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."
Haris Ibrahim on Malaysian dilemmas by Commander (Rtd) S THAYAPARAN, formerly of the Royal Malaysian Navy
Monday, November 05, 2012
"We've got to face the fact that some people say you fight fire
best with fire, but we say you put fire out best with water. We say you
don't fight racism with racism. We're gonna fight racism with
solidarity." - Fred Hampton
INTERVIEW In
this second part of a two-part interview, lawyer-cum-activist Haris
Ibrahim explained his views on the Malaysian dilemmas that fuel the
conflict between the forces which claim to represent change and the
current Umno regime.
What is your opinion on affirmative
action and why do you think a need-based approach is needed in Malaysia
and with the racial make-up of opposition parties, is a need-based
approach even workable?
My opinion today is as it was
40 years ago, when I contended with my late father that an affirmative
system that had built into it a quota system, ostensibly to
preferentially aid one community, on considerations of ethnicity rather
than need-based at the expense of others, would create a monster. It has come to pass.
Today,
we have in our midst, members of the Malay community who believe this
to be a constitutional right that must carry on until Judgment Day. We are a rich nation, natural resources-wise. Those resources applied
properly and transparently, we should be giving Singapore a run for its
recently earned status as the world's richest nation, per capita-wise. Instead, 40 percent of the population languish in poverty, and this
will continue as long as we allow Umno-BN to continue with its
race-based divide and rule of the nation.
I do not think it is
fair to categorise the main opposition parties as racially made-up. Much
of this perception stems from the mainstream media painting them as
such. True, DAP has long been perceived as a Chinese-based
party, membership-wise, but surely it is to their fundamentals that we
must look to. And DAP has been making efforts to woo more non-Chinese
into their ranks. PAS, first through its Kelab Penyokong PAS and
now its non-Muslim wing, is making efforts to shake off its Muslim-only
facade. Let us also remember their emphasis now on a welfare state
rather than a theocratic one.
Having said this, I take the view
that the push for a need-based affirmative programme must come from the
people and not the politicians. In this regard, the Social Inclusion
Agenda now being pushed by SABM (Saya Anak Bangsa Malaysia) and Hakam
(National Human Rights Society) deserves careful consideration by all
who have a genuine concern for the 40 percent poor and marginalised in
the country.
The discourse normally revolves around how
Umno has divided this country along racial/religious lines. What role
(if any) do you think the non-Malays have played in maintaining those
lines?
Umno could not have done it on its own. Post the advent of BN in place of the Alliance, MCA, MIC and all the
other component parties in BN, including those in Sabah and Sarawak,
have played a supporting role. If nothing else, their leaders
looked the other way as Umno weaved its race-based politics into the
fabric of the nation, and partook of the looting of the national wealth
whilst this was going on.
Do you think that vernacular schools are an impediment to national cohesiveness?
Schools must be for the sole purpose of imparting knowledge to our young to prepare them to excel as global citizens. Vernacular, or mother-tongue education, should not be seen differently and must be fully supported as a basic right of all. But like so many other benign matters, vernacular schooling, politicised under the charge of Umno-BN, becomes venomous.
Do you think Islam is an impediment to an egalitarian society?
Islam is not. It's politicising and being used as a divisive tool by the powers-that-be is. Leave faith, in any belief system, for that matter, to be one between
man and his Maker to the exclusion of all others, and this world - not
just our nation - will be a more peaceful place.
How do you view the so-called Christian political awakening?
I have always known the Catholic community to be more politically aware
and active than the other denominations, but I would not categorise
what we see today as a Christian political awakening. Since the
run-up to GE12 to the present time, people generally have become more
conscious of their rights and the failings of the present regime, and
have shown a greater readiness to involve themselves in the processes in
the nation.
Do you think there should be laws to censure hate speech?
Yes, there should be. The Sedition Act should be done away with and in its place, a law that
criminalises the racist speeches of the likes of (former prime minister)
Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Perkasa's Ibrahim Ali that may have a tendency
to sow enmity among different ethnic groups.
There is no such
thing as absolute freedom of speech. Libel an individual with malicious
and slanderous lies and be prepared to pay with a hefty award in
damages. Should malicious and slanderous lies directed at no one
in particular but likely to cause race and religious tension between
different communities and, worse, so intended, go unchecked? I don't think so.
Do you think there should be a race relations act?
Almost all of us have racist tendencies to varying degrees which,
wittingly or otherwise, we picked up from our elders and we, in turn,
pass down to the next generation. A race relations act which criminalises acts seen as 'racist' will help to, in time, weed these tendencies out from our society. An example might help. We still see coffee shops with signage announcing, 'Please do not spit', even in this day and age.
A law to criminalise spitting in any public place, and effectively
policed and enforced through prosecution through our courts, may one day
see those signage become redundant. Similarly, if it was the
law that if a child below say, age 15, was heard uttering "keling",
"malai quai", or "cina babi", the parent would be charged with an
offence, and this law was effectively policed and enforced, I dare say
we would hear less and less of these utterances from future generations. So, yes, we need a race relations act.
What is your view on syariah law and do you believe that this dual system of laws has further divided Malaysians?
To share my views on syariah without running the risk of being grossly
misunderstood would require far more space than this interview will
allow.
Dual system of laws?
There is no dual system of laws written into the constitution. The supreme law is the federal constitution. Our superior courts comprise only the Federal Court, the Court of Appeal and the civil high courts. The syariah courts belong to the same category of the many other courts commonly referred to as the inferior tribunals.(Former
lord president) Salleh (Abas), chairing a five-man coram of the Federal
Court, did not think so, saying in the case of Che Omar Che Soh some 24
years ago: "It can be seen that during the British colonial
period, through their system of indirect rule and establishment of
secular institutions, Islamic law was rendered isolated in a narrow
confinement of the law of marriage, divorce and inheritance only. "In
our view, it is in this sense that the framers of the Constitution
understood the meaning of the word ‘Islam' in the context of Article 3." To this date, his pronouncement of the law has never been overturned or repudiated.
Writer's epilogue
If we do not heed the lessons of the long Umno watch, perhaps there
will come a day when Pakatan has to face an ABU (Anything But Umno) of
its own. Robert Fisk relates how the uncompromising Israeli journalist Amira Haas (Ha'aretz) gave the best description of the vocation of a journalist, which was "Our job is to monitor the centres of power".
I
would like to think that this is the deeper meaning of ABU and the role
we should play as citizens committed to the political process. Yesterday: ABU is the only answer, says HarisMalaysiakini
