What the opposition can learn from the fall of Saddam by Commander (Rtd) S THAYAPARAN Royal Malaysian Navy
Thursday, July 14, 2016
“That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is
the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.” - Aldous Huxley, ‘Collected Essays’
Malaysiakini : Only Umno propagandists could liken the plight of their chosen
potentate to the toppling of a genocidal dictator by foreign
intervention. MyKMU.net's attempt to contextualise
Umno’s current political turmoil because of foreign intervention, and
that ultimately regret would be what is waiting for those who partake in
displacing Umno, should appeal to a certain section of their
demographic and I am not talking about the stereotypical “rural Malay”
that oppositional types like to bandy about.
I am talking about middle-class, educated Umno/BN supporters who
would ignore greater Islamic malfeasances - although to be fair to
Saddam Hussein, he was a contradiction of secularism and virulent
sectarianism unlike your average Islamic dictator - in favour of
advancing the populist neo-colonialism American narrative which most of
these regimes use to sustain political hegemony. This is not new. In fact, the New Straits Times attempted the same a couple of years back. Here is a recap for those who may have forgotten this sordid episode from an article of mine in response to this manufactured outrage:
“Under the vomit-inducing headline of 'Plot to destabilise the government', the New Straits Times
(who I believe are propagators of a plot to destabilise rational
thinking) outlined a chilling scenario of a motley group of new media
types (which includes Malaysiakini) and social activist
organisations who are apparently being funded by a nebulous American
entity to destabilise the government and the implication being, to
create chaos ... CHAOS, I tell you, in Malaysia.
“You know they are scraping the bottom of the credibility barrel when
they quote Just World president Chandra Muzaffar who gravely intones
that NED (National Endowment for Democracy, the nebulous American entity
in question) is responsible for funding NGOs in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya
and Syria 'in the name of democratic freedom with the objective of
making people rise up against leaders who were allegedly deemed to be
cruel.'"
However, here is the thing. I am not interested in debunking this
latest round of horse manure from the cauldrons of Putrajaya. Anyway,
anyone who thinks that the regret of the man whose family was butchered
by Saddam, looking back in fondness of the despot’s tenure is anything
but some sort of post-traumatic stress, should have their heads
examined.
While I have never claimed even in my most polemical articles that
Umno is some sort of genocidal Islamic regime and I do think it is
odious to attempt to find any kind of commonality between the possible
toppling of the Najib regime and the Saddam regime, but since the Umno
propagandist have opened that door, why not run with it?
I am not interested in pointing out how the regime is going the way
of every other Islamic regime - I have been ranting about that for years
- but I do think that the opposition could learn a few lessons about
“regime change” from the American experience.
In 2012, Stephen M Walt’s contentious article ‘Top 10 Lessons of the Iraq war’ was published in the Foreign Policy magazine.
I do not aim to please anyone. This is my blog, there is no blog like this. I am not mainstream. Read my disclaimer before posting comments and threatening me. Not to worry, I will not quiver in my boots. If you are not happy, no problem, just take a hike!!
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I do not aim to please anyone. This is my blog, there is no blog like this. I am not mainstream. Read my disclaimer before posting comments and threatening me. Not to worry, I will not quiver in my boots. If you are not happy, no problem, just take a hike!!