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."
Bersih 5 should be a 'Malay-sian tsunami' by Commander (Rtd) S THAYAPARAN Royal Malaysian Navy
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
Malaysiakini“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
- John F Kennedy, remarks on the first anniversary of the Alliance for Progress, March 13, 1962.
COMMENT Non-Malay friends of
mine, those disinterested in the state of the country but claim to vote
opposition, tell me that the important thing for non-Malays to do is to
work the system and most importantly, profit from it. Malaysia, they
say, is a great country to live in - stable, sheltered from natural
disasters - so what if the government is corrupt? It is like this
everywhere, they say.
Umno, meanwhile, does it best with its outsourced thugs to push a
hegemonic and racist agenda to maintain a ‘social contract’ that has
brought stability and wealth to a specific middle class, while
subjugating the majority of the Malay polity into subservience to Umno
through Islam. Nowhere is apathy embraced as a legitimate lifestyle choice and as a
means to deflect from issues beyond pecuniary self-interest.
Malays friends of mine - former diplomats, civil servants and
military officers - bemoan the fact that “Malay” leadership has devolved
into a quagmire of corruption and racism, our public institutions the
public face of “Malay superiority” and safety nets for a “Malay”
subclass, there to prop up a corrupt regime.
In my piece
urging the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak - with
apologies to the inspector-general of police (IGP) for my
perceived wanton law-breaking - I acknowledged that resignation is the
last thing this Umno potentate would consider. Why would he? Regional media reported that it was business as usual
for Najib, a day after the US Department of Justice (DOJ) made its
announcement to seize US$1 billion in assets bought with ‘stolen money’
from 1MDB -
“The message was clear: the premier is focused on matters at
home, especially the economy, as he seeks to preserve support among his
ruling party’s base of ethnic Malays, many of them in rural areas. One
of his pit stops on Thursday was a speech to employees of a government
agency that is tasked with helping thousands of smallholder farmers.”
The IGP also reminded Malaysians that any form of popular dissent would be sanctioned
because “We will not allow it because there is a way to ask the prime
minister to step down as stipulated in the law,” even though as Bersih
chairperson Maria Chin Abdullah points out no rally has been confirmed,
only mooted.
