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."
MCA vs DAP: Race in, race out by Commander (Rtd) S THAYAPARAN, formerly of the Royal Malaysian Navy
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. - Edward R Murrow
COMMENT The
only thing worse than the so-called Debate 2.0 is the chattering of the
pundit class (which I'm a part of, I suppose) and the partisan nature
of the press here in Malaysia. Echo chambers are alive with the sounds
of victory but the only real losers are those who still cling on to the
sad delusion that this is a fight about ‘issues'. The spectacle
of two Chinese leaders engaged in a proxy fight for their respective
‘Malay' partners may seem to some pundits like a step in the right
direction as far as the national discourse is concerned but I for one,
see the same game being played albeit in a more sophisticated manner.
Some
of the post-debate commentary has been delightful. MCA chief Dr Chua
Soi Lek relying on "facts" and "statistics", bleat the MCA propaganda
organs, while DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng was on full "ceramah"
mode. I mean what "facts" are we talking about here? The "fact"
that the MCA, which have had access to federal power all this time, has
managed to satisfy the communal expectations of its voting base? The
"fact" that if the Chinese want representation in the government that
they should vote BN?
Doesn't Chua or MCA strategist realise that
these "facts" no longer are of interest to a sizeable section of the
Chinese voting public? As usual, Lim attempted the whole
multiracial thing which should appease non-Chinese Pakatan Rakyat
partisans, but the reality is that the whole debate was drenched with
Chinese ‘concerns'. Sure, we could view those ‘concerns' in a
wider multiracial perspective but at the end of the day, racial politics
being the only kind of politics here in Malaysia, what we are left with
is the sole narrative of how race will always be a factor in our
politics.
Call
me cynical but listening to the rhythm and flow of the debate, being
mindful of the subtext and the general attitude of the extremely
partisan supporters, "Whose policies benefit the country more?" played
out more like "Whose policies benefit the Chinese more". Take
this whole TAR (Tunku Abdul Rahman) College brouhaha. Break down the
racial demographic of the college. The sad fact is that TAR College is
testament to the failure of our racialist education policies.
The college's ‘success' either in terms of its founding or its continued
existence is not something to crow about, but rather should be viewed
as something of an embarrassment by all who have an egalitarian
perspective of what Malaysia could be. The same goes for our
public universities with its quotas based on race and covered with the
muck of executive interference. This would have been the appropriate
response of someone who has disavowed the racialist perspectives that
has brought ruin to this country.
Umno's 'go at it alone' policy
Rhetoric from Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad just seems to lend
credence to the ‘go at it alone' philosophy (which many BN watchers have
put forward) which seems to be the official policy for the backroom
boys over at Umno. While the MCA valiantly defends TAR College
(for instance), keeping its end of the bargain as far as the racial
power-sharing formula goes, Mahathir, the ever wily manipulator pours
scorn on the whole enterprise using it as yet another reason why the
Malays are losing power in their own lands.
Take this juicy morsel from his latest broadsideagainst
the forces of moderation, be it in BN or Pakatan. "If last time we
could only get a government job by having a diploma from public
university, now we have to accept diploma (certificate) from TAR
College." In other words, before Umno had control over the racial
make-up of the civil service through the university system, but now had
to make allowances for the non-Malays because the shackles were loosened
as far as the academic qualifications was concerned.
Mahathir
puts it all down to "Malay kebodohan" but the reality is that it is
"Malaysian kebodohan". Now I may criticise Pakatan for what seems like
mostly lip service to their proclamations of nebulous concept ‘Ketuanan
Rakyat', but at least it's a start. The losers of race games
will always be the minority race - sooner or later. The MCA look like
right fools for defending policies which will always be at the mercy of
Malay supremacy. Any achievement gained for their community will depend
on the whim of Umno, which will be calculated on how much support they
can get from the Malay community instead of the Malaysian polity.
And Mahathir sensing the shift of sentiment on the ground is doing his
utmost into turning the bad racial cards he has got into a winning hand.
When he is not taunting the Chinese, portraying them as fifth columners
from Singapore, he's distorting the colonial history of Malaya as an
indictment against Malay custom. When he argues, "This is the
old custom of the Malay, whereby when someone offered cash, they sold
off Singapore and Penang." Excuse me, is this Malay custom or the custom
of the entrenched royal bureaucracy of the time?
Similarly not
too long ago former international trade minister Rafidah Aziz commented
that the Malays sold their assets and lived off the profits in small
towns, I would argue is a symptom of Umno culture (or at the very least,
a culture Umno has spawned through its economic, social and education
policies) instead of any real cultural trait of the Malay community. MCA scores two own goals
But the MCA doesn't really need the former prime minister to tarnish
its credibility with the Chinese voting public. The MCA is doing a
sterling job on its own. Two rather bizarre missteps will no doubt have
repercussions in the coming general elections. And both amusingly enough
involve Chua. Whatever modicum of respect I had for Chua has
evaporated with his cowardly handling of the infidelity allegations
against Lim and the antics of his progeny when it comes to the Talam
fiasco.
A modicum of respect? Well yes, I viewed Chua as a
hardened race warrior who managed to traverse the treacherous Umno
waters all the while balancing the business interest of his party
warlords and the communal interest of his voting base. Interested
readers should familiarise themselves with his work and rhetoric during
his tenure as health minister which often times put him at odds with his
political masters. However post-2008, his efforts to win back
the hearts and minds of a certain section of the Chinese voting public
have been abysmal.
His handing of the allegations against Lim
displayed a certain kind of weaselyness that I normally associate with
Umno. Every move he has made with regards to this issue has made him
look like a charlatan installed by Umno rather than ‘independent'
Chinese politician engaged in a bare knuckle political brawl. For the record, I could care less what happens in the bedrooms of Chua
Soi Lek or Lim Guan Eng, but what I hate in this instance (and unlike Lim Kit Siang,
I am quite willing to transfer some of that hate from the actions of
the individual to the individual himself/herself) is the cowardly and
dishonest manner in which personal attacks are made all the while
cowering behind parliamentary immunity.
As
for Chua the Younger. What can I say? His ineptitude makes his dad look
good. It's not a question of sending a boy to do a man's job; it's more
of a question of the MCA sending a confused child to do a man's job. The
Talam ‘incident' is just the kind of non-starter scandal that could
have been spun by the MCA for a scrap of political mileage, and that
would have been the case for a more adroit politician. But who they sent
and the response of the DAP guaranteed that it could turn out to be
MCA's Waterloo if the cringe-worthy MCA-concocted Lim sex scandal
doesn't do the job first.
As I said earlier, the time has come
for those who still cling on to the delusion that there is a middle way
in Malaysian politics and that we can vote for individual politicians
based on what they stand for, to discard those delusions. I got
news for you; there is no ‘middle way'. There are two choices and that's
it. What this debate demonstrates is that what we are heading into (in
this coming GE) is the ultimate racial card game.
Depending on who wins the election, maybe, just maybe, we can finally throw away our racial deck of cards. Malaysiakini
