Who is Najib’s Goebbels? Is he prepared to emerge from the darkness and come into the light to identify himself and explain why he is masterminding so many “fake news” and “false stories” about critics and the Opposition?

It is indeed supreme irony that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, should kick off the new year warning about “fake news” and “false stories” as a grave problem in the country, when it is the UMNO leaders, propagandists and cybertroopers and the country’s mainstream media like New Straits Times and Utusan Malaysia which are the worst culprits in concocting and disseminating fake news and false stories about critics and the Opposition.

Their action befits the Chinese saying about “Thief shouting thief” which basically means to divert the attention of others so as to cover up one’s misdoings

In the fifth day of the new year, we already have several examples of such “fake news” and “false stories” perpetrated by UMNO leaders, propagandists, cyberbtroopers and sycophants and I shudder to think of the mountain of lies, “fake news” and “false stories” that will be concocted this year in the run-up to the 14th General Election, which can be held anytime between May and October.

Najib gave the “official launch” for the UMNO/BN campaign of “fake news” and “false stories” – a classic “thief shouting thief” act reminiscent of the Nazi “Big Lies” propaganda offensive – in his UMNO Presidential Speech on Nov. 30, telling three “Big Lies”, 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.

Najib’s three “Big Lies” would make Hitler’s Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels, green with envy as it was Goebbels who gave the following definition of Nazi’s Big Lies offensive: “Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it”.

There no need to repeat my rebuttal of Najib’s Three Nazi-style “Big Lies” which the Prime Minister and his propaganda team had not been able to refute.

I had in my media statement dated December 2, 2016 challenged Najib to list the three Big Lies which DAP had told about him and the UMNO leadership, but there is only thundering silence in the past month – proof that concoction of fake news and false stories is a “one-way traffic”, the specialty of UMNO leaders, propagandists and cybertroopers as DAP is not in the “fake stories” and “false news” market.

There is a Goebbels serving Najib, who is responsible for the flood of “false news” and “false stories” about critics and Opposition leaders.

Let me ask a specific question: Who is Nazi’s Goebbels? I would not name him for the moment, a person whose name has not appeared in the media at all – but a very powerful person in Najib’s corridor of power, whom even the UMNO warlords keep a wide berth, as he is not a person to be trifled with!

Is Najib’s Goebbels prepared to come out into the light and identify himself, and explain why he is masterminding the load of “fake news” and “false stories” about critics and the Oppositon?

Penang Chief Minister and DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng is a favourite target of BN/UMNO “fake news” and “false stores”.

Recently, there was circulated on the social media the “fake news” that Guan Eng supported Myanmar’s crackdown on its Rohgingya minority, alleging that Guan Eng had said: “Tindakan Aung San Suu Kyi terhadap kaum Rohingya adalah tepat. Malaysia tiada hak untuk campur tangan dan dianggap mencabul urusan negara Myanmar”.

This was a “fake news” and “false story” at their worst as Guan Eng had in fact ordered Penang Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Mohd Rashid Hasnon to table a motion at the recent Penang state legislative assembly to condemn the Myanmar military for driving out the Rohingyas from their home on top of murder and ethnic cleansing of the community.

Yesterday, the aide to the Penang Chief Minister, Zaidi Ahmad lodged a police report on a fake WhatsApp message accusing Guan Eng of saying that Pakatan Harapan would shut down MARA.

I myself have been the object of constant attacks by such “fake news” and “false stories”.

Yesterday, the twitter of human rights lawyer Syahredzan Johan carried the following message: “Meanwhile, an UMNO guy in my WhatsApp group shared this. Yes they have resorted to linking DAP leaders with Chin Peng”.

Syahzedzan attached a chart of a “family tree” alleging that former MCP Secretary-General Chin Peng, former Singapore Prime Minister and PAP Secretary-General Lee Kuan Yew and I were inter-related as cousins, with an assortment of other allegations dragging Pakatan Harapan leaders including Guan Eng, Teresa Kok, Tony Pua, Anthony Loke, Ngeh Koo Ham, Nga Kor Ming and Nizar Jamaluddin into the picture – although apart from Guan Eng, I have no idea how I could be related to all the other named personalities.

