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."
Harapan has only two options - Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Thursday, May 19, 2022
Harapan
Malaysiakini : “They said that I should lose my ideals and begin to believe in the
methods of practical politicians. Now, I have not lost my ideals in the
least; my faith in fundamentals is exactly what it always was. What I
have lost is my childlike faith in practical politics.” - GK Chesterton
COMMENT |
For the record, as someone who agreed with Ong Kian Ming and Tony Pua
on the subject of Muhyiddin Yassin’s olive branch, this idea of Ong’s
that Pakatan Harapan needs to keep its options open is complete bunkum.
There
is an ocean of differences between the olive branch deal and the big
tent/options strategy that Ong and others are advocating.
The olive branch was a deal with a weakened leader which offered
tangible long-term benefits to this country and which could have
possibly slowly started the process of dismantling the ketuanan system
in place.
It was a gambit that only a desperate man like Muhyiddin
and his coterie could have agreed to and the fight to get those reforms
through would be part of the process of building bridges with disparate
allies and bipartisanship that political parties had for decades told
their respective bases was anathema.
