Rudyard Kipling"
āWhen 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 soldierā
General Douglas MacArthur"
āWe are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.ā
āIt is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.ā āOld soldiers never die; they just fade away.
āThe soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.ā
āMay God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .ā āThe object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
āNobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
āIt 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."
DAP has earned its 'lapdog' label By Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Monday, September 11, 2023
Malaysiakini : DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke reminding Syed Saddiq that he owes
his Muar win to DAP merely seals the reputation among right-thinking
Malaysians that the party is some sort of political cult.
The
enthusiastic welcome Ahmad Zahid Hamidi received after the pyrrhic
victory of the just concluded Johor by-elections is an example of how
DAP would welcome the most toxic of partners but disavows those comrades
past and present who actually stick to the principles DAP claims it
has.
BN chairperson Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (middle in blue)
No matter, as long as the base continues to accept this kind of craven political play, DAP will thrive.
Indeed,
whenever former members or allies level criticisms against DAP, they
are always reminded how much DAP has done for them and how they were
nobodies before joining DAP.
Whereās ālapdogā denial?
All
this, of course, is lapped up by the base and this is how DAP escapes
accountability, either relying on the loyalty narrative or deflecting to
other issues perpetrated by the mainstream Malay establishment.
Missing
from the responses by those like Lee is exactly how the DAP is not a
lapdog to Zahid, to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, or to the Malay power
brokers attempting to cling on to power by using this unity government.
If
someone calls you a lapdog, you should in theory be able to put forward
a rational argument about how you are not a lapdog, instead of saying
the person who made the statements owes you loyalty.
Forget about all of that for a moment. DAP has bigger problems. This
means rational-thinking Malaysians have bigger problems too. What
Zahidās case has proven and the acceptance of an alleged kleptocrat, is
that DAP is willing to cross red lines when it comes to issues like
corruption and public accountability.
What this demonstrates to
Anwar and his loyalists in PKR is that the non-Malay base will put up
with anything, even ridiculous excuses, to justify the continued
existence of this non-reformist government.
Pakatan
Harapan chairperson Anwar Ibrahim (front row, second right) and DAP
secretary-general Anthony Loke (front row, far right)
What
this Madani government is doing is slowly attempting to replicate
BN-era politics. DAP with its near total support from the non-Malays,
conceding ground to Malay power brokers using the spectre of a greater
evil ā the āGreen Waveā ā to shore up support even while engaging in the
most craven of political manoeuvring and intellectually bankrupt
policy-making was the role of the MCA during the long Umno watch.
MCA 2.0 and more
Umno,
through the old maverick, instituted an Islamisation policy that
redefined a whole generation of Malaysians and planted the seeds, the
fruits of which PAS is reaping today.
MCA and the pragmatism of
the non-Malays enabled this process, all the while securing victories
from Umno even though the country was going down the manure hole, as DAP
accurately pointed out at that time.
Of course, this Umno/BN style politics was easier back in the day when Umno commanded the majority of the Malay vote.
PAS
willingly played the part of the big bad wolf and splinter Umno groups
that did not stand a chance against the Machiavellian political plays of
the old maverick.
Times have changed and so has technology. This
new breed of ethno-theocrats has no problem slaying Malay sacred cows
and goading the state to sanction them all in full view of the majority
Malay polity.
DAP does not have the luxury as the MCA did of
merely relying on economic security to balance the Islamisation of their
Malay āpartnersā.
What we have is a virulent opposition relying
on institutions of the state to propagate their theocratic ideas coupled
with a ruling coalition which is struggling not only with economic
issues brought upon by the mismanagement of the mainstream establishment
but also a prime minister who struggles to connect with the Malay
polity.
Furthermore, DAP has a history of coupling with far-right
Malay power brokers who eventually betray them when they are back on
terra firma political ground.
Former PAS spiritual leader the late Nik Aziz Nik Mat (left) and DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang
To
increase his Islamic credentials, the current prime minister is doing
everything within his power to project an Islamic agenda which is nearly
the same as the oppositionās while attempting to placate his non-Malay
supporters.
DAP, which claims to be a secular party, now has to
endorse the Islamic diktats of the Madani government to prove they can
work with Malay partners which is the main propaganda used against them
by Perikatan Nasional.
The fact is, DAP working with Malay power
brokers has increased funding to the religious bureaucracy. It has gone
to great lengths to demonstrate to the Malay polity that they will not
only dress up for the religious occasion but also throw secularism under
the bus if it helps their Malay partners remain in power.
Furthermore,
by embracing Umno wholeheartedly, cronyism, feudalism, and all the
other political tools Umno used will be prolonged in an attempt to
maintain power. These tools are anathema to reform.
However,
because DAP has not maintained the secular line and embraced
kleptocratic personalities merely to sustain this government, all this
does is enable the excesses of its Malay partners, while scaring the
base with the āGreen Waveā.
DAP is not merely following in the
footsteps of MCA but charting new ground. This does not help the Madani
government but rather PN.
Malaysiakini columnist Mariam Mokhtar wrote something extremely perceptive in her last piece. This is a great point:
āFormer
prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad openly announces what he wants for
Malaysia, however disagreeable that may be. (Former prime minister)
Muhyiddin Yassin is a Malay-first-and-Malaysian-second politician and
his policies will reflect his stance. We know that (PAS president Abdul)
Hadi (Awang)ās end goal is an Islamic state. These men are
predictable.ā
Harapan supporters are always asking for solutions.
Donāt they know what the solutions are? Donāt they vote for people whose
solutions align with their own? You donāt see PN supporters whining
about their leaders not providing them with solutions, do you?
Now
that this Madani government understands its vote bank will accept the
crossing of any red lines, it also understands they can now carry out
nearly any policy and the vote bank would accept it.
The trap for the non-Malays is that it is a great comfort attempting to replicate BN-era/social contract politics.
This kind of power-sharing is ultimately a suicide pact.
