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."
Pragmatism failed non-Malay polity By Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Monday, November 06, 2023
Malaysiakini : Now migrants threaten the economic spheres of the working and middle-class Malay community.
The
non-Malay political narrative post-May 13 has been one of
backpedalling, reversals, sycophancy and Orwellian doublespeak because
the weight of expectation collided with the realpolitik of Malay rule.
Remember when Dr Mahathir Mohamad said that Lim Guan Eng, when he was finance minister, was not anti-Malay?
Reading what made Lim “not anti-Malay” is a litany of lapdog behaviour that the DAP demonised the MCA for.
The fact that Mahathir claims
that Lim was essentially under his supervision and backed off on policy
initiatives does more damage to Lim and DAP than it reassures those
Malays who supposedly support the Malay uber alles (above all else),
Perikatan Nasional.
Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad (right) with ex-finance minister Lim Guan Eng
The
reality is that the only person who has made “anti-Malay” remarks is
the old maverick. He has called them lazy, always looking for handouts,
obsessed with religion, but more importantly, finding a way to blame the
Chinese community for the failings of successive Malay uber alles
policies.
And now PAS embraces him even though his constituents rejected him en masse.
Of
course, the non-Malay polity latched on to any Malay political figure
who even acknowledged their existence when it came to the institutional
discrimination in this country.
Partisans railed against anyone
attempting to advocate for a Malaysia for all, while flooding social
media with the Bangsa Malaysia kool-aid. This cult-like devotion is what
has destroyed accountability in non-Malay power structures.
Liew Chin Tong’s description of how the DAP gave everything
to then-home minister Muhyiddin Yassin but it wasn’t enough, points to
how non-Malay political operatives were desperate for some sort of
consensus or compromise but this still made them targets of opportunity
for the Malay establishment.
Mariam Mokhtar, in her piece
about the Palestinian Solidarity Week issue, wrote - “If anyone is to
be blamed for this ‘Palestine Solidarity Week’ debacle, then it is Anwar
(Ibrahim) who should be made accountable.
“Something as divisive
and complex as this ‘event’, would have required his endorsement, and
not without good reason, for here’s the crux of the matter.”
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim
And
it is convenient to blame Anwar but what I really want to know is where
were all those Bangsa Malaysians when this was going on?
Where were the non-Malay political operatives who were shouting about the racial and religious polarisation in our schools?
Where were all those political operatives who were happily donning the hijab? Talking about the “ketuanan” system as though it exists in a vacuum does the non-Malays no good.
There has never really been solidarity between disparate groups fighting the ethnocratic establishment of this country.
The
racism within the public system is matched by the racism within the
private economic sphere. In 2012, when debating MCA president Chua Soi
Lek, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng claimed: “We should not bow to
fate and have the right to equality. We should not kneel and beg. We
should be brave enough to stand and ask for it”.
Those words are easy to say but harder to act upon. Non-Malays must hold their elected representatives accountable.
