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."
COMMENT | Indian vote and Madani: A quiet seething rage By Commander S Thayaparan (Retired)
Tuesday, July 21, 2026
Malaysiakini : “It felt less like a discussion and more like stepping into an inferno.”
- former DAP MP Charles Santiago
COMMENT |
When ex-MP Charles Santiago described his meeting with Indian community
leaders in Johor as walking into an inferno, I knew what he meant.
I
would also say it is not confined to Johor alone. Anecdotally speaking,
community leaders and organisers I have been in contact with are
exhibiting the same kind of anger towards Madani, which includes DAP.
Much has been made about the failed strategy of using the possible release of former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak as a vote-getter in Johor.
The fact is that the working-class Indians and activists I speak to inform me that this has zero impact.
There
is a significant percentage of working-class Indians who do not have
animus towards the convicted felon as the political narratives of DAP
would have you believe.
Urimai’s P Ramasamy said it best. From
reportage - “Commenting on a survey which found that a majority of
Indians backed Najib’s bid for a royal pardon, Ramasamy said the
community continues to differentiate between his personal misdeeds -
especially in the 1MDB scandal - and his outreach to the Indian
community.”
Now, of course, in the social media spaces of
non-Malays, a statement like this would be mocked. But when it comes to
reality, the kitchen table reality, this means that votes are getting
lost because nobody is really interested in studying the terrain.
P Ramasamy
Around
election time, the “Indian vote” comes into play. Politicians from both
sides of the divide make the necessary noises of “inclusion” to cater
to the demographic.
The comment sections of such news stories are sprinkled with the usual racist diatribes against the community.
Besides
the urban English-educated voter, the people who actually vote in
districts which could actually mean something do not read the “English”
news stories that come out in the alternative media or the mainstream
(English) media, for that matter.
Charles Santiago
Charles
said: “The irony is striking. The Indian middle class appears ready to
cast a protest vote with Bersama, while many in the working class are
drifting back to BN - the very coalition they once helped vote out.”
As
someone who has spilt much ink about his disdain for MIC, this has been
something which has not been easy for me to assimilate.
PSM’s plight
This
is an important point and points towards the class conflict within the
Indian community, which is probably why a party like PSM is savaged and
which the Indian working class runs to whenever they need real help, but
which they abandon when it comes to elections.
For example, PSM settled the housing issue of 393 families from four estates in Dengkil.
“The
houses are expected to be completed in October. BN and Pakatan Harapan
had a hand in the project, but it was PSM and its movement that helped
bring the matter to their attention and demand action,” PSM deputy
chairperson S Arutchelvan said in 2023.
PSM deputy chairperson S Arutchelvan
This
is just one example of the sometimes decades-long struggles that PSM
has been involved with, but as Arutchelvan said: “We nominated a
candidate in Dengkil, and they are surprised to know that we are a
political party.”
Furthermore, there is a growing realisation
among working-class Indians that when it comes to political parties, it
really doesn’t matter who is voted in because all these political
parties work with each other when it is convenient.
An Indian
voter in Johor reminded me that DAP thanked the MIC and Umno in Kuala
Kubu Bharu, so why can’t he and his family vote for MIC now?
MIC president SA Vigneswaran
From reportage
– “The Jelutong MP, who thanked Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and
MIC president SA Vigneswaran for supporting the coalition candidate,
said he is not surprised by the former Penang deputy chief minister’s
actions.”
Anwar errs, MIC gains
It is
strange, though. For decades, Anwar Ibrahim, for a myriad of reasons,
enjoyed extremely healthy support from the Indian community.
But these days, as prime minister, Harapan and he are slowly but surely losing support from the community.
These days, Anwar seems more interested in bullying a young student who asks him genuine questions about educational opportunities in Malaysia or presiding over a conversion ceremony of a young Indian convert.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim
I
was talking to a MIC operative; he was heartened by the participation
of youths in their programmes and took it as a positive sign that young
Indians were returning to MIC.
Meanwhile, when I talked to
government-aligned youth activists, they claimed that their only
interest was to help the community and would take assistance from any
place they could get.
There has been much talk as to why Indians
are raging at Madani, but the most common flashpoint, anecdotally, I
come across is when the prime minister officiated the conversion of a
Hindu youth.
What does it say to the Hindu community - or even the
Indian community - when the prime minister of this country presides
over the conversion of a Hindu youth, while mothers are battling in the
courts to get their children back, are suing the state security
apparatus to do their jobs, and dealing with the religious bureaucracy who are hampering their efforts to reconcile with their children?
I would say that this event was as totemic as the cow head protest when it comes to the Indian votes, especially the working class abandoning the federal government.
Negeri Sembilan polls
Now, of course, this does not mean that Harapan is in trouble in Negeri Sembilan. But who knows.
The
reality is that the Indian vote is now in play, and Charles is correct
when he says the winners for the Indian vote are those - “…who attracts
the deepest disappointment.”
Indians, especially disenfranchised
ones, neither have the luxury of engaging in partisanship nor can they
indulge in the numerous political outfits that claim to champion their
cause.
There is no true course for the Indian community.
Our fate shall be the same as that of all the non-Malays, but it is just that we will get there sooner.
