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."
Malaysiakini : “Enough of beating up on a marginalised community. Does it make
you feel strong and powerful? Do you know you endanger their lives and
safety every time you attack them?” - Ambiga Sreenevasan
COMMENT
I have one question for Mujahid Yusof Rawa. If the LGBT “practices” are
illegal, why isn’t the government rounding up LGBT people and
incarcerating them? Mujahid asked this question of his critics before
and babbled on about how these people have not committed any crime - "I have explained that (it cannot be done) unless they have committed a crime,"
However,
we know that in Malaysia, if you are from the LGBT community - and
Muslim - you will be whipped if your “practices” are discovered – “Two
women convicted for attempting sexual relations will be fined and caned, a prosecutor said today, in a rare case against same-sex couples in the country.”
In a piece I wrote about the road to a theocratic state, I asked Mujahid to keep his mouth shut
when it came to these issues, instead of playing to the far right crowd
- “And no Mujahid, I do not want you to arrest them. I want you to keep
your mouth shut about them, and instead create a counter-narrative that
Harapan's Islam is about promoting a first class education for your
brethren, weeding out corruption in the political and religious class,
ensuring the healthcare system is one of the best in the region, and
ensuring a plurality of Islamic voices, so young people do not join
extremist groups that pose a danger to the citizens of this country.”
Obviously,
he did not take my advice. Instead, Mujahid has done what the Umno
regime did before, which is demonise human rights groups, like Sisters
in Islam and the WAO for standing up for the rights of disenfranchised
citizens of this country in the recent woman's right march, which he
found offensive because it included the rights of the LGBT community.
I
have never believed that Mujahid was a reformer like he claimed he was.
His allies, who included many prominent non-Malay supporters, held
Mujahid as an example of the kind of Islamic moderation this country
would have if ever Harapan came into power. We now know that for the lie
it was.
Mujahid is a big proponent of the Racial and Religious
Hatred Act, and Harapan seems enamoured of hate speech laws. But you can
bet your last ringgit these laws would be used to safeguard the
religion of the state and not crack down on hate speech that happens in
social media. Marginalised communities like the LGBT community, who are
routinely savaged by some Harapan supporters, will, of course, be exempt
from these laws.
Want to know what real hate speech is? Read the
comments on social media, describing the community in the most hateful
language. Then compare those comments with the actions of the state and
federal governments when it comes to this community. Bullies, especially
those who weaponise religion and culture, always target the
marginalised in communities before working up the courage to move on to
bigger targets.
Consider what Mujahid said: “I am shocked by the actions of a handful of people today who abuse the democratic space to defend practices that are against the Islamic teachings.”
This
is the kind of slimy double talk religious operatives engage in. Forget
the fact that so-called moderate Muslims like Mujahid have always been
accused by the Islamic far right of abusing the democratic space to go
against the teachings of Islam (or their version of it). But since when
do the teachings of Islam determine how our public spaces are used in
this country? Is it in our Federal Constitution?
There are
colonial-era laws against specific sexual practices involving same sex
individuals, but where in our Constitution does it say we cannot use our
democratic space to voice out issues that go against Islam? Harapan is
attempting to blur the line between criticising Islam and insulting
Islam, but this is exactly what the Umno regime did, and religious
operatives like Mujahid were telling non-Malays and Muslims to speak up
instead of ignoring the corruption of the state and Islam.
I get
that we cannot “insult Islam” and could get up to 10 years imprisonment
for this, but is the Harapan regime’s policy that we cannot use our
democratic space to go against the teachings of Islam, even if such
teachings go against our constitutional rights? Is this official Harapan
policy? Where are all the non-Malay political operatives who were
speaking out against this kind of discrimination before May 9?
Mujahid
also said that it was up to the Home Ministry to take action against
the organisers of the rally for holding a rally without a permit. How
many times, when the Harapan regime was the opposition, did they hold
rallies without permits, and political operatives like Mujahid
encouraged people to attend those rallies because it was our democratic
and constitutional right?
I guess when people accuse PAS and Umno of being hypocrites, we may as well add Mujahid to the list. Hew Wai Weng, in an article last year for the New Mandala, discussed the ‘Himpunan Kebangkitan Ummah’ (Ummah Awakening Gathering),
noting: “The new Religious Affairs Minister Mujahid Rawa was criticised
for 'not defending Zakir Naik' and 'compromised on LGBT issues'. PAS
leaders tried, through these criticisms, to portray a more ‘Islamic’
image compared with Pakatan’s Muslim leaders.”
Which is why, like
an insecure person in a position of political and social power, Mujahid
always has to display his religious and racial bona fides, because he is
in a coalition which loudly proclaimed they were the progressive
coalition of Malaysia. Furthermore, he belongs to a moderate
“Islamic” party – Amanah – which gets a lot of love from easily fooled
non-Muslims, but which has, so far, merely conformed to the religious
narratives of the Malay far right.
For most so-called progressives
and the Malay right which supports Harapan, specifically the Bersatu
faction, this is a non-issue. These people hate the LGBT community and
understand their speech will always be protected by the state. Nobody
cares that this is a government which claims to want to protect the
constitutional rights of all citizens, but has no problem using religion
to suppress the voice and rights of those it considers politically
expendable.
How toxic is Harapan’s Islamic agenda? Well, you have
someone who has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for insulting Islam
and nobody in the Harapan political establishment has spoken out about
it, excluding the always forthright Latheefa Koya.
Now, you have a
minster in the Harapan regime attempting to hoodwink Malaysians into
believing our democratic spaces can only be used for those issues which
do not go against the teachings of Islam. Mujahid Rawa's Islamic state
of play is only going to get more toxic, and so far there is nobody in
Harapan willing to confront it.