Malaysia’s Walls of Hope for missing airline
Kate Mayberry, Al Jazeera
Malaysians awoke last Saturday morning to distressing and unexpected news; one of the national carrier’s planes had gone missing.
As thousands took to social media to express their concern for the 239 people on board flight MH370, Malaysian activist Azrul Khalib and his friends began thinking about a more meaningful way to show their support for those affected.
The result was the Wall of Hope – a place for ordinary people to share their own handwritten messages of hope for passengers and crew.
“We are not able to contribute to the search itself, but we are hoping this small contribution can help console, heal and support the families affected,” said Azrul, who is part of a group called Malaysians for Malaysia.
The first wall was erected in a luxury shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur City Centre on Monday. The response was immediate. The 200 tags printed initially for people to leave their messages on were used up in just half an hour. The mall printed thousands more.
“We want them to know that the whole country is standing next to them and supporting them in this really terrible time. In times like this we discover that there are things bigger than ourselves. We are reminded of our humanity,” Azrul said.
Still searching
Nearly a week after the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200 went missing on a night flight to Beijing, and with the search for the plane now stretching from the Indian Ocean to the coast of Vietnam, the incident has inspired widespread sympathy for those involved.
But it has also exposed the shortcomings of Malaysia’s government amid ferocious criticism of its handling of the crisis. Information has been patchy and government ministers, the airline and civil servants have sometimes contradicted each other or made comments widely deemed as inappropriate.
Despite the emergence in the country of a vibrant online press, Malaysian ministers are rarely challenged on policy because most of the mainstream media is either owned by the state or the ruling political parties.
Legislation that limits freedom of expression, such as the Sedition Act, cows many journalists and fosters a climate of self-censorship. Investigative journalism is almost unheard of in a country that’s been governed by more-or-less the same coalition since independence in 1957.
At a particularly testy press conference on Wednesday, a government press official even berated journalists over their “ethics” for trying to interview the Chinese Ambassador who’d unexpectedly arrived to listen to the proceedings.
The official told the media they should be using the room only to speak to Malaysian officials.
“The government has been so comfortable with the local subservient media that when facing the free international media, they are in disarray,” opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim told parliament the next day.
“(There are) too many contradictions. This is not the way to manage a crisis. Each and every statement must be verified first before being issued.”
