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."
Indeed, when Umno/BN were gaining their two-thirds majority, the DAP was vilified by the electorate who now defends them.
Ti and younger DAP leaders are too young to remember this of course.
The
other fantasy is when Loke claims that the DAP need not drop “...the
secular nation agenda and its slogan ‘Malaysian Malaysia’ merely to reap
support from other ethnic groups”.
The key to this nonsense is
found here - “Before forming the unity government, all parties agreed
not to touch on each party’s principles and constitutions.”
Anthony Loke
You
have to ask yourself, when PAS and PN claim that the DAP wants to turn
this country into a secular state and Malay power brokers who work with
them are complicit in this agenda, are PAS and PN wrong?
After all, Loke has just stated the agenda of the DAP and, apparently, Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi is okay with this.
Do you wonder why Malays who support the PN think the way they do?
PAS and PN would be wrong because the DAP has done nothing to achieve this agenda.
Garner Malay support
Yes,
we have had political operatives like Ronnie Liu and P Ramasamy who
have attempted to hold the line. Still, they have been vilified by the
DAP politburo and of course, supporters, who essentially made the “don’t
rock the boat” argument.
In fact, the DAP has thrown in
everything including the kitchen sink to garner Malay support including
in one moment of lunacy, Lim Kit Siang in 2017 claimed that the DAP
supports the Islamisation process if done through the constitution.
In
2012, when debating MCA president Chua Soi Lek, DAP secretary-general
Lim Guan Eng claimed: “We should not bow to fate and have the right to
equality. We should not kneel and beg. We should be brave enough to
stand and ask for it.”
The implication was that under MCA, the
Chinese community – the non-Malay communities – were begging for scraps
from the Umno dining table. Under DAP stewardship, non-Malays would have
political leaders who would demand their rights as accorded in the
constitution, unlike the supine nature of MCA politics.
How did that turn out for the DAP?
While
it is easy to paint the MCA as running dogs of Umno, people forget that
the MCA built not only the foundations on which the DAP stands but also
an electorate confident enough to switch their allegiance.
The
DAP meanwhile has had a steep learning curve and has had to bend over
backwards to accommodate the return of Dr Mahathir Mohamad into the
opposition. They now faithfully serve Anwar Ibrahim, who has made it
very clear that he would do anything including strengthening the hold of
the religious bureaucracy to appeal to the Malay vote.
Smoke and mirrors
The
non-Malay political narrative post-May 9 has been one of backpedalling,
reversals, sycophancy, and Orwellian doublespeak because the weight of
expectation collided with the realpolitik of Malay rule.
If, for
instance, there was any substance to Ti’s argument he would give
numerous examples of how the DAP was promoting secularism and stood up
against extremist agendas in this country.
I doubt even the DAP could sustain the argument that they had a secular agenda.
Ti Lian Ker
But this is all smoke and mirrors.
The real question is, do the people who support the DAP want a secular state?
The answer to this is of course a big no.
I
would wager that people are more comfortable claiming they want a
secular agenda and are content for the DAP not to follow it because to
do so would invite more trouble than necessary.
Appeasement
Instead, a political operative like Guan Eng invokes images of a bygone era in Chinese history and ancestor worship.
To
galvanise the base as he did in the recently concluded state elections
in which he won his seat handsomely: “Because we're people of Penang, we
want to tell the ‘Green Wave’ that the people of Penang don't allow the
Green soldiers to enter because we're righteous people of Penang; we're
not Wu Sangui.
“Those who're ready to support the Green Wave are
traitors; those who support the Green Wave are rebels; those who support
the Green Wave will be cursed for betraying their ancestors, and their
reputations will stink for centuries.
Lim Guan Eng
“Isn't that right? Because we're people from Penang.”
Mucking
about in Islamic places of worship and donning the tudung at the drop
of a hat has exposed the hypocrisy of the DAP regarding secular red-line
issues. All this is defended by the base as some Muhibbah endeavour.
Still,
all it has done is weaken the argument of a secular agenda and alienate
a majority that views such appeasements as inconsequential at best and
hypocritical at worst.
For better or worse, the DAP is the final incarnation of non-Malay/Muslim power in this country.
Sole custodian
The MCA and MIC are irrelevant. Non-Malay voters have made that abundantly clear.
Sure,
there is the connective tissue between the business and political power
between the MCA, DAP, and MIC. Still, as far as political power is
concerned, BN as a personification of the social contract is finished.
The
DAP is the sole custodian of non-Malay political power in this country.
It remains to be seen if they can navigate this new political terrain
to ensure that non-Malay rights (fundamental human rights applicable to
everyone) are not overwhelmed by the green wave.
