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."
Playing the trust (Nambekei) card in treacherous times by Commander (Rtd) S Thayaparan formerly of the Royal Malaysian Navy
Friday, February 08, 2013
"A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody." - Thomas Paine COMMENT One
has to wonder why the Umno narrative of ‘nambikei' (trust) is aimed
squarely at the Indian community. It is as if Umno spin-doctors realise
that this particular form of propaganda would not play well with the
other two dominant communities.As one Umno strategist told me,
dividing the Indian community is easy since the political terrain is
hostile to the Indian community with parties either dismissing the
Indian vote or taking it for granted. However, unlike some I am
not too concerned with the Indian vote. Either it will shift back to the
ruling regime because the propaganda works (with enough goodies thrown
in) or it will play a significant role in ensuring the Pakatan Rakyat
coalition sustains the status quo or even better comes into power - this
depending on if Pakatan and Hindraf play well together.
Indians
are reminded of their place in the order of things. Do not worry. In
the end, the Malays will win the numbers game and any form of compromise
will not be required. Whatever principles other than Umnoism or some
form of Islam, which could have been an alternative, would have been
lost. The sad reality is that we are still playing the same game
which I believe every right-thinking Malaysian is aware of (and would
like to change) instead of laying the foundation for some form of
egalitarian alternative. In other words, besides the whole ABU (Anything
But Umno) concept, most Malaysians are aware that the opposition front
is a stand in for the racial groupings of BN albeit with less
corruption.
Either way the disenfranchised of the Indian
community has some way to go before some sort of equilibrium could be
reached with the other communities in this country. As a Pakatan
supporter, I believe the road would be less treacherous if the community
makes a stand with the alternative coalition, even though the said
coalition has been only marginally "better" in addressing the concerns
of the Indian community. Can Umno be trusted?
No, something that has been bothering me for some time now is the
concept of trust. More specifically, trust in our politicians. Pakatan
supporters (including me) mock Prime Minister Najib Razak when he mocks
the Indian community in their mother tongue when nothing in his tenure
suggests that trust has been earned. Meanwhile the racial
politics within the alternative alliance is submerged beneath the feel
good rhetoric of change and the almost daily accounts of Umno-BN
malfeasances propagated by the alternative press and ignored by the
mainstream propaganda organs. Trust is hard to come by here in Malaysia.
Umno says trust us. It tells its supporters not to trust opposition
leader Anwar Ibrahim, whom they accuse of dividing the Malay community.
They accuse the DAP of wanting to supplant Malay hegemony with
Chinese-style democracy, so do not trust them. They accuse PAS of being
unIslamic or worse hypocritical to their Islamic values, so do not trust
PAS too. And if you are a Umno-BN supporter all this may seem
like a reasonable proposition. However digging a little deeper, you
would realise that it is Umno which is literally dividing the Malay
community with the injection of foreign nationals into the polity,
Project M being a glaring example. It is Umno which has supplanted Malay
hegemony with a plutocracy of cronies which include members of the
Chinese and Indian communities that has sustained its grip on power.
And lastly (and here is the brilliant part) as a moderate Islamic
country, Umno has simultaneously silenced radical Islamic thought in
this country while advancing an Arabisation process that for the most
part has left untouched the ‘other' communities but which has calcified
the minds of a sizeable section of the Malay polity. This
twisted scheme had the singular aim of dividing through religion, the
various communities in Malaysia and at the same time, ensuring that
‘moderate' Malaysians (including Muslims) voted BN, as they kept the
Islamic bogeyman at bay. We should never forget that it was a
Palestinian head of state (President Mahmoud Abbas) who accused another
Muslim head of state (Najib) of dividing the ummah.
But
what of Pakatan? My pro-establishment friends always ask me if I can
"trust" Pakatan when Pakatan is led by a politician (Anwar) who had a
road to Damascus-like conversion. This whole Project M debacle and the
role Anwar denies he played a part in is evidence to some, that the herd
is led by a wolf in sheep's clothing. As I said before, I have
very little interest in what Anwar did before or his protestation of his
former political life. Arguing who is to be trusted more - Anwar or
former PM Mahathir Mohamad - is disingenuous, especially if you commit
to one or the other.
