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."
To stop Anwar, PN will slay sacred cows - Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Wednesday, November 23, 2022
Malaysiakini : There is a reason why I opened this piece with the above quotes. It
is to remind everyone, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, that the fringe
elements of religious and racial bigotry in this country are the
defining characteristics of PN-PAS.
Leaders from PN will surely
publically disavow such statements but the reality is that the extreme
ideas of this country have become so normalised and the economic and
political structure crafted by Umno so debilitating to the average
rakyat, that these ideas are dismissed by people who voted for PN-PAS
because they believed they were voting for change.
I have repeated
this ad nauseam in articles running up to the election that this
election was a choice between religious extremism and a flawed
democracy.
I also repeated ad nauseam the strategies of PAS and how the post-election milieu would be defined by religious instability.
I
always warned that Abdul Hadi Awang and PAS were the existential threat
facing this country and that recovering from a kleptocracy was far
easier than recovering from a theocracy.
So, yes I have no problem with Anwar Ibrahim attempting to find allies with anyone, as long as PN and PAS are thwarted.
Now, I am not being flippant when I say this. People voted for PN-PAS and this is what we are dealing with.
There
is a difference between majoritarian imperatives and democratic
imperatives and what we are dealing with here, especially as
non-Muslims/non-Malays is the prospect of PAS-PN further destroying the
country with crude majoritarian tactics and plunging everyone into a
black hole of religious delirium, all the while the elites from PN-PAS
will be slurping from the diminished gravy train.
Ignoring a royal plea
And to stop Anwar, PN
and PAS are willing to slay sacred cows of Malay/Muslim institutions
because as I have argued before, these are the agendas of the deep
Islamic state and the religious industrial complex.
Remember how
the royal institutions were the apogee of Malayness and we were told
that Harapan especially the DAP were always attempting to defy this
institution.
Well Muhyiddin Yassin, the desperado, is doing just that by ignoring a royal plea for a unity government.
What
this does, is normalise the rejection of royal advice in the PN base.
Muhyiddin is telling the PN base that no matter what the royal
institution advises, the feelings of the base take precedence.
Ordinarily,
this would be something I could get behind, but in this context, what
this does is further ideas that racial and religious superiority is no
longer tempered by an institution we were told is for all Malaysians but
in reality, was used as a cudgel against the opposition.
This is why PAS for instance defies royalty when it comes to the Bon Odori festival.
May
13 was another sacred cow, in the sense that the social contract was
predicated on everyone knowing their places less another May 13
occurred. Well so much for that.
Apparently, Tik Tok is cracking
down on May 13 narratives, while the state security apparatus wags its
fingers but does not do much else.
Now I am not blaming PN for
this, but keep in mind, PN/PAS’ whole political narrative is based on
the fact that the Chinese DAP are attempting to usurp Malay power
through Anwar. So you do the math.
But the biggest sacred cow was
this idea that a dominant Malay party like Umno for instance was needed
to maintain religious and racial harmony. All this has gone out the
window.
With PN/PAS, the corpse of multiculturalism lies bloated
on the ground post-election. There is no pretence that they are a
government in waiting for all Malaysians.
Rather what we have is a government in waiting based on religion and racial hegemony and nothing else.
Harapan
has found a way of working with BN in certain states and all that is
fine and good. At this point, maintaining some kind of political and
religious moderation even in a flawed hypocritical manner is better than
letting the religious extremists run states because we have all seen
what PAS and Bersatu are capable of when running a state.
Actually, we have seen what they are like when running the country.
I
sincerely hope that Anwar, by hook or by crook, gets the throne in
Putrajaya and attempts to at least start the process to ameliorate the
decades-long abuse the system has gone through.
As far as I am concerned by hook or crook, this is all PAS and BN deserve.
I
will worry about hypocrisy when my rights as a citizen of this country
which I had the privilege of serving are no longer threatened by
religious extremists.