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."
62nd Merdeka – 'New Malaysia' is a fiction - Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Saturday, August 31, 2019
Malaysiakini : "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. "Mahathir is PM. There's disunity in the nation. People are wary of their future and the economy. "I'm chugging beers while listening to the Blues Gang sing 'Apo Nak Di Kato' live. "In 1989 as it is in 2019." – An astute Twitter post
COMMENT
| Merdeka this year is especially disheartening. You would think that
the way Pakatan Harapan political operatives talk about this “New
Malaysia”, they would have something to show for it.
Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng talks about how the greatest challenge facing the Harapan government is the lies and slander perpetuated by its opponents. “The
people have nothing to gain by following those who preach national
division through racial and religious extremism,“ he proclaimed while
ignoring the reality that the biggest proponents of race and
religion-based dialectic is the party with the smallest numbers but
which control the levers of power enabled by non-Malay powerbrokers who
just want to hold on to power.
Seriously, these kind of lies and
slander rhetoric are the stratagems Harapan used when they were the
opposition in all its incarnations. Move on. The greatest obstacle to a
"New Malaysia" is the reality that Harapan political operatives lack the
will, imagination and the cojones to carry out the reforms that they
promised their base would “save Malaysia”.
Contrast Lim’s Merdeka message with that of PSM leader S Arutchelvan’s piece on wage inequality.
What I like about the piece is that it is about the rakyat or at least
that demographic of the rakyat which nobody seems interested in. It was
not about maintaining political power but rather about how a certain
section of Malaysians live. We often forget about that. If this isn't a
great way to acknowledge Merdeka, I do not know what is.
"New
Malaysia" is a fiction. A lie created by political operatives who have
no interest in genuine reform but who coast on the propaganda that they
need more time. If you are someone who rejects racial and religious
politics, you are someone who has no time. The demographics and social
policies are against you.
Forget
about the backtracking, the lies, the racial and religious provocations
(carried out by this regime), the substandard ministers, the inept
policies, the rhetoric designed to mislead the rakyat, the cowardice of
the non-Malay political wing, the mendacity of the Malay wing, or the
hubris of the main power players in Harapan.
Forget about all that
and just think about how the base is expected to fall into line because
Umno/PAS may come back to power. This is what Merdeka is about this
year - fear.
Fear
that the Umno/PAS combo will return. Fear that if we push out the
Harapan government even though they were carrying out the agenda of
Umno/PAS, we will regret the day we decided to abandon Harapan. Fear
that the lies and slanders will destroy the coalition because the
reality that lack of political will is what is destroying Harapan is verboten in this "New Malaysia" doublespeak.
Fear
that Mahathir, the grand poobah, is attempting to destroy DAP and
Harapan when the reality is that political operatives in Harapan are not
carrying out their duties and more importantly, their campaign promise
to constrain the political power of the prime minister when it comes to
policy and the direction of this country. The only people who are not afraid are the racial and religious far right.
What have they got to be afraid about? They
have the machinations of Harapan political operatives which would keep
the racial and religious ideological foundations of this country intact.
They have non-Malay political operatives who are afraid to stand up for
issues that are a threat to national security and policies which would
ensure that we remain a competitive and a viable economy in this
fast-changing geopolitical landscape. For them, Merdeka this year
is pretty awesome.
They lost power but they are in a far better position
because the ruling government is mired in internecine conflicts and has
no genuine political will to carry out reforms which would diminish
their social, religious and political power. This is truly a great
Merdeka for them.
But
if you are someone who has not drunk the Kool-Aid or at least someone
who is white-knuckling it after swearing off the Kool-Aid, you may have
come to the realisation that these people who promised you – us – a new
deal, really want to give you back the old deal without the Najib
family.
The old maverick is wondering why Umno is still around. Really? Isn’t Bersatu merely an echo of our past attempting to take form as Sauron after his fall? I
spoke to an MCA political operative the other day who funnily enough
had some sympathy for DAP. “Now they understand what it is like being in
the federal government,” he said over a cup of coffee in a shabby part
of Kuala Lumpur. The kind of place that was something back in the go-go
days of the first Mahathir era. It was oddly disconcerting to have this
conversation because it seemed like deja vu.
“I am out of
the game now, Thaya. It will be interesting to see how long they last
but I think they should put up a fight. The problem is that we (the MCA)
laid everything at the old man’s doorstep. We should have fought
because that is what the Chinese voted us in for. I don’t mean this in a
racial way but rather we should have fought for everyone who believed
in a secular Malaysia. Look, even Malay leaders understand that
race-based policies lead nowhere.”
I told him that he could still fight the good fight but he said that there are young people who should do the resisting now. Make
no mistake about it. I do not find it hard to love this country.
Contrary to what people think, I think that this is a great place to
live in. But I am old so when I define this country, I define it in
terms of lost opportunities. I hope young Malaysians still define this
country as to what is possible.
Maybe Merdeka this year is for the
young people. The people who could really save this country we all
love. You see, we never really needed a "new Malaysia". All we needed
was a Malaysia whose political operatives - and the people who voted for
them - learnt from past mistakes.