PROFILES in patriotism best describes the 12-person team that was sent to retrieve the flight recorders and the remains of passengers and crew of Flight MH17 that was shot down on July 17, 2014 over war-torn Ukraine. Not all the 12 people were from the armed forces.
They could have stepped aside, but they didn't. The highest form of patriotism is displayed when lives and limbs are threatened.
Theirs were. To be unarmed and with no air or ground support is to be prepared to lose your life or limb.
They knew this only too well being in warlords' playground. If the combatants could inhumanely shoot down a passenger plane, they could do worse. Call it patriotism under fire.
The combatants killed 283 passengers and 15 crew. Another 12 lives do not matter in their computation. Territories do. The Russians and the Ukrainians knew that the 298 people onboard MH17 had nothing to do with the combatants' territory. They were just flying in international airspace. Neither were the 12 Malaysians.
They were there to bring the flight recorders and the remains home. The Dozen Persons, as they came to be called, knew that they were on a life- and limb-threatening mission, yet they went, leaving behind their kith and kin on a Ramadan day because to them the nation's mission was more important.
Not many Malaysians may know this, but this is perhaps a good time to know it.
To Muslims, Ramadan is the holiest of months when breakfasts and prayers are spent with the family. Call it sacrifice. They were prepared to pay the price, bear the burden and confront any hardship to fulfil their mission. They owed it to the nation and the families whose loved ones perished in the tragedy. They accomplished it with the tenacity only the patriots can exhibit. Lest it is forgotten, the flight recorders brought home by the 12 helped send two Russians and an Ukrainian to life imprisonment in The Hague for their deadly downing of MH17. Thank you, we say.
Profiles in Patriotism, theirs were. And Profiles in Courage, too. The 12 could have stayed home and asked: what can the country do for them. Instead, they went forth and did what they did when asked to, even in that hour of great danger.
The family members whose loved ones were killed aboard MH17 didn't know the risks and dangers the 12 were up against. Until, of course, when this newspaper put together a special programme that brought them and some family members together to mark the 10th year of the tragedy.
Call it a commemoration of patriotism. There, the family members met the 12 and expressed their gratitude to them. The NST has also put together videos of The Dozen Persons' mission to etch their patriotism in the annals of the nation's history.
A picture paints a thousand words, they say. The videos show us that a picture paints a thousand scenes of patriotism, too.
On Aug 31, Malaysia will celebrate 67 years of independence made possible by the patriotism of our forefathers. Since 1957, Malaysia has honoured many patriots.
This coming Merdeka National Day must be the turn of the 12 patriots to be honoured. Honour makes the perpetuation of patriotism possible by way of emulation.