On communism, Bersatu and Umno just don’t get it

 

From Terence Netto

A spat has flared between Umno and Bersatu as a result of a police report lodged by the latter that Umno wants to spread communist ideology.

The report stemmed from glowing posts on social media by Umno Supreme Council member Puad Zarkashi on what a BN group he led on a recent visit to China had seen of the country’s methods of training young leaders.

Puad was amazed at the modernisation and technological advancement he and his cohorts had observed.

Puad opined that with some trimmings the methods can be borrowed to train budding leaders in Umno.

This prompted leaders in Bersatu’s Johor chapter to lodge a police report that Puad was out to spread communism among Johoreans and within the state assembly of which he is speaker.

This claim drew a caustic response from Puad who said Bersatu is also a political school, one that’s adept at indoctrinating members to be 

stupid

.

Actually, the notion of a study tour of China exposing one to the ideology of communism is ludicrous because China is no longer a communist state.

True, the country is ruled by the Chinese Communist Party, but the party is communist only in name.

From 1978 onwards, China under Deng Xiaoping and his successors steadily abandoned the Marxist-Leninist model of socio-economic development for what is more accurately described as state-sponsored capitalism.

That modicum of economic liberalisation did not bring political liberalisation: the ruling party retained authoritarian control of the state and all its levers of power.

This is again contrary to Leninist thinking because the founder of the Soviet Union, the world’s first communist state, predicted that when a communist set-up is in full flower, the state will 

wither

 away.

Neither in the Soviet Union in the 72 years of its existence, nor in the nearly 30 years that China was under Maoist thinking (1949-1978) did the state wither away, even after Deng and his successors ditched the command economy for state-run capitalism.

Instead, the ruling party steadily monopolised all levers of power even as it liberalised on the economic front.

One could say, borrowing from Lord Acton, that power tends to accumulate.

Absent checks and balances, the steady accretion of power becomes remorseless in the dictatorial state’s principal organ of control, the Politburo.

Soon that power centralises in the hands of the supremo. And that supremo soon sheds all restraints on his power, including length of tenure.

In marvelling at the modernisation of China and the almost seamless way the system draws its young into training programmes for replenishment of its leadership ranks, Puad is kidding himself if he thinks those are effective ways to prevent disorder and upheaval.

They breed 

submarine

 personalities who when they finally emerge, monopolise power and change the rules.

Puad cannot fathom what could be roiling beneath smooth folds; while Bersatu, in wanting to score cheap political points, sees what is not there and cries: 

Wolf

. - FMT

Terence Netto is a senior journalist and an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.