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."
Madani organises RM4b Kota Madani project but needs URA? By Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Monday, September 08, 2025
Malaysiakini : Unlike Perikatan Nasional and Umno, if Madani really wanted to expand
the cash and political will to help the urban disenfranchised, they
have within their ranks the intellectual capability and fiscal savvy to
carry out an urban revitalising programme, using federal and local
power.
This project will not be about displacing people but rather
rebuilding, if needed, repairing and recalibrating civil services for
the disenfranchised rakyat. The PM can name it the Rumah Madani
initiative or something.
Of course, the people who are capable of this are sidelined in favour of the sycophants, plutocrats and warlords that jostle for space on the gravy trough.
This is really about big government. This is about big politics. This is about big business.
If
this were about creating urban landscapes where various disparate
communities coexist with stability and security, the government would be
giving more power to the rakyat, instead of to politicians and
developers.
Reviving third vote
Instead of a
local council election, which acts as a check and balance to a whole
range of issues and where communities determine what the places they
live in need, we get the URA, which concentrates power in the hands of
government and where back channelling, backroom deals and corporate
malfeasance get a fig leaf of legality.
Which is why PSM wants the would-be property czar to get back to holding the local council election.
Last year, PSM called on Madani to revive the local council election in Selangor after the assessment rate hike.
“One big reason for this scepticism is that funds from this tax hike will be administered by the unelected local councils.
“In
particular, (to ensure) that the projects will be awarded based on an
open tender basis, not just handed to cronies of political party
leader,” Selangor PSM treasurer Darren Ong explained.
Now,
of course, if you are a citizen with numerous properties or live in a
community with the influence to compel the state to live up to its
obligations, especially when it comes to its civil services, then the
URA sounds pretty good.
Developers
no doubt love this bill. Now that power is centralised, all they have
to deal with is one source instead of the numerous tributaries.
Activist Kua Kia Soong has articulated this point, but nobody seems to be listening.
“Residents
whose voices objecting to crass so-called ‘development’ projects, water
disruptions and periodic floods have been ignored, are demanding that
their voices be heard at the local council.
“In this sense, we can
see why local authorities are considered the primary units of
government. Many services, including education, housing, health, and
transportation, require local knowledge and can be better coordinated
and more efficiently implemented through the local authority,” he said.
Weaponising URA
The URA has been weaponised by the opposition and Umno. Weaponising the URA does two things.
First,
it favours the plutocrat class, the same class that has always enabled
the political class, which includes a host of top-to-bottom bureaucrats.
This
allows them to play the victimhood card. If this bill is destroyed or
watered down to irrelevance, they can claim victory and go back to
business as usual with the plutocrat class they demonise.
Housing and Local Government Minister Nga Kor Ming rightly pointed out that 81 of the proposed sites for redevelopment were in PAS-led states and proposed by PAS-led administrations.
Housing and Local Government Minister Nga Kor Ming
Which
just goes to show who the landlords of the states really are, and you
can bet your last ringgit that the plutocrat class would be involved
with PAS in the “development” of those sites.
Second, these types
of bills distract from the genuine kind of reforms, which return power
to the rakyat. It often results in racial and religious narratives
overtaken by class-based dialectics.
Just last year, Nga, champion of the URA, said that local polls were not a priority
for Madani. Keep in mind that it was Kuala Lumpur DAP chairperson and
Cheras MP Tan Kok Wai who wanted Putrajaya to start the local council
election in the capital.
Umno Youth chief Dr Akmal Saleh was
horrified, claiming that Tan was “insensitive and provocative”, and
Federal Territories PAS Youth chief Azmer Syazwan Ahmad Suparmin said it
would lead to disunity amongst the people.
Kua reminded us that a couple of years ago, the third vote favoured the left, which has always been grassroots in its ethos.
“In
fact, during the early years of independence, BN was reluctant to have
the local council election because many local council elections in the
towns and cities tended to be won by the opposition.
“During the
60s, many towns and cities were run by the Socialist Front. This was the
real reason for not wanting local elections, not because of the
so-called racial divide,” he said.
Rejuvenate, regenerate and revitalise. Of course, the 3Rs. Business as usual.
