Where were you when... ?
Professor Tan Sri Dato' Dzulkifli Abdul Razak
Learning Curve: Perspective
New Sunday Times - 27-7-2014
A TRAGIC event leaves a lasting impression. Everyone remembers where they were when it happened.
Sept 11, 2001 is a good example. Thirteen months ago on this day, another indelible impression left its mark on me.
On June 27 last year, I was in Cairo after making an exit from Gaza through the Rafah checkpoint — a journey that took almost forever, plagued with uncertainties and insecurity. I was indeed lucky to be let out after waiting for hours on end.
An impending mass rally against the then Egyptian president, Mohamed Morsi, apparently caused the delay. I recall Morsi making a lengthy speech on national television while I was having dinner en route to Cairo.
It took at least five hours to cross the Sinai desert from Rafah to the city centre by the Nile. There was a massive traffic jam.
The queues at the petrol stations were unusually long, allegedly due to short supply, fuelling the sentiment for a rally scheduled for June 30.
Posters of the President, marked with a red “X” on his portrait, abound. T-shirts bore the message: The power of the people is greater than the people in power.
I arrived in Cairo at midnight with a police escort in a car amidst this atmosphere. But it was the rare experience of a week in Gaza that filled my mind. The current incursion into the Gaza Strip brings vivid images into mind.
Gaza Strip, no bigger than the size of Langkawi, is inhabited by almost 1.8 million people, mostly Palestinian refugees who were forced to vacate their homeland. This is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. More than 50 per cent of the people are below 18 years old.
The mood in Gaza then was serene and peaceful. The people, polite and determined, are beyond the under siege mentality.
Life goes on as they take pride in their resoluteness, not only in ensuring their survival but also that of Palestine as a whole.
They do not whine and grumble in the face of challenges, unlike some pampered Malaysians. Neither do they expect handouts. They politely turn them down. They have been awakened to the real meaning of life, with no room for complacency and charity. They fight hard to live each day.
There is a thirst for knowledge in the universities I visited, as it is the only assurance for the future. Yet one of the buildings on campus was just bombarded.
History has repeatedly shown that those who tough it out over generations will eventually come out jubilant to take their rightful place in the world. It is only a matter of time unless there is a genocide.
A genocide took place in Srebrenica almost 20 years ago on July 13, 1995.
This is the day that marked the first massacre of unarmed Muslims in a warehouse in the nearby village of Kravica.
The Dutch court was informed that Dutch peacekeepers — the Dutchbat — handed over 5,000 Muslims who had been sheltering at the Dutch base at Potocari.
This was in exchange for the release of 14 Dutchbats held captive at the Nova Kasaba base by Bosnian Serbs.
The Hague District Court ruled that the Netherlands was liable for the death of more than 300 men taken from the Dutch compound in Srebrenica.
The peacekeepers had failed to protect them despite the area being designated as a “safe area” by the United Nations. Nearly 8,000 men and boys were massacred — the most heinous since the end of World War 2 in Europe. Ironically, European Union was the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize 2012.
The shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 displays a similar indiscriminate aggression.
Without doubt, as the citizens of world, we need to bring back some semblance of sanity before future generations are left out to die.
Perhaps we need to be inspired by the words of wisdom emblazoned on Egyptian T-shirts: The power of the people is greater than the people in power.