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."
Malay Harapan MPs should not limit discourse in Malay polity - Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Saturday, November 03, 2018
Malaysiakini : āIf liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.ā ā George Orwell
COMMENT | The last time I
broached the topic of veteran journalist A Kadir Jasin and his āpersonal
opinionā about the expenses the royalty incurred, I wrote this
ā āSo when Kadir makes a statement about royal expenses, his claim does
not have to be challenged by the royalty but should either be verified
and challenged by the Finance Ministry. End of controversy. However,
Kadirās piece is more than just about royal expenses.ā
The last part of that paragraph about Kadirās piece being about more
than just royal expenses is the important bit. This, of course, goes
beyond the simple platitudes the political elite in this country - Malay
and non-Malay ā spew about those institutions they believe sacred to
mainstream Malay politics that they use to acquire and retain power. Kadirās latest dust-up on the Kedah royalty got him the usual fascist
attacks - that his comments were āseditiousā and needed to be investigated by the authorities - from a PKR political operative, Johari Abdul (photo). I wish political operatives would advocate on behalf of rape survivors as they do for the royalty in this country.
By the way, I thought it was smart of Kadirin his response
to criticism that he had overstepped when it came to this issue - that
he quoted the lyrics of the Kedah state anthem and the national anthem
to demonstrate that royalty were not beyond criticism, especially if
their position (literally) departed from their traditional seats of
power. If a non-Malay had said this, they would have been hell to pay. So
the politically correct thing to do for non-Malay political operatives,
journalists and other public commentators, is to remain silent when it
comes to issues like these.
For non-Malay political operatives, it is
merely playing the game of acquiring power in the Malay political
landscape and any form of corruption, moral or fiscal, is ignored
because we are told that this is Malay territory, so do not trespass. Before the election, a young Malay political operative now with
Bersatu but formerly with one of the more intelligent think tanks in
this country, wrote that he joined the political fray because there were
some things that needed to be said but was better coming from a Malay.
The irony, of course, is that his posts about affirmative action being
morally wrong, for instance, has since been removed and any kind of
āprogressiveā think pieces has been sanitised. This is what happens in
mainstream politics in this country.
What right-wing Malay types fear more than non-Malays trespassing
into their sacred domains is the idea that other Malays deviate from the
group-think. This is why the public comments of a young Malay woman
like Fadiah Nadwa Fikri (photo) about the royalty is feared by the Malay political elite in this country. This, of course, is hypocritical.
The Malay political elite in this country have redefined the monarchy
to make them compliant to the political processes that the political
elite in this country rely on to sustain power
- āLet us not be precious. The ruling elite over the decades has
curtailed the power of the monarchy. The last attempt was a brazen power
grab by the former Umno regime through the National Security Council
(NSC) gambit.
āThe current Pakatan Harapan grand poohbah (Dr Mahathir Mohamad) has
done his fair share of rabble-rousing when it comes to the power and the
role of the monarchy. When it is convenient to defend the institution
of the monarchy as a sacred cow of Malay/Muslim politics, political
operatives jump up and down attempting to outdo one another in
burnishing their ethnic and religious credentials.ā
Fascist sedition law
So this PKR representative attacking the liberty of Kadir ā which the
fascist sedition law is ā could be just another episode in the rather
tedious ānicht deklarierter Kriegā (undeclared war) between factions of
Malay political operatives in Bersatu and PKR, or maybe just another way
in which a Malay political operative scores points with the Umno base.
More importantly though it is an example of how the Malay community cannibalises itself ā sorry, Umno leader Nazri Abdul Aziz (photo)
ā in an attempt to retain hegemony of thought in the Malay polity. When
this PKR leader does something like this, it is a reminder to all the
other Malay dissenters who believe that there is something wrong with
their community.
It is easy to paint Malays who think that there is something wrong
with mainstream Malay politics as āliberalsā. I canāt speak for anyone
else but the political operatives I talk to and the young Malay
journalists and activists I speak to, who think that the royal
institution should be open to public scrutiny especially when it comes
to public funds, are not the average liberal that right-wing Malay types
love to demonise.
Whenever a Malay political operative like say, PKR leader Anwar
Ibrahim, talks about protecting Malay rights, or when someone like
Bersatu leader Rais Hussin writes about recalibrating āketuanan Melayuā,
what they are really doing is attempting to perpetuate a system that
not only disenfranchises the Malay community but more importantly
relegates egalitarian democratic process ā flawed as they are ā to the
back burner, which is the last thing that would save Malaysia.
Malay Harapan MPs should not attempt to stifle free speech in the
Malay community. They can and should state their position clearly even
if those positions follow the conventional narratives of mainstream
Malay politics. What they should not do is attempt to use fascists
elements of the state against those who do depart from the group-think
when it comes to specific issues.
This is important because as long as there is a healthy discourse in
the Malay community, issues such as corruption will not be hidden behind
the veil of racial and religious supremacy and the institutions that
service such imperatives. The reality is that the discourse within the
Malay community has been going on for some time. What the Umno state and
its thugs ā institutional and outsourced ā did was attempt to stifle
such discourses.
It is incumbent on Malay Harapan political operatives to encourage
this discourse if they really want to save Malaysia and this includes
"recalibrating" institutions that limit such freedoms. Otherwise, carry
on usual and reap the extremists wind when it finally blows into
Malaysia in full force.