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."
From slogan to substance: The test of the rule of law By R Nadeswaran
Thursday, February 26, 2026
Malaysiakini : Four years later, still in the wilderness and another sodomy trial
looming, he quoted Austrian Nobel Prize laureate Friedrich August von
Hayek, who held that government in all its actions is bound by rules
fixed and announced beforehand, which make it possible to foresee with
fair certainty how the authority will use its coercive powers in given
circumstances, and to plan one’s individual affairs based on this
knowledge.
The rule of law refers to the fundamental principles
that govern the exercise of power within a society. At its core, it
means that the authority of the government and its officials must always
be derived from law - whether expressed in legislation or upheld
through judicial decisions of independent courts.
Our system of
government rests on a basic principle: no one, including lawmakers, may
commit an act that constitutes a legal wrong or restricts a person’s
liberty unless they can point to a valid legal justification.
Since
then, Anwar has used the phrase “uphold the rule of law” regularly,
including saying it at a Chinese New Year lunch that Malaysia must be
governed by the rule of law, not by “whims and fancy”, while upholding
mutual respect in its multiethnic and multireligious society.
As
calls for a royal commission of inquiry into claims of a “corporate
mafia” within the MACC mounted, his aide, the political secretary in the
Finance Ministry, Kamil Abdul Munim, argued
that such a high-level inquiry should not rest solely on speculation or
innuendo and would require substantial proof rather than
unsubstantiated claims.
Such prophetic words must certainly be followed by “I must practise what I preach”, but this is hardly seen or exercised.
When a balloon seller is treated the same way as a religious preacher
who set up shop along the five-foot way, with their tables and other
paraphernalia seized, we applaud for uniform application of the law.
Yes, the rule of law is in place.
When one gets reprimanded and
his ware confiscated, while the other is deemed “innocent” and gets back
what was seized, it is seen otherwise - favouritism or bias towards one
party over another.
DBKL
officers removed Multiracial Reverted Muslims' (MRM) tents and other
items on a pedestrian walkway in Bukit Bintang recently
When a man whose defence had already been called on 47 charges of corruption and money laundering sees those charges withdrawn,
while another individual’s representation to withdraw charges under the
Peaceful Assembly Act (PAA) 2012 is rejected, it opens the door to
debate about entitlement and equality before the law.
Walk the talk
The
rule of law is not a decorative phrase to be trotted out in speeches -
it is the lifeblood of a just society. When leaders such as Anwar invoke
thinkers like Hayek, they remind us that government must act according
to predictable, transparent rules - not whims, favouritism, or selective
enforcement.
Yet, the true test lies not in quoting ideals but in living them through consistent practice – by leading by example.
Uniform
enforcement - whether against a balloon seller or a preacher -
demonstrates fairness and strengthens public trust. But when enforcement
bends, when charges are withdrawn for the powerful while ordinary
citizens face rejection, the principle collapses into selective justice.
Such disparities erode confidence in institutions and reduce the
rule of law to a slogan, wielded for political convenience rather than
applied as a universal safeguard.
The credibility of governance
rests on impartial institutions and independent courts. Without them,
the promise of equality before the law becomes hollow, and society risks
sliding into a system where entitlement, influence, and proximity to
power dictate outcomes.
The
rule of law must therefore be more than rhetoric - it must be the daily
discipline of those in authority, a standard applied without fear or
favour.
Ultimately, the measure of leadership is not how often one
proclaims “uphold the rule of law,” but whether those words are
embodied in action.
Only when justice is blind to status, wealth,
and political allegiance can Malaysia claim to be governed by law
rather than by men.
