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."
To quote Suhakam on the public caning of a repeat khalwat
offender in Terengganu - āPunishments that inflict physical violence
and public humiliation have no place in a modern justice system.
āThey
undermine Malaysiaās commitments to human rights, tarnish its legal
integrity and erode the dignity of individuals - a value upheld by all
religions, including Islam.ā
As someone who is against state caning, the issue here is not about this form of punishment but rather PASā intent.
What is PASās intention when it comes to this public form of barbarity? It intends to instil fear into the Muslim community.
You
will not see hands being chopped off for corruption or high-ranking
factotums or their hangers-on being whipped for this sort of thing.
Instead, you will see the average Joe rakyat who most probably voted for them bearing the brunt of these forms of punishment.
Security
personnel escorted repeat syariah offender Mohd Affendi Awang for his
public caning at a Terengganu Mosque last Friday. He is the first person
to be caned in public in the PAS-ruled state.
This
was pure, unadulterated hypocrisy, not to mention the mendacity of the
PAS political apparatus, and PAS is essentially thumbing its nose to the
secular and constitutional guardrails of this country.
The fact that Madani was completely silent on the matter indicates how much the federal government fears the āGreen Waveā.
With the Perlis mufti
and his fait accompli announcements, we witnessed the agitations within
the religious establishment, which is characteristic of theocracies.
PAS
is demonstrating that while it will sustain the elites and the scores
of apparatchiks within its theocracy, average Muslims will feel the
harsh glare of their atavistic religion on their backs.
CMA amendments
What the government hopes to do with amendments to the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) is to attempt to regulate the flow of information.
Why? Because the state understands that the opposition has a far better grasp of social media tactics than it does.
Keep
in mind that for most of the denizens in the corridors of power in
Madaniville, freedom of speech was of paramount importance to get their
message across when they were out of power.
Now, because of their inability or unwillingness to execute reforms, they resort to "shooting the messenger" type tactics.
Ultimately,
what the Madani regime is doing is building more dictatorial
foundations for the theocratic state to further build on.
To be
honest, I donāt think even Perikatan Nasional would have come up with
such a gambit because they understand that there are enough dictatorial
tools in the box to handle dissent.
Mufti bill
Together with the amendments to the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act (Act 355), the Federal Territories Mufti Bill
only consolidates power with the religious class, which includes PAS
and the far religious elements in all mainstream political parties and
further diminishes the influence of the supposedly secular DAP.
If Madani assumes that it would control the religious message by passing these bills, it is sorely mistaken.
The far religious right has demonstrated that they are willing to slay sacred cows in their quest for dominance.
Over
the decades, ever since these types of bills were proposed, the
religious far right, the deep Islamic state and culture war warriors
have been pushing for these amendments as an amelioration of secular
democratic first principles.
The narrative that religious laws will not affect non-Muslims
is merely a talking point. No government will ever give this talking
point legal effect. Indeed, no political coalition will ever guarantee
that religious laws will not affect non-Muslims.
Why? Because
those who advocate for these kinds of laws understand that religious
laws influence and erode democratic guardrails and the purpose of such
laws is dominion over everyone, believer and non-believer.
Rogue cops blamed for forced disappearances
Rational
Malaysians have to decide - is the stateās narrative that the
disappearance of Pastor Raymond Koh and Amri Che Mat the work of rogue police officers, or was there something more sinister at play?
Pastor Raymond Koh and Amri Che Mat
Who
had the power, if this allegation is true, to order a tactical squad to
kidnap Malaysians for whatever reasons? Who had the authority to issue
such commands, and who felt secure enough that their crime would go
unsanctioned by any elected government?
Who had the political
influence to concoct such a manoeuvre that bypassed the traditional
state security apparatus and mete out whatever fate befell these people?
Make
no mistake, the answers to these questions would offer no relief and
would most probably demonstrate either how the political apparatus has
lost control of the religious bureaucracy or how the two are no longer
mutually exclusive.
Whoever these people are, they are confident
that the narratives of the state security apparatus would shield them
from whatever repercussions or sanctions of the Madani regime.
The enemy has always been within.
KK Mart socksfiasco
When Umno Youth chief Dr Muhamad Akmal Saleh told his friends at KK Mart to find another business,
you have to ask yourself why he didnāt care about āthe livelihood of
workers - most of whom are Malay Muslimsā that Mydin hypermarket boss
head Ameer Ali Mydin thinks would be in jeopardy if Akmal continued with his reckless religious agenda.
You have to ask yourself why Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan would write a piece warning people not to be sympathetic to KK Mart and its vendor by describing the formerās business practices as āquestionableā.
And
what did the prime minister think of Umno wanting to destroy a viable
business which hires many Malay Muslims? Did he really think that Umno, a
partner in his government, acting this way was going to burnish his
racial and religious credentials?
Mohamad is right about one thing. Malaysia is at a pivotal juncture.
Ushering in the new year, I leave readers with this:
āThe
object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that
we should have a new soul and a new nose, new feet, a new backbone, new
ears, and new eyes.ā
