Rudyard Kipling"
āWhen 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 soldierā
General Douglas MacArthur"
āWe are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.ā
āIt is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.ā āOld soldiers never die; they just fade away.
āThe soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.ā
āMay God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .ā āThe object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
āNobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
āIt 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."
Islam
in Malaysia appears to be more about religious dominance and
uprightness. The human element and basic values are pushed aside.
It is all about political Islam and this is what Hadi wants to protect, and develop.
Every other week, we read about teachers or wardens in religious or tahfiz schools raping or sodomising their charges. Many are forced to perform unnatural acts on the teachers.
Most victims are underage children. All have been warned not to report these acts because they will be denied entry into heaven.
A Malaysian cultural attitude
Just
imagine what goes through a childās mind when he is told this. From a
young age, he will have been taught that a religious person is āgoodā,
and that he must fulfil all his religious obligations like praying five
times a day, performing various rituals, and believing in God. He will
go to heaven if he does all this.
Just imagine the confusion of a
child who is sexually abused, especially by a teacher, the person who
has been entrusted by the childās parents to protect him. The childās
future is wrecked. He develops mental health issues or may not know how
to form healthy relationships as an adult.
Other
children are punished further by more beatings and more sexual abuse if
they dare to report these crimes. There are also cases where the
children are told that if they were to lodge a complaint or inform their
parents, they will bring shame to themselves, to the community, to
their families and to their school.
Donāt think for one minute
that this is just a religious school failing. It is not. It appears to
be a Malaysian cultural attitude.
In 2021, teenager Ain Husniza Saiful Nizam was ostracised by her fellow students and school staff for exposing the shocking ājoking about rapeā teacher in her school.
This
was a normal government secondary school. What were the students
thinking? How does one explain the silence of the parents? Were the
teaching and administration staff in her school not concerned that among
them was a teacher who trivialised rape?
The Marang MP is disingenuous to claim that the media hypes the immoral crimes in religious schools. But why should they?
It
is highly probable that for each heinous crime committed by the
religious teacher, several go unreported. They represent the tip of the
iceberg.
Ain Husniza Saiful Nizam
The
apparent explosion in cases involving religious teachers is probably
because more children and parents are willing to come forward to lodge
reports, unlike in the past.
In our Asian culture, talking about
sex is taboo. Who will believe the word of a child against the word of a
person like the ustaz, a man of the cloth? It is the teacherās word
against the childās.
Many adults will think that the child has
made things up because, in their reckoning, the ustaz is religious. In
their eyes, he is morally superior.
Who would dare say bad things
about him? He prays five times a day, in most cases, he has probably
been to Mecca, he can recite the Quran and his knowledge of Arabic
phrases is second to none.
When Hadi criticised the media, we wondered if the communications minister would react. Will he come to the defence of the media? Does he think that Hadi is right?
Feeling safe
The response of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim should also be interesting. On May 27, he said that he was not overly concerned
about Malaysiaās 34-place drop in the Word Press Freedom Index. So,
would he agree with what the PAS president said about the media?
Hadi
knows that the rakyat is worried about the shocking reports of sexual
crimes perpetrated by teachers and wardens in our religious schools. For
every immoral crime that has been reported in the papers, others who
work in the medical field, in social care and in womenās NGOs, know that
many other cases exist but have not been made public.
Does Hadi
know the root of the problem? We encourage whistleblowers. There must be
no repercussions or sackings, and or student expulsions for speaking
out.
We want both students and teachers to feel safe in their educational environment.
How does Hadi intend to prevent these heinous crimes in our religious schools?
