You won’t remember this, as it was so long ago and you’ve had far more pressing matters on your mind, but back in November 2006 I wrote a column for Malaysiakini titled An aide memoire on amnesia.

I’d almost forgotten about this myself until recent events in Malaysia jogged my memory of it. Looking it up, I’m reminded that I mentioned as many versions of amnesia as I could think of at the time. Including ‘cramnesia’ (forgetting all the facts we all crammed to get through school or university); ‘jamnesia’ (forgetting our vows to never again venture out in the traffic on festive-season weekends); and ‘RAMnesia’, the total memory-loss we suffer when our computers crash or die.

But these were all incidental in leading to the point I was attempting to make, which is that the most dangerous form of amnesia is ‘scamnesia’, the tendency to forget the tricks played on us by those we unwisely trust to act in our best interests, like elected representatives, the police and other so-called civil servants and institutions including the judiciary and the press.

And, re-reading that old piece as I did just now, I’m reminded that I also referred to ‘Saddamnesia’, an extreme form of amnesia that causes some of us to forget that we may someday pay the ultimate price for our crimes; and ‘Umnesia’, a tendency for some people to forget that they’re neither superior to nor more privileged than Malaysians of other parties, races or religions.

I recall feeling pretty well satisfied at the time that I’d exhausted the topic of amnesia and its multifarious mutations. But recent events have prompted me to re-think the topic, and revisit if not revise it.

One current form of amnesia that I suppose I can be forgiven for failing to foresee, as Anwar Ibrahim had yet to release the video which an investigation is now evoking examples of it, is ‘Examnesia’. The inability of the focal figure and at least one key witness in the ongoing judge- fixing inquiry to remember anything much under cross-examination.

Examnesia evidently takes two forms. The first, ‘Dr Mnesia’, in which the witness clearly considers himself too important and confident of his immunity from blame to be bothered even trying to remember.

Blissful ignorance

And then there’s ‘Lingamnesia’, a species of forgetting formerly known in legal circles as ‘The I dunno, Your Honour, I was drunk at the time’ defence. Neither Dr Mnesia nor Lingamnesia would stand up in court, of course, let alone a royal commission. Which explains why the government has chosen to set up a panel without any powers to improve a system whose faults it would prefer to preserve.

Another form of amnesia that’s causing a lot of talk right now is what I suppose by right should be called ‘Samynesia’ but which for the sake of euphony I’ll take the liberty of shortening to ‘Samnesia’. Depending who you are, you can define this syndrome either of two ways.

If you take the Hindraf point of view, Samnesia is the condition from which Mr Samy Vellu has chronically suffered for decades, causing him to forget the welfare of his constituents in favour of cashing-in on his position and mis-managing their investment funds.

But on the contrary, if you’re a member or supporter of the Barisan Nasional or the MIC, or both, Samnesia signifies the sad failure on some peoples’ part to remember what wonders Works Minister Samy Vellu has wrought for their benefit.

In a desperate attempt to push the latter interpretation, Prime Minister Abdullah recently declared a public holiday in KL and Putrajaya for Thaipusam. But whether this will prove powerful enough sop to overcome disaffected Indians’ Samnesia, only the forthcoming general election will tell.

Of course, in preparation for the general election, as big a proportion as possible of the Malaysian population is being lulled, as usual, into a state of blissful ignorance and forgetfulness that, in recognition of the tireless manipulation of the ‘mainstream’ media by (mis)information minister Zainuddin Maidin, could well be termed ‘Zamnesia’.

And it’s timely to remind ourselves that any of us with family, friends or colleagues suffering from Zamnesia would do well to get involved with Ops Bawa Berita Balik Kampung, see , or the Newspaper Hatal campaign being waged by Helen Ang and Haris Ibrahim of The People’s Parliament.

Perpetual domination

However powerfully the government promotes Zamnesia, however, there’s one event it never lets the voters forget: May 13. In fact Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak was hard at work plugging it again just the other day, claiming that official crack-downs on Hindraf and other recent rallies had averted a serious risk of racial violence.

‘If the Malays of Kampung Baru come out then we have the spectre of a serious possibility of a racial clash in this country," he reportedly said in an interview with AFP, adding that, "There were signs that they were preparing to come out so we had to tell them, 'look, don't make the situation any worse',’

Despite having such a clear recollection of May 13 1969, however, and being so determined to remind the opposition of the possibility of a repeat performance, Najib and many of his colleagues seem otherwise to have a very poor memories indeed.

In fact, they appear to suffer badly from ‘haramnesia’, a tendency to forget that just as threats of bloodshed against the innocent are not ‘halal’, neither are deceit, corruption or many of the other techniques routinely employed by Barisan Nasional in its pursuit of perpetual domination.

As a foreigner, of course I can’t participate in the elections in Malaysia. But at least I can urge anyone who’ll listen to have an attack of amnesia when it comes time to remember to vote for BN.