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."
Zahid's land corporation proposal is insidious, unfeasible By P Gunasegaram
Sunday, March 10, 2024
Malaysiakini : “The creation of a Bumiputera Land Corporation would signify a
proactive measure aimed at ensuring a balanced racial demographic,
sustaining bumiputera businesses in agriculture, industry, and new
settlements, and preserving bumiputera ownership,” he saiZahid envisaged that the returned portion of land would be then overseen by the corporation.
“I
am confident that this initiative holds the potential to yield
substantial returns and significant opportunities for bumiputera to
possess a stake in the nation's land assets,” he added.
Tremendous implications
One hopes that this badly conceived scheme is still at the proposal
stage and will not see the light of day. The implications are
tremendous. Note that all agricultural land above 50 acres will come
under this and 20 acres for industrial land.
If
you had a small plantation of 50 acres growing oil palm for instance,
and if you were non-bumiputera (I’m assuming this stipulation does not
apply to bumiputera companies) you have to give up 10 acres upon lease
renewal or even a mere extension.
That means you will lose too the
yearly output that you get because the area planted will be reduced by
10 acres. The amount of fresh fruit bunches decreases by 20 percent and
so will your revenue. Profit may decrease even more than that because of
loss of economies of scale.
Let’s say down the road you have an
oil palm mill, logistics centre and office premises amounting to 20
acres, you suddenly have to carve out four acres for allocation to the
Bumiputera Land Corporation.
Presumably, the corporation will hand
it over to a privileged bumiputera who can then sell it back to the
original lessor for a huge premium. What a quick and easy way to make
money and for the government to hand out patronage to its own people.
It beats even approved permits and rivals that infamous 30 percent bumiputera equity stipulation.
Something
like this could only have been conceived by an Umno minister who will
have the necessary audacity, the sense of entitlement and the complete
lack of ethical behaviour to suggest such a one-sided deal.
Imagine
the kind of havoc it will cause - factories, offices, plantations, food
production etc. Right now, almost all leases are automatically renewed
on the payment of a premium and business continuity is assured.
Let’s take Malaysia’s largest plantation - Sime Darby - which has an
estimated planted acreage of 730,000 acres in Malaysia. Sime Darby may
not be considered a bumiputera company because of its diverse
shareholders.
That
would mean that it will eventually have to give up 20 percent of its
plantations in Malaysia or 146,000 acres. Using a very conservative
estimate of RM10,000 per acre, that alone is worth RM1.46 billion.
Potentially, billions of ringgit of properties are involved across all
businesses.
The result of this ill-considered move to surrender 20
percent of larger tracts of land upon lease renewal or extension is a
huge business disruption and the abuse of allocation of land to
privileged bumiputera, two things we really don’t need.
Unless
strictly necessary, leases are not normally terminated or withdrawn.
This practice ensures fairness to all landowners and assurance that
businesses of all kinds have reasonable certainty that they can operate
in a system which is fair, equitable and reasonable.
Why, the move
could be even against the Federal Constitution that stipulates that
everyone is treated equally under the law. It implies that people cannot
have their property taken away through any process and then
redistributed to others.
Zahid’s proposal should be nixed in the bud forthwith before it becomes a needless contentious and divisive issue.
