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."
Malaysiakini : (A reminder: Saifuddin had to be appointed a senator to become a
federal minister because he lost in the November 2022 general election.
He had, earlier that year, lost in a race for PKR deputy presidency to
Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli.)
‘Threatto Malays’
Where
are the other promised reforms? What has Saifuddin done to defuse the
tension and take action against provocative statements by over-exuberant
politicians about recent events involving a convenience store chain?
Instead, a workshop owner was arrested
over an alleged threat he made, when the so-called threat was not even
communicated to the politician concerned but expressed as something that
could happen in a passing conversation.
The problem is Saifuddin,
as with some other PKR ministers, is too much in the Umno mould and
considers any granting of legitimate rights to non-Malays as a threat to
the Malays, brainwashed by that infamous Biro Tata Negara, which was taken to new heights, sorry, lows, by Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
This
is reflected in the ridiculous back-tracking of an earlier decision to
sign Icerd (International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Racial Discrimination) by the Harapan government, whose PM then was
Mahathir in November 2018.
It
therefore makes it impossible for Malaysia to take cases to the
International Court of Justice in The Hague, the way South Africa took
Israel to the court for genocide in Palestine.
This attitude, too, explains other things such as an excessive, often
contrived, sensitivity towards issues of race, religion and royalty
(3R), which is exploited to the hilt by every aspiring Umno leader. The
home minister can do many things about this but he is not doing much.
Former Umno leader Khairy Jamaluddin
Replying
to Khairy who said that the Madani coalition did not enjoy Malay
support, Saifuddin said Malay sentiments were often “emotive”, with
people not interested to hear facts and figures but rather “stories”.
Further,
he brushed off Khairy’s suggestion that Deputy Prime Minister and Umno
head Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who sacked Khairy from Umno, was an albatross
around Harapan’s neck. They are “partners in struggle” in the context of
the coalition government, he said.
Let’s be clear about this. If
Anwar wants to have another shot at being prime minister, he needs to
get Malay support - a major swing is required but he has to maintain
non-Malay support too. Malay support alone is not sufficient.
In
this, he is being constantly thwarted not just by Zahid but Umno, too,
through their bluster, which everyone can see through. It is a burden
that Harapan carries heavy on its shoulders, a load which could break it
politically.
If non-Malay support wanes and Malay support is not forthcoming, it will spell disaster for the Madani government.
Winning Malay hearts
Malays
have always been smart politically. Saifuddin and PKR badly need to
realise that, instead of declaring them to be emotive and taken up by
stories. The Malays will vote for those who truly have their best
interests at heart.
In the last general election at Bagan Datuk,
Zahid retained his parliamentary seat by a mere 348 votes, winning
because of split votes. Umno won a mere 26 parliamentary seats, more
than halved from an already reduced 54 in the 2018 polls.
Can it
claim to represent Malays? Absolutely not. You have a group of Umno
leaders, including all Umno ministers in the current cabinet, baying for
corrupt Najib Abdul Razak to be granted a pardon for crimes against the
state and conniving to get that done.
Do you think Malays don’t
realise if that’s what their leaders want, they will not be taken care
of if Umno gains power? What kind of leaders ask for corrupt leaders to
be pardoned unless they want corruption to continue?
Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi
The
writing is clear - Malays do not want Umno. Period. Nothing has
happened in the intervening period since the 2022 election to change
that. In that election, they turned to the only party that offered them
some hope - PAS, which is way less corrupt than Umno.
Bersatu
simply benefited from that alliance with PAS - its leaders don’t have
clean hands and are of the Umno mould - most being former Umno leaders
looking for a new platform to gain power.
If Anwar does not show
that he is serious about eradicating corruption and giving something to
the Malays - and I mean things like quality education, better job
opportunities, and a way up the ladder in many other meaningful ways, he
will be killing his party and himself.
Why give Umno so much power?
Allying
with Umno is a political convenience but why let 26 MPs be the tail
that wags the dog when Harapan commands more than three times the number
with 81 seats?
Why give Zahid a DPM post when there is not even a
PKR DPM? Who becomes prime minister if something happens to Anwar? Why
let Umno dictate terms and put them in such a position of power?
Umno
needs Harapan more than Harapan needs Umno. Harapan can still survive
in government without Umno - the Sabahans and Sarawakians must be more
than ready to ditch Umno with all the latter’s incessant and strident
racial and religious extremist rhetoric.
If
Anwar does not change the political balance with Umno in favour of
progressive change for all, sidelong brouhaha, racial, religious, and
royal rhetoric, and buckle down to the serious task of running the
country, he won’t even smell the scent of a second term, let alone get
it.
Many will not only become indifferent to his fate but vote
against him and his coalition. We all know who is the only possible,
least corrupt of all of them who will get those votes - it will be a
“Green Wave” of massive proportions in favour of PAS.
That’s what
Saifuddin and others like him in PKR must realise and act accordingly -
move the balance in favour of Harapan and its promises to the
electorate.
He
has to show that he has more to offer to most of the population than
the “Green Wave” - a task more difficult than most of Anwar’s closest
allies seem to realise.
Right now, there is no need for Anwar to
be a lame-duck prime minister. If he is, he has only himself and his
chosen leadership to blame - no one else, least of all the Malays.
