Rudyard Kipling"
āWhen 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 soldierā
General Douglas MacArthur"
āWe are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.ā
āIt is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.ā āOld soldiers never die; they just fade away.
āThe soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.ā
āMay God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .ā āThe object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
āNobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
āIt 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."
DAP: Bersatu is just not into you - Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Monday, November 11, 2019
Malaysiakini : āNo one man can terrorise a whole nation unless we are all his accomplices.ā - Edward R Murrow
COMMENT | The statements made by Perak Menteri Besar Ahmad Faizal Azumu (above)
regarding his battles with the DAP in Perak are neither provocative nor
unexpected. Faizal is a figurehead for Bersatuās supremacy in Perak,
and just another talking point of Malay supremacy in Harapan.
I
have no idea how Faizal can āclarifyā his statement because his
statement is obvious in its banality. The menteri besar was merely
saying what was on the mind of the far right, Bersatu and those voters
who threw in their lot with Bersatu hoping that Harapan would become the
neo-Barisan Nasional and Bersatu the new Umno.
DAP
politics in Perak is treacherous enough, without the added machinations
of federal level proxies whose agenda is to further entrench Bersatuās
hegemonic agenda in the state. This should not be surprising to the
rakyat, and it certainly should not be surprising to the DAP.
Bersatu
is all alone in Perak. It does not have the numbers to exhibit the kind
of raw political power that Malay power structures are used to. The
menteri besar has to rely on āpartnersā to carry out policies favourable
to the Malay community, which makes Bersatuās claim that it is the sole
protector of Malay rights and Islam suspect.
It is all there in
(the spirit of) Bersatuās constitution. The raison d'etre of Bersatu is
to become the Umno of Harapan. The big tent in which all other parties
seek shelter. This is not about a paradigm shift in politics, but rather
about rebranding.
The fact that Bersatu has not become the political powerhouse it hoped it would be necessitates political plays sub rosa and overt to demonstrate to its political rivals that it has control of the coalition.
Often
times this includes castigating the DAP for slights, imagined or real.
It is all political theatre meant to create a narrative of strength,
when the reality is that the infighting (egged on by proxies) is
destabilising the coalition.
Finance Minister Lim Guan Engās (above)
claim that āWe shouldn't have a friend acting like an opponent" is a
queer statement to make. Bersatu is a race-based party. Ideologically,
it is in direct opposition to everything the DAP is supposed to stand
for.
The fact is, before the great compromise that resulted in the
crowning of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, politicians aligned with Mahathir, but
in opposition to the Najib regime, were still attacking the DAP as a
racist party bent on destroying the āsocial contractā of this country.
In
2012, when debating MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek, DAP
secretary-general Lim Guan Eng claimed: āWe should not bow to fate and
have the right to equality. We should not kneel and beg. We should be
brave enough to stand and ask for it.ā
Now, I want people to
consider what Guan Eng said in 2012. Does the behaviour of the DAP, in
any way, shape or form, conform to the spirit or intent of that
statement? Of course it does not. Why? Because the DAP is learning fast
that dealing with Malay power structures on a federal level, and a
bureaucracy that is, in essence, an extension of a political party
(Umno) is complex, and requires stratagems and rhetoric that are in
total opposition to the egalitarian ideas that the DAP tells its base is
the foundation of a new Malaysia.
Say what you want about Anwar Ibrahim (below),
but at least he had the cajones to attempt to change the political
discourse by forming a multi-racial party (flawed it may be) to displace
the Umno hegemon.
This is why Anwar always has to present his bona fides
when it comes to Malay and Islamic preoccupations. However, this also
makes it easier for non-Malay power structures to work with him without
having to worry about Malay PKR operatives wandering (it happens, but it
is not nearly as disruptive as Bersatu) off the reservation because
they, too, have to compromise when it comes to contentious issues.
This,
of course, is a feature, not a bug, of democratic power where competing
interests have to be managed for a (hopefully) utilitarian outcome.
āThe Bangsa DAPā and āpuak puak
DAPā are standard far-right talking points and something that
politicians, supporters and the various cottage industries of aggrieved
Bersatu proxies have used before, and an effective counter-narrative to
the Bangsa Malaysia propaganda that Bersatu obviously does not promote
or believe in private.
The fact is that Bersatu has always had to
view the DAP with a certain amount of contempt because, for years,
successive Mahathir led governments had to paint the DAP as the bogeyman
of Malay politics. How many times have I pointed out that the
far-right and most voters of race-based politics have no problems with
the dissonance in the narratives they are peddling and consume? This
means that the DAP can be the running dogs of Bersatu and, at the same
time, the power behind the throne.
You have to wonder when Bersatu
president Muhyiddin Yassin said: "I would like to say here, at the
central level, all the decisions we make are based on discussions, a
collective decision. Collective responsibility. It was not made by one
or two ministers.ā This means the DAP was complicit in all the
backtracking and screw-ups this government has made.
Which makes the vocal bleating of the DAP representatives, who took offence at the statement that MCA president Wee Ka Siong (above) made of the DAP as not having the courage to speak up in Parliament, pathetic. You cannot have it both ways.
Either
you were part of the decision-making process or you opposed such
measures and can offer evidence of your dissent. Can the DAP do this?
Instead, what the DAP always does is plead for more time and whine about
the problems Harapan inherited.
This is a deflection because the
people are not worried about the slow pace of reforms. Folks are pissed
off at Bersatu, and the DAPās complicity is hampering reforms.
Keep
in mind that a high ranking minister threatened open season on the DAP
if the DAP did not sanction one of its members for criticising the prime
minister. In other words, Ronnie Liu was putting country above party.
What does the DAP do? Accuse its own member of attempting to destabilise
Harapan?
Moreover, do not get me started on this fake LTTE and
communist narratives that Malay power structures and the deep Islamic
state cooked up to hamper efforts of egalitarian reform, and as a
warning to non-Malay politicians.
It is pointless attempting to
carry water for Bersatu because, at the end of the day, the DAP and PKR
represent everything that Bersatu is fighting against. The irony, of
course, is that if Bersatu makes it clear that it was going to carry out
the reform agenda and ceases attempting to destabilise the coalition,
Harapan would be a unified front against the forces attempting to
subvert democracy in this country.
Instead, we have a member of
the ruling coalition that is determined to subvert the democratic
process, in concert with extreme forces allegedly aligned against them
but sharing the same purpose, and coalition partners in their passivity
becoming accomplices.