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 closed the book on Teoh Beng Hock By Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Monday, August 04, 2025
Malaysiakini : When the mandarins of the DAP bowed and asked for the family of Beng
Hock to accept the MACCās apology, what they were essentially signalling
is that the DAP was closing the book on the Beng Hock murder. When
asked if MACCās apology was an admission of its guilt, DAP
secretary-general Anthony Loke said he would leave that for MACC to
answer.
DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke (middle)
Think
about this for a moment. The head of the DAP could not even summon up
the courage to make a value judgement on an official statement from a
government agency on the death of a comrade.
Instead, he wanted
the family to accept a Mandani cash contribution and apology from the
MACC, which did not specify anything beyond that the agency took note of
the various contradictory judgments and investigations over the years.
Shielded by the state
Let me be very clear here. The state knows exactly who was involved in the death of Beng Hock. The Court of Appeal made that clear.
What we are dealing with is the stateās refusal to take action. The
Beng Hock case is not a whodunit but rather how long they can get away
with it.
Keep in mind the attorney-generalās findings
in the latest investigation. The attorney-generalās brief statement,
unlike what the courts concluded, that āthe police investigations into
Beng Hockās death did not find sufficient evidence to prove wrongdoing
by any individualsā, is a rubber stamp on the narratives that the state
has been pushing for 15 years and enables cretins to claim that there is
no evidence, hence no crime.
Remember Lim Guan Eng, the former
big cheese of DAP, blamed former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin for not
following through with an investigation, even though the then-cabinet
had agreed to one.
In 2020, at a Beng Hock memorial service as reported
in the press, Lim said that although DAP was no longer in federal
power, he assured the party would never give up their fight for Beng
Hock.
However, when the DAP was in power, they did nothing.
Teoh Beng Hock
There
is a connective tissue between MACC and the political class, and it is
mutually beneficial for MACC and the political class to be simpatico.
Mind you, I am not making this claim. In June 2020, former prime
minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad warned MACC to stop harassing his comrades
or āwe have to be very active in exposing all the wrong things that they
(government) carry outā.
And let us be honest. Has DAP suffered
because of its lack of action in getting justice for a murdered comrade?
Politically, with their 40 seats, DAP understands they are Teflon when
it comes to this issue. Folks may deride their inaction online, but this
does not translate to sanctions during elections.
The fear of the
green wave is more potent than DAPās miserable failings when it comes
to Beng Hock. While the Malay establishment protects its own, non-Malay
power brokers have to grovel and essentially say, please take the cash.
Apology without justice
Do not get me wrong. It must have taken a lot of back-room manoeuvring by DAP to get MACC to āapologiseā to the Teoh family.
Furthermore, when MACC pointed out that it is ācommitted to addressing past shortcomings and rebuilding public trustā by implementing reforms
to āensure the welfare of individuals assisting in investigations is
safeguardedā including video interviewing rooms, setting up interview
rooms on the ground floor, and equipping MACC buildings with iron
grilles, this was an admission that whatever measures pre-Beng Hock was
criminally lacking.
So, what this apology is and what the DAP is asking Beng Hockās family to do is play along with the sandiwara
that although Beng Hockās murder was tragic, some kind of good has come
out of it. Now this is a powerful appeal to emotion, especially if you
are a ānonā. Why? Because the ānonsā know there are two sets of rules.
In
other words, this is the best deal the Teoh family can get. The
implication is that while Beng Hockās death āwas caused or accelerated
by unlawful acts, including those of MACC officersā, these officers will
never face justice, but the family can take cold comfort in the cash
ācontributionā and the fact that the MACC has āreformedā its procedures
for dealing with individuals summoned by the graft-busting agency. This,
of course, does not apply to Pamela Ling, you understand.
Beng
Hockās family want to take their case to the UN, but at best, Beng Hock
will just end up as another data point in the thousands of deaths in
custody that happen all over the world.
The true power lies in the
hands of voters, and as long as DAP is secure in the knowledge that,
although angry, most voters would never vote against them because of the
green wave, this will be the only deal Beng Hockās family gets.
This is what passes for justice in Madani and what voters signed up for.
