COMMENT Looking at recent events one can't help but ask the question: Are we living in the much touted and lofty 1Malaysian dream, or in the deep dank pits of an Orwellian nightmare?

I well remember ‘1984', having dog-eared my copy of it - the dystopian novel written by George Orwell of a fictional future, of a society under the thumb of an oligarchy, a dictatorship which imposes totalitarian surveillance and mind control over its people.

 

1984 george orwell book It is set in a state led by an ‘inner party’ of the privileged elite, and an ‘outer party’ of those benefitting from the rule of the elite, while being subservient to the ‘Big Brother’ head of government. The rest are the masses dubbed ‘proles’, short for proletariat, the underclass under the grinding feet of the ruling regime.

It tells of an insidious political system that accords privilege to a small number of party elite at the expense of the masses, a regime that rules roughshod over individuality and reason, decrying these as crimes against the purported greater good of all.

And here we are, in a Malaysia that has been under the 54-year-rule of an Umno-led coalition, unchanged since our Merdeka, with power firmly in the grip of the chosen few. Is Umno perhaps the 'inner party', attended to by the 'outer parties' of MIC, MCA, Gerakan and PPP among others?

Hasn't it been the government line to always tell the rakyat to trust it and to follow the 'Malaysian' way in order to preserve 'racial harmony' for the 'good of all'?

Then, there are the recurrent allegations of incessant surveillance by police special branch officers over activities deemed 'subversive', as well as strict control of what can be consumed by the intellect of the rakyat.

This is a form of mind control or, at least, an attempt to control what opinions the mind can form.

Dare I say that Malaysia is in a similar condition as the state in ‘1984'? More so since the main character in the novel, Winston Smith, is an outer party member working for the Ministry of Truth, in charge of ‘propaganda’ and ‘historical revisionism’.

azlan Now here is the interesting thing. Winston's job is to change passages in past newspaper articles so as to make them palatable and to bring them in line with the current party policy, the leading edge of government control over the news media and history.

Given this, one wonders about our government's stringent control and ownership of the media. About 'experts' on history coming out with disputed versions of the past in support of the government. About  new 'historical' books and documentaries on past leaders that somehow seem to take liberties with facts and figures.

Artificial shortages

Another crucial factor in Orwell's tale is how the 'proles' were kept destitute through artificially created 'shortages' of mundane items like shoe-laces and shaving blades.

They were made intellectually bankrupt through control of news and the brutal crackdown by the 'thought police' on individual thinking and through 'political re-education' of dissenters.

NONE I wonder if our own nation's dumbing-down of the education system, stringent media control, BTN courses and pervasive use of the Sedition Act are just as bad as having 'thought police' in place.

Also in question is the recurring 'shortage' of essential goods for reasons that boggle the mind, and the fact that wages in Malaysia are still depressed.

Are we not kept in the gutter, like eager plebeians having to depend on scraps and handouts from the elite? Kept busy just trying to survive that we ignore their oppression?

The term Orwellian, as it is defined by the Macmillan dictionary is a concept ‘relating to a political system in which the government controls every aspect of people’s lives’.

But other sources more directly state that it ‘refers to lies, surveillance, and manipulation of the past in the service of a totalitarian agenda’.

What say you my fellow-Malaysians? Are we in a 1Malaysian dream or Orwellian dystopia? Speak up and be counted, rise up and be heard, the future is in our hands and the time is now.

 

 

HAZLAN ZAKARIA is a member of the Malaysiakini team.