‘DIANA’, THE TELEVISION FEATURE PRODUCED BY HBO.

…IT IS A STORY OF A HAPLESS AND CONFUSED PRINCESS AND TWO MUSLIM MEN WHO BEHAVED LIKE IDIOTS.

By Mansor Puteh

Diana tried to find solace in Islam but found two Muslim men who did not behave like Muslims who indirectly took her to the grave, together with one of the men and also their French driver in a tunnel in Paris.

The incident left Hasnat to wonder if his going astray as a Muslim from Pakistan was such a good thing for him to have done.

Is he still drinking and fornicating freely?

This is exactly what I managed to cull from having just watched the HBO production ‘Diana’ on the last few years of her life after her divorce from Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, which he may not have the opportunity to sit with his mother, Queen Elizabeth coming in his way, and with many who would prefer to have his son, Prince William succeed his grandmother instead, in the eventuality of her stepping down or due to some divine intervention. 

If that had happened much earlier, Diana would be Queen Diana. But it was never be.

She only became known as Diana, Princess of Wales yet, living in Kensington Palace and not knowing exactly what to do with the rest of her life.

Some American columnists said she would end much like some other members of the British royalty who ended up living a quiet life in California, enjoying a small circle of friends and appearing in public less often too.

But Diana soon became the media darling, and no thanks to some Japanese television crew who hounded her for a story after her divorce which created a new rage, that took her to a new phase in her life as a humanitarian volunteer, supporting some worthy causes for which she would be remembered after her death.

Even Queen Elizabeth, her former mother-in-law lamented and marveled at her talent to show kindness to those who needed support which she gave when she was alive.

This is not a belated tribute. It is more of a review of the HBO production, and what it shows. 

Diana should have known better. Hasnat Khan and later Dodi Al-Fayed too should have known better. They are not ordinary folks; they are targets of scorn and excessive media coverage some of which were self-inflicted.

In the end they got the better of them, with two of them dead and the third one, Hasnat, not actually having a ball.

But at least he could go on living a life of self-deceit having had a short affair with an English princess.

Dodi also could feel that but just a bit.

I managed to watch the HBO production of ‘Diana’ with some sense of release that at least many knew what Diana had faced after her divorce to Prince Charles and getting involved with Hasnat and then Dodi.

Dodi’s father had the cheek to blame the royal family for the death of his son, charging Prince Philip for a host of things.

But it only gave him some sort of release, and Dodi won’t be any better being hurriedly buried in a Muslim cemetery in England and without much fanfare.

Hasnat ended up being able to move on with his life. And the HBO production is mostly from his point of view; many can charge that he had given the producers the details on the life of Diana as she moves on from the palace to the grave.

And Paris it would be that was where her life ended in a crash in a tunnel, of all places, and for whatever reasons, other than perhaps that she was cavorting with not one but two men who were Muslims.

Unfortunately, Islam could not save any of the two Muslim men from Pakistan and the other from Egypt, because they had led a life astray drinking and fornicating openly and happily, which was the reason for the disaster that happened to Diana and Dodi.

I decided to leave the country to go to Jakarta on 30 August, 1997, to escape the noise and gaiety of the Merdeka