Muafakat Nasional needs to use the correct narrative to fight Pakatan Harapan

Yes, what is Umno’s narrative? Umno does not seem to have a fixed narrative. It probably has 100 narratives. And all the narratives are contradictory. And many are crazy and do not make sense. And all these narratives benefit DAP, PKR and Pakatan Harapan, not Umno, PAS and Barisan Nasional.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Pakatan Harapan’s success — since back in 1999 when it was still called Barisan Alternatif — is that they are very clever at playing narratives.

I suppose I should take some of that “credit” since I was in PKR’s (then called Parti Keadilan Nasional) media and psywar (perang saraf) unit — which we called the Research and Development (R&D) unit, which in reality was the spin-doctoring department.

We did research as to what can influence people’s thinking and how to play with narratives to brainwash people into thinking the way we want to think. Joseph Goebbels, of course, was a case in point — where if you tell a lie often enough, and if you can get many people to repeat that lie, then it becomes the truth.

Pemuda PKR was behind this spin back in 1999

Some of those “perceptions” we painted 20 years ago is still circulating until today. One example is Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s and family’s bank account in The National Bank of Israel.

Of course, The National Bank of Israel does not exist, which means there would be no way Mahathir and family can have billions in that bank. But to link Mahathir and Israel is very damaging to a Muslim leader.

And since Mahathir had sent Tunku Tan Sri Abdullah ibni Almarhum Tuanku Abdul Rahman on a secret (and hence illegal) mission to Israel (which we exposed), that strengthened the belief that Mahathir was working for or working with Israel (which is worse than being gay or a sodomite like Anwar Ibrahim).

Umno and Barisan Nasional failed (or did not bother) to counter our spins. So, from 1999 all the way till today, Pakatan Harapan has been monopolising the narrative. Najib Tun Razak fell in 2018, after three years of the 1MDB “exposé”, mainly because his people were too stupid or too lazy (or maybe they sengaja wanted to hurt Najib) to counter with a better and/or more believable narrative (plus they kept changing their story, which made them appear to be lying).

PAS is being made to look like crazy mullahs

If you had noticed, Lim Kit Siang and the DAP leaders are very clever at playing narratives. They would never mention Umno without mentioning racist in that same sentence. They would also never mention PAS without mentioning extremist in the same sentence.

Hence, when you think Umno, you think racist, and when you think PAS, you thing extremist. And they have been doing this for 30 or 40 years so by now it is stuck in your brain.

The west does this as well. When they mention Islam, they say fundamentalist, and when they mention Christianity, they say orthodox. Fundamentalist is bad, orthodox is good. Hence the impression you get is Islam is bad while Christianity is good.

(Orthodox: following or conforming to the traditional or generally accepted rules or beliefs of a religion, philosophy, or practice. Fundamentalist: someone who believes in traditional forms of a religion, or believes that what is written in a holy book is completely true).

This is DAP’s and Pakatan Harapan’s narrative for PAS and Islam

Okay, so what’s the difference between orthodox and fundamentalist? And why is orthodox considered good and fundamentalist considered bad? And why can’t we say Orthodox Islam and Fundamentalist Christianity?

Yes, “call girl” is a good word while “prostitute” is a bad word, when both mean exactly the same. But that is the power of narratives, something Pakatan Harapan is very good at while Barisan Nasional is hopeless with.

Take note of how Lim Kit Siang, DAP and Pakatan Harapan play with narratives. You can see Sarawak Report and all those other Pakatan Harapan portals do the same.

Power grab. Palace-backed coup. Backdoor government. Illegal Prime Minister. Umno hegemony. Barbaric Sharia laws. Malay racists. Muslim extremists. Ketuanan Melayu. NEP. Hudud. Islamic State. Potong tangan. Transparency. Accountability. Democracy. Good governance. Separation of powers. Constitutional Monarchy. Corruption. Kleptocracy. Rakyat’s mandate. Nepotism. Cronyism. Free and fair elections. Independence of the judiciary.

Anwar loves giving “intellectual” statements and loves dropping names of important people he has met for “discussions”

Those are amongst just some of the words and phrases that have been monopolised and now “owned” by DAP and Pakatan Harapan. Take note of Anwar Ibrahim’s statements and see what he always says. He can string together many meaningless words and make it appear like he is saying something very intellectual whereas he is just uttering a whole load of nonsense.

And Anwar loves telling everyone which important person he just had a meeting with.

So, with all those words and phrases that DAP and Pakatan Harapan already “own”, what is there left for Umno, PAS and Barisan Nasional? They cannot use the words and phrases that DAP and Pakatan Harapan have been using for the last 20 or 30 years. Hence PAS, Umno and Barisan Nasional do not have a good narrative.

To make it worse, the Umno people are coming out with statements that contradict their party stand and contradict each other. Umno’s “narrative” seems to be they are enemies with each other rather than enemies with DAP and Pakatan Harapan.

Nazri Aziz and Annuar Musa quarrel over PPBM: which one is the real Umno narrative?

For example, Nazri Aziz loves the DAP Secretary General more than he loves the Barisan Nasional Secretary General. In fact, Nazri has suggested the Barisan Nasional Secretary General berambus dari Umno and go join PPBM.

That is Umno’s and Barisan Nasional’s narrative – they hate each other.

Then, one group in Umno loves PAS. Another group loves Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin. Another group loves Mahathir. Another group loves Anwar. Another group wants parliament to be dissolved and a snap GE15 to be held. Another group supports Barisan Nasional. Another group supports Muafakat Nasional. Another group supports Perikatan Nasional. And another group wants Umno to go solo and contest all 800 seats in Parliament and the 13 state assemblies on its own.

Yes, what is Umno’s narrative? Umno does not seem to have a fixed narrative. It probably has 100 narratives. And all the narratives are contradictory. And many are crazy and do not make sense. And all these narratives benefit DAP, PKR and Pakatan Harapan, not Umno, PAS and Barisan Nasional.

Nazri’s enemy is Umno, not DAP