Rudyard Kipling"
āWhen 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 soldierā
General Douglas MacArthur"
āWe are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.ā
āIt is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.ā āOld soldiers never die; they just fade away.
āThe soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.ā
āMay God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .ā āThe object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
āNobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
āIt 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."
āGuess that's 31 pieces of silver you've got now, huh? Sleep well, Judas.ā - Mark Millar (Civil War)
COMMENT
Hindraf chairperson P Waythamoorthy āadmitted that there will be
criticism over this deal, and acknowledged that some might accuse the
movement of selling out",reportedMalaysiakini. Here
let me put a name to that āsomeā. I am revolted, disgusted and repulsed
by this so-called ādealā Hindraf and Waythamoorthy have cooked up with
Umno.
From
day one, as a Pakatan Rakyat partisan, I made it clear that the only
acceptable alternative was Pakatan even though I have been (and will
continue to be) a vocal critic of my chosen āsideā.
Meeting with Hindraf and Waythamoorthy (right)
at the movementās blueprint launch, I advocated support for Pakatan.
After a meeting with PKRās Chua Jui Meng that included Waythamoorthy,
think-tank Centre for Policy Initiatives (CPI) director Lim Teck Ghee
and I, we (Lim and I) campaigned for a continuing of talks with Pakatan.
In a subsequent meeting, with Waythamoorthy, we (Lim and I) advocated [again] our stand for making a pact with Pakatan.
Travelling
to the temple in Rawang - where Waythamoorthy was carrying out his
hunger strike - with Lim, we reiterated [yet again] that there could no
discussion with Umno. And most recently at the Hindraf press conference
on the state of their negotiations with either alliance, I conveyed to
the so-called Hindraf leadership that it should be Pakatan or āvote as
your conscience dictates.āWith
the deadline approaching, I was contacted by people in Hindraf who
believed in the cause who were extremely worried of the rumours swirling
around that Hindraf was close to making a deal with Umno. This prompted
me to clearly state my stand on the prospect of Hindraf becoming Umnoās fool.
For
the record, this is what Lim said in an email conversation yesterday to
relevant parties that includes the Hindraf leadership: āIt is
totally inexplicable and inexcusable why Waytha is asking voters to
return BN with a stronger than two-thirds majority. This has destroyed
whatever credibility he and Hindraf have. Henceforth, CPI will not carry
any more of Hindraf's material or statements. Now, Hindraf
after accusing the present regime of āethnic cleansingā and cataloguing
decadesā worth of ācrimesā against the Indian community asks this same
community to give Umno-BN a two-thirds majority. This is a betrayal to
everyone who advocated on behalf of Hindraf, but more importantly to the
community they claim to represent.
Dubious MOU
As
for this dubious memorandum of understanding, here are some points
raised by journalist and articulate Hindraf watcher Joe Fernandez:
1.
The key element, the Ministry of Orang Asal and Minority Affairs, is
missing. Other issues like Article 153, NEP and anti-non-Malay
administrative laws are missing.
2. Is the government still going
to fiddle with public exam marks of students and call it "state secret"
and continue to hand out free degrees to morons under the quota system,
including in critical disciplines?
3. Why did Najib wait until Parliament was dissolved to sign the MOU?
4. It's the government which should sign the MOU, not the BN which may not form the government after the GE.
5. By signing the MOU, is Najib admitting that the Indians have been excluded from his āinclusiveā transformation programmes?
6. Why does any ruling party need a two-thirds majority?
7. Why didn't the government sign the MOU with MIC? After all, Hindraf is an association just registered last month.
Not
to mention, as Fernandez rightly points out, election promises are not
legally binding. However, there is more to this than just the empty
promises that Hindraf wants the Indian community to swallow. In
my piece warning Hindraf not to become Umnoās fool, I said that Umno
would never sign off on the blueprint because it includes elements that
would dismantle the very system that keeps them and their voting base in
power. I was of course right. One such element is the inclusion of the
United Nations International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms
of Racial Discrimination.
This is probably the reason why even Pakatan Rakyat, or more accurately the DAP, did not include it in their Gelang Patah declaration because to do so would involve a discussion on slaying Malay scared cows not to mention certain demands of Hindraf. By
the way, one aspect of the convention is the outlawing of hate speech
and the criminalising of membership in racist organisations. I know for
damn sure Umno would object to this, what with a former prime minister
being the patron of one such organisation. And this is the kind of
political alliance Hindraf wants the Indian community to make a deal
with?
