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."
'Man on the Run': Mother of all sideshows By R Nadeswaran
Friday, January 12, 2024
Malaysiakini : As idiotic as the statement sounded, it was given the same treatment and the IGP came out none the wiser.
During
a career spanning over five decades, this writer had the opportunity to
meet gang leaders, thieves, drug addicts, rapists and even a murderer.
The man who painted the now-demolished Pudu Prison wall ā a man
convicted for a drug offence ā was a regular visitor to the office after
his release.
First, what offence had Justo committed in Malaysia,
and second, is there any law that prevents Malaysians from meeting
anyone, including a foreigner?
Whistleblower Xavier Andre Justo
The principle of "I have a right to choose whom I want to associate with" comes into play.
At that time, I wrote: āNever mind the missing billions and the
reports by the Public Accounts Committee and the auditor-general. We
have been side-tracked deliberately or otherwise into a sideshow with
reports from our northern neighbours.
āA Swiss national has suddenly become the focus of the subject of contention instead of addressing the real issue.ā
Remove from Netflix request
This week, another sideshow emerged from Najibās ongoing 1MDB trial in the High Court in Kuala Lumpur.
His
lead counsel, Mohamed Shafee Abdullah, complained that a documentary on
1MDB amounted to contempt of court and wanted the video streaming
service Netflix to stop showing it.
Lawyer Muhammed Shafee Abdullah
āMan
on the Runā features interviews with among others former
attorney-general Tommy Thomas, former US ambassador to Malaysia John
Malott, Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown and FBI investigator Charles W OāNeal.
āBut
having seen this, Your Honour, itās about almost two hoursā programme,
so I saw it right up until 2am. The programme, Your Honour, was
extremely sub judice and contemptuous,ā Shafee told judge Collin
Lawrence Sequerah.
Najib misled?
Outside the court, Shafee told reporters that Najib was misled.
Thanks
to this sideshow, which made headlines the world over, āMan on the Runā
jumped to the second spot on the streaming platformās Top 10 Movies in
Malaysia.
Shafeeās complaint that Najib was misled was instantly
dismissed by the documentary's producer, Cassius Michael Kim, who
insisted that the allegations were not possible because other
individuals had accompanied Najib throughout the interview process.
Ex-PM Najib Abdul Razak
According to a Scoop
report, the director said that both lawyer Muhammad Farhan Muhammad
Shafee and aide Ahmad Lutfi Azhar were in the room during the session
where the trio took occasional breaks to discuss the answers.
Sub judice andcontempt
Now
to the part about being sub judice and contemptuous. I previously
argued that the former is an archaic piece of legislation that ought to
have been removed from the statutes when the jury system was abolished
in 1995.
I even brought up the issue to then attorney-general Mohd Apandi Ali who provided some unacceptable reasons for doing so.
At
the sentencing of former Selangor menteri besar Mohd Khir Toyo, Shafee
unsuccessfully tried to cite me for contempt after I wrote a commentary
refuting several claims that were made in his mitigation.
At the
Court of Appeal in 2015, Shafee brought to the attention of the five
learned judges, the two articles ā a commentary I wrote titled āTruth,
nothing but the truthā and an editorial titled āDon't do the crime if
you can't do the timeā.
It caused irreparable damage to proceedings, Shafee told the judges.
The
panel led by then-chief judge of Malaya Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin,
however, immediately dismissed the allegation, saying that they had not
been influenced by any reports on Khir's case.
āNone of these reports, either here or other reports, influenced us at all," said Zulkefli, stressing that the judges had decided purely on the evidence and the facts.
Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah
Sequerah
will make his judgment on facts that have been and will continue to be
presented to him. It would be a fallacy to even think that he will be
swayed by any article or documentary ā written or on celluloid.
As
for the contempt, the rules are wide and encompassing and since Shafee
has said that he would file proceedings, it is best left to the legal
eagles to seek it out.
But as a matter of public interest, the
trial has been dragging on because of several sideshows and let us not
be distracted by them.
