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20 March 2014
Global mankind feels
tormenting pains and anguish to search for the missing
Malaysian Flight 370
and to find rational answers, so far, unknown and
perhaps unavailable. A tragedy in its making and
unfolding day by day to the unknown horizons
in critical analysis of a crisis situation. What went
wrong to the aviation system that despite all of
the information-age advancements and technological
sophistication, none can tell with surety what tragedy
hit the flight 370 enroute to Beijing with
239 passengers on board?
Throughout the globe, media networks, security and aviation
experts, investigators on the
ground and common folks are passionately engaged in
finding some reasonable consolation to growing
concerns would like to comprehend what the Malaysian
authorities knew once the plane was missing. Strange
as it seems, nine days later, Prime Minister Najib
Razik asserts that it was a "deliberate" diversion of
the plane. Why the plane was not reported missing once
it failed to transform into Vietnamese airspace? Time
and prompt action could have changed the unknown
outcome. How come the sudden diversion to the West of
the Malaysian airspace was not detected by any of its
air force or radar surveillance? Unusual as is, the
plane's transponder was turned off but it did not
alarm any control tower observers.
In an information age bonanza, crisis
of this magnitude ushers compelling and often
unthinkable speculations on the story
makingand audience believe that language
of the media is foretelling the facts. Not so, all in
situation of unsolved mystery rely on speculations and
common sense analysis to find headways which could make
sense to the viewers. In any crisis
situation, facts gathering and facts analysis are the
primary point of investigation into the problem.
Suspicious and paranoid most international experts and
media commentators are on the crux of the problems of
the missing mystery flight, facts were hard to filter
out from the responsible Malaysian officials – both
civilians and military even after seven
days had lapsed. At times, the Malaysian authorities
appear very reluctant to share even basic crude information
related to
the missing flight. At Kuala Lumpur, the initial
briefings and press conferences lacked coherent and
substantial data on the flight progressive path once
it was reported to have disappeared from the radar. Zahaire
Shah, the pilot is reportedly to have said "All
right, good night" but to whom? A week later his
voice is under scrutiny. Were there other suspected
activists on board who might have re-routed the plane
to some unknown destination? Lately, the existence of
large lithium
batteries in cargo was cited
for the mishap. Today, the Malaysian Prime Minister Razik conceived
the possibility that the plane was taken-over by
someone else. Also Prime Minister Najib disclosed
that, "based on new
satellite communication, we can say with
a high degree of certainty that … ACARS was disabled
just before the aircraft reached the east coast of
peninsular Malaysia." Despite all this, the
whereabouts of the plane are unknown. Perhaps, the
official were unaware of the extent of human anxieties
and concerns of the loved-ones and of those passengers
who went missing abruptly without a trace. Tragedies
demand immediate attention and workable alternatives
and remedies as they bring the mankind together
regardless of ethnicities, religions, and political
affiliations as did the Japanese Tsunami in 2011.
Was the plane hijacked or its operation
sabotaged by some passengers or group of terrorists?
Most often, the thought process commandeered the media
analysts to variety of casual but probable scenarios,
still in the making process. A vital question begs a
rational answer. Did the Malaysian
authorities have the professional capacity to
understand highly complex and multiple dimensions of
the tragedy and be able to cope with its short and
long terms impacts on public mind? From the outset,
and based on their initial reactionary gatherings and
interactive communication to the relatives and friends
of the passengers, the poor PR performance and lack of
tangible information of the facts of the flight made
things worst to all concerned. Clearly, the
reliability factor was absent during the information
exchange. The officials demonstrated more stars and
stripes and so many stood to face the audience without
any logical discourse and coherent framework of
strategies to communicate effectively with diverse
audience and viewers watching across the globe. Why
the Malaysian authorities were not equipped to deal
with a critical and highly challenging crisis
situation of their own making? Not embittered but
understanding the painful tragic incident, the global
audience wanted to help the Malaysian authorities only
if they wanted collaboration from all with
professional knowledge and expertise in
analyzing previous air disasters and coming up with
evidence-based conclusions. In an emergency of
this proportion, humanity comes
to share all it could to find answers and alleviate
the sufferings of the victims and attain comforting
and sustainable solution. Perhaps, this message did
not resonate well to the Malaysian officials.
After nine days of the disappearance of the flight
370, they are not sure about the essential facts of
the crisis management and continued to demonstrate
indifference toward global cooperation and help as it
should have been the staring point of the
investigation.
What happened to
the Flight 370? Nobody with certainty could answer
this question.
