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."
Is dissenting against Sosma, whining? - Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Thursday, December 15, 2022
Malaysiakini : And, really, all the home minister should have said was that Sosma
was under a moratorium until it could be studied further and slowly
phased out.
If he wanted to show government support for the state
security apparatus, what he should have done is assure the state
security apparatus, especially the police, that the government was
looking into the welfare of their personnel and devising methods to ease
their burdens during these economic trying times, namely when it comes
to issues such as housing, salary and professional welfare.
This
way, the government is not endorsing draconian laws and the optics of
looking after the welfare of security personnel way down on the totem
pole becomes the focus of this new government, instead of not spooking
the right-wing elements of this country who support this law.
Instead,
what Saifuddin did was not only tell folks that the Reformasi agenda
means bupkis but also enabled the right-wing forces in this country, who
approve of such laws because they understand that such laws do not
apply to them.
Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail
There is this meme spreading around Harapan supporters, who now think
that these laws are needed to curtail the religious and racial excesses
of the Malay far right. These people are delusional.
What I have
argued, and so have many other legal and security professionals, and
academics across the ideological divide – some of whom were detained
under these laws, and political operatives who were also detained – is
that there are enough legal provisions to maintain safety and security,
provided a professional and impartial state security apparatus does its
job without resorting to such immoral, undemocratic measures.
And
yes these measures, although convenient, have more often than not been
abused for the benefit of the political elites of this country or have
been used on the disenfranchised of this country who do not have access
to the legal system that privilege provides.
I have often argued
that terrorism – especially religious terrorism – should be dealt with
as a criminal enterprise and there are enough laws to handle such
crimes, without the need for special laws that, in reality, threaten
democratic first principles and institutions. Indeed even in the West,
such laws are used to stifle dissent.
Obnoxious laws
There
is some safety if you are a political operative or a well-known social
activist - but, for the rest of us, the rules do not apply.
From reportage in 2016,
it was stated one detainee, in particular, was threatened at gunpoint
during questioning, forced to strip naked and sexually harassed by
officers.
"This detainee was stripped and bent over, his anus caressed with a water bottle.
“Another detainee was forced to strip and forced to bend over to be
sodomised,” said Suaram executive director Sevan Doraisamy, who added
that he was unsure whether the actual act was carried out or otherwise.
Keep
in mind that the default position of the state security apparatus and
the political class is that (1) all reports of malfeasances are
fabrications, and (2) show us proof.
Just two years ago, one of
the few truth speakers to power wrote about these obnoxious laws when it
came to the state’s persecution of Malacca state executive councillor G
Saminathan for his supposed link with the LTTE.
Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy said:
“In the ultimate sense, it is not about the court judgment or Sosma but
whether the Pakatan Harapan government is willing to tolerate and
condone the obnoxious laws of the country, that were supposed to have
been removed per the election manifesto.”
Indeed imposing a
moratorium on such laws buys Harapan more time to carry out structural
reforms when it comes to the welfare of vox populi in the state security
apparatus and a signal to the Harapan base that reforms are taking
place.
This would ensure that the system undergoes revision but it is not some kind of shock therapy.
Instead,
what the home minister did was pit the reform-minded forces in this
country against his ministry, hoping that a spooked Harapan base would
go along with anything he says in the service of not causing any
problems for the unity government.
In other words, people who were
originally opposed to such laws would remain silent in the absence of
reform because they did not want to spook Perikatan Nasional.
And
who knows, he may be right. After all, some in the Harapan base think
these laws will be used on the people who make religious and racial
provocations and they would be right. The problem is that the state and
PN define racial and religious provocations as people who argue for
egalitarianism and secularism.
And this is really the problem
because the Harapan base wants to give this unity government a chance,
but between being told not to whine and the provocations of PN, the last
thing this Harapan-led government should be doing is mismanaging reform
by abandoning whatever separates it from PN.
I mean it's right there in one of the objectives of the Rukun Negara - Memelihara cara hidup demokratik (Preserving a democratic way of life).
