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."
The Orang Asli and the Palestinians by Mariam Mokhtar
Friday, May 21, 2021
Quo Vadis Malaysia : I
wrote elsewhere that should the orang asli retaliate, they end up in
jail. Yet we say that the Palestinians have a right to their land and
can launch rockets at the aggressors. How hypocritical is this?
Malaysiakini : COMMENT | I had a school
friend who came from Beirut, an Arab girl called Nadine, who wore her
crucifix with pride. Today, I still have trouble convincing some Malays
that not all Arabs are Muslims.
I experience the same difficulty
trying to persuade other Malays that the word "Allah" has been used by
Arab Christians for centuries, even before the advent of Islam.
According
to Nadine, Beirut city was both sophisticated and cosmopolitan, a
melting pot of cultures, where East met West, where an influx of
foreigners enriched the city's cultural and social life.
The
local population of predominantly Muslim and Christian Arabs lived
happily side by side. It was a city of tolerance. The people of Beirut
could swim in the Mediterranean, then take a two-hour drive to ski on
the slopes of the mountains overlooking the city.
She
described Beirut as heaven on earth, until she and her family had to
flee when civil war erupted. Other friends blamed Palestinian resistance
groups for Beirut's fall.
Malaysia wants to be seen to be doing
something for the Palestinians, but it can't even choose a respected
person, to its special envoy to the Middle East. Abdul Hadi Awang is not
fit for the purpose. As a man of the cloth, he has failed to embrace
the diversity of the Malaysian people or attempt to unite us by
emphasising our similarities.
He was not part of Muhyiddin
Yassin's entourage to the Middle East because the Qatar-based
International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), of which Hadi was once
vice president, is considered a terrorist group by the "Anti-Terror
Quartet" of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
The
regional players in the Arab-Israeli conflict need to talk. Iran wants
the complete destruction of Israel and funds and arms Hamas. Other
interested parties are the Syrians, the Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt
which shares a border with Gaza. These key players need to sit down and
engage. Malaysia is irrelevant.
Israeli airstrike on Gaza City, May 19
Our
attempt at power broking is just tinkering with words. Any Malaysian
who uses the word 'militant' or 'radical' to describe Hamas will be investigated by the authorities. How pathetic is that?
We
dare not voice our concerns about other disputed territories in the
world such as Tibet, Taiwan, Cyprus, Crimea, Gibraltar or Kashmir. We
flex our muscles in the Middle East just because some of the Arabs in
the conflict are Muslim.
Dr Mahathir Mohamad broached the subject
of Kashmir and India retaliated by reducing imports of palm oil1.
Fearful of upsetting "Big Brother" and dismantling the accompanying
economic benefits, we keep quiet about Tibet and Taiwan.
The
Israeli āoccupationā generally refers to the lands captured by Israel
during the 1967 war that remain under Israeli military control including
the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and Gaza.
Everyone wants to protect "their" land. We don't need to go to the Middle East to find land disputes or occupied territories.
Political tool
The
conflict between the Orang Asli and the state has politicised every
part of Orang Asli life from their existence to their burial grounds.
The Orang Asli depend on the forest. They only take what they can use
and trade in certain jungle produce to buy the things that they cannot
make like tools and certain food items.
When new Jewish settlers
occupy Palestinian lands, olive trees that are hundreds of years old and
which have provided income for Palestinian farmers are cut down. Olives
are a political tool in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Oil palm is our
government's political tool.
Working hand in glove with private
companies, the authorities want to reduce the landmass on which the
Orang Asli can survive. Companies want to flatten the land and convert it to palm oil plantations or tourist resorts. The jungle is the most powerful symbol of the Orang Asli's attachment to the land.
They
get their main source of protein from hunting wild boar, deer and
monkey. Monoculture will drive these animals deeper into the jungle and
deprive them of their food sources. Pollution from timber and refinery
activities will pollute rivers and would cause skin infections if the
Orang Asli were to bathe in the rivers. Fish cannot survive in polluted
water, so another source of protein would be lost.
An Orang Asl abode in Kelantan without electricty
The
Israelis retaliate against the rockets that Hamas shoots at Tel Aviv
with firepower. Our government may not use missiles against the Orang
Asli but work in a similar fashion. They dismantle
Orang Asli blockades, charge and arrest protestors and use lorries and
heavy logging equipment to tear down the forests. This is as good as destroying the Orang Asli livelihood.
The Orang Asli are forced to relocate,
if dams are to be built, thus obliterating the burial grounds and
sacred landmarks of their ancestors. This is an attempt to erase their
history.
It is alleged that the authorities withhold aid unless
the Orang Asli convert to Islam. Aid is in the form of infrastructure or
connection to the electrical grid or access to piped water.
So,
before we want to play the gallant saviour of the Palestinian people and
intervene in their complicated conflict on the other side of the world,
why not make it a priority to look after those in our own backyard?
We
have failed our Orang Asli, invaded their ancestral lands and deprived
them of their own culture, existence and constitutional rights.