Crying out for peace
Baidura Ahmad
First Lady Datin Seri Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali gets worked up emotionally when she reads, sees or hears of any acts of bullying and aggression by strong countries on the weak. "I get sick of the continuous pronouncements of human rights, children's rights and protection of the weak by countries that preach but do not practice them themselves," she says when asked why she has always been a powerful voice on peace, here and abroad.
Since her husband, Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad, became Prime Minister in 1981, she has used her position as the wife of the country's most powerful man to campaign tirelessly for women's health, family planning, drug abuse control and adult literacy. In recent years, she has tirelessly campaigned for peace both officially and privately. For instance, when India and Pakistan threatened to unleash nuclear war over the Kashmir conflict, Dr Siti Hasmah wrote to Sehba Musharaff, wife of Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf, and Usha Narayanan, wife of the then Indian President Kocheril Raman Narayanan, appealing to both First Ladies to try to influence their spouses not to go to war. (India and Pakistan stood down from the brink of war after world intervention).
When she accompanied Dr Mahathir on his official visit to Cairo last month, Dr Siti Hasmah used the opportunity to voice her support for peaceful solutions to Suzanne Mubarak, wife of Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak. Suzanne is part of a a Women's Peace Movement Group established in Lebanon and Egypt to promote and support peace initiatives among nations.
Recently Dr Siti Hasmah signed the Malaysians for Peace – One Million Signatures Campaign, which ended yesterday. The ad-hoc movement joins peace lovers the world over in putting down their protest against a probable US-led war in Iraq.
When asked whether a signature campaign by Malaysia, a third world country, would make a superpower like America reconsider its invasion of Iraq, Dr Siti Hasmah is optimistic, or rather, realistic.
Saying that the US might not be at all influenced by the protests, she says, "at least we have voiced our protest along with most people in the world including the Americans themselves.
"If the US decides to go to war, yes, we cannot stop this. But at least, we are together in one voice.
"I have always taken the opportunity to speak about peace and the effects of war on innocent people in forums and conventions overseas but how much I have influenced the distinguished audience I wouldn't know. "My intention is to voice my concern and feelings about the effects and the loss of lives in any conflict. Some might have agreed with me but for their own reasons, decline to openly support in the forum or conventions. Maybe because the opposing side were also present and so diplomacy takes priority," she says.
At the World Economic Forum Davos last month, Dr Siti Hasmah met a Republican congressman from the US who told her how most Americans did not agree to going to war with Iraq.
But the congressman would only say this in private, says Dr Siti Hasmah. Double standards is something that Dr Siti Hasmah abhors.
"On one hand individuals claim to be peace advocates, yet those same people who have the power to change decisions and avoid war and disaster, do nothing. "Double standards, arrogance in wielding power over impoverished nations and weak nations makes me thoroughly sick. I was prepared to go to New York last June for the Children's Rights Summit but after seeing the gruesome and terrible actions of the Israeli troops on Palestine children on CNN, I cancelled my trip. "I could not bring myself to even shake hands with those who seemingly advocate peace and children's rights but do absolutely nothing." Dr Siti Hasmah led one of the first women's groups to Iraq when in March 2000, she went on a working visit – accompanied by a group of 11 women, representatives from non-governmental organisations, doctors and the media – to Baghdad to find out the effects of the decade-old economic sanctions against the country.
Although a group of women from Thailand made a similar visit soon after, it was not as high-level as one led by the First lady of a country. That's why during the three-day trip which included visits to hospitals, orphanages, schools and homes for the aged, Iraq's Prime Minister Tarik Aziz and Vice-President Talha Yassin asked to see Dr Siti Hasmah. The two men expressed their gratitude to her for personally making the visit.
On their return home, the group, moved by the suffering they saw, submitted a report to the Cabinet. When asked for her response, Dr Siti Hasmah wrote in the New Straits Times: "I saw sick children in the hospital in Babylon, sharing beds with their mothers, sharing oxygen masks; doctors trying hard to reduce their suffering from leukaemia, bronco-pneumonia and diarrhoea. My tears flowed and flowed." Since that visit, during which the group called G-11, brought with them medication for the hospitals they went to, several Iraqi doctors continue to receive assistance and moral support from their Malaysian peers.
Dr Siti Hasmah says, "Iraq also wanted us to assist them in ending the economic sanctions. They made this appeal besides medical and educational items. We told them Malaysia has always supported the lifting of the sanctions in public and in the UN.
"Many groups have gone to Iraq before and after flights into Baghdad were allowed and we should continue to do this for humanitarian reasons. We should provide them with the basic amenities for the medical and educational needs of the people.
"We could have done and given more if not for the tight sanction regulations. Malaysia should and must strongly protest against the inhumane comprehensive economic sanctions against Iraq and voice our protest against the invasion." To Dr Siti Hasmah, the neighbouring Arab countries should be aware of the delicate situation in their region and that they should make every effort to avoid war in their region. "I think Malaysians and Malaysia have done our utmost, except to send troops to defend Iraq. We are peace makers not combatants."
©New Straits Times (M) Berhad |
