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."
Meanwhile, Azmin, like Dr
Mahathir Mohamad, gives “sarcastic” answers to questions posed by the
press. Read the transcript of an exchange between a reporter and Azmin here about a meeting with Umno political operatives when he was in Harapan.
Even
the sex scandal surrounding Azmin was part of the problem. No doubt
there were elements within PKR who were out to get Azmin, but this is
politics and when you put a target on your back, what do you expect?
Even
then, Azmin could not bring himself to identify his persecutors
because, to do so, would not be as damaging as allowing the rumour mill
to spin into overdrive.
Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad
Mahathir
was drying gutter politics, while Azmin loyalists were signing pledges
asking Anwar Ibrahim not to split the party and pledging loyalty to
Azmin. In a joint statement yesterday, the leaders said Anwar, as the
PKR president, should urgently unite all members in the interests of the
party, Harapan and the country.
At the same time, the leaders also pledged support for former PKR deputy president Azmin when he was implicated in a sex video scandal. Azmin vehemently denied involvement.
Of
course, the whole corruption angle was in play. Then Santubong PKR
Youth chief Haziq Abdullah Abdul Aziz confessed to having sex with Azmin
and claimed that Azmin should be investigated for “corruption".
In other words, Haziq slept with an allegedly corrupt politician and then, when a sex tape mysteriously appeared, Haziq confessed
- without guilt or shame considering his religious pedigree - to being a
participant. But the most important thing is that his alleged partner
should be investigated for corruption.
Azmin was always protected - first by his benefactors in Harapan and
now by this Malay uber alles government. At the height of this sex
scandal, the instruments of the state had been attempting to scare
people from passing around this video.
Khairy Jamaluddin
Personalities like Umno leader Khairy Jamaluddin mendaciously told us to ”look away”. Religious operatives clutched their pearls asking for an investigation by the religious bureaucracy.
Poster boy for treachery
Only
in the Malay uber alles political milieu can a treacherous political
operative like Azmin believe he has a path of reversing his political
fortune.
To borrow a few lines from the great English poet Samuel
Daniel, "Princes, in this case, do hate the traitor, though they love
the treason." Similarly, Umno hates the traitor, though they love the
treason.
It is sickening when Azmin talks about helping all
Malaysians when he destroyed Harapan because he believed that only a
Malay uber alles coalition could sustain his political longevity.
Now,
by his betrayal, he has given PAS access to the federal bureaucracy and
not only have they made hay while the sun shone, but also managed to
ferment more toxicity in the national discourse and strengthen the
religious and racial chokehold on the Malay polity as well.
Azmin
is the poster boy for the treachery of Malay uber alles politics. Not
only is his treachery rewarded but he accepts all of the vitriol thrown
his way as a badge of honour. He has had his loyalists attempt to revise
history by defining his treachery as a bold move for the reformasi movement.
The
fact that he continues to sidestep questions about his machinations to
become the deputy prime minister should tell everyone that he would
rather see this country burn than retire from the political battlefield.
Even
though he may possibly destroy PN, like he did Harapan, and trigger a
general election, I say let us roll the dice because Azmin’s continued
presence and the toxic government he helped create is a provocation to
all rational Malaysians.
