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."
COMMENT In response to recent criticism
of it, the Biro Tatanegara or BTN (National Civics Bureau) is being
forced to modify its use of blunt propaganda and psychological
manipulation. According to incredulous participants, a BTN video
once told a story that the sultanate of Malacca had fallen to foreign
invaders with the support of Chinese and Indian "traitors".One
tearful young woman in the audience wondered out loud why the
government had not held "roadshows" throughout the country to highlight
this nugget of history that was "so little known". The reference to
these "traitors" has now been deleted.
I was among a group of
government servants ordered to attend a BTN programme. Our course was
professionally run, featuring lectures by academicians, "discussions" or
indoctrination sessions by retired civil servants, and light-hearted
marching activities, helmed by likeable former commandos. We had
comfortable accommodation, which was a vast improvement on previous
courses. Participants had traditionally been banished to isolated jungle
camps to undergo various bonding activities there, such as sharing
baths by scooping out water from a common trough. The routine of indoctrination
Our day began with compulsory prayers among the Muslims, and a roll
call: men in front, women behind. Women were singled out for praise from
the male course organisers for being well-dressed, for having a
fetching appearance, or for having an attractive way of walking. Patriotic music preceded each lecture. The catchy 'Perajurit Tanah Air'
accompanied an amateurish video of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak
posing with various phallic objects: missiles, torpedoes and the
infamous Scorpene submarines. A Najib quote flashed across the screen:
"We know the things we need for the next 5 to 10 years".A
'1Malaysia' song followed, complete with mandatory waving of small
plastic flags. Najib appeared on the screen, riding the LRT or monorail,
and in some discomfort, wiping the sweat from his moustache on the
sleeve of his 1Malaysia shirt.
In lectures, and in religious
classes or 'madrassah' reserved for Muslims, the message of Malay
solidarity and of the threat against the special position of the Malays
by "the others", was constantly drummed home. We were warned of
"militant" Islamists in our midst.
The problems faced by the
government, we were told, were caused by "perception". For instance, we
were told Rosmah Mansor, Najib's wife, had never owned a RM24.4 milliondiamond ring.The Welfare Association of Ministers' Wives (Bakti) had, in fact, used
Rosmah's name (as Bakti president) to import the ring, in order to
display it to collect donations for charity. True meaning of patriotism
The BTN lecturers made it clear that the true meaning of patriotism was
to favour the ruling party. We were quizzed, for example, using a
multiple-choice question:"You are the head of a government
department, planning a course in professionalism and integrity for your
department. Three candidates are short-listed to provide the course,
having fulfilled the technical criteria:
i) A foreign company with excellent competence, offering a competitive price;
ii) A local company known to be a strong supporter of the ruling party, but with limited competence; and
iii) A local company known to be a strong supporter of an opposition
party, with ample competence, which pledges not to allow politics to
interfere with its delivery of the contract."
Most participants
chose (iii). However, the BTN facilitators revealed that the correct
answer is (ii), because we must, as civil servants, obey the
instructions of the ruling party. Besides, how else can a local company with "limited competence" improve its expertise, without being given a chance? However, a little bewilderment ensued over the complications arising
when one party is in opposition at state level, but in government at the
federal level.
One Malay woman participant argued that we must
simply "do our job" to the best of our ability as civil servants, and
not as servants of party politics. Her remark was greeted with applause. Candid views on nationalism
Our lecturers stressed a narrow interpretation of nationalism. This was
based on the so-called "social contract" that established citizenship
for non-Malays, with an open-ended preservation of the "special
position" of the Malays: quotas in education, the civil service, and
permits and licences, as outlined in Article 153. A BTN
lecturer, a constitutional lawyer, announced at the outset of her talk
that any constitution must be a "living document". She then proceeded to
declare that the articles regarding this "special position" were
immutable and fossilised.
In a question-and-answer session, the
law lecturer also provided a candid insight into federal-state
relations. She described how an unnamed friend, a High Court judge in
Sabah, had told her that Sabahans considered themselves lucky that they
had joined Malaysia, instead of Indonesia or the Philippines.She
asserted that the name "Malaysia" dated back to the 19th century, and
therefore Sabah and Sarawak had "joined" the federation in the same way
that Alaska and Hawaii had joined the United States of America.
She gave short shrift to the "20-point" and "18-point" agreements that
Sabah and Sarawak had established before Malaysia Day, and added
breezily that even Sabahans and Sarawakians themselves do not know the
contents of these agreements.
If, as Samuel Johnson said,
patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, BTN must certainly be one
of the last refuges of institutionalised patriotism. But BTN appears to
have been compelled, with one eye on public opinion, to moderate its
tactics of promoting Malay supremacy.
Perhaps the national sea
change in political awareness, the openness highlighted by the "new
media", and the growth of "social bridging", exemplified by the
multi-ethnic Bersih rallies and anti-Lynas movements, is changing our
society, and therefore our civil service. When a two-party system
eventually takes root, the values of the BTN may well be weeded out.
One
tearful young woman in the audience wondered out loud why the
government had not held "roadshows" throughout the country to highlight
this nugget of history that was "so little known". The reference to
these "traitors" has now been deleted.
A
'1Malaysia' song followed, complete with mandatory waving of small
plastic flags. Najib appeared on the screen, riding the LRT or monorail,
and in some discomfort, wiping the sweat from his moustache on the
sleeve of his 1Malaysia shirt.
She
asserted that the name "Malaysia" dated back to the 19th century, and
therefore Sabah and Sarawak had "joined" the federation in the same way
that Alaska and Hawaii had joined the United States of America.
