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."
LTTE 12 – why is this happening under Harapan? - Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Wednesday, January 22, 2020
Malaysiakini : “Furthermore, Dr Mahathir should be reminded … that he single-handed destroyed
the independence, impartiality and professionalism not only of the
judiciary, but also of other important national institutions like the
police, the Election Commission, the anti-corruption agency and the
civil service.”– Lim Kit Siang, 2015
COMMENT | Suaram executive director D Sevan, at the protest for the release of the "LTTE 12"
is correct when he claimed that the detentions were politically
motivated. Well, I would argue that there is more to it than that. This
is the reaction of the deep Islamic state to attacks against the always
inspiring Zakir Naik by vocal members of the Indian community who have
always been the long hanging fruit in the toxic race discourse of this
country.
This narrative also conveniently targets the DAP because
now, the far-right and the Islamic deep state have a shorthand
legitimised by the state security apparatus to justify further
narratives that the Malay community and Islam are under threat from
hostile forces cultivated by homegrown extremists connected politically
and thus able to influence policy in this country.
I
naively believed that political operatives who had borne the brunt of
the immoral state laws under the long Umno watch would endeavour to
dismantle the instruments of the fascists at the first opportunity they
got. This should be personal for them, right? I mean if the state
depriving you of your liberty is not some sort of wake-up call, then
what is? At the very least, certain Pakatan Harapan politicos would know
what the families of these men are going through, right?
Instead,
what we have here is the clucking of chicken hawks who suddenly see the
wisdom of having repressive laws because of “political stability”. I
give credit to Indian political operatives of the DAP for speaking out
against the injustices of their own government, but sadly, the reality
is that the LTTE 12 case has been consigned as an “Indian” issue instead
of a national one.
The
state has a habit of targeting minority communities and linking their
political dissent with “terrorist organisations” to further narratives
that national security is at risk by the pendatang. Lim Kit Siang
was correct to point out the malfeasance of then attorney-general Abdul
Gani Patail when he attempted to link Hindraf with the LTTE in the
"Batu Caves 31" sham. It bears repeating:
"What was the
justification for the attorney-general leading the attack on Hindraf for
its alleged terrorist links? Yesterday, Gani said his linking Hindraf
to the LTTE in his argument at the Shah Alam Sessions Court on Wednesday
was based on a police report. He said: 'Somebody lodged a police report
that there are grounds that these people have been going out to
(establish) contact with this LTTE'."
And we now know that this
allegation made against Hindraf was bogus, that the state was merely
attempting to create a narrative of extremism within the Indian
community because we now have some closely associated with Hindraf – P
Waythamoorthy – who is now de facto minister of national unity and social wellbeing. But I guess this just proves that Dr Mahathir Mohamad would work with anyone.
With
this in mind, can we take anything the state security apparatus and
political operatives claim about the LTTE threat seriously? After all,
we have had decades of mainstream power structures fabricating
narratives that national security was under threat by groups dissenting
against unjust laws of the regime.
All those years when we had
these oppressive laws, at least we had an opposition that attempted to
rage against these laws. With the “Malay” opposition we now have, these
kinds of illegalities go unnoticed because nobody really cares what
happens to members of minority communities, especially since BN is too
preoccupied with demonstrating that it still has “Malay” support, while
the MCA is determined to claw back Chinese support.
A recent example of how the state security apparatus is suspect in anything it does is the Rawang shootout
– “The duelling narratives in the recent Rawang shootings are something
Malaysians are used to. The family of the deceased have made serious
allegations against the PDRM. Prima facie, it would seem that the
PDRM is lying when it comes to the alleged criminal history of V
Janarthanan and his stay in this country.”
So
the question then becomes, how do Harapan political operatives – and
let us forget Bersatu for the moment – not see the need to act
decisively against these laws? How dare they turn a blind eye to what
the state is doing, especially now that they have the power to do
something?
The home affairs minister tells us to check the
manifesto and we would understand that Harapan promised only to modify
such laws or some such nonsense. Unfortunately for him, many things
that Harapan political operatives say in public and what is said in that
worthless manifesto are contradictory.
The prime minister says that he is "satisfied"
with the way how the state security apparatus carried out these arrests
and investigations, but as Lim Kit Saing reminded us in 2015, the old
maverick is why we do not have independent institutions and fidelity to
law in this country in the first place.
Ambiga Sreenevasan said
that she could not answer why this is happening under the Pakatan
Harapan government. I understand where she is coming from. Many Indians,
especially those who for so long have been disenfranchised by the
system, keep asking me the same thing.
This is made even worse by
the fact that my articles are translated and passed around the
community. The most glaringly “offensive” ones – as described by young
Indian activists – are the ones where I lecture Harapan over making the
old maverick interim prime minister.
After the racial and
religious rhetoric coming from our Home Affairs Minister Muhyiddin
Yassin, does anyone really believe him when he says, "The basic question
is not on LTTE but police intelligence found there are elements of
terrorism or possible terrorism in the probe into LTTE.”
If the
state security apparatus had actionable intelligence, it would have
acted without hesitation and would have professionally made its case to
the public. In this instance, the courts are mired in procedural
legerdemain while the LTTE 12 are rotting in detention with allegations of torture.
Most of us know why this is happening under Harapan.