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."
How to stop worrying about the Jews by Commander (Rtd) S THAYAPARAN, formerly of the Royal Malaysian Navy
Sunday, October 14, 2012
"One of my first reservations about Zionism was and is that,
semiconsciously at least, it grants the anti-Semites first premise about
the abnormality of the Jew." - Christopher Hitchens (Hitch-22: A Memoir)
COMMENT Here in Malaysia
(and perhaps the rest of the world) the response to anti-Semitism nearly
always includes that caveat of a reference to the natural resources
dispute promoted as a religious conflict going on in Israel. Why
we should justify our condemnation of bigotry by portraying
"objectivity" when it comes to a conflict which has nothing to do with
the bigotry at hand merely to appease the bigot, is a worrying trend
that has encouraged bigots to conflate issues all the while secure in
the knowledge that it is they who will always control the narrative as
long as they form the majority or have resort to victimhood.
Of
course, here in Malaysia the most vocal of anti-Zionists (which let's
face it, here it's code and an avenue to express some good old fashioned
anti-Semitism) have more in common thematically with the ideology
(Zionism) than they would have you believe. Don't believe me?
Check out some of the more conservative expressions of Zionism and you
would be surprised (or maybe not) to discover how much such a concept
has in common with something like ‘Ketuanan Melayu' for instance. Here
is where both sides start accusing me of racism or maybe even sedition.
Jewish and Muslim propagandists work the conspiracy angle to lay the
groundwork for the much hoped for clash of civilisations which would see
one ideology reign supreme. On one side, we have Islam and on the
other, some kind of Judeo-Christian-capitalist dogma masquerading as the
Free World. As
Islam is the fastest growing religion in the West and secularism (the
most potent tool for which to dismantle religious bigotry) chucked aside
in favour of Christian sabre-rattling, it should surprise nobody that
the religious bigots set the social and political agenda.
Here in Malaysia, state-sanctioned anti-Semitism due to the Arabisation creep (as I put forward in 'Fiddler's on Anwar's roof')
has resulted in a toxic atmosphere where racial preoccupations are
conflated with religious ones, to promote a narrative that the
Malay/Islamic community will be forever under siege with Umno being the
only sincere defenders of community and faith. Convenient, right?
Umno's indoctrination
All
this fear of that Jew George Soros with his tainted Jewish money
seeking to overthrow the rightful defenders of Islam through various
non-governmental organisations and political parties is farcical if not
for the very real concern of some Muslims of this fate because of the
decades long indoctrination by the Umno.
Rationally speaking,
which is more corrosive - Western interests groups who wish to set the
agendas in countries by promoting free and fair elections, free speech
and good governance (which is hypocritical in the context of American
foreign policy) or Arab (whenever I hear this, I remember the great
Anthony Quinn as Auda Abu Tayi in Lawrence of Arabia, mock the
Englishman with "The Arabs? The Howitat, Ajili, Rala, Beni Saha; these I
know, I have even heard of the Harif, but the Arabs? What tribe is
that?) or should that be House of Saud petrodollars (thank you America)
through their Wahhabis allies (thank you Great Britain) financing not
only terrorism (or Islamic freedom fighting) but also the most virulent
strain of bigoted Islam through thousands of madrasahs around the world
(most damagingly in Western countries where political correctness has
resulted in a retreat of traditional Western values in favour of
multicultural (sic) appeasement)?
I still get a kick when reading old Harakah articles
when Mahathir had allowed the Israeli cricket team to play in Malaysia
because he wanted the Jews (Zionists?) to realise how a country of
multiple faiths could co-exist peaceful. Stop laughing. How the
PAS boys mocked Anwar's Islamic credentials and his rationale - sports
are apolitical - as evidence that he was not defending Islam by allowing
the Zionists into the country. How times have changed, or has it?
As it is, the Jewish presence in Malaysia like every else which points
to a rich cultural historical mix which seems anathema to Umno has been
quietly erased. Jewish presence in Penang is forgotten when it could be
used to highlight the historical diversity of the island and in a small
quiet way the whole of Malaysia. And how could we forget the work of Alexander Oppenheim, who was the first and founding vice-chancellor of Universiti Malaya.
In
most countries in the world, diversity would be used as a tool to
further the egalitarian perspective (which is easy to articulate but
which is extremely difficult to realise) but here in Malaysia like many
other countries where Islamic insecurities take precedence over
everything else, nobody wants to consider that maybe the problem is, us
not them.
Ethnic fear-mongering
It's pretty sick when you think of it, to play the lowest common
denominator - which is something Umno cultivated - this regime and its
agents spew out the most virulent of anti-Semitism in the hopes that the
racial and ethnic fear-mongering, which has worked so well all these
years, would pay dividends against an opposition block which has a real
shot at the throne of Putrajaya.
What's more troubling is that
Pakatan Rakyat has never addressed the prevailing anti-Semitism in this
country. This of course is not surprising since PAS is supposed to bring
in the Islamic sex appeal to the alliance. As always
is not the anti-Semitism which is the problem or how it has been
brought upon by Umno but rather how Pakatan intends to solve this
problem.
Now before Pakatan kool aid drinkers go on about how it
is important to win the elections first and then worry about these small
details, I'd just like to say that as someone who is currently working
with young people whose minds have been calcified by Umno, voting for
Pakatan does not necessarily mean they subscribe to the feel-good
rhetoric coming out of the alternative alliance.
Deputy Higher Education Minister Saifuddin Abdullah (right) may worry that playing the Soros (and indirectly the Jew) card may backfire
but this is not because he is worried that engaging in bigoted hate
tactics is wrong, but it is because he realises that even in this Umno
never practises what it preaches.
Don't worry. It's open season
on minority groups in this country and anyone who can be demonised will
be and as long as the alliance of change does not make principled stands
against bigotries of any kind, all the while hoping it would back fire
against their political foes, we should not expect that anything would
change if a new alliance comes into power as far as these kinds of
"issues" are concerned.
And this should make the anti-Semites happy, although a reshuffling of our racial deck of cards may be a bummer for the same. Malaysiakini
