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."
"What
are we having this liberty for? We are having this liberty in order to
reform our social system,which is full of inequality, discrimination and
other things, which conflict with our fundamental rights." - BR Ambedkar COMMENT
What I detest more than two vacuous sex bloggers becoming the poster
children for Umno's double standards, is the fact that once again Islam -
or the kind practiced by this regime - has trumped any other secular
principle(s) that would lead to us out of this racial and religious
quagmire we find ourselves in. By now the couple must realise (considering their "butt hurt Muslims" tweet)
that those same Islamic forces concerned with hegemonic interest are
running the show in this country and like most Muslims countries
everywhere are content to parrot the phrase "religion of peace" but
condone the most unjust practices to those who supposedly mock their
religion. I could never understand why some Malaysian Muslims
would reference countries like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Indonesia who
have shown zero tolerance to those "mocking Islam" as an example of how
tolerant Malaysia is when it comes to the practice of Islam. The
implication of this is that non-Muslims should be "grateful" for living
in a country where they would not be exposed to some unjust or worse
barbaric state sanction if they ever crossed the line when it comes to
Islam. If
Malaysia is a moderate Muslim country, then we should be used as
example by those countries of how a country that is supposed to be an
Islamic state is governed by the rule of law and not rule by law. As
usual in typical Malaysian fashion, some aim for the crudest moral
argument. Instead of the "religion of peace", I much prefer the honesty of someone like Malcolm X (left)
who said, "I am a Muslim because it's a religion that teaches you an
eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. It teaches you to respect
everybody, and treat everybody right. But it also teaches you if someone
steps on your toe, chop off their foot. And I carry my religious axe
with me all the time." Understand now, that I do not think any
religion teaches its adherents to "respect everybody" and "treat
everybody right", but as far as making a case for your religion (in this
case Islam) it is far more honest than babbling on about the so-called
religion of peace, then warning anyone who transgress that they would be
kicked in the cojones. Of course, as far as Islam as practiced
in this country, Muslims in control conveniently leave out the "teaches
you to respect everybody, and treat everybody right" aspect of Malcolm
X's quote. This is probably why some Muslims get confused if they are
‘Malays' first or ‘Muslims' first. I do not blame them. The concept of
constitutionally created ‘Malays' does muddy the racial waters when it
comes to swearing allegiance to God. Civilisation studies won't help Abim president Amidi Abdul Manan argues
that the teaching of Islamic Civilisation and Asian Studies would
"avoid any incidents which can be deemed offensive to Muslims, such as
the controversial posting by bloggers Alvin Tan and Vivian Lee". Does Manan (left)
really think that Alvin Tan and Vivan Lee do not know they would be
offending Muslims? Does Manan think that the cow-head protesters did not
know they would be offending Hindus with the cow-head protest? Do
Ibrahim Ali and Zulkfili Noordin not know they would be offending
non-Muslims with their polemics? I have no idea how stupid people like
Manan thinks Malaysians are but we must be very stupid if courses like
these are needed to inculcate a sense of community amongst Malaysians. I
have no idea what Manan thinks is Islamic civilisation is but any
credible academic would tell you that any civilisation is filled with
the complexity of people attempting to control their cultures or raging
against it. Perhaps Manan hopes that only the "acceptable",
sanitised elements would be included in this course, to which I say, the
distortion in our history syllabus is the reason why we have people
"wanting to drive away anyone or attempt to degrade or belittle any
particular race." Think about this, Manan. So far, all our moral
lessons, history lessons and whatever hypocritical nation-building
nonsense we shove down the throats of Malaysians has resulted in a
couple of sex bloggers posting inappropriate comments about breaking
fast and a group of thugs who decided to allegedly defend Islam by kidnapping and assaultingan individual who did no such thing. Chinese community 'sexually open'? However,
underneath it all is the war with the Chinese community which Umno
thinks has abandoned BN or rather Umno. These sex bloggers are used as a
stand-in for the Chinese community. The grossest stereotypes of
the Chinese community as being sexually "open" (sic), the harlot origins
of this ‘pendatang' community or the money crazed at the expense of
morality meme is paraded about as legitimate cultural differences to the
pious Malay community. Nothing of course could be further from
the truth. Malay tabloids are obsessed with sex and intent under the
guise of Islamic morality to expose the seething underbelly of the
sexual lives of the Malay community. Moreover, when they cannot
discover anything new, shocking or lurid, they make stuff up. The
targets are mostly other communities as when a local tabloid ran a story
about the accepted ‘incest' practice of the Penan community that in the
end was discovered to be fabricated. Of
course, the Chinese community's reaction would be to disavow these two
idiots but in the end all this is pissing in the wind. Most
right-thinking Malaysians would understand the double standard at play.
