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."
Anwar as legitimate as any MP or former PM By Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Monday, August 25, 2025
Malaysiakini : His stooge, DAP MP RSN Rayer,
who once claimed that Anwar was like Nelson Mandela or Mahatma Gandhi,
lectured Waythamoorthy not to prosecute this case in the court of public
opinion when other political operatives have chimed in, demonstrating
how inept Madani is.
More power to Waythamoorthy if he can game the legal system, because at the moment, all this seems performative.
Whether you believe that Anwar is a legitimate prime minister and MP depends on your belief in the legal and political system.
When it comes to voting as an indicator of credibility, for instance, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said
that a Malay PM is needed because of “rural Malay constituencies, which
are given disproportionate weightage in the general election”. All this
gerrymandering is perfectly legal.
Forget
about the royal pardon for a moment and what it can or cannot do. Think
back to the days when Anwar and the opposition were targets of the
state using the justice system.
In all those sodomy and corruption
trials instigated by various prime ministers, the constant refrain from
Anwar, his allies, and credible foreign and local legal experts was
that the state dishonestly used the legal system to persecute a
political opponent.
Abusing the laws
In 2009, there was the Perak constitutional crisis, another example of legal legerdemain and outright political thuggery.
Opposition
stalwart Lim Kit Siang described the situation outside the state
assembly as a warzone. Numerous opposition leaders and activists were arrested. Anwar reiterated that the charges against him were politically motivated.
What
we are dealing with here is how the law was used corruptly to bring
down an opposition leader by various Umno prime ministers and their
lackeys.
Now, if the state dishonestly goes after a person and
finds him or her guilty, should it really matter what a royal pardon
does and does not do? This is about the actions of the state and not the
innocence or legal standing of that person.
The royal pardon, to
my mind, was just a move to absolve the state of what it did rather than
wipe the slate clean because the slate was clean if not for the dirt
thrown by the state.
Now,
of course, this line of thinking does not reflect the legalese of this
whole issue, but this is a point that rational people should consider.
Unless,
of course, you believe the political and legal system is credible in
this country. Think about the political machinations behind former prime
minister Najib Abdul Razak's partial pardon to understand why this all means bupkis.
This is also about the judiciary. By his actions,
the prime minister has brought the judiciary’s credibility into
question, like many of his predecessors. So, anything they decide on
this issue would be suspect as it was when he was persecuted by the
state.
In 2005, the Bar Council issued a statement which discussed, among others, the political motivations that could be behind the legal decisions in Anwar’s sodomy case.
Besides
pointing out all the factual malfeasances surrounding the state’s case,
the Bar Council statement also noted this on the Federal court’s
decision – “The Federal Court decision to acquit was, with respect,
correct. But it is arguable that the underlying motivation for the
decision is not purely ‘legal’.”
Anwar believes court decisions
are “views” and not judgments binding on the government and pits
institutions against each other, even to the extent of dragging the
royal institution to support his argument.
This is evident when Putrajaya decided to file an appeal
against a Court of Appeal ruling which deemed the terms "offensive" and
"annoy" in the earlier version of Section 233 of the Communications and
Multimedia Act 1998 (CMA) as unconstitutional.
All this is in
stark contrast to what he has said when galvanising public support for
reforms, which is merely par for the course for the men and women from
Madani.
The DNAA
When it comes to political
persecutions, remember that Anwar, in justifying the discharge not
amounting to acquittal (DNAA) of his number two, advanced the narrative
that this was partly a political persecution by Mahathir and claimed
that the Sabah corruption scandal is merely hearsay.
This has
never been about the law, either when Anwar was persecuted or now when
he is in power. This has always been about how the state chooses to
persecute its political opponents or safeguard its political allies.
In the Madani context, the legal issues inflicted on Yusof Rawther
are an example of this and of course, the wilful silence of the corrupt
personalities in Sabah. This is the definition of rule by law rather
than the rule of law.
Yusoff Rawther
Anwar is as legitimate a prime minister and member of Dewan Rakyat as this system allows.
He
is as legitimate as any of the race hustlers, hypocrites, charlatans,
theocrats, sycophants, misogynists, kleptocrats and the few honest
political actors that make up Parliament, that a gerrymandered political
map, government-influenced electoral commission and compromised legal
system, organised around ethnocentric policy and political parties,
allows.
What makes Anwar and his acolytes’ behaviour abhorrent is
the fact that, having been on the receiving end of a system that
demonises political opposition and disenfranchises the rakyat, they
choose to replicate and enable that system.
Prominent US civil
rights movement leader Martin Luther King Jr said: "We must accept
finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
When it comes to Anwar and Madani, I accept the first part.
