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."
PAS targets Menu Rahmah - Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Monday, February 20, 2023
Malaysiakini : You just have to look at the way PAS-controlled or influenced states
are run to understand how not only is the religious party not interested
in any kind of utilitarian governance but also how a compliant
citizenry keeps voting them back in.
For religious extremists, especially the ones in politics, fear is the only tool they have.
They
do not have any solutions to the problems the people face because we
are talking about a party, of which its leader Abdul Hadi Awang, said
during the Covid-19 pandemic that economic recovery must not be placed
above religious principles.
These extremists are all about the end
of days. Hence, it makes sense that the political strategies they
employ are based on fear. This happens with religious political
operatives all over the world. They will tell you to fear everything and
only they have the religious solutions to your problems.
Propagandasells the koolaid
Bukit
Bendera MP Syerleena Abdul Rashid, in attempting to debunk what Halimah
said, wrote - “Such a statement coming from someone qualified within
the medical field certainly raises a lot of questions…”
This is
exactly the point when it comes to propaganda. People who support PAS/PN
or are inclined to support the alliance will only see the credentials
of the person making such ludicrous statements.
PAS
and PN know this. They know that people will not bother doing any
research but will hone in on the fact that a doctor with experience in
the government service made this statement so it must be true.
After
all, why would a doctor want to cause them more harm? Keep in mind, we
are talking about a group who are at the mercy of not only the religious
bureaucracy but also survive on the various entitlement programmes put
forward by the religious bureaucracy and state governments.
Hadi,
controversial preacher Dr Zakir Naik, and anyone who peddles extremist
religious narratives will tell you that the suffering you endure here
will be rewarded in the afterlife - if you follow their rules.
Now, the non-Muslims in the B40 group are cut off from the kind of systemic aid given out to their Muslim brethren.
This
self-reliance has, in many ways, made them stronger and also made their
attempts to leave this group stronger, but this is a problematic point.
Suffice it to say, this has always been used against the non-Malay
polity. Self-reliance has been turned into useful propaganda that all
non-Malays are better off than their Malay brothers and sisters.
As
for following their rules, well that is a dicey proposition and the end
game for religious extremists. The whole point of PN is turning this
country into a theocracy and the first step is making sure that any
non-religious solutions offered up by this government are thrashed, even
if it means hurting the very people that PN claims it is advocating
for.
So, what we have in this case are religious operatives
trashing a governmental aid programme that they will never use
themselves.
This, of course, is an important point because all these religious potentates are living in luxury.
If
Halimah really cared about the B40, especially children, she would be
training her sights on the menu served in religious schools.
There, “low-quality food” is acceptable, I suppose. All one has to do is google the topics and one would find news reports from Astro Awani, New Straits Times, The Sun and The Star
- to name a few - showing that hundreds, if not thousands, of students
suffer from food poisoning every year due to low-quality food served in
these schools.
PAS’ long game bearing fruit
The
religious bureaucracy is one of the more well-funded government
appendages in this country. Yet the religious bureaucracy is a swamp of
incompetence and corruption.
The reality is that successive
governments have funded these organisations and yet the majority of
Malay Muslims in the B40 group are still suffering. Why? It seems to me
that if the basis of religion is compassion, then the millions of
ringgit poured into the coffers of the religious bureaucracy should have
helped the polity over the decades.
The government is more
interested in paying religious leaders, funding think tanks, turning a
blind eye to the funds for religious schools, overlooking the propaganda
disseminated by these religious schools, getting various small-time
preachers on the government’s payroll and then clutching their pearls
when scandals, rapes, abuse, deaths and bullying happen with anything
connected to the religious bureaucracy.
PAS,
of course, could not care less about any of this. Religious scandals
are water off a duck’s back to them. They know that whatever the
religious bureaucracy has always done only serves to further their own
narratives.
All the money lost or the cash stolen from deserving
people means nothing to them. Why? Because they have enough doctors,
technocrats and grassroots-level operators churned out by the religious
industrial complex to further their political narratives.
And now, PAS is reaping its rewards for playing the long game for decades.
I
have no idea if Menu Rahmah is working but, obviously, if the
opposition is attacking it - with a doctor no less - they are worried
that it is gaining traction. After how PN ran the country, is it any
wonder that the people, especially the B40 group, need all the help they
can get?
Former Umno deputy minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed in
February last year said that PAS, which contested 15 seats in the Johor
state polls, is bereft of ideas and all they talk about is polygamy and
promoting ridiculous practices like saying husbands can beat their wives
“lightly”.
