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."
Mahathir and his Malay dilemma redux by Commander (Rtd) S Thayaparan formerly of the Royal Malaysian Navy
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
"Saya tak mengharapkan pahlawan. Orang tak selalu baik, benar,
berani. Tapi saya mengkagumi tindakan yang baik, benar, berani, biarpun
sebentar." - Goenawan Mohamad (Pagi dan Hal-Hal yang Dipungut Kembali)
COMMENT The
truth is I enjoy writing about former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad.
His lies and distortions reveal far more about the Malaysian psyche than
anything said by the rest of the political elite (BN and Pakatan
Rakyat) in this country.Mahathir's latest threat about needing a two-thirds majority to amend the constitution to kick outBersih co-chairperson S Ambiga (right) is not merely a threat against Ambiga but against anyone who dares threaten the Umno status quo.
It shows anyone what Umno has in store for those who have the temerity
to exercise their democratic rights or should that be, fight for their
democratic rights. However, why the need to strip recalcitrant
Malaysians of their citizenship? Anyone who has read the Security
Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma) would have discovered that
it is just as pernicious as the ISA. Cold Storage not good enough any
more?
The arrest and subsequent charging of Yazid Sufaat and
others on terrorism charges reeks of some sort of Pax Americana
conspiracy. Understand now that I am not accusing the government
of anything (yet) but really, with the release of Yazid from ISA
detention and now these arrests, the firebrand with all his Malaysiakini interviews, seems like a government asset. So much for accusing de facto opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim of being a US plant. Anyone who has read the Wikileaks exposes on Malaysia would understand
that the spooks from Langley would consider many within the ruling Umno
elite as the puppets most susceptible to their charms, not to mention
those from across the causeway.
I, for one, will be eagerly
waiting for what this trial will reveal with the knowledge that security
experience brings that what is not revealed is just as vital as that
which is. Of course being the sneaky racist that he is, Mahathir (above)
throws in the usual canard that "Malay laziness" is the downfall of the
community and their hegemony is sustained by the non-Malays - read
Chinese. His reference to Uganda is rather queer, since the
Indian diaspora there was kicked out unceremoniously, but I suppose with
the Indian Muslim support that Umno enjoys, the old manipulator was
merely paying respects to a community that has far more influence in
Umno than the fisherfolks and padi farmers that Umno claims to
represent.
"The Malays themselves then gave away their economic
power by letting non-Malays control trade and related activities," he
gravelly intones. Actually what is accurate is: "The Malays
themselves gave away their economic power by letting Umno, with the
sycophancy of a plutocracy of non-Malays, control trade and related
activities... and these sycophants, with the exception of the MIC, did a
far better job of protecting non-Malay interest then Umno did with the
Malays, which is why the Chinese community or a certain significant
majority of it can throw their support behind a certain section of a
disenfranchised Malay community attempting a change of leadership." Malay community's diverse past
Much has been written about the feudalistic nature of Malay society to
explain Umno dominance but of course, the subaltern histories of the
Malay community have been expunged from the public record. What
are lost are the narratives of those Malays who opposed their Malay
rulers when they were "giving away" Malay land to the British. We forget
that PAS for an extremely long time has been using religious dogma to
fight "Umno secularism".
What is lost and what Umno fears are
remnants of a Malay polychromatic past, which emblems like flags and
literature are slowing resurfacing which reminds the Malay community of
their diverse past.How this lost past is slowing being
reintroduced into the community and influencing the Malay community is
beyond the scope of this piece and perhaps beyond my ability to
articulate. The Malay community is fractured but merely claiming
that Pakatan is duping those Malays in the opposition is the dumbest
form of Umno propaganda. Mahathir's old canards, which perhaps could
have galvanised Malay support en masse in the past, are all but over. Signs
are evident even to those who practice their dark sorcery in the
corridors of Putrajaya that a certain segment of the Malay community is
immune to the spells of Umno.
There are obvious signs we can
point to. Anwar's rallying cry that Umno has betrayed the Malay
community through incompetence and corruption. PAS' Islamic agenda as a panacea to Umno's moral degradation of the Malay community. The
economic deprivation that a certain section of the Malay community
which translates into skepticism of Umno and eventually into the arms of
the opposition.
In addition, let us not forget that the Umno
Baru that Mahathir spawned, is merely the symbol of the schism within
the Malay Umno community. Its effects have trickled down to the
rank and file which over the years, racial politics, the concept of
Malayness and a whole host of other issues have been conflated in what
was in essence a power struggle between the warlords in Umno. But it has now has been embraced into the greater oppositional Malay struggle.
I used to think that these newly created constitutional Malays would
prove to be Umno's undoing because amongst other things, a fight for
resources between "authentic Malays" and these ‘bumiputera barus', would
eventually come to a head with the native and interlopers within their
own ranks, battling it out for the soul of the community. However, a long-time Indonesian comrade offered an alternative
explanation after he took offence at my jibe that Umno had created a
fifth column of his countrymen in this country. He felt that the
influx of new blood into the Malay community comes with new ideas that
are not predisposed to the Umno way of thinking. A quiet rebellion
As
it is anecdotally speaking, I see far more rhetoric against the
concepts of Ketuanan Melayu amongst a certain section of the Malay
community and a quiet rebellion against the feudalistic nature of their
community. I have no idea if this is the result of the influx of
"new ideas" but having lived amongst their Javanese brethren, ideas
which are slowly taking shape here have deep roots in principles already
established there. When Mahathir goes on about the Malay
community needing its crutches, what he forgets is that by its
dereliction of duty - no, this is incorrect - by an agenda to fossilise
the Malay mind, those crutches were only provided to a certain section
of the Malay community.
Many
were left out in the cold and for those who were not, they realised too
late that those crutches did not give them any advantage over the
non-Malays but were in fact chains that shackled them to Umno soil.
While the non-Malays progressed and could adapt anywhere in the world,
the Malays were left with a compromised educational system (for
instance) that only seemed to work in this country. For those
Malays who support the opposition and who no doubt were the ones left
out in the cold, the idea of the ‘advantages' that the idea of Ketuanan
Rakyat bring is a far more powerful draw than the weak record of Umno
rule. After all, with the racist groupings of the alternative
front, what they hope for is a Malay leadership, which would take care
of their interests and who cares if it is done under a
multiracial/cultural cloaking device. The truth has always been that the only dilemma in the Malay community is the one former PM Mahathir Mohamad created. Malaysiakini More on Commander S THAYAPARAN here
![[Mahathir+crying.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3f9vAFn8TArQz6stE3Wa28eugCdfLZkZmOHjO-jTXIDigOU86b0NmnkpiR8NwrUKIluBs2kjAr6Zc3BW2jWD9kmUBpgSFSLb5KIKfjjtTb2d4VUQxzLmNRt05lk5cojdQRp93/s640/Mahathir+crying.jpg)
Mahathir's latest threat about needing a two-thirds majority to amend the constitution 
