COMMENT | Contrary to what Abraham Lincoln may have said, that democracy means the "rule of the people, by the people, for the people," the actual essence of a genuine democracy is the very willingness of the ruling party to risk an electoral defeat. Indeed, to hand over power peacefully.
If the elections are constantly rigged, as they are allegedly by Umno through various underhanded dirty tactical moves that include but are not limited to gerrymandering, manipulated postal votes and use or abuse of government machineries, and assets to perpetuate their dominion in power, then obviously democracy carries zero meaning. As the reigning government administrators would constantly win any contest time and again.
But Umno appears determined to load the dice in exactly this way. This time around, however, it has even latched on to the logic and language of the Nazi party. Not unlike Adolf Hitler, under the presidency of Najib Razak, the latter has declared that "Umno will rule for over 1,000 years."
The parallel with Hitler and the Nazi Party is both stark and stunning. This is precisely what Hitler and Nazi party had wanted, even dragging Europe and Asia into World War Two.
Indeed, Prime Minister Najib Razak's speech at the Umno general assembly also shows the depth to which he and Umno have descended. Power must be had for power's sake.
Nevertheless, this is where Najib has run afoul of the divine law, for only God can rule in eternity. Those that attempt to usurp the role of God will become blind and misguided when it overstays its welcome.
Indeed, the Quran says in Surah Al-Baqarah (2:17-20) that when God removes the guidance from the people, that includes the leaders, those who are lost will only see during strobes of lightning when it strikes. When the lightning dissipates, the vision is gone. Umno is now in such a state, as it is PAS, a party that has misused Islam at will, for its own narrow political gains too, devolving into a merchant trader of Islam.
But back to the analogy with the Nazi party, as the lesson is striking. When Hitler was released from jail after an unsuccessful coup in the German parliament, he decided to seize power constitutionally rather than by force of arms.
Using fiendish and fiery rhetoric - as Najib and his ilk appear to do in Umno through prepared speeches – Hitler, through his natural oratorical skills, sought to demonise anyone and everyone opposed to the Nazi party in then Germany.
In Najib's speech at the Umno AGM, he did not spare anyone. The obvious enemies were the leaders of Bersatu and DAP. Bazookas were trained specifically at Bersatu leaders Dr Mahathir Mohamed, Muhyiddin Yassin and Mukhriz Mahathir.
Even former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who is still recovering from a shoulder surgery at a rehabilitation centre in a hospital, while still serving his time in prison, was not spared. Why such extreme animosity?
A true man of God
Clearly, Najib knows that the ground has moved decisively against him and Umno. He is haunted by the spectre that he will be defeated in the coming general election. And, it is not just him, but Shahrizat Jalil, the Umno Wanita chief and Khairy Jamaluddin, the Umno Youth chief too.
Just imagine: Shahrizat actually equated Najib to the legendary Sultan Salahuddin Al Ayubi (known in the Western world as Saladin), who ruled from Syria to Libya including Palestine and Egypt (1174–1193) and the conqueror of Jerusalem.
To see why this comparison is devoid of any truth, we just have to read what the authoritative scholar of Islam, Abul Hassan Al Nadvi wrote about Salahuddin Al Ayubi: “A devout Muslim he was, the dominant point of his character were an acute sense of justice, charitableness, tenderheartedness, patience and courage while he kept himself immersed in the recollection of God.”
A little bit more reading on Salahuddin Al Ayubi will reveal that he was a true man of God who ensured himself, his aides and soldiers behaved in compliance to the divine dictates of syariah in all spheres of life - spiritual, moral and material.
When Salahuddin Al Ayubi died, despite reigning over Syria to Libya, including Palestine and Egypt, he left behind nothing except 1 dinar and 47 dirhams. Nothing else. Zilch. No palatial palaces, no pink diamonds, no secret chambers of gold, no nothing. In fact, he had not left enough to even defray his burial expenses.
Knowing these undisputable historical facts, can Najib be equated to Sultan Salahuddin Al Ayubi? Was Shahrizat fair in her comparison? Apple polishing leaders to score points are quite a norm in the Umno GA but this was certainly a new low ever in the history of the party.
Even Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, the de facto deputy president of Umno, had to finesse his speech at the Umno AGM. Zahid affirmed candidly that gaining both the popular vote and a two-third parliamentary majority is now an impractical probability.
Coming from Zahid (photo), the home minister, who has regular access to the intelligence from the field, this is the closest admission that Umno and Barisan National are up the creek.
Najib clearly took Zahid's warning to heart, which is why he went for the "shock and awe tactics" at the Umno AGM, certainly to bay for the blood of the opposition.
But the use of a "1,000-year Reich" is telling. It reflects an Anglophile leader, one evidently schooled in England, who has lost all sense of political sensibilities. Instead of a Churchill-like speech, Najib took on a persona of Hitler instead.
Using demagogic oratory, Hitler spoke to scores of mass audiences, calling for the German people to resist the yoke of Jews and communists, and to create a new empire which would rule the world for 1,000 years. Najib skirted with the same.
His pursuit of the 1,000-year reign is nothing less than an admission that Umno has failed, and that only a fascist kind of government will succeed.
In a fascist government, the people, including the opposition, are of course incidental. In fact, they are neither significant nor important. Lastly, truth is gelled as fake news.
Crash course on propaganda
Evidently, if "mere lies do not succeed, one must lie to the people again and again" as Hitler's propaganda chief Paul Joseph Goebbels once affirmed. Goebbels said that ‘’it would not be impossible to prove with sufficient repetition and a psychological understanding of the people that a square is in fact a circle. They are mere words, and words can be molded until they clothe ideas and disguise.”
He further added that “a lie told once remains a lie but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth’. Goebbels then concluded by stating “if you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself”.
It seems Najib must have taken a crash course on propaganda from Goebbels. However, Najib must have missed one important statement that Goebbels made: “There will come a day when all the lies will collapse under their own weight, and the truth will again triumph.”
In Goebbels case, it did. Following Hitler’s suicide, Goebbels served as chancellor of Germany for a single day before, he and his wife, Magda Goebbels, poisoned their six children and took their own lives, as the truth did triumph over the weight of all the lies as he had predicted.
At the Umno AGM, which ironically will see the beginning of its end - rather than the beginning of a long rule - lies were larded in speech after speech on the floor.
Even songstress Sheila Majid's lament that the cost of living in Malaysia has reached unacceptable heights was rejected, all to support Najib's fantasy narrative that Malaysia is all good and well.
When the followers are deaf, mute and dumb, the leaders may be lulled into a state of false confidence. But in Najib's case, the concurrent fear of losing power, and the hubris that only he, and he alone, must rule Malaysia, has led him and his party to a Hitlerian path.
God save Malaysia.
RAIS HUSSIN is a supreme council member of Bersatu and heads the party's policy and strategy bureau.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
