East Germany comes to Muhyiddin's Malaysia

 

There's no doubt about it! The former hardline communist state of East Germany, known by its formal name as the German Democratic Republic (GDR) lives on - and is thriving, in Malaysia.

Some of the tactics adopted by the Stasi, the brutal police of the GDR, are widely used by our police and Special Branch during the rule of Perikatan Nasional (PN). However, these cruel police tactics started to be used during the former Umno and later on, the Umno-Baru regimes.

Some of these methods involved systematic surveillance, arbitrary arrests, sowing the seeds of conflict in the community and isolating individuals from other activist groups by spreading rumours about them.

They also recruited one or more infiltrators to distract the group's focus. Disappearances were common and confessions were beaten out of people. Children were encouraged to inform on their parents.

The Stasi's main aim was to make activism ineffective or to render it useless and halt the activities of various activist groups or dissenting individuals.

If you are not convinced that the Stasi exists in Malaysia, read the alternative media. Haven't we been living under a culture of fear?

What would you call the latest assault on ordinary Malaysians, a few days ago, when four individuals were arrested because they criticised Kedah Mentri Besar Muhammad Sanusi Mohd Nor for his sick jokes.

Kedah Mentri Besar Muhammad Sanusi Mohd Nor

Without sparing a thought for the thousands of Malaysians who had lost loved ones during the coronavirus pandemic, Sanusi joked about reserving a slot in the temporary morgues at Sungei Petani's hospitals, which had been overwhelmed by Covid-19 infections and deaths.

The arrogant Sanusi was shocked by the public backlash, so he used the oft-repeated Umno-Baru/PAS/BN line, of being quoted out of context. When that was insufficient to calm the rakyat, he apologised. Would he have apologised if there had been no outrage on social media? His apology was insincere.

The Stasi had a reputation for violence against people they considered to be enemies of the state, as do the Malaysian authorities. Our leaders call them troublemakers, just because they are champions of democracy, and moderate-minded Muslims are wrongly labelled 'liberals'.

The Stasi methods used by our authorities also include rooting out homosexuals who could be easily blackmailed, or those homosexuals who could be used to cause trouble within a group with the sole purpose of discrediting certain individuals, or the group itself.

After May 13, 1969, the government was keen to prevent further unrest in the population, but at the same time, it was desperate to preserve its international image. Anyone who is interested in rebuilding Malaysia must first acknowledge the past and see what lessons can be learnt.

Some of the damage caused during the May 1969 tragedy

One young boy who lived in Jalan Gurney in 1969, said, "May 13 changed the harmony which we had previously enjoyed.

"I grew up in Jalan Gurney and when the curfew was lifted, the Malay children were told not to play with me, if I continued befriending the Chinese kids.

"This shocked me because my upbringing had always been colour blind. Sadly, it has worsened since then."

Another said, "I lived in a northern state and my friends and I were educated at a mission school, so we were probably cushioned from the racist propaganda being spread at the time. Soon, I went to an overseas university, but on trips home, was shocked to see not just cracks in society, but enormous chasms.

"I later worked in East Malaysia, where there were none of the divisions which I felt and saw in the peninsular.

"Today, if East Malaysia is not careful, there will be a mirror image of what has happened in semenanjung (the peninsular). Already, the civil service and many of the teachers are from semenanjung, and they bring and spread their Ketuanan ideology."

Another said, "All was so good until the 1969 tragedy and in one university, the vice-chancellor (name withheld) nursed an open hatred for non-Malays. He promoted a culture that served as a breeding ground to what we see today.

"This VC got rid of the non-Malay academic staff, and stopped the promotion of the rest. He also got rid of Malay academics who were against racism and referred to them as 'traitors to "Orang Kita"'.

"This was happening all over the country."

Most Malaysians will recall that in the past, Umno-Baru and PAS would claim that they were the protectors of Islam and the defenders of the Malays.

Today, the same people are fighting among themselves for a slice of the cake, which is becoming even smaller.

Now, the battleground is not between the Malays/Muslims and the non-Malay/non-Muslims. Perhaps, it never was. It resembles a power struggle among the Malays.

If we are honest with ourselves, we are actually fighting a class war. The real fight for power and dominance is between the élite and politically privileged Malays, and ordinary Malaysians.

One social observer said, "Pakatan Harapan gave a glimmer of hope, but many betrayals and the successful use of the 3Rs (race, religion, royalty), caused the collapse of Harapan."

Despite the repression and increased surveillance, the Stasi failed to predict the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Muhyiddin Yassin's failure to lead, the tactics of the Malaysian equivalent of the Stasi, and the increased oppression of the rakyat may seem frightening at first.

Do remember that, just as in November 1989, when the fall of the Berlin Wall led to a unified Germany, the grassroots opposition movements in our country will lead to a unified Malaysia, soon.

Repression will not hold back Malaysians. - Mkini

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MARIAM MOKHTAR is a defender of the truth, the admiral-general of the Green Bean Army and president of the Perak Liberation Organisation (PLO). Blog, Twitter.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.