Last night I couldnt sleep. Waking up every now and then with the sound of plane flying across the skyline above me, I couldnt help thinking about the ordeal at hand. The MAS plane with 239 people is still missing. When I first got the news yesterday, I anxiously waited for tweets, timeline updates, rarely taking my eyes off CNN and local Awani, all in the hope to get some news. Funny, when something that doesnt really concerns you take center stage in your mind. This morning, I saw our First Lady crying together with the families of the missing persons. My daughter asked, ‘Do you think she really feel for them?’. I replied, ‘How can she not, she is only human and a mother and we are all like her children.’ Yes, the nation is mourning and in great anxiety over this incident. Slowly, news started to trickle. A report said that the plane had landed safely in Nanjing which is nearer than Beijing . Some moronic idiots were already at it, saying that this is God’s omen, payment for inflicting untoward treatment to innocent people. So, what was the crime of the people on board that plane that they have to be pay the penance for Malaysia? The timeline pictures showed vivid superimposed pictures of ocean-crashed plane with rescue boats around it. My daughter received an eerie recording of a chaotic scenario of a group of people about to face a doomed situation and a male voice repeatedly shouting ‘Allahuakbar’ before everything went silent. Her friends on the offshore oil rigs off the Gulf of Thailand confirmed that they saw debris and oil slicks and said that the plane is in tatters and there is no hope for survivors. I advised her not to retweet or repost these unconfirmed news on her timeline. Then there is a friend who posted picture of debris of a plane and said that, ‘Yes, confirmed found and everybody dead.’ I quickly switched on CNN and then rebutted her, ‘I am watching CNN and nothing is confirmed yet. Where did you get this news?’ She went quiet. I remember the last tragic aviation incident which happened in 1977 in Tanjung Kupang after MH653 was hijacked. The plane with 93 passengers crashed and exploded in what could only be described as an apocalyptic incident. Even as a child, I joined the rest of Malaysia in mourning and watched as clergies from different religions performed rituals at the same pit that buried all the victims’remains. My mother said, how ironic, where are the differences now? Whatever will happen until the plane is found, I wish that it had landed safely somewhere with its entire passenger alive and well if a little distressed. It’s commendable that all Malaysians had put aside their differences in ideologies, politics and racial issues and are praying together for flight MH370s safe return. I am not naive. I just don’t want to lose hope.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 15:00:00 +0000
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