There is no doubt that the parang attack

on Keadilan president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail was a terrorist act. Whether such despicable acts have the sanction of the Barisan Nasional leadership remains to be seen, but nobody would be shocked if that were the case. Totalitarian governments, from Hitler to Stalin to Mao and Suharto, love to inflict bodily harm on their opponents.

The present BN government is no exception: Malaysians will remember the brutal police actions at Kesas Highway, the threats by Umno Youth to burn down the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall, the arrests and torture of ISA detainees, not to mention the black eye and other bruises given to former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim.

The threats and actual uses of force against those who think differently from the government have placed all democrats in a dilemma. As peace-loving people, Malaysians prefer to reform the government by constitutional means.

In other words, they wish to realise a just, progressive, multiracial and multireligious Malaysia by educating the masses, by offering an alternative worldview that places faith in democracy and human ingenuity.

However, they cannot do this — educating the masses — if the government shuts down all means of communication. The past few months have seen BN tightened its control of the mass media through the acquisition of Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press as well as the clamping down of some independent Malay-language magazines. It has used the national TV and radio as a party resource, as a mouthpiece to air anti-opposition propaganda.

Physical domination

Furthermore, BN is disrupting the dissemination of alternative worldviews not only discursively, but also somatically, that is, by controlling the movement of physical bodies.

An example is the physical prevention

of DAP MP for Batu Gajah Fong Po Kuan from performing her duties as a people's representative. Another is the continued incarceration of some of the most active Keadilan leaders under the ISA. The three-hour arrest of DAP chairperson Lim Kit Siang for distributing 'seditious' pamphlets and the shameless harassments of Wan Azizah are again instances of bodily threats or attacks by BN. Recent charges by PAS regarding the 'mysterious' deaths of some of its active leadership also fall within the pattern of BN's attempts at somatic domination.

What is to be done? It is natural for dissidents to go underground when all avenues for legitimate grievances are shut off. After a time, institutions break down when people find they have no choice but to resort to extra-legal measures in order to right what they see as government wrongdoing.

This was what happened at Sri Lanka, when the desperately poor and much oppressed Tamils finally launched their armed struggle. In Malaysia, such a situation is still distant and it is to be hoped that it will never arise.

IT advantage

The opposition, therefore, has a most unenvious task: it has to find a way to bring its message to the masses under a government that makes and breaks all the rules at whim. It has to be imaginative.

PAS has shown the other opposition parties how to take advantage of today's IT ( PAS' VCD Inc

, June 5) and use it against the monologic Umno narrative. It has used video teleconferencing and the sale of VCDs to get its message across much of the rural populace. Perhaps the DAP and Keadilan can, besides using email, also try selling their VCDs and/or make more use of fax machines and so on. The two parties can hawk their wares through the distribution channels currently used by PAS.

Threats or actual attacks on the body in order to subdue dissident voices have been practised throughout history. The Greeks did it. The Romans did it. Genghis Khan probably did it. So did Hitler and Stalin and Asean dictators such as Suharto and Marcos.

The last two belong to our time and they fell to the masses because of two main reasons. One is that, unlike the past, there is no way for any dictator to totally control information. The second is that, as people become more educated and morally fortified, threats or even actual commissions of bodily harm will not prevent them from continuing their struggle for justice and human rights.

The shameless intimidation against Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and the arrest of Lim Kit Siang can only add fire to the opposition belly.

L CHUAH is a self-proclaimed literature hog who is interested in applying a multi-disciplinary approach to world affairs.