“You see, this is the thing about this world. When it comes to politicians, people always forget.”
It is my privilege to introduce to you Dr. Syed Faisal again, he wrote about his experience in tackling Covid 19 pandemic in his hospital HERE. I am happy he allows me to upload his fantastic story ‘ Good Night Malaysia!’ in this blog. His story is always entertaining and inspiring and I hope you enjoy his story which appeared first on his Facebook.
Good Night Malaysia
“Good night Malaysia Three Seven Zero”
These words sent shivers to my spine. Weren’t they the last words heard by the captain on that fatal night?
I hoped the captain knew that these words portended the plane was about to go into oblivion, lost in the ether. Suddenly, I realized I was on that plane! I felt like I wanted to pinch my skin. Couldn’t be possible because I knew we had lost that plane forever but it felt so palpable that we were about to lose this plane again.
I was not dreaming either because I could sense everything that was happening around me. I hope all the other fellow Malaysians on this plane felt the same way too. We were already in the turbulence, shaking uncontrollably. I was already feeling that suffocation and that nauseating feeling all around me.
We all are in the same plane
We had lost all the good food served on the tray table as the turbulence threw everything tumbling down. My heart was racing as the oxygen level coming from the emergency oxygen masks that just dropped was getting lower. This plane was not behaving how a plane was supposed to be. I was sure my other fellow Malaysian passengers felt the same way too.
The whole world was trying to reach the plane. They were trying to tell that something had gone amiss but it felt like the captain had shut off the transponders. Whether he didn’t want to listen to the outcry or he had some ulterior motives, what could we do, we were only the passengers. I felt cheated because the captain promised it was supposed to be a smooth flight when he took over while making the pushback just now.
Since I worked as a doctor, when I had lives at stake I would try my best. I was hoping that the captain would do the same to me. On the ground, the control tower couldn’t even tell the direction where we were going. I wondered if they knew we were going haphazardly. We were suddenly doing that U-turn, crisscrossing on the night sky without a proper direction. We were not even told where we were heading as it seemed the captain had also shut off the flight path that we could watch on our personal tv monitors.
A plane without direction
Obviously, this plane was moving without a proper playbook, only by the whims of the person who controlled the cockpit. The crew of this plane seemed nonchalant. It made me sick to the pits of my stomach that the chief steward could make jocular announcements like telling us that if ever the plane crashed he was sure they would have already prepared the contena to pick up our bodies.
In fact one of the crews told me to eat up my own food that had already fallen down on the aisle as they were not bothered to give anymore.
One of the elderly women in front of my seat scolded him for that crass remark.
Instead, the steward balked by scolding her back in his thick Malaysian accent, “Don’t probok probok ok? “ (Please do not provoke).
I wondered what kind of credentials these crews had as there was not even a qualm of professionalism in their job even at this critical hour. I thought it was us who paid their salaries for that expensive tickets.
Malaysia is blessed but we are divided
I felt they were in cahoots with the steering team in that cockpit. Didn’t they realize that if this plane went down, it would take them along too?
I knew there were a lot of talented people on this plane. Before we took off, I managed to break the ice with some of the fellow Malaysian passengers. The majority of them were professionals, from engineers to doctors, from lecturers to philosophers. Some were even scientists and budding astrophysicists. Malaysia was indeed blessed with a multitalented group of people.
In fact, the person beside me was actually a young pilot who had flown a plane like this. Although we were a multiracial group, we really felt like a family chatting gregariously in this calm before the storm. Now that our mere lives were on the line, we had to put aside any religious or racial differences. We definitely needed to work in unison before our existence came to an end. If anyone thought that they could hop to another plane that would be wishful thinking now.
We have to be one and rise again
We got to set our tone right again and enough of being a backbencher sitting in the passenger seats, doing nothing. There were tons of good-witted professionals here just within a short distance of my seats. I bet they would be more upfront. I wanted to ask “Are we just going to sit and watch and let these half-baked crew members determine the destiny of our lives?”
I could assure you that our children would be disappointed if they knew we perished without doing anything. This was not a drill, we were not in a cinema and totally not meant for us to just keep sitting and watching.
I hoped nobody would be mistaken that I was promulgating a mutiny. In fact, I bet the pilots up in front would be more used to that terminology. I was saying this because I really loved this plane as it was carrying our lives and the emblem of Malaysia.
We all have only ONE plane
I just wanted all of us as the passengers in this plane to take a bigger role. Maybe we could attend to the needy passengers who were in a frantic panic mode. Perhaps we could knock some senses in the thick skull of the crews or better still just take over their role.
Maybe we could break open the cockpit door and see what was really happening behind the scene. Suddenly, I just couldn’t take it anymore!
I grabbed and dragged that young pilot with me up to the cockpit. Of course some of the crew members tried to stop me but some other passengers pushed them aside. I just wanted to tell these old pilots upfront that we wouldn’t mind a young fresh pilot like this chap to lead us as long as he could bring us to our destination safely.
He was obviously more talented, more professional, and more presentable than those bunch of old pilots that I saw before they entered the cockpit just now.
To my surprise when I eavesdropped behind the door I could hear all of them bickering with each other fighting to get the role of the captain.
They were totally oblivious of the plight of the passengers behind them. Even at the brink of our death, greed and power were still in their minds.
Do something before the plan crashes
One of the smart engineers in the plane calculated that we only had a few hours left before we run out of fuel. I was perspiring profusely because I didn’t know how to end this.
All I knew was we were still flying and the plane had not crashed yet. I wondered whether anyone out there among us, the passengers could complete this story. I really wished it would end with the paraphrase “they lived happily ever after” All I hoped when the ground tower wished us “Goodnight Malaysia” just now, they really meant well.
We wouldn’t want to have a sequel……
