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."
Another victim of Sedition Act's skewed enforcement by Terrence Netto
Monday, June 24, 2013
From Malaysiakini COMMENT The decision to hold PAS
vice-president Husam Musa under remand to facilitate investigations into
his alleged breach of the Sedition Act 1948 is another instance of the
government's penchant for selective prosecution. Husam was
arrested by federal police in Ampang last Saturday while he was on his
way to the 'Black 505' gathering in Padang Merbok. The Kelantan
state assembly representative was taken by police to Kota Baru where a
day later, at the state police headquarters temporarily converted into a
magistrate's court, he was charged under the Sedition Act for a
statement he was supposed to have made about martyrdom.
The
prosecution's request for a two-day remand order was granted. It is
unusual to hold people suspected to have committed sedition in remand.
Investigations can proceed without the suspects' presence on the
premises. The decision to hold Husam in remand has less to do with investigatory than with intimidating intent. After
all, he was supposed to have aired the view that if an attendee at the
'Black 505' in Padang Merbok expires as a result of exertions on behalf
of the cause of highlighting electoral fraud, the person would gain
martyrdom. In recent months, Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali has made
more incendiary statements but the former MP of Pasir Mas - he was
defeated in the constituency by his PAS opponent in Election 2013 - has
only been called in for questioning, and not charged.
This and
other instances where government-favouring controversialists, like
former MP for Kulim-Bandar Baru, Zulkifli Noordin, and the former
Selangor PAS chief and state executive councillor, Hasan Ali, have
enjoyed considerable leeway when it came to venting their manias and
obsessions. The authorities have not minded their recurrent
bursts of incendiary pronouncement which raises questions about the
authorities' evenhandedness when it comes to pressing charges against -
largely oppositionists - under the Sedition Act. Husam is only the latest oppositionist to come under the gavel of a skewed enforcement of the Sedition Act. In Husam's case, there may be latent reasons for this selective prosecutorial behaviour.
Casualty of a power play
The
assemblyperson for Salor has been a casualty of a power play within
Kelantan PAS which saw the former state executive councillor excluded
from new Menteri Besar Ahmad Yakob's state cabinet line-up. Husam's
exclusion came as a surprise. It was attributed to the Kelantan
sultan's alleged displeasure towards the man arising from a perceived
act of lese majeste in the past. Husam, who was the linchpin of
former MB Nik Aziz Nik Mat's state cabinet, discounted this story of
ruler displeasure as being responsible for his exclusion from Ahmad
Yakob's cabinet. Matters were headed for some kind of
reconciliatory resolution where it was suggested that Husam would be
given a role as a state economic adviser. It is not clear why
this move did not eventuate, whether due to a lack of will on the part
of the administration or to a disinclination on the part of Husam to
accept the post.
Suffice the next instance of the simmering
controversy flaring up to a boil was when Husam criticised PAS leaders
who failed to turn up at the staging of a 'Black 505' rally at Ketereh
in Kelantan on June 12.
Husam
suggested that absentees among the PAS leadership cohort for Kelantan
and Terengganu at the Ketereh event were taking an Umno-like stance on
the question of fraud having marred Election 2013.
This was a
provocative thing to say, given that some quarters of PAS, especially
from its ulama wing, have publicly voiced the view that the party
accepted the results of Election 2013 as a fait accompli.
This
stance is in contrast with the wing in PAS, composed mainly of
professionals, which looks askance at the results, contending that the
exercise was so marred by fraud to warrant the resignation of the people
in charge of the Election Commission. Husam, the defeated PAS
candidate for the federal seat of Putrajaya, belongs in the group that
holds the EC as irredeemably tainted and in need of an overhaul in
leadership. The ‘Black 505' gathering, 15 lead-up events held
until last Saturday's culminating convergence at Padang Merbok, was
supposed to be an expression of PAS' solidarity with those in Pakatan
Rakyat who feel that the results in Election 2013 were morally marred.
The
authorities' decision to prosecute Husam for sedition is being viewed
through the prism of the power play in Kelantan PAS and Husam's stance
on electoral fraud. TERENCE NETTO has been a journalist
for four decades. He likes the occupation because it puts him in
contact with the eminent without being under the necessity to admire
them.
Husam
suggested that absentees among the PAS leadership cohort for Kelantan
and Terengganu at the Ketereh event were taking an Umno-like stance on
the question of fraud having marred Election 2013.
