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."
PKR's infighting will be the downfall of Harapan - Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Wednesday, January 02, 2019
Malaysia :"I see a bad moon a-rising I see trouble on the way I see earthquakes and lightnin' I see bad times today.” - Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Bad Moon Rising”
COMMENT
| The mistake some people make is to choose sides when it comes to the
camps in PKR. This is problematic because when proxies from either camp
highlight issues affecting the rakyat, the issue gets lost in a quagmire
of partisan posturing. The fight within PKR is not some
great ideological divide, as some participants would have you believe.
It is rather about craven political moves to secure hegemony. There is
nothing radical that the winner of either camp would inject into
mainstream Malay politics. This is really a game of knaves. Someone
once asked me who do I prefer, PKR deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali
or vice-president Rafizi Ramli. I said, in a perfect world, they would
be working together. Both have demonstrated a remarkable ability to
remain relevant and contribute to Malay politics in a way that is –
unfortunately – essential in running this country. Azmin plays it close
to his chest, while Rafizi puts it out there. People
forget that these two leaders managed to hold it together even though
they were at odds with each other. While I may have disagreed with Azmin
holding onto PAS as Selangor menteri besar far longer than he should
have, the moves Rafizi made to further his agenda in PKR were just as
self-defeating. Internal squabbling While
internal party conflict is not new, what is new is the context of this
fight. PKR is a Malay-led political party struggling to define itself,
even more so now with Bersatu in the mix. As a political party for all
Malaysians, its Malay leadership is tearing the party apart, with the
aid of non-Malay loyalists. That’s the realpolitik of it. Which is also kind of juvenile. Think back to before the elections, when PKR was in a kerfuffle
because of seat allocations – “Admittedly, Azmin claiming that he had
no knowledge of the candidates' list before the big reveal by Harapan
bigshots was dodgy and furthered the narrative that it was amateur hour
at PKR HQ, not to mention it had a whiff of mala fide. Also the tears
flowing at the press conference of Rawang assemblyperson Gan Pei Nei (photo) were self-defeating as was Batu incumbent parliamentarian Tian Chua’s rejoinder to whoever to be careful."
I
just want to see who emerges when the dust settles. Demonising Azmin
and going all creamy on Anwar and his camp may make good copy, but the
reality is, this squabbling in PKR is damaging the idea – that dream,
really – that a multiracial political party can survive in Malaysia.
Scratch that – the idea a multiracial political party led by Malays can
survive in Malaysia. A non-Malay political operative from
PKR who has chosen – so far – to remain, above the fray (or since, as he
says, nobody has really noticed that he was elected) shakes his head
whenever he talks about the camps in PKR. “We were given the keys to the
kingdom and we are squabbling in the courtyard,” he said. Another
political operative said that Azmin is spooked, which is why he is
making overt statements in the press or through his proxies. “Look,
whatever you say about the PKR elections, his camp did better, right? So
why shouldn’t the spoils go to them, this sounds crass but where is the
fairness?” the political operative said. “…And, Azmin's team has more
influence, so this is politics, right?" Is the press a
contributing factor in this fight, a grassroots PKR activist asked me. I
answered that political operatives use the press to wage their wars,
and the latter is always in need of juicy copy because nobody seems
interested in the real stuff. A 'slaughter'? I like the preacher Wan Ji Wan Hussin and have written favourably about him before, but him saying that Anwar is going to be slaughtered soon by Azmin is the kind of rhetoric that escalates the conflict. Even
if was true, the fact is by saying it, you are demonstrating that you
are on the losing end. A confident opponent does not announce his or her
vanquishing before it happens. I do not know about anyone else, but I
do not want a weak coterie leading a political party because, in the
long term, this would be more damaging to Harapan. And this is what the
other camp is doing. Painting themselves as weak. Similarly, Azmin bitching about the new PKR appointments
demonstrates that he is spooked by the possible challenge to his
ascension. And yes Azmin's camp has the numbers and this is the time for
magnanimity, not moving in for the kill. If Azmin played
it right, he would have used this opportunity to close ranks, instead of
openly challenging the choices of his party’s president, thus
presenting himself as a shrewd leader instead of an usurper. If he
doesn’t like Anwar's choices, then by all means take a shot against the
king, but he should remember not to miss. Here and now And really, what is wrong with Azmin crowing about his achievements over Anwar? Look, even Rafizi (photo)
has achievements which are more contemporary to his president’s.
Rafizi, and Azmin, are both relevant in a way that seems to elude Anwar.
Politics
is essentially a ‘what have you done for me lately’ game, and Anwar –
for various reasons – has been out of play. These days, Anwar,
unfortunately, says things that spook the non-Malays, while someone like
Azmin has been elevated to higher ground, thus commanding a better
position. Maybe this is the deeper implication of this
fight. Is Anwar relevant in this political climate? While the Harapan
grand poohbah has his loyal and public admirers, Anwar does not,
unfortunately. Nor does he have a legacy which he can shake off, unlike
the old maverick. In other words, Anwar’s 'sins' are never forgiven,
while Mahathir’s seem to be. And who are the other
interested parties in the schisms of PKR? Who benefits most from this
squabble? There are people in this government and outside of it who
never really liked or trusted Anwar. They view his ascension to the
highest office of the land as something calamitous. So
what do they do? They stoke the fires. They start memes that make Anwar
look bad, but most of all, they align themselves with personalities so
people are always asking, what the hell is going on? And this is really why the fight within PKR is going to be the deciding factor in the longevity of the Harapan regime. If,
for whatever reason, PKR splits apart, the Harapan regime is in
trouble. Trouble in the sense that there will be even more truculence in
Malay power structures. When this happens, history has shown that it
will affect our democratic institutions. Honestly, at this
point, I do not think that Anwar can maintain any sort of equilibrium
between the camps. There seem to be no cooler heads in PKR, because the
camps are determined to wipe each other out. Anything Anwar says or does
comes off as self-serving, while Azmin has to contend with being the
villain out to destroy the Reformasi movement.