By Tong Veng Wye
Dear Ambassador Edgard D Kagan (US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur)
A plea to Washington to stop the killing in Gaza
I write to you as a citizen of the country for which you are the US ambassador.
More so, I write to you as one human person to another knowing that you represent the country that can make a difference.
This letter does not seek to engage in the polemics of the Israel-Palestine conflict. You may even guess I am a supporter of the Palestinian cause (without being anti-Jewish, which I have no business being, being in a small corner of Southeast Asia).
- Sign up for Aliran's free daily email updates or weekly newsletters or both
- Make a one-off donation to Persatuan Aliran Kesedaran Negara, CIMB a/c 8004240948
- Make a pledge or schedule an auto donation to Aliran every month or every quarter
- Become an Aliran member
Such a guess would be correct. But it would not be relevant to this letter of appeal. Even though our views will not likely be in total agreement, there must be a common ground on which we both stand as people, as humans with a measure of decency and a humane instinct.
The death and destruction in Gaza must stop. An entire civilian population is under renewed and prolonged bombardment while under the threat of mass starvation and death from disease due to the ongoing blockade of food, water, fuel and medicine. Families are forced to trudge from one place to another in search of putative safe areas.
They are dying. You have children of your own. Children are dying by the masses, losing limbs, getting blown up, amputated without anaesthesia.
I, as others, am at the edge of witnessing catastrophic, runaway, uncontrolled mass killing in Gaza. In the midst of all this, inconceivably, silence … in the most important places.
This letter does not seek to engage in the whys and wherefores. It only seeks to appeal to you, one human heart to another, in the immediate, to please do what you can as US ambassador to influence your country’s actions to stop a worse catastrophe than what has already happened.
Your country, the US, is the one that can act to put a halt to this disaster. I am but one person in Malaysia, where you represent the US. I, nevertheless, channel an anguish and a cry for help in a human catastrophe in Gaza that must be worthy of compassion in all of us, however we may see the situation.
Please, Ambassador Kagan, do something, as much as you are able to.
As for the whys and wherefores, unlikely though it will be, I can be a way by which you might dialogue with how citizens in this country feel and what they think of what is going on. I will be happy to engage. I will share this letter with others of like-minded concern.
Sincerely,
Tong Veng Wye
Tong Veng Wye, a longtime Aliran member, wrote this personal letter as a concerned human being.
AGENDA RAKYAT - Lima perkara utama
- Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
- Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
- Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
- Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
- Lawan rasuah dan kronisme
Please prepare similar letter for me and other concerned Malaysian citizen to write to the ambassador.