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."
Will Teoh Beng Hock be a reckoning for MACC? By Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Monday, July 22, 2024
Malaysiakini : Harapan to blame for state’s inaction
Teoh’s
demise is also an indictment against the Harapan alliance and the
political operatives who stood by the former DAP political aide’s family
when it was politically profitable but abandoned them when in power.
Teoh Lee Lan
What
we have to understand is that the questions and possible answers to
Teoh’s death are political. It should not be but it is just as the
Indira Gandhi case is a religious one, these cases tragically point to
the dysfunction of the investigative services of this country.
It
is not malicious (even though partisans may feel that it is) to recall
the justifications of political operatives for the inactions of those
with power when it came to the closure of the death of their fallen
comrade.
Lim Guan Eng attempted to shift the blame for the failure
to get justice for Teoh’s family to former prime minister Muhyiddin
Yassin.
This was just another example of how totally ineffectual
Harapan political operatives were in solving long-standing issues that
are important for a certain section of their supporters but also
reframing a system they campaigned on.
Can you see the same pattern today?
The
fact of the matter is that Harapan is to blame for the inaction of the
state when it came to discovering the truth behind Teoh’s murder.
DAP national chairperson Lim Guan Eng
How
dare Lim peddle the nonsense that it was “agreed” by the cabinet to
reopen the investigation but the then-home minister, Muhyiddin, was not interested in pursuing the case.
Indeed,
linking the inaction on Teoh’s death to the then-Harapan government
with the political manoeuvrings of the Sheraton Move is extremely
deceitful.
Where were all the high-profile ministers who had no
problem lurking around when it came to attending Teoh’s memorials, but
suddenly found themselves “voiceless” in the New Malaysia that we were
promised?
Political malfeasances
It must
have been a spit in the face for Teoh’s family that the personalities
involved in the death and farcical investigation of his murder seeped
into the Harapan bureaucracy and strutted around as if their sins had
been washed away.
Ceremony to commemorate Teoh’s 15th death anniversary on July 21
Contrast
this to the death of firefighter Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim, who was not
only compensated by the state but whose death remains a mystery only
because the events that led to it are mired in the kind of corporate and
political malfeasances peculiar to Malaysia.
These days, the Madani state and the state security apparatus warn the public when it comes to “speculating” on the malfeasances that occur in the country’s administration of law and justice.
The
state is quick to clamp down on news coverage of hot-button issues when
it comes to the bureaucracy, but the reality is that this is the system
that Harapan promised to reform if they managed to claim power.
Mutually beneficial
There
is a connective tissue between the MACC and the political class, and it
is mutually beneficial for the MACC and the political class to be
simpatico.
Mind you, I am not making this claim. In 2020, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad twice warned the MACC to stop harassing his comrades or “…we have to be very active in exposing all the wrong things that they carry out”.
It
says a lot about the dysfunction which could be classified as
criminality, when the person who once led the Harapan government can
threaten to expose the alleged malfeasance of the MACC if they continue
harassing his political operatives and ignore the fact that he
supposedly has “evidence” of wrongdoing, which should have been reported
to the “relevant” authorities.
And keeping silent when the MACC
is engaging in wrongdoing if they harass your political party means what
exactly? That you keep their sins and omissions to yourself if they
aided your coalition when in power?
It should make rational
Malaysians wonder what the relationship is between the political class
and the MACC at this moment in time.
Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail has said that the investigation papers on Teoh have been passed
to the Attorney-General’s Chambers. He also claimed - “the Royal
Malaysia Police has called back the witnesses to complete the
investigation papers…”
I hope that Teoh is the reckoning MACC
deserves but the question is, will the Madani state dare spook the
security establishment?
