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."
Hamzah will be an effective mouthpiece for Hadi - Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Monday, December 12, 2022
Malaysiakini : Let us not be politically correct and spout horse manure like giving the new opposition leader a chance.
Hamzah
was picked because he is not as compromised as Muhyiddin Yassin (which
is not saying much) or as toxic (for the non-Malay and foreign audience)
as Hadi.
However, his main goal is to push the agenda of the PN
base which merely means that he will use every opportunity to spook the
Anwar Ibrahim regime when it comes to Malay and Islamic rights.
PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang
Of
course, he has to actually show up in Parliament to do this, but as
Hadi says, Parliament is not like school, so attendance is optional.
Which is no laughing matter because these folks understand not having
much schooling is not an impediment to political success especially if
your currency is race and religion.
Do not even think that
corruption is an issue. Folks like to say that the Umno base abandoned
Umno because of corruption but the reality is that who they voted for
were all Umno people (Bersatu) and what the hardcore base wanted was a
makeover.
And keep in mind, Bersatu is not even the biggest
political power in PN, it is PAS, and what people who voted for PAS want
is a theocratic state where Syariah law would trump everything.
Hamzah,
like most theocratic state frontmen, is there to perform to the wider
world in fancy suits and a modicum of articulation especially when it
comes to foreign audiences.
They are there to say, either “nothing to look at” or “do not interfere in our customs and laws”.
Look,
what has defined the opposition in this country for decades? The answer
is simple. The opposition to the hegemonic rule, the primacy of good
governance, egalitarian rights for all citizens, the end of oppressive
laws and essentially the idea that this country was for everyone.
Now
this agenda may have been compromised over the long Umno watch. You
could accuse the opposition of hypocrisy or you may even claim that they
sacrificed principles on the altar of political expediency.
Through
all of this, you have to acknowledge that the opposition did not want a
theocratic state where the religion of the state superseded democratic
principles and norms.
What we have now is an opposition emboldened by the fact that the
majority of the Malay voting polity chose them over any kind of
progressive secular-leaning Malaysia.
Play up racial and religious issues
The
people who voted for PAS, especially the young people, have no interest
in living under democratic norms or even that their religious leaders
are bigoted, xenophobic or racist.
Look at it this way. PAS
leaders for instance make ridiculous statements as to their luxury
lifestyles, including quotes from their holy book, and this has not
swayed the base and potential base.
The reality is, that Bersatu
leaders understand that they are just as suspect in terms of corruption
because they were outcasts and frogs from Umno.
PAS political
operatives on the other hand have a history of not only demonising Umno
but have experience working in a federal bureaucracy thanks to the
short-sightedness of the opposition at various times and the
machinations of Umno.
All Hamzah will be doing - if he does this,
he will be an effective opposition leader for the base - is to play up
racial and religious issues.
His main goal is to demonstrate
through his role as an opposition leader, the propaganda that Anwar and
Pakatan Harapan do not represent mainstream Malay political thought as a
government of non-Malays (which is Harapan’s base). That is it.
If he could point to collusion between Umno and Harapan when it comes to corruption, then this is icing on the cake.
Keep
in mind that a majority of Malays voted for PN and the issue of
corruption was not high on their lists merely because the years of
indoctrination and propaganda have resulted in a certain section of the
polity believing that corrupt Muslim leaders are better than honest
non-Muslim leaders.
Will PN pay lip service to the non-Malay voting demographic? Maybe. But what would be the point?
Hamzah as a figurehead for the theocratic state in waiting understands that they do not need the non-Malays to assume power.
Of
course, the urban centres still elude them but what they hope to do
because they have the cajones, is to subvert the electoral process even
further, when they get to federal power either through the front door or
the back door.
As an opposition leader, all Hamzah has to do is
create enough racial and religious instability, which could spell the
end of Harapan.
In fact, who knows what kind of help Hamzah may
get from elements within Umno who fear that the days of Umno may be
coming to an end and the only way for self-preservation is to
destabilise Harapan from within and hope to be rewarded by the
theocratic state.
And keep in mind Hamzah is exactly the kind of
political operative who embraces and has experience in such political
skullduggery and his position as leader of the opposition allows him the
leeway and access to carry out such malfeasances in broad daylight.
Through
it all, the will of Hadi will be directed through Hamzah (even though I
am starting to think that Bersatu does not truly comprehend what they
have aligned with) to influence and shape Harapan policy in the creation
of a nascent theocratic state.
Umno through PN has finally birthed an opposition leader that reflects its failed policies and decades of religious malfeasance.
