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."
The cutting of Pakatan's Indian cord by Commander (Rtd) S THAYAPARAN, formerly of the Royal Malaysian Navy
Wednesday, November 07, 2012
"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." - James Baldwin
COMMENT Post-2008
tsunami, Hindraf which (however much revisionist wish to claim
otherwise) played a part in has been left out in the cold as far as
mainstream politics is concerned. This cold spell seems to be abating. Hindraf's
audience with PAS' Nik Aziz Nik Mat and the recent Opposition Leader
Anwar Ibrahim meet-up are interesting developments for the most credible
Indians rights group often vilified as a "racist" by the supposed
multicultural alliance and their supporters.
Only DAP has yet to hold "high level" talks with P Waythamoorthy (right)
and Hindraf. No surprise there. DAP these days accuse Hindraf of
exactly the same thing Umno accused them of being - a "racist"
organisation hell bent on destabilising the status quo. Of course Umno
still accuses them of that but DAP has PKR and PAS, which act as a
multicultural shield, to withstand the worst of these attacks. Hindraf under P Uthayakumar and the Human Rights Party's rhetoric
concerning the DAP did not help matters either. I have said exactly this
in my conversations with Uthayakumar. Waythamoorthy's "different
approach" has Pakatan kool-aid drinkers painting the relationship
between the brothers as some sort of Remus and Romulus retelling but as
always nobody wants to acknowledge that different approaches to communal
problems has always been the reality here in Malaysia.
Not too
long ago, the Chinese community clapped enthusiastically as the MCA and
DAP did the good cop bad cop routine on the political stage. Meanwhile,
Hindraf supporters come up to me claiming partisanship to a specific
brother and sniping at each other when solidarity between the Human
Rights Party and Hindraf should be the objective. In
the partisan alternative press, some kudos is thrown Waythamoorthy's
way but most of it sounds like a pat on the head for the Indian
community for finally jumping on the Pakatan bandwagon.
Uthayakumar (left)
though has to suffer the further indignity of the accusations of being a
BN turncoat, when he is currently facing sedition charges and battling a
system predicated on exacting its pound of flesh for imagined slights. Uthayakumar is mocked as stubborn, arrogant and unyielding but the
truth is this is exactly what the disenfranchised of the Indian
community needs after decades of Umno-BN. I have argued that the
Human Rights Party is the perfect pressure group - vocal and
uncompromising - but Hindraf could act as the bridge that links the
polemics of Human Rights Party and the reforms needed, that can only be
achieved by working with groups of power.
The Indian underclass
This is not to say that Pakatan has been derelict in its obligations to the Indian community. PKR's N Surendran and Latheefa Koya (left)
do sterling work for the Indian community but the reality is that only
Hindraf and the Human Rights Party (in its role as a pressure group) is
capable of galvanising the marginalised Indian community into forming a
cohesive force so they would be a formidable participant in the
political process. Honestly, the pro-Pakatan Indraf (Indian
Rights Action Force) was an embarrassment that painted the alternative
alliance efforts in wooing the Indian vote as a shoddy after thought and
was a great disservice to the people who marched on that fateful day
(for various reasons) under the Hindraf banner.
As I have
written in various piece - much to the ire of Hindraf supporters -
Hindraf itself is also to blame for not being cognisant of the change of
terrain in the battlefield in the comingUmno-Anwar showdown for the
future of this country. Pakatan has the middle-class Indian vote
more or less locked down. In fact, there is a tendency by middle-class
Indian voters to dismiss Hindraf as "troublemakers" and bemoan the
reality that Indians are "so divided". The MIC that many have
written off (including me) has been making inroads into the
disenfranchised Indian communities and spreading the wretched poison
that the BN has been manufacturing all these years. Pakatan by
alienating the only credible movement gives MIC the ammunition it
requires in an undeclared culture war that Pakatan seems ignorant off
waged from within and without the Indian community.
