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."
Akmal the catalyst, and Anwar, bumbling incompetent By Mariam Mokhtar
Saturday, April 06, 2024
Malaysiakini : All it takes is a catalyst for things to go pear-shaped, and in the
socks scandal, the catalyst for disrupting the peace is Akmal.
His
hate speech spread fear among the community but he didn’t see it that
way. He told his supporters that he was merely defending Islam.
Socks
weaved with the word “Allah”, will naturally offend Muslims, but to
allege that KK Mart had deliberately insulted Islam is equally
offensive. What would KK Mart founder Chai Kee Kan have to gain from
this? Can Akmal prove that this is what Chai had intended?
Akmal
is the catalyst who stoked the fires of unrest. Without his hate speech,
vigilante groups would not have emerged, and the KK Mart outlets would
not have been firebombed.
His ego and hubris blinded him. His actions put the nation on a knife edge.
Putrajaya’s role
What about Putrajaya’s role?
Ever
since March 16, Akmal boasted about teaching KK Mart a lesson and
shutting it down forever for insulting Islam. He urged Malaysians to
boycott KK Mart. He rejected Chia’s apologies.
Malaysians turned to the PM who had just returned from a
fishing-for-investment trip in Germany. He muttered some weasel words
about focusing on more important issues instead of bah kut teh and
school canteens.
Did
his aides inform him about the socks issue and Akmal’s racist rhetoric?
The threatening and abusive remarks had the potential to cause unrest.
Are
the home minister and the police clueless about managing conflict?
Akmal’s provocations could have easily spilt over and snowballed into
ethnic-religious conflict.
Anwar, his deputy Ahmad Zahid Hamidi,
who is also the Umno president, and Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution
Ismail are rather naïve to imagine that Akmal did not present a danger
to the nation.
Since 1969, ordinary Malaysians have been swiftly
investigated for making allegedly seditious comments. Can it be right
that one lacklustre politician who defied the king, be allowed to
provoke the public without being censured?
The socks scandal has spectacularly proven that semenanjung MPs just want to play politics and cling to power. Three ministers did try to rebuke Akmal but he dismissed their concerns.
The
other MPs did very little, as most were thinking of their own selfish
agendas, rather than thinking of the good of the nation.
More importantly, they put the interests of their own party first.
National problem
Two
people who made innocuous remarks on their social media profiles were
swiftly investigated and then punished, but the vigilante squads which
harassed them and the people who exposed the personal details of the
factory owner remain free.
An Israeli man
who entered Malaysia, allegedly to assassinate a gangland rival was
swiftly arrested together with the locals who supplied him with
firearms; but the domestic terrorists who firebombed the three KK Mart
stores, remain at large.
The Malaysian two-tier level of policing is loathsome.
Akmal
is a national problem for creating mass fear beyond just the call to
boycott KK Mart. His intransigence will destroy the nation.
A KK Mart outlet in Sarawak was hit by a petrol bomb
He damaged community relations, firebombers damaged property and the rakyat was crippled with fear.
The business community
is afraid that anyone who bears a grudge against them may feel
empowered by Akmal’s hate speech and use it as a cover for their own
malicious intent.
It does not take much for a pyromaniac, or a
juvenile vandal who is egged on by gang initiation or peer pressure, to
commit arson.
Akmal’s hate speech may motivate an emotionally
unstable, or aggrieved person, to firebomb a business, out of hatred,
revenge, or a perceived slight.
The lone-wolf religious extremist
may feel that Akmal has given him the go-ahead to defend Islam through
violent means. He is prepared to become a martyr because controversial
clerics have promised rewards in the afterlife.
Is it any wonder that across Malaysia, millions of people increasingly feel that the Madani government has lost its direction?
