Kudos Malaysian Journalists!

As I sat and listen to the latest news on the capture of the Rachel Corrie, I hoped and prayed that everyone aboard would be safe, would come home safe.

The MV Rachel Corrie, the sole flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to Israeli-blockaded Gaza was seized by Israeli Defence Force at about 9.45 am (Malaysian time) on 5^th June 2010.

Perdana Global Peace Organisation (PGPO) representatives Shamsul Akmar Musa Kamal, Matthias Chang and Ahmad Faizal Azumu, Parit Member of Parliament Drs Mohd Nizar Zakaria, TV3 reporter Halim Mohamed and cameraman Mohd Jufri Judin were on board the ship.

Reading the messages that were coming in via blackberry from the journalist on board before they were captured, made me very uneasy and frightful for them especially after what happened to the Mavi Marmara.

One of the smses that came in at 6.56 am Malaysian time read, “We are about two hundred miles from Gaza. Should be there late Friday or early Saturday - Shamsul”. And then there was this message received later “Radar communication blocked… 3 navy vessels captured coming near just now… all are instructed to be calm and ready…” and then everything went dead… and there was no knowing the fate of the occupants on board.

We found out later that night that they were all safe although the Israeli government wanted to press immigration charges against Shamsul Akmar, Matthias Chang, Ahmad Faizal, Drs Mohd Nizar and Halim but nothing surfaced after.

Waking up at 6 am the following day to see the live coverage of the 10 activist with two media members from Astro Awani, journalist Ashwad Ismail and cameraman Shamsul Kamal Latip come home was such a relief for family members. I sat and watched feeling respite but laced with sadness as I watched fathers hugging small children, wives and others that came in throngs to the airport to greet these heroes.

The other thing that was playing on my mind was what if they had not come back safe? There is never an easy way of saying these things, what if they had come back in caskets? There will always be cliché statements like “they didn’t die in vain” or “their deaths will be avenged, we will tell their stories to the world”. Would it have been worth it? Why does somebody need to die to prove a point?

To say that they didn’t expect retaliation from the Israeli forces would not be entirely true as the TV3 crew went ‘armed’ with bullet vests and all. But nothing would have prepared them mentally for what was to happened. They were lucky that there was no bloodshed as with the Mavi Marmara.

Turkish photographer Cevdet Kiliçlar was reported killed by Israeli troops who stormed the flotilla

off the coast of Gaza. Witnesses said he was shot in the head when he pointed his camera at the commandos. Kiliçlar, 38, was from Kayseri. A graduate of Marmara University’s Faculty of Communications, he was formerly a newspaper journalist for the National Gazette and the Anatolia Times. For the past year, he was a reporter and webmaster for the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH). He leaves behind, a wife Derya, a daughter, Gülhan, and Erdem, a son.

Now we will no longer see his pictures whose images will break your heart, knowing he is no longer among us to capture, with such incredible delicacy and dignity, the faces of his subjects. But yes, now the world knows in full facts of the aristocracies of the Israeli forces and what devastating damage they have done towards the Palestinians.

The Mavi Marmara tragedy has now gained action in the Dewan Rakyat. Motion to not only condemn but also move an international legal/advisory proceeding against Israel @ UNGA & ICJ has been tabled in Malaysian Parliament by Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

We’ve had our share of journalists that have covered war torn countries to tell the world of the pitiful stories that have emerge from the destruction of combat either pre or post. I’ve had a few friends from TV3, for example Nasharudin Tajudin that travelled to Bosnia Herzegovina in 1993 to cover the ethnic conflict and Rosli Abu Hasan who did coverage on our very own United Nations peace keepers while there in frigid December winter in 1996.

Kamarudin Mape journeyed to Iraq’s pre war waiting in anxiousness for the first bombs to fall in March 2003. Izwan Izir Ahmad trekked across the borders of Israeli and Palestine in January 2009 to see and experience first hand the fear of having the ‘red laser’ of the Israeli rifle trained on him whenever they collided. Rosli again travel to Thailand to cover the 14^th Asean Summit in April last year, and found himself smack in the centre of clashes between the Red and Yellow shirts which ended in many deaths.

They of course had different accounts of stories that didn’t go on air, couldn’t for reasons that were not revealed but understood only by fellow journalists. At that point, the only right thing was to process the story regardless of unrest, fear and a whole range of emotions that they were going through.

For all the other journalists, either from print or the other broadcasting houses, we take our hats of to you. Kudos Malaysian Journalists! And yes “we are journalists; we can be where ever we want!’