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."
Fighting back against the deep state By Dr Lim Teck Ghee
Wednesday, July 12, 2023
Malaysiakini : No more than a few weeks or months would have been required for any
responsible government to resolve the case. And, when confronted with
the distinct possibility of violent death or murder with race and
politics in the mix, the need for an expedited, fully transparent and
independent investigation was more urgent and necessary.
An open
and unhampered response by the government did not happen. It would have
helped to assure that impartial and impersonal justice was done and to
give confidence that Malaysia is not a failing or failed state with
officials in dysfunctional agencies permitted to engage in wrongful and
illegal conduct.
What
did the nation, and the rest of the world, see and learn in Teoh’s
case? We saw foot-dragging, the lack of accountability and transparency,
and the absence of professionalism among key stake players. We saw even
worse.
We saw questions raised by the public, professionals, and
NGOs go unanswered or simply ignored. We saw suspicions of foul play and
allegations of an official cover-up disregarded even by the royal
commission of inquiry which was belatedly convened with limited terms of
reference to inquire into Teoh’s death.
His case is not the first unexplained death of Malaysians and non-Malaysians held in custody by the authorities.
Human
rights watchdog Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) in its report for 2022
revealed that a total of 21 deaths in police custody was recorded by the
Criminal Investigation Unit on Deaths in Custody for that year alone.
An
earlier report noted 257 deaths in police custody between 2002 and
2016, according to official statistics provided by the Home Ministry in a
parliamentary reply on March 28, 2017.
Based on Suaram’s data, it
has been estimated that only 62 of these cases were reported in the
media and to the rights group. This means that only about one in four
cases of deaths in police custody becomes public knowledge, while the
rest go unnoticed.
Since then we have seen similar incidents
happening even without the cover of official custody with the
“mysterious” and unresolved, most likely, enforced “disappearance” cases
of Pastor Joshua Hilmy, Ruth Sitepu, Pastor Raymond Koh, and activist,
Amri Che Mat.
Whether Teoh, Joshua, Ruth, Koh and Amri are
isolated cases or the tip of the iceberg of political, racial, and
religious victims and casualties of the deep state in Malaysia is a
question that needs to be asked and answered.
Can political change combat the deep state?
Political
change through the ballot box is possible as shown by Pakatan Harapan’s
win in the 14th general election and partial victory in GE15, but it
clearly cannot take on the dark forces and the deep state by itself.
We have seen in Harapan’s “reformasi” that political change alone is
not enough if not accompanied by a change in mindsets and policies and
practices.
It could be one step forward, two steps back as
political leaders, especially discredited and desperate ones, hog the
limelight to encourage and instigate the dark forces and deep state.
The
following are some suggestions that concerned Malaysians will need to
take up to return the nation to its roots of an equal, just, and
law-abiding society.
1. Put the issues of ketuanan Melayu and ketuanan Islam
into the forefront of public consciousness and discourse. There should
be no issue or sector that should be regarded as taboo or improper in
raising questions, including the operations and conduct of the civil
service and judiciary.
2. The public needs to be proactive and
openly challenge the culture of racism and anti-democratic encroachment
and discuss how best they can fight it within their own spheres.
Increasingly, the decisive battlefield is on social media.
3.
There are at least five important groups of voices that can shine their
light on the ethnocratic deep state and associated racism issues and
provide feedback on how to combat it. These are:
The religious institutions by raising the consciousness of their constituencies in rejecting racism.
The
academic community through exposure to policies, practices, laws and
institutional structures that create or perpetuate the ethnocratic
state.
The print and internet media through fearless news coverage and independent analysis.
The
think tanks in identifying ethno-populist and ethno-supremacist
ideologies and ideologues; and rebutting their interpretation of
policies.
Civil society organisations through rejection
of race-related policies and programmes and by propagating a
multi-racially inclusive society.
4. Before the next general election, concerned public should pressure the nation’s political parties to declare their stand on ketuanan Melayu and ketuanan Islam.
There should be a demand for parties to work into their party
manifestos their party position on institutionalised racism and
religious supremacy as well as their plan on how these can be countered.
Bread
and butter and economic issues will be foremost in the electorate’s
minds but the welfare and wellbeing of Malaysians are also directly
linked to non-economic issues and developments.
Justice at the end of the tunnel?
Ultimately,
the fight against the deep state, ethnocratic state and associated
Islamic state will have to go hand in hand if a multi-racial,
multi-religious inclusive nation; the rule of law; and democratic norms
are to survive.
Clearly, our future rests on the younger
generation. But this assumes that this younger generation can break free
from the deception, falsehoods and political chicanery, and opportunism
that has been their heritage; and continues largely unchecked.
This
is why the laudable efforts of the Teoh Beng Hock Trust for Democracy,
together with organisations engaged in seeking the truth behind the
“disappearances” of Joshua, Ruth, Koh, and Amri, and others seeking to
overturn oppression and injustice in Malaysia can make a difference.
These efforts must never stop.