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."
Malaysiakini : Most of us consider Saudi Arabiaās Wahhabism to be intolerant and
rigid, but ask any die-hard PAS supporter, and he may say that Saudiās
version of Islam is too liberal and heathen. Fancy allowing women to
drive, attend school or play football!
Many Malaysians, especially our youth, assume that the green wave in the 15th general election was a consequence of the nationās first Islamisation process. No, it is not!
PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang
Older
Malaysians have travelled on this journey before. The parallels between
what happened four decades ago and now are worrying.
Four decades ago, we saw the first attempts at Islamisation, the challenges faced by the judiciary, tighter controls on the population, criticism of royalty and the initial cracks in Umno.
The first Islamisation process occurred with the dakwah movement of the mid-to-late 1970s to early 1980s.
The
proponents sought to apply Islamic laws and values to daily living for
social, economic and spiritual development. It was energised by the
global resurgence of Islam and the Iranian/Islamic revolution of 1979.
The more visible effects of the Islamisation/dakwahism movement were experienced in schools, universities and the civil service.
At
our convent, Malay girls came for netball practice, suddenly, in long
trousers, long-sleeved tops and head coverings. It was alleged that
women in the civil service who refused to conform to the new unspoken
dress code were refused promotion.
For overseas students,
dakwahism was more pronounced. Besides the obligatory religious classes,
there was a spate of contract, short-term, or temporary marriages among
Malay university students.
So whilst the rest of the Malaysian
student population was busy socialising, making friends, enjoying
student life, and sampling the delights of another culture, dakwah
couples behaved like ordinary married couples.
The Malaysians who
were mistaken about the Islamisation of the nation, also assumed that
the first fragmentation of Umno-Baru began with the reformasi movement. No!
The first cracks in Umno started when Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah or Ku Li, challenged the then-Umno president, Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Ku Liās actions resulted in a chain reaction which led to the
constitutional/judicial crisis, Mahathirās method of silencing his
critics with Operasi Lalang, and the formation of Umno Baru when the
original Umno was declared an illegal society.
Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad (right) and Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah
History
repeats itself in Malaysia. Four decades ago, two events probably made
Islamic teachings in Malaysia increasingly extreme and uncompromising.
First was the 1979 Iranian Islamic Revolution when the clerics of Iran successfully overthrew the Pahlavi dynasty, the last Iranian monarchy.
Perhaps,
both Mahathir and Hadi, who showed disrespect to the Malaysian sultans
are emboldened by the actions of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Mahathirās single aim is probably to hang onto power whereas Hadiās reason is more chilling.
The second event was the siege of Mecca in 1979, when a young preacher staged an armed takeover of the Grand Mosque of Mecca, which led to a bloodbath.
Amongst
the many aims of the rebel extremist and his fellow militants was to
advocate a return to the original ways of Islam, and expulsion of
non-Muslims. Does that sound familiar to Malaysians?
Both these events, the Iranian Revolution and the Mecca siege were the watershed in Islamic history and also in Saudi rule.
Brainwashed from overseas
The extremists who seized the Grand Mosque condemned the degeneration of social and religious values.
They
said that oil money had transformed the nation into a consumerist
society with men and women freely mixing. The aftermath of the bloody
siege led to Saudi becoming ultra-conservative. Its women became almost
āinvisibleā.
People like me returned from our overseas studies to a
country that was different to the one we left earlier. Since then, we
have seen the hardliners digging their heels in.
And it did not
help that the Malay scholarship students who were sent to Egyptian and
Jordanian universities, who were themselves brainwashed by the clerics
in these far-away places, returned home to spread their warped ideology.
The graduates may be professionals but they confuse culture and religion. Many Malay forms of expression like dance, wayang kulit and music have been banned.
I was brought up on a diet of P Ramlee movies and bands like The Who and The Rolling Stones.
And
it is disheartening to see the decline of a once happy multicultural
nation to a disgruntled, artificial monoculture where we quibble over
ownership of choice words like āAllahā, argue about certain ānational dishesā, where discussion about our clothing takes precedence over the cost of living crisis.
In other words, we have degenerated from the golden days of P Ramlee to enter the dark days of PASā Hadi.
Malaysiaās upcoming six state elections may possibly mark a turning point in our history.
