In Your Death Do Us Fight

Morning brings the best spiritual side of me. In the blackest, quietest dawn, my mind wanders ‘far and wide’, sending out prayers to those I loved, those meaningful to those I loved, and those strangers I come across in our many bizarre headlines – in life and in death. Those moments reinforce my belief that I live this day and the rest of my life for a purpose greater than my own interest. These people are my pillar of strengths in my tumultuous life.

This morning, I made a mental note to search for the names of the 3 youths, who were shot dead by our Men in Blue in November last year as they are amongst those departeds whom I extend “Al-Fatihah” on daily basis. This afternoon, it’s a search made easy as I read this with great sorrow what their post-mortem results tell. Two of these youths - Adik Muhammad Hanafi Omar, 22, Adik Muhammad Shamil Hafiz Shapiei, 15, and Adik Hairul Nizam Tuah, 20 - were shot, based on the angle of the wounds, while kneeling in front of the perpetrators, our Men in Blue.

Please tell me if we have the heart to say that they deserved to die under such brutal circumstances? Friends of foes, no one deserves to be ‘mauled’ senselessly.

Three days ago, hundreds of Egyptians celebrated the first anniversary of Khaled Said’s death. His death sparked the monumental Egypt Uprising - thanks to educated and liberated Egyptian Youths like Wael Ghonim, who have had enough of Hosni Mubarak’s brutish antics and kept the spirit of People Power high till the overthrown of the dictator on 11 February 2011 – which has now spread like a wild fire across the Middle East, once known throughout its history as the epicenter of world affairs. While they are still grappling with the aftershock of the uprising, In his death, Khaled Said has liberated his fellow Egyptians.

Have the torturous deaths of Adik Kugan, Adik Teoh Beng Hock, Adik Amirul and Encik Sarbani at the hands of our Men in Blue and their likes set us free?

Perhaps, their ends should be our beginnings. Perhaps, in their deaths should us all fight. So, one day, there will be no more government which would trample humanity at its mercy.

Let me leave you with this quote from Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, in case you feel that we should not be seriously alarmed of what’s happening around us: -

“Peace, in the sense of the absence of war, is of little value to someone who is dying of hunger or cold. It will not remove the pain of torture inflicted on a prisoner of conscience. It does not comfort those who have lost their loved ones in floods caused by senseless deforestation in a neighboring country. Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free”