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."
However,
what is missing from most commentaries is the acknowledgement that the
big tent is in reality a racial strategy perpetrated by elements in the
mainstream political establishment to resolve a political crisis brought
upon by decades of corrupt policies, racial and religious imperatives
that are destroying this country but which they have no real political
will to change.
Forget about the trust issues when it comes to the
big tent, what the big tent really is, is a plea for the racists,
bigots and religious extremists to join hands with Harapan in the hopes
of scuttling the ambitions of the court cluster.
There are no common ground policies beyond policies that favour the majority community.
There
are no grand Malaysian new deals which would get this country out of
the rut it is in, beyond platitudes that corruption needs to be
eradicated and jailing Najib Abdul Razak and Co would do that.
The
fact that Anwar Ibrahim claims that his principles were the reasons why
the strong and formidable gambit failed does not explain who exactly
was going to give him his strong and formidable numbers and why he was
in talks with them in the first place.
Pakatan Harapan chairperson Anwar Ibrahim
If principles are important, why deal with any corrupt leader?
And it would not be so bad if the other Malay uber alles parties are receptive to the sordid political gyrations of PKR.
The
reality is that PKR is bending over backwards to court anyone, no
matter how compromised they are in the hopes of gaining political power
in the guise of fighting for a better Malaysia.
And I would just like to add one major point in the fall of the Harapan regime.
Political middle ground
Yes,
Dr Mahathir Mohamad and the Sheraton Move traitors are to blame, but
what really destabilised the Harapan government is that it failed to
define the political middle ground that Umno/BN did for decades.
This
failure was fuelled by overblown expectations, especially in the
non-Malay polity of the kind of change that was possible and the Bangsa
Malaysia kool-aid, which is a toxic influence on racial and religious
discourse.
If Harapan manages to scrape a victory from this unholy
big tent and Anwar is installed as the prime minister, what kind of
government do you think we will have?
Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob
As
it is, Ismail Sabri Yaakob, the current grand poobah, is nothing more
than a figurehead or punching bag for the disparate elements which make
up this Malay uber alles government.
How do you think Anwar would be with the DAP continuing to be vilified - but this time from within the government?
After
his failed attempts at securing an alliance with elements from the
court cluster and plunging Harapan into a political miasma of hypocrisy
and electoral failure, Anwar seems to think that any deal hammered out
by his acolytes would result in a reversal of political fortune.
Anwar
cannot have it both ways. He cannot claim that Harapan’s strength is
its core parties but still allow his minions to negotiate deals with
racists, bigots and political extremists merely to gain political power.
In fact, all these backroom deals are just destabilising Harapan.
Did
it ever occur to those people who want a big tent that all these
political operatives they are talking to are merely attempting to
destabilise Harapan with these talks and dragging it out for as long as
possible, so Harapan would be a disunified group when the next GE comes
round the corner?
How
does this look to the demographic you are wooing? Weak, insecure
political operatives hoping anyone will be their friend in their quest
for power.
PKR, DAP and Amanah do not need anyone else to attain federal power and the propaganda that it does merely sustains the system.
Meanwhile,
those from the DAP to PAS are drawing boundaries as to who they would
work with as if bipartisanship and country above party were something
that Malaysians are used to.
Rafizi Ramli and Nurul Izzah Anwar
are attempting to redefine Harapan’s political narrative but the problem
is that the party they belong to has neither the electoral clout nor
the moral standing to set the political agenda for Harapan.
However,
Rafizi and Nurul Izzah are pointing PKR in the right direction in terms
of how they can build goodwill by committing to an economic and social
agenda which helps all Malaysians especially the disenfranchised members
of the Malay polity.
But this takes hard work and a political
will that understands that the long game is more beneficial than dubious
short term gains.
Harapan could have formulated policies and
funded entitlement programmes which actually would have helped the
dominant Malay polity - but it instead attempted to take over existing
Umno programmes to maintain political hegemony and the result is that
Umno still managed to make a comeback, with convicted political
operatives leading the charge while embroiled in internal party feuds.
Like any other failed or failing Malay uber alles strategy, the big tent will be the final nail in Harapan’s coffin.
