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."
My top five news stories of 2023 By Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Monday, January 01, 2024
Malaysiakini : Unilateral conversion and Loh Siew Hong
What
unilateral conversion does is rob the child of the right of his or her
religious freedom. This has far-reaching consequences in Malaysia
because race and religion have legal obligations along with the
so-called special privileges that place a Muslim in the harsh glare of
federal and state Islamic authorities.
Never mind that the courts have ruled on this, but the reality is
that the courts, the police, and political operatives are not going to
do anything when non-Muslim children are unilaterally converted.
Loh Siew Hong
Now,
I get that I should write more about Loh Siew Hong in this caption but
the reality is that cases like these are going to continue because
nobody, certainly not the political apparatus, cares enough about
religious kidnappings of non-Muslim children to do anything about it.
Non-Muslims
have no interest in interfering with Islam but how on earth can anyone
claim that the religion of the state does not interfere with non-Muslims
is beyond me.
Hadi defines the Islamic narrative
PAS
president Abdul Hadi Awang defines the Islamic narrative in this
country. It really does not matter what the Madani religious
establishment does, because what they are doing is essentially parroting
what Hadi and his junior partners in Perikatan Nasional want.
Hadi
and PAS have demonstrated that they will defy the royal institution
when it comes to their religious beliefs or their religious agendas, as
when Hadi openly defied
the Terengganu rulerās diktats that there should be no religious
speeches in mosques and when PASā ulama wing encouraged the religious
bureaucracy to defy the sultan of Selangor's diktats on the Bon Odori festival.
PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang
There is no counter-Islamic narrative in this country at the moment beyond enabling Hadiās atavistic interpretation of Islam.
DAP dons the mantle MCA wore
Taking a page from Ong Kian Ming and his thoughts on the Bumiputera Economic Congress, maybe the DAP assuming the mantle of MCA isnāt a bad idea.
After
all, for decades, the MCA played willing handmaidens to Umnoās power
and the community voted for them and BN. There was some sort of
moderation in that, right?
As former MCA leader Ti Lian Ker said,
"ā In the 80s and 90s, Islam politics prevailed and politicians rode on
religion, whereby Umno tried to outdo PAS and there were many positive
developments such as the International Islamic University, Bank Islam,
and so on. But there were also some negatives as a result of
over-enthusiasm and radicalism."
Of course, what Ti forgets to
mention is that back in the day, the DAP and PKR were attempting to hold
albeit with varying degrees of success the moderate centre.
DAP
does not have the luxury as the MCA did of merely relying on economic
security to balance the Islamisation of their Malay āpartnersā.
What
we have is a virulent opposition relying on institutions of the state
to propagate their theocratic ideas coupled with a ruling coalition
which is struggling not only with economic issues brought upon by the
mismanagement of the mainstream establishment but also a prime minister
who struggles to connect with the Malay polity.
Recent
contradictory statements by political operatives from the DAP, public
admonishments of āmisunderstandingsā and of course, the requisite mea
culpas demonstrate that the DAP is not going to get the same treatment
from its Malay power brokers that the MCA did.
The DAP base now is
extremely fearful of spooking the Malays, which means that any DAP
political operative who has the gumption to speak out on issues
affecting the Non-Malay community is going to receive fire from all
sides.
Advocating for a just secular Malaysia is now presenting oneself to a circular firing squad.
The āGreen Waveā
The āGreen Waveā is more than just propaganda used against PN. It is an idea that Malaysia is changing and not for the better.
Well,
that is not fair. If you believe that the religion of the state should
influence every aspect of your life, then Malaysia changing to fit those
criteria is a good thing.
For
those of us who do not believe this, the ominous news is that the
āGreen Waveā is already here. The thing to watch in the coming year is
to see how much of the āGreen Waveā will āsubmergeā urban centres which
are populated by a slowly diminishing non-Malay polity.
I will end this piece and start the year with this rejoinder from TS Elliot -
āFor last year's words belong to last year's language, and next year's words await another voice.
