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."
Police will not investigate PAS ulama wing chief - Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Monday, June 13, 2022
Malaysiakini : Third, and this is the most troubling, is that Ahmad goes a step
further and encourages Muslims to not attend the festival on religious
grounds thereby going against the words of Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah
who, in this context, was essentially taking the middle ground.
We
have to really think about this for a moment. Forget about Bon Odori.
What the sultan was advocating, albeit in a circuitous way – it is
always circuitous when it comes to religious dogma - was that Muslims
embrace the multicultural aspects of the Malaysian experience.
What
Ahmad did instead was, ask Muslims to ignore the sultan's moderate path
and abide by the dictates of not only a religious political party but
also the religious bureaucracy of which the royalty are supposed to be
the heads.
In other words, Ahmad was telling Muslims to disregard one of the pillars of ketuanan politics.
PAS beingarrogant
Does anyone see how dangerous this is? This means that while one of the supposedly highest pillars of ketuanan politics preaches moderation, PAS asks Muslims to ignore the sultan and instead trust in the party’s interpretation of Islam.
And observe how arrogant PAS is.
Selangor ruler Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah
Here
they are advocating that people disobey the sultan and questioning his
religious credentials, but when activist lawyer Fadiah Nadwa Fikri
explored themes of power and suppression regarding the royalty, she was
hauled up by the state security apparatus.
It was reported that Fadiah’s article
questioned Anwar Ibrahim's move to perpetuate a "feudal culture" at a
time when monarchies in many other parts of the world had been rendered
supposedly obsolete.
Do not get me wrong. I am not defending the
royal institution. What we are dealing with here is the hypocrisy of the
political elites in this country.
In a functional democracy, Ahmad has a right to advocate his position. However, we are not living in a functional democracy.
We are not even living in a constitutional monarchy either, despite claims that we are. The realpolitik in this country is the ketuanan paradigm.
To understand the dynamics at play, we have to revisit what Fadiah wrote in her brilliant piece.
“One
month before the recent general election, the Johor crown prince,
popularly known as TMJ, unreservedly told the whole nation not to bring
down the government – the government which had been ruling the country
with an iron fist for 61 years.
“The crown prince’s act of
uttering these words shortly before the elections, while many people
were engulfed in simmering anger, struggling to escape the oppressive
situations they had been subjected to for so long, was indeed a
calculated move.
“The act was clearly executed out of fear of the
unknown – fear of losing the privilege and power accorded to the
monarchy by the oppressive government who was complicit in subjugating
the people, should a change of government become a reality.
“This
particular event which is in no way an anomaly is proof that the
institution has never been neutral. It’s as clear as day that the side
of the people is the side it has never been on.
“As for believers
of this archaic institution who contend that it is a symbol of unity,
standing on the side of the oppressor while many are denied the right to
good life in a country that is structured by domination, inequality,
and exploitation only speaks of one kind of unity: unity in oppression.”
Activist lawyer Fadiah Nadwa Fikri
Middle ground
Furthermore, in this regime, the middle ground is unfortunately not defined by the average rakyat.
The
rakyat or those who believe in the middle ground have to hope that
certain power structures within this moribund system will stake the
middle, especially in contentious issues.
In this instance, it was
the royalty and in this instance, the forces of extremism blatantly
disregarded the supposed pillars of ketuanan politics.
Indeed, Religious Affairs Minister Idris Ahmad would rather duck the question of whether he would be following the sultan's advice, rather than reaffirm the pillars of ketuanan politics.
Meanwhile, nobody, certainly not the defenders of bangsa and agama, is filing police reports on the religious affairs minister to get the police to investigate.
Indeed
there is complete silence. Instead, what the establishment is content
with is that nobody will question this hypocrisy because, to do so,
would invite sanctions from the state.
What PAS is demonstrating is the shape of things to come.
