If you tell a lie and keep on repeating it, people will eventually believe it. So said Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda czar for the Nazi regime.

In Malaysia, there’s no need to repeat a lie. When a lie is told in the mainstream media, opposing views do not see the light of day. The lie is left unchallenged. It becomes the only version out there and by default, the truth.

Take Exhibit A - Kuala Lumpur police chief Zulkarnain Abdul Rahman. He told the media that last Saturday’s anti-ISA vigil in Dataran Merdeka was banned because the organisers failed to get a police permit.

That was, to put it mildly, a blatant lie.

Fast backward to last month. The Anti-ISA Movement had planned to hold a candlelight vigil but this was put off at the last minute after the police declared it illegal. Taking the cue from the cops, the organisers sought a permit for the postponed vigil.

The application was subsequently denied by Zulkarnain, who claimed, among others, that the event was a threat to national security. The rejection was in black and white, signed by Zulkarnain himself. [ See letter ]

Yet he had the temerity to tell the media that he didn’t get an application from the organisers which was the official reason given as to why the vigil was banned a second time.

Sadly, this was not the only tall tale from our men in blue.

Who can forget the police chief and his ‘4,000 protesters’ at the Nov 10 Bersih rally? Perhaps he should get his eyes checked. There were a lot, lot more than 4,000. And just two weeks later, another lie - that no force was used to disperse the crowd outside the Batu Caves temple hours before the mammoth Hindraf rally.

When confronted with photos on the Net showing the crowd drenched in acid-laced water and blinded by tear gas, the police sheepishly did an about turn.

Thanks to cyberspace, it’s increasingly harder to lie and get away with it. But sometimes, it does pay to tell the truth. Ask the X-man, Dr Chua Soi Lek.

Who are the culprits?

No doubt Chua is making good out of a really bad situation by admitting that he was the man in a sex video, anonymously distributed in his home state of Johor.

He could have denied it, ordered the police to nab those found with the incriminating DVDs and threatened to sue anyone who dared suggest that he was involved in the tape.

He didn’t.

For that, he won support from some quarters. Surprisingly, many women gave him the thumbs up - clearly an indication of their growing anger against the many ‘buayas’ out there who refused to own up despite being caught with their pants down.

It was a deft political move by Chua. Knowing that his rivals in MCA would seek to suspend his party membership - which would result in all his political posts frozen - he opted to quit first.

In so doing, he remains an MCA member and more importantly reserves the right to contest in the party polls which have now been put off till after the general elections.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the tape was the work of his political enemies. They are the ones who have most to benefit from Chua’s downfall.

An accomplished speaker - both in English and Malay - Chua has gained popularity among the party’s rank-and-file in recent years. Moreover, he has the added advantage of being close to key Umno leaders, whose blessings are crucial to any aspiring MCA politician.

He also has the backing of former party chief Dr Ling Liong Sik. It is no accident that the ex-leader’s son, deputy Youth chief Ling Hee Leong - an up-and-coming MCA politician - was one of the first to show support for Chua soon after the scandal broke.

Ling Sr has apparently fallen out with his successor, Ong Ka Ting. The former is upset over Ong not giving Ling Jr a leg up unlike what Ling had done for him. Ong is instead said to be busy bolstering the political ambitions of his elder brother, party secretary-general Ka Chuan.

Chua was believed to have eyed the deputy president’s post in the coming party polls, currently held by a weakened and ailing Chan Kong Choy.

Should he secure the No 2 post, Chua can then bide his time until Ong steps down when his three-term presidency expires in either 2011 or 2012, thus leaving Ka Chuan all dressed up with nowhere to go.

But that is academic now.

A political comeback?

At 61, Chua is senior to both the 40-something No 1 and 2 and commands the kind of respect which has eluded the top two MCA leaders. A party strongman from Johor - where MCA has bagged more seats than any other state - Chua still wields substantial influence in spite of the sex scandal.

The upcoming battle in MCA is no longer between Team A and B. It’s now Team A+B vs Team C (Incumbents vs Potential Challengers).

However, as an outsider and an ordinary party member, Chua will face an uphill task in making a political comeback.

And should he decide to follow the footsteps of his predecessor in the Health Ministry, Chua Jui Meng - who took on the party chief three years ago and failed - Soi Lek will get the familiar hostile reception from the government-controlled mainstream media.

After all, as Goebbels had argued, the state must have a ‘complete monopoly of truth’.

“It is vitally important for the state to use all of its powers to repress dissent as the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the state,” he expounded.

Like Hindraf’s accusations of ‘ethnic cleansing’, it’s perhaps a little too farfetched to label Malaysia a Nazi state.

Still, as they often say, there is a shade of truth in everything.