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 : "Terrorism works better as a tactic for dictatorships, or for would-be dictators, than for revolutionaries." - Christopher Hitchens
COMMENT |
The idea that Islamic State (IS) "returnees" would be accepted back in
Malaysia should be of concern for citizens of this country. Some people
believe that these returnees
should not be allowed back into the country. Others believe that they
should be allowed to return to the country but stand trial for possible
Islamic State activities.
This is in line with what Bukit Aman
Special Branch Counter-Terrorism Division chief Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay
said in that if there was any evidence that these returnees were
involved in "IS militant activities" they would stand trial.
The
problem here is what exactly are "IS militant activities"? Remember that
IS is a death cult whose adherents swore to wage war even against their
brethren for the glory of an imagined past transposed on this
contemporary age of wonderment. The wives and children of these fighters
– even if they were not involved in the conflict – were aiding,
abetting, enabling and sustaining a genocidal culture which they
believed was their spiritual destiny. There is nothing more “militant”
than that.
The South China Morning Post did a piece
which described the travails of a Malaysian IS bride, Lidia, 29, (a
Malay-Muslim laboratory technician who can also speak Mandarin) who
contacted her father in an attempt to find safe passage home. "Lidia
left Malaysia for Syria in October 2014 with her husband and son who was
then only a few months old. She remarried and had a second child after
her first husband was killed. Her second husband has since also died.
"She
and her sons are now among the 66,427 people – mostly women and
children – living in the cramped conditions at the al-Hol camp,
according to a UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
statement issued on Monday.”
This, of course, is but one story of
the kind of people who are returning to our country. Whether you believe
that they should be denied the right to return or stand trial if
evidence of militant activity is discovered, what we are really dealing
with here is the return of people who have battlefield experience either
as participants or enablers and who - no matter what the
politically-motivated spin claims - believe that their religion should
be imposed violently on their fellow citizens. This is just one step
removed from the rhetoric of the Malay far-right.
An important
question we should ask is, what type of rehabilitation will these people
receive and also, does anyone really believe that a month is sufficient
to de-radicalise someone? I have written
about the so-called deradicalisation experts before. Remember when the
preacher Zamihan Mat Zin was supposed to be an asset for the former Umno
state when it came to deradicalising, terror suspects?
I
discussed why I thought this was laughable. “How can a preacher like
Zamihan be an asset to the state when it comes to rehabilitating
extremists when his own ideas of Islam are anathema to a functional
democracy and a pluralistic society? Here is Muslim preacher who
advocates 'Muslim only' establishments, rails against the so-called
enemies of Islam - Wahhabi, Shia, liberals and other deviant teachings –
and constructs a Manichean view of Islam that goes against the
so-called 'moderate' Islam advocated – in word but rarely in deed – by
the mainstream political establishment of this country.”
When
I said that IS was a death cult, keep in mind what someone like Zamihan
believes: "(The pursuit) of the truth and the (our) struggle for dakwah
(preaching Islam) will never stop until the apocalypse." So who are
these clerics and psychologists who would stamp a seal of approval on
these IS returnees?
Does anyone else see the problem here? I
really do not want to get into the issue of whether these people should
return home. My opinion is that once you leave the country to wage war
in another country – even if you are just a spouse – then you lose the
right (legal and moral) to return to the homeland you betrayed. You may
believe otherwise.
What is important is that the government be
transparent – maybe to our elected representatives if not to the public
(for security reasons) - as to what exactly is the rehabilitation
process and have independent experts to judge the credibility of the
programmes. The problem, of course, with our current batch of sycophants
is that they would probably just nod their heads and go along with
anything because they do not want to spook the Malays.
Hence, any kind
of oversight on this process is non-existent. Let us be very clear
here. IS has already launched an attack in Malaysia. This idea that all
that these returnees need is counselling is, well, complete horse
manure. Remember the grenade attack in Puchong which was directed by IS and carried out by local talents? This was what then inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar said of the 15 people arrested:
“We
found that the two of them had received instructions from one of our
citizens in Syria, Muhamad Wanndy Muhamad Jedi, who told them to launch
attacks in Malaysia against senior government leaders, senior police
officers and judges because these three obstruct their activities,” he
said. Entertainment centres are also being targeted for purportedly
being 'un-Islamic'”.
Now
think about this way. The country is entering a period of uncertainty
because Malay power structures are going through birthing pains
attempting to discover a new order. We have radical preachers like Zakir
Naik who is wanted for alleged crimes in other countries and banned
from others for his radical speeches. Yet the Harapan political and
religious elite are embracing him for political purposes.
The
state security apparatus is not only dealing with the political fallout
from the recent elections but also has its hands full countering the
machinations of various political demagogues and, of course, we have the
machinations of the Islamic deep state. This idea that there are
no consequences to the return of these people is ludicrous. Some people
have told me that these returnees are mostly women and children. Most of
the men have perished on the battlefield, a source close to the
situation informed me. These people are not terrorists, he said.
That’s
not the issue. I have no interest in ideological loaded definitional
debates about what constitutes terrorism. What I am talking about here
is an ideology of a death cult which finds very little pushback from the
radical polemics of the Malay far-right or the Islamic narratives of
the Harapan state.
What I am talking about is the return of people
who have no problem with Muslims slaughtering other Muslims in the name
of god, which makes slaughtering non-Muslims less of an issue in a
Muslim-majority country.
This really is a situation of chickens coming home to roost.