Lahad Datu's Wag The Dog tale

“Why does the dog wag its tail? Because the dog is smarter than the tail. If the tail were smarter, it would wag the dog.”

These words precede the 1997 film Wag The Dog, its premise is that in political environments the minority but powerful elite, or the tail, can often influence the public or ‘wag the dog’ with the proper tools, money and absolute power at their disposal.

I may have used this parable before, but current occasion makes it worth repeating.

The popular movie was a ‘black’ comedy-cum-political thriller starring Dustin Hoffman and Roberth De Niro, focussing upon the antics of a political spin-doctor (De Niro) and a film producer (Hoffman) who teamed up to create a fake war, to obfuscate a sitting president’s sex scandal, mere days before the US presidential elections.

In the movie, they orchestrated a series of news broadcasts to portray a civil war in Albania, faking the involvement of the US military in the non-existent conflict in order to drown out allegations that the president had sexually molested a young girl, and use the fake war to garner the support of patriotic Americans for the incumbent president.

They argued that there is nothing like a war to make a president seem more “presidential”.

This became a cult favourite and discussion fodder for conspiracy theorists everywhere.

With many questions remaining unanswered in our own Lahad Datu incident, where armed men managed to slip past our borders and occupy a village, tongues if not tails have begun to wag.

Some, like former Criminal Investigation Department head Mat Zain Ibrahim, did not dismiss speculation that the Lahad Datu standoff could have been a Wag The Dog “staged”, as quoted by PAS organHarakah.

The former cop reportedly wondered if the incident would be ‘ended’ in time for the dissolution of Parliament, just after making Prime Minister Mohd Najib Abdul Razak and Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein (centre in photo) into national heroes, he told Harakah further.

One might argue nothing gives more ministerial prestige then a war or conflict successfully waged, perhaps.

However, Hishammuddin’s statements and handling of the matter may not have made him more ministerial at all thus far, and Najib’s long silence on the matter was seen to be less then elegant.

But with Najib seemingly too jittery to dissolve Parliament early, some speculate that he fears losing support in coming polls, those persons may see the Election Commission’s comment on delaying elections as proof that the incident may have been staged just for that.

Conflict only magnified the issue

Some may also speculate that the ‘invasion’ was orchestrated to take attention away from the ongoing royal commission of inquiry (RCI) into illegal immigrants in Sabah, but that theory or any plan to that effect is flawed as the conflict only magnified the issue.

But this allegation remain in the realm of speculation without proof to back it up. Ironically even Mat Zain in his damning speculation of the possible “staging” of the incident, then turned around to warn all parties against politicising the matter.

He was quickly joined on the “do not politicise” bandwagon by BN ministers, Hishammuddin, Defence Minister Mohd Zahid Hamidiand none other then Najib himself.

This followed anaccusation by PKR veep Tian Chua (right) that Umno is behind the Lahad Datu situation for political mileage.

But it is interesting to note that in the same Bernama article on him berating Tian Chua for suggesting that Umno tried to ‘wag’ the rakyat, “Najib also said that the time had come for Malaysians to determine a government which could safeguard their interestsand promise a better future”.

This was a clear attempt at politicising the issue for BN’s advantage despite just telling off Tian Chua, and just weeks after signing Transparency International-Malaysia’s electoral integrity pledge, too.

However, despite the hair-trigger mouth of his own party official, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was quick to fume with rage when Umno-owned Malay daily Utusan then played the same game andpainted him as being behind the Lahad Datu fracas.

While not as jumpy as his subordinate, Anwar himself had no qualms to go to town criticising the government’s handling of the Lahad Datu incident, asking for explanations on how and why it came down as bad as it had with many casualties in Malaysian law enforcement officers assigned to resolve the stand-off.

While his innuendos are more polished, the tale is clear, he is painting the BN-led government as incapable of handling the matter, indirectly calling for support for those who can do a better job, like him and Pakatan for example.

Not really offering solutions

It is important to note that as matters can be interpreted now, he is not really offering solutions, just pointing out the alleged problems.

But Najib and BN also did not waste the chance to use Utusan’s report as a basis to try and crucify Anwar, their answer perhaps to remove a political threat.

Whoever started the Lahad Datu conflict, and was it staged or not, are perhaps now no longer the question, the main issue should be who is using it for their political benefit.

And the answer is sadly, both sides of the political equation. Despite their protestations to the contrary, both Pakatan and BN are shamelessly using the Lahad Datu stand-off as a platform to attack each other.

Perhaps it is time for the rakyat to wag the politicians, for in times like these, everyone, BN, Pakatan or fence-sitters needs to rise to the occasion, to work for a final solution to the invasion that is hitting our shores and presenting a clear and present danger.

There is time enough for blame after sorting out the conflict, and we can only hope that any who are complicit, if so proven, will face the full extent of the law.

It is regrettable that in our system we have to choose one side or the other, sometimes I feel that perhaps it would bode better if we can have a third choice or just take politicians out of the equation altogether.

But as that is not the case, it is time for all of us to work to resolve this matter, politicians and rakyat together. Not start to point fingers or throw accusations all over.

---

HAZLAN ZAKARIA is a member of the Malaysiakini team.