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."
In politics, anger is something that can be dealt with through the appropriate realignment of policy and agenda. What is worse is apathy. That is what is destroying Madani.
Do Pakatan Harapan political strategists really think that people who vote Umno/BN, especially in the recent state elections, did so because it was a vote for incarcerated ex-premier Najib Abdul Razak? What about the seats Harapan and DAP lost? Were those votes for Najib too?
This is not something new. In 2019, when Mohamad Hasan won the Rantau by-election, he said of his comfortable win, "There was non-stop attack against Najib as though he was the candidate."
He also said, "In other constituencies, people can say Umno won because there are a lot of Malay votes, (but that is not the case here)."
Is corruption really a big issue when it comes to a majority of Malaysians?
We have the influential preacher Zakir Naik, who was welcomed by political and religious figures under both BN and Harapan administrations, and who preached that it is better to vote for a corrupt Muslim than an honest non-Muslim.
Not to mention the religious political operatives like PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, who said that "integrity without Islam is not accepted by Allah, and a person with faith who has no integrity is still better than someone with integrity but no faith".
Free pass?
Let us face facts. The perception that Madani has given a free pass to certain Umno leaders on their corruption charges has diluted any kind of possible messaging to a majority of Malaysians.
We have a history of corruption scandals under the former Harapan prime minister Mahathir, which were whitewashed by the Harapan establishment. Even when Harapan was in power under Mahathir, allegations involving big names in Sabah and Sarawak were ignored because it was politically expedient to do so.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, whose platform on the campaign trail was governmental corruption and malfeasance, now risks becoming a symbol of accommodation for the elite political class.
Anwar claimed the charges against his number two, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, were politically motivated. He has defended convicted felon Najibās reduced sentence. His home minister apparently has the power to define any location as a prison.
Bravo to former MACC chief Latheefa Koya and lawyer Lim Wei Jiet who belled the cat. Furthermore, when it came to the withdrawal of the appeal by the prosecution in the VLN corruption case, Latheefa again questioned this move. For rational Malaysians, what else could it be other than a political decision?
Religious-minded corrupt leaders
What do the Sabah scandal and Madaniās handling of it demonstrate to a majority of Malaysians? Well, it validates and legitimises everything their religious leaders and social media influencers claim about how it is normal to have religiously minded but corrupt leaders rather than honest leaders who are not of the faith.
Look at Anwar's former senior political secretary, Shamsul Iskandar Akin. After being charged with receiving bribes, he said, āGod willing, Iāll prove my innocence. We will follow the legal path of the court process."
Look at all the immigration department scandals. This quote from Malaysiakini reporter B Nantha Kumar best exemplifies the kind of governmental corruption which has been normalised through successive governments in this country.
"The question now is: after yet another ministerial phone call and sweet promises of a 'best solution', how many more countries, and how many more workers trapped in debt, need to exist before Putrajaya stops rebuilding the same syndicate structure just under a new digital brand?"
Can you really blame a majority of people if they do not care if Najib goes home or at least vote that way?
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