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."
The reason why cops don’t want to be recorded - Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Thursday, February 02, 2023
Malaysiakini : The last thing a state security apparatus wants in any form of democracy is scrutiny, especially from the public.
This
is why the police have fought tooth and nail against any kind of
sustained, transparent oversight. The propagandistic nature of the
police in mainstream popular (Malay) culture is also how the state
enforces certain narratives.
Recordings of police raids, or any
kind of recordings between the public and police, dispel many elements
of the mythology that the state and its security apparatus have always
cultivated.
The key can be discovered in the case of the woman who
was denied entry into a police station because she was not properly
attired.
From reportage - she told a news portal
that she had asked for the badge number of the police personnel who
denied her entry because she wanted to lodge a complaint, but he refused
to give it to her.
The personnel in question did not want to be
identified. In fact, according to Kajang District police chief Mohd Zaid
Hassan, "The woman was unhappy and initially refused to follow
instructions and provoked the personnel on duty”.
This
is also another issue when it comes to the state security apparatus.
The public, and in this case, the woman wanting to lodge an accident
report, provoked the personnel on duty.
"The personnel once again
courteously advised her to change into more suitable pants if she wanted
to have dealings at a police station," - read this line carefully.
First,
dealings at the police station are not some sort of convivial meet-up.
There are legal requirements that have to be fulfilled and, in this
case, the police were obstructing the woman from carrying out her legal
obligations.
Second, what we are dealing with here is a personnel,
who purposely chose to withhold his identification, which merely means
that this individual knew he was doing something wrong. The fact that he
has the backing of his superiors is irrelevant.
And this is why
cops do not like to be filmed - unless they are doing a perp walk and
establishing with these recordings that they are doing their job.
Here
is the thing. When the police are afraid that their actions could be
construed as wrong, they claimed they were provoked. The top brass of
the police does not want the public recording their actions because this
could provoke a negative impression on them, especially if the said
actions resulted in public ire.
Several inspector-generals of police over the years have said this.
This is not something new. What is new is the way how information is
disseminated and the viral manner in which narratives are formed.
Police
raids are about propaganda. The police have no issue with
state-sanctioned media filming them and sometimes this also includes the
alternative press.
They
want people to be aware that they are cracking down on antisocial
behaviour. They want people to be aware that the state discourages or
bans certain forms of behaviour and they want to make sure that this
message goes through loud and clear.
When it comes to young
Malays, it gets worse. Whatever form of behaviour deviates from the
state-sanctioned racial and religious narratives, is dealt with harshly
and even more importantly, publicly.
The mainstream Malay papers
and social media are flooded with images of young people in handcuffs
escorted away by the honourable state security apparatus, with the
subtext that this is all for their own good.
Nexus between police and political establishment
Furthermore,
because the mainstream Malay political apparatus is the way it is,
nobody really questions the methods or agenda of the state security
apparatus when it comes to these issues.
Who needs oversight when the narrative is that the police are dealing with the undesirables of society?
In
fact, the police are merely following the diktats of their patrons from
the political establishment when it comes to enforcing a specific
culture and behaviour. And because everyone is afraid of “spooking the
Malays”, nobody really wants to handle this issue.
The state security apparatus, specifically the police, do not want any kind of oversight.
Do
not take my word for it. Just read the report on the special edition
bulletin by Bukit Aman in 2006, which objected to the then-BN
government’s proposal of an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct
Commission (IPCMC).
Here are a few important points:
The scope of 'misconduct' is too wide and will complicate the routine duty of the police.
It
will “soften” the police because it creates a direct or indirect effect
on the police, making them feel fear and not confident in carrying out
their work.
"The explicit and implicit effect of the
formation of IPCMC is that the real organ which exercises powers of
control over the police will be IPCMC's commissioners and not the
minister." Let the politicians be aware that they will eventually lose
powers, control and influence over neutral, professional and
people-centred police (as suggested by the royal police commission).
Lastly, the police threatened
to vote for the opposition, which should tell us something about the
relationship between the state security apparatus and the political
establishment.
Back in the day, I was familiar with the tradecraft of the state security apparatus and how it dealt with threats.
There
are some instances that demand, for lack of a better word, secrecy and
the state has to carry out certain operations that, no matter what some
progressives claim, are necessary for the safety of the many.
However,
when it comes to the everyday dealings with the public that our cops
are tasked to protect, the system has become so compromised, with
accountability and transparency being almost non-existent.
The
reason why the police do not want you to record them is that it would
mean some small form of accountability is meted out to them.
