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."
Maturity is a red herring in discourse on 18-year-olds getting the vote - Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Wednesday, July 03, 2019
Voting at the age of 18
Malaysiakini : “Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it. It is only
expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail. A wise man
will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail
through the power of the majority. There is but little virtue in the
action of masses of men.” – Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience and Other Essays
COMMENT
| The discourse surrounding the Pakatan Harapan regime's agenda of
lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 revolves around the silly notion
that it takes “maturity” to mark a ballot paper. A long time
ago, when I was still serving in the state security apparatus, a young
man asked me what I thought of the possibility of 18-year-olds voting.
My answer remains the same now as it was then. If you ask a young person
to defend and kill for his or her country, then the young person has a
right to determine who is asking him or her to do the killing.
Proponents
of lowering the voting age, who argue that 18-year-olds are “mature”
enough to make a decision on who runs the country, should also concede
that these same teenagers are not mature to make that decision. Meanwhile, proponents of maintaining the status quo have to concede that their definitional ideas of “maturity” mean bupkus
in the face of successive regimes that 'mature' Malaysians have voted
for and which has taken this country from a nascent Asian Tiger to a
kleptocratic enabling Asian pussycat. This is all rather silly,
considering in democracies, especially two-party democracies, what is
prevalent is a Manichean impulse to correct whatever wrongs a voter
thinks are destroying his or her country through the ballot box.
