Information is the currency of democracy.
– Thomas Jefferson, 3rd US President
The inception of government from a distant past, slowly but surely, created the menace of mamikalal – acronym: more and more is known about less and less – designed, structured and applied to the dumbing down of the masses by arresting vital information. Disinformation is only information the masses receive.
Public order, and law, can only function if and when land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship are distributed to all, especially the needy. Some will jump to say that this is socialism. It’s actually altruism – empathy and sympathy for fellow human beings who are unable to claim a slice of the economic pie owing to lack of opportunity in gaining education and/or gainful employment.
Mamikalal is state-sponsored to keep the public in the dark about the affairs of state. Who decides what’s best for everyone? Are decision-makers controlled by private interests who supply campaign funds for elections? There is a distinct disconnect between the powerless, the powerful and the power-brokers.
The media claims it does its best to keep the public informed. “When I don’t read the newspaper, I am uninformed; when I read it, I am misinformed,” is the usual refrain of those tolerating a secret society of government officials who threatens enquiring minds and mouths with the Official Secrets Act. Some blame the ‘deep state’. The people responded to the deep state with secret societies.
The mumbo-jumbo of economics as taught and practised is nothing but advanced by mamikalal. Kamran Mofid observed in Globalisation for the Common Good (2002) that “economics, as taught in our universities worldwide, bears a major responsibility for the existence and persistence of global economic crises. Self-interests weaken true human values of community good, morality, ethics and justice”.
The injustices wrought by mamikalal is legion. Mason Gaffney and Fred Harrison in The Corruption of Economics (1994) described the rot thus: “Muddling of students’ minds, rationalising free-riding landowners, taking dignity from labour, rationalised chronic unemployment, hobbled society with counter-productive tax tangles, marginalised the obvious alternative system of public finance . . . and leading us into nasty and dangerous control by the super-rich (plutocracy).”
Food, shelter, clothing and other goods are produced by human effort, but not land. It’s always been available and accessible by early human settlers who built settlements using sweat equity. But no, government says it ‘owns’ the land. When that government gets replaced by another government, that new government now owns the land. Pure legislated theft.
All religious scriptures address the issue of land which is given by a Supreme Creator for the use of the people. “God gave the land to the people, so why haven’t they got it,” exclaimed British MP Andrew MacLaren (1922-1945). The thorny subject of land ownership dies a natural death in courts of law. Man-made laws overtake God-given laws concerning land.
Mamikalal reigns in courts of law pretending to be courts of equity. The government talks about freedom of religion, but with severe restrictions, constraints and limitations. Religion is the source of all known laws. All major religions dictate instructions, directions and corrections concerning land ownership, but freedom of religion gets frozen then and there when scriptures are consulted about land ownership.
A well-managed economy produces contentment for the people, and for their governors. Shady economics practice has “degenerated into a mishmash, a proliferation of ideas, opinions and beliefs, commonly expressed mathematically by professors of economics in an attempt to create an impression of precision and intellectual rigor,” warned John Young in his 1996 The Natural Economy.
The masses rely on unavailable leadership to organise discontent into a political expression for reform. But police power is available only to those in positions of power. So, people are caught in a no-protection zone because democracy, or a peoples’ form of government, only grants police power to the powerful. That is pure mamikalal in action underscoring inaction thrust upon the masses.
Every man, woman, child and the unborn have a right to use land. In Malaysia, traditional tenured farmers find themselves as squatters when the landowner decides to convert agricultural land to create a housing project. At this rate, we will be importing every food item with thousands upon thousands of fertile arable land earmarked for housing projects.
Malaysia’s National Land Code 1965 is unequivocally clear about customary land that has always belonged in right of possession and occupation to the first settlers several thousand years ago when the science and art of government were being conceived in the human genome.
When you decipher mamikalal, you will end up frenzied and frustrated because man-made laws are evil incarnate. These pieces of legislation are poison darts aimed at your souls. They serve only the law-makers. The law-breakers, even when they disobey unjust laws, are subjected to unjustified sanctions and punishments.
The masses are at the mercy of the Pied Paper who peddles propaganda like it’s all the news that’s fit to print with full and fair information. They are well-tuned to take you to the abyss. People self-inflict pain and punishment knowing the devil incarnate never takes a vacation.
Maximilien Robespierre explained mamikalal: “The secret of freedom lies in the proper education of people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.”
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