No, the only intellectually or morally
tenable position (if one believes in second chances) is to judge what
these Pakatan politicians say and do now, in their role as possible
contenders to the Putrajaya throne. The only way for us to move out of
this quagmire is to make a choice to change administrations and hold
accountable those we claim are for change.
Breeding ground for frogs
I never understood the BN strategy of defending their corruption by
pointing out the corruption of others, as I will never understand the
Pakatan response of totally ignoring the evidence, as if hypocrisy and
feigned ignorance were ever suitable defences. Pakatan seems to
be a breeding ground for political frogs. Perhaps it is something in the
Pakatan eco-systems. While a principled politician like Zaid Ibrahim is
mangled and vilified by the Pakatan machine, various potentates arise
eagerly awaiting their time for a chance to benefit under the banner of
change.
The corruption scandals in Kedah, Selangor and Kelantan
or the hyperactive corporate activity in Penang, which the faithful
choose to down play or ignore, is building up. Umno is always used as a
yardstick (and rightfully so) but any attempt to warn of such dangers is
shouted down or platitudes are thrown that all will be well when
federal power is achieved. Very few and certainly not many (influential) in Pakatan seriously consider a programme of decentralisationof power. Meanwhile political ineptness or maybe just plain old political skullduggery compromises agreed principles.
The
‘Allah' controversy is the perfect example. All parties and this
includes BN had come to a reasonable compromise and this should have
been an end to the story. Unfortunately the DAP for whatever reasons
decided to stir the religious pot, the end results being that PAS has
had to backtrack on principles already agreed to. So, not only
did the DAP backtrack (see the pathetic party line on how Penang Chief
Minister Lim Guan Eng's speech was only meant for the residents of Sabah
and Sarawak), they managed to drag their coalition partners into the
mess. Eco-terrorist wannabe
Now Pakatan can proudly say that it has an eco-terrorist wannabe amidst
their ranks in the personage of Himpunan Hijau president Wong Tack.
Pakatan, of course, has milked every bit of political mileage out of the
Lynas fiasco and although this may be spun as an ecological issue, the
reality is that it is a Chinese-dominated concern. Some DAP
apparatchiks and Pakatan kool-aid drinkers have been quick to justify
Wong's threat but who is Wong to hold to ransom a democratically elected
government - Pakatan or BN - with threats of violence.
Wong may
think he is playing the martyr card but all those morons who think that
Wong's "anguish" justifies violence of any kind should be seriously
consider the realpolitik of the threat and what it could lead to
considering the racial elements at play at this moment in Malaysian
election history. Wong Tack (right)
dares to make this silly claim. This goes beyond concern into the
territory of hubris. I doubt he even understands what it takes to bring
down a facility like the Lynas plant. I know of professionals who know
exactly how it could be done and if the implication is that Wong has
access to the same expertise or knowledge, even more reason for him to
serve a stint in a government-holding cell.
He proudly says that
he would accept the consequences of his actions but what of the
consequences to the rest of the opposition forces in this country and to
citizens who would be drawn into a conflict that would spread beyond
the Lynas issue? If ever there comes a time for violent
revolution in this country, I know which community would be out in the
streets tearing each other apart and which community would barricade
themselves in their homes meekly living off their stockpile of canned
goods. You want to talk about trust. Pakatan should immediately
disassociate itself with Himpunan Hijau and Himpunan Hijau should
immediately call a vote of no confidence against Wong Tack or whatever
procedures they have in place for a change of leadership.
This
brazen call for violence should not be tolerated. This is the nature of
the discourse in this country - burn the things you oppose, be it
Malay-language bibles or rare earth plants. As I said, it is
easy to mock Najib when he babbles on about "trust" but this close to
the elections we had better make sure that the alliance that represents
change earns our trust and the only way to do this is to ensure that our
ABU perspective does not cloud our natural instinct to be distrustful
of those who claim to have our interest at heart and we should never,
ever, let the zealots be the dominant voices in the discourse. Malaysiakini
