The Challenge - a prelude to political carnage Part One Delusions of persecution Mahathir Mohamad's often cruel, dogmatic and bigoted essence pours forth whenever opposition forces, foreign and domestic alike, are aligning against him. He brooks no dissent and tracks down his perceived bogeys with unrestrained vehemence. These conspiring ghosts of his, he has asserted repeatedly throughout his political career, are hell bent on undermining him, the Malay race, Malaysia and the rest of the developing world. Dr. M, of course, knows well his audience in the Malay heartland, which for decades has been spoon-fed his prejudices and lopsided pronouncements. And as propagandists throughout the ages have known, there should be a grain of truth, a common opinion or a historical bias to make the lie somewhat believable.
Repetition does the rest.
Say it often and say it loud. And before long, the audience has forgotten there was another view. In Malaysia, this can be accomplished with relative ease, primarily because all mass media is owned by the government, or controlled by companies owned by Dr. M's United Malays National Organization and its ruling coalition partners, or owned by Mahathir's sycophantic friends, who nonetheless still must apply yearly for fresh publishing licenses from the ubiquitous Ministry of Home Affairs. Dr. M has headed this ministry for most of his 17-year regime. But it's hard to change history, and the record perhaps offers a more honest glimpse of the good doctor, back before he was subject to such constraints.