Dear Malaysians, please, take time to read this. It is important.

The Third Force

Dear readers,

It’s been a rough day for me. I was confronted with a very personal issue that could have changed my life forever. But whatever it is I was faced with, I am glad everything turned out well. I can safely say, it was the most turbulent phase of my life as I have known it. It made me think of a lot of things I should have said from the very beginning, but failed to say them.

So today, I want to take a break from my usual routine to discuss an issue of great concern to me. Now, I know that many of you want more spice and juice on Dr. Mahathir Mohammad. You want to read articles from me with captions like Mahathir was paid hundreds of millions in bribes by Genting before he became PM, or How Mahathir rewarded Khairuddin Abu Hassan with development projects in Selangor. I will, I assure you. But all that can wait for the moment.

Today, I feel the urge to discuss the agony of conscience that confronts me with each article I pen. The thing is, there are those who put me down as some revenge-thirsty writer who is wrecking vengeance against politicians opposed to government. Others label me as an attention seeker. With each article, I juggle with my conscience, trying to pen the words I think best conveys the message without misrepresenting me.

But it is not easy.

Malaysians are such, that once they decide who it is they support, everything they see written against that person is deemed offensive. They treat everything that portrays their icon in negative light as a conspiracy to discredit him or her. To diehard Mahathir supporters, generally the Muslims, he is a genuine patron of Islam. They believe that since it was he who had once defended the use of dinar against the ringgit, he couldn’t be the Machiavelli and self-serving opportunist I’m painting him out to be. And technically, that makes me an enemy of Islam.

It is such lines of thinking that precipitated a precedent among certain Muslim groups, who are convinced that because Mahathir wants Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak to resign as Prime Minister, the latter must be un-Islamic. One of these groups up north in Perlis went so far as to pray that God imposed justice upon Najib by whatever means, even if it meant that Najib was ‘returned’ to Him. That’s how fanatical some Muslims are.

Others, the non-Muslims, seem centred on non-issues that have repeatedly been hashed out by government leaders, well revered corporate figures and Malaysia Today. They argue that since it is Mahathir who claims Najib had screwed 1MDB, it must be true. They’re convinced that the Prime Minister turned the economy upside down, to a point that the economy got so bad, he needed to implement GST just to prevent the nation from going bankrupt. But when you ask them what the GST is all about, they go mum.

Even if I showed you the cut and dry proof that none of the above was true, it wouldn’t matter to these people. Many of you have carved your convictions in granite and are not about to change your minds. To be honest, I’m not complaining. I am aware that regardless the ideological platform, a nation divided can still come together in more ways than one.

During Mahathir’s reign as Prime Minister, the Chinese and the Malays were just as divided as they are today. But the state of dissonance was cleverly sheathed beneath the fallacy of harmony through the might of the ringgit. Mahathir kept the Chinese sufficient with business opportunity, and kept the Malays contented with government lifelines. This juggling act of his kept inbred racial dissent from boiling over.

Then, some years after Najib took over, Mahathir tried to reverse these circumstances. He channelled all his energy towards shattering the might of the ringgit. He aimed to bring the economy to a virtual stasis by driving investors away from the country. To do that, he artificially plunged the ringgit below a certain baseline value against the US dollar. Mahathir was able to manipulate the ringgit by riding on the existing economic uncertainty that countries around the region were facing.

None of what he did would have been possible without the help of foreign media. Mahathir shelled out some hundreds of millions in world media coverage against Najib and his administration. The broad idea was to get Malaysians to believe that the Prime Minister had plunged the nation into a state of uncertainty. He wanted people to hurt and suffer so that the state of dissonance he so cleverly sheathed back when he was Prime Minister would boil over.

Just for that, he sabotaged 1MDB to dip its credit rating below levels that were pristine. That forced the firm to pay higher than usual yields to bondholders. He later channelled some forgeries to Clare Rewcastle Brown through his associates, linked to local agencies of statute. Stories that Clare built around these forgeries caused investors to become anxious, seeing that such problems could afflict a government linked company.

The plan worked like a charm. People generally bought into the fabric of deceit that the former premier wrapped around these stories. Facts didn’t matter to Malaysians anymore – the stories had all the necessary ingredients to warrant attention. They were juicy, scandalous and mind-blowing, far better than reading how the government planned to improve the economy.

And that is how Mahathir got Malaysians to believe that Najib had dissipated funds worth RM42 billion into thin air and channelled another RM2.6 billion into his personal account. People are generally negative, and it is negative news that rakes in the numbers.

Nobody wants to know if Najib had performed a groundbreaking ceremony in Putrajaya to commemorate the building of an orphanage. But everyone wants to know what happened to the RM2.6 billion he allegedly stole from 1MDB. Likewise, everyone would want to know how Dato’ Seri Packiam Nair was murdered, even if Dato’ Seri Packiam Nair never existed.