The CNN appear to have organized the
best possible knowledge-based discussions
and presentations enriched with know-how, when
there was no information on the missing flight,
and participating analytical experts from the aviation
industry, legal and security apparatus offered
penetrating insights to the crisis management. Some
theories and foresight as to how the flight got lost
were plausibly logical and should have paved ways to
investigators to ponder for more thought provoking
process. Is the flight 370 is simply missing somewhere
on this planet, or we lack the information-based
capacity to know where to exactly look for it? If it
crashed somewhere, would the debris be still floating
on water? Understandably, there are 43 ships
and 58 aircrafts of 14 or more nations and numerous
other advanced technological entities are engaged in
search for the mystery flight
370. Yet, after a week of concerted efforts, nothing
has turned out to be known, what was unknown from the
beginning - how did the flight 370 go missing? What
could possibly have happened to its international 239
passengers, the crew and the plane itself? None could
substantiate with reasonable answers except human
theories and guesswork and speculatory "pings" coming
from the plane engine system, sketchy radar signals
unable to calculate the proper direction of the
flight and lot more, perhaps unthinkable in a
rational analytical construct. An instinctive
recognition of the unknown and unthinkable allusion
comes into a world of willing suspicion of disbelief,
be it the experts or the concerned global viewers.
More we ponder on the unknown tragedy
of the mystery flight, more critical and painful it
comes to be felt throughout the hearts and minds of
the global mankind to seek rational answers, when
there are no answers but conflicting analogies and
perceptions – what might have happened to the missing
flight. One CNN female moderator set the human
feelings clearly: "I have never been to Malaysia but
for the last six nights, I could not
sleep." Undeniably, the common flourishing sentiment
rests on the moral and humanitarian concerns - the
well being and safety of the 239 passengers and what
happened to them? The global human instinct remains
deeply touched by the unfolding cumbersome
developments of the lost flight. Who will answer the
focal question – where is this
flight? The agonizing search is shifting metaphor
minute by minute and now investigators are looking
beyond the original parameters and
more towards the Indian Ocean, West of Malaysia
and South China Sea region. But theories and scenarios
are overshadowed by individual and collective concerns
of all the parties involved in the search. Rather than
narrowing the areas of immediate search, its hurriedly
fluxed expansion seems to signal chaotic mental
microscope looking for rational answers. To an
ordinary folk watching the news, why are we unable to
locate the flight after nine days of strenuous
efforts?
Often crisis situations offer a healthy
challenge to our ingenuity, sense of humanity
and responsibility. Rejecting wait and see attitude
and behavioral indifference for a worthy humanitarian
cause, the spontaneous collaborative response
outpoured from various countries such the USA, Europe,
Thailand, Vietnam, India, China, Australia and others
to assist the Malaysian government in locating the
missing flight. The spirit of global volunteerism in a
crisis situation is of utmost importance and value to
build a better future for humanitarian cooperation.
Be it a "terrorism" scenario of the
few, planned hijacking of Flight 370, mechanical
failure of the plane systems or "sabotage" by some
sadistic and cruel minds, the truth will be discovered
sooner or later. No insane manifestation could triumph
in this tragic situation as the individual and
collective conscience of the mankind is fully in tact
and living across the globe to pray and hope for the
best of 239 human lives. The framework of
multinational cooperation must be admired whether the
plane is somewhere in tact or vanished in the shallow
waters of the sea or landed somewhere in a disbelief
scenario that we do not know yet. Facts will be known
when the flight recorder and other data are found -
how, why, who and when the tragedy hit the flight
370? All crises provide new information and knowledge
for analysis and futuristic precautions - the
learning curve and experience to experts and
laymen alike. Agreeably, Malaysian officials will be
the net beneficiary of the outcomes, whether the plane
dipped into sea, was hit by some unknown mishap or
broke apart in the air or was sabotaged by some cruel
and sadistic people. The findings and expert
conclusions will serve a clear purpose to the grieving
relatives and friends of the passengers. Surely,
the tragedies and conclusive outcomes assist us to
enrich our knowledge, experience and understanding
of the unique unthinkable situations which become
thinkable and affect our lives. All conflicts and
crisis contribute new factors to our knowledge of the
known and unknown. They help us to prepare ourselves
to deal with future more carefully and with clarity of
purpose to find rational answers to mysterious and
chaotic developments shaping our world of the known
and the unknown. Crises of this nature should enrich
our enduring capacity and make us more vigilant,
intelligent and powerful to encounter the formidable
challenges of human life. Thus, be it the economics,
politics and humanitarian causes, we could face them
with the power of focused mind and coherent and
unified resolve as One Humanity rising above the ugly
conflicts of names and fames and working together for
the best of living mankind.
(Dr. Mahboob
A. Khawaja specializes in global security, peace and
conflict resolution with keen interests in
Islamic-Western comparative cultures and
civilizations, and author of several publications
including the latest: Global Peace and Conflict
Management: Man and Humanity in Search of New
Thinking. Lambert Academic Publishing
Germany-May,2012) |
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