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."
COMMENT - Loke's false premise on DAP's role in Madani By Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Monday, July 27, 2026
Malaysiakini : Leaving Harapan was never an issue. Maybe it should be, but the
reality is that rational people have not asked the DAP to leave Harapan
because rational people understand that coalition politics is the only
avenue we have to influence policy and the direction of this country.
However,
some in the base have been asking the DAP to stop participating in
Madani, which was exactly the point of the July 12 special congress that
the DAP conveniently shelved.
DAPās role in Madani
Now
this false premise may work well for some, but any rational person who
knows even a little bit about politics would understand that this is
complete bunkum. In fact, what these so-called political rivals want is
for DAP to remain in government.
DAP, by remaining in the government, gives the Malay uber alles
types all the ammunition they need to engage in race-baiting politics,
not to mention blame policy failures, especially when it comes to
economic policy failures, as a convenient non-Malay target.
Furthermore,
it gives the DAPās political allies a convenient whipping boy when they
want to burnish their race and religion credentials.
I do not
think that anyone is seriously advocating for the DAP abandoning
Harapan, but many are questioning DAPās role in Madani.
DAP could
still support Anwar but play no role in this Madani sham. Furthermore,
Madani has demonstrated that it would throw DAP under the bus when it
comes to Malay sensitivities.
DAP representatives have been reprimanded by the prime minister of their coalition.
DAP representatives have had to make retractions and apologies.
DAP
representatives have been attacked by online mobs, who happen to also
be the people who voted for them, and did you see DAP having a hissy fit
and threatening to resign from all posts and abandoning Madani?
Have you seen Malay/Muslim coalition partners give genuine support when the DAP has come under these kinds of attacks?
Cost of staying in govt
For the sake of Madani, DAP placed a monetary value
on Teoh Beng Hockās murder. And let us not forget all the other
malfeasances that DAP has turned a blind eye to in the name of nation
building.
When āThanosā was transferred, was this nation building?
When the state claims there is not enough evidence to prosecute religious provocateurs, is this nation building?
When
the police refuse to act on the kidnapping of M Indira Gandhiās child,
the spirit of Teoh is present. When Raymond Koh, Amri Che Mat, Pamela
Ling, and others are subject to enforced disappearance, is this nation
building?
Or maybe something like the Urban Renewal Act (URA) is the kind of nation building that DAP is into.
From P Gunasegaramās trenchant piece
- āNow, here comes the killer. Under Section 5(2) of the proposed URA,
the Federal Executive Committee will have the minister as chairperson.
That would be Nga Kor Ming, the rising voice of DAP and a strong
advocate of the URA, which property developers love. He would steer the
FEC.ā
Madani is merely a vehicle for Umno to engineer a reversal
of fortune. By giving such prominence to Umno in Madani, the prime
minister has allowed Umno to leverage its federal influence and
symbiotic relationships with an entrenched civil service to make moves
on a state level.
This
is why the prime minister is making all sorts of overtures to the civil
service and apologises for his harsh tone towards them.
Furthermore,
as cabinet members with a huge sway on policy, whatever policy moves
that Umno makes are to ensure that it plays into the strategies of state
moves, which ultimately is a political war of attrition with Harapan.
By
kneecapping DAP, which Madani has done because it is deathly afraid of
spooking the Malays, Madani has done a good job at destabilising
non-Malay support for DAP, which only benefits Umno and PAS.
Madaniās political gamble
Corruption
is not a recent phenomenon; rather, it is part of the DNA of the
organism fueled by racial and religious imperatives and a compromised
electoral system.
Umno/BN designed the system, and Madani is
attempting to replicate it, so any attempt at corrective measures is met
by a deluge of propaganda or the spectre of the āGreen Waveā.
Remember Perikatan Nasional was briefly in power, and how did that go? With all those really dumb āLangkah, langkahsā
(moves), professional charlatans figured out they didnāt even need
voting to get into power, and a small shift in voting got them ejected
from the halls of power in Putrajaya.
With
the way the system is gerrymandered, and the unequal weightage of
votes, issues like corruption and competent governance are not exactly
the greatest concerns of a majority of rakyat who sustain themselves on
entitlement programmes and the delirium of social media.
DAP can
remain in Harapan without participating in a government that ultimately
strengthens Umno and PAS strategies. Perhaps, when more Malaysians
recognise that politics should not simply be about holding office, the
conversation can shift.
DAP does not need government positions to
support policies that benefit the average rakyat. The real question,
then, is whether participation in government is genuinely about nation
building - or whether it has become about preserving political power and
personal interests.
It is funny; the scrapped July 12 special congress could have been the reset that Malaysia and Harapan needed.