Meanwhile, an UMNO guy in my WhatsApp group shared this. Yes they have resorted to linking DAP leaders with Chin Peng.

Chin Peng, a Hockchia, the nom de guerre of Ong Boon Hua, was born in Sitiawan in 21st October, 1924; Lee Kuan Yew, a Hakka, was born in Singapore on 16th September 1923 and I, a Hokkien, was born in Batu Pahat on 20th February 1941. How we could be cousins is testimony of the “fertile imagination” of the Najib’s troupe of creators of “fake news” and “false stories” who could turn white into black and black into white!

I noticed that great efforts had been expended by Najib’s Goebbels to demonise me, accusing me of being the cause of the May 13 riots in Kuala Lumpur in 1969 as well as being a “communist”, apart from the lies that I am anti-Malay, anti-Islam and anti-Malay Rulers although they could not offer a shred of evidence from the some ten millions words I have spoken or written in the past 51 years of my political activities.

What is interesting is that the allegations that I was the cause of the May 13 riots and that I was a communist was minted after the “political tsunami” of the 2008 General Elections – a fantastic case where I was never accused of these charges for four decades of my political life from 1969, but suddenly I am accused of causing the May 13 riots in Kuala Lumpur and being a communist – all because of Goebbel’s dictum: “Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it!”

The allegations that I was the cause of the May 13 riots in 1969 or a “communist” were never made before the political tsunami of 2008.

Why? The reasons are simple – there is no basis or truth to such lies and falsehoods!

The UMNO leadership of the first four Prime Ministers, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein and Tun Mahathir, never made these two allegations against me for the Special Branch of the period would know whether I had been the cause of the May 13 riots in 1969 or whether I was a communist.

If I had been the cause of the May 13 riots of 1969 in Kuala Lumpur or a communist, the Special Branch would have been utterly incompetent instead of being one of the best in the world, to allow me to operate for half a century when the detention-without-trial Internal Security Act (ISA) would be easy weapon to be used against me until the ISA abolition in 2012.

I had been detained twice under the Internal Security Act, the first time after the May elections in 1969 and the second time during Operation Lalang in October 1987, but I had never been detained because of the May 13 riots or because I was a communist.

In fact, I was not even in Kuala Lumpur during the tragic days of May 13, 1969.

I was contesting in the Bandar Melaka parliamentary seat in 1969, and the last days of the 1969 general elections campaign were really hectic ones, which included waiting for the results of the May 10, 1969 general election, as the counting of votes were not completed and the results announced until the early hours of Sunday, May 11, 1969.

I returned to my Petaling Jaya house on Sunday evening and simply collapsed from the accumulated tiredness of the campaign.

Early on Monday, May 12, 1969, I returned from Petaling Jaya to the Bandar Melaka constituency to thank the voters and I had a thank-voters public rally on Monday night – probably the only elected MP in the 1969 general elections to have a thank-voters public rally before the clampdown on political activities as a result of the May 13, 1969 riots and declaration of emergency.

This was because I was in a hurry, as I was scheduled to fly to Kota Kinabalu the next day on the morning of Tuesday, May 13, 1969 to help the election campaigning of independent candidates in Sabah as voting in Sabah would only be held some two weeks after the voting in Peninsular Malaysia.

The first time I heard that trouble had broken out in Kuala Lumpur – what became known as the May 13, 1969 riots – was when I was speaking at a public rally in Kota Kinabalu that evening.

But “revisionist” UMNO leaders, propagandists and cybertroopers are now spreading lies that I was in Kuala Lumpur during the May 13 riots, leading illegal processions and hurling anti-Malay and anti-Islam slogans marching through the Malay heartland in Kampung Baru in Kuala Lumpur on May 13, 1969 – when I was never in Kuala Lumpur after the May 10 general election!

I am also accused of being a communist – an accusation that was never levelled before the “political tsunami” of 2008, for the simple reason that the first four UMNO Prime Ministers – Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein and Tun Mahathir – knew from Special Branch briefings that this was impossible.

