Mind Ministry in Malaysia

MARIAM MOKHTAR

Many people are unaware that deep in the bowels of the Prime Minister’s Department (PMD) is a little known group of people who make up the Mind Ministry.

The actual number of employees in the ministry is an official secret. The name of the minister is also a well-kept secret. Only a handful of people are aware of his existence. He is known as ‘The Undertaker’, because of his grim and solemn appearance. He reports directly to the PM and has an annual budget of several hundreds of millions of ringgits. The Mind Ministry is known colloquially as the ‘thought police’.

The idea for the ministry was mooted soon after 13 May, 1969. It gathered pace in the mid 1970s, and by the early 1980s, was fully established.

Its aim is to sustain and increase the power of Umno Baru. A former minister said, “We want absolute power. Keeping our citizens under control, is like disciplining children. We have to be cruel to be kind. It is not oppression. Technology should mainly be used for controlling every aspect of the lives of our rakyat.”

The ministry’s tactics involve the following.

First. Psychological techniques. The rakyat will receive psychological stimuli to undermine his ability for independent thought. There will be multiple slogans, national songs, and propaganda, which will present any failures of the government, as triumphs.

The old term for police in Malay is ‘mata-mata’. The modern ‘mata-mata’ (CCTV) will be employed to ‘watch over’ the rakyat. Every corner, every office block, room and road junction, will be under the watchful eye of CCTVs. Accompanying signs will remind the rakyat of Umno Baru’s greatness

Official portraits of the PMs of Malaysia will be taken so that the eyes of the PM follow you around every room.

Psychological stimuli will be directed towards our children. They will be specially selected and housed in boarding schools, so that the state has 24-hour access to their minds. The children will report any instances of disloyalty among their friends, at school, and when they return for the holidays, will find it easier to spy on family members who talk of dissent.

Individualism is not tolerated and sex is forbidden among teenagers. Once they know about love and feelings, their loyalties to the state will be forgotten. Sex is only for procreation so that future party members are born.

People’s pent-up frustrations and anger can be channelled into attacking members of the opposition – the real enemies of Umno Baru. In the absence of any wrongdoing, invent some enemies. The use of ‘the communist threat’ has never failed.

Second. Physical restraints. Observe any signs of dissent, such as the employee who refuses to observe the dress code, or who refuses to wear the ‘1Malaysia’ badge, or the tudung, for women. People who appear to be disloyal, will be denied promotion and transferred to rural outposts.

Those who ask too many questions face the same punishment, and a visit from the Inland Revenue Board officers. Their lives will be turned upside down. Those who are businessmen will be denied the chance to tender for government contracts.

Creating sideshows

Opposition politicians can be undermined by creating sideshows, such as producing video tapes, in which actors, who resemble opposition leaders, perform unnatural sex acts.

Scrutinise their records for some minor misdemeanour, even if it happened decades ago, and publicise this in the pro-government newspaper to discredit them. The aim is to keep the Umno Baru critics and the opposition in a constant state of weariness and financial burden, as they scramble to defend their reputations.

Punish the dissenters with physical torture because physical violence is always effective. The aim is to make people feel afraid. Their minds must be conditioned to associate disloyalty to the party with physical pain. We want to control what they think, and a good example is to make Malays feel victimised, and make them think that the non-Malays are their aggressors.

Third. Managing information and re-writing history. Every scrap of information, like school books and government reports should reflect Umno Baru’s existence. The removal of photographs, documents and records of the past, will make it easier for Umno Baru to shape what people should believe.

When past records are changed, the present can be controlled and Umno Baru can act freely to justify its power.

Fourth. Technological aids. The most advanced technological aids should be used on the people for the benefit of Umno Baru. CCTVs, identification papers and cards are to monitor the people’s movements.

Fifth. Language as a means of control. Humans need language to express their thoughts and feelings freely. The control of language prevents the rakyat from freely expressing themselves, having dissenting thoughts or even entertaining any feelings of disloyalty to the government.

The Internet encourages people to express their thoughts, and it has not been easy to control the use of the medium, but people who show disloyalty should be prosecuted by specific laws such as the Sedition Act.

In an extension of language usage, senior party politicians need only answer questions which have been asked in Bahasa. The use of English should be restricted, despite the Malay language having limited use within the region.

If you doubt the existence of the Mind Ministry, then look around you and compare how the five points above, manifest themselves in your lives. Look at the latest dog incident. Now, do you believe me?