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."
This is one nice write up on the recently concluded UMNO General Assembly.Malaysia has hope yet. The below are comments by a person named storm breaker70 who wrote these comments at Rocky's Bru . I edited it abit, wish there were more guys like him in UMNO - edit
Dear Rocky and other respected readers,
As a Malay nasionalist with no apologies in a person who loves UMNO, what Hisham and people like him did was a tragedy. It encapsulates a total lack of understanding of what Malay culture and tradition is all about and betrays the legitimate basis of Umno's national struggle.
In one stroke they have done more harm to the Malays and Umno than all that Pas, DAP or colonialism could ever do. They have managed to make the Malays look like a bunch of marauding bandits and Umno like a thieve's den ! And to do a most Un-Malay act in the name of Umno and the Malays !! If this doesn't qualify as a tragedy I don't know what does ! (I admit I am emotionally charged, I would be emotionally retarded if I wasn't)
Don't they understand that the fundermental basis of Umno's struggle since its inception was to redeem, protect and promote Malay dignity ? Not by robbing or intimidating others but by demanding that the rights that were soo long denied to us due to colonialism was returned. Even when fighting against the Malayan Union, when most of us Malays were poverty stricken, ignorant, illitrate even..... we never once abondoned our behaviouroul protocols or to use our own words, our ADAB.
It was our hallmark.....the British called us 'the perfect gentleman of the East' and coming from them, a people who beleive that they define what is or is not 'gentlemanly conduct', that was high praise indeed. Cynics may taunt us and say that our Adab didn't manage to save us from colonialism but that simply means they don't know our history.
Our independance was unique, most ex-colonies, and many of them like India for instance were far more stronger than us, had to go through a bloodbath to achieve it. But in the case of the ignorant Malays, not only was blood not spilled, but we had ex-British Residents fighting our cause and articulating our interest in Westminster itself ! And the irony was so rich that some of them like Windstedt, as colonial officers, were amongst the most responsible individuals in the educational and economic marginalisation of the Malays!
Why the about turn?..Unlike today money politics was not an option to the Malays, we were too poor to buy their services. The answer lies in our adab..it had won them over.. In a bizzare case of twist of fate , in the process of colonizing our lands we, the supposedly ignorant, timid Malays had, on the other hand, managed to colonize their hearts if not their minds. In a sense, the colonizers had been colonized.( Readers may want to ask: Am I being melodramatic ? Am I exaggerating ? Do an extensive research on Henry Gurney for instance and you tell me) What took place after that is well documented and resulted in Merdeka.
But, in a way Merdeka for Malaya, was not Merdeka for the Malays. The return of self determination gave an appearance of independence which was more apparent than real, it gave the Malays an optical illusion that everything was starting from a clean slate. This was bollocks of course, apart from having some political power which was in so many ways limited by the lack of economic power, to the vast majority of the Malays there was no difference between 1st September 1957 and 30th August of the same year. The economy was the same, the educational opportunities was also the same. We had inherited a colonial economy which was built on discrimination towards the Malays and if allowed the natural processes that unnatural and unjust state of affairs will continue naturally.
Naturally of course, no morally conscientious society will allow that to happen and the Malays may have been many things then, but immoral they were not. Hence the metamorphisis of Umno's struggle from 'menuntut kemerdekaan to mengisi kemerdekaan' which in many ways was simply a natural progression. And being true to their values and tradition they wanted to change the colonial economy into a more Malaysian one yet at the same time without demanding that the Non -Malays gave up whatever they had gained during the colonial period.
Hence, enter the NEP, an ambitious attempt to level the uneven colonial economic pitch that we had inherited. Actually that 's a poor anology becoz after decades of systematic educational, economic and racial discrimination the Malays were not even on the economic pitch.
So if you are a morally conscious individual, Malay or Non-Malay, the NEP in its objective is not an option, its a moral imperative.
Rocky, I just realized that my comments are awfully long, my appologies. To cut the story short, what I wanted to say is that in brandishing the keris and using such uncivilized language and intimidation tactics to our Non Malay brothers, Hisham and company are undermining the legitamacy of the Malay cause. They are inadvertently reducing the Umno cause from fighting for rights denied to plundering the rights of others. The Malays are a unique people, they are so diverse in appearance and skin colour. Their contains the blood of so many other races that strictly speaking it cannot accurately be defined purely in racial or genetic terms. But what had been a defining characteristic throughout the ages was our adab, our behaviourial protocols. Some who have studied and ruminated on the Malays in their history, have even described 'Malayness' as a code of ethics, anyone can become one if he/she subscribes and adopts certain charateristics.
Hence, it is more saddening today that at a point in time where there are so many Malays that are affluent, exposed and educated, our causes are being hijacked by people who have no inkling whatsoever of what makes being a Malay meaningful. Never before have the Malays been championed by individuals who are so Un-Malay, so devoid of decency and adab. Today it's a tragic day indeed for today is the day Hisham and company had managed to do what decades of colonization and poverty couldn't, they have managed to make so many Malays to abandon their adab
To the Non Malays I can only offer my appologies and to the Malays I ask that we pray for a swift return to our moral foundations.
