Link graphic for a KJB version Bible Verse that will be automatically updated when we update it from time to time
">


Articles, Opinions & Views: Will young leaders reform Harapan? - Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy

Photobucket
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
 
Fighting Seventh
The Fighting Rangers
On War, Politics
and Burning Issues
Profile
Miscellaneous

American Thinker
American
Newspapers Online

Arab News
Asia News
Asia Times
Assyrian News
BBC News
Breitbart News
British and
International
Newspapers Online

CAMERA
CBS News
City Journal
CNN
Christian Solidarity
International

Daily Caller
Daily Mail
DAP Malaysia
Dawn
Drudge Report
Dutch News
Faith Freedom
Ali Sina

Foreign Affairs
Forward
Fox News
Google News
Guardian
Haaretz
Harakah Daily
English

Herald Malaysia
Hurriyet Turkey
History of Jihad
Independent
Indian Newspapers
Online

Inspire Magazine
IPOH Echo
International
Herald Tribune

Jerusalem Newswire
Jihad Watch
Local-
French News
In English)

London Times
Malaysiakini

Malaysian Insider
Malaysia
Centre for Policy
Initiatives

Free Malaysia Today
Malaysia Chronicle
Malaysia
-Sarawak Report

MEMRI TV
Middle East
Forum

Mission Network
News

MSNBC News
National Review
NEWSMAX
New York Post
New York Times
Nut Graph
Opinion Journal
Right Wing News
Spiegel
Star Online
Straits Times
Sun Malaysia
Sydney
Morning Herald

Telegraph
The Malay Mail
The Rebel Media
The Sun (UK)
Time
Times of India
Town Hall
US News
World Report

USA Today
VBS TV
Washington Post
Washington Times
World Net Daily
World
Watch Monitor

Yahoo News
Ynet News



No Atheists
In A Foxhole

Rudyard Kipling

" ā€œWhen 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

" ā€œWe are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.ā€

ā€œIt is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.ā€
ā€œOld soldiers never die; they just fade away.
ā€œThe soldier, above all other people, prays for peace,
for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.ā€
ā€œMay God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .ā€
ā€œThe object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.

ā€œNobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
ā€œIt 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."

Proud To Have
Served With Warriors

Glorious
Malaysian Food
Foreign Bloggers
&
Other Stuff
Gaming

Major D Swami
WITH Lt Col Ivan Lee
Click Here

Lt Col Ivan Lee
you want him with
you in a firefight!!!!

Dying Warrior
xxxxxx
Condors-Infantry
Fighting Vehicles
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Camp
Bujang Senang
Click Here
xxxxxxxx
The A Team
Click Here
xxxxxxxx
Major General
Toh Choon Siang
Click here
Lieutenant General
Stephen Mundaw
Click Here
With His
Dying Breath
Killed in Battle
In Death
Last Thoughts
Before Battle
Whilst There Is
Life, There Is Fight

Not Done In Yet!!

Iban Trackers
XXXXXXXX
Facts On RoP
Hutang Negara
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Will young leaders reform Harapan? - Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Thursday, September 02, 2021


Malaysiakini : ā€œA people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves and traitors are not victims... but accomplices.ā€ - George Orwell

COMMENT | You know that old saying, there are no victims only volunteers, this sums up how some (maybe even many) feel about their support of Pakatan Harapan. What the last couple of weeks have demonstrated is that the issues facing Harapan are systemic.

Governmental malfeasances on a state level, lack of coherence when it comes to articulating policy positions (when Harapan has policy positions that is) and the politics of demonisation which is crippling in this time of a pandemic, are all indicative that Harapan has been hanging onto the coattails (and emulating) failed BN governments instead of being the alternative to the system in place.

Sure, the backtracking and failure to implement campaign promises were important factors in these diminishing returns opposition, however, people could forgive a lot if only they did not feel that they were being played for chumps. Does anyone really believe that nobody in Harapan knew of the forest reserve debacle for instance?

The easy answer seems to be a change of leadership and injecting fresh young faces into the mix. I am all for that, but like everything else, it is a lot more complicated than merely replacing the old guard with young Turks.

Perhaps you have read about all these names of young political operatives bandied about. The tone of which implies that these young politicians are the panacea for this rancid political landscape. This is the problem with personality politics.

It is pointless throwing out names of young politicians because none of them has demonstrated that they want to lead the opposition. None of them have staked political ground or even made it clear that they believe they are the future of the party, much less presented a road map of where they think this country should be heading.

How on earth can anyone cheerlead for political personalities when they have shown no interests, but even more importantly, willingness to step into the ring? Unlike political parties all over the world where young people are striking out on their own and against the political order of their parties, it would seem that young political operatives here want to be anointed to higher office.

Secondly, what kind of politics are we advocating here? The problem with Harapan is that its deeds have not matched its rhetoric. Harapan has been dismissive of its base because they believe ā€“ and a section of the voting polity has proven them right ā€“ that people would vote for them because they are the ā€œlesser of two evilsā€.

