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."
Is patriotism worth RM250? - By Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Saturday, August 11, 2018
Malaysiakini : āThe flag is the simplest and cheapest symbol and for the cost of eight cigarettes, we can buy and wave the flag.ā- Rais Yatim, in 2013 when he was the social affairs and cultural adviser
COMMENT | When some people say we
can finally raise the Jalur Gemilang with pride after May 9, I go, huh?
Why can we finally raise our national flag with pride? I suppose you
could make the argument that we finally become a democracy, if the
yardstick is changing governments, that is. But some would argue that
the big change was merely a reshuffling of the deck.
Indeed, waving the Jalur Gemilang and patriotism go hand in hand.
Except, if youāre from the LGBTQ tribe, or liberal Muslims or
āchauvinisticā Chinese, or ātraitorousā Indians, or not from the
'bangsa' Malaysia tribe (the negation of ethnicity/culture in favour of
partisanship), then waving the flag or even depictions of you waving the
flag means that you are promoting something which goes against the
group think of the state or not wanting to spook the majority in case
they have second thought about the Pakatan Harapan government.
In January of this year, I asked why would the non-Malays be patriotic to this country ā āAnd really, what is it the non-Malays have to defend? We have to
defend our āsuccessā in Tanah Melayu. We have to defend the fact that we
have to work hard because we are not beholden to a system of privilege ā
ideological, religious and constitutional ā that enables us to think
for ourselves and realise that the world does not owe us anything. āWe have to defend how we spend our wealth ā too expressive in the
luxuries the fruits of our labour afford us, and we are deemed
un-Islamic, corrupt in our excesses, and of course, corrosive to the
Malay/Muslim community.ā
Please do not claim that things will not change immediately. That is
not what I am saying at all. I believe that deep down inside, people
know this. They know the freak show when they see it.
It never ceases to amaze me that certain types of governments always
need to foster, instil, encourage or in some cases, enforce a sense of
patriotism on its citizens. That is really whatās bugs me about the
re-branding of the Biro Tatanegara (BTN) courses, for example. Why do
people need to be reminded or taught about being patriotic to the
country? I mean we know, or should know, that any kind of state
propaganda is there to enforce allegiance to political parties and not
democratic, independent institutions, right? The irony, of course, is that people generally have more loyalty to
political parties than any other institution in the country. They have
more faith in political parties than democratic principles or ideals. In
other words, partisanship is tangible, while any other kind of
patriotic feelings to the country is not.