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."
Ku Li looks back, while Najib looks forward - Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Thursday, September 23, 2021
Malaysiakini : "Any politician who would want to play a role would want a seat in Parliament." - Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak
COMMENT
| Umno veteran Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, while debating the king’s
address attempted to frame our current turmoil – “race relations,
religious tolerance, economic issues and political instability” – as
Umno losing its raison d'etre as a movement, as opposed to the 'crime syndicate' it has become as exemplified by the creation of Umno Baru.
The old Umno, the one before 1988, is the Umno Razaleigh (above) believes will save Malaysia and is worth reviving and he publicly claimed that the then judiciary did former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad a favour.
He
said: "It is now clear Umno was declared unlawful and then deregistered
for the ulterior purpose of capturing its leadership undemocratically
and against the law. It was a decision without any legitimacy whatsoever
and an abuse of political power."
Razaleigh, who is fondly known
as Ku Li, of course, always nurtured the perception that he was the last
honest man in Umno, a prince who reluctantly found himself consorting
with thieves.
Resigning
as Umno advisory council member may elicit guffaws and remarks like
that of former minister Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz who claimed that Ku Li
was hurt that he was not named prime minister, but the reality is
that Umno can now wage war on behalf of kleptocrats without any hassle
from any quarters within the party.
Razaleigh
has the remarkable ability to engender goodwill from certain sections
of the general public by disassociating himself from the excesses of
Umno even though he contributed to the very culture he claims to
despise.
Remember when 1Malaysia was a thing, and then
deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin went on about how he was "Malay
first and Malaysian second", Ku Li publicly stated
(without naming names of course): "The statement comes as a severe blow
not just to the concept of 1Malaysia, but also as a nullification of Jiwa Malaysia or the National Spirit that (first prime minister) Tunku Abdul Rahman was trying hard to inculcate."
This
was said during a Paddy Schubert Sdn Bhd organised event, which should
tell us something about the nature and agenda of the event.
Ku
Li believes that Umno Baru needs to get back to its roots as some sort
of ethnoreligious moderate movement based on transparency and good
governance attracting, as he claims, the best people, meaning Malays, as
opposed to the openly corrupt cesspool it has become.
Anyway,
this idea of Umno going back to its roots, is actually, a reminder of
how the democratic guardrails of good governance were dismantled by
successive Umno governments, all of which Ku Li was party to.
It
is not that Ku Li is conflating political parties and systems of
governance, it is actually the reality that reforms are needed but which
can only come about if the mainstream Malay and non-Malay political
establishment are willing to carry them out.
The
demographics have changed since 1988, especially with the influx of
foreigners and constitutionally-created bumiputeras. The civil service
is a beast of its own beholden to Umno yes, but with petty fiefdoms
linked to individual warlords or their proxies.
We are dealing with a toxic ecosystem that came to life before Umno Baru but was nurtured by cabals from the new Umno.
It
is cold comfort, but when it comes to political operatives, they are
only as honest as the system allows them to be. It is like that all over
the world. And what the mainstream political establishment did for
political gain, either by acts of omission or collusion, was to
dismantle the guardrails.
This is why those reforms in the
government-Pakatan Harapan memorandum of understanding (MOU) are so
important. This is the slow process of rebuilding those guardrails which
fuel Ku Li’s nostalgia.
Meanwhile, former prime minister Najib,
convicted of corruption, has been relentlessly attacking opposing power
structures within Umno, positioning his faction as key players in the
"musical chairs" that is the de facto system in place until we
have an election, to determine which bunch of screw-ups is going to be
able to form a coalition to run this country.
Because of social
media, Najib gets to say his piece and rehabilitate his image as a
convicted felon. Reading his social media posts, you would understand
that Najib is using his insider knowledge of the way the government
works to destabilise any regime, which is viewed as an impediment to his
playing a role in running this country, not to mention, keeping him out
of an orange or purple jumpsuit.
The
fact is that corruption has been normalised. The Malay establishment is
on edge now because one of their own was convicted of corruption and
nobody wants to be part of actually jailing a former prime minister.
I
mean jailing opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim for ridiculous charges is
okay but actually jailing a scion of the Malay establishment would set a
precedent, that would really upend the Malay establishment.
This normalisation of corruption is even more apparent when Anwar was having his cosy chats with elements of the court cluster.
As
a young Malay civil servant asked me recently, if corruption is so bad,
then why is it that politicians have no problems attempting to make
deals with people who are under investigation, charged or currently
defending themselves in corruption cases. I answered, “Um… to save
Malaysia?”
If Harapan had gone after the big fish, and everyone in
the government knows who they are, I believe that Najib would not have
the platform he has now. The civil and security services and the
political elites would be in serious trouble.
While some younger
Umno political operatives and activists want to get back to that
equilibrium where there was some sort of transparency and accountability
and a power-sharing formula in this country, the split in Umno now
reflects that the party is hanging its fortunes of the stratagems of the
court cluster and Islamists.
The fact is there is no going back for Umno, and Najib may have the last laugh.