At 08.00 pm Thursday night I played new DVD that I’d just bought. The title was Mighty Heart, starred by Angelina Jolie with the setting in Pakistan. Two hours later, after the movie was finished, I switched on a tv station and was shocked by the death of Benazir Bhutto, ex prime minister of Pakistan. What a coincidence! Is it another sort of Law of Attraction?

From the movie we can figure out that cities in Pakistan (including Karachi as the capital) were less developed than those of in Indonesia. Bus and taxi as public transport seemed like Jakarta 15 years ago. The traffic jam was more crowded. Road quality was below the standard. I am not sure whether it represented the reality or just a setting on a movie.

Back to the movie: as a good guy, Danny worked as journalist for Wall Street Journal while his wife Marianne worked as a radio journalist. Danny had a duty from his office to interview with one of Al Qaida leader, Syeikh Gilani. At the same time his wife was pregnant.

The conflict reached the peak during interview when Syeikh Gilani asked about Danny’s ideology. As an honest journalist, Danny confessed that he was a Jewish by birth. Then, Danny disappeared without leaving any calls to his wife.

Marianne asked Pakistani police for help. Even Collin Powell and President Musharraf called for the kidnapper to release Danny. After ten days (or more) the effort failed with the finding of Danny’s body cut into slices.

After this accident, there is something impressive about Marianne. She didn’t blame Pakistani police and American special agents. She appreciated what they had done to release her husband from the kidnapper. She said, “Although they have murdered my husband, I can not be terrorized by them”. She has mighty heart.

Before her death, Bhutto had received many threats of murder or suicide bombing from groups of terrorist, but she refused to dismiss her movement. In one of news site it was mentioned that the terrorist opposed to Bhutto due to her promise to increase ties with Israel if she won the election.

To wrap up, I would like to say that we have to thank God since political situation in Indonesia is more conducive than Pakistan. After independence of Indonesia till today, there is no assassination of political leader in Indonesia. Although there are small groups of fundamentalist, but major groups of our people are moderate. All religious leaders are concerned with promoting peace and tolerance. As a citizen we should maintain this situation along with government. (Hery Azwan, 28/12/2007)

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