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."
The men who hunt Hannah Yeoh By Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Thursday, March 23, 2023
Malaysiakini : The conspirators are having their cake and eating it, on the one hand
dragging the reputation of the government into the muck and on the
other playing the race card when it comes to investigating “Malay”
personalities fighting for bangsa dan agama.
It
is ludicrous and perhaps even demeaning for the state security apparatus
to ask for a statement from a minister on the report based on ramblings
of propagandists and saboteurs, but this is the country we live in.
If
a non-Malay made such accusations against the state security apparatus,
minions from the state would be all over the individual and people like
Chegubard would be calling for his or her head for insulting a Malay
institution.
Keep in mind that Chegubard's accusations are not original. Indeed it is the same old racists tune that ketuanan types use when confronted with their malfeasances.
Remember when Nazri Abdul Aziz was stumping for BN in the Semenyih by-election during Pakatan Harapan’s first time in the hot seat?
Nazri
said: "Take, for example, the attorney-general. Everyone said Adib was
sacrificed. We ask why no charges were brought against the people who
were arrested for allegedly assaulting Adib back then. None has been
charged.
"People can see that the attorney-general and the
suspects have the same skin colour, so don't blame the Malay because
they thought the attorney-general is not fair.
"What is the
problem? Just charge (them to court). I was made to understand it (the
prosecution) was withdrawn and (they) just kept quiet.
"This has
led to dissatisfaction among the Malays because (they) do not trust a
non-Malay holding that position can be fair, instead of acting according
to the skin colour."
Going by the logic of these ketuanan
types, non-Malays can never have justice because the people entrusted
with the administration of such are predominantly Malays, who would look
after their own community at the expense of the non-Malays. Maybe this
is true and perhaps a topic for another time.
Specific agenda
What is happening now, though, is that the men who hunt Yeoh have a very specific agenda which makes her a convenient target.
The Youth and Sports Ministry could be a very important portfolio
when it comes to shaping young minds. While the ministry has a history
of being a treasure trove for kleptocrats, in reality, it is one of the
more important but underused mechanisms for a progressive state.
The ketuanan
types and their religious, fascist comrades understand that an
effective Youth and Sports Ministry has the potential to bring young
people together in a way that has been used by the ketuanan types for decades to keep young Malaysians divided.
If
ever there was a forensic audit of the types of programmes carried out
by the ministry, we would not only discover pecuniary corruption (which
is a given) but also the ideological footprints of racist and religious
extremists who have slipped into sub rosa programmes to indoctrinate young Malays for decades.
Indeed for the deep Islamic state, the ministry was perhaps one of the more useful state organs to propagate their dogma.
Propagandists
from Bersatu and PAS, connections that deepened when both were part of
Harapan, were delighted when Yeoh was given this portfolio. It made
their job easier.
Keep in mind that Yeoh has been vocal about how
her religious beliefs led her to politics and civil service. She has
been a hate figure for a variety of propagandists, both state and
independent, for close to a decade.
The fact that she receives
almost devotional-like support from the DAP base makes her a very
convenient target for political operatives and religious extremists, for
whom she is an “Exhibit A” when it comes to the political lie, that the
DAP is out to “Christainise” this country.
So far, these cretins
have offered not one shred of evidence that this is happening. What they
have done, and very effectively, is use Yeoh's words against her,
contorting them to fit a very specific emotional narrative.
To
be clear, as someone who has been critical of Yeoh’s political
rhetoric, I have always maintained that non-Malay politicians should
keep to a strict secular line. In public, word and deed, they should
maintain that separation between the place of worship and state.
Here
is the thing, when you do not have a reputation or history for talking
about religion, when you do stand up for religious rights it becomes
more potent. Furthermore, the first rule of politics is, you never give
your opponent political ammo.
This is why the men who hunt Yeoh are having such an easy time when it comes to this issue. Keep in mind the target audience.
Folks
like Chegubard do not care about the outrage from the non-Malays and
liberal Malays. Their audiences are those who have been indoctrinated to
believe that someone like Yeoh is an existential threat to their racial
and religious way of life.
It does not matter how often she dons a tudung and preaches religious moderation, because to them all of this is merely religious hypocrisy.
Now
of course they have a convenient target. Yeoh as a non-Malay Christian
politician is getting all this libel and slander thrown her way because
the men who hunt her understand that this particular composition of the
government cannot afford to launch an effective counterattack.
They understand that this is an extremely emotional issue, which they have used for years.
While Yeoh has given a cogent rebuttal of the lies spewed her way, the reality is that it is ineffective against the ketuanan base.
They
do not see the hypocrisy of what their religious leaders say because
they believe in religious supremacy, which means that nearly everything
their leaders do should not be questioned.
In other words, when they do it, it is correct but when a non-Muslim does it, it is wrong or deceitful.
For the men who hunt Yeoh, too much is never enough.