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."
MCA made the right hard choice - Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Saturday, March 23, 2019
Arse wipes for UMNO and Piss oops PAS
Malaysiakini : "Malaysia is a multiracial country. If race-based parties continue
to exist, they could affect the harmony and unity among the people as
they are only looking out for themselves."- DAP national chairperson Tan Kok Wai
COMMENT | I am one of those people who argued that MCA should leave BN. Events of the few past months have made me revise my opinion. Here
is the thing though. The cynical part of me thinks that as long as MCA
stays relevant, even if they are part of BN, they are a convenient
punching bag for DAP even though their criticisms may be credible. It is
all part of the political game.
It is also good optics for Umno.
As long as Umno can claim there is a multiracial component in BN, this
mitigates Umno’s union with PAS. In a way, Umno needs MCA as much as MCA
needs Umno. In my open letter
to the MCA, I made two points that are worth revisiting considering how
the non-Malay components of Pakatan Harapan are struggling to find a
narrative that differentiates them from the non-Malay political
operatives from BN.
1. “MCA understands the nature of racial and
religious politics when it comes to the power-sharing formula and more
importantly, the fault lines when it comes to policy decisions involving
the sensitivities of the majority.”
2. “And you have the luxury
of not starting from scratch. There are some who would argue that MCA
needs to but I am not of that opinion. While Umno rightly points out
that MCA is bereft of their protection, the reality is that Umno has
very little protection they can offer anyway.”
Right
now, Umno/PAS are influencing policy in Harapan by banging the race and
religion drum. Umno is still worried that its members are jumping ship
hence, MCA’s role is much easier than when they were part of the Umno
establishment. What they have to do is continue occupying the secular
position in opposition to Umno/PAS and challenging DAP to do the same.
When you are part of the government, you are part of its agenda.
The
best thing going for MCA right now is that there is no “new Malaysia”. A
fantastic example of this is when we have Azmin Ali giving funds to
mosques and Lim Guan Eng making sure that the Chinese community
understands that the donations to Chinese schools come from the Finance Ministry which he leads.
MCA
VP Ti Lian Ker arguing in an op-ed piece that there is no post-racial
Malaysia made some good points. When he argued that the DAP’s “racial
promise” in doing “away with bumiputera quotas, etc, which were blamed
on Umno’s dominance and MCA’s compromises”, it points to the mendacious
politics of this supposedly "new Malaysia."
Nobody has any
intention of changing the system hence all this talk of racial quality
as espoused by the polemics of the then opposition has not become a
reality. The corruption charges against former prime
minister Najib Abdul Razak is a convenient excuse as to why nobody can
trust MCA as though their complicity is a great sin which cannot be
forgiven. This is nonsense. What of the corruption scandals of the
numerous personalities that hold office in Harapan now?
Apparently,
their sins have been washed away when they joined Harapan. As long as
Harapan chooses not to address this issue, all MCA has to do is let the
legal process take its course and concentrate on the grassroots-level
concerns of Malaysians regardless of race and religion.
Besides
with all the “frogs” jumping into Harapan, there will come a time
(fairly soon) when a case cannot be made that MCA is working with bad
actors because most of the bad actors will be in Harapan. And as far as
the racial rhetoric coming out of Umno, what of the racial rhetoric and
policy shifts coming out of Harapan? Let Umno/PAS battle it out with
Bersatu and the Malay power structures in Harapan.
MCA
should make their stand clear in this conflict and challenge the
non-Malay political operatives in DAP and PKR to do the same. Most
important, MCA should attempt to create more opportunities for working
in a bi-partisan manner with anyone to influence policy. If this means
working with PAS and especially the federal government, they should do
this. One of the problems with this country is this idea of
bipartisanship being anathema to the political process.
If working
with PAS, for instance, serves some non-racial utilitarian value even
if it means MCA is vilified, this is more important than the optics of
staying away from a party which is vilified by Harapan political
operatives. This way, MCA will not be viewed as that Chinese party which lost Chinese support – a theme Umno’s Nazri Abdul Aziz likes to play
often - but rather as the Chinese component of BN which can play well
with others in circumstances that benefits all Malaysians.
Do not
be baited into condemning PAS needlessly. Here is an example. PAS, for
its own peculiar reasons, has decided to not reopen cinemas
in Kelantan to curb social ills. The DAP challenges the MCA to make its
stand on this clear because the MCA is part of BN. If this was really
such an important issue why doesn’t the federal government step in and
challenge PAS on the grounds the Kelantan government is trampling on
freedom of assembly and expression and all those human rights issues
that Harapan political operatives love to talk about?
Here we had a federal government which did nothing to stop the caning
of Muslim women so why is it incumbent on MCA to monitor the Islamic
policy of an opposition party when the federal government has the power
to constrain the Islamic agenda in this country?
Whenever I talk
to MCA political operatives and grassroots-level activists, what I get
is this sense of not knowing how to navigate because they always seem to
be on the attack against Umno or PAS. They assume that this would
appeal to the base they lost. Not playing this game or playing it
intelligently will go a long way in stabilising the divisive politics
that have erupted since Harapan’s historic win on May 9. Sooner rather
than later, people will notice this.
What the MCA should do is
influence policy for non-Malays - like how Umno/PAS do it - by goading
the non-Malay components in Harapan to speak up on egalitarian and
secular policies, which benefit all Malaysians but more specifically
safeguard the interests of the non-Malay communities. This,
unfortunately, is the game we have committed to play.
The sooner
MCA gets back to its original purpose of balancing the economic and
cultural expectations of the Chinese community – which really does have a
trickledown effect for the rest of the non-Malay communities – the
sooner we will have the makings of a credible opposition. In the
Malaysian context, that is.