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."
Are tears the only thing PKR can offer? - Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Monday, July 18, 2022
Malaysiakini : One would have thought, with a series of failed elections in their
wake, the failed strategies of Anwar Ibrahim and disenchanted
grassroots, the leadership of PKR would have gone into self-preservation
mode and declared a detent amongst the various groups vying for power.
And
what are they really fighting for? It is not as if PKR is in any
position to offer the bounties of government to those in power.
People
are essentially fighting over positions in a moribund political party
which may very well be wiped out in the next general election.
Sure
they may cling on to power in various states but the reality is, that
if by now PKR has not got a grip on what it is and what it hopes to
achieve, this may very well be the death knell of the party.
And havenāt we all heard this before? Anwar and his second in command are sniping behind the scenes before it becomes public.
PKR supporters and their proxies in the media have to take sides, while the situation in the country gets worse.
This
in turn creates the optics that as the "Malay" vote-getter in Harapan,
PKR is failing miserably, which then allows detractors to wallow in the
kind of racism, especially on social media which feeds into the
narratives of the Malay uber alles parties.
Get house in order
Whether Anwar is losing popularity or Rafizi Ramli airing his grievances through the proper channels is not the point.
PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli with president Anwar Ibrahim
The
point is that this country is going down the manure hole, and the
opposition party which is supposed to be the tent pole, is having these
pathetic public squabbles while Wan Azizah is offering up her tears in
the corner.
In her latest piece,
Mariam Mokhtar said the opposition needs to make some hard decisions to
make a fresh start. This is of course true but the reality is that PKR
is supposed to be the alternative to the other Malay uber alles parties
out there.
Whether this is true ideologically or not is beside the
point. The fact is that the tent pole PKR needs to get its house in
order before Harapan can formulate an electoral strategy to counter its
political opponents.
It is because PKR is on political, life
support, the only way to mitigate the damage done is to adopt a no
shortcut attitude if the party is to remain a credible alternative to
Umno/BN or Umno/PN.
I wonāt bother going into the failures of
Harapan but look at who they are up against, various ethnic and
religious cabals who have no interests in anything else but ensuring
that the establishment continues in a haze of religious and economic
corruption under a feudal system of patronage.
And god knows, the
fights between the various factions in PKR are not ideological, it's
about personalities, the biggest of which is Anwar, who is causing the
most damage.
The
irony is that if Anwar had sat down with his new right hand and made a
public showing of support for the younger generation of leadership in
PKR, all this talk of him stepping down would be moot.
Anwar
should be bringing all the factions together, making it clear that he
and Rafizi are leading the party. Instead what we witness, are the
craven manoeuvrings of various political operatives and their open
warfare on social media and the press.
To think all this could be
smoothed over if only Anwar would commit to a course of actions which is
supported by a majority of Harapan supporters, including PKR
supporters.
All these questions about him stepping down would be sublimated under the enthusiasm of Harapan getting down to business.
If
Anwar and Rafizi are to lead the charge for Harapan in the upcoming
general election, they would both need to articulate a people-centric
political narrative that eschews the Harapan talking points of Najib
Abdul Razak and ācorruptionā but instead relies on genuine utilitarian
reforms.
