniks then Umno and the cabals that support it are Mahathir’s ungrateful children.

Is this a tragic comedy or a comedy of tragedies?

S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.