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."
My picks for the top 5 newsmakers of 2018 - Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Monday, December 24, 2018
Good one Commander! A very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to you and all the people you love. 🎉🍻🥂🍷🍸🍾🍺💐🥃 God bless!!!
Malaysiakini :“Show me a hero, and I'll write you a tragedy.” – F Scott Fitzgerald, Notebook E
COMMENT
| This year, when compiling my top five newsmakers and news stories, I
thought I would do something different. These are not the obvious
choices of top newsmakers, and comprise those who got lost in the toxic
brew of dashed expectations and cynical political manoeuvrings of the
news cycle.
I am loath to give politicians any more publicity,
even on my meagre platform. As far as I am concerned, the Pakatan
Harapan government has no excuses for not carrying out their reform
agenda.
They have controlled states, and supposedly have the
experience, but what we have been witness to is an endless succession of
politically motivated stalling tactics, embraced most often by partisan
fervour.
I would like to think these five newsmakers remind us of
who we are, but more importantly, where we are as a country. The fact
that this list includes three people who are not with us anymore is – or
should be – a stark reminder that who and where we are at the moment
means that we should stop dreaming about a New Malaysia, but open our
eyes and confront the Malaysia before us. In no particular order, here are my picks for the top five newsmakers.
M Indira Ghandi
Supposing
someone kidnapped your child, what would you do? Supposing this was
done on religious grounds? Supposing the state chose not to help you
because it needed to reinforce the primacy of the state sponsored
religion? What would you do?
Even now, the state refuses to codify laws that would put a
stop to such kidnappings, hiding behind legal precedents in a cowardly
manner to safeguard religious and racial interests.
I
honestly have no idea how M Indira Gandhi and her family continue with
their long struggle to find their missing family member while the state
claims ignorance. How do politicians live with themselves? How do
their supporters rationalise their anointed inaction? There will be no
grand gestures for someone like Indira and her family. They are alone in
New Malaysia.
From my vantage point
– “What do we get? We get a law minister who more or less washes his
hands of this case. We get someone like Human Resources Minister M
Kulasegaran, who did a lot for this case, but who now says dumb things
like he not being able to be 'directly involved in the case,' and that
it would be "improper to interfere in another minister's portfolio."
Fadiah Nadwa Fikri The
continued attacks by a state which is slipping into a kind of
fascism is shocking not only because of its hypocrisy – which is
expected in a fascist enterprise – but also because the state
understands the danger posed by people like lawyer and activist Fadiah
Nadwa Fikri.
Most often politicians are gutless. They hide their
cowardice behind concepts like pragmatism and consensus, but the reality
is that they are just as invested in the system as the foes they
demonise.
Fadiah’s dialectic – as with that of Maryam
Lee, for instance – is the finger to the establishment and its partisans
who view change as detrimental to their interests. I believe we will
see more persecutions by the state against individuals like Fadiah. But the reality is, that if more people speak up like Fadiah or support Fadiah, then there could be a New Malaysia.
From my vantage point
– (Fadiah in her own words) "Any attempt to break the fortress built
around this existing system in order to democratise the space for people
to assert their political existence is often met with harsh criticism
and rebuke. As a result, the power to shape the future and direction of
the country remains in the hands of the privileged few, thus further
alienating the voices of the many, in particular the marginalised.
Genuine democracy which seeks to place people at its heart therefore
remains out of reach."
Pastor Raymond Koh
Not just
the pastor Raymon Koh but also, Amri Che Mat, Joshua Hilmy and his wife,
Ruth Sitepu. Who made them vanish? Why isn't the Harapan state
interested in discovering who made these Malaysians disappear? I suspect
that the truth may be too shocking for the rakyat.
What is extremely worrying is that if state actors were involved, they are operating with impunity. What
would happen if more people vanish? How would the Harapan state handle
this? Are there secrets that should be left buried or does the truth set
us free? The disappearance of Koh is a festering wound that points to
something deep and malicious in the corridors of power.
From my vantage point
–“Whoever these people are they were confident that the narratives of
the state security apparatus would shield them from whatever
repercussions of the former Umno state and, here is the important part,
may very well shield them from the sanctions of the Pakatan Harapan
regime.”
Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim
Who was Muhammad
Adib Mohd Kassim, the young man who died carrying out his duties? We
will never know. As we will probably never know of the people who
carried him to safety. These people are not part of the narrative.
The death of Adib has been used by politicians in Harapan,
Umno and PAS as a means to carry out the old agendas that are running
this country. The propagandising of the death of the young
firefighter is perhaps the most shameful act in this new Malaysia. It
has stripped bare the politicians who claim that they have the interests
of the rakyat a heart, but in reality have only their own.
It
demonstrates the lie, that non-Malays are equal citizens of this country
or in whatever political structures they cling to. This is a horrendous
legacy for a young man, whose family deserves better.
From my vantage point
– "The real perpetrators of this crime are going unpunished. The people
who attacked Adib should be brought to justice. No doubt about it.
However what of the people who caused this riot? What about the people
who paid Malay thugs to trespass onto a place of worship? What of the
state security apparatus which failed to provide a credible answer to
response times to contradict eyewitness reports?"
J Soosaimanicckam
A
young man wants to serve his country. He comes from a community which
has been portrayed as not interested in serving the country. Remember
what veteran newsman A Kadir Jasin once said - "Perhaps there is wisdom
in getting more Chinese and Indians to join the armed forces so that
they too can die for one Malaysia.”
How the Naval Establishment reacts to the death of J
Soosaimanicckam has been shocking. There have been no grand
pronouncements by interested parties, because nobody cares that young
men die in service.
This is not a non-Malay thing. This
is a Malaysian thing. Young Malaysians – Malays and non-Malays – have
died in the system for a variety of reasons and nobody cares. Nobody
cares because politically, it means very little.
This is
even more dangerous in Malaysia because the system is set up along
racial and religious lines, and the establishment has a history of
cover-ups and denials. As long as the system is set
up this way, I would be very careful in encouraging our young people to
serve the state security apparatus. Some people may not like me saying
this, but someone has to.
From my vantage point
– "This kind of thinking is the foundation on which corrupt systems
thrive. These deaths and the corruption endemic in these types of
systems carry on because the public is more interested in the scandals
and corruption of the political elite. The death of Altantuya Shaariibuu
holds more public interest than the murder of servicemen."
Next up, my top news stories of the year. Merry Christmas Malaysia, whoever you are.