Noramfaizul Mohd. Nor - A tribute to a complete stranger

Dateline September 2, 2011 -  it was a extremely sad day for Malaysia, especially the media fraternity. Noramfaizul Mohd. Noor a camera man with the Malaysian national news agency BernamaTV was killed in line of duty while covering Kelab Putera 1Malaysia's humanitarian mission to assist the Somalis facing severe drought and famine, apart from the civil war in which has been raging  since 1992.

I do not know the the late Noramfaizul at all. I never knew he even existed at all, working tirelessly providing Malaysia with news, especially news from the international scene. I am writing this tribute as a complete stranger because his untimely death shocked me to the core, I could feel the sorrow and grief that only family members and people who are very close to the late Noramfaizul could feel. I felt and is still feeling the surreal reality that this unfortunate incident just had to take place, and in the midst of the on-going Aidilfitri celebrations in Malaysia too.

The late Noramfaizul's untimely death has made me realised that journalists are working virtually almost everyday throughout the year; they are the unsung heroes of the press industry of a country. In fact, they have very few holidays here in Malaysia with the exception of a few gazetted press holidays. Not to mention, the unavoidable life-threatening risks they have to face in reporting up-to-the-minute news everyday that often would go unnoticed by many of us, and we take them for granted.

We often praise most front liners working during public holidays, especially during major festivals - the army, navy, air force personnel, police, emergency response team, firefighters, doctors and nurses but we forget the other people like journalists and service industry personnel who also work during these holidays as well.

I think it is time for all of us to stop and think how lucky most of us are working in jobs that have mostly fixed working hours and days, not to mention many may be drawing relatively high salaries plus enviable benefits and perks as well. And that we should show due appreciation to people who are working in jobs many of us would rather not do, especially high risk jobs.

I salute the invaluable and selfless sacrifices the late Noramfaizul had done all this time while answering the call of duty regardless the time of the year, be it a weekday, weekend and even on public holidays. Not to mention giving up the indescribable amount of time he could have spent with his beloved family. He died doing what he did best and with much passion too, covering news from the conflict front in Somalia. However, I firmly believed he did not die in vain.

The late Noramfizul's act of bravery I hope will never fade into a distant and forgotten memory with time. The legacy and life's lessons as a journalist he had left behind should be put into practice by the media fraternity as well as by every ordinary person on the street.

To the late Noramfaizul, may your soul rest in eternal peace in the loving arms of God; and may God also Bless your entire family for the days to come and give them spiritual strength and the reason to carry on in living life to the fullest.