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."
Malaysiakini :āThose who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it.ā ā Albert Camus
COMMENT | Bersatu member and former Umno stalwart Rais Yatim claims that the United Examination Certificate (UEC) must be integrated with SPM and STPM examinations for the sake of national unity.
An earlier comment
on the predictable waffling of the Pakatan Harapan regime as to why the
cabinet could not recognise the UEC as per their election manifesto
produced this gem ā it "touches on the core of civilisation, the core of
education and the core of our country's values."
This is not a piece about recognising the UEC. As far as I am
concerned, the continuing effort to frustrate recognition of the
certificate is further evidence that the ketuanan ideology
means the negation of non-Malay culture. The only difference is that in
the āNew Malaysia,ā other strategies are employed to hoodwink people
into thinking that there are bigger issues to think about.
To be honest, Raisā statement has been bugging me ever since I read
it. It all boils down to his use of the word āour.ā Here is a former
member of a race-based party who joined another race-based party talking
about shared values.
On loop
It is the same reason why I was extremely pissed off when Finance
Minister Lim Guan Eng cavalierly claimed that he was āMalaysianā in that
press conference when asked how he felt about being a āChineseā finance
minister, while standing next to the Bersatu grand poohbah. (Note : Tokong Guan Eng has no inkling that Jew hatred is indoctrinated in Muslims via their scriptures. This one takes the cake in the Hadith : Al-Bukhari (3593) and Muslim (2921) narrated from the hadith of Ibn āUmar (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) say: āThe Jews will fight you and you will prevail over them, then a rock will say: āO Muslim, here is a Jew behind me; kill him.āā
In Saheeh Muslim (2922), it is narrated from the hadith of Abu Hurayrah that the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: āThe Hour will not begin until the Muslims fight the Jews and the Muslims will kill them, until a Jew hides behind a rock or a tree, and the rock or tree will say: O Muslim, O slave of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Except the gharqad (a thorny tree), for it is one of the trees of the Jews.ā I bet Tokong Guan Eng did not know this.)
Even more aggravating is when Lim has to condemn that new law
ā largely symbolic by the way ā passed by Israelās scandal-plagued
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, because it demonstrates how the
non-Malay community is sensitive to the issues championed by the bangsa dan agama crowd.
What about how the law discriminates or the imposed social and
political norms discriminates against the non-Malays and the Orang Asal
here, Mr Canāt-handle-the-truth?
Remember when I argued
that that whole Jerusalem rally was to save Umno and not really
Jerusalem, hereās a reminder to all the new āequalā partners in Harapan
what passes as mainstream Islamic/ Malay politics in this country:
āConsider the hate speech of Muslim convert Ridhuan Tee Abdullah, a
lecturer at the National Defence University, who has taken anti-Semitism
to a new level by comparing his Chinese brothers and sisters to the
most obscene stereotype of Jews, pleading special knowledge about their
community since he was a ākafirā (like them) before embracing Islam.ā
Truth be told, I do not know if Lim has to do that, but any
other rational non-Malay leader would have an inkling of the complete
hypocrisy of championing the Palestinian cause here, when local politics
more or less reflects the kind of anti-progressive, anti-democratic
thrust that Palestinians are up against. In other words, look to the
racism and discrimination of your system before sticking your nose in
other people's business for the sake of political brownie points.
Itās the same song replayed over and over again. āTheirā values are
āourā values because the only āvaluesā that matter are those which help
the non-Malay political structures acquire and sustain power. This would
not really be a bad thing, mind you, except those value are rooted in
racism and bigotry and reflected in the legal system, but more
importantly, supported by non-Malays for various reasons.
But our values are mocked, denounced as vulgar, described as
anti-Islamic, or whatever other nonsense people like Zakir Naik, and of
course the establishment that supports him, claim.
Does anyone else find it galling when competent people are questioned
on their ability to converse in Bahasa Malaysia, but it really means
āBahasa Melayuā because the national language is a politically loaded
concept?
I laugh myself silly when I hear non-Malays on the radio talking
about how it is appalling how some non-Malays cannot speak BM properly
as if that indicates something beyond; the fact is that for most people,
BM does not fit into their reality, because their world is more than
just the petty little fish pond that most non-Malays are always
cautioned that they are merely guests in.
And don't get me wrong, I am not talking about English when I speak of how some non-Malays speak Bahasa āappallingly.ā
Whose civilisation?
It all boils down to whose values we are talking about, right? Whose
civilisation are we talking about? Whose dominance determines the
qualities of being āMalaysianā, whatever the hell that means? Non-Malay
culture has its foundation in thousands of years of building up to
something. So do not tell me about the "core of civilisation." This kid Numan Afifi has to seek greener pastures
because of the harassment he received. Again whose values are we
talking about here? The minister in charge of Islamic affairs says to stay in the closet, but as usual, the heterosexual crowd will never have a problem with the promiscuity they assign to the LGBT community.
Remember when the former Puteri Umno woman spilled the beans
on all the indiscretion that goes on during the Umno general assembly?
"I challenge the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Department (Jawi)
to carry out huge raids to arrest those engaging in khalwat (close proximity)ā¦ How many couples are engaging in khalwat, how many couples are non-Muslims (committing khalwat) with Muslims?ā Are these āourā values?
You think that our education system and use of the national language
reflects the kind of leaders that will lead us to a better future? The
political and social elite sure as hell do not have much faith in our
education system. This is why we get public comments on leaders or
potential leaders who have had an English education and reflect a
certain kind of mindset ā allegedly ā lost in the current Malaysian
political and social landscape. Or should that be Malay political and
social landscape?
Do not get what I am getting at? Read the lastparagraph
of Rosli Khanās āPak Wan: A minister embodying Malay political
leadership.ā He says: āā¦the old mould of where he (Mohd Redzuan Yusof)
came from and the process that he went through could be an answer to
many Malay ills in leadership and the Malay dilemmas.ā
This is not what Rais means when he says "our" values, of course,
because if he did, he sure as hell would wonder why all these non-Malay,
BM-deficit kids are accepted in universities and educational
establishments that most pumped up BM-speaking kids could not even get
into.
Never our values
Nobody ā certainly not in the Malay political elite ā thinks that
maybe such an education should be open to all Malaysian students. That
old mould dusted off and used for the benefit of all Malays, and who
knows: maybe if they did that there would be more of an understanding of
how values could be shared instead of a dominant majority dictating
what their ā āourā ā values are.
However, it all goes back to what ātheirā values are. Not our values ā
never our values ā because non-Malays are not equal citizens when it
comes to determining anything in this county.
We have to claim that we are 'Malaysian first' while the Malays are
free to define themselves along racial and religious lines. āBangsa
Malaysiaā is the most wretched form of propaganda ever created. So
obviously untrue, but yet needed to reassure the majority and hoodwink
the minorities.
It is very simple, all you cretinous politicians. Ensure that the
laws of this country apply fairly to all, and Malaysians will figure out
ourselves what āourā values are.