COMMENT Lately, a paranoid style has renewed its appearance in Malaysian politics. It is not a new phenomenon, nor is it necessarily confined to Malaysian politics.

You could say the style is apt to rear its febrile head wherever politics is seen as an arena for conspiratorial fantasy. Two developments of recent vintage highlight the upsurge in the paranoid quotient to our politics.

One is the claim, made by assorted quarters, mainly led by Utusan Malaysia, that the DAP's rise is a threat to Islam; and the other is the contention of Pembela, the coalition of Muslim organisations, that the position of Islam is under siege in Malaysia.

The quickest way to determine the truth or falsity of a claim is to put it against facts on the ground: nothing is so inimical to the life of a fantasy than bald facts.

Just when the claim is heard that the DAP's rise in legislative presence is a threat to Islam and that Islam is under siege comes the news that the DAP-led Pakatan Rakyat government in Penang has increased the monthly allowances of mosque officials in the state by 80 percent.

penang jason ong urge star to apologise 261110 mansor othman Penang Deputy Chief Minister Mansor Othman announced the increases yesterday. The state government is to bear 70 percent of the budget for the remuneration bill for 800 bilal and siak in Penang while the state religious council will shoulder 30 percent of the expense.

If putting your money where your mouth is taken as a valid way to vet the substantive content of an assertion, then the DAP in Penang has cut the ground from under the claim that it is negligent towards Islam by the decision on increases in allowances for mosque officials in the state.

This gesture is not an isolated one. Last year, the Penang government's allocation for Islam represented a marked increase over allocations for the same purpose under the Gerakan-led BN state administration of former chief minister Koh Tsu Koon.

Not that this should bulk large in the considerations, but last year also saw the opening of a surau in the Komtar complex by the state government, the first time this was done since the signature complex was built three decades ago.

Claims made by notable people

But mere facts alone are not likely to pull the rug from under the feet of purveyors of the paranoid style in politics.

The style is a recurrent phenomenon in politics, discernible in some of the wilder claims of Hindraf over alleged ethnic cleansing of Indians in Malaysia, and in Pembela's fantastical one about Islam being under siege.

To be sure, crazy and exaggerated claims are a dime a dozen in politics. These only become a problem when they are not confined to fantasists in the lower echelons of representational politics.

It is when the claims are made by notable people on the upper rungs of the political totem pole that they constitute a problem.

In that event, political discourse would veer towards stridency, and people are left to view reality through gauze or cloud, an invitation to bad choice- and decision-making.

How then are saner counsels to contend with this phenomenon of the rise in the paranoid element in politics?

Definitely not by matching the paranoid in zeal for espousing counter arguments. In only one way can exponents of moderate counsel hope to influence currents that flow under the surface of political history to steer them away from turbulent and explosive endings.

This is by setting in motion the forces of instruction and imagination which change opinion. The assertion of truth, the unveiling of illusion, the dissipation of hate, and the enlargement and instruction of hearts and minds are the best and enduring means.

 

TERENCE NETTO has been a journalist for close on four decades. He likes the occupation because it puts him in contact with the eminent without being under the necessity to admire them. It is the ideal occupation for a temperament that finds power fascinating and its exercise abhorrent.