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."
Of course, Umno/Perikatan Nasional defines this new era with the DAP having to play second fiddle to Malay uber alles (above all else) parties, which are playing an extremely dangerous religious and racial game.
At each turn, DAP partisans argued that the various permutations of these Malay uber alles parties were different - but the reality is, all that these Malay uber alles
parties desired was dominance over the Malay polity, as measured by
electoral power, and used DAP at one time or another to reverse their
political fortunes.
Loke says the DAP speaks up through the proper
channels. Mind you, “proper channels” in Malaysian parlance are private
channels, and nobody can hold you accountable for what you said or
claim to have said.
DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke (left) and vice-chairperson Nga Kor Ming
Remember
when Ronnie Liu bid sayonara to the DAP, he made public statements
which highlighted the similarity between the way how DAP operates now
and how the MCA used to operate - “They may not know it (but) they are
starting to say (things like), ‘we have to compromise’, ‘we have to look
at the bigger picture’, ‘we’ll try to deal with the problem
internally’.”
And what exactly has the DAP done for the
meritocratic agenda of this country? Before the DAP tasted real
political power, they were gung ho on the concept of meritocracy and
their guns were trained on Umno.
Remember back in the day when DAP national chairperson Lim Guan Eng debated then MCA big cheese Chua Soi Lek, the former thundered
- “I’ll tell you why MCA set up TAR College, it is because there is a
quota for Chinese students to enter public universities, and therefore
the need (for MCA) to compensate for it.”
DAP never gave MCA the benefit of this excuse, and neither should anyone who believes in any kind of institutional reform.
Honestly, even a convicted felon played a part in recognising TAR College - now a university - which earned the ire of the old maverick Dr Mahathir Mohamad
- “If last time we could only get a government job by having a diploma
from public universities, now we have to accept a diploma (certificate)
from TARUC.
“This is all because of votes. All these have occurred because of the stupidity of the Malays.”
ADS
Will DAP cave?
These
days, the rakyat is left wondering if DAP will cave when it comes to
important policy issues because, with the creation of this coalition
government, all they seem interested in doing is justifying the policies
of the government, even if it goes against their campaign manifesto or
more damning, their so-called principles.
What is important for
the non-Malay polity to understand, is that the MCA’s power-sharing
model was a big failure in terms of acting as a moderating force for
politics in this country although it did produce long-standing
beneficial results for the non-Malay community.
This
last bit is made worse by the reality that the DAP is attempting to
emulate the BN-era power-sharing model, which a significant percentage
of the Malay voting public has chosen to reject.
What hurts the
DAP the most is the hypocrisy of cuddling up with Malay structures -
donning the hijab, waxing eloquent about reading the Quran in Malay, and
a host of other initiatives to reach out to the Malay community - and
then having a base which wants a secular egalitarian government which
the DAP plays to.
This is why PN uses this line of attack against
the DAP because they understand Malay power structures in Madani will
leave the DAP to fend for itself.
I would argue that Umno/PN’s
propaganda that DAP is “anti-Malay” and “anti-Islam” was beneficial to
the DAP because non-Malays flocked to their banner under the mistaken
impression that secularism and egalitarianism were the bedrock on which
DAP was founded on.
As a supposedly multiracial party, the DAP has
now got to contend with the reality that the Indian community is now
coming to the realisation (no matter how hard partisans attempt to push
the Bangsa Malaysia Kool-aid) that the dialectic between the legacy
parties revolves around the Malay/Chinese dialectic at the expense to
genuine inclusive reform.
Want to know why someone like Umno Youth chief Dr Akmal Saleh takes potshots at every opportunity at the DAP?
Political
operatives like him understand that it really does not matter what they
do because the DAP support base will not punish the DAP, unlike the
Malay majority polity who have demonstrated their willingness to shift
their support to whatever reactionary Malay/Muslim party they think best
serves their interests.
We are in a very dangerous period in
Malaysian politics. I have no idea if the DAP can or even wants to
maintain the secular democratic line. All I know is that this could be a
golden era for the religious extremists and it remains to be seen the
role DAP plays in this.
