Honouring our warriors

Today I read an excellent piece in The Malaysian Insider written by Hafidz Baharom titled Honouring our warriors.

I want to share it with you, as follows:

APRIL 9 — Answer me this: Since when did warriors have to be totally Islamic in this country?

You have to admit, this is a new low for Jakim. Perhaps they sat about wondering just how else to make people’s lives miserable. After butch looking girls and yoga practitioners, it somehow popped in their heads to target army veterans.

The Tugu Negara, which basically portrays dead people and Caucasian looking soldiers raising the Jalur Gemilang, is in itself un-Islamic to begin with, but we kept that, didn’t we? Even when the “Communists” damaged it.

The National Monument was built as a symbol to honour the dead, regardless of their religious beliefs. Will the Defence Ministry then go further to list which of the dead soldiers were alcoholics, ate pork, fornicated with women and have their names de-listed in the name of Islam?

Why not? It’s the last step by the ministry to finally make the entire Islamic agenda worthwhile.

Next up, the entire non-Muslim soldiery will be disbanded and a Protection Tax goes through Parliament, which is basically applicable only to non-Muslims.

Here comes the dhimmi and jizya concepts!

I’m being cynical. No way would this happen in a Pakatan Rakyat government.

Let us be true to the spirit of the nation, history and multiculturalism here.

Malaysian soldiers of all beliefs died for Malaya during World War II and the Emergency. Sikhs, Buddhists, Hindus, Freethinkers and Muslims alike. One of the current aspects of the Warrior’s day celebration is to sound the “Last Post” and “The Rouse” on a bugle.

And for the record, there is nothing Christian about “The Last Post”! There are no lyrics to the tune! How the heck is this Christian?!

It’s based on a poem by Carol Ann Duffy. Have a read:

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If poetry could tell it backwards, true, begin
that moment shrapnel scythed you to the stinking mud…
but you get up, amazed, watch bled bad blood
run upwards from the slime into its wounds;
see lines and lines of British boys rewind
back to their trenches, kiss the photographs from home-
mothers, sweethearts, sisters, younger brothers
not entering the story now
to die and die and die.
Dulce- No- Decorum- No- Pro patria mori.
You walk away.
You walk away; drop your gun (fixed bayonet)
like all your mates do too-
Harry, Tommy, Wilfred, Edward, Bert-
and light a cigarette.
There’s coffee in the square,
warm French bread
and all those thousands dead
are shaking dried mud from their hair
and queuing up for home. Freshly alive,
a lad plays Tipperary to the crowd, released
from History; the glistening, healthy horses fit for heroes, kings.
You lean against a wall,
your several million lives still possible
and crammed with love, work, children, talent, English beer, good food.
You see the poet tuck away his pocket-book and smile.
If poetry could truly tell it backwards,
then it would.

If anything, it truly describes the thoughts of a soldier before going to battle, and perhaps even their rewards after demise. One argument I’d probably have are the English names instead of Ali, Chan, Jugah and Muthu.

Even that Latin line, before anyone jumps to the conclusion that the Pope had something to do with it, states that it is a “sweet and honourable thing to die for one’s country”. I share the same sentiment, unless it’s caused by malfunctioning Nuri helicopters that should no longer be in service.

Following that is the sounding of “The Rouse”. This is to commemorate those who died waking up to a better afterlife, while also telling the living soldiers to start their duties once more.

Another aspect of this is the laying of wreaths at the tomb. If this is considered un-Islamic, then allow me to just state this. The next time someone wants to place a garland over any Umno member, he has to be considered as doing something un-Islamic and should have action taken upon him by Jakim, since they have nothing better to do.

Why not carry on with the tradition, bugle, wreath laying and all, and then simply hold a tahlil and doa selamat at the National Mosque, and church sermons, Hindu temple blessings, and even a prayer service at a Buddhist temple in Brickfields after?

[kaytee's note: my uncles and his friends used to do above]

If we truly preach that we are a multicultural nation with Islam as its official religion, which respects other beliefs, then what this government is proposing is unconstitutional because we are imposing our belief system on those who are non-Muslims.

Even worse, they’re actually doing it to dead non-Muslim Malaysians, who gave their lives defending this nation without giving a damn that it would one day be labelled Islamic.