UMNO-BN regime has neither the political will nor the principles to undo the damage done to this country and institution after decades of misrule.

Well, it looks like I’m not the only one who thinks UMNO-BN are behaving like headless, fascist chickens with their ill-conceived ISA sweep.

Here’s a brilliantly re-scripted satirical video from Kav’s Kollage – adapted from the semi-documentary film ‘Der Untergang‘, originally about the last days of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich. Kav’s version has been very cleverly re-contextualised for the political situation in Malaysia, and addresses the impending downfall of Das Bee-En Reich.

Congratulations, kamerad Kavi, this is currently the hottest video on the Malaysian net. For anyone who hasn’t seen it yet, enjoy.

On a more serious note: There are very real and disturbing similarities between UMNO and the German National Socialist (Nazi) Party.

UMNO Fascists emulate the Nazis . 12 Sept 2008

Even a cursory comparison between UMNO and the Nazis throws up unmistakable parallels — historical revisionism building up to a constructed myth of racial supremacy, usually packaged behind a facade of ‘nationalism’; the sustained use of violence or threats against minorities to quell dissent; totalitarian tendencies to control information and thought through control of the media and educational institutions; consistent anti-intellectualism, rampant corruption, manipulation of the judiciary and abuse of the police/military to further the ends of the ruling party…

It’s all been done before – by Hitler’s Nazi party in pre-war Germany, and by their contemporaries, Mussolini’s Fascists in Italy.

Hitler and the Brownshirts - Nuremberg

Over 70 years ago – prior to WW2, Hitler and his Nazi party came to power by creating a myth of racial supremacy, systematically manufacturing accusations against the Jews, Gypsies, ‘inferior races’ and other so-called ‘undesirables’ and then launching pogroms against political opponents and anyone who opposed them.

Today, we see UMNO resorting to the same fascist methods to cling to power, using as their weapons the Polis di-raja Malaysia and the Internal Security Act.

IGP Musa Hassan - UMNO Enforcer

UMNO has been exceedingly successful in suborning the police to their purposes. The PDRM have long given up any pretence of being an independent guardian of the law, and instead subordinate themselves happily to the paranoid whims of a fascist regime, becoming UMNO’s blunt (and particularly dense) instrument with which to batter opponents. The PDRM has thus goose-stepped nicely into the jackboots of the Gestapo, trampling our civil liberties underfoot in the much-abused name of ‘national security’.

Gestapo officers

One of the defining characteristics of the German Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei – ‘Secret State Police) was a particular power called the Schutzhaft – the power to arrest and detain an individual without trial – usually on trumped-up charges. Like Malaysia’s Internal Security Act, the Schutzhaft circumvented the judicial system and thus removed the ‘problem’ of accountability for the Gestapo. The ‘charges’ that were used by the Gestapo to justify their use of the Schutzhaft ranged from ‘being a Jew’, ‘collaborating with the enemy’, ‘activities against the interests of the Reich’, ‘making defeatist statements’, etc.

The fate of the arrested individual would often be decided arbitrarily by the immediate commanding officer of the Gestapo, and was not subject to judicial review. The usual result for the victim was summary execution or deportation to a concentration camp. Apart from the known victims of the Gestapo, tens of thousands others simply ‘disappeared’ while in Gestapo custody during WW2.

The Gestapo was thus actively used to persecute opposition to the Nazi regime, assist in the persecution of the Jews and to terrorise the populace into submission by thier repressive methods and reputation.

Deputy IGP Ismail Omar

The unquestioning willingness of the PDRM and especially the Special Branch to use extra-judicial methods like the Internal Security Act on opponents of the UMNO-BN regime has exactly the same sinister undertones as the historical Gestapo and their Schutzhaft.

The PDRM have not begun executing victims of the ISA yet (though the unfortunate Altantuya Shariibuu should qualify as a victim) but if left unchecked, it is only a matter of time before the PDRM and their Special Branch offshoot become the new Gestapo – a blunt instrument of repression to prolong the existence of a fascist regime.

This is why regime change is necessary. The UMNO-BN regime has neither the political will nor – it has to be said – the principles to undo the damage it has done to this country and its institutions after decades of misrule. A comprehensive change of government and de-Nazification — I mean de-UMNOisation — programme will be necessary to set Malaysia back on the right track.

Despite the latest ‘assurances’ from Abdullah that the ISA will not be used again even as the current political crisis comes to a head, this is not something we can afford to take for granted. We may even assume that Abdullah is not fully in control of the situation, and that self-interested parties like the UMNO hardline faction and the police command may try to take things into their own hands. It has happened before.

It will be necessary, I think, to maintain a state of high alert over the next few days and be ready to mobilise to defend Anwar and the key Pakatan leaders from the ISA-philic PDRM-Gestapo’s favourite ambush-and-grab tactics.

Let’s see PDRM-Gestapo arrest 20,000 people, 30,000 people, 50,000 people if they can.

A wounded beast is a dangerous beast, and UMNO is grieviously wounded now.

Now, we need to deliver the coup de grace to this beast, as quickly as possible, before the damage to this country becomes irreparable.

GL

12/12/09