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."
COMMENT - PKR in Selangor scores own goals before polls By Andrew Sia
Tuesday, May 26, 2026
Malaysiakini : So what's the real reason? Petaling Jaya MP Lee Chean Chung lamented
that for years, due to the shortage of land gazetted for non-Muslim
places of worship, some have operated in commercial or industrial areas.
āWhy introduce restrictions on arrangements that have largely not posed problems?ā he asked.
The new rules are for "new townships", and land will supposedly be provided for non-Muslims.
This
means traditional Chinese and Hindu temples, Theravada and Mahayana
Buddhist viharas, Sikh gurdwaras and churches of different denominations
must compete for probably the single non-Muslim space.
Civilised co-existence
Instead
of constraints and containment, I expected a Madani or ācivilisedā
Malaysia to learn from our old towns like Malacca, George Town and
Seremban, where there is a main āharmony streetā with a mosque, church,
Chinese and Hindu temple, all within walking distance.
They
all coexist peacefully and nobody's faith is "confused". If space is
not provided, then please donāt complain of āillegalā temples lah.
The non-Muslim worship house guidelines were approved by the Selangor state exco meeting on Nov 12, 2025 and then published.
But
after Lee exposed this on May 23, the state government went into
ādamage controlā mode, saying the rules wonāt be enforced yet, pending a
review in early June.
But how could the PKR-led state
administration even approve such lopsided rules? I confess to having a
soft spot for DAP, but even then I have to ask, did the rocket folks
agree to this?
Why is Harapan shooting itself in the foot, knowing full well that its support with core non-Malay supporters is falling?
An internal PKR strategic analysis
for the coming general election showed that only seven of its 31
parliamentary seats are considered āsafeā (Tier 1), and even then, four
of those are held by those aligned with its former deputy president
Rafizi Ramli.
Even Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahimās own Tambun seat is now deemed āmarginalā (Tier 2B) while the Gombak seat of Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari is deemed to be in the āred zoneā (Tier 3).
Does PKR have a death wish?
PJ hospital debacle
The second recent PKR own goal in Selangor is Amirudinās recent excuse that thereās a ālack of suitable landā for the proposed Petaling Jaya government hospital.
This
quickly drew brickbats as people asked why land was instead available
for condos, a data centre and three new private hospitals?
Amirudin
said that 2ha of land was needed ā well, allow me then to assist our
dear menteri besar. The SS2 mall in PJ has been dead since 2015 and has
3ha of land. A new private hospital was announced there in 2020, but the
project failed to happen.
MB Amirudin Shari
The
state can use the Land Acquisition Act to take over the site, since a
hospital is obviously a āpublic purposeā. If this freelance journalist
can find the place with a 10-minute Google search, itās mind-boggling to
think that the Pakatan Harapan state government canāt.
There are
also derelict industrial land plots near PJ Old Town, with some as large
as 50,000 to 150,000sq ft. Just two or three of these will come to2ha.
The private Beacon Hospital is also located in this area.
Worst-case
scenario, there are other green areas in Puchong and Petaling Jaya for a
hospital ā for example, the huge Padang Astaka, behind the Tun Hussein
Onn National Eye Hospital.
Itās a shame to lose a green area, but
arguably, a hospital is more important. In any case, there is another
field called Padang Timur nearby.
So there are many alternatives ā
unless the politicians want to sell these lands cheaply to developers,
as happened with the Ayer Hitam forested areas in Puchong.
If such
shady deals take priority over public wellbeing, then Putrajaya should
at least step in to reduce steep charges at the Universiti Malaya
Medical Centre, where one night in a four-bedded ward costs a whopping
RM300, much more than private hospitals.
UMMC is under the Higher Education Ministry, and itās galling to think that patients are being squeezed to pay the salaries of ākangkung professorsā, such as those who claim that the Romans learned shipbuilding from the Malays.
Ayer Hitam forest fiasco
And now we come to the third own goal. Subang MP Wong Chen has urged the Selangor government to explain
why 68ha of land in or adjacent to the Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve had
been sold to Jakel Group at a low price of only RM13.80psf.
Subang MP Wong Chen
Amirudin replied that a āproperty consultantā had assessed the land value at RM13psf. But hello, that was way back in 2012 lah. Obviously, prices have risen since then.
Wong has been asking when the land was sold to Jakel, but there has been no answer.
What are prices now? A simple Google search reveals the answers quickly.
For
example, the nearby Aseana Puteri condo sells units at a median price
of RM420psf according to the Property Guru website. Multiply that by 20
floors of the condo.
Or take the nearby terrace houses of Puteri 8 in Puchong, which sell for between RM600 and RM700psf, according to Iproperty.
Obviously,
that is way above the measly RM13.80psf Jakel paid. The ever honest
menteri besar said that 75 percent of the land is āunsuitable for
developmentā as there are Class 3 and 4 steep slopes. If so, why was the
land sold?
Is Jakel building an āeco education centreā to augment
the very popular Bukit Wawasan hiking trails there? Or will they build
lucrative condos, even though this will destroy the existing forests and
cause soil erosion?
Compromise with greed
But
I grudgingly accept that politicians and developers have a sweet tooth,
or lips, for each other. I was involved in trying to save the Shah Alam
Community Forest and saw various smokescreens and obstacles thrown up
by the Selangor Harapan government.
Even a faulty forest
degazettement was fixed ā by backdating it 22 years to the glorious era
when Umno ruled Selangor. Thatās when I had to admit that Harapan in
Selangor was turning into BN 2.0.
Wong and Lee, who are both in Rafiziās reformist group, propose that the state government buy back the land. Sadly, this probably wonāt happen as Jakel will demand its pound of flesh.
Perhaps
a more realistic option is for the state to impose tight conditions for
development. A compromise solution is to preserve 80 percent of the
forest while allowing condos around its fringe.
The
condos will carry a premium price as residents have serene forest views
and fresh air, plus a nature getaway in their backyard. They will have
the same pristine setting as condos next to Bukit Gasing and the Kota
Damansara Community Forest.
Itās a win-win-win solution that
caters to developersā and politiciansā vested interests while saving
most of the forest. Will the Selangor government do it to avoid further
damage to its reputation?
Its three own goals only add to voters'
anger about other broken reformasi promises ā be it curbing corruption
or racial hate speech.
I was a supporter of Anwar before and even
attended Harapan rallies in the rain. But I am now very disappointed,
especially with PKR or Parti Kelentong Rakyat (Bluffing Peopleās Party).
The
final whistle for elections is coming. Can the PKR-led Selangor
government recover after repeatedly shooting itself in the foot?
