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."
When your friends don't know they're racists By Martin Vengadesan
Monday, November 14, 2022
Malaysiakini : This is at the heart of why we are in so much trouble - most people
get easily distracted and misled by issues of identity politics (or
personality politics) and they canāt see the wood for the trees.
When
I hear an intellectually bankrupt and spiritually toxic PAS president
Abdul Hadi Awang spout his dangerous viewpoints - I am disgusted that
prejudice and racism has been so mainstreamed in Malaysia.
PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang
Yes,
I know that racism is across the board, but the dominant racists are
from the majority race and they are actually able to influence the
direction of our society.
Itās true that itās mirrored. They are not the only racists out there but they are ones with the most power.
Backward thinking in scholastic and quasi-religious institutions is
nothing new and we have gotten used to just sighing and getting on with
it.
I am not even that disgusted with Hadiās revolting Taliban-apologist thinking anymore.
What
I really canāt take is when people are so desperate that they start
seeing Umno moderates like Azalina Othman Said and Khairy Jamaluddin as
bright hopes. Or get tickled by the good cop/bad cop routine when a
relative of Dr Mahathir Mohamad invites them for tea.
Khairyās charm
Sungai
Buloh candidate Khairy just promised to bring changes to the country,
Umno, and BN - so that the Malay community could have the largest
political body in Malaysia that it could be proud of.
āI donāt
want to stop in Sungai Buloh simply because competing here is the
biggest challenge in my political career. Itās not easy to win here, but
if I win, I want to bring us all, not now but maybe in the next five or
10 years, to lead the leadership of the country.
āI also want to
bring change to my party and want Umno to be seen again as a noble
vessel for the Malay community. Nowadays, many people meet and tell me
itās not that they donāt like Umno, but they don't like some in Umno.
āMe
and other friends want to return Umno as a Malay political body that is
noble, clean, evolving, that has good leaders, and can be trusted like
it was in the past,ā Khairy was quoted by Berita Harian.
BNās candidate for Sungai Buloh Khairy Jamaluddin
Charming as it might be to the easily led, this sounds like racist talk to me.
Last
year I asked Azalina about the idea of banning parties that are
exclusively based on race, religion, or region as a means of defusing
this situation.
āOf course not. If the majority of the people want
some mono-ethnic, mono-religious, or regional parties, and they are not
allowed to join such parties, are we still a democracy?
āWe need to be inclusive in politics, but inclusion should be promoted by giving the right electoral incentives,ā she said.
Voters,
she added, can encourage inclusive politics by voting for parties that
come out with better policies and do not promote communal or regional
hatred, even though those parties may not be from their communities.
As
long as people donāt dare take the necessary step forward and drag this
country kicking and screaming to where we need to be, we shall be
stuck. Stuck with moral policing, blatant corruption, double standards,
incompetent leaders, and a failing economy.
Malay voters
In all the analysis that is floating around, we seem to have forgotten the key point that the average Malay voter, raised on ketuanan
and siege mentality, doesnāt see much wrong with racism, happily
supporting the prejudiced and backward politics of Umno, PAS, Bersatu,
and other tempurung (ignorant) parties.
Their voting patterns seem to indicate a backlash against accidentally voting in a more racially balanced government.
Again,
I repeat that Malay voters are not any more racist than others ā for
example, the percentage of DAP voters who will switch to backing MCA if
DAP suddenly replaces a Chinese candidate with an Indian or Malay one
tells its own story.
Us Indians too have all manner of prejudice interwoven through caste, region, religion, and a number of other factors.
Itās
just that the demographics are skewed to make Malay racism an important
electoral element and Chinese and Indian prejudice less so.
Decision-making power has been limited to a group that makes bad
decisions.
One problem the country has is that the Malay
right-wingers are the ones who talk, and even though what they say is
appalling - the Malay majority excels at keeping quiet.
Progressive
and intelligent Malays are manifold ā Iāve certainly met my share in
PRM, PKR, NGOs, in the arts, journalism, and music communities ā but
they are drowned out at vital decision-making moments.
And yes, that, my friends, is why I am expecting a disaster this coming weekend.
