The Making of a Dictatorship

General Okanda of Ogwanaland in Central Africa has just seized power in his country from the democratically elected president. Rather than turning his country into a traditional African dictatorship, the forward looking general wants something different. Although an authoritarian at heart, he wants to be a tyrant with a friendly face, to wear the cloak of democracy in order to woo foreign aid and investment to his country. Hearing that Mahathir is an old hand at this, he makes a secret visit to Malaysia to seek advice from the old dictator.

The interview takes place at Mahathir’s grand palace in Putrajaya. After greetings and exchange of gifts, the General settles his portly bulk into a comfortable armchair, takes out a notebook and a gold fountain pen and begins the interview.

General: First of all, Dr. Mahathir, I ‘m mighty impressed with this sumptuous palace you’ve built for your residence and how you’ve managed to do it in a democratic country without widespread protest from your citizens. I must say I’ve come to the right man to learn about how to run a covert dictatorship.

Dr. M: Well, it’s not so difficult if you control everything and yet seem not to control. I’ve learned a lot from studying previous world famous dictators like Stalin and Ghengis Khan but nobody can run a "democratic dictatorship" like me. I do it My Way.

General: So Dr. Mahathir, what you consider the most important aspect of running a dictatorship?

Dr. M: Without question, you must have total control of the mass media. Not just the printed media, but also the radio and television stations. No dictatorship can survive if you have the local media criticizing you and exposing your abuses and misdeeds.

General: Now, how do you do that?

Dr. M: Here, we do it in two ways. First, we have the Printing Presses and Publications Act which requires newspapers and magazines to renew their publishing licenses every year. This really makes them toe the line. To put some fear into the printers they can be prosecuted for whatever they print even though they have no editorial control. But that’s not enough. There’s nothing like owning all the major dailies, radio and TV stations to make them fawning propaganda mouthpieces for yourself and your party.

General: But what do you do about foreign news agencies?

Dr. M: Yes, foreign new agencies are troublesome. They tend to tell my people the truth, not my version of the truth. Thankfully, most Malaysians don’t have access to them. But anyway, we just brand them liars if they print anything unfavourable. I teach my people to beware of the world press ganging up and trying to pull us down with their lies. But if they print anything good about me or my policies we have our local mass media quickly reprint them.

General: But Dr. M, isn’t that a contradiction?

Dr. M: Ha! It is. But don’t worry, my people are not too smart.

General: Okay, Dr. M, what’s next in your arsenal?

Dr. M: The next important institution you have to control is the judiciary. You have no idea how troublesome a fair judiciary can be. People use an independent court to seek redress and even roll back your abuses. So in 1988, I sacked the Lord President on trumped up charges and appointed my henchman in his place. To denote his degraded status, I now call him Chief Justice. I’ve had no trouble with the judiciary ever since.

General: How does that work? What about the jury and individual judges?

Dr. M: The jury…hmmmp! You can’t control juries which change at every case so we kick out that system long ago. Today, we have a far more corruptible system. Our court cases are decided by a single judge hearing the case. Appeals are decided by a quorum of 3 judges. We have the Chief Justice to control and assign puppet judges to important cases. To keep them in line he has the power to stagnant their careers or transfer them to the back of beyond at a moment’s notice. It also helps to cultivate a few corrupt judges. So from being a thorn in my side the judiciary has become the star in my dictatorship arsenal. I use it all the time to charge and jail my enemies.

General: You mean you also control the Attorney-General’s office?

Dr. M: Hell…yes! He’s suppose to be independent. I appoint him, but I can’t sack him. But he’s my good man. Not only will be prosecute who I tell him to, he will also not prosecute who I want to protect. Like some of my ministers who are not too smart when they dip their hands into the till for example.

General: What if you don’t have the evidence to win a case? These are all public trials aren’t they?

Dr. M: You’re sharp, general. Yes, these are public trials. Having a corrupt AG to frame the charges and a biased judge to convict the victim isn’t the whole thing. The public demands evidence. One way is to have vague oppressive laws which require little or no evidence to convict. Another way is to fabricate the evidence. That’s why you must also control the Chief of Police. We have the Special Branch in charge of extracting false confessions if necessary. You’ll be surprised at what people are willing to confess when they spend a stint in their confession dungeon.

General: Can you give me some examples of your oppressive laws?

Dr. M: We have the Sedition Act which makes it a crime to incite hatred, contempt or disaffection against the ruler, government, judiciary or among the races. Highly subject to interpretation, I tell you and easily used against whatever the opposition says. Then we have the Official Secrets Act which makes it a crime to possess or communicate any secret, confidential or restricted government document. This is highly useful to protect my corrupt minions. We ask the accusers to provide documentary evidence and when they do, we charge them under OSA instead of charging the guilty one. (both of them shared boisterous laughter) But the law which I like best…it doesn’t even need any evidence…(Dr. M. pause for effect)…is the Internal Security Act. You don’t even need a reason to arrest a man! And I can hold him indefinitely without trial.

General: But Dr…how did you manage to pass such an oppressive law? This is right out of Stalin and Hitler.

Dr. M: It was originally promulgated by the British to counter communism. I merely kept it and expand on it. There’s not a single communist in the jungle now but you don’t throw away something which is useful to you.

General: Let’s go into details a bit Dr. M. As I understand, you control the Chief Justice, the Attorney-General and the Chief Police Officer. How do you ensure their absolute loyalty?

