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."
New Malaysia: If you build it, people will come - Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Monday, December 02, 2019
Malaysiakini : āWe need an assembly, not for cleverness, but for setting things straight.ā - William Golding, 'Lord of the Flies'
COMMENT
| Liew Chin Tongās article about the long road to coalition building,
while well-intentioned, distracts from the problems facing Pakatan
Harapan today. Liew (above), as a young Malaysian leader, should instead focus on the main issue facing Harapan, which is a trust deficit.
For
instance, Liew says this: "Despite such a reality, many of us are still
susceptible to ethnic firestorms manufactured by racial champions of
the social media, as well as some media that are still friendly to the
previous regime."
Look,
Harapan partisans are not pissed off by the manufactured outrages of
fascist political operatives, but rather by the backtracking and supine
nature of the DAP, specifically, and PKR. Can Chin Tong really defend
anything the prime minister has said or done when it comes to consensus
building in Harapan?
Thatās the problem right there. Coalition
building is one thing. Political parties always make deals with one
another, and ideology be damned. Consensus building is the more
important facet of any diverse coalition. Without consensus ā and I do
not mean the mutual desire of holding on to power ā there is nothing
which sustains the coalition or its diverse base.
Why talk about
the middle path? What does this mean anyway? What exactly does
āmoderationā mean? Most Malaysians, especially non-Malays and
non-Muslims, define it as the middle ground between the religious and
racial politics of the majority and the ārightsā of minority
communities. Moderation has nothing to do with secular governance, nor
does it have anything to do with egalitarian policy. Most of the time,
it is political rhetoric.
The problem Chin Tong makes is saying
that Harapan/DAP are pursuing the middle path because āthe alternative
is chaos and even bloodshed via extremist/exclusive politicsā. This
is bollocks. The middle path is Mujahid Rawaās idea of āgive and takeā
when it comes to national unity. The middle path is the morally and
intellectually bankrupt āsocial contractā. The reality is that the
alternative is not chaos, but rather secular and egalitarian values
which would benefit all Malaysians.
The
problem is that the fascist state does not want these ideas. The
tragedy is that Harapan also includes elements which have no interest in
these ideas. You know why Umno and BN Youth chief, Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki
(above) are worried about the DAP? Does anyone understand why
Asyraf constantly attacks the DAP, claiming they āfooledā the Chinese
community? That the DAP despises Islam? That the DAP attacks the
monarchy?
It is all a deflection. He is worried that the
egalitarian ideas of the DAP, the secular imperatives of the DAP would
find a home in mainstream Malay politics. He is worried that young
Malays would find these ideas attractive, especially when they realise
that they have been handicapped by a system that claims to grant them
privileges based on race and religion and they observe how an unshackled
non-Malay polity thrives.
Why do you think that Malay political
hegemons fund all these religious schools? They fund all these
establishments because of their indoctrination value. When the Penang
state government raised the funding for religious establishments, I was
pissed off. The DAP could have nurtured an eco-system where young
Malays are given free extra education in English and other skills,
instead of disbursing extra funds to religious establishments. They
could have presented this as a "Malay" only policy and it would benefit
all Malaysians in the long term.
The problem is that the DAP, by
virtue of being the most vocal about egalitarian ideas, is discovering
that being part of the federal government and sharing power with Malay
potentates, especially former Umno rebels, is extremely difficult. If we
are to judge the DAP by the standards the DAP judged the MCA, the DAP
would fail miserably.
The propaganda that Mahathir is solely the
problem is wrecking havoc on the base. While the prime minister is doing
things his way, the fact is that the DAP is standing by and making all
sorts of justifications for playing along with the emperor. People say
that Bersatu is a problem, and once the old maverick leaves, everything
will be copacetic. This is naive. While I think that Anwar Ibrahim
should have his shot at the top job, we have no idea if he will play
well with others.
Nobody, certainly not in the DAP, wants to be
seen as going against the old maverick, even though his policies and
rhetoric are getting out of hand. While the Indian component of the DAP
leadership occasionally takes shots against the prime minister, everyone
else is looking the other way.
Before
the election, whenever I spoke to DAP politicos about how they would
handle the old maverick, I got these standard answers. The first that
Mahathir (above) had changed and wanted to reform the country, and the second that there was a mechanism in place to limit the power of the PM.
Both
have proven to be non-existent when it comes to curtailing the excesses
of the prime minister. Instead what we witnessed is the whittling away
of whatever chutzpah the DAP displayed, and the sub-narrative that all
will be fine when the PM transitions power.
While I am impressed
with the DAPās party discipline, some would consider such discipline
fascist in nature, but at least the DAP has got that going for them. It
would worse if the infighting in DAP flowed into the press, like what is
happening with PKR. As a young leader who obviously has a grasp
on the history of DAPās rise to federal power, I would hope that folks
like Chin Tong understand the lessons from the past, instead of
rationalising past mistakes because it is a self-defeating strategy.
If Harapan sincerely wants to build a New Malaysia, the people will come.