… ekoran kejayaan Perdana Menteri Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib Abdul Razak,
mencapai kata sepakat dengan ketua pemisah Alexander Borodai supaya mayat
mangsa-mangsa pesawat MH17 serta kotak-kotak hitamnya, dikembalikan kepada
wakil negara kita.
“… apparently
achieved what pressure from far more powerful nations had failed to accomplish,”
menurut laporan New York Times, memuji usaha dan kejayaan Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib,
sambil menempelak kegagalan kuasa-kuasa besar untuk menanganinya.
Berikut ialah artikel penuh laporan untuk siaran pada Isnin, 21 Julai, yang
di bawah tajuk ‘Malaysia Premier Brokers Deal to Recover Black Boxes’;
.jpg)
MR NAJIB… Malaysian
Prime Minister Najib Razak announces that two black boxes from the downed
Malaysia Airlines flight will be handed over by Ukrainian rebels. Credit Olivia
Harris/Reuters
By
KEITH BRADSHER and CHRIS
BUCKLEYJULY
KUALA LUMPUR – Prime
Minister Najib Razak’s announcement that his government had reached an agreement
with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, for the transfer of the bodies
and so-called black boxes from Flight 17 to Malaysian representatives there,
apparently achieved what pressure from far more powerful nations had failed to
accomplish.
Mr
Najib said in a live television broadcast to his nation early Tuesday (NOTE :
July 22) that the agreement with Alexander Borodai, a commander of the
separatist forces in Donetsk, Ukraine, called for the bodies to be taken by
train to Kharkiv, a city held by the Ukrainian government. Six Malaysian
representatives were to oversee the transfer of the bodies in Kharkiv to Dutch
custody.
Under
the agreement, the bodies and the Malaysian representatives would then be flown
in a Dutch C-130 Hercules transport plane to the Netherlands for identification
and repatriation of remains, Mr Najib said.
The
two black boxes from the plane – which are actually orange – were to be handed
over to Malaysian representatives in Donetsk, the eastern Ukraine city that is
the headquarters of the pro-Moscow separatists.
If
all participants honor the deal, it would be a diplomatic success for Malaysia.
Mr Najib said that at times over the
past few days he had wanted to be more outspoken about events in Ukraine, “but sometimes, we must work quietly in the
service of a better outcome.”
‘UNUSUAL SPATE
OF DIPLOMACY BY MR NAJIB’
The
agreement is the result of an unusual spate of diplomacy by Mr Najib, who held
a series of secret telephone calls with Mr Borodai.
A
person with a detailed knowledge of the negotiations said that Mr Borodai
concluded that he would only release the bodies and black boxes to Malaysia,
although Malaysia would then transfer the bodies to the Netherlands and make
the black boxes available for an international investigation.
The
backdrop for the negotiations was a slowly growing criticism within Malaysia,
including by some in the political opposition, that Mr Najib did not appear to
be more publicly critical of the separatists or Russia.
The
agreement with the separatists followed four days of sometimes frenetic
diplomacy in which a series of senior Malaysian officials – including the
country’s foreign minister and transport minister – rushed to Kiev, Moscow and
Amsterdam to broker a deal.
Malaysia,
and particularly Mr Najib, have played an outsize role in diplomatic agreements
in Southeast Asia in recent years, and tried to apply those skills to dealing
with the separatists.
MR NAJIB’S EARLIER
ROLE IN MYANMAR
Mr
Najib brokered the peace agreement early this year between the Philippines
government and a long-running insurgency in the south of the country, and he
played an earlier role in helping persuade the military government in Myanmar
to begin the evolution there toward a democratically elected government.
Malaysia
has an enormous stake in resolving the problems that have impeded a prompt
investigation of the crash and the quick recovery of the 298 victims, who are
exposed to abuse and tampering.
The downed jet belonged to the Malaysian national carrier, and those who died
included 43 Malaysian citizens, 15 of them crew members. As well, Malaysia was
already struggling with the unexplained loss of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370,
still missing more than four months after it disappeared after turning from its
planned course.
Investigators
have concluded that Flight 370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean off the
western coast of Australia, but the confusion and missteps that plagued the
first days of the search left an enduring blemish on the Malaysian government.
A
big question, which was not immediately clear, was why the Ukrainian
separatists chose to deal with the Malaysians at a time when the separatists
were under pressure by many countries to release the bodies and surrender the
black boxes.
THE ADVANTAGE OF BEING
A NONALIGNED MOVEMENT COUNTRY
One
possible advantage for Malaysia is that it has long been a leading member of
the nonaligned movement of developing countries that sought during the Cold War
to steer a neutral course between the United States and the Soviet Union. More
recently, Malaysia has tried to maintain good relations with Russia, China and
the United States at the same time.
While
the Netherlands is a member of NATO, an organization seen as threatening by
many pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, Malaysia is a distant
Southeast Asian nation that has stayed largely silent on the turmoil there.
Almost
three-fifths of Malaysia’s population is Muslim, and the country’s foreign
policy has often been more focused in recent years on the Middle East,
including heavy criticism in recent days of Israel for its military operation
in Gaza.
Nearly
20 million of Malaysia’s 30 million people are Muslim, and anger here over news
reports of victims’ bodies lying untended or treated crudely have been
magnified by Islamic expectations that the deceased would be promptly buried in
graves after being washed and dressed in white. - NYT/Khabar
