Link graphic for a KJB version Bible Verse that will be automatically updated when we update it from time to time
">

7th Rangers: The great Umno man's burden by Commander (Rtd) S THAYAPARAN, formerly of the Royal Malaysian Navy

Photobucket
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
 
Fighting Seventh
The Fighting Rangers
On War, Politics
and Burning Issues
Profile
Miscellaneous

American Thinker
American
Newspapers Online

Arab News
Asia News
Asia Times
Assyrian News
BBC News
Breitbart News
British and
International
Newspapers Online

CAMERA
CBS News
City Journal
CNN
Christian Solidarity
International

Daily Caller
Daily Mail
DAP Malaysia
Dawn
Drudge Report
Dutch News
Faith Freedom
Ali Sina

Foreign Affairs
Forward
Fox News
Google News
Guardian
Haaretz
Harakah Daily
English

Herald Malaysia
Hurriyet Turkey
History of Jihad
Independent
Indian Newspapers
Online

Inspire Magazine
IPOH Echo
International
Herald Tribune

Jerusalem Newswire
Jihad Watch
Local-
French News
In English)

London Times
Malaysiakini

Malaysian Insider
Malaysia
Centre for Policy
Initiatives

Free Malaysia Today
Malaysia Chronicle
Malaysia
-Sarawak Report

MEMRI TV
Middle East
Forum

Mission Network
News

MSNBC News
National Review
NEWSMAX
New York Post
New York Times
Nut Graph
Opinion Journal
Right Wing News
Spiegel
Star Online
Straits Times
Sun Malaysia
Sydney
Morning Herald

Telegraph
The Malay Mail
The Rebel Media
The Sun (UK)
Time
Times of India
Town Hall
US News
World Report

USA Today
VBS TV
Washington Post
Washington Times
World Net Daily
World
Watch Monitor

Yahoo News
Ynet News



No Atheists
In A Foxhole

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."

Proud To Have
Served With Warriors

Glorious
Malaysian Food
Foreign Bloggers + 1 Sarawakian
&
Other Stuff
Gaming

Major D Swami
WITH Lt Col Ivan Lee
Click Here

Lt Col Ivan Lee
you want him with
you in a firefight!!!!

Dying Warrior
xxxxxx
Condors-Infantry
Fighting Vehicles
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Camp
Bujang Senang
Click Here
xxxxxxxx
The A Team
Click Here
xxxxxxxx
Major General
Toh Choon Siang
Click here
Lieutenant General
Stephen Mundaw
Click Here
With His
Dying Breath
Killed in Battle
In Death
Last Thoughts
Before Battle
Whilst There Is
Life, There Is Fight

Not Done In Yet!!

Iban Trackers
XXXXXXXX
Facts On RoP
Hutang Negara
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
The great Umno man's burden by Commander (Rtd) S THAYAPARAN, formerly of the Royal Malaysian Navy
Monday, June 11, 2012
Democracy shows not only its power in reforming governments, but in regenerating a race of men and this is the greatest blessing of free governments. - Andrew Jackson

COMMENT When you define your political and social aspirations through a racial lens or worse conflate them with religious preoccupations, the only way forward is backward and post-2008 GE, Umno has overtly attempted to define the changing political landscape as that of a racial or religious conflict with the fate of the ‘ummah' in peril at the hands of a non-Muslim/Malay-influenced political alliance - Pakatan Rakyat.

Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin's clarion call for Malaysians, specifically Malay-Muslims, to unite under the BN banner is problematic for a variety of reasons but he is absolutely right when he reminds non-Malay Malaysians to be cognisant of the fact that "future of the nation depended on Malay/Muslim unity". I have, more or less, put forward a similar argument in my Malay matters in the nation's future piece.

The narrative Umno likes to spin is that BN and the intellectually, not to mention morally, bankrupt ‘power sharing' formula worked post-Merdeka and as custodians of the Malay community, Umno's ‘struggle' has always been to uplift the ‘Malay' race from the inequities of colonialism and the avarice of the ‘immigrant' races that held sway over the land.

Of course, this bears no resemblance to reality but as propaganda goes it was fairly decent in forming some kind of cohesive society bound by fear of the ‘other' and an acceptance by non-Malays of their limited role in government, which belied their enormous contributions to this country. This post-Merdeka Umno ‘myth' and the myopic belief that Umno and Umno alone should lead the Malay community is something of a doubled-edged sword.

This bears some resemblance to the (neo) conservative Straussian principle of the creation of ‘myths' as a form of societal cohesiveness and the political relevance of BN is much like the ANC of South Africa, which for years was coasting on its own myths but presently riddled with corruption and is on perilous ground where discriminate voters are concerned. The tendency to believe their myths is the trap that Umno has fallen into and the irony here is that for a certain section of the voting public, these myths no longer hold true.

New myths are desired which is why Pakatan has caught the attention of a certain segment of the electorate, one which obviously poses a clear and present danger to Umno dominance.

The outsourced Umno thugs
Whatever ones views on ‘racialist' ideologies are, the cold comfort reality is that if they work, they will continue to be legitimately endorsed. Umno's problem is that by whatever credible criteria that is put forward, they have failed in their self-appointed role as guardians of the Malay/Muslim ‘ummah'.

