At the joint opening of the annual assemblies of UMNO’s Wanita, Youth and Puteri wings on Tuesday night, the Acting UMNO Deputy President, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi sought to draw parallels between the Opposition’s propaganda efforts with the leaders of Nazi Germany.
He recounted how Adolf Hitler and his propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels had a grip on German citizens through carefully crafted propaganda strategies.
Zahid said: “It was based on lies… Hitler once wrote: ‘If you are going to tell a lie, tell a big one and if you tell it often enough, people will begin to believe it’.
“Through creative radio and film propaganda, they succeeded in controlling the minds of more than 80 million people.”
Anyone doing a Wikipedia search will find the following explanation:
“A big lie is a propaganda technique. The expression was coined by Adolf Hitler, when he dictated his 1925 book Mein Kampf, about the use of a lie so ‘colossal’ that no one would believe that someone ‘could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously.’ Hitler asserted the technique was used by Jews to unfairly blame Germany’s loss in World War I on German Army officer Erich Ludendorff.”
Hitler’s Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels perfected Hitler’s “Big Lie” theory: “Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it” to the extent that he created the Fuhrer myth and the image of Hitler as the Messiah-redeemer.
Are we seeing a repetition of the “Big Lie” theory in modern-day Malaysia, with the UMNO leadership warning about the “Big Lie” theory but with the UMNO President, Datuk Seri Najib Razak becoming the biggest exponent of the “Big Lie” propaganda?
Najib impudently told three colossal “Big Lies” in his UMNO Presidential Speech yesterday, viz:
1. That the 14th General Elections will be a contest between UMNO and DAP;
2. That the DAP is anti-Malay or anti-Islam.
3. The “nightmares” Malay will suffer if UMNO loses power in the next general elections.
These three “Big Lies” fit the Hitler/Goebbels definition that “if you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
Lets take a look at Najib’s three “Big Lies” and the rebuttals:
1. 14th General Election not a battle UMNO vs DAP. It will be a battle between the Barisan Nasional led by UMNO and the Pakatan Harapan coaliltion of DAP, PKR and Parti Amanah together with Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) to save Malaysia from a kleptocracy by defending the founding Constitutional principles of a democratic, just and united plural Malaysia.
2. DAP is not anti-Malay or anti-Islam. DAP is not a Chinese party as right from the beginning of our formation 50 years ago, we were committed to the principles and vision of a Malaysian party, led by Malaysians and serving the interests of all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region.
This was why in the very first general election contested by DAP in 1969, two Malay State Assemblymen were elected, and down the decades, there had been Malay Members of Parliament and State Assembly representatives under the DAP banner.
This was also why in the first general election contested by the DAP in 1969, and now after the 2013 General Elections, the DAP has more Indian Members of Parliament than MIC.
But this does not make DAP a political party only for the Indians as DAP remains unequivocably as a party for all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region.
3. Malays will not have “nightmares” if UMNO loses power in 14GE, as Najib tried to create scare and panic among the Malays that they will lose political power to the Chinese.
Whatever happens in the 14GE, whether Najib is toppled as Prime Minister or UMNO loses the Federal Government, the Malays in Malaysia will continue to exercise political power in the country as there is no way they will lose their political power.
The demographic reality is the surest guarantee that the Malays will not lose political power whatever happens to Najib or to UMNO in the next general elections.
In 1970 Malaysia’s population comprised 44.32% Malays, 34.34% Chinese, 8.99% Indians, 11.89% non-Malay Bumiputeras, 0.67% others.
In 2010, the percentage of Malays in the Malaysian population increased to 55.07%, Chinese reduced to 24.34%, Indians dropped to 7.35%, non-Malay Bumiputeras maintained at 11.94% and 1.3% others.
During the 13th general election, 52.63% of the voters were Malays, 29.68% Chinese, 7.31% Indians, 8.96% non-Malay Bumiputeras and 1.43% others.
Out of the 165 Parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia, 114 are Malay majority seats representing some 70%, 22 Chinese majority seats (13%) and 29 mixed seats. There is not a single Indian majority seat.
With the triple factors establishing overwhelming Malay predominance in the Malaysian political scene – the demographic make-up of the general population, the electorate and the parliamentary constituencies – can Najib and UMNO propagandists explain how the Malays will lose political power, whatever the scenario in the 14GE?
How Malays who dominate in 70% of the parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia will lose political power to the Chinese, who are in the majority in only 13% of the parliamentary seats?
There is no doubt that Najib and UMNO are facing the greatest crisis of survival in their lives, for a recent poll has shown that the popularity rating of the Najib UMNO-led government is at an all-time low – below the 50 per cent mark for the first time, down to some 30 per cent.
But the real prospects that Najib can lose not only the popular vote (which UMNO/Barisan lost in the 2013 general election securing only 47% of the total votes cast) as well as the majority of the parliamentary seats (which through an undemocratic electoral system, enabled Najib to secure 60 per cent of the parliamentary seats in the 13GE although with 43% of the votes, and therefore entering Malaysian history as the first minority Prime Minister in the country) can be no justification for the UMNO leadership to resort to the Nazi propaganda doctrine of “The Big Lie”.
It is a national tragedy that instead of redeeming his position as the first minority Prime Minister of the country, by heading a government which really cares for the people and nation, which is clean, incorruptible, consultative, democratic, fully guided by the principles of accountability, transparency and good governance, Najib had done the reverse.
This is why Malaysia had in the past few months suffered the ignominy and infamy of being regarded worldwide as a “global kleptocracy”, which neither the UMNO/BN-dominated Parliament nor the UMNO General Assembly had the patriotism or national calling to either rebut and refute or to purge and cleanse Malaysia’s reputation of such infamy and ignominy.
As DAP National Political Education Director and MP for Kluang Liew Chin Tong had noted, Najib studiously avoided in his UMNO presidential speech four issues that are of great concern to millions of ordinary Malaysians, including the overwhelming majority of the 3.5 million UMNO members: the Goods and Services Tax (GST), 1MDB global kleptocratic money-laundering scandal, the sharp decline of the ringgit’s value, and the higher cost of living.
Najib should return to the real issues facing Malaysians, including the Malays.
I have exposed Najib’s three “Big Lies” in the Nazi-style propaganda.
I challenge Najib, in his winding-up of the UMNO General Assembly debate tomorrow, to list the three Big Lies which DAP had told about him and the UMNO leadership.
If Najib is unable to list out the three Big Lies that are being disseminated by DAP and DAP leaders, then Najib’s UMNO Presidential speech yesterday stands exposed as a distasteful example of “Big Lie” Nazi propaganda in modern times.