The Politics of Fear

ARCHIVES 2009

By admin-s On Nov 19, 2009

At some point in the last thirty years … definitely somewhere within the regime of Mahathir … the Government of Malaysia stumbled onto the effectiveness of using Fear as a means of controlling its own people.

By Steadyaku47

From my own recollections it started with the May 13th Riots in 1969. What became obvious to all of us was the use of the Police and the Army to quell the volatility of the situation in a very short time very effectively. The sight of the Police and the Army roaming the street of Kuala Lumpur sobered us all up and brought order out of chaos and calm out of a stressful situation. That the Police and Army then went on to terrorize the Chinese and Indians population was simply accepted by thegovernment as collateral damage.

Fast-forward to 1987 when Mahathir decided he did not want Anwar looking over his shoulders any more. Here for the first time we saw that UMNO had the political will to use fear as a means of controlling not only its opponents but also itspeople. Who can forget the running battles fought between the Reformasi supporters and the Riot Squad! Brutal and effective in going about their job of stopping the demonstrators dead in their track. Mostly Malays against Malays! What a far cry from the May 13th Riots! Then it was also overwhelming force against defenceless citizens – but this was excused as a way of teaching the other races a lesson – now how do you explain the use of Malays against Malays?

As the Nation watched this use of force to instil fear and bodily harm onto the demonstrators the people began to understand that Malaysia had entered into another era. One where Fear was the weapon of choice by its own governmentto rule over its own people.

Since the racial riots of 1969 and then the reformasi days I personally started to look uponthe Police – especially the Riot Squad as being the Tonton Macoutes of UMNO.

The name Tonton Macoute originated from Haitian Creole mythology. It was the name of a bogeyman who walked the streets after dark, and would kidnap children who stayed out too late. He stowed them away in his gunnysack, never to be seen again. Papa Doc Duvalier the cruel Dictator of Haiti employed the Tonton Macoutes in a reign of terror against any opponents, including those who proposed progressive social systems. Those who spoke out against Duvalier would disappear at night, or were sometimes attacked in broad daylight. They were never seen again. They were abducted and killed by the Tonton Macoutes. Anyone who challenged them risked assassination. Their unrestrained terrorism was accompanied by corruption & extortion. He granted them automatic amnesty for any crime they committed. He used them to maintain power – Wilkipedia.

Now the politics of Fear is already entrenched into the minds of our people.

Looking at the blog that I write – peoplecommenting on what I write routinely signed off as ‘anonymous’ – and they do the same in other blogs – worried that the Special Branch will be able to trace them for reading undesirable articles.

Yesterday Manjeet Singh Dillion house was fire bombed – for Manjeet’s involvement in the PI Bala’s case.

Bloggers are routinely called in by PDRM to have ‘chat’s. RPK is constantly threatened to be incarcerated under the ISA,

Everybody looks over their shoulders before they say anything against UMNO – against thegovernment.

UMNO uses MACC to harass the legitimate opposition.