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."
A meaningless Merdeka 31st August 2019 By Prof Dr. Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Professor Dr. Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi is Professor at UCSI University
mysinchew : After 21 years of writing ideas, criticisms and advice for
Malaysians, Malays and those in power in academic, religious and
political institutions, I have no more to give. Malaysia is on a certain
road of destruction with the Malay Muslims driving it to the ground. I
have looked hard and deep into many other ways than I have mentioned and
I have no more ideas to bring to the table.
This is the most difficult article to write for me and I have thought
many times to just call up Sin Chew and refuse a requested writing for
the first time in my entire career as an academic. I see no more hope
for this country. The Malays will eventually destroy itself and others
with it. The only hope for the idea of a Malaysia lies in the nations of
Sabah and Sarawak. If these two quit the partnership, then the idea of
Malaysia is just a joke. If I were younger by three decades, I would
take my family outside this country and resettle in others or at least
in neighboring Singapore and the nations of Sabah and Sarawak. At least
they still have teh tarik there.
With muftis sounding like gangsters in a terrible movie plot and
unchecked by their patrons, the Malays will continue to be educated in
that manner. With veteran Malay politicians and businessmen helming the
fate of the country, the Old Malaysia has just been given a new lease of
life by a heart-bypass. With academia still counting their H-indexes
and SCOPUS papers, these institutions of learning will continue to be
irrelevant entities to social and political development getting fat by
the tax payers money and their own sense of self grandeur. Religion,
academia and politics of the Malays are safely entrenched to bring the
country to a precipice of oblivion.
The editors of this article wants to know from me what can be
changed? Well, I no longer have any more ideas except to say…save
yourself and your family by hunkering down, tightening the stomach and
strategically plan for the children to be placed outside this country.
I have now begun to seriously think about such a strategy for two of
my children. There is nothing here in Malaysia that would be anything of
a dignified existence of a person. When a mufti with extremely low knowledge on the history of the
Indian people can make simplistic and racist statements about them, and
get away without any reprimand or reminder from his patrons, then the
game is ended.
When he calls on hardworking and dedicated groups of
Chinese educationist to be outlawed without measuring their six decades
of contribution, what dignity is there left? Worse, when a peddler of
religious capitalism comes to this country blaring insults not only to
other religions but also the presence of our own community of
generations of people, ministers have dinner with him with smiling photo
ops. Susah-lah ini macam.
Then there is a political party with Islam as its name spew venoms of
Islamic brotherhood being more important than citizenry and that those
who oppose the peddler of religious evangelism from another country as
enemies of Islam, and the police sits quietly without any reaction. Apa lagi nak cerita?
I have trained myself to be an expert at identifying success and
failure in everything I do. I can also expertly predict success and
failure in some things others do. I can definitely say that Malaysia is a
failure. It was failing badly before May 9th 2018, it has failed even
worse after merely over a year.
In the beginning, this failure was caused by a reluctance of the
Malay voters to change. Then, this failure was fueled by the marriage of
the two discredited Malay parties. Now, the trust of the people has
been totally betrayed by the smallest and least ideological party which
happens to helm the leadership and is engineering a 1990s come-back
formula.
Unless a miracle happens, Malaysia will be the first country to be
listed as the ‘fourth world’ of a three world category. We will go
nowhere, be no ‘thing’ and simply become stuck to the ground with our
old ideas about economy, education, religion and having no sense of
dignity to others and the world. When one day, Muslims will be rejected
entry into most countries of the world as with their favorite penceramah, then the old Malay proverb of sudah jatuh ditimpa tangga or sudah jatuh baru tertenggadah becomes a stark reality.
What is this miracle that may reignite the fires of Malaysia? Only
three things. First, by a stroke of miracle, the civil society
restrategize itself with other existing political parties and puts up 70
independent candidates to oust the cancerous elements in PH and combine
with the dignified parties of Sarawak and Sabah, then there may be a
chance.
How hard is it to find 70 credible candidates of all races dedicated
to nation building? The names are already on my computer list. The civil
society, good and nation-conscious NGOs can work together with the
grassroots of rejuvenated veteran parties that lost their shorts in the
last election. Those civil leaders appointed by the PH must return to
the fold when the time of GE15 draws closer.
The second miracle would be 100,000 Malay children and more to come
out of their UEC education and these children must be tracked and given
support so that they can be the savior of a nation from the old bigotry
of Muslims and Malays in the public schools. That is why Malay political parties despise the UEC as the new Malays
who are trilingual and globalized networked with China and the West
will reformulate new national constructs based on their times with the
other communities in the UEC schools.
Regardless of whether the PH government will recognize or not, I see
the UEC as the only savior of this nation. The sons and daughters
rejected by the majority of their own race will come back to revive the
idea of Malaysia and thus, we Malaysians must ensure that the UEC
survives and thrive.
Those of our sons and daughters educated in the international schools
with international curriculum would be the other force that can cure an
ailing nation, and that too must be protected and expanded so that it
becomes affordable to send our children too. Leave the public schools
entrenched in its own issues and problems.
The third miracle would be the private education tertiary
institutions. These institutions have gone through the economic gauntlet
and is now secure with a mixed group of academics to lead the nation
where public universities fail in their own ethno-centric constructs of
self-delusion and irrelevant academia. If these private universities can
wake up to fill the minds of young Malaysians with the right mind set
and ideas to lead the future, than the future can be theirs for the
taking.
Private universities must get out of their balance sheet mindset and
show that they can take over what was left out by the big brother
universities and strike out on their own. The private university
academics can form their own Professor Council and produce strategies
for real impactful research and ideas that can move Malaysia 50 years
into the future and pool its student talents to research and recharge
industries linking the world.
The future industries are in a mapless
world and do not require a Malay Majlis Perbandaran to give the okay to
start a factory. The new ‘factories’ are in cyberspace and offshore.
Countries will work with these students who do not display any sense of
ethnic or religious superiority complex and shun those that do. The
world belongs to the private enterprise as government fails to change
because of Old Politics.
The third miracle would be the pooling of resources by private
companies and enterprises across a maples world to provide financial and
infra-structure backings to clear thinking and hard working graduates
and young skilled individuals freeing itself from any governmental
‘requirements’. Again, governments do not control cyberspace and off
shore dealings. Malaysians will be everywhere in the world working,
living, playing and worshipping while still rooted to their ‘tanah tumpah darah ku’.
This Merdeka is a meaningless Merdeka for the nation as it entrenches
itself into old political mindsets. But this Merdeka is a new Merdeka
for all Malaysians who love the idea of living with deep respect to each
other’s faith and cultures and working with each other for mutual
prosperity.
What we need is a Merdeka from the old rules of the game towards a
new game play of global dimension that frees us from the old 90s ball
and chains. To save this Malaysia, our children must ‘leave the present Malaysia’
and embrace the future Malaysia that lies beyond its shores into a
global and universal construct rooted in our traditional faiths and
cultures.
(Professor Dr. Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi is Professor at UCSI University.)