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 Malaysian Minority Report by Commander (Rtd) S Thayaparan formerly of the Royal Malaysian Navy
Friday, February 08, 2013
"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." - Mark Twain COMMENT A number of Malaysiakini
subscribers have enquired as to why I have not commented on the recent
DAP internal elections mess. The truth is I was in the midst of writing
something on the matter when pro-opposition blogger Zorro Unmasked beat
me to it. His blog post, 'Shooting own goal is never premeditated',
more or less sums up my feelings on the ‘mistake' which I have to
admit, at this point in the elections end game, I am pretty ambivalent
about.
As I have always maintained, Pakatan Rakyat is not
running on its own record and policies (which has never been
sufficiently scrutinised by its supporters) but rather against the
abysmal record of BN. As in Zorro's blog post, I could care less what BN
or their propaganda minions say about the recent DAP electoral debacle. However, it would be foolish to dismiss all pro-establishment
criticisms of the DAP central executive committee election fiasco,
especially in the manner of the DAP apparatchiks. Helen Ang dissects
both in 'Graf pola perkauman undi CEC oleh perwakilan DAP' and ''Guan Eng went to jail for a Malay girl' - oh puhleez lah', blog posts. The usual caveat applies. There are points I agree with and those I would dispute.
However,
what I found interesting as far as the DAP is concerned is the
endorsement of Hindraf's proposed Minority Affairs Ministry by none
other than Karpal Singh in mid-December last year, but more recently by
Lim Kit Siang's endorsement by way of publication of Dr Lim Teck Ghee's articlein support of Hindraf's proposal. For those with a short memory, when Hindraf first came up with this
proposal in its five-year blueprint, much blood was spilt in the
comments section of Malaysiakini. It did not help that Hindraf assumed that they should lead the proposed ministry.
For
the record, I think Hindraf should play an integral role in this
ministry (as should Orang Asli rights groups and other marginalised
groups) but as far as "leading" goes, I think it would be more
productive if "people movements" remain just that and not embroil
themselves in the messy politics of administration.
A good starting point for Pakatan
Teck Ghee's article references points raised by Hindraf and the Human
Rights Party, albeit in a measured manner instead of the polemical tone
of the two. He (like most right-thinking Malaysians) is cognisant of the
fact that race relations in this country are defined by the
Malay/Chinese paradigm when he states: "How do we guarantee that
poor and needy members of small minority communities will be
scrupulously and fairly targeted for assistance and do not disappear or
are lost sight of in our national agenda of development that will be
inevitably dominated by the concerns of the dominant Malay, and to some
extent, the Chinese community?"
Or here when Teck Ghee (right)
writes: "Also, unlike the Malay and Chinese communities that dominate
our public and private sectors, Malaysia's small minority communities
lack the resources and clout to compete for the opportunities ostensibly
available to all stakeholders in our economy and society." A
ministry of minority affairs is but one possible solution. Another is by
the Saya Anak Bangsa Malaysia activist group and their proposed Social
Inclusion Act. Both solutions attempt to navigate the nebulous "need
instead of race" based affirmative action waters that is the much hoped
Pakatan Rakyat magic bullet that would solve all our racial inequality
issues.
We don't know much of Pakatan's need-based approach
except that the Malay community is constantly assured that they would
benefit the "most" from it and that lip service is paid to the ideas
such as inclusivity and meritocracy, which is linked to the need-based
approach. As a skeptic of big government or rather becoming a
skeptic after the long Umno watch, the idea of a ministry of minority
affairs fills me with trepidation. Understand now that I am cautiously
optimistic whenever I read of such ideas but experience has shown that
any time government gets involved in leveling the racial playing field,
the exact opposite of what is intended occurs.
Teck Ghee nails
it when he writes, "A just multi-ethnic society is judged by how fairly
it treats its smallest minority communities and provides them with
access to opportunities that can improve their material circumstances
and future life chances." And this is a good starting point for
Pakatan to demonstrate how it intends to rectify Umno systemic abuse of
marginalised groups in this country. I have argued before that
perhaps it is time we rethink our dependence on affirmative action
policies as a solution to our "racial inequality" issues. I understand
that this is ironically a minority view. Therefore, while we are
discussing possible ways out of this Umno racial quagmire, what Pakatan
has to do move beyond placating their two dominant voter base and
highlight issues that these so-called "other minorities" face.
The best way Pakatan can get out of this Malay/Chinese paradigm and deal
with minority communities is to address very vital issues affecting
communities that have been suffering in extremis under the Umno watch.
Don't forget Orang Asli, too
I have often argued, much to the dismay of Indian rights groups, that
the Orang Asli in the peninsular are the most disenfranchised community
in the country (with the indigenous peoples of Sabah and Sarawak
existing under a kind of colonialism), governed by laws specifically
created to erode their culture and which is enforced by a ministry that
blatantly contributes to their disenfranchisement under the guise of
embracing them into the greater Malay polity. The Orang Asli
issue is the perfect opportunity for Pakatan to demonstrate its
commitment to a more "just" multi-ethnic society and for Pakatan to
establish grassroot-level approaches as to how to deal with minority
groups.
As a minority community, the Orang Asli (and the
indigenous peoples of Sabah and Sarawak) face a political reality that
many assume as different from that of the majority. As Malaysians in
majority communities, there are issues that we can identify with but
there are many others that would shock us or are simply beyond our
experience. As it is, there is no real incentive to deal with this issue because there is not much political capital to be gained. The
record of accomplishment of Pakatan when it comes to the Orang Asli is
extremely worrying. At this moment, there are ongoing scandals involving
land grabs, violence and the ongoing harassment of the Umno state
through the religious department working in tandem with the Orang Asli
Affairs Department, which is ignored or downplayed by Pakatan because it
involves Islam.
Moving beyond mere political rhetoric and
dealing with the most disenfranchised members of our Malaysian community
is the most practical way Pakatan can distinguish itself in terms of
policy from BN. This can be done at a state level which Pakatan (in some
states) have more influence but beyond that it can be done by clearly
articulating polices (which would mean either reforming or abolishing
the current system in place) when it comes to the most disenfranchised
of minority groups. The reality is that Umno has no real desire
to deal with the Orang Asli issue since it deals with all those
problematic concepts, such as "bumiputera rights" and Malay identity. A
whole range of issues, which affect the greater Malaysian multi-ethnic
polity, are embedded in the Orang Asli "situation".
Issues such
as land rights, freedom of religion, etc, which is supposed to be the
defining causes for Pakatan, is overlooked in the Orang Asli communities
because especially in the Peninsular, their voices do not carry any
"weight". As a practical first step, Pakatan should deal with a
community that is currently at the mercy of the state (through the Orang
Asli Affairs Department and laws that are designed to marginalise them)
and an Umno philosophy that seeks to divide us along racial and
economic lines.
Perhaps in this way, any talk of establishing
another ministry in an already bloated civil service, could be seen as a
move beyond the business as usual of Malaysian politics and it would
indicate that substantive changes would be in store if ever Pakatan
comes into power when it comes to minority rights beyond the concerns of
the Malay/Chinese dynamic. Malaysiakini
