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."
The allergic reaction to Chinese new villages By Andrew Sia
Wednesday, February 14, 2024
Malaysiakini : Yet, Umno was totally free to propose Malay villages for UWH listing
when they were in power for so long. Bersatu also had such power after
the Sheraton Move.
So why didn't they do it? Were some too busy enriching themselves, following the glorious example of their Dear Leader Bossku?
And now that Nga is doing something good for the country, is the classic “dengki” or jealousy rearing its ugly head?
Institute
of Malay World and Civilisation (Atma) lecturer Faisal Tehrani said:
“Malay politicians and activists need to sit down and learn from Nga and his ministry on how to get traditional Malay villages to be recognised too.”
Faisal Tehrani
He added that Malay politicians have done little for kampungs.
“Nothing has been done to elevate Kampung Baru and Kampung Datuk Keramat in Kuala Lumpur for instance,” he lamented.
Hard work to gain recognition
What
Faisal didn't ask is why Malay politicians have neglected to do more.
Was it because they were in their cosy comfort zones and didn't want to
do the hard work of seeking world heritage status?
UWH recognition for Penang and Malacca in 2008 was not easy to
achieve. Heritage activists had to push this for many years before it
became a reality.
They had to battle public apathy, which once
viewed heritage properties as “dirty, run-down” buildings, the interests
of developers and associated politicians plus government indifference.
For
instance, in May 2002, DAP pointed out that the then Malacca Municipal
Council (MPMBB) had allowed six historic shophouses to be demolished – including the first Umno office in the state.
Jonker Walk
In
December 2002, another three heritage shops in Jonker Street were torn
down, causing a national uproar. But as “punishment”, the Umno-appointed
president of MPMBB was slated for transfer…to head the Melaka Muzium
Corporation. What an irony!
Some
heritage advocates also lamented that the government didn't seem keen
to fund the conservation of Chinese-related buildings. In Malacca, many
antique shophouses were “saved” from gradual decay by Singaporean
investors who turned them into boutique hotels.
However, some heritage in Malacca did get official funding, like the Sultanate Palace Museum and the huge Hang Tuah Museum.
Hmmm…. is there any bias in how conservation funds are allocated?
We
can also question how funds are spent. For example, the repainting of
the famous red clock tower at Dataran Stadthuys in 2022 by the
Umno-controlled Malacca Historic City Council (MBMB) had a whopping
RM100,000 bill.
Wait, was it a repainting job? Or a gold plating job?
Remembering victory over communism
The
brouhaha over Nga’s idea shows that racial relations in Malaysia are so
toxic that anything Chinese can be used to provoke an “allergic”
reaction.
Yet, Chinese new villages represent one of the world's
few victories over a communist insurgency. They were established as
internment camps by the British in the late 1940s and early 1950s to cut
off food and other support for communist rebels – thus protecting
British commercial interests in Malaya.
The Americans tried to
copy the new village model in Vietnam, calling them “strategic hamlets”.
But we all know who won the Vietnam War.
Since Malaysia is now a
capitalist country which fought communism successfully, we should be
proud of the role that Chinese new villages played in this.
Why not propose both?
Some say Nga should have been politically smarter to propose Malay villages along with Chinese ones for heritage status.
But
Selangor already included Malay villages in its recently gazetted
Gombak-Hulu Langat Geopark area. This, said its Menteri Besar Amirudin
Shari, is the first step to UWH status.
Amirudin Shari
So what's wrong with Nga adding Chinese villages to Selangor's heritage mix?
In 2008, then Perak MB Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin proposed to give land titles to both Chinese new villages and Malay “kampung tersusun” (organised villages). This was to fulfil an election promise by the then Pakatan Rakyat state government.
It
should have been celebrated. After all, Perak had been in economic
doldrums since the collapse of tin mining. With secure land titles for
both Malay and Chinese villages, investors could come in.
But no, this was instead ruthlessly racialised by some quarters, which accused Nizar of being a “puppet” of DAP.
How
had he “betrayed” the Malays? As political analyst Wong Chin Huat wrote
in 2009, Nizar granted land titles to “working-class Chinese in new
villages”.
Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin
Never
mind that he had given more land titles to Malay villagers or that BN
itself had “given land away to non-Malay business interests.”
So
it didn't matter that Nizar had helped both Malays and Chinese villages
in 2008. Thus, even if Nga had proposed Malay villages for UWH status,
chances are he would probably still be demonised.
The root disease here is racism. Or as Amirudin described
it, “issues they can spin for short-term political interests do not
bring benefits to racial harmony and stability in the country.”
Indeed, in this country race is often weaponised to score political points. And guess who are the usual punching bags?
Please,
enough of this destructive racism. To return to our analogy, let's
instead celebrate that someone wants to put Penang prawn noodles on a
world pedestal.
Instead of tearing that down, let it motivate
others to propose similar global recognition for mee bandung Muar, nasi
lemak, Indian curry fish head, Kadazan hinava, Iban pansuh and all the
other cultural wealth that this great country is blessed with.