There is no point in saying that the Arabs had donated RM2.6 billion, because that would sound positive and virtuous. People generally do not want to believe that the Arabs actually aimed to help Muslim countries the world over ward off the threat of western colonialism. But people want to believe that Najib had stolen RM2.6 billion from 1MDB. Some may even believe that he gave it to Rosmah to do her shopping. They would, because it pumps their adrenalin with negative juice.

By that token, it would do no good if Arul Kanda or anyone of relevant authority were to come out with point-for-point evidence to prove that Najib did not dissipate any of the firm’s funds. As a matter of fact, any amount of evidence that anyone adduces would be no match to the perception of crime that Mahathir conjured against Najib. And that is why, negative perception is always more powerful than evidence, something that Mahathir knows too damn well, more than you or I do.

But the idea of using media as a tool to funnel negative perception into the minds of the people was not Mahathir’s. It was first introduced by the French in 1894. Back then, France was split into two distinct factions, each convinced it was better suited to run government than the other. These factions ended up as political blocs when a certain army captain by the name of Alfred Dreyfus was accused of treason.

The anti-Drefusard bloc, as it was called, opposed the established order and wanted to trigger a coup. Its protagonists used the press as a weapon – much like Mahathir is doing today – to inflame anti-Semitism against the government. They accused ministers of consorting with Jewish spies by arguing that Dreyfus was of Jewish descent.

The fracas began when claims were made that Dreyfus had acted as a double agent for both the French and German governments. The French army captain was accused of compromising national security by leaking top secret defence detail to German military personnel. The anti-Dreyfusards regularly splashed documentary ‘evidence’ in media to convince people that Dreyfus was complicit with the French government to compromise the nation’s sovereignty.

However, it was later discovered that a French intelligence officer by the name of Lieutenant Colonel Hubert-Joseph Henry had forged documents as ‘evidence’ to implicate Dreyfus of treason. Hubert was subsequently charged with committing perjury and interned at a French military facility. There, he slit his throat and died.

Hubert’s actions were later confirmed to be part of an elaborate conspiracy by a military intelligence unit when two other officers, General de Boisdeffre and General de Pellieux, requested immediate relieve from their duties. What surprised everyone was that a third military officer, Esterhazy, turned out to be the real double agent, someone the anti-Dreyfusards were protecting.

Leaking of forgeries by personnel linked to a body of statute, the use of media to fabricate truths towards denouncing the government – sounds a lot like what is going on here in Malaysia, doesn’t it? And that was 122 years ago, when the French discovered not only the power of media, but the power negative perception wielded over the human conscience.

But then, the French also discovered that such conspiracies often collapse, because somebody almost always develops cold feet and talks. Still, the French realised that not everyone could be convinced when the truth is exposed, as people often leaned on the idea that confessions could be forced out of anyone through the might of currency and the use of intimidation. Yes, the French learnt that no matter how a story was scripted, the end result would be read through negative lenses.

And that is the dilemma I face with every article I pen. In order to get a message across, I am forced to speak the ‘language of the people’, by emphasizing a point through the lens of negativity. For instance, I could say, “Mahathir does not have evidence that Najib had stolen RM2.6 billion from 1MDB.” Instead, I choose to say, “Mahathir is a born liar. Najib never stole RM2.6 billion from 1MDB.”

I do not want to be negative. But my readers are. The second manner of putting the point across would garner ten times as many readers as the first sentence structure would. At the end of the day, it is all about readership, because the more the readers, the stronger the message.

That said, let me be honest – I do not hate Mahathir. I do not want to hate him. I’ve been trying to change my life, to see people as humans first, everything else later. I believe that everyone is somehow a manifestation of my perception. But that’s a philosophy I do not wish to go into here.

What I do want to say, however, is that I am here for a reason, just as you are, reading this article. Likewise, Mahathir is a Machiavelli for a reason. I don’t resent that. I’m just playing what I believe to be my part, for the betterment of the nation and for the future of Malaysians. For that reason, above all else, I am taking the burden of responsibility together with some others in Malaysia Today to rid the nation of Mahathirism, not Mahathir himself.

Please. Do not misjudge me, whoever you are. I’m no opportunist, and am not seeking a reward. I lost a lot doing what I am doing today. I lost a person I used to call family. I lost the love of my life. I lost opportunity that came by and went. I lost my health. All I ask is that I do not lose your faith in me. I may be busy henceforth and will try to be as regular as I used to be.

But we, together – you and me – must eliminate this threat called Mahathirsm, whatever the cost. For reasons I can’t yet spell out, Mahathir is not who he portrays himself to be. I will not lie just to have the pleasure of seeing another human being get destroyed. I speak the truth.

Please, trust in me.

Regards,

The Third Force