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."
Malaysiakini : āPropaganda serves more to justify ourselves
than to convince others; and the more reason we have to feel guilty, the
more fervent our propaganda.ā - Eric Hoffer, 'The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements'.
COMMENT | On May 16, why did opposition MPs sign a letter
meant to highlight the cause of Palestinians promising a myriad of
policy initiatives that were unworkable for various reasons (refer to R
Nadeswaran's excellent piece) and did so under the cover of anonymity?
Furthermore,
calling for the boycott without having the gumption to carry out such
policies (for oftentimes logical reasons) merely makes a mockery of the
plight of the Palestinians and provides ammunition for those who claim
that supporters of the cause are insincere.
All
of this was done under the cover of anonymity and published in a
mainstream news platform under the heading 'MP Speaks', which has been a
platform for various political operatives across the political divide
and serves as a direct conduit between an elected representative and the
public he or she serves.
This last part is important because it
means that elected representatives would be judged by their actions
based on the words they claim define their agenda.
What this
means is that those MPs who signed this letter would be judged on their
fidelity to the Palestinian cause by how they carried out this agenda in
Parliament, but more importantly how they advocated redefining
international and local partnerships based on the agenda of ending
Israelās apartheid policies.
I have no idea what these MPs meant
by one of their demands of sending a peace envoy to Gaza. Do these
people who signed this letter even understand what this entails? Do they
understand what this means internationally when Malaysia has been a
hotbed of anti-Semitic rhetoric by a former prime minister and
mainstream Malaysian politicians?
Israeli airstrike on Gaza, May 18
This
would also mean that the credibility of these MPs would be based on
their record of rejecting systemic inequalities and apartheid-like
policies wherever and whenever they encountered them. After all, you do
not endorse a letter of such political and economic magnitude without
having the cajones to back up your speech.
Or maybe you do.
I
despise it whenever political operatives reduce issues to talking
points and attempt to profit (politically) from international causes
which cost them very little in political capital but merely serve to
reinforce certain narratives and policy decisions based on nothing more
than racial and religious agendas.
Dig a little deeper
By
not signing their names to this letter, these opposition MPs have
demonstrated that they are reluctant to publicly endorse policy
initiatives because they know that it is either unfeasible or because it
is damaging to the country's economic interests.
The only reason
they signed it was because they wanted to take a position without
actually having to defend it. All of this was merely a sandiwara
to fulfil certain propagandistic obligations when it comes to sustaining
mainstream political narratives with regard to the Palestinian issue.
And,
of course, some of these āopposition MPs'' are worried about attaching
their names to this letter. The discourse in this country falls not
along ideological lines but rather racial and religious ones.
The
politically correct narrative is that we should all support the
Palestinian cause but dig a little deeper and you will discover that
many use the Palestinian quagmire as a proxy for their grievances
against race and religion-based policies of this country.
Human rights lawyer Siti Kasim
When the special envoy to the Middle East Abdul Hadi Awang claims that non-Muslims should be āPak Turut"
decrying the loss of human rights of the Palestinians, not only is this
hypocritical, it also points to the deeper divisions in this country
which affect how we coalesce as a nation around specific issues.
The always provocative Siti Kasim said it best when it comes to this issue in a series of tweets:
āIn Malaysia, it is selective humanity.
The plight of a Palestinian is greater than that of an Afghan or a
Yemeni. The killing of a Palestinian evokes more compassion than the
gunning down of schoolgirls in Afghanistan.ā
And when it came to the fact that a Hamas operative was trained here, she tweeted: āI guess nobody will be outraged with this revelation
except people like me who think Hamas should not be supported. They
are part of the problem with the suffering of the Palestinians and the
Jews.ā
Of course, this type of ideas is not part of the official
and politically correct establishment narrative. What is are letters
signed by these anonymous MPs, who hide behind their anonymity while
reinforcing state narratives because they do not want to face public
scrutiny and accountability for their words or actions.
Whatever
your stand on this issue, this should be of concern to you. I admire
politicians who stand by their views even when they know they are going
to get hammered for them and even though they are advancing mainstream
narratives.
What these MPs did was disingenuous. They did a great
disservice to the cause they purportedly support, but you have to
understand that these are just empty words that they could not be
bothered to attach their names to. The Palestinians have the right to
self-determination, but unfortunately, their cause and narrative are
always conflated with issues that detract from their struggles.
What is needed is sincerity and not more political bromides.