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 anti-Semites who called themselves patriots introduced that
new species of national feeling which consists primarily in a complete
whitewash of one's own people and a sweeping condemnation of all
others.”– Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
COMMENT |
Let me get this out of the way. When people say they are not
anti-Semitic but rather anti-Zionist, most of the time this is complete
horse manure. The people who most often say this apply the Zionist label
to all Jews, thus making the distinction irrelevant.
This is like claiming there is a difference between ketuanan Melayu
and the Malay 'race', but ignoring the distinction and claiming that
all Malays are racial and religious supremacists. Are all Malays racist?
Are all Malays religious bigots just because they support politicians
who pander to the lowest common denominator? Or is the situation a
little more complex than that?
However, this is not the article for that conversation. This is another article– my second, I think – on mainstream anti-Semitism in our politics. PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang back in 2012 proclaimed that his party would cooperate with
the Jews, especially in the realm of trade, but rejected Zionism. He
said: "Nevertheless, PAS rejects Zionism because it is a fanatical
ideology of the Jew race.” See what Hadi did there? He
made a distinction, but then negated it with his insistence that race
and ideology were not mutually exclusive.
I will give you another example. The organisation Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Malaysia chairperson Nazari Ismail speaks for had a huge victory – at least the Palestine Chronicle thinks it is a huge victory – last year because it got Giant to withdraw jeans that were supposedly a product of Israel, but which the hypermarket chain claimed was made in China.
Two points from the Palestine Chronicle article are worth mulling over. The
first: "BDS Malaysia stated that an officer from the Giant branch in
question reported that they had returned all the stock nationwide to the
supplier. Following which a manager from Giant called Nazari and stated
that the supplier of the product was from China and asking BDS to end
its campaign against Giant.
"The professor refused, unless Giant
could prove that the original company was not of Israeli origin. Upon
checking various Giant supermarkets, BDS Malaysia members found that the
product was still stocked." And the second: "A statement was
received by BDS Malaysia from a Ms Roseta, corporate affairs, GCH Retail
Sdn Bhd stating that thought the product was made and imported from
China, and the management was willing to remove the product from all its
outlets due to its sensitive nature. She also said that she would seek
further clarification from the supplier."
Both these examples
demonstrate how the Malay ruling elite and intelligentsia manipulate the
discourse, claiming victimhood while propagating racist or bigoted agendas. Boycotting products because companies are enabling or
propagating certain ideas is acceptable but boycotting all products from
a country and linking all companies, products and services to a Zionist
agenda is not.
Why do we even have to have this conversation? The
prime minister of this country, on the campaign trail in Cameron
Highlands, claimed that people from Israel were “crooks,” and mainstream religious dogma have claimed that the Jews are the “enemies of Islam.” Never
mind that political operatives from the Malay right have invested in
companies and have had dealings with the Jewish people for decades.
Who are the crooks?
What
is needed is for the average Malay – who have not even met a Jew – to
feel a sense of hatred towards Jews for a conflict in the Middle East,
which has been used for decades to justify all sorts of malfeasance from
Islamic regimes and extremists all over the world. Does anyone
actually believe that the Malay political elite and their mouthpieces
make a distinction between Zionism and Jews? I have attended many
rallies by the Malay right – and let me tell you something, there is
only the Malay right and far right – and none of these people has made
this distinction. All of them talk about how “evil” the Jews are and how
they are not to be trusted. Some have gone so far as to cite religious
texts and authority.
The Malay right hates liberals, but they make
an exception for Jewish liberals who criticise Israel. A couple of
years ago, I was talking to a scholar who opposes the Occupation, but
who also said that there were similarities (“frighteningly so, Thaya”)
between the ketuanan Melayu ideology and Zionism.
Both she
argued centralised race as the determining factor for political and
social action. Both relied on indoctrination to marginalise the other
and both perpetrated injustice through a bureaucracy riddled with
dubious personalities who were content to wallow in their petty power.
Of course, this is not the kind of Jewish liberal who is embraced by the
Malay right.
The Pakatan Harapan grand poobah, while campaigning,
served up a large spoonful from the bigoted Kool-Aid that is served up
to the Malays on a daily basis. He claimed that the Najib Abdul Razak
regime had allowed crooks into this country and his administration,
which was the principle behind not allowing these crooks into this
country.
Who were these crooks? It was David Roet (photo) who was leading the Israeli delegation for
a UN event. What did the progressives fighting against the “evil” BN
say at the time? They accused the Najib regime of having an “affair”
with Israel.
They claimed that the Najib regime was
following in the footsteps of the Saudi regime which had close ties with
Israel. They mocked Najib when he said this in 2015: “This dictum,
known universally in all religions as the Golden Rule, could herald the
dawn of a much-needed revised relationship between Muslims and Jews.”
Of the visit and its anti-Semitic reception by the then opposition, I wrote this:
“This would have been a perfect opportunity for so-called moderate
Islamic parties to change the discourse even a little by highlighting
the fact that Islam from the Middle East, or at least that which was
perverted by petrodollars, is changing.
"They could have taken the
opportunity to learn from the Israeli experience of holding their
leadership accountable like how Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu is
facing possible criminal charges for corruption, by highlighting the
fact that a supposed enemy of Islam holds their leaders accountable to
graft allegations submitted by (mostly) independent institutions.”
Instead,
then, like now, what the Malay right is doing is merely reinforcing
anti-Semitic narratives in an effort to maintain hegemony, while
ignoring the very real consequences of such actions.
Remember,
blaming the Jews for the problems of Muslims is exactly like blaming the
Chinese for the social, economic and political problems of the Malay
community. Which brings us to the non-Malay component of Harapan’s
anti-Semitic discourse. You will never see a non-Malay political
operative speaking out against the anti-Semitism which is part of
mainstream Malay politics. Why? Because to do so would expose the truth
in the Hannah Arendt quote which opens this piece. I know I am
going to get into trouble for saying this, but Malaysia has not earned
the right to condemn Israel.
Maybe if Harapan actually delivered on its
promises and slowly did away with this corrupt, bigoted system, we could
be on the road to being a credible voice in the Palestinian discourse.