Numerous examples of how Muslims mock the religious or cultural
sensitivities of others have passed unnoticed or even encouraged by the
establishment. Not
granting bail on the grounds of public interest is strange considering
the numerous other people who are routinely granted bail even though
they are charged with committing ‘hardcore' crimes. Clearly, a message
is being sent here. This message would serve some sort of utilitarian
value if all those who mocked religion were treated in the same way. During the cow-head protest for instance, then home minister Hishammuddin Hussein, sat with the protestersand
demanded we "understand" their grievances. In other words, we as
non-Muslims, should always be mindful of Muslim sensitivities, which
also includes Muslims mocking, disparaging and condemning those concepts
we hold as sacred. Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin in his extremely compassionate dismissal
of any kind of forgiveness said, "We don't want people to accuse us of
selective prosecution when we mete out the punishment," but offered no
examples to support his argument. Indeed, when reporters of a
Malay tabloid spat out the Holy sacrament, all Khairy could muster was
the weak platitudes of acknowledging that Muslims should be more
sensitive of the feelings of others. There were no calls for punishing
those reporters to the full extent of the law. Keep in mind that it was former de facto law
minister Nazri Abdul Aziz who said that the "terrain" had changed
concerning provocative comments on the Internet. Obviously, the terrain
has changed only for the non-Muslims. Enough of political correctness In a Malaysiakininews report,
"Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim also said there should not be any
delay in acting against those who make irresponsible statements against
any religion." This has been the reaction of most Malaysians - "punish
these two but also all those who insult other religions" line of
argument. However, you know what? I am sick and tired of
non-Muslims prostrating themselves on the altar of political correctness
that more and more smells like political expediency. Every time
something like this comes up, especially when it comes to Islam, we have
to qualify our dissatisfaction. Until
the establishment can demonstrate that it can apply the law equally on
all its citizens, I do not think we should even attempt to qualify our
arguments when it comes to issues like these. Here is what most
politicians and "pragmatic" people say when it comes to this issue, that
"anyone who insults any religion should be sanctioned". This is a
cop-out because for politicians and those who support them, they are
merely pandering to their Malay/Muslim demographic at the same time
attempting to accrue some much needed secular credibility, all of which
does nothing for the cause of real change. What I hope
politicians would say is that these two idiots should not be sanctioned
because (obviously) certain laws of the land are applied selectively.
Until there is a change in thinking in how these laws are applied, I say
the only truly moral stance, would be to not qualify our statements as
to the nature of these selective prosecutions. This will never
happen of course because as we all know everything revolves around
Muslim sensitivities. As long as these sensitivities are used as
political capital, we will always be at the mercy of those who claim to
speak on behalf of a religion which claims to be compassionate and just
and those who are afraid to oppose them even though they know the
reality of it. S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy.
What has been described at length is an old problem. Nothing has been volunteered as actions to rectify the situation as in way of common man. UMNO politicians and law enforcement is not going to do anything to rectify this. UMNO wants a muslim vs non muslim war
If
Malaysia is a moderate Muslim country, then we should be used as
example by those countries of how a country that is supposed to be an
Islamic state is governed by the rule of law and not rule by law. As
usual in typical Malaysian fashion, some aim for the crudest moral
argument.
Does Manan (left)
really think that Alvin Tan and Vivan Lee do not know they would be
offending Muslims? Does Manan think that the cow-head protesters did not
know they would be offending Hindus with the cow-head protest?
Not
granting bail on the grounds of public interest is strange considering
the numerous other people who are routinely granted bail even though
they are charged with committing ‘hardcore' crimes. Clearly, a message
is being sent here. This message would serve some sort of utilitarian
value if all those who mocked religion were treated in the same way.
Until
the establishment can demonstrate that it can apply the law equally on
all its citizens, I do not think we should even attempt to qualify our
arguments when it comes to issues like these. Here is what most
politicians and "pragmatic" people say when it comes to this issue, that
"anyone who insults any religion should be sanctioned".
What has been described at length is an old problem. Nothing has been volunteered as actions to rectify the situation as in way of common man. UMNO politicians and law enforcement is not going to do anything to rectify this. UMNO wants a muslim vs non muslim war