Dr John Postill

The development of sustainable propaganda

Paper to the conference Cabaran Pembangunan, Dilema Persekitaran Anjuran Pusat Pengajian Sosial, Pembangunan dan Persekitaran UKM, Bangi Malaysia
12-13 September 2003

Dr John Postill, University of Bremen, Germany

Abstract

In order to succeed, state propaganda has to become a sustainable form of development. The evidence for this thesis comes from two periods in the history of Malaysia : the Malayan Emergency (1948-60) and the post-WWII history of Sarawak until the events of 1998. In both cases, a host of propaganda techniques and actions were skilfully used by the British and postcolonial authorities to win over a divided population. Following Ramakrishna, this paper shows that media campaigns are, by themselves, useless. Sustainable propaganda must also entail tangible social and economic development -- that is, words must be backed up with deeds. A related finding is that propaganda is best sustained through a combination of mediated and unmediated practices. In the rural Sarawak (Iban) case mediated practices included radio broadcasts, school lessons, longhouse speeches, timed rituals and daily gossip. Over time, the line separating state and longhouse propaganda became blurred and eventually disappeared. The paper closes with some general reflections on propaganda as a form of cultural epidemic (Sperber) concomitant with processes of nation- and state-building.

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