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."
Are Zahid and IGP Khalid insecure bullies? By Nathaniel Tan
Saturday, May 25, 2013
From Malaysiakini COMMENT Do you remember playing Police and Thief as kids? Last Wednesday night, a much more brutal version of this game played outin Jinjang, as it has so many times before in Petaling Jaya, Brickfields, at Bersih rallies and so on. Many Malaysians are no strangers to candlelight vigils outside police
stations. I remember the candlelight vigils in Petaling Jaya during the
2008 ISA arrests, which themselves led to both more arrests and more
candlelight vigils that same night, outside the PJ police station. There,
like in Jinjang, or Brickfields when Wong Chin Huat was detained or
during Bersih 3.0, police gave orders to disperse, crowds disperse, and
police unleash their fury on the dispersing crowd anyway. The
pattern is the same: unarmed, peaceful citizens, being run down by rabid
police officers who act as if they had been attacked and who can't seem
to tell the difference between a candle and a parang. It's very
depressing to face these police charges. I remember thinking one of
those nights in Petaling Jaya long ago - one day, we will stop running.
One day, we will draw the line. Unfortunately, May 5, 2013 was not that day, and so the police chase on, and the rakyat suffer on. Bullying vs real strength What a start to the respective reigns of Home Minister Zahid Hamidi and IGP Khalid Abu Bakar. Barely a week or two after being sworn in, and already there is a
crackdown on these "enemies of the state" - Adam Adli, Tian Chua, Haris
Ibrahim, Tamrin Ghafar, and who knows who else next. Voltaire
did not actually write or say "I may disagree with what you say, but I
will defend to the death your right to say it" (that was a summary of
his views by Evelyn Beatrice Hall), but the axiom seems to apply here. Pakatan Rakyat's top leaders have wisely distanced themselves from any
talk of bringing down the government by force. I don't subscribe to such
a notion either. Nevertheless, I think it's clear that this heavy-handed police reaction betrays a sense of insecurity more than anything else. Both Zahid (left) and Khalid appear to enjoy cultivating some ridiculous tough guy image. The truth of it though is that people with real strength never need to try and flaunt it so blatantly. After all, which demonstrates true strength? Coming down hard on every
single person who says what he or she believes? Or offering more
attractive alternatives in the free marketplace of ideas? Dumb and dumber? Of course, Zahid's idea of discourse is: If you don't like it here, you can bloody well leave. In a cabinet full of disappointments, his and Hishammuddin Hussein's are among the worst. These
are the two people most responsible for the tragic fiasco in Lahad Datu
that resulted in the death of so many service personnel. Is Najib's
idea of improvement and transformation keeping the nett composition of
that team exactly the same? An obvious likelihood is that Zahid is looking to shore up his own image ahead of the Umno elections. How
disgusting that one should use the full weight of the state's
enforcement agencies against normal citizens just so he can look tough
to his fellow sycophants. It
seems I cannot avoid writing about one Tan Sri Khalid or another. The
current IGP is remembered well among observers for his arrogant denials
and blind defense of the police in cases like Aminulrasyid Amzah and A
Kugan, the former in which he shot his mouth off about parangs that
proved (once again) to be non-existent. Where the last IGP was
grown a bit more in a gentleman's mould, with some reputation for being
able to be reasonable, the current one is clearly more hawk than dove. He has said a number of words about refocusing on crime prevention, but
those for now remain words (only this last week, a friend and fellow Malaysiakini contributor lost her laptop and other valuables the same way I did a few years back, via smash theft). It seems unlikely the already stretched police force can concentrate
effectively on both crime prevention and intimidating activists at the
same time. Injustice ferments discontent The brutal death of N Dharmendran in police custody proved another low point right at the beginning of IGP Khalid's term. The
former's death was determined by pathologists to be the result of blunt
force trauma, and his body bore marks of being beaten, stapled (of all
things), and whipped by a rotan. Who knows how many people suffer but survive this kind of treatment at the hands of the police? Clearly a BN win has signaled to the police that they can continue on with business as usual. The only positive development for now is that the police have
classified this case as murder. Only time will tell whether this will
eventually result in some real justice, or whether it is merely another
mummer's farce that will end in no meaningful action. Among the recent arrestees were men who refused to accept the results of the last general elections. If
the prime minister continues to fail on delivering on his reforms,
persists in making us suffer these injustices, and insists on making
peaceful revolutions impossible, we cannot be surprised if five more
take the place of every person thrown into jail.
