After finishing my Senior Cambridge, and while waiting for the results, I started working in a bookstore in Seremban. This bookstore chain would import large quantities of magazines and journals from the UK and the US. The quality of English reading was exceptionally high then and readership was quite extensive.

One magazine that had always been a favourite amongst many readers was Life. It would publish real good photographs about world events. As we did not have the television then, we had to rely very much on printed materials and the radio for our news.

It was then I had recognised Yasser Arafat and his Palestinian Liberation Organisation and in comparison, the other outstanding leader, George Habash. That was a period of terror that the PLO had invoked on the Western democracies and Israel despite strong support by John F Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson for the Jews.

The numerous hijacking of passenger planes that the Palestinians had committed via the Al-Fatah cannot ever be forgotten. To me, then, it was a just cause for a struggle to self- determination.

Whilst there was condemnation of their hijackings, the Palestinians received virtual support from the Non-Alignment Movement (NAM) and from the communist bloc countries. Even the UK and France took a bold stand for the Palestinians.

Later on, in the early eighties, when I had the opportunity to do a Masters programme on development economics in the The Hague, I very much got to know the PLO groups operating in Europe. Occasionally, they would invite me to their meetings. I cannot forget the experience, how a Palestinian female activist, once took me all the way from The Hague to Rotterdam on a motorcycle in winter, for a meeting.

They were wonderful people, while being Muslims and Christians, they only thought of themselves as Palestinians. They were highly-intelligent, persistent and thoughtful of others unlike the Jews, whose leaders sometimes would visit the institute and give talks on their cause for Israel.

While the book by Golda Meirs My life was an impressive masterpiece, just like the Exodus by Leon Uris both setting the trend for world sympathy for the Jews, I did not very much appreciate the justice of Israel in getting rid of the Palestinians.

History tells us that while the Jews left Palestine even during the time of Jesus Christ to settle as far away as in Poland, Russia and in Kerala (India), the Palestinians worked and protected their soil against all odds and sustained their country.

However in the days that followed, the PLO leadership continued to break up into bits and pieces with allegiance to Iran, Syria, the Western democracies and to Islamic nations. And eventually, the Palestinian struggle for self-determination for their own soil deviated to appear like a struggle for Islam itself.

While Libya had never openly liked the struggle of the Palestinians, it came out to be a proponent of their cause. Saudi Arabia had never condemned the formation of Israel and Anwar Sadat of Egypt had formerly recognised Israel and had walked hand-in-hand with Menachem Begin, the then prime minister of Israel.

In the end, there was no Arab cause and what has remained to date has been a cause for Islam. And the only organisation that openly supports their cause today has become the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC).

However, the Palestinians are not just Muslims. A large number of them, who live well in Europe, are Christians as well. Many of these affluent Palestinians today seem to be aloof to their cause for their own self-determination.

When Yasser Arafat visited Malaysia, the Mahathir government failed to invite the NGOs such as the MTUC and opposition political parties who were all willing to show their support for the Palestinian cause.

He made it look like a government policy and the people of Malaysia had no understanding as to what kind of support they should set for the Palestinians. The non-Malays’ passion and commitment for the Palestinians was not recognised by the then government of Malaysia.

This was then a very crucial period for the sustenance and survival of the Palestinians and the Palestinian state. It was illegally abrogated from them and handed over to Jews. The US must now take full responsibility for such an act. However this statement alone, is not enough.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s escapist attitude by putting the blame on the UN is just like an attempted long jump made by a lame duck. The prime minister must not make the same mistake made by his predecessor for the sake of political mileage.

Khairy Jamaluddin’s political stance also does not convince Malaysians of the support the Palestinians need from the Malaysian nation. And no one takes serious cognisance of Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s television interview on the Palestinian issue.

There must be a national and multi-party level demonstrations where all the NGOs must be invited to show their support for the Palestinian state. It must be organised by the prime minister himself. That would be our total commitment for the Palestinian state.