Bomoh brings comic relief to search for missing flight MH370

Bomoh Ibrahim Mat Zin has taken the heat, at least temporarily, off the Malaysian authorities managing the search and rescue operations for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

The Malaysian authorities have been taking a bad beating from the rest of the world, not just the families of the passengers on board the missing airplane.

For instance, the Chinese and Vietnamese authorities are reported to be unhappy with the way Malaysia is handling the search and rescue effort.

“We’ve decided to temporarily suspend some search and rescue activities, pending information from Malaysia,” Vietnam’s deputy minister of transport, Pham Quy Tieu, told AFP. But the search was later continued by Vietnam.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said: “… we hope that the Malaysians can fully understand the urgency of China, especially of the family members, and can step up the speed of the investigation and increase efforts on search and rescue." This is diplomatic talk for “wake up, you incompetents”.

Former United States Transportation Safety Board managing director Peter Goelz told CNN the way the problem has been handled was the worst in disaster management.

Ernest Bower, a Southeast Asia specialist at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington said:"The Malaysians deserve to be criticised – their handling of this has been atrocious."

But the arrival of Malaysian shaman Ibrahim Mat Zin with his magic carpet and coconuts and other stuff has helped turn attention away from the authorities.

Suddenly, he has become the centre of attention, with the social media full of him. He has become an instant “celebrity” of sorts.

The BBC said yesterday that the word “bomoh” was trending worldwide and had been tweeted more than 200,000 times.

It reported: “A Malaysian shaman – or "Bomoh" – wielding coconuts and bamboo binoculars to locate missing flight MH370, has triggered a mixture of outrage and embarrassment from the country's social media users.”

Ibrahim has conducted two 'sessions' in his endeavour to help those searching for the missing airplane MH370. On Monday, Ibrahim performed certain shamanic rituals using binoculars made of bamboo, and a fish trap, at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

On March 12, he was back at the KLIA with his assistants. Dressed in lounge suits, they used “zam zam” water, two coconuts and an “enchanted” walking stick as part of their ritual.

Ibrahim told reporters: "The purpose of the rituals is to weaken the bad spirits so that the rescuers can find the plane if it indeed had crashed."

Of course to many it will look stupid, especially in this age of fine-tuned technology and instant communications. For many others, it will seem a sick joke.

But I would like to think that Ibrahim is only trying to help, although his methods may seem out of place to many of us.

He initially said an official had invited him to perform the ritual and help in the search for the missing plane, but after people criticised the authorities for this, he said he had come on his own free will.

Let’s look at it like this: when you are desperate, any method will do.

I will tell you of a case that happened last year. A distant relative’s daughter fell into a coma all of a sudden, due to some illness, and was admitted to the Selayang Hospital.

The doctors were baffled by it and did not see much hope. The family then brought in a Hindu swami from Perak to pray at her bedside. He did, and she recovered. It could have been a co-incidence or it could have been his work. No one can tell.

What is interesting is that a Muslim man whose son was in the same hospital after a very bad road accident – and in a coma – approached the swami to pray for his son. The swami sat beside the young man and prayed.

I don’t know if the young man recovered.

Would it be right for anyone to criticise the Muslim father for seeking the aid of a Hindu swami to help save his son? I think not.

Only a parent would know the pain; and the desperation in such a situation. In the present case, only the family members of the passengers and crew aboard MH370 will really know the pain. The rest of us can just sympathise and express our feelings but we cannot truly experience what they are going through at this moment.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying Ibrahim did the right thing, or even the wrong thing. I am saying we should understand his motivations.

And, we should not forget that he has brought some comic relief to help diffuse the tensions and anger felt by many following the disappearance of the plane on March 8 and the conflicting news about what has happened to it.

His antics have allowed people to release their pent up feelings in a different direction, and a more creative one if we are to judge from the spoofs in the social media.

I have seen photo-shopped pictures of Ibrahim and his helpers on a carpet in the White House with President Barack Obama looking bemusedly; and I have seen one of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak looking out of an airplane only to see these three guys whizzing by on their magic carpet.

And there are many more funny and creative pieces out there.

Let’s not forget that whenever there is an important sports event – especially a crucial football match – we call in a bomoh or two to make sure it does not rain.

Let’s also not forget that the bomoh or shaman or medicine man is a part of almost all cultures.