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."
Healthcare reforms: Can KJ slay the Leviathan? - Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Thursday, August 18, 2022
Malaysiakini : So, how exactly are public health officials going to be social
justice warriors when the racial and religious policies in this country
divide the country along the said lines, with each attempting to defend
the boundaries against intrusion?
I agree that public health
officials should be “busybodies” but how are these people going to
demand “clean water, clean air and access to education because all of
these things have an impact on health outcomes” when those things are
determined by policymakers who consider themselves Malay first, not to
mention dealing with a system of indoctrination where public health
officials come from?
A past protest against vernacular schools
How
do you demand equal access to public education when we have government
policies which determine quota systems and deal with vicious political
fights about funding and providing government scholarships?
Do you think any public health official would want to have that conversation?
Good people vs corrupt system
To
be fair, as someone who benefits from the public healthcare system,
anecdotally speaking, there are many doctors, nurses and healthcare
professionals from various races who take their job and healthcare
seriously.
They want to do good and honest work in our public
healthcare system but they are hampered by a political system that
rewards incompetence and corruption.
Yes, we should prioritise
healthcare and education but who exactly are we doing this for? The
political elites in this country divide us by race and religion and
formulate policies based on these criteria.
So how exactly do some things like healthcare and education, which
have been politicised, become that principle that we can all agree with
regardless of race or religious affiliation?
Not only that but
social standing also determines the level of healthcare available and
again, the majority are “penalised” because more often than not,
especially in rural areas, they are short-changed by the Leviathan which
has no problem building numerous mosques and funding religious schools
but has no interest in providing quality healthcare.
An activist
doctor, who read my objections to the generational smoking ban, angrily
confronted me about why I was not taking the issues seriously.
Here
is the thing: Before we start talking about possible fascist policies,
why not tackle those long-standing issues when it comes to healthcare in
this country, mainly that the healthcare system is riddled with
systemic corruption?
And
I am not even talking about the issues affecting the private healthcare
sector but rather the manner in which corruption cripples our fairly
good public healthcare system - which results not only in people not
getting the best out of their tax ringgit but also having to see
taxpayers’ money being funnelled into healthcare projects which serve no
benefit to the average people.
Decentralisation and transparency
go hand in hand. That is the only way this can work. Khairy rightly
points out the pitfalls of giving more autonomy to hospitals but the
reality is that the bureaucrats in charge of public hospitals are cut
from the same cloth as those who have always found a way to profit from
the system.
Can Khairy reform the system?
This
is the problem with Malaysia’s healthcare sector. We have the expertise
and commitment to handle almost any situation. We also have competent
people but they have always been sidelined.
We also have the laws
and tools necessary to deal with healthcare issues but they have never
been applied consistently and rationally. Only someone who is ignorant
of the realities in Malaysia would claim otherwise.
Khairy wants
the Health Ministry’s political status to be elevated, with the ministry
“ideally having the heft and the gravitas of a very, very senior
minister”.
But the reality is that the Rembau MP is in charge of
one of the most vital ministries in this country but will he bend the
knee to the Leviathan or will he lead by example and be the social
justice warrior he demands of others?
