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."
We must learn from the lessons of Lahad Datu by Melia Dangin
Saturday, March 30, 2013
In the early 1990s, a small group of Filipino men heavily armed with
M16s guns and grenade launchers appeared suddenly in Semporna town. Their target? None other than the small Semporna police station, the nearby equally small marine base and the police barracks. These
marauders operated with military precision. How else do you explain
their capability in trapping our security personnel in their own base? They had positioned themselves strategically and rendered our men immobile. They
took control of Semporna for about 20 minutes from the time they
cornered the police and moved to the town centre less than 800 metres
away firing randomly into the air.
Fortunately, there were no
casualties and a family of three who were taken hostage at a nearby
kampung were unharmed. The marauders managed to escape the police cordon
shortly before midnight that same day.And it was fortunate
too that the (pineapple-type) grenade hurled at police in the barracks
failed to explode and was later detonated by bomb squad. I
remember arriving in Semporna to report for a local paper. It was a
ghost town that greeted me. Shops were closed, hardly anyone around
saved for a few private vehicles moving at high speed. Strewn on the
ground were spent bullet casings.
The marauders did not come to rob and there was never an official explanation made by the authorities why the raid took place. But
local residents said it was in retaliation to the mass deportation of
Filipino illegal immigrants in Semporna then. The armed men wanted to
send a message. History dictates that the coastal town of Semporna and its scattered islands are prone to attacks from armed foreign intruders. From
the time of the British colonial rule which had to deal with attacks
from ‘mundu' (pirates) and up till now, Semporna sure has colourful
albeit horrifying tales of armed invaders. So, how is that we
never learnt from history? Could we have prevented the tragic loss of
six good men in Semporna over a two day period not to mention the two
shot dead by a group of self-proclaimed army of the defunct Sulu
Sultanate in Lahad Datu? I thought the 1990s incident when
the police in Semporna were pinned down by a group of armed raiders,
would jolt our government, the military, armed forces, marine and
police, into enforcing better security alert over possible similar
attacks in future.
Questions unanswered
Are we being complacent or ignorant? Who
were those marauders who were armed to the teeth? How was that they
could easily infiltrate our borders and smuggled firearms into Sabah
undetected again and again?Are they connected to the Moro
National Liberation Front (MNLF) who settle in Sabah amidst the
conservatively estimated 800,000 Filipinos immigrants? Is it any wonder how they appeared suddenly on our land?
Once I chance upon an appeal case in the High Court of Kota Kinabalu involving a convicted MNLF leader.His
presence would have gone unnoticed if not for the heavy presence of
armed security personnel around the court building and escorting him. He had requested the judge, who turned him down, to clear the court of reporters. He
made chilling revelations on how easy it was for him to land on one of
the islands off Sandakan. He had fled from the Philippines security
following arms clashes in Mindanao. He was armed when he came and
alleged police knew about him. He made it sound like he was initially
welcomed but felt betrayed when he was arrested and sentenced to
imprisonment for firearms possession. He had appealed to serve his jail term in Sabah prison instead of in Peninsular Malaysia but was rejected. And how many more people like him are already in Sabah? And
just how did we end up in this sorry situation? The massive illegal
immigration from Indonesia especially from Southern Philippines is
widely attributed to the lawlessness in Sabah. Local
residents started to feel unsafe in the early 1980s. That's the time
when iron grills installed on windows and doors started to appear at
many homes due to an increase in robbery and housebreaking cases. That's the time when local leaders voiced concern over the sudden influx of illegal immigrants. Then
opposition Parti Bersatu Sabah which helmed the Sabah government
(1985-1994) repeatedly brought the problem including Project IC, and its
implications socially, economically and security-wise, in Parliament
but only to be branded as being anti-federal. The mainstream media had a field time playing the anti-federal issue to turn public sentiments against PBS. How convenient for Dr M? The then Dr Mahathir Mohamad-led BN government even blamed the PBS for the problems instead of addressing them. How convenient! But
the truth finally surfaced in the on-going Royal Commission of Inquiry
hearing with the shocking revelations of former ISA detainee Siti Aminah
Mahmud of a conspiracy to topple the PBS government and to minimise the
voting power of local Sabahans through Project IC. This was a
project that involved the issuance of ICs to illegal Muslim immigrants
from the Philippines and Indonesia in exchange for votes and was long
suspected by Sabahans as the cause for the state's population increasing
significantly in the late 1980s. And Mahathir, among the leaders implicated in the project, is unrepentant.