Or because some folks believe that there is no other choice. Decades of demonising third party candidates (even those endorsed by credible voices) have resulted in partisan quicksand where the harder you struggle to break free, the faster you sink in.

With this in mind, young political operatives in Malaysia just ape the political rhetoric of their party elders. And can you blame them? If young political operatives demonstrate an ounce of independent thinking, they are demonised by the base who allege that they are not team players and who for years have practised the rancorous partisan politics which they now turn on their own.

Going against party orthodoxy should be baseline politics for young political operatives, but can you name any who have bucked the groupthink, and attempted to stake political ground that has not been covered and soiled by their political elders?

Young Malay leaders

And let us be honest here. When we talk of young leaders, what the Harapan base really wants is a young Malay leader who they think will sway a sizable number of Malay voters to Harapan. Ideally, this young Malay leader would have ā€œprogressiveā€ values that would appeal to the non-Malay base.

That is a tall order for any leader, and this is a problem. What the long Umno watch did was economically and socially balkanise this country. Hence, the issues faced by the rural polities are completely different from those faced by the urban and semi-urban voting polity.

Furthermore, political agendas have also become balkanised, with the preoccupations of the urban and semi-urban areas forming the core value system of the political elites, but which has very little to do with heartland issues and a polity that are labelled as ignorant and backward.

What is needed is decentralised grassroots level party activism which adheres to set principles and objectives shared by all. Hence, what we get are state-level actors who understand the economic needs of their electorate but who coalesce under a general egalitarian framework of party then coalition.

This way political operatives, regardless of race, share an ideological framework but are free to provide local solutions for local problems.

This way, all political operatives, whether Malay or non-Malay, believe in the same values and are not targeted because of race or religion. This would mean dog-whistle politics from Malays and non-Malays would be verboten.

What is not needed (because it usually backfires) are messiahs-like political figures who at the end of the day are only concerned about their personal political survival and that of their cronies.

Stop investing in personalities. Political parties have to have an ideology, policy positions and an agenda. Harapan has none of this now.

What they relied on for some time now were pleas to emotions, rabid online mobs who did not reflect the reality on the ground but most of all, an incompetent, racist federal government that made them look better than what they were.

We now know that the DAP behaved exactly how MCA did during their long watch with Umno. One would have thought that young politicians who are intelligent would be advocating a more nuanced response when it comes to non-Malay racial politics instead of the scorched earth politics of the oldies. 

This of course has not happened. Most probably, because the base would have nothing to do with it.

This is why DAP leader Lim Guan Eng has to ā€œreassureā€ the base working with the current government (whatever it calls itself) is not some sort of unity government. Of course, all of this is contradictory because nobody really knows what kind of deals are being struck behind closed doors and whom those deals benefit.

Bipartisanship should not be an issue. The problem is that now Harapan makes everything look suspect because for years they have ditched any form of bipartisanship because they claimed to have the moral high ground but when given the responsibility, all they did was gaslight their voting base and the public.

Are young leaders needed? Most certainly but they should be individuals who want to lead and have a vision of what they believe coalition politics should be about. They should not be tied to the old ideas propagated by the geriatric elite we have leading this country.

If young leaders want to radically change Harapan, they should. That is, if they still consider it a viable alternative.

posted by Major D Swami (Retired) @ 9:18 AM  
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home
 
ARCHIVES


Previous Post
Indian Soldiers
World War 1
Links To Rangers
Military Related Links


End of a Saracen
East Malaysian
Warriors
Blow Pipe
xxxx
xxxx
Lieutenant Colonel
Zulkapli Abdul Rahman
Click Here
Lieutenant Colonel
Harbhajan Singh
Click Here
Heads from the Land
of the Head Hunters
Heads
20 Harrowing Images
Vietnam War

Creme De La Creme-Click here

Killing Time
Before Deployment

Lt Col Idris Hassan
Royal Malay
Regiment
Click Here

Also Known as
General Half Track

Warriors
Dayak Warrior
Iban Tracker with
British Soldier

Showing the
British Trooper
what a jackfruit is!!

Iban Tracker

A British Trooper training
an Iban Tracker

Iban Tracker

Tracker explaining
to the British Soldier who
knows little about tracking

Iban Tracker
Explaining to the
British Trooper the meaning
of the marks on the leaf

Iban Tracker
Aussie admiring
Tracker's Tattoos

Lest We Forget Major Sabdin Ghani
Click Here
Captain Mohana Chandran
al Velayuthan (200402) SP
Ranger Bajau
ak Ladi PGB
Cpl Osman PGB

Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
Photobucket
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Powered by

Free Blogger Templates

BLOGGER

google.com, pub-8423681730090065, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 <bgsound src=""> google.com, pub-8423681730090065, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0