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."
Is it a crime to vote against Umno? - By Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Monday, February 26, 2018
Malaysiakini : āTotalitarianism in power invariably
replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with
those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is
still the best guarantee of their loyalty.ā ā Hannah Arendt, āThe Origins of Totalitarianismā
COMMENT | I am sick and tired of
this horse manure. When Umno supreme council member Tajuddin Abdul
Rahman āwarnsā the DAP of the allegations of blogger Raja Petra
Kamarudin aka RPK about a āChineseā takeover of the federal government,
all I can say is, why hold elections at all? Why not ban all opposition
parties starting with DAP?
What does this āwarningā actually entail? What is Umno going to do if
the allegations are true? And this is the insidious part. The
allegations are that billionaire Robert Kuok wants to bring down āMalayā
rule and wants to split the Malay community and he does this by funding
the DAP, amongst other nefarious activities.
Hence anything to do with the opposition - exercising your democratic
rights, freedom of speech and the usual high-level influence, which is
part and parcel of the capitalist process - automatically becomes an act
of treason against the Malay community. This is essentially what these
āallegationsā amount to.
So Kuok and his defenders have to either claim that he does not
channel funds to DAP - thus negating his democratic right - to
ādisproveā allegations by the Umno hegemon, thereby conforming to the
racist narratives of Umno, or admit they did it - which is their
democratic right - thereby (again) conforming to the racist Umno
narratives. It is tough being a non-Malay plutocrat in this country.
Is Umno saying that it is a crime to fund the DAP? Is Umno saying
that it is crime to vote for the DAP? Is it a crime to acknowledge that
systemic racial inequalities are detrimental to Malaysian social,
political and economic life? Is it a crime to point out that the
systemic imbalances that favour one racial group over the others has not
proven to benefit the preferred racial group? In short, is it a crime
to vote against Umno?
If these are crimes, then why not prosecute them? If these are
crimes, why not ensure that the wrongdoers are brought to justice. If
these are crimes, then why is the federal government not doing anything
about it?
To put it very simply, rich people always attempt to influence the
political system they operate in. This is capitalism. Rich people
attempting to influence the political elites, and the political elites
attempting to enrich themselves by creating policies that favour
plutocrats is unfortunately part of the democratic process. It happens
everywhere.
Except in Malaysia, the political elites are Malay potentates and
their non-Malay enablers. So when the manure hits the fan and the former
are struggling for power, it is the latter who feel the brunt of this
power struggle.
Systemic racial privilege does not work. If you are a supporter of
the establishment and see that it does not work, surely you would
attempt to influence the establishment into abandoning policies that
would bring ruination to the country. This is what intelligent people
within the establishment would do.
And if the establishment does not pay attention, you would of course
turn to other powerbrokers who could stop policies that would endanger
the country. Of course, when you do this, you invite the wrath of
entrenched interest who believe that you are beholden to them, and them
alone.
āUmno-washedā
So non-Malays, who have had their contributions āUmno-washedā out of
the history books and always have to demonstrate loyalty to their
country, have to put up with allegations that by exercising their
fundamental rights means that they are anti-Malay or anti-Islam. With
this in mind, since they pose such a danger to the Malay community, why
hold elections at all? Why have political parties to represent their
interest at all?
Since non-Malay interests are anathema to the peace and security of this country, why allow them the right to vote? I have made this argument
before ā āWhen you consider the racist rhetoric coming out of Umno
powerbrokers, government ministers and government institutions, the
religious bigotry from the same, Umno should just drop this charade of
democracy and ban all non-Malay/Muslim political parties. This way, the
Malay community, or least that section of the Umno voting base, will not
have to be encumbered by the existential threat the non-Malays
supposedly pose to their ābangsaā and āagamaā.ā
On the one hand, we have Umno raving about how the DAP is going to
bring about Chinese rule through Malay proxies and on the other, we have
the prime minister warning
the Chinese community - āIf there is no peace in our country, what will
happen? The Chinese will be the first to be targeted if there is no
peace in this country.
If DAP is an existential threat to the Malay community, then the only
way to actually safeguard the community is to ban DAP. If the Malay
component of Pakatan Harapan is in reality proxies for the mandarins of
the DAP, then the only logical strategy to ensure that these
collaborators do not destroy the country, thus making the ātargetingā
the Chinese community inevitable, would be to ban all Malay opposition
political parties as well.
This way Malaysia does not need to hold elections and the Chinese
community would be safe from Islamic extremists, the Malays would be
safe from the secret agenda of Chinese rule and the Indians... well, who
knows what the Indians would be safe from?
Furthermore, Umno would not have to worry about plutocrats funding
the DAP or the opposition, and all that money that is going to
opposition parties could be put to better use. What that is, I have no
idea but I would assume it would be channelled to agendas that would
ensure that there is no split in the Malay vote.
But why stop there? Since the Malay vote is also split on religious
grounds, Umno should also ban PAS. Even though PAS is simpatico with
Umno at the moment, they still pose a threat in that one can never tell
when they will decide that the Umno big cheese is a āmahafiraunā and
that the Malay community should resist the corrupt and decadent practice
of Umno. It has after all happened before.
So, PAS should be banned
pre-emptively before the banning of all the other opposition parties. According to the narratives of Umno, this is the only way to ensure
that our country is a stable, prosperous āIslamicā state. This is
exactly why smart people are leaving this country. This is exactly why
smart people working for and in the establishment give up on disgust.
This is exactly why people have lost faith in our political process.
Never let it be said that I do not have the best interest of this country at heart.