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."
I was quiet in Harapan govt after Dr M rebuked me, says Pua By Fion Yap
Thursday, May 19, 2022
Malaysiakini : "You can ask (the then ministers) Mohamad Sabu, Anthony Loke or
Gobind Singh Deo. I was the only political secretary in the government
that was castigated several times by the prime minister himself in the
cabinet meetings for opening my mouth.
"I don't sit inside the
cabinet meeting. He scolded me and said that I had no authority to
speak, even if the issue that I talked about was to defend the
government, such as when we were negotiating the highway acquisition
project.
"I decided to talk less and focus more on work behind the
scenes to deliver results rather than create problems for my bosses in
the cabinet," he said.
While not mentioning who were the "bosses", it was believed that Pua referred to the DAP ministers at that time.
Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad
Tony more hardworking
Meanwhile,
Bakri MP Yeo Bee Yin raised the same issue in her speech during the
fundraising dinner, saying that she was also asked "where is Tony"
during Harapan's time.
According to Yeo, her political teacher was
unfortunately asked to not talk about anything concerning the Finance
Ministry (MOF) openly.
"So the Tony Pua that was once seen as a hero by the public was then seen as a dead and quiet man after changing of government.
"But
I can testify to you he was not sleeping but working behind the
scenes. I dare say I was actually quite a hardworking minister, and Tony
Pua was much more hardworking than me," she said.
The
103-table fundraiser aimed to raise election campaign funds for the
Petaling Jaya DAP. More than a thousand people attended, and the
donation collected on the spot was about RM19,700.
Other DAP
leaders who attended the event included secretary-general Anthony Loke,
deputy chairperson Gobind Singh, Bukit Gasing adun Rajiv Rishyakaran,
Kampung Tunku adun Lim Yi Wei, Bandar Utama adun Jamaliah Jamaluddin and
Amanah president Mohamad Sabu as special a guest.
Eliminating direct negotiations
Ex-premier Mahathir Mohamad had described Pua as arrogant and not business-friendly in his latest book released last year.
Talking
about this in his speech, Pua questioned if rejecting proposals or
avoiding direct negotiations with those former Barisan Nasional's
cronies contractors were considered as "not business-friendly".
"(During
my tenure) A lot of tan sri, datuk seri came to MOF very regularly.
They tried to get appointments with me, and very often, I would find
every excuse possible to 'siam' or 'lari'.
"They have direct
access to my minister, but they want to talk to me in the hope that I
will buy into their ideas and talk to my boss for their proposals.
That's their modus operandi during BN's time.
"Sometimes when the
proposal was useless, and we didn't accept it, they said Tony Pua
'arrogant'. Sometimes the proposal was workable, but we said we have to
do open tender, their faces became 'black'," he said.
Pua
pointed out that one of his proudest achievements in MOF was
eliminating direct negotiations, with the exception of national
security-related contracts.
"Under Harapan, under Lim (Guan Eng)
or under Tony Pua, there are no direct negotiations. But current Finance
Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz brought back the old practice," he added.
Pua
reiterated that the Harapan administration had to squeeze whatever they
had to deliver better service for the people after discovering that the
national debt had reached RM1 trillion.
For example, he said the
government renegotiated three mega infrastructure projects, which were
LRT3, MRT 2 and ECRL, to save RM44 billion for Malaysians.
"Politics
was a tough job. The good work we did sometimes was not immediately
felt by the people. The criticism of my boss Lim, of MOF and of myself
was very loud.
"The good things we did, people said that's what
you were supposed to do anyway. Things that we didn't do so well or
haven't done yet, we get criticised heavily. The negative news was
overwhelming on all of us," he said.
He believed the negative
vibes were due to the press, which was controlled by "the other side",
focusing on the negative news concerning the Harapan government.
