VOLUNTEERISM comes from the heart. Not just any ordinary heart, but one that knows no fear and driven by a passion to care and help those in distress.
It helps if the heart is colour blind, apolitical and armed with a firm belief in universal values.
Volunteerism is also addictive, a fact that Datuk Wira Dr Bahari Abu Mansor learned over the last few decades with the Malaysian Red Crescent (MRC).
From an ordinary volunteer, Dr Bahari gained much experience in domestic and foreign humanitarian work to rise to become deputy chairman of MRC.
This doctor, who operates his clinic in Petaling Jaya, quickly learned that volunteering wasn’t easy. His involvement with MRC started in earnest in the 1980s in Selangor. Soon, his good work spread and he was persuaded to lead the movement in Malacca, his home state.
Today, as MRC’s number two, Dr Bahari focuses most of his work at its headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.
Widely regarded as one of the Red Crescent’s most recognisable faces, Dr Bahari is sharing his expertise and depth of knowledge in humanitarian work in the country and abroad.
Last year, he was given the rare honour of speaking on behalf of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (commonly referred to as national societies) from Asean at the general assembly of world Red Cross Red Crescent in Turkey.
Dr Bahari is a morning person, and having thosai and teh tarik with him at 7am is not an issue at all, which was what I did as we discussed an international humanitarian conference to be held in Malacca this month.
You can’t have tea with Dr Bahari without asking him to recount his assignment almost 20 years ago involving kidnapped hostages in the southern Philippines. With two doctors and a medical assistant, Dr Bahari was given the rare and dangerous assignment of ascertaining the health of the hostages.
I’m sure many of us recall the kidnapping of 21 holidaymakers and workers at the Sipadan dive centre 18 years ago. The Abu Sayyaf militant group claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and they whisked the kidnapped away to Jolo Island in southern Philippines.
Soon after the kidnapping, Dr Bahari received a call asking if he would like to go to Jolo Island and run medical check-ups on the hostages.
Their safety was on everyone’s mind. Besides foreign tourists, the hostages included Ma-laysians working in the resort.
Dr Bahari’s team was made up of Dr Imran Khalid, Dr Mohd Azmi Yusof and medical assistant Nik Azhar Nik Abdul Rahman.
On May 10, 2000, the team flew to Kota Kinabalu en route to Zamboanga the following day.
As in all of its global operations, the MRC sought help from the national society of the host country, in this case the Philippines Red Cross.
Getting to see the hostages wasn’t automatic. They managed to see them only after many negotiations and security checks.
The team saw the hostages one week after they took off from Kuala Lumpur.
It was a brief medical inspection and the hostages were given medicines and vitamins.
“Needless to say, this was one of my scariest assignments as a Red Crescent volunteer,” Dr Bahari said, recalling the moments which remained fresh in his memory.
Fast forward to today. Dr Bahari will play host to the visiting Red Cross and Red Crescent from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Timor Leste and Vietnam in Malacca from April 9 to 11, for the annual conference of the region’s national societies.
The Malacca meeting will be the 15th for the Southeast Asian region. Every year, they will meet to discuss ways to strengthen operations in humanitarian missions.
This has always been the hallmark of this global relief team.
Which is why Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers are among the first to arrive at disaster scenes anywhere in the world.
Such speed and close collaboration are the result of years of working together with advanced planning and good networking.
And this will be further discussed and refined at the Malacca conference.
Dr Bahari said the national societies were committed to putting into practice its “One Asean One Response” motto when it comes to humanitarian initiatives.
The Malacca government has been generous enough to lend support to the conference, with Governor Tun Khalil Yaakob expected to attend the gala dinner on April 10.
Chief Minister Datuk Seri Idris Haron is set to open the conference on the same day.
The Malacca conference is billed as Southeast Asia Red Cross and Red Crescent Leadership meeting.
The International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent will have representatives at the conference.
International humanitarian initiatives require smart partnership all around. Hence, the involvement and support from all relevant quarters.
Twitter: @aatpahitmanis
The writer is Yayasan Salam Malaysia chairman