The Press reported last week that Elizabeth Quay in Perth, Western Australia has been chosen as the site for Australia’s memorial to the passengers on board MH370. I thought it was a fine gesture.

But as with many things I buy into, inner dissonance crept in and I have felt increasingly ambivalent about it. Let me try and state as best as I can where my discomfort lies.

It appears that MH370 families haven’t been consulted on this one. Actually, this one too. This just follows a pattern, that over close to 4 years, I have come to identify more with Malaysia for whom the families have mostly been an afterthought, and communicating with them a tiresome chore when it has not been altogether avoidable. Is it a case of the State exercising its prerogative, a misreading of the families’ mood and sentiment, an inability to be inclusive and consultative, or just ‘quibbling me’ needlessly critical of good intentions?

Then there is the matter of timing.

Most MH370 families anxiously await the unequivocal decision from Malaysia to proceed with Ocean Infinity (OI), the American firm that has offered to search the Southern Indian Ocean on a ‘no find, no fee’ basis. We also await details of the terms of agreement, a clear public commitment to a search timetable and unflinching support and facilitation. The friendlier weather conditions in the likely search area in the southern Indian Ocean will last no more than another 3-4 months. Precious time from October past has already been lost.

Unless there is a macabre game of attrition on with the families (and the public), the period of over 9 months that have elapsed (since the OI offer was first made known) without reaching agreement is inexplicable, unconscionable. If a private deal has been struck, that would be despicable, I guess. We may eventually know, and judge more favourably or harshly.

So a proposal for a public memorial is far from my thoughts and comes as a distraction.

A memorial conveys that the matter of MH370 is best consigned to memory that from time to time the public can engage with, wonder and puzzle over, feel heavy and guilty, but also feel relieved that they can move on to the next order of business.

MH370 is no longer just about lives lost but about keeping the search and investigation alive so satisfactory answers can be found and more lives are not foresaken through a recurrence. At a time when public support to continue the search and investigation is crucial, the idea of a memorial could easily confuse one into thinking that the curtains were brought down sometime in the past, more distant than imagined.

I remember the memorial for the passengers on MH17. That flight was brought down by a missile that same year as MH370 (2014). I remember thinking that the memorial was beautiful, serene, aesthetic. I don’t know what the family members thought or felt. It could not have been easy to visit and to find solace, comfort, or peace. My mind wanders to the reckless violence that brought down MH17, the struggles of the MH17 families too, to be certain of the circumstances that snatched away their loved ones, and to prosecute their cases. Wars have not ceased, killing machines have become deadlier, violence hasn’t abated, innocent lives continue to be lost, and families grieve. So, I wonder…

One other thing about memorials bothers me. Soon enough, there will come a time when memory will be invoked periodically, ritualistically. I reckon that more often memorials serve a purpose of not keeping the churn of angst going. They settle any unease ‘until the next time’. So while they can inspire and trigger potent individual and collective action for the greater good, this possibility to my cynical mind seems idealistic, bordering on fantasy.

Malaysia (and China?) may consider it best to not erect memorials, preferring instead to believe that its silence is most effective in erasing memory.

As for me (and I guess for at least some other families), it serves no personal / private purpose. I need no monument outside to awaken or remind me of what resides within.

Scattered as we are, no location for a memorial is capable of bringing the families together, face to face. So I believe it must serve a public purpose.

There may come a time when a memorial is a fitting response to the tragedy of MH370. Perhaps a place to consider might be Montreal, the seat of the International Civil Aviation organization (ICAO), that sprawling bureaucracy. Right at the portals of ICAO. An unforgiving reminder of the unfinished agenda on aviation safety and security, and of bearing mute witness to a member-state and ‘lead’ on MH370 not having played by the spirit of the rules and conventions it had signed up to follow. Momentarily, when I suspend my cynicism, I see that over time it could stand tall as a testament to putting passengers before profits, and proficiency above politics through demonstrable strong governance, oversight and accountability.

Image from Daily Express.

This article originally appeared on my Facebook page.