The
marginalisation of a certain segment of the Indian community lays
squarely on the shoulders of MIC and the separation of the public and
private sectors of this country that is divided along racial lines,
which the other ethnic groups jealously, guarding their turf. The
inclusion of Indians in opposition parties that claim multiracialism is
regarded by those disenfranchised from the political process as mere
tokenism or at worse, collaborators. Hindraf may have given
voice to these concerns but MIC has been quietly reaping the benefits of
the resultant fallout. Something is better than nothing, they claim and
the old game of BN is better than the so-called new one of Pakatan. Championing of communal rights
The more Hindraf is marginalised and painted as a racist group by
Pakatan, the more apathy sets in a certain section of the
disenfranchised section of the Indian community. For the crypto-racists
within Pakatan who have always been contemptuous of the Indian
community, this is not a problem until they lose a seat and blame the
loss on the Indian community. The wonderful aspect of free
speech on the Internet is that under the cover of anonymity the Indian
community (like everyone else) can be bashed with impunity.What I
get from the rhetoric emanating from Pakatan and its kool-aid drinkers
(a distinction should be made between them and the true believers) is
that multiculturalism/multiracialism means the inclusion of cultural
identities for everyone, except the Indians.
The championing of
communal rights for the other two races in this country conveniently
escapes the all-encompassing multicultural rights (sic) rhetoric whereas
Hindraf's "demands" is supposedly anathema because it follows the
racial formula of the BN. An example of this dissonance can be
observed in PKR's Tian Chua who said that Pakatan's support for Indian
Malaysian issues are not contingent on Hindraf support. Never
mind the fact that the only time Indian issues get a play is when
Hindraf (and the Human Rights party) scream their heads off. Why
wouldn't you want to reassure the only credible Indian rights group in
this country that their support is needed?
After all, DAP is
chasing the Chinese educationist groups, Chinese commerce groups and
Chinese/Christian evangelical groups, just to name a few. Of course, the
argument here is that said groups are merely fighting for their
"rights" (sic) as enshrined in the constitution whereas Hindraf
advocates a quota system. PKR
may claim to be committed to Indian issues but you can bet your bottom
ringgit that if Hindraf and the Indian community stood in side by side,
Tian Chua would not be so cavalier in dismissing this rights group when
his allies and he go chasing after every "other" rights or pressure
groups out there. Moreover, Tian Chua, spare me "we are not
there to exchange political favours" spiel. Only a complete moron would
believe thatPakatan is immune from the reality of the political process
where horse trading, political favours and all the other necessary
evils of achieving and maintaining political power is practiced.
Compromises from both sides
This of course is a question of degrees and while we abhor the blatant
and criminal way, Umno has been doing all these years, I would like to
believe that most Pakatan supporters are not blind to the reality that
Pakatan would have to do this to remain in power if it ever sits on the
Putrajaya throne. Never mind that the Malay-Muslim community is
constantly reminded that a "need-based" affirmative action policy would
see their "rights" secure and the DAP being Chinese dominated is an
extremely influential voice in the alliance which means that Chinese
"rights" would be taken care off. This leaves the Indians in the
position of having no choice but to buy into the whole
multiracial/cultural idea in the hope that the rhetoric translates into
action.
Hint. It is extremely difficult to make the argument
that you are an alliance committed to the ideals of egalitarianism
and/or multiculturalism when your rhetoric and strategies relies on
claiming the racial roles created by Umno under the guise of an
all-inclusive alliance. At
the end of the day, as a supporter of Pakatan I believe that Pakatan
should acknowledge Hindraf and the Human Rights Party as the only game
in town when it comes to the issue of Indian communal interest. These two rights groups are the only sociopolitical entities which has a
genuine commitment to the plight of the disenfranchised and if Pakatan
is sincere in their commitment to the Indian community, they would
harness the potential of these groups as a means of drawing the
disenfranchised section of the Indian community into the mainstream.
At the same time, Hindraf and the Human Rights Party have to drop their
extremely polemical discourse and their own role in exacerbating the
culture conflict within the Indian community and realise that just as
Pakatan has to make compromises, so would they. As long as the
compromises they make serve some utilitarian value that favours the
Indian community even at the expense of the principal, well that is the
hard cold reality of politics especially racial politics anywhere in the
world. Malaysiakini
