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."
What's Madani's agenda of streamlining preschools? By Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Monday, January 29, 2024
Malaysiakini : The religious bureaucracy on a federal and state level, runs their
preschools throughout the country and truth be told they may not be as
effectively run as Pasti.
Hence when Umno was running things, the
agenda of the political party seeped through the religious bureaucracy
and finally to the impressionable minds of preschool-going children.
So when various PAS personalities and political personalities warned the government not to interfere with Pasti, we have to ask ourselves three questions.
The first is what kind of religious education is PAS teaching in these preschools?
The second is what kind of religious agenda does the federal bureaucracy have when it comes to preschool-age Muslim children?
The
third and most important question is, is there a difference between the
religious teachings of PAS through these preschools and the religious
teachings that the religious bureaucracy comes up with?
If you
think that PAS does not have to be concerned or that this is not a
political or religious issue, well you would be misguided.
State the religious agenda
As reported in the press, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil
said, “For curriculum involving religious education, the Department of
Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim) would look into the matter.”
So what this means is that the federal government through the religious bureaucracy is carrying out the government's agenda.
Again,
nothing wrong with this in the context of local Malay/Muslim politics.
But what is the government's religious agenda when it comes to preschool
education?
Former deputy minister Mohamed Hanipa Maidin said that although he had reservations about PAS, Pasti has been very successful. But what has it been successful at?
Hanipa said the education programmes are run by professionals and some of them are PhD holders.
Here
is the thing though, PAS has one of the most tech-savvy propaganda
organs and political base in the country but this does not mean that its
agenda is doing the country any good.
Amanah leaders, Hanipa
said, can vouch for Pasti, which I suppose means that the so-called
progressive Amanah leaders can vouch for the kind of religious education
PAS exposes preschool children to.
But again, there is no mention
of exactly what kind of religious curriculum Pasti carries out nor is
there very much sunlight between the religious agenda of Amanah and PAS
beyond the former's political bromides.
Inclusivity
For
instance, if you go to a Christian, Buddhist or Hindu-run preschool the
religious education they expose the children to is by default
inclusive. They have to be.
While I think any kind of religious
education is bunkum, the reality is that any non-Islamic preschools
would ensure for political and legal reasons their religious curriculum
is inclusive.
But more importantly, as minorities, we want to be
inclusive for self-preservation reasons and this is imparted through the
religious curriculum of preschoolers.
This
does not mean that bigotry and ignorance which is part and parcel of
religious dogma are not imparted to young children, only that the
political aspects are subdued for self-preservation reasons.
Now
some folks think it is great that PAS is worried about the government's
efforts to streamline preschools especially when the perception is that
PAS indoctrinates young children in these schools.
Fair enough but then we have to ask ourselves - what is Madani’s religious curriculum when it comes to this issue?
Jakim’s involvement
What
is Jakim’s idea when it comes to the religious curriculum of
preschoolers? Keep in mind that the Madani government's efforts to
empower the religious bureaucracy further are to strengthen the position
of Islam in this country.
There are various reasons for this and
most of them involve politics but the question remains - is Jakim the
moderating force to counter the religious dogma of the far right?
And
that is the problem, Jakim is not a progressive religious body. We have
no idea what kind of religious curriculum they would come up with or
even if they would have an issue with the religious curriculum that is
going on in these Pasti preschools.
If
they have no issue with these preschools then what exactly is the
difference between the religious agenda of the Madani government and
PAS?
The people who fund these bureaucracies should be the ones
shaping policies. However, after decades of letting these entities run
riot, these entities think they are above the law.
They certainly believe they are above secular law and actively campaign for syariah laws to trump the Federal Constitution.
The
great irony is that all these corruption cases which captivate a
certain section of the voting polity are not going to have much of an
impact on the trajectory of the theocratic state.
What could stem
the tide of extremism are initiatives like these but it all depends on
what kind of religious agenda the Madani state brings to the table.
