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."
The charade of 'fair trial' has hit a royal note By R Nadeswaran
Tuesday, April 04, 2023
Malaysiakini : And this āfair trialā bit is again going to be used in the pardon bid, sans repentance and compassion.
Yesterday,
his defence counsel Muhammed Shafee Abdullah made it clear at a media
conference, saying that the pardon (application) is exactly what (Abdul)
Rahman (Sebli, the Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak) said in the
judgment.
Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Abdul Rahman Sebli
(While Rahman ruled that he was inclined to grant Najib an acquittal, the other members of the bench disagreed, resulting in a 4 to 1 majority verdict
to dismiss the former premierās review bid. The other members of the
bench were Federal Court judges Vernon Ong Lam Kiat, Rhodzariah Bujang
and Nordin Hassan, and Court of Appeal judge Abu Bakar Jais.)
āOur
pardon request is exactly what Rahman said in his judgment. The request
for pardon is not because, āOh, I did wrong, Iām sorry and therefore I
throw myself upon your mercy,ā no.
āThis is not the pardon that is normally the case.ā
He said the
request would state that the former prime minister did not receive a
fair trial, adding that his case was not heard in the apex court and the
prosecution was heard ex parte by the judges.
Shafee: Judgment to be sent to the King
Shafee
also said the majority judgment would be sent to the Yang di-Pertuan
Agong for comparison, to see āwhich is the better judgmentā.
Does
it mean a new level of the judiciary ā above the Federal Court is being
created ā with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong heading it?
Surely, the
Pardons Board headed by His Majesty cannot surely go into the merits of
the case in which the Federal Court and the courts below unanimously
found Najib guilty.
On review, one judge remarked on procedural
flaws, but surely his sole findings cannot supersede that of the other
four. To harp on one judgment (against four) and drag the issue must be a
desperate attempt to escape justice.
If this attempt to seek a pardon is binned, then what next?
Three months ago, Najib Abdul Razak filed a petition with the United
Nations (UN) working group, asking for his release or a retrial of the
SRC International case.
Lawyer Shafee Abdullah and ex-PM Najib
Shafee said the petition was filed with the UN Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) on Jan 5.
āHe
(Najib) is asking the UNWGAD panel of five experts on international
justice to rule that the dismissal of his appeal by the Federal Court on
Aug 23, 2022, was unjust, flawed and violated his basic human rights
and the Federal Constitution,ā he added.
But the Working Group has
the mandate only to investigate cases of deprivation of liberty imposed
arbitrarily or inconsistently with the international standards set
forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, or the international
legal instruments accepted by the countries concerned.
The
Working Group investigates alleged cases of arbitrary detention by
sending urgent appeals and communications to concerned governments to
clarify and/or bring their attention to these cases.
Was Najibās
liberty deprived arbitrarily or inconsistently? It was not a kangaroo
court that found him guilty and he has exhausted all legal avenues
available.
Surely, if this charade is primarily aimed at keeping
him in the news, it may have achieved its aims. But mocking the
judiciary is another matter altogether.
