Mumbai Tragedy

Terrorists strike again. This time, the centre of the havoc turned to Asia, to the origin of Indian civilisation, and to the city which is to be a burgeoning metropolis in one decade. Countless innocent hotel dwellers have been held hostage and the death toll is still on the rise, prickling every nerve of those people who are concerned about this tragedy, who grieve over it and who are plodding to seek justice for the victims in this upheaval.

Unavoidably, it makes people think of the U.S.A, who had experienced a similar attack seven years ago, when the explosion of Twin Tower shattered the peaceful dreams of many Americans, and relived the fright and terror they had experienced 60 years ago, when Japanese flights bombed its naval base in Pearl Habour, along with the defeat of the "invincible" Pacific Fleets.

Ironically, history chose to relive this horror, not once, not twice, but like a sharp needle inside a bag, prickling occasionally yet hidden hideously. Mumbai attack emanates that the serpent is letting loose its tooth again. It not only went for the kill this time, it also went for the terror, which is definitive to its terrorist nature, or as somebody puts it, "serpent nature". Suspense is all they want, they want to see the world shock with anxiety, and so put loop nooses around the necks of hostages, waiting to tighten them at any time to hear the world moan, to stoke the fire of their anger.

They are fighters, but they are fighting for nothing. Indiscriminate shooting at a 5-star hotel is not the way to get what they want, not in this world when the majority are law-abiding and are determined to fashion a peaceful life.

One pathetic fact in this attack was that the passport holders of the most developed countries turned out to be the prior targets in this human-slaughtering. Those gunmen knew exactly what they want, they want those who are the most influential to stand closest to the abyss, and to be the first to slide down the precipitous cliff where no life can hang on safely. They want the revenge, they want the retribution. That, is the most sadistic side of human nature, when moral code no longer guides people's way of thinking and doing.

The death of the young Singaporean lawyer evokes my memory of the novel "Hijack". The description of the extreme fear and anxiety experienced by the Canadian hostage still makes me shudder involuntarily. His pleading for life, his prayers towards the god and his strong love for his family did not shield him from his predestined doom. As the words put, "he fell like a bird with broken wings, to where no light can be seen, no voice can be heard, no thoughts can flow as freely as they used to". I wonder if the young lawyer, in her prime age and anticipating for a promising future, experienced the same trauma in the last minute of her life, if she ever pleaded with a bleeding heart, if she ever lived out of her terror and welcomed her death with ease.

When a flower is plucked off before it is fully blossomed, it irks the gardener to find the mischievous plucker. But when it comes to the lives of humans, when it is not merely a flower, but a florescence, or more severely, a flowerbed, it is not the mere criminal to be blamed for, but the whole syndicate behind this murky business.

I moan for those victims who were robbed of their lives in such a ferocious way, I sympathise with those living people who are now bereft and waiting for their incurable wounds to be healed, I feel even more sorrowful for those attackers who dipped their hands in other people's blood, for their "greater freedom".

When some people are superior to others, the beer goes sour. But does absolute equility exist, given that differentiation and variety in species is the foundamental law of nature?

And, should any discontentment or even loathing be expressed only by violence?