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."
Malaysia's Patriot Games by Commander (Rtd) S THAYAPARAN, formerly of the Royal Malaysian Navy
Sunday, August 05, 2012
"A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and
falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people." -
John F Kennedy
COMMENT The irony is that what Umno fears most is the day when it would no longer be necessary for some to speak truth to Umno power. Umno
by its unwillingness to concede that the political landscape has
changed, that a certain section of the electorate views anything
connected with BN as anathema, is willfully charting a course where its
survival will be determined not by the legitimacy of the democratic
process but by the mendacious nature of how the Umno machine exercises
its powers.
The persecution of PKR's Rafizi Ramli (right in photo) and former bank officer Johari Mohamad (left in photo)
for their roles in exposing the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC)
scandal reeks of the usual shadow play that characterises Malaysian
politics. When Umno supreme council member Saifuddin Abdullah
(who is also deputy education minister) frets that the arrest and
charging of the duo, will cause the public to have a "negative
perception" of the government's anti-corruption efforts, specifically
the Whistleblowers Protection Act, he merely highlights the latest of a
decades worth of Umno missteps that has resulted in the ruling party's
reversal of election fortune.
I doubt anyone would agree with
him that BN's "promise" to combat corruption as demonstrated in its
National Key Result Area is gaining ground, but his belief that Rafizi
(silence on the co-defendant) did not commit any crime, should be
commended except that he goes on to illustrate the possible collusion
between the executive and law enforcement, when he heroically proclaims
that he would bring this matter up at the Umno supreme council meeting
to highlight certain issues that would be difficult to rebut when the
opposition brings it to the polls. Protip: If you are going to
make the argument that the government is serious in its efforts to
combat corruption, it is unhelpful to reference the fact that the
political party at the centre of the corruption scandal has influence in
the administration of justice.
I wouldn't be surprised if the
charges against Rafizi and Johari are suddenly dropped and Umno trying
to play to unbiased executive. No doubt the dutiful coalition partners
would embarrass themselves by trumpeting this fiasco as some sort of
evidence of governmental impartiality. Their lies are old and they mock
us by not telling it like new. Comic relief from Nazri
Not to worry though. We can count on de facto law minister Nazri Abdul Aziz to provide the comic relief. Take this piece jewel of a quote. "It
will not affect our (the government's) credentials in fighting
corruption because whistleblowers are informants who don't break the
law"... and the punch line, "Rafizi has broken the law and the whole
world knows about it. The law must be upheld and enforced. Otherwise we
won't need to have laws in the country." Have you stopped laughing, yet?
Nazri, here's the narrative at the moment. After decades of BN
malfeasances, covering the land in racial malevolence and corrupting
every government institution, Pakatan Rakyat leaders are the brave,
hardy souls, would-be liberators fighting against the injustices
perpetrated by the Umno shadow in Putrajaya. What this move has
done is just confirm every negative perception a certain section - a
section that BN desperately wants to recover - has of BN but more
importantly of the vindictive nature of Umno. What Nazri (left)
fails to understand is that the so-called government effort in
combating corruption with the occasional sacrificial lambs of Umno
cronies does not mean that the public buys into the reform agenda. What
is needed is consistency which Umno and BN have never bothered
attempting.
It would be pointless to cover past ground when it
comes to the selective prosecution that makes up the government's
credentials in fighting corruption. A cursory reading of the
Whistleblowers Protection Act does indicate any such "disclosure" is not
specifically prohibited by any written law. The Act also indicates that
whistleblowers will be provided immunity from civil and criminal
prosecution. But all this is best left to the legal mouthpieces
of both sides. What is important here is the perception of the general
public or at least the perceptions of political partisans. Basically
what Nazri is saying is that Rafizi and Johari should be charged with
breaking the law (sic) even though their actions resulted in discovery
of a greater criminal conspiracy.
I guess Malaysian don't really
have to see the Dark Knight Rises because Nazri has made Rafizi a real
life, Dark Knight. And who knows, this knight may one day be king. And that's the fear, isn't it? Here we have two Malays going against the Umno system. The
public Malay face of Umno is characterised by the Malay supremacy of
Umno outsourced thugs like Perkasa and Pekida. It's in the rhetoric of
Rdihuan Tees and the numerous political hacks that spew racial and
religious venom in the hopes of rallying the Malay community.
Rafizi, on the other hand, is the Malay Baru Redux. Thoughtful, measured
and articulate (perhaps not as articulate as Umno Youth chief Khairy
Jamaluddin) in his parties' crusade against BN corruption, he is the
very public face of a possible more egalitarian reinvention of the
power-sharing formula. But there is more to this game than meets
the eye. Rafizi is not some lone crusader fighting against a corrupt
system. He is a political player engaged in a war - using the prime
minister's own analogy - to claim the prize of Putrajaya. This is
partisan politics of the highest stakes and the fact that Umno has been
for decades derelict in its duties should not detract from the fact
that we are heading into very unusual terrain, when it comes to the
Selangor's government's intention to use state funds (taxpayers' money)
to defend Rafizi. Separation between party and state
All these corruption scandals have been about Pakatan (who control
certain state governments) exposing the corruption of the BN, the
federal government. The realpolitik is that two political alliances are
waging a proxy war using federal and state apparatus. We should be
mindful of this. I
realise that most Pakatan supporters don't really care of the
separation between a political party and the institution (it occupies
for a time), seeing as how BN for decades has made a mockery of this
concept, but this distinction is important if we are to avoid repeating
the mistakes of our past.
Although I am supportive of any
initiatives to combat corruption and protect whistleblowers, I believe
in this extremely partisan climate that the righteous thing for Pakatan
to do would be to set up its own fund - making it very clear that it is a
Pakatan fund in support of Rafizi and Johari, instead of channeling
state funds into Rafizi's (Johari's?) defence. This way we could
be sure that Malaysians, or at least those supportive of the agenda of
Pakatan, would really be contributing to a political party fight against
BN corruption.
Just to be clear, I am all for initiatives on a
state and federal level to combat corruption but as I said what we need
more of are a separation between party and state, something that has
been missing in Malaysia for a long time. Yes, we could argue
that the Selangor state's decision to use public funds to defend Rafizi
is not something unusual and there are precedents for this type of
actions, but what I would argue is that we are supposed to be changing
the way how the game is played.
At the end of the day, I hope
that what Malaysians take away from this Rafizi episode (and I don't
mean to diminish the role Johari played) is that we should look beyond
Rafizi's political affiliation and hope that more Malaysians -
regardless of their religious or political preoccupations - use him
(them) as examples of speaking truth to power, irrespective of which
political alliance is in control. Malaysiakini
Dear Sir, Remember Teoh Beng Hock and Ahmad Sarbani? They didn't break any laws - in fact, they cooperated with the authorities. But what happened to them?
My comment is that we can be legally and narrowly right and morally and in nterms of nation wrong. In any case we have individually or collectively to work in our own chosen way with mutual respect and understanding towards the integrity of wholesome nation for all communities and not ketuanan any race or creed or religion..
Dear Sir,
Remember Teoh Beng Hock and Ahmad Sarbani?
They didn't break any laws - in fact, they cooperated with the authorities. But what happened to them?