Why Barisan Nasional Must Be Wary of Today’s Communists

The point is, ‘democracy’ must be whatever WE want the nation to understand it to be – or not to be. To maintain control of people, we must control how they think.

Alwyn Lau

Dear XYZ,

First, let me congratulate you on your efforts to reclaim back our two-thirds majority in parliament for GE13. You are playing our cherished race-and-(in)stability card which always shakes people up. Despite the best efforts of some to create peace and harmony, never fear! Remember that as long as people are concerned about rice bowls and share prices, the mere idea of political instability will
ensure you the tiger’s share of the votes.

Also, good job with your handling of Scorpene. Getting that French ‘celebrity lawyer’ to say a few words was sweet. In future, deploy more global mainstream media personalities to fight local alternative media reports. Now very few people know the truth anymore; and even fewer people care. Remember this principle: If you want to reap indifference, sow confusion. If you want the rakyat to ignore an issue, simply present multiple perspectives on respectable platforms. This way you’ll create discussion (which gives that ‘air’ of intelligence and credibility) but destroy mass conviction (which is your kryptonite – be warned!). I’m concerned, though, about the actions against SUARAM. Next time, find or plant the dirt first, THEN make your move. Having said that, H’s photo with the school-kids
was picture perfect. Keep those coming.

Before getting to my main warning, I wish to also give you credit for the DAP ‘Christian conspiracy’ claim. Send my regards to Nasha. That was a wonderful move! We score points with many Muslims, we score points against DAP and, best of all, we get the Christians fuming over the wrong thing. There is no strategy more effective to get Christians REFUSING to engage politically than to accuse them of over-engaging in politics! They are so predictable!

Always high on their heavenly opium, they will always have trouble mixing ‘spirituality’ with ‘political transformation’. I even read that some Christians, in their ‘eternal’ wisdom, say it’s okay for Christians to be involved in politics, it’s okay for preachers to discuss political issues but it’s NOT OKAY for the sermon to be a place to endorse candidates. What a helpful contradiction! Make sure you remind our churchy friends in the MCA to repeat this at appropriate times.

Now to the point of my letter. You may think this is a small matter, but trust me it’s potentially huge. I’m talking about our favorite bogeyman: Communism.

It’s good you’re using Red to tar our enemies (and it’s only too bad that the best we can do so far is Mat Sabu, but it’s a start). It’s good that you keep reminding every generation about how our group fought for Independence and helped overcome the ‘terrorist’ Communist Party of Malaya (of course I’m over-simplifying things but how many Malaysians truly know this country’s history?).

So, okay, we’ve kept Communism locked up in the nation’s bad books and hurled it every now and then. Splendid. But, look, things are changing.

See the OCCUPY movements recently? It wasn’t specifically ‘Communist’ but Marx would’ve been proud (sorta). For once, a class-based protest was in force, making the rich very uncomfortable. Most importantly, it made the middle-classes shifty, too. This is critical because the middle-class is that ‘non-class’ which society uses to insulate itself from the truth of Marx’s class analysis. On one hand, middle-class folks are not poor. On the other hand, they cannot identify fully with the rich. Yet, on another hand (have you been counting hands?), they distance themselves from the poor. Far from being ‘proof’ that there is no more class-war, the middle-class in fact embodies the anxiety felt by society regarding class. Can you see, therefore, that the middle-class is a ‘class struggle’ IN ITSELF? So when this class starts to worry about a movement (like OCCUPY), it shows that the truth of Marxism is emerging.

So whatever you do with the word ‘Communism’, be careful to avoid linking it to ‘inequality’, ‘poverty’, ‘greedy businessmen’, (or even ‘HINDRAF’) and so on. Make sure you use connotations like ‘terrorist’, ‘genocide’, ‘mass hunger’, ‘Mao’ – you get the idea.

Whatever you do, you must NEVER connect ‘Communism’ to ‘democracy’. Seriously! This will put us in greater danger than ever before! Because this was precisely what the leaders of the Communist Party of Malaya were trying to do: Give a new meaning to democracy. I’m not asking you to include the following in the schools’ syllabus (don’t do this!), but we must never forget how we reached where
we are:

The British had their perspective of democracy. Our beloved forefathers had another idea of democracy. And the Communists had their views, too. What eventually happened, in case you forgot, was that our group worked out a deal with the Brits which would
a) keep us rich and in power,
b) keep the nation at peace, and
c) push out the Communists.
We could have labeled this whatever we want, but it was quite convenient to call it Democracy, Liberty, Independence, blahblahblah (I really don’t care).

(Of course, we had our problems in ’69 which, thankfully, were handled well by N’s daddy. Really, the way he dealt with the riots I suspect that George Lucas learnt something from him for Revenge of the Sith. Losing control? Simple: Create a national catastrophe, declare an Emergency, grab and consolidate power – superb).

The point is, ‘democracy’ must be whatever WE want the nation to understand it to be – or not to be. To maintain control of people, we must control how they think.

The bottom line : Be careful of today’s breed of Communists. Their main weapon is not violence, it’s vision. They will try to overthrow governments not by armed struggle, but by struggling for a more direct democracy than what regimes like ours have put in place. By so doing, they will inspire people to re-imagine a more authentic form of democracy, much different from the kind inseparable from business concerns that we have been pushing.

These new Communists will capture people’s hearts not by asking them to blindly follow a leader, but to follow their own desires for self-governance (are we not relieved that even the Opposition has failed to implement local elections?). They also tend to target the poorest or the poor – the least of the least – thus swelling their numbers further. Worse, they’re actually suspicious of profit and money. When activists can no longer be bought off, this is dangerous. But when entire masses reject our system of profits and political patronage – this is fatal. Never let this happen!

You have been warned. Whilst I expect you to win GE13, we can no longer expect it to be easy. Take stronger measures now! Keep the flames of enterprise and commerce burning (or, put simply, keep people greedy for more and more), and you will stay in power! Bind the people to what will feed the system! This way the country, for all time, will remain ours.