With Thanks to FMT:
He is Malaysia's saving grace amidst the bungling over MH370
COMMENT
The missing MH370
occupies my thoughts from the moment I wake up to the last minutes of
consciousness before I fall asleep.
I think of the people
waiting to hear of the fate of their loved ones, spouses wondering what might
have happened to their partners, parents anxious for news about sons and
daughters, relatives and friends praying for the safety of everyone on board
and, most heart rending of all, children waiting for the return of their
parents.
I do not know any of
the passengers or crew members, and yet I read, watch and listen to every bit
of information coming from out there and try to imagine how those with loved
ones on the flight are bearing their pain.
I’m sure millions out
there share my thoughts and feelings and are thankful that the world has joined
Malaysia in the search for closure.
I have to believe that
our government is doing all it can to to search for the missing aircraft.
I am comforted by the
confidence and precise manner with which Acting Transport Minister-cum-Defence
Minister Hishammuddin Hussein faces the world media and answers the questions
thrown at him.
When he does not know
something, he says he does not know. When a question can be better answered by
MAS CEO Jauhari Yahya, he defers to him.
Hishammuddin is
Malaysia’s public face for a world hungry for information, and he does not
disappoint. But others who at various time have taken centre stage for their
fifteen seconds of fame have been disappointing.
The IGP and the Chief
of Armed Forces are often lost in their own self-importance and our nation will
be better off if they are kept in the background. Hishammuddin alone suffices.
I cringe as I watch the
police and armed forces chiefs bask in their imagined glory on the world stage.
These two have not conducted themselves with the honour that their positions
demand.
Even
Najib has failed
For some reason, our
Prime Minister thought it worthwhile to give two press briefings, but what he
had to say I and millions of others had already heard from the Internet and
other sources. And he was not even clear on what he wanted to say – did the
plane crash or not? How could it end its flight it Indian Ocean without
crashing?
And he did not have the
nerve to take questions from the hungry global media and walked away from the
briefings with his tail between his legs.
Obviously, he did not
have the confidence to face the unscripted questions of the international media
in their unrelenting pursuit of the truth.
Someone among the vast
numbers of advisors that Najib has should have briefed him of the possible
media frenzy fuelled by the voracious appetite of the public to know what had
happened to MH370.
It has been more than
three weeks now of Malaysia and MH370 hogging headlines everywhere in the
civilized world, three weeks that present an unprecedented opportunity for our
nation’s leaders to show the world what they are capable of doing when faced
with a tragedy of epic proportions.
Never before and
perhaps never again will they find themselves so much on the world stage. And
except for Hishammuddin, they have all failed.
It is one thing to
enter a room full of friendly and pliant media sycophants in the briefing room
at Putrajaya and another to face reporters who do their questioning unscripted
and unrehearsed and are relentless in their pursuit of the facts.
To them the PM or the
Acting Transport Minister is not deserving of respect until they have proven
themselves worthy of it. And most of our officials have not proven themselves
worthy of the respect of those hardened journalists.
What did Najib hope to
gain by taking centre stage at a briefing that Hishamuddin could have handled
with ease? This man continues to astound us with his lack of depth.
Media
frenzy
I do not know how MH370
will pan out, but if the world press is to believed—and its global audience
makes it imperative for our leaders to take heed—the Malaysian government has
failed to be open and transparent to the grieving families and thereby brought
shame on our nation.
Background checks on
the captain and his crew and passengers should have been part of standard
procedure to be carried out as soon as the plane was reported missing. That
would be what any responsible government would have done. That the authorities
in Malaysia failed to do so does not do much for their credibility.
Did Najib not know that
there would be a media frenzy brought on by the demands of a 24/7 news cycle?
Every bit of news,
information and hearsay on MH370 was spun around the globe within seconds and
then took on a life of its own.
What the government
will not tell the international journalists they will not hesitate to find out
from other sources, and many of these will speculate and spin.
This is indeed a sorry
saga that will not end until there is closure with the discovery of MH370.
I hope that
Hishammuddin will continue to helm the press conferences, and as the drama
continues to unfold, our prayers are for those on board MH370 and the loved
ones waiting desperately for news of them. Al Fatihah.
CT Ali is a
reformist who believes in Pakatan Rakyat’s ideologies. He is a FMT columnist.
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