Dedy Priatmojo, Jakarta – President Prabowo Subianto has again highlighted the "Dark Indonesia" campaign that has gone viral on social media recently as a response to the economic-political unrest under the administration of Prabowo and Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka.
Prabowo claims to be confused by people who call Indonesia dark. However, he respects people's rights to say "Indonesia is dark". But Prabowo has the opposite belief that "Indonesia is bright".
"I am also surprised that there are people who say that Indonesia is dark. If they feel it's dark, that's their right. But when I wake up in the morning, I see a bright Indonesia", said Prabowo at an event titled A Joint Informal Economic Discussion with the President of the Republic of Indonesia at Mandiri Tower in Central Jakarta on Tuesday April 8.
"When I meet farmers, farmers are happy. Their yields (harvests) have increased drastically. Production has increased drastically. We cut all the incorrect regulations, we simplified them", he continued.
During the informal discussion Prabowo also highlighted the theory that if lies or hoaxes are repeated over and over again, many people might believe them.
As an illustration, a person who strongly and stringently believes that "the sun does not rise in the east but the sun rises in the west". Because the person says a thousand times "the sun rises in the west", it could be that some people come to believe that "the sun rises in the west".
"That is the science of propaganda, it's all in a book. That was the expertise of Hitler and Joseph Goebbels (German Nazi figures). If a lie is repeated many times, continuously, over time people will believe the lie, this is in a book, called the Art of Propaganda, and we study it. All countries study it. That is what's done, it's called psychological warfare-psychological operations. This is often done to destabilise a country", Prabowo explained.
Then, Prabowo continued, the second theory of the Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels was that "The bigger the lie, the easier it is for people to believe it".
"So a bigger lie is easier for people to believe. So now fake news is easy but we mustn't complain, this is the reality, that's why we're open. A lie can only be faced by opening up, giving an explanation as it is, based on facts, based on reality, based on science and mathematics. Lies can be continued but one day it will be seen, trust will be lost", said Prabowo.
"So, a regime or group or organisation that launches something based on lies will be broken", he asserted.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Prabowo Ingatkan Bahaya Teori Propaganda Nazi Sebar Hoax, Singgung Indonesia Gelap".]
