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."
Malaysiakini : COMMENT | The recent decision
by the Registrar of Societies (ROS) to allow Umno’s controversial
decision to postpone party elections even further is a highly
questionable one but has to be expected, coming as it did from a branch
of the government which is now controlled by Umno.
That means that
party elections not only do not have to be held by Dec 30 but can be
postponed up to six months after the next general election. Consequently,
a bruising Umno party election need not be held before the general
election which means the existing leadership can remain until then,
providing a lifeline of sorts to current Umno president Ahmad Zahid
Hamidi.
This further stretches the time the Umno leadership is
intact. If Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob decides to go full term,
GE15 can be delayed to two months past the five years after the first
sitting of Parliament following GE14, or September next year.
Add another six months to this, and the current Umno leaders can be
in power until March 2024. They were elected on June 30, 2018, which
means they could be in power for five years and nine months or two years
and nine months beyond their elected three-year term.
On that
basis alone, the ROS had a very strong case to reject the constitutional
amendments to allow further postponement of the elections which is
clearly an abuse of process by the current leadership to stay in power
without the sanction of the members.
But ROS did not do that and
probably acceded to the demands of the government of the day. This
implies that Ismail Sabri, who is in charge of the government, must have
struck some kind of deal with his top Umno colleagues or he may have
decided that it was politically the most expedient thing to do.
Despite
attempts to present a united front in Umno, especially among the
president, Zahid, deputy Mohamad Hasan (Tok Mat) and the three
vice-presidents (Ismail Sabri, Mohamed Khaled Nordin, Mahdzir Khalid),
there are underlying tensions which have yet to be resolved.
