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."
After
this foolish stunt, itās going to be harder to convince non-Malay
voters to support the unity government by backing Umno candidates. To be
sure, non-Malays donāt want to see the green wave triumph but thereās
only so much of this nonsense from Umno they can stomach.
Besides,
what exactly do they want an apology for? It is an undeniable fact that
Umno ā especially over the last two decades ā has become the most
racist, most corrupt and most incompetent political party.
They
single-handedly brought a nation with great potential to its knees. The
DAP was right to call them out for all the damage they inflicted on the
nation.
If anything, it is
Umno who should tender an abject apology to the people of Malaysia for
their years of corruption, mismanagement, abuse of power, cronyism and
destroying national unity.
And
donāt forget that for decades, Umno made all sorts of slanderous
allegations against the DAP accusing them of being everything from
Zionist agents, communist sympathisers, Tamil Tiger supporters and
Christian evangelists to trying to split the country in two, working to
undermine Islam, refusing to accept Malay rights, etc.
Formerpremier Dr Mahathir Mohamadhimself admitted that it was all part of a deliberate strategy to turn the Malays against the DAP.
Is Umno ready to apologise for that?
Unrepentant Umno
This
whole apology issue ought to also serve as an object lesson to the DAP
about the folly of appeasement. In order to help Anwar Ibrahim obtain a majority, the DAP was forced to take the humiliating step of apologising to Sarawak leaders.
Then,
to appease the ultras, the DAP had to further castrate itself and
accept a junior position in the unity government despite being the
second largest party in parliament. Umno and GPS (both with about half
the seats compared to the DAP) were given more power along with many of
the top jobs.
But even that is now insufficient for Umno. What they want is for the DAP to commit the political equivalent of hara-kiri
just so Umno could strengthen its bona fides as champions of race and
religion. Iām glad that DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke politely told
them to take a hike.
Whatever
it is, it shows that Umno has learned nothing from its crushing defeat
in the last election. Instead of working to rebuild trust amongst
voters, Umno remains as unrepentant as ever.
What
does it say of Umno Youth, for example, that they would confer on
disgraced former president Najib Abdul Razak, now a convicted felon, the
youth leadership award?
If Umno continues on this path, the party
shouldnāt be surprised if voters teach it another lesson in humility by
rejecting them at the polls yet again, green wave or not.
