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."
Anwar’s victory not the only Malaysian shockwave By Lowy Institute
Thursday, December 01, 2022
Malaysiakini : PAS won 49 seats, the most of any individual party and almost a
three-fold increase from 2018 polls in the Nov 19 general election.
Founded
in 1951, the party’s lifelong struggle is to replace Malaysia’s
democratic system with Shariah law. The PAS stronghold lies in the east
coast states of Kelantan and Terengganu but has now expanded to Kedah
and Perlis.
Former Permatang Pauh MP Nurul Izzah Anwar
It
draws its inspiration from Islamist parties around the globe – Egypt’s
Muslim Brotherhood, Indonesia’s Masyumi Party and Pakistan’s Jamaat Islami.
The
spread of PAS influence in Malaysia accelerated 20 years ago through
the proliferation of thousands of schools for all age groups, either
owned by the party or its staunch supporters, according to former PAS
vice president and senior Muslim cleric, Ahmad Awang.
PAS-linked kindergartens, tahfiz (al-Quran memorisation
schools) and Islamic schools are spread across the country, reaching as
far as Sabah and Sarawak states on Borneo Island, which has large
Christian and animist communities.
In these schools, the students
are “planted with PAS” doctrine, Ahmad told me. The students are taught
at a young age that it is their duty to vote for PAS. If they were to
vote for other parties, they will go to hell.
In PAS strongholds
in the states of Kelantan and Terengganu, meat from cows, chickens and
goats slaughtered by Muslims who are not part of PAS is considered
“haram” or forbidden. The exclusivity of the PAS doctrine has created an
“us and them” mentality.
Malay Muslims – who are not PAS
supporters – are viewed as infidels. The “outsiders” and so-called
infidels comprising non-PAS Muslims and non-Muslims represent a
dangerous divide in multi-racial and multicultural Malaysia.
Malaysia has thrived and grown into an upper-middle-income country because of its diversity.
Ahmad,
87, a graduate of Islamic studies from Al-Azhar University in Cairo,
was himself branded an infidel when he left the party to join Amanah, a
moderate Muslim party where he serves as an adviser.
Amanah is a member of the Pakatan Harapan (Harapan) coalition led by Anwar.
It
did not just stop there. Ahmad, a former director of the government’s
religious affairs department, has also been stopped from preaching in
mosques controlled by PAS in Selangor.
Many of the PAS-linked private Islamic schools are set up by
Malaysian students who returned home from the Middle East, in particular
those from Jordan and Egypt.
As Malay Muslims become more
religious, many of them sign up for these schools, which are ubiquitous
in urban areas, operating out of rented space in commercial buildings in
city centres.
In the survey, 82 percent agreed that the al-Quran should replace the country’s constitution, up from 72 percent in 2010.
The
number of returnees is huge, given that Malaysia has been sending
students to the Middle East since the 1970s. Malaysian students in
Cairo, including some on government scholarships, have expressed support
for PAS and shunned Umno because it rules according to a constitution
“that is not based on Shariah law”.
The PAS struggle to turn
democratic Malaysia into a theocratic state has taken root. In June this
year, Malaysian pollster Merdeka Center published a “Muslim Youth
Survey 2022”, in which face-to-face interviews were conducted with 1,200
Muslim youths aged between 15 and 25.
In the survey, 82 percent agreed that the al-Quran should replace the country’s constitution, up from 72 per cent in 2010.
Those
surveyed also believed in complete obedience to religious figures, with
72 percent expressing the view that “true Muslims” should follow the
words of religious leaders/scholars and “obey them without question”.
The
survey also found the number of Muslim youths attending religious
schools has jumped, rising to 60 percent in 2022, up from 48 percent in
2010.
PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang has been pushing for the
expansion of the Islamic penal code known as hudud law to mete out
harsher punishments for Muslims in the states of Kelantan and Terengganu
where it rules.
PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang
In
Kelantan, cinemas are banned, while in Terengganu state, two women were
publicly caned in 2018 after being accused of being in a same-sex
relationship.
Malaysia has a dual-track legal system, with Islamic
criminal and family laws applicable to Muslims running alongside civil
laws.
The Islamisation of Malaysia’s education system since the
1980s has helped shaped the conservative outlook among many Muslims, who
make up some 69 percent of the nation’s 30.2 million-strong population.
A
combination of domestic factors, Islamic revivalism on local university
campuses and the Middle East influence brought back by hundreds of
thousands of returning students, have helped propel the shift.
In
addition, the 1.4 million new voters after the voting age was lowered
to 18 from 21, where the majority are Malay Muslims, are widely believed
to have voted for PAS and its partner Bersatu under the Perikatan
Nasional (PN) coalition.
PAS victory came at the expense of Umno,
the biggest party in Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which ruled the
country since its independence from Britain in 1957, save for the period
2018–2020 when Harapan was in power.
The majority of Muslim
Malays have long voted for Umno. But not this time round. The mighty
Umno/BN saw its votes whittled down to a mere 30 seats in the 222-seat
Parliament.
PAS/PN vigorously attacked Umno as a party stained
with corruption where its president, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi is currently
standing trial on corruption charges and its former prime minister Najib
Abdul Razak is currently serving a 12-year jail sentence for
corruption.
PN won 73 seats.
Perhaps as a sign of future
instability, the fiercest attacks from PAS/PN were directed at Harapan,
accusing the coalition of being controlled by its partner, the
Chinese-based DAP, and stating that if Harapan wins, the country would
be run by the Chinese, the call to prayer in mosques would be banned,
and same-sex marriage would be legalised.
DAP the centre of attacks
Harapan comprises DAP, Anwar’s PKR and the moderate Muslim Amanah party.
The relentless anti-Harapan rhetoric was spread via TikTok videos.
None
of the accusations is true but the scaremongering appeared to have
worked. Ethnic Malays started expressing fears about being ruled by
Malaysian Chinese “who are communists” and who would ban the call to
prayer in mosques.
When the election results were announced,
Harapan together with its ally Muda party won the most seats, 82, but
failed to achieve a simple majority to form the government.
It
has since teamed up with its old foe BN (30 seats) and Sarawak’s
Gabungan Rakyat Sarawak (GRS) with 23 seats, and Sabah-based Warisan
(three seats) to form the government.
Ahmad believes PAS has
become intolerant under the leadership of Hadi, whom he described as
very “extreme” and harsh. Hadi was previously “accommodating,” he said,
but has since changed.
Hadi stands in sharp contrast to former
PAS spiritual leader, the late Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, a Muslim cleric
revered and well-loved by many, including the Chinese community in his
hometown.
The late Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat
Nik Aziz was known for his tolerance and graciousness, even to his political opponents. He passed away in 2015.
PAS/PN
will pose a serious challenge to Anwar and his government. PAS/PN has
the numbers and the demography. They have also shown they will not
hesitate to use the race and religion cards.
Malaysia’s political stability and potentially its way of life are at stake.
Ahmad
urged for reforms to the education system so that PAS-linked religious
schools are a seat of Islamic learning with an emphasis on justice,
mercy and humanity and not a place where political propaganda is added
into the mix.
