CIRCUMSTANCES have presented Malaysia with lemons, again. This time however, the prime minister has used it to good effect and overcame obstacles in efforts to investigate what caused Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH17 to crash and retrieve the victims’ bodies. Taking a neutral position until all facts are on the table, Putrajaya took the tact of not agreeing with the premature conclusions of Washington and its allies, which held pro-Russian separatists responsible for shooting out of the sky flight MH17. The PM had his priorities spot on as he negotiated directly with the separatist leader whose militia controls the area where the wreckage of the MAS jet had landed just outside of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, some 50 kilometres from the Russian border. Datuk Seri Najib Razak saw the urgency of retrieving the remains of the victims and providing some closure for grieving relatives as paramount. After all, blame will come when the international investigation team completes its task.
He achieved what no other world leader was able to do: procure an agreement of cooperation with the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and their handover of MH17’s black box recorders to Malaysian experts, who confirmed that these have not been tampered with. That the position adopted by the PM is nothing less than the best is testified to by the Dutch team, first to inspect the bodies of the victims moved into storage in refrigerated train carriages, who commended those the rebels had used to secure the integrity of the corpses under very difficult conditions. And while many had complained about the limited access to the crash scene prior to this, the danger of the site became obvious as the nearby explosions of the pounding of the area by the Kiev government continued without respite. That a war is raging nobody can deny and a Malaysian journalist there confirms the risk to personal safety.
The Russian ambassador to Kuala Lumpur has thanked the PM for his innocent-until-proven-guilty stance. Najib’s agreement with the DPR leader Alexander Borodai has also meant that international investigators will have safe passage to sieve through evidence at the crash site. Now it is up to others to not fail him. Malaysia’s politics has also gained as support for the leadership is given by the adviser of the DAP who urged the country to unite around the MH17 tragedy. Obviously, the nation is proud of what the PM has achieved against the backdrop of accusations and counter accusations between the world’s major powers, namely, the United States and Russia. Quiet diplomacy behind the scenes has produced the desired effect and that Najib had the resilience to not react to criticisms of inaction on his handling of the MH17 tragedy — so as not to jeopardise his efforts — must be applauded. He and his team concluded a historic diplomatic manoeuvre of the kind that must be emulated by other world leaders.