Plotting its own downfall

The government is going to great lengths to tar its 'enemies' but the roof may fall on its own head.

The government is trying very hard to sell the implausible story that there is a dastardly plot brewing to stir up trouble in the country. In a report to the people, it named all the culprits which had received foreign funds to finance their schemes to ostensibly topple the prime minister and the government he leads. As usual, the ubiquitous foreign devils are all mixed up in our affair.

Did the government build up a convincing case? Hardly. The tale spun in its official mouthpiece inevitably invites sneering comment and dowright derision. It is unlikely that readers all over the country broke out in cold sweat when they saw the screaming headline. The hullabaloo is yet another feeble, futile attempt to throw mud at any organisation that dares criticise the establishment.

But the case against the so-called enemies of the state is weak. All those who spoke up and stood up are not selling the country to foreign parties. They are fighting for just causes that the government has repeatedly attempted to ignore or bury. Thousands of Malaysians took to the streets to press for clean and fair elections without the prompting of foreign powers. Many news reports critical of the government were published without being influenced by hidden hands. The momentous happenings are all local productions.

The fear that there is a plot to create chaos in the country is a tacit admission that all the unsavoury news about the conduct of public affairs is having an effect on the governing powers. The shocking revelations in the alternative media are just too much for the ruling party to handle. Someone must be fingered and what better way to do it than to cook up a “foreign plot” behind all these developments.

The political helmsmen are skating on thin ice with their crackdown on civil societies and the online media. By pursuing a campaign of mindless intimidation and blind persecution, they are only adding more fuel to fire: seekers after truth are more determined than ever to uncover more muck. The common citizens are more than willing to hit the streets again to highlight injustices and wrongdoings. No bad government can survive a citizens’ wrath.

A cornered animal

The general election will soon arrive and this is one crucial battle that will determine the fate of the ruling class. The incumbent lords must surely be aware that the wind is not blowing in their direction or the tide flowing their way and that the day of reckoning is at hand. It is this frightening prospect that is making them extremely edgy. Like a cornered animal, they have become dangerous. The “foreign plot” tale is one such rabid measure to ensure political survival at any cost.

In the run-up to the biggest electoral clash, it is very likely that the people will be bombarded with many more murky stories of American or Jewish-inspired conspiracies, communist creeps, planted spies, puppet masters. All those civil society groups will come under more intense attacks to “disarm” them and render them useless. The state-controlled media will be used to the hilt to villify and demonise the intended targets. All truth will disappear from the pages of the newspapers. Some prominent figures will probably stand in the dock – for the crime of questioning authority.

But when a government has fallen from grace, no amount of propaganda will save it from electoral retribution. Anything that issues from its mouth will be treated with amusement, at best, and scorn, at worst. The latest government plot to plot the downfall of its “enemies” simply does not carry any weight. It rings hollow. It will backfire. It will only reinforce public distrust of all official versions and accounts. People have been reading the truth elsewhere long ago.

NGOs and online news portals have become the main sources of information on anything to do with abuse of power, corruption, illegal amassing of wealth, shady deals, misuse of taxpayers’ money, police misconduct. More and more people are turning to them because they put little or no faith in the official organs of public opinion. They are in the vanguard of the movement for truth and that is what makes the government quakes. The government is merely fighting a rearguard action.