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."
Zahid is free because Harapan supporters enabled it By Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Wednesday, September 06, 2023
Sia touched bases with all the stereotypes that come with partisan
politics, from handouts to TikTok, and is pleased with a āsurging
foreign investmentā which means letting Zahid go, is purely a numbers
game.
So, how much money would it take to satisfy Harapan voters,
the majority of whom are non-Malays, that letting Zahid go is a
pragmatic thing and good for business?
If anyone thinks that TikTok is toxic for democracy, have they looked at the social media spaces of Harapan supporters?
The
claim that Harapan voters did not have a choice, is the definition of
toxic politics. Harapan supporters, especially those urban voters whom
Sia thinks do not really care about reform manifestos, had choices
handed to them on a platter.
They had independent candidates, they
had recent choices like Muda and, of course, old-guard options like PSM
and the Harapan base rejected them. They instead voted in huge numbers
for candidates who led them to this cliff.
Third-party candidates
were demonised as spoilers for Harapan. Parties were described as
āmosquitosā which would derail Harapanās reform efforts and honest
political operatives were thrown under the bus, all in the name of
supporting Harapan candidates who promised reform but instead delighted
in the fact that non-Malays particularly had no choice but to vote for
them.
Party uber alles, remember? I would argue that this
is what damages democracy, as much as the unequal weightage of votes
and the mendacious manoeuvring of political operatives from PN and
Harapan to limit our public and private spaces.
Bravo to former MACC chief Latheeya Koya and lawyer Lim Wei Jiet for belling the cat.
While some folks want the prosecutors to make their case for the
withdrawal, the reality is that this is a political decision. What else
could it be?
Remember the reason why some folks wanted to reform the prosecution service was to make it free from the executive branch.
And
since these reforms have not been carried out, what we can assume is
that there was interference from the executive branch. Otherwise, why
the need for reform, right?
Now, I am not really interested in
what PKR has to say. What I am really interested in knowing is where the
DAP stands in all of this. And please, Anthony Loke, you are the
government. Please do not pass the buck to the attorney-general (AG).
This
is cowardly and standard operating procedure for the DAP. Shift the
blame knowing that the base will continue voting for you or supporting
you, because what other choice do they have, right?
Some people
will argue, why am I placing this on the DAP? Itās because DAP is the
backbone of Harapan, the reliable vote bank, which carries the
expectations of non-Malays and reform-minded progressive Malays in this
country, thatās why.
DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke
People
always ask me, since I am one of the biggest scaremongers of the āGreen
Waveā, why I would support independent candidates and parties like PSM
and Muda, who could very well draw votes away from Harapan. Donāt I know
the consequences of this?
I surely do. The more choices people
have in a democracy is a good thing. The more choices people have in a
democracy like ours, where pundits routinely claim that the only choices
we have are between two devils, it becomes an even more powerful
option.
We may fear the āGreen Waveā but maybe it is time to not
support it by voting for the pragmatic choice which is, in reality, the
choice that is enabling the āGreen Waveā.
All that Zahidās freedom
buys is more propaganda for PN. All it does is enable narratives that
the non-Malays would support corrupt Malay leaders, in the hopes of
securing power.
Clamping down on the media and attempting to
counter propaganda by banning it merely feeds into the narratives by PN
that this is a fascist government. Now that Zahid is free merely
confirms the power-hungry motives of the Madani government.
This
is the reason why I have been so hard on the Madani government. I have
always reminded them that they had an opportunity for reform.
And I
did not buy into their excuses of needing more time or not spooking the
Malays. This was the perfect opportunity to reform the system because
by doing so, they would show the people what they stood for and disarm
PN of effective propagandistic tools.
Will non-Malays still back Harapan?
Zahid
is free because Harapan supporters enabled it. Now that illusions of
reform and anti-corruption have been stripped from Harapan, it remains
to be seen if Harapan voters, especially the non-Malays stand by
Harapan.
Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has said that
the Chinese built this country and that there would be no cities and
towns without the Chinese. He said without non-Malay taxes, how would
entitlement programmes be funded?
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has
chided the lack of development in Kedah. For years, the people of
Terengganu and Kelantan voted in people who have mismanaged their state
to the point that environmental disasters that could have been avoided
have become a yearly occurrence.
Countries led by such regimes
have gone through religious and economic turmoil. Countries in this
region and all over the world have hit rock bottom in order to progress
forward.
We know from PNās brief rule, what it was like. Perhaps,
Malaysians need to hit rock bottom to understand what corruption,
religion, and racial injustice do to a country.
