In the 1930s, an obscure pea-brained, neurotic German of Austrian origin Adolf Hitler, who later went on to become the leader of the Nazi Party, had a delusional belief that the Germans were superior to all other races. In fact, Hitler was so obsessed with ‘racial purity’ that he used the word ‘Aryan’ to describe his idea of a ‘pure German race’ or Herrenvolk. He believed the ‘Aryan race’ had a duty to control the world.
As a result, the Nazis believed that the Aryans had the most ‘pure blood’ of all the people on earth, while ‘Non-Aryans’ came to be seen as impure and even evil. Hitler believed that Aryan superiority was being threatened particularly by the Jews.
This formed the cornerstone of his ideology and shallow political philosophy which, history shows, went on to unleash unprecedented catastrophe in the form of World War II.
To make up for his lack of a political philosophy, Hitler – a demagogue of note with an uncanny ability to make people rile up people – had a dangerous political instinct, and believed that to attain power and entrench yourself in power, you needed to have control over institutions like the army and police. According to William Shirer’s book, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Herr Hitler had his own ‘police’ force even before he ascended to power.
Sadly, we have modern-day Hitlers in Lesotho politics – political leaders who are hell-bent on using the recurrent administrative challenges in the Lesotho Mounted Police Service, to gain political mileage.
Our recent history shows that these guys in uniform are so naive they easily throw professionalism out of the window and foolishly align themselves with politicians who ‘like’ them, with disastrous consequences.
We all saw what this did to the Lesotho Defence Force, and we would not like it to play out in the police service. Therefore, we beg all politicians: hands off the LMPS. And to the LMPS, we say, forewarned is forearmed, politicians love no one but themselves. They do not show you support because they love you. They are villains with an agenda, and you are a just tool to achieving that warped, depraved agenda.
