EVEN more shocking than the tragic loss of
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been the disturbing and unedifying sight of
the Chinese, both family members of those presumed to have perished, and
Chinese government officials, reacting to the tragedy.
I can understand the
anguish and sorrow through which they have gone in the past few days and weeks,
but they are not alone in having to cope with this unprecedented tragedy.
There are Malaysian,
Australian, Indonesian and many other families from several countries who have
lost their loved ones. They, too, are grieving, but unlike the Chinese, they
have shown great restraint and have not gone over the top with vicious and
appalling imputations of improper motives and casting aspersions on our
integrity in handling the crisis.
I may be forgiven for
wondering if this is what 4,000 years of civilisation has taught them to react
in a crisis! Their invective is too crude to repeat and, while we may forgive
them their behaviour, I personally will find it difficult to forget their
insults hurled at my country and people with scant regard for our feelings.
I know Chinese is a
"tonal" language and the tone of their assault against us has taken
us completely off-guard. I am proud of the behaviour of Chinese Malaysians who
have lost their beloved family members and Malay Malaysians who grieve with
great dignity.
My charitable take on
their behaviour is that after a long history of communist dictatorship, the
Chinese, as a nation, have become so used to being given the run around as far
as official information is concerned that they have become highly suspicious of
any official information they are given by any government agency.
Their demand for
information about the fate of their loved ones is understandable, but to expect
the Malaysian authorities to produce information when there is none to be had
for love or money is bizarre to say the least.
They should remember
that it was their own authorities that released to the world that they had
sighted two pieces of debris in the South China Sea. That bit of news was later
withdrawn by the Chinese authorities.
What they would like
the world to see as the new China aspiring to global power status is really a
nation with a thin veneer of sophistication and still unsure about its place in
the global geopolitical scheme of things.
The legal vultures in
the most litigious nation on earth are rubbing their grubby hands with glee in
anticipation of a windfall from representing the families of those presumed
dead on board the ill-fated MH370 that disappeared on March 8. They have their
noses in the trough of human tragedy.
The haste with which
they are dragging both Boeing, the aircraft manufacturer, and MAS, the airline
operator, through the courts in Chicago is indecent. It is not fair to tar all
lawyers with the same brush, but it is the few whose unethical behaviour which
has given this great profession a bad name.
Malaysia has been
unreasonably blamed for the handling of this crisis that any fair-minded person
would readily concede as unprecedented in the history of aviation. An American
friend of mine from New York sent me an email ten days after the disappearance
of MH 370, in the following terms: "The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines
flight 370 after its departure from Kuala Lumpur International Airport has
given the world a very unsettling demonstration of how fragile our lives can
be... The feeling here due to perceptions of the management of the search for
flight 370 is turning quite negative on Malaysian officials."
I responded by saying
that perceptions are real in that they exist, but do not forget that more often
than not, they have no basis in fact. Nothing like this has happened before to
a large commercial airliner; it is unprecedented.
To suggest that we are
withholding vital information, as many are doing, when nearly all of the
so-called information is nothing more than idle gossip and pure speculation, is
to encourage and condone the passing on to emotionally drained relatives and
friends unverified bits of "news" garnered from CNN, the New York
Times and the Telegraph newspaper, and the usually unreliable
sensation-peddling tabloids for which Britain is noted.
Do you think, I asked
him, in identical situations, other countries could have done any better? We
won't know until another mysterious disappearance, God forbid, will we?
What the world seems to
forget is that they are not talking about a Mickey Mouse airline: MAS is a
world-class airline, among the best in the world.
There had been, until
now, only one fatal crash, in 1977, killing more than a hundred people when the
plane was hijacked on a domestic flight. It has had a safety record second to
none, better than many "national" airlines anywhere in the world.
Two people who have
stood out in managing the crisis are undoubtedly Prime Minister Datuk Seri
Najib Razak and Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin
Hussein.
With the pressures and
uncharitable innuendoes and all kinds of allegations swirling around their
ankles, they remained totally focused and unflappable.
Hishammuddin, whom the
opposition had done their level best to ridicule, has shown in very trying
circumstances, an unprecedented crisis no less, that he has risen like a true
professional, above the murky depths of opposition politics.
Even traditionally
hostile foreign journalists have decided to give him a grudging endorsement.
I will not waste too
many words on the behaviour of the opposition beyond saying I deplore their
behaviour in these difficult times: many people overseas are aghast at their
conduct in a national crisis, but there is an element of some black humour when
the party that could not hold its central executive committee election in an
open and transparent manner is trying to make us believe that they could have
done a better job of managing this unhappy affair.
My concluding words of
deep sympathy and love must go to the members of the cockpit and the cabin crew
who perished in the service of a great iconic airline that Malaysia is fortunate
to be able to call its own.
Read more: Rising above unfair criticism - Columnist - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/opinion/columnist/rising-above-unfair-criticism-1.537365#ixzz2xOMf7cIb
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