Rudyard Kipling"
āWhen you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldierā
General Douglas MacArthur"
āWe are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.ā
āIt is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.ā āOld soldiers never die; they just fade away.
āThe soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.ā
āMay God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .ā āThe object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
āNobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
āIt is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
If you do not vote, do not complain - By Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Thursday, December 21, 2017
Malaysiakini : āDo the unexpected. Take 20 minutes out of your day, do what young people all over the world are dying to do: vote.ā ā Rick Mercer
COMMENT | I really dig this
passage from David Foster Wallace - āIf you are bored and disgusted by
politics and don't bother to vote, you are in effect voting for the
entrenched establishments of the two major parties, who please rest
assured are not dumb, and who are keenly aware that it is in their
interests to keep you disgusted and bored and cynical and to give you
every possible reason to stay at home doing one-hitters and watching MTV
on primary day.
By all means stay home if you want, but don't bullshit
yourself that you're not voting. In reality, there is no such thing as
not voting: you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and
tacitly doubling the value of some diehard's vote.ā I like the quote so much that I have used it before. It neatly
exposes the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of not voting. It also is a
reminder that cynical arguments of not voting as a means of registering
dissatisfaction helps the very people you are dissatisfied with.
At a recent forum, activist and former lawyer Fadiah Nadwa Fikri said that she respects the decision of abstaining from voting.
While voting may not be the only way to effect change ā it is the
easiest way and one that demands very little of a citizen in a
functional democracy ā claiming that believing otherwise ādegrade a
personās humanity down to the act of votingā is obnoxious, considering
all over the world people are in some cases dying in their efforts to
get this most fundamental of human rights.
Meanwhile, DAPās Hannah Yeoh, referring to the āabstain from votingā
movement as āunhelpfulā ā unhelpful to whom, I wonder? - preached the
usual political bromides of changing the system incrementally. This, of
course, is political speak for ādo not hold us to our grand promises
because the system does not work that way.ā
I do not respect the decision to abstain from voting. I am all for
finding out the reasons why young people (especially) are disillusioned
by the choices that they have (I have written numerous articles on this
subject) but ultimately if you do not vote, you should not complain
about the state of the country. You should not endlessly bitch and moan
about how hard done by you are by the system.
Here is a taste of why I think
some folks choose to abstain ā āThe opposition always says that people
are not āeducatedā and that if they only knew the ātruthā, they would
understand why we need to change the government.
Perhaps people know the
truth and they believe that it is safer for whatever reason not to vote
because it would not make any difference, especially now that the
opposition has joined forces with the very man they claimed was
destroying this country ā how many times has this country been
destroyed? ā and attempting to engineer a revival that would see the
system not only rejuvenated but also redeemed. Perhaps some folks do not
want to be a part of that.ā
I will bet my last ringgit that the same people who do not vote also
troll news sites and fill social media with their numerous complaints,
confine their āactivismā to forwarding anti-establishment or
pro-opposition polemics even though neither appeals to them, and mocking
people from both sides of the political divide for being part of the
problem. This, of course, is a direct result of partisanship because the
people who have chosen a side do nothing to ensure that the side they
have chosen is accountable for the promises they make or the words they
speak. Pro-establishment partisans and pro-opposition partisans just
shout at one another, and this is exactly what the political elites they
support want.
Abstaining is not an option
For them, fighting online, making libellous, racists or bigoted
comments behind the cloak of anonymity, passes for free speech. Most
politically engaged folk believe that the echo chambers they inhabit
represent the majority view, and that those who do not subscribe to
those views do so because they are complicit in the bribe-taking or are
racists or bigoted.
Is it any wonder that there is a growing movement to abstain from
supporting either side? Look, I have made my pitch for why a two-party
system (flawed as it is) is better than returning the establishment to
power. Some folks disagree with me but I would hope that they still cast
their vote. If you are voting for Barisan National or leaning that way, I do not
think you are stupid or uninformed or racists or bigoted. Trust me, you
can be all those and vote the opposition. You have your reasons for
maintaining whatever social, political and economic equilibrium you
think best suits Malaysia. So, vote with your conscience and hope for
the best.
After all, despite what some people say, this country has thrived
somewhat with all the systemic inequalities and maybe you think that our
luck will hold and maybe it will. Maybe if the establishment gets the
mandate it desires from a diverse voting demographic, it will loosen up
on its racial and religious agendas and get back to policies that are
more inclusive.
If you are opposition-leaning and are disillusioned with the
opposition, remember what happened to all those progressives ā and the
opposition in Malaysia is supposed to be progressives ā in the US who
believed that the GOP (Grand Old Party/Republican) candidate and DNC
(Democratic National Committee) candidate were not worth voting for. How
did that work out for them? But the Americans are lucky because they
have mid-term elections coming up next year. We have no such safety
valves.
If I had it my way, the opposition supporting demographic would vote
for any PSM candidate that stood for election even if it means not
supporting the other Harapan candidates. People who are lucky enough to
have this option have it easy. At least, they know that they are voting
to drain the swamp. If you are unlucky and have to make do with what you have, the least
you could do is make your voices heard if and when you think the
opposition is going down the wrong path. At least this way you are
complaining about something you could influence.
Now some opposition politicians delight in the fact that opposition
voters āhave no choiceā but to vote for them, so they act with impunity.
The reason why they get away with this is because of the way they have
framed the debate. The world is not going to end if the opposition does
not gain federal power. In fact, if they retain state-level dominance,
the world will move on in much the same way, which is a slow steady
decline.
So, abstaining is not an option. If you do not like what the
opposition is selling, do not vote for them and instead vote to maintain
the status quo. If you do not like what the establishment is selling,
vote for the opposition. Do not think that by abstaining you are not
shaping the direction of this country. Believing that abstaining sends the message that a certain section of
the polity is dissatisfied is pointless because a lower turnout or less
support merely confirms that a win is a win, which is one of the
drawbacks of democracy.
What the opposition should be concerned about is that if people do
not see a difference between the opposition and the establishment, this
is not the fault of voters. It is the fault of the opposition.