FEB 4 — Totalitarianism. Form of government that theoretically permits no individual freedom and that seeks to subordinate all aspects of the individual’s life to the authority of the government (Encyclopaedia Britannica).
Malaysians have to ask themselves whether they live in one, even if it is likelier a neo-totalitarian state. Both have the common thread of an absolutist government — seeking to sustain itself at the expense of its people.
When you live in a totalitarian state then your first principle, prime objective has to be to free yourself from that predicament. Either flee or defeat those who uphold that totalitarianism. Everything else comes secondary.
Democratic ideals can only prevail in their entirety when they have breathing space. Otherwise they are choked, twisted and ultimately denigrated as dangerous precedents which will lead to uncertainty, Western imperialism, religious extremism or godlessness (same-same really) and moral decadence.
Those accusations are not true by the way, but the control of political process, finance and “law” enforcement instruments enable those in power to portray things external to “their” reality as being counter to “our common good.”
Those living on the wrong side of the “Iron Curtain” for the most part of the 20th century can bear testimony when only a single paradigm reigned over peoples irrespective of their personal views on what constitutes better government.
But totalitarianism was not exclusively a malady of socialism, in fact socialism became the victim of totalitarianism. Many post-colonial nations are or were victims of it, because it is very tempting to rule by barring reason.
Whether it was Stalin’s communism, Kruschchev’ antagonism, Mao’s communalism through teacher barbeque, Tito’s Slavic assimilation or Mobutu Seko-Seko’s pro-democracy through local brutalisation (replaceable with Pinochet), ideology and theory are compromised in order to protect an elite.
That is obvious enough.
But looking at Malaysia, many fail to realise that even those who initiate opposition to the oppression are also victims of the system. They are products of a totalitarian system and our expectation for them to rise above the muck effortlessly is naive.
Bandar Kulim’s Zulkifli Nordin’s agitations are not remarkable if you have followed his open allegiance to religion above anything. The PKR men in Penang — Bayan Baru’s Datuk Zahrain Mohamed and Nibong Tebal’s Tan Tee Beng — associate funds with the ability to serve, one used to be Umno and the other the son of a Gerakan founder. Other grouses across the nation have been made by various people, and they won’t end anytime soon.
That is unsurprising. What is? The unequivocal sense of betrayal among Pakatan voters.
Many threaten to support BN if individuals inside Pakatan Rakyat cannot harmonise and act consistently with higher ideals.
The dudes act like that because the system has led them down that think.
They’ve been raised by parents working in the system, went to school with the system firmly in place and worked in an economy emphasising the dominant think. Odds are they swam downstream rather than fight the system every step of the way — they’d be in an asylum if they fought their way out of the womb and stayed fighting.
We are all guilty of it. We laugh at the brain-numbing indoctrinating elements in our social science subjects, but we did comply to get the grades. We condemn corrupt behaviour in government contracts, but these sub-contract jobs are taken up by us the SMEs.
Sure, we are forced into the situation, but we make those choices. And the list of things we do to live within the system will astound us one day when the systems have collapsed and we look back.
If we are vulnerable, why can’t others like us trying to fight the system also have that vulnerability?
The neo-totalitarian state is exacting. Sure you can read this column, but you are not going to find this news site printed on paper (mind the pun!) and reach the warong in Rawang. Or dare allow a free-TV station or radio station not belonging to a BN-ally. Even in Russia which is being accused of returning to authoritarian ways, there are neutral TV stations.
This is not to make excuses for the politicians, PKR or the entire Pakatan Rakyat. The matter is about our personal freedoms, your right not to fear pursuing democratic ideals along with other Malaysians.
The parties, coalitions and individuals opposing the totalitarianism today are your conduits to freedom. Their human frailties and failing do not mean the fight is wrong, or justifies the passing of our trust back to the guys pinning us down with a gigantic boulder of tyranny.
This political reality is upsetting because it is a nightmare, but it is our nightmare. Our frustrations and anger are compounded by our inability to overwhelm the situation in a single stroke.
That we have to cope with.
What you have to decide is whether you are in a neo-totalitarian nightmare. If you decide that you are, then there is one principle above everything else, seek the end of the totalitarian nightmare. Everything else comes after.
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