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."
What in God’s name is a hyper-liberal? - Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Saturday, December 07, 2019
Malaysiakini : “To 'choose' dogma and faith over doubt and experience is
to throw out the ripening vintage and to reach greedily for the
Kool-Aid.” ― Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
COMMENT |
Most people are interested in the fiasco which is the various PKR
shindigs happening now but I am interested in Amanah's fourth national
convention. I think it’s safe to say that Amanah is the “Islamist” party
in the coalition.
Pakatan Harapan’s religious czar Mujahid Yusof
Rawa is in charge of the vast Islamic bureaucracy which has its tendrils
in every aspect of Malaysian life. That’s power and influence that most
other ministries do not have and, coupled with the subservient nature
of Harapan's political operatives to Bersatu, the most dangerous of
hegemonic tools. The
always affable Mohamad 'Mat' Sabu – I still cannot wrap my mind around
the fact that he is our defence minister – claimed in his speech
that Amanah had to deal with two opposing ideological forces facing
Malaysia. The hyper-liberal on the one hand and the “ultra-ethno
nationalist” on the other.
I have no idea what a hyper-liberal is?
I would ask Mat Sabu but he seems like someone who sees a word, thinks
it is an important word and uses it without realising what it means. How
else would you explain his use of the term “neo-conservative”? Has any
of his aides or friends explained to him what neo-conservatism actually
means? But I digress.
When Umno was in power, my Malay-speaking
activist friends were always worried that the state labelled them as
deviant and that meant they were liberal. As one young activist said (in
Malay no less), how could he be liberal when he couldn't even speak
English that well.
I suppose to Mat Sabu, it is perfectly
acceptable to be an “ethno-nationalist – it has to be right because
Bersatu is the pied piper of Harapan’s slip into BN lunacy – but we
cannot have “ultra-ethno" nationalism because that would be a bad thing
for Malaysia.
He continued on about the biggest challenge facing
this country today “is a clash between these two groups (with opposing
views) that can drag the country into a state of uncertainty”. He argued
that the hyper-liberals were ”bringing ideas that erode traditional
elements which form the core values of nation-building".
First
off, we were a progressive secular democracy before the
ethno-nationalists - not the ultra-nationalists, but the
ethno-nationalists - used race and religion to turn this country into a
so-called “moderate” Islamic state. Those nascent values of secularism
and egalitarianism which meant something to nation-building were ditched
by the ethno-nationalists to create political and religious hegemony.
So
this idea that “liberalism” is something new in this country is
complete horse manure. Mat Sabu is merely parroting the false
equivalency narrative of the religious czar of this country when he
warns of a showdown between the hyper-liberals and the ultra-ethno
nationalists. It is, in essence, a variation of the 'don’t spook the
Malays' narrative.
Harapan’s religious czar Mujahid has claimed
that he doesn’t consider "liberals" less dangerous than "extremists". So
how can DAP – which has been aligned with Amanah since its inception –
talk about the middle ground when neither it nor its coalition partners
make any attempt to define the middle ground, beyond making false
equivalencies among those opposed to religious extremism?
Free speech
When Malaysiakini columnist Zan Azlee argues
of the need to separate religion from the state – “I feel that we need
to separate religion from the state. We can still have an official
religion of the majority but a separation is the way to go." – by using
his free speech, is he a hyper-liberal who is using his free speech
“only for the benefit of their own group”? Which group would that be?
I
suppose Zan’s group does not want the state to interfere in what are
personal religious convictions so he becomes the target of a political
party like Amanah with political operatives like Mujahid who would
stifle such expressions because it does not conform to the hegemonic
religious and political agendas of Harapan.
If Malaysians speak up
about what they find distressing about racial and religious issues in
this country, Amanah and the rest of the Harapan crypto-fascists would
claim that the coalition is a victim of its hard-won success. Meaning
because people were dumb enough to believe that Harapan was a
progressive coalition in this country when in reality they are not, and
people should be sanctioned for speaking out.
While Amanah should
be the platform for groups like Sisters In Islam and even for activists
like Siti Kasim and building a base of progressive Muslims, it instead
just another government appendage which insists on maintaining religious
hegemony to serve political ends.
I keep on asking what is this
nonsensical idea of moderation we keep talking about? The far-right does
not fear “moderation.” What they fear is going up against progressive
policies because they have worked in the past.
Look at how
colonial policies and then post-colonial polices turned into shackles by
gradual religious processes brought upon by political chicanery. Look
at the majority culture before and after the nefarious agendas of the
political elite, which includes the non-Malay political class.
What
really troubles me is the fact that the defence minister does not
understand that religious extremism is the existential threat facing
this region and country.