PLEASE DON’T DO ANYTHING STUPID OR ILLEGAL, NAJIB: WHEN THE TIME COMES TO PASS THE BATON BACK TO DR MAHATHIR, TAKE A LEAF FROM TSU KOON – EMULATE HIS PROFESSIONALISM WHEN HANDING OVER POWER TO GUAN ENG

In modern, democratic societies (hopefully Malaysia is still one of them) the Armed Forces always remain under the control of elected civilian governments. 

In Malaysia we can be very proud that this has been the case since our Independence in 1957. Our Armed Forces are fully professional and have always been above politics or any other external influences.  Our Armed Forces have always remained under firm civilian control.  And we have to salute our boys in uniform who have remained professional and loyal to our Constitution.

The only change was the introduction of an overdose of religion into the Armed Forces during the time of Brader Anwar Bin Ibrahim.  I hope the Armed Forces keep a close eye so that there is no creep of  religious extremism within their ranks.  (However the frequent arrests of Armed Forces personnel or ex personnel for involvement in extremist groups like ISIS is not a good sign.)

In the past (pre modern-civilisational living) and in the present (in some pre-civilisational societies)  the Army has held or still holds power. This is generally not good for any society. 

There are many reasons for this. 
It has to do largely with how soldiers are trained to act.
Soldiers are taught to ‘identify the enemy’. 
A person is either a friend or an enemy.
Then they are trained to destroy the enemy.
And they have guns and bombs to do their job.
Good for defense of the realm 
But not good when dealing with the citizenry. 
So the Army is not good for governing any country.

In the past,  armies and generals have run countries and empires simply because they were the only organised groups around. 

In history when life was agrarian, rural and where people did not even know the dangers of not washing hands, any person or group who could organise say 100,000 men into an army would become the rulers.  Kings were actually generals. 

All Roman Emperors were military leaders.  But they had checks and balances. They had the Senate. The Roman Army was never allowed to cross the Rubicon. When Julius Caesar did cross the Rubicon, he was killed by the Romans. 

Merry Olde England contributed to change all that  (in the 17th century onwards??) with the rise of the guilds, bankers societies, political parties, Parliament, the Freemasons, organised education (schools, universities) and other groups.

They began doing what was previously done by Armies  – they too organised people into disciplined and focused groups. Hence modern societies evolved and people (other than the Army) began to rule the society.  This model has worked thus far. In modern Western democracies this works very well   because with elections, Parliaments and such, people elected the most capable or the best representatives to run their society.   

However this was not always the case. In English history there was a time when the elected civilians became corrupt and the Army (sort of) had to take over the government. There was the intervention of Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell (about whom I posted something the other day). In the mid 17th century Cromwell took over Parliament (the government), chopped off the King’s head, got rid of corrupt Lords and Members of Parliament, put in place a better set of elected representatives and left the scene. That was a job well done.

In Nazi Germany the Armed Forces under Hitler played a huge role in running the country. They did make Germany a world power. Then they had to be physically destroyed to remove them from power.  Not a good situation at all.

In modern history, Armed Forces still usurp power from civilian governments. Egypt is a most recent example.  Civilian governments have also ultimately replaced the Armed Forces in many countries.

But rarely do we have a situation where the Armed Forces have helped a corrupt or non performing civilian government to remain in power.  Refer Egypt again. The Egyptian Army overthrew a corrupt and bungling government.The following are pictures of some of the chiefs of our security and defense services. You may or may not recognise these folks.  Thats ok. They will know for sure who they are.

 

These thoughts came to my mind because lately I have been receiving plenty of those Press Statements and other statements from that Veterans Association.  They seem really upset with the present gomen.  

I am glad it is only the veterans association. However there is some indication that the views expressed by the veterans has a strong resonance with the rank and file of the Malaysian Armed Forces.  Everyone in the country is getting really upset with the gomen. 

The laws of our country do not exempt our Armed Forces personnel from voting in elections.  This means the Armed Forces personnel also have to decide who rules this country. But just like for everyone else, this is an individual choice by every member of the Armed Forces – it is one man one vote.

However as an organisation, our Armed Forces remain professional and above politics. And the men in uniform in the pictures above will know this and appreciate this better than anyone else. They are the Chiefs of our Armed Forces and Security services.