I would argue that the rejection of a certain section of the Malay voting public of Umno is not an endorsement of the egalitarian ethos of Pakatan but rather an admonishment to Umno for failing in carrying out its responsibilities to the Malay community. Part of this failure is the dilution of the ‘Malay' community with the Umno-approved influx of ‘foreign' nationals to bolster the electoral rolls.

But what exactly is the ‘Malay' community? We could argue till the cows come home about the specificity of what actually constitutes a ‘Malay' but the reality is that Umno by its own doing has so mangled the concept that what we are left with are groups who self identify with the concept purely because of the economic or social advantages it delivers. There has always been this sense of apartness in the Malay community, no doubt a relic of our colonial history, that has been used by Umno to further its own political ends.

The most overt examples of this are the various ‘Malay' institutions that the British created, be it elite educational facilities or military branches that fostered the feudal mindset or encouraged a perspective of singular ownership over the destiny of this nation. Islam. of course, has slowly but surely over the years been imposed as a unifying force for the culturally diverse ‘Malay' community and as a reminder to non-Malays that they are separate from the national polity.

Of course, what we are really talking about here is an Arabisation process that conveniently rejects some of the more ‘liberal' traditions of Islam which conveniently seems the mode favoured by most authoritarian ‘Islamic' regimes around the world. Malay nationalism these days is defined by the ranting's of the outsourced thugs of Umno and the pious declarations of state-sponsored ulamas who say nothing of the rampant corruption that permeates the system, but seem obsessed with concepts such as ‘Ketuanan Melayu', ‘defending Islam' and upholding the dignity of the sovereign.

All this is extremely amusing since it is Umno who is responsible for all the ills that these groups claim to be fighting against, not to mention that the said groups are in reality funded by Umno, with Umno members openly declaring their memberships of these groups.

So what is Umno hawking?

Gone are the days when Malay nationalism was not about maintaining the status quo but rather about shaking up the establishment and shining a spotlight on the Malay underclass, which has always been at the mercy (throughout history) of an entrenched bureaucratic system. I have some admiration for the political roads taken by Malay nationalist like Onn Jaafar, who at least for brief periods either were credible advocates for the Malay community or would be pioneers for a truly 1Malaysia.

Of course, in the end they too were held hostage by racial considerations but it is to Umno's downfall that they fail to heed the lessons of their own historical personalities and continue to marginalise the contrarian intellectual voices of their party.

Prime Minister Najib Razak's warning to youths not to be taken in by "those selling idealism" in wanting electoral reforms is indicative of how out of touch Umno is with reality. What the regime's propaganda of Bersih 3.0 being an attempted coup or some sort of war against the police has done is alienate those who were not sympathetic to the goals of Bersih and hardened the views of those who think that Umno's time has come. If Pakatan or Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim is peddling ‘idealism', what is Umno hawking?

Behind the gilded cages or the crime-infested Malay settlements, a sense of anomie has settled in. Islam, or the brand Umno perpetuates, is slowly losing a hold on a disenfranchised Malay polity. The diversity that Pakatan offers, be it the so-called moderate Islamic stances of PAS, the middle ground of PKR or the secularism of DAP, provides choices the Malay community never had. With Pakatan becoming a credible ruling alternative post-2008, Umno's malfeasances which for so long were overlooked because the Malay community had no alternatives suddenly doesn't seem like such an insurmountable obstacle.

The fact that Umno chose to wield its federal power in such a vindictive manner in the PTPTN (Higher Education Loan Fund) fiasco is further evidence that Umno has no problem considering certain segments of the Malay community as collateral damage in their ongoing war to retain power. Malay politicians like the late Onn Jaafar (at one time at least) realised that the burden of a nation's future in a diverse multiracial society should not rest solely on the shoulders on one community. This is a lesson Umno has failed to learn or rather it is a lesson they could have overlooked if they actually carried out their responsibilities towards the Malay community.

At the end of the day, all we need to understand is that Umno was dealt extremely good racial cards, but played their hand badly. Malaysiakini

posted by Major D Swami (Retired) @ 1:29 PM  
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home
 
ARCHIVES


Previous Post
Indian Soldiers
World War 1
Links To Rangers
Military Related Links


End of a Saracen
East Malaysian
Warriors
Blow Pipe
xxxx
xxxx
Lieutenant Colonel
Zulkapli Abdul Rahman
Click Here
Lieutenant Colonel
Harbhajan Singh
Click Here
Heads from the Land
of the Head Hunters
Heads
20 Harrowing Images
Vietnam War

Creme De La Creme-Click here

Killing Time
Before Deployment

Lt Col Idris Hassan
Royal Malay
Regiment
Click Here

Also Known as
General Half Track

Warriors
Dayak Warrior
Iban Tracker with
British Soldier

Showing the
British Trooper
what a jackfruit is!!

Iban Tracker

A British Trooper training
an Iban Tracker

Iban Tracker

Tracker explaining
to the British Soldier who
knows little about tracking

Iban Tracker
Explaining to the
British Trooper the meaning
of the marks on the leaf

Iban Tracker
Aussie admiring
Tracker's Tattoos

Lest We Forget Major Sabdin Ghani
Click Here
Captain Mohana Chandran
al Velayuthan (200402) SP
Ranger Bajau
ak Ladi PGB
Cpl Osman PGB

Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
Photobucket
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Advertistment
XXXXXXXX
Powered by

Free Blogger Templates

BLOGGER

google.com, pub-8423681730090065, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 <bgsound src="">