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."
When bullying failed, they
managed to convince her superiors to transfer her to a distant location.
That tactic worked, and the stress of being separated from her children
and husband affected her mental health. She resigned.
Malaysia lost a promising young woman in sports nutritional therapy while a neighbouring country has gained from her expertise.
Her
corrupt co-workers are still doing what they do best, undermining the
university they work for. The taxpayers, the students, the budding
athletes and the faculty and university are all victims of these corrupt
civil servants.
The young woman is Malay and to protect her identity, I will name her Ella.
Ella’s
corrupt co-workers have probably done her a favour because she will
pursue her ambition in the neighbouring country, work for higher wages,
and gain more experience than her peers who are still trapped under the tempurung (shell) that she has just abandoned.
Ella
refused to sacrifice her integrity and was unwilling to compromise her
principles. She left her comfort zone and is now better off. She has
struck a working arrangement with her new bosses to enable her to travel
home to see her family every week.
So, if we were to replicate
this corrupt section of the university on a national basis, what would
we find? Is Ella’s situation a one-off problem? Are there more Ellas
throughout Malaysia?
Too much corruption
Even
if we were to jail Ella’s boss for being blind (or dense) to the
corruption going on under his watch, there would not be enough jails in
the country to accommodate all of the corrupt and clueless heads of
departments nationwide.
Last month, Anwar talked about replacing the direct tender process with an open tender system. What happened recently with a certain transport company seemed to contradict what Anwar said about open tenders.
He
said his administration had tackled smuggling syndicates perpetrated by
some civil servants. Part of his anti-graft measures was to deal with
various cartels with roots embedded in the civil service.
However,
corruption is not just about the big organisations or whole
departments, because more often than not, the effects of corruption have
the greatest soul-destroying effect on the ordinary person in the
street.
Corruption restricts growth. It traps the poorest people
in their never-ending cycle of poverty. It stops hardworking and
industrious, determined people from benefitting from what is rightfully
theirs.
Corruption robs both schools and hospitals of vital funds.
People with money can afford clever lawyers and accountants to find
loopholes to avoid paying taxes.
Corruption undermines national security and threatens national harmony.
A ‘cancer’
You may recall the near-riots caused by the drug addict Shahrul Anuar Abdul Aziz who stole a mobile phone
from vendors in Low Yat Plaza in 2015. Shopkeepers were furious that
the police merely stood by and watched the Malay Mat Rempits rampaging
and creating havoc in the shopping complex.
Anwar acknowledged that corruption is like a “cancer”, confirmed that it has been around for decades, and said that it was impossible for department heads not to know what was going on in their departments.
We agree.
However, we would like to know why the laws were not strictly enforced then, why whistleblowers were investigated, and why only opposition MPs were investigated in the anti-graft blitz.
Many whistleblowers lost their jobs. Others who complained about corruption would suddenly find that their contracts had been terminated.
How
will refusing to promote the heads of departments who fail to report
corruption in their department help in the fight against graft?
Some
of us have a problem. It is difficult to take Anwar seriously when he
stands shoulder to shoulder with allegedly corrupt politicians with whom
he has been forced to join forces, to form his coalition government.