To digress a little, here is part of a comment by Demi Negara (I believe) which says some pointy things, not too far removed from what the Veterans Association has been saying :

I DESPISE EVEN MORE 

• the Melayus elected to the highest offices who steal tens of billions of BORROWED money we ALL are forced to repay; 
• the Melayus who repeatedly lie to the Rakyat and the World to save their greedy brown asses; 
• the Melayus who misuse religion to push their personal selfish agendas; 
• the Melayus who condoned and abet corruption and injustice; 
• the Melayus who share the loot and the spoils of deceit and treachery; 
• the Melayus who “look the other way” amid blatant pillaging of our Motherland; 
• the Melayus who actively collaborate with the thievin’ scums to “cari makan”; 
• the Melayus who lie, cover-up and mislead others to protect their own monetary interests and political positions; 
• the Melayus who now actively collaborate with the CPC, the very evil that sponsored and abetted Chin Peng’s Commie Army that murdered and maimed thousands of our fathers, uncles, brothers and raped our womenfolk.

These Melayus are worse. Much much worse.

Why?

Because these Melayus destroy the Malay Race from within . . . 
corrupting, contaminating, infecting millions in our midst with their immoral misdeeds . . . 
mixing and matching religious rhetoric and false patriotism in a toxic cocktail of fear and hate and scapegoating . . . 
garnished by sprinklings of the loot to soothe and satiate the debilitating opiate of ignorance, self-pity and cradle-to-grave dependency.

Look around.

Day and night . . . relentlessly . . . from Felda to MARA to TH to PNB to KWSP to SOCSO to KWAP and of course 1MDB . . . 

the future of the Orang Melayu are being destroyed by these Melayu Durjanas.

These Melayu Durjanas are not patriots. 

They are not “Pejuang Agama, Bangsa dan Tanahair.”

Look at them.

Take a good look at these thievin’ scums and their collaborators.

Look at the way they spew the most incredulous of lies; 
the way they smother misdeeds with the most tortuous of logic; 
the way they concoct fairytales in a tangled labyrinth of deceit and trickery; 
the way they curse, insult and threaten others.

These Melayus are nothing more than lyin’ thieves, common criminals, pathological liars and low class tricksters who will sell anything for a quick buck and will say and do anything to stay out of the slammer.

These Melayu Durjanas are the biggest subversives of all . . . 
the most dangerous traitors to our Motherland . . . 
who betrayed our trust and support in PRU13.

Hence . . .

. . . again via the ballot box . . .

. . . we MUST make sure they are voted out, hunted down and rounded up and brought to justice.

All of them.

From the thievin’ ruling clique to the immoral collaborators to the filthy cyberwhores to every scum guilty of sustaining this kleptocracy of insatiable greed.

Each and every one of these pengkhianat bangsa and musuh negara.

The Federation of Malaysia MUST be cleansed of these filthy garbage masquerading as keris wielding pahlawans and sarban wrapped ularmaks bleeding and destroying our Motherland from within.

Once and for all and decisively . . . we MUST get rid of these traitors and thieves . . . and begin the long overdue process of rebuilding our nation, our institutions, the democratic checks and balances, the rule of law, the supremacy of our Constitution.

THAT is our common destiny. A task for ALL Malaysians.

KeranaMu Malaysia.

Well said Demi Negara. 

That about sums up the general feeling on the ground. 

The kleptocrats are going to be voted out.  
“. . . again via the ballot box . . .”

Now we come to the crux of the matter.  The General Elections are due soon. For the first time in 63 years there is a high possibility that the ruling coalition will lose the elections. 

This means there will be a transfer of power to the present Opposition. 

There is some concern that the losing parties (because they have never lost the Federal gomen) may suffer some type of “withdrawal symptoms” to hand over power.

I think the withdrawal symptoms will be quite natural. 

But please do not do anything stupid. Or illegal. 
Malaysia does have a good track record of peaceful transfer of power at the State levels. Penang, Kedah, Perak, Selangor, Kelantan, Terengganu, Sabah have seen peaceful transfers of power from one ruling party to another.  The world did not come to an end. Its no big deal.

I recall when Koh Tsu Koon handed over the Chief Minister’s Office to Lim Guan Eng in 2008. It was done professionally and properly. All according to the law.

Transfer of power at the Federal level should be no different. 

We will vote soon and vote we will.  

We are actually voting for the rule of law, for civilised behaviour, for a progressive society, for a modern society. This is what we are really voting for.  All Malaysians should keep this in mind.

If any unthinking or weak minded people seek to tamper or interfere with this accepted system of choosing our government and the peaceful and lawful transfer of power, then you will be heading down a very, very dangerous slope. 

You just do not want to go anywhere near that direction.  
If you sacrifice peace, the country will end up in pieces.
And for what?

Think and think again.  
Peace and peace again.

– syedsoutsidethebox.blogspot.m