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."
More pressing matters involving billions to investigate By P Gunasegaram
Thursday, February 23, 2023
Malaysiakini : It is a rather sad reflection of the times and of our poor, pillaged
country that the public sits up and takes intense notice only when
corruption, etc, involves hundreds of millions of ringgit at least
and/or the involvement of a prominent personality and novel new ways of
making or stealing money, such as the 1MDB where borrowed money in the
billions was stolen.
There are at least three of them which need
to be investigated as soon as possible and if we do not hear from the
investigating authorities shortly, a justified lack of confidence in
their competence and integrity may well arise.
They are the
alleged inadequate 1MDB settlement with Goldman Sachs involving billions
of US dollars, the RM600 billion inappropriate spending by the
Muhyiddin Yassin government and the unsolved RM9 billion littoral combat
ships (LCS) scandal.
The1MDB-Goldman Sachs settlement
If we want to talk about grand theft and corruption, which really
should be the priority, letās start with the mother of them all, the
self-styled strategic development company called 1MDB. No, we are not
going to go way back in time to the origins - letās talk about
settlements.
This
is the one with that rogue investment bank giant, Goldman Sachs, who
arranged US$6.5 billion in bonds for a rather fat fee for 1MDB and then
actually facilitated almost all of their theft with crooks such as Low
Taek Jho, or Jho Low, Najib Abdul Razakās co-conspirator.
Our
previous attorney-general Tommy Thomas, by his own account, had them on
the ropes and was about to deliver a few crushing knockout punches when
the government changed and new negotiators were brought in, as I
explained here and urged a thorough probe of the settlement.
The
effective settlement was for US$2.5 billion cash, while there was a
US$1.4 billion guarantee if there were shortfalls in the recovery of
assets purchased from the theft of bond proceeds. Apparently, and anyone
with sense can anticipate this, there were no shortfalls.
Thomas was looking for a settlement closer to US$9 billion instead of US$2.5 billion cash.
Former attorney-general Tommy Thomas
Amidst
allegations of political funding arising from this deal, it is
necessary to investigate the deal thoroughly to ensure that there was no
hanky panky in the negotiation process. Or if there was hanky panky, to
nullify the agreement with Goldman Sachs, go for a higher settlement
and prosecute those who were responsible.
And make the process
transparent, declassify the agreement as a secret and let the public
have a look at the deal. Why should it be secret in the first place?
This is an ongoing case which does not seem to have reached any
conclusion despite being periodically highlighted.
The RM600 billion āimproprietiesā
My antennas twitched when I first read this. Surely Muhyiddin could
not have filched RM600 billion - that would be too large an amount. Ahh,
it became clearer later. The ā...RM600 billion
is the full allocation. (We are) reviewing where there are violations
of procedures and leakages,ā Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim clarified.
And then the MACC further said its initial probe
on the alleged misappropriation of RM600 billion in funds by the
previous administration has revealed that only RM92.5 billion of a lower
RM530 billion amount came from government sources.
Former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin
Confusing?
Yes, most certainly. We, the rakyat, need clarity over this. What is
being investigated, is it RM92.5 billion? Is that money which
disappeared or was it improperly allocated? Even in the least-worst
scenario, that could well involve billions, perhaps tens of billions of
ringgit.
Itās been some two months since the first allegations were made. Why the deafening silence until now?
The RM9 billion LCS scandal
Here, it is pretty much established
that there was an RM9 billion contract, RM6 billion was paid out and
not a single one of those LCS - ships that are supposed to patrol our
coastal waters - was delivered. How could so much money disappear and no
ships appear?
Our new defence minister, Umnoās deputy president and newly elected MP Mohamad Hasan,
does not seem to be too concerned. Perhaps it happened during Umnoās
watch and quite a few of them are allegedly implicated, including his
bosses and colleagues at Umno.
Mohamad said: āWe will ensure that
the ships are built; no point talking about history. That is important
because it (LCS) is a strategic asset of the armed forces.ā
What
does he mean by that? History is not important? No point recovering RM6
billion? No need to prosecute those who were responsible? Just complete
the project and carry on? Anwar must not take this lying down. Time to
pull up, Tok Mat.
Given
that the authorities have had much time to investigate (unless they did
not investigate when the backdoor governments were in power) and the
strength and benefit of a Parliamentary Accounts Committee report, it is
rather strange that nothing of note has materialised. Why?
With investigations lacking or even non-existent when such large sums of money are involved, will frying some ikan bilis
kill the stench? Most certainly not. The mix of strange smells could
prove to be rather noxious and toxic to those doing the frying.
