British MP Peter Dowd described the dead cats and the red herring ploy as “the political strategy of deliberately making a shocking announcement to divert media attention away from the problems or failures in other areas.” It’s the sine qua non of authoritarian politics.
Adolf Hitler was no amateur when he claimed that the Germanic Aryans belong to a superior race compared to Semitic peoples. Subsequently, race, rage and revulsion took on sinister proportions when the masses were manipulated.
Malaysia ranks amongst the Top Ten nations that fearlessly employs this ubiquitous strategy. The so-called 4-R (race, religion, region, refugees) gambit does exceedingly well when other pressing issues are cleverly sidelined.
MA63 has been perceived in some quarters as a political distraction, too. While the Borneo Territories are busy eviscerating its disturbing doublespeak language, the federals are happily sucking away its natural resources with unconstitutional legislation as Parliament pleased and passed.
Suffian LP addressed this specific issue in Ah Thian v Government of Malaysia [1976] 2 MLJ 112 at p 113: “…The power of Parliament and of state legislatures in Malaysia is limited by the Constitution., and they cannot make any law they please.’ It is still good law.
But who is listening to the supreme law of the land when it can be used as a political distraction? Carl Schmitt wrote that “it’s not the written constitution that is supreme, but he who decides on its exceptions.”
“Independence” from colonial powers and friendly but forced dependence on the federal government was the plan. The distraction strategy worked. A long overdue autopsy is very much in the works. Further distractions were thrown into the fray: colony, territory, country, nation, state, etc.
Did the Cobbold Commission physically visit every kampung? Did the Cobbold Commission state the names and locations of every kampung they visited? Was there a genuine consensus taken with actual names and addresses of the entire people who said, yes, no, or unsure?
A post-mortem of MA63 will unleash the unbearable stench of dead cats and rotting red herrings. Questions like the civil rights of natural resources will be resurrected. Civil rights of people belong to another category where man-made laws dictate and decide within the confines of Carl Schmitt’s rationale.
The 2019 parliamentary move to restore The Borneo Territories to their original standing as independent sovereign territories, not States, failed as the two-thirds majority could not be mustered. But two-thirds opposed!
Malaysian Bar Councils, Societies and Associations have become cheerleaders for distraction politics by denigrating Article 8(2) Federal Constitution. This constitutional safeguard declares, among other things, that “there shall be no discrimination in carrying on any trade, business, profession, vocation or employment.”
Pro-discrimination and pro-monopoly laws are advanced with the mandatory requirement for the Certificate of Legal Practice. One sitting federal judge referred to an international congress that included a section entitled “Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers,” which recommended otherwise.
JAKIM is another major distraction. It’s a manifestation of lese majeste because the administration of Islamic affairs belongs to State Rulers. It’s not a federal calling. Ideally, they must have limited responsibility but without authority.
GE-16 is the ultimate aim and agenda. This necessitates the Madani government to steer its politically correct course like Himalayan-valley lorry drivers braving the dangerously narrow and precipitous roads where a small slip could cost lives.
Career politicians will do anything and everything in their power to stoke and foment race and religion to sustain and maintain a barrage of distraction politics. As long as the private sector remains undisturbed, the economy is relatively safe.
What these career diehards fail to understand is that the final curtain call rests with the voters. Urban and rural votes are crucial, pundits say, but they claim rural votes are available for sale and purchase.
Voters are usually disappointed as what they wished for never materialises with Putrajaya’s Pied Piper paving the pathway to perpetual power with putrefied politics.
Nothing can match the efficiency of the distraction strategy like that enumerated in a written constitution containing fundamental liberties of citizens. You can smell the stench just when you think you have the power to invoke your civil rights.
Fundamental liberties, rights and privileges belong solely to government. In a flash, your rights are subjected to exceptions, exemptions, excuses and explanations with the cleverly manipulated distractions as Carl Schmitt observed.
National security, public morality and welfare of the people are some of the best-known distraction ploys. Lately “national unity” has caught the fancy of those in power committed to advancing deception.
The separation of powers, the independence of the judiciary, the supreme law of the land, and other noble and lofty ideals are stellar exemplars of plain distraction politics. Explaining and applying imported principles of law has degenerated into a jurisprudence of uncertainty.
And there is the question of total addiction to distraction politics. It is in the DNA of everyone given to the temptation of misleading, misinforming, misapplying and misguiding the masses. It’s a dangerous cult operating as a political culture.
The rule of distraction has replaced the rule of law in many political administrations. Focusing is a superpower. The perpetrators are well paid to innovate new distraction elements. The prevention lobby has only the impotent rule of law.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of Sarawak Tribune.