In fact, in the 1969 general election, apart from having to contest against the Alliance, DAP had to contest against an invisible foe – the Labour Party and the Malayan Communist Party which were advocating boycott of the 1969 general election on the ground that elections in Malaysia was a fraudulent process, advocating instead “street protests”.

This was why in a letter to the then Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, from my detention cell in Muar on 5th August 1969, I wrote:

“The May 13 disturbances have left two serious after effects:

“Firstly, inter-racial understanding and relationships have been gravely damaged….

“The loss of lives, suffering and hardships of May 13 disturbances will not be completely in vain, however if they serve as salutary lessons to all of the madness of racialism, and the need to usher in an era of racial reconciliation, understanding, tolerance and the development of a Malaysian consciousness and identity.

“We must do all we can to prevent the memory of the May 13 disturbance from working like an acid, silently but relentlessly eating away the remaining fabric of inter-racial relationship, for then all is lost for Malaysia…

“The second serious after-effect of the disturbances is its blow to the people’s confidence in the democratic process and the booster it has given to the declining political and propaganda appeal of the Malayan Communist Party.

“The May 10 General Elections result was a defeat for the Alliance Party. But it was graver blow to the M.C.P.

“During the general elections campaign, the M.C.P. and its open auxiliaries campaigned for a boycott of elections to discredit parliamentary democracy and to prepare the political base for its second armed insurrection.

“The people rejected the M.C.P. line and came out solidly to vote. This proved that the people had faith in the democratic process to peacefully bring about the changes they want.

“The result of May 10 was the people’s verdict for democracy, as against the M.C.P. campaign. There was joy and expectancy, after the results, not to deprive anyone of his rights, but at the new hope to work for a more just, equal and fulfilling society.

“The May 13 disturbances and the subsequent events, however, had greatly undermined the people’s faith in democracy.

“I believe that the situation, though grave, is not irretrievable, if the government can spearhead a national, all-party, all-races effort to restore communal confidence through the pursuit of genuine multiracial politics and policies.”

I would advise UMNO leaders, propagandists and cybertroopers, as well as Najib’s Goebbels who is masterminding a massive campaign of black operations against the DAP and the Opposition, to do some homework and learn about Malaysian history.

The latest handiwork of such Nazi-style “Big Lie” concocted by Najib’s Goebbels is the fairy tale that I had met Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad on Dec. 3 and “sealed a deal that Mukhriz would become prime minister with Kit Siang as his deputy”.

I had said in my statement dated Dec. 27 that this is a total figment of imagination, and that I had never met Mahathir, “whether on Dec. 3 or before to ‘seal a deal’ on the question of PM or DPM if UMNO/Barisan Nasional is ousted from Putrajaya in the 14th General Election” and that “In fact, I had never at any time discussed such a question with Mahathir”.

I was visiting the Sabah interior of Tenom, Keningau and Pensiangan the last few days of last year when I received a call from a reporter in Kuala Lumpur who asked for my response to comments which had just been made about me. I asked who had made the comments and when I heard who it was, I told the reporter that I would not even waste time and would not want to know what he had said – as he had lost all respect, honour and credibility as to deserve any attention.

I had announced that I had instructed my lawyers to look into the possibility of instituting legal action against New Straits Times (NST) for publishing such lies.

This has not deterred Najib’s all-powerful Goebbels to use his agents and poodles to continue to disseminate “fake news” and “false stories”, including the alleged meeting between Mahathir and myself on Dec. 3 to “seal the deal” for Mukriz to be the Prime Minister and myself as Deputy Prime Minister.

Are they capable of citing the place and time on Dec. 3 when Mahathir and I met to seal such a so-called deal?
Of course, they are incapable of doing so, as they are only retailing lies – and what is worse, lies, “fake news” and “false stories” concocted by Najib’s Goebbels.

I have instructed my lawyers that legal proceedings should take into account the latest “fake news” and “false stories” about me and to extend legal action to Utusan Malaysia and others apart from New Straits Times.

(Media Conference Statement at Wisma DAP Penang on Thursday, 5th January 2016 at 12 noon)