Rudyard Kipling"
“When 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 soldier”
General Douglas MacArthur"
“We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”
“It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.” “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
“The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
“May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .” “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
“Nobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
“It 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."
The great lie from Malay power structures - By Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Monday, May 07, 2018
Malaysiakini : “Shahrir Abdul Samad said the Malay tsunami bandied by the
opposition was intended to destroy the long-established Malay
institutions in the country.” – Malaysiakini
COMMENT | Kudos to the Malaysiakini team for their interview with former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad. I would hate to see Malaysiakini become the Pravda of the opposition. I know for a fact that Malaysiakini would
like to interview the current Umno grand poobah (Najib Razak) but say
what you like about the old maverick, he never has a problem confronting
a hostile press, here or abroad. The same cannot be said of the current
prime minister. It’s getting late in the day for him to prove me wrong,
I guess.
People always ask me, if Mahathir wins this election, will things
change? That says a lot. Before Mahathir came on board, most people did
not even think this election was winnable. Political prisoner Anwar
Ibrahim for various reasons was not able to galvanise the demographic
that was needed to take Putrajaya. Some folks took exception when I argued that Mahathir is the only choice
for the opposition for PM – “A Mahathir-Najib showdown makes sense in a
way that the whole 1MDB fiasco could never. There is a clear Malay
choice for the direction of this country and with Mahathir at the helm;
many Malays who are sick and tired of the politicking that goes on would
be encouraged to ‘save Malaysia’.
They would do this by giving the
country back to the man who more or less created modern Malaysia and who
redefined the Malay polity over the decades of his long watch.” When former minister Zaid Ibrahim - whose idea I riffed off from -
first mooted this, what I was really hoping for was that the old
maverick took the fight to the Umno/Malay establishment, which truth be
told he recreated over his long watch. That’s the key, you see. If Mahathir wins this election, he would
have broken the chokehold on the Malay community that no single party
should have. Now I get that some people say that the system encourages
no real difference in Malay power structures, but the first step is for
the Malay community (like their Indian and Chinese brethren) to
understand that they have a choice of who they want to lead this
country.
The great lie of ‘ketuanan’ politics is that the opposition wants to
destroy “Malay” institutions. The old maverick also played that card
when he was in power. Mainstream Malay politics involves protecting
institutions that give succour to the Malay polity. These institutions
give employment to a sizeable number of Malays. The civil service, the
state security apparatus, the various organisations linked to the
government are thus linked to the Malay politics that determines the
pecking order of the Malay polity.
Attacking these institutions means attacking the rice bowls of the
Malay community. The reality is that that no non-Malay power structures
could ever attack Malay institutions because not only were these power
structures intimately linked to these institutions through non-Malay
plutocrats but because of the way how the systemic discrimination in the
civil service and educational organisations played out, non-Malays had
to fend for themselves, meaning they did not need these institutions. The only Malaysians who pose a threat to these institutions are the
Malays. The only people who could redefine or reform these institutions
are the Malays. The Malay establishment have never faced a threat like
they have with the former prime minister. While the old maverick may
demur, the reality is that that these so-called Malay institutions are
what they are today because of him.
Dr M’s open letter
It was a brilliant move by the former prime minister to write
to the security apparatus of the state. Not many people understand the
significance of such a move. It was not so much as reminding them they
have a choice of government but rather it was a reminder that the office
of prime minister was sullied by the behaviour of the current occupant. The same goes for the civil service and the open letter to Umno
members. All of this was taking the fight directly to Umno. The
incursions into traditional Umno voting bases poses a real threat this
time to the Umno hegemon, because unlike political prisoner Anwar
Ibrahim, the former prime minister is a bone fide strongman of Malay
rights who would never in a million years sell out the “Malays”. Or at
least that is the thinking of the demographic that the opposition seems
to think want change but in reality, are just weighing their options as
to who serves their “Malay” interests best.
This is exactly what the opposition wanted out the alliance with the
former prime minister. This is exactly what Umno fears most. They fear
it so much that they go about cutting out his pictures as if his visage
is some sort of totem to the demographic that could evict them from
Putrajaya. They could be right. The former prime minister resonates with
a certain demographic not influenced by the Islamism of PAS. When he
tells them that the current Umno government is stealing from them,
selling of their country and betraying Islam, it means something. Add to this, the hostility between the natives and
constitutionally-created "Malays", the former prime minister has a ready
base believing that under his rule, the "Malays" in the Peninsular were
taken care of instead of being sold down the river by a gentry class
which the old maverick has always been at odds with.
As I said, the only real enemy Umno fears are the enemies within.
While sacking former high-ranking government officials and Umno members
may seem that everything is under control, what Umno really fears are
the sleepers loyal to those they chose to throw out. Some folks do not
understand how loyal the cadre are to people like former Wanita Umno
chief Rafidah Aziz and the former prime minister. But more than that,
they realise that their job security is threatened by an Umno potentate
who is weak.
Let us take the state security apparatus, for instance. People do not
realise how much the state security apparatus admires the former prime
minister. While people may look back at the Mahathir years as an
indictment of the current political landscape, the state security
personnel think of him as the epitome of dignity and steel-nerved
determination. Unlike some Umno potentates, Mahathir was/is very well
regarded by the rank-and-file of the state security apparatus. Then and
now.
This to me is the best thing about why the old maverick joining the
opposition has achieved. Could he reform these Malay institutions? Could
he destroy the coteries of influence within these Malay power
institutions who loot the coffers of such organisations like Tabung
Haji, Felda and the various other institutions that the Malays hold
sacred? Who knows? What I do know is that Umno fears this. They fear that he could
actually be the reformer that Anwar always threatened he was. Even
worse, if he gave the keys to the kingdom to Anwar.