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."
Umno-Baru's three-legged stool strategy By Mariam Mokhtar
Friday, August 26, 2022
Malaysiakini : We pitied Najib's family members, all of whom are still living in denial, despite the overwhelming evidence stacked against him.
Most importantly, we realise the urgency to quickly process the remaining corrupt politicians before they cause more harm.
Three-legged stool of governance
Unsurprisingly, the two common factors in our observations are Malays and education.
Education
has clearly failed many Malays, despite the hundreds of millions of
ringgits poured into their community and the relative ease with which
Malays can enrol at institutions of higher learning.
Education has certainly failed the crowd of Malays who had gathered in front of the palace, urging the King to grant Najib a royal pardon. God's name was invoked several times.
Did
Najib's supporters fail the simple lesson that stealing is a sin, that
lying is also wrong, and did their teachers or parents not tell them how
corruption destroys lives and can kill? Are the simple values they
learnt, even at the kindergarten level, lost on them?
Umno-Baru's three-legged stool of governance comprises race (Malay), religion (Islam) and royalty.
Imagine a three-legged stool. If one of the legs were removed, anyone
attempting to sit on the stool would topple over. That is how it is
when governing Malaysia, Umno-Baru style. Racial and religious extremism
are promoted, and the glue that binds these two is the royals.
That is what Umno-Baru and PAS fear most - when every race, especially the Malays, Chinese, and Indians, stand united.
So,
when the majority Malay crowd urged the King to grant Najib a royal
pardon, did they not realise that this would put the King on a head-on
collision course with the rakyat? Did education not teach them to
reason?
Najib’s supporters at Istana Negara
If
convicts who steal billions of ringgits are set free, does that mean
their slate is wiped clean? Will a royal pardon erase all records of a
guilty person's criminal past activities?
The minute after the
King grants Najib his freedom, it will incur the wrath of the rakyat,
especially the Malays. It is doubtful that the king and fellow sultans
would risk their own positions. Najib becomes a forgotten footnote.
A few days earlier, Najib read out a prepared script, as part of his sumpah laknat,
to declare his innocence in front of his supporters in the Kampung Baru
mosque. For many, his actions were an insult to Islam, but how many
Muslims spoke out against it?
Did Umno-Baru Malays who witnessed his sumpah laknat
expect a bolt of lightning to strike a guilty Najib dead? Were they
satisfied that when he emerged unscathed, this was proof enough that God
was on Najib's side and that he was innocent? Are Malays that gullible
or simply dense? Does too much religion addle the brain?
Meanwhile, a desperate Hadi blamed non-Malays and non-Muslims for corruption.
He
knows that the long list of high-profile politicians tried in court for
stealing from the taxpayer, criminal breach of trust, and money
laundering are mainly Malay. Hadi's target audience is the gullible
Malay, who rarely reads up on the news. The cleric-turned-wannabe
politician has set his eyes on Putrajaya in GE-15. He is addicted to
power
In Hadi's Malay utopia, corruption will be rife, despite the fact that all the non-Malays and non-Muslims have fled the nation.
If Hadi's dream of a Syariah state
was fulfilled, will prisoners who successfully appealed against a
conviction of theft have to engage a surgeon to re-attach their limbs
which have been lobbed off?
As for Najib's family, it is doubtful
that any member will admit that Najib was guilty. That alone might open
another can of worms.
If Najib's spouse, the former self-styled "First Lady of Malaysia", Rosmah Mansor, and his former deputy, Zahid Hamidi, are found guilty and jailed, so be it; but could the court jail Hadi first, as a matter of urgency. He is a dangerous man whose loose tongue and acid words can destabilise a nation and threaten peace.