Dr. M: Ah ha! Now we’re getting into advance techniques. Giving rewards can only go so far. You are never absolutely sure they won’t balk at something. The most effective method is to make use of corrupt men. Corrupt men are invaluable. They have far less morals and more importantly, they can be blackmailed on their past if they have second thoughts. I’ve had three blatantly corrupt men run the most important institutions – Eusoff Chin as the Chief Justice, Mokhtar Abdullah as the Attorney-General and Rahim Noor as my Chief Police Officer. Unfortunately the last one was as ruthless as he was corrupt and beat up a prominent prisoner. He had to resign.

General: My sympathies, Dr. M. But tell me, how did you collect evidence of corruption against them.

Dr. M: We have the Anti-Corruption Agency or ACA. It was formerly a fully independent body which doesn’t even report to me, but I changed that. I brought it under the Prime Minister’s Department. When they submit their investigation papers to me, I keep them in an X-file and call in the guilty one for a friendly chit-chat with the file plainly visible on my table. I even use it on my ministers. You’ll be surprised how they transform themselves from being merely loyal to fawning bootlickers parroting my every statement.

General: What happens if despite all the instruments under your control, public demonstrations still break out?

Dr. M: Well, there’s nothing like a little beating to keep people in line. We have the FRU squad, ostensibly meaning Federal Reserve Unit, but actually a short form for Ferocious, Ruthless and Uncivilized. We arm them with tear gas, water cannons and wooden batons and turn them loose on the demonstrators. We also have agent provocateurs to turn peaceful demonstrations into excuses for beating and bashing. Then we blame the opposition for organizing riots and disturbing the peace.

General: Do you have any problems with students?

Dr. M: Oh yes, college and university students are a thorn in my sides. Instead of being grateful and supporting my dictatorship, they are always talking about decadent Western concepts like democracy and human rights. We don’t under-estimate the danger students can present as my good friend and fellow-dictator Suharto found out too late. Here, we nip the problem in the bud before it starts. With the Universities and Colleges Act all students are prohibited from involving in any form of political expression on pain of expulsion. They may be old enough to vote but we insist that they remain politically ignorant because thinkers and intellectuals are usually anti-government for some arcane reason I can’t fathom.

General: How do you keep the people united and focussed on your leadership?

Dr. M: Invent a foreign enemy. I keep telling my people foreigners are out to re-colonize us and to remain united against them. There’s nothing like a foreign bogeyman to divert people from your internal problems. At the same time, we also welcome them to trade and invest in Malaysia and take part in Malaysia’s development. Even this palace was designed by a French architect.

General: Isn’t that a contradiction?

Dr. M: Yes, but as I’ve said before, my people aren’t too smart. They won’t work it out.

General: How do you deal with the opposition parties?

Dr. M: If they are small and fragmented you don’t have to worry. Once they unite, try your best to break them up. Play off one against the other. My sycophantic ministers help me to do that. Here, we have a law which forbids a person convicted and fined more than RM2000 or jailed more than 2 months to stand for public office for 5 years. I intend to use that to my advantage. Malaysia is a multi-ethnic country so we traditionally play off one race against another. Also make sure you control the Election Commission. It’s no fun having to face a free and fair poll after you’ve done so many questionable things. Luckily my Election Commission knows lot’s of dirty tricks including the slowest registration of voters in the world, and waxed ballot papers. I must introduce you to this brilliant new invention if you’re going to be a full fledge democratic dictator.

General: I’m very pleased with the information I’ve learned from you, Dr. Mahathir. I’m sure I’ll be able to run a successful dictatorship with a democratic face with your coaching. Now, is there anything else that I should know?

Dr. M: Let’s see. One last point. If your country has any Kings or traditional rulers, make sure you clip their wings and make them totally powerless. Any administrative action they do can only be done with your advice. You don’t want the King to pardon your political prisoners when you’ve taken so much trouble to get them jailed. Luckily I had the foresight to take that step many years ago even thought it took some browbeating to get the rulers to agree.

General: Very insightful Dr. Mahathir. To wrap it up can you give any case example where you’ve applied your comprehensive dictatorship machinery to eliminate a problem?

Dr. M: The case which comes to my mind immediately is my ex-Deputy Anwar Ibrahim. I had to get rid of him because he was threatening my position. Now, he was not corrupt so I had no X-file on him and I couldn’t even force him to resign. So I sacked him. Luckily the King couldn’t interfere because I had the foresight to remove the ruler’s power. Then I used my mass media to attack and slander him mercilessly including accusing him of sodomy. My Attorney-General worked overtime to fabricate trumped-up charges against him. To boost the case, the police Special Branch run three innocents through the confession factory to obtain their sworn confessions of having being sodomized by him. To get more false evidence, I also had his tennis partner charged under ISA with mandatory death penalty for forgetting to renew his license for a few lousy bullets. My Chief Justice specially promoted a junior judge to allow him to hear the case, he was to be our puppet judge. Then we have a string of police officers giving biased testimony. He didn’t have a chance, he was convicted. When the foreign press printed damning reports, I use my mass media to blast them as liars. When demonstrations broke out, my FRU crushed them. However there were consequences on the ground when the elections came around. No matter, I used my Election Commission to ensure a poll that was the dirtiest in the nation’s history. Recently I had some people arrested under the Sedition Act for writing about how unfair the trial was. It was a meticulously organized conspiracy of the highest order. Without the comprehensive dictatorship machinery I control I won’t be able to pull it off.

General Okanda was mightily impressed. He stood up, put a fist to his chest in the traditional Nazi salute and declared, "Heil Mahathir! Bringer of dictatorship to the third world".

VK Chin
21/01/2000