Justifying the action was made in the interests of Muslim brotherhood and that the ICs were issued lawfully.Tell that to the families of our eight dead heroes. Does Muslim brotherhood means we have to compromise the nation's security? Let us not forget the1986 riots in Sabah which occurred in response to the results of the1985
state election whereby the newly formed PBS ousted (the now defunct)
Parti Berjaya (a BN component then) from the helm of government. The rioters took to the streets to bring down the PBS' Joseph Kitingan from the chief minister's post.
It
was suspected that the riots were triggered by the losing parties
including BN to bring forth a proclamation of emergency in order to
justify a takeover by the federal government similar to those which
happened in 1966 in Sarawak and 1977 in Kelantan. Those rioters were mostly paid illegal immigrants used by power crazy leaders to satisfy their political agenda. There
was a time when Sabah saw a light at the end of the tunnel when MNLF
founder Nur Misuari was appointed governor of the Autonomous Region in
Muslim Mindanao (1996-2002). Shortly after his appointment in
1996, the BN government in Sabah led by then Chief Minister Yong Teck
Lee, some state Umno leaders along with a large trade delegation
(including journalists) made a bee line to Davao and several ARMM cities
to establish trade ties in line with the Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia
and Philippine East Asia Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) agreement. Sabah
had hoped that with Misuari's appointment and the BIMP-EAGA, the
Southern Philippines would finally enjoy peace, stability and rebuild
its economy battered by decades of armed confrontation between MNLF and
their government. And that the Filipino immigrants who fled to Sabah to avoid the conflict would return home. Davao and the ARMM are beautiful regions unspoiled by development.
They have huge potential in tourism, copra and cottage industries. A grand welcome? Misuari
had accorded, amidst tight security, our delegation a grand welcome
complete with schoolchildren lining the streets when we arrived at the
ARMM provincial capital, Cotabato. That welcome was reciprocated by the Sabah government when he visited the state months later. At
a state banquet, Misuari had appealed the government not to deport his
people immediately as it would cause massive problems to his region. Whatever
hope Sabah had on Misuari's appointment and the BIMP-EAGA was dashed
when he fell out with the Philippines government five years later. And over time, the illegal immigrant problem in Sabah has become too big to handle. Just
recently, a MNLF veteran was reported as saying in the Philippines that
battle-hardened guerrillas MNLF had sailed from the Philippines to
reinforce followers of the Sulu sultan who are battling our forces in
Lahad Datu. Muhajab Hashim, chairperson of the MNLF's Islamic
Command Council said although MNLF leaders had not officially instructed
their men to sail to Malaysia, they fully supported the sultan's
efforts to reclaim Sabah. What about Misuari who warned Prime Minister Najib Razak that fighting the Sulu gunmen "would be tantamount to war"?
The Philippines Inquirer quoted
him saying that he was willing to send his grandnephew who lived in
Malaysia and was a relative of Najib, to speak with the prime minister
on a possible peaceful end to the standoff. Peaceful end? Coming
from a man who has been a rebel most of his life and who blew the only
chance he had to rebuild his region and bring peace, stability and
economic prosperity for his people? Only the most ignorant of leaders would want to have anything to do with him. Unless of course, you are family. Only in Sabah... How do we resolve such problems unique to Sabah? Problems
partly attributed by our own leaders bent to remain in power even if it
means putting in jeopardy the nation's security and violating the
rights of Malaysians? We know the difficulties faced by our security forces to patrol the long and porous sea border with the Philippines.
All
the more reason why the government must revamp border security and
immigration policies for Sabah, where hundreds of thousands of Filipinos
(and Indonesians) have headed in recent decades - many of them
illegally - to seek work and stability, resulting in social, economic
and security headaches for Sabah. The government must take drastic steps to revoke all illegally issued ICs including those under Project IC.If
the present government lacks the political will to do so then for the
sake of our future generations Malaysians should stand united to vote
for a new government who will. As a daughter of a policeman, I
share the feelings and emotions of our security personnel seeing their
fallen comrades and my deepest condolences to the families of these
fallen heroes. May they not have died in vain. Malaysiakini
