“Propaganda is the executive arm of the invisible government.”

― Edward Bernays

COMMENT | The attorney-general’s decision to discontinue proceedings against the LTTE 12 is welcome news. While the Bar Council rightly ask why charges were brought against the 12 in the first place and numerous political operatives have been expressing their relief at such a conclusion, a darker narrative is taking shape.

Already my inbox and phone have been inundated with messages from people crying foul about this decision. A well-known far-right personality called me up and wondered if Tommy Thomas had “signalled” to the Indian community that these “terrorists” were going to be freed beforehand? Yes, the Indian community has our super-secret telepathy which we use to communicate amongst ourselves.

Another (Islamist) lectured me about the injustice of Muslim terrorists detained by the state when these “Indian” terrorists were set free. I suppose his argument is that we should not arrest any terrorist and leave them to carry out their plots without any interference.

Thomas was always in an extremely messed-up position. Let’s drop the politically correct kumbaya for a moment, shall we? When Thomas became the AG, the far-right and agents of the fascist state went berserk. This was exactly the kind of doomsday scenario of an “Indian” AG in charge that they envisioned.

If the AG went ahead with these horse manure charges, he would have been vilified by the minority communities and the far-right would have used him as further evidence that the non-Malays could not handle it when members of their own community were charged with terrorism-related activities. Hence, all these communist and LTTE narratives being peddled at the moment.

If the AG dropped the charges, his ethnicity would be used against him. Already we have public personalities like the Malaysian Muslim Solidarity movement (Isma) president calling for the “public” to ask for the AG's resignation. Isma head honcho Haji Aminuddin Yahaya said this: “Ini sudah tentu memberikan mesej yang ...