So not only did Hindraf sign a practically useless (because
it is not only not legally binding but also made by parties unknown)
memorandum of understanding with an alliance they claim are the
perpetrators of all the injustices the Indian community faced all these
decades and continue to face, this so-called memorandum does not even
include elements from their own blueprint that would benefit not only
the Indian community but all Malaysians. The Gelang Patah
declaration, which was a rip-off from the Hindraf blueprint, had more
teeth in it than this useless document. Therefore, the question is, why
did Hindraf even bother to be a party to it.
Wathamoorthyās betrayal
Any
rational observer would conclude that the Gelang Patah declaration
offered more substance and if Pakatan was recalcitrant in its dealings
with Hindraf, the only rational response would be to either support
Pakatan or ask their voters to vote as their conscience dictates. Or as P Uthayakumar,
one of Hindraf founders, says: āThe Hindraf political directions remain
the same - do not vote for Umno and BN, voting for Pakatan is up to the
individual." Speaking of Uthayakumar, at least he had the guts to state his positions clearly with the series of interviews
I did on him. Ever since I started writing about Hindraf, I have wanted
Waythamoorthy to make his stand known through a series of tough
interviews but to no avail. I suppose the reception Uthayakumar got
spooked him.
Writing about Hindraf, I have been exposed to the
same anonymous attacks by the crypto-racists and racists within Pakatan
as Uthayakumar and Hindraf. I persevered as did many others because I
believed that this conversation needed to be heard and since I have no
interest in Umno-BN, better it be had in Pakatan. What
Waythamoorthy has done with this betrayal is ensure that the Indian
discourse has been poisoned indefinitely. What it has done is tarnish
the reputations of Indian politicians like D Jeyakumar, S Arutchelvan, R
Sivarasa and political personalities like KS Bavani who will now be
vilified by those disingenuous hacks whenever Indians speak out on
issues affecting their community. In
addition, what of the MIC? By asking the Indian community to support
BN, is Hindraf asking for the rejection of opposition Indian politicians
like Jeyakumar and the numerous other so-called mandores of Pakatan?
Is
Hindraf asking for the return of MIC? Could the MIC, which Hindraf was
at war with, better serve the Indian community than the Indian
opposition politicians? The MIC and their cyber goons have
claimed that Hindraf belongs to or supports racistsā organisations from
India with the goal of eliminating the Malay race (sic). In the
real world, Hindraf has not only been harassed by these same goons - I
was there when Hindraf marched and know of those MIC cretins, who were
egging on the police to shower us with gas - and by the outsourced thugs
of Umno. Is Hindraf going to walk hand in hand with them and propagate
the lies of Umno?
MIC MP P Kamalanathan said that Perkasa is
merely defending the rights of the Malay community just like other
racial sociopolitical organisations. Does this mean that Hindraf will
campaign for Perkasa vice-president Zulklifi Noordin for the Indian vote
in Shah Alam, now that Hindraf has thrown its support behind BN?
Running dogs of Umno
Waythamoorthy
wants Najib to prove to critics of this deal wrong by seeing it
through. What evidence can Waytha cite which would prove this? Umnoās
record of fulfilling deals is practically non-existent. I do know that
Umno come through with money they have promised to certain communal
groups. Could this be the proof that Hindraf alludes to? As I
wrote in the earlier piece, any compact Hindraf has with Umno would just
mean that the racial lines will be further entrenched and this merging
of disenfranchised Indian interest and Ketuanan Melayu dogma would be
used against those Malays who do not support Umno and the Chinese
community.
About the only thing I got wrong was when I claimed
that there could be no deal with Umno, because Hindraf would not be
running dogs of Umno. Clearly, by Waythamoorthyās statement I was wrong.
Take this horrible part of the memorandum as reported by Malaysiakini:
āAccording
to the agreement, should BN retain federal power, it would set up a new
unit under the Prime Minister's Office to implement the details of the
MOU.ā
Let me guess, this unit would be a kennel next to the PMās
Office, right? All I can say is, to whichever Hindraf lackey appointed
to this unit, remember when you are walking down the corridors of
Putrajaya, when you meet an Ibrahim Ali or a Zulkifi Noordin, keep your
eyes to the floor and never bite the hand that feeds you. Always remember your place.You earned it. Commander (Rtd) S THAYAPARAN
From
day one, as a Pakatan Rakyat partisan, I made it clear that the only
acceptable alternative was Pakatan even though I have been (and will
continue to be) a vocal critic of my chosen āsideā. 
āAccording
to the agreement, should BN retain federal power, it would set up a new
unit under the Prime Minister's Office to implement the details of the
MOU.ā
Sir, this idiot went for transplant, only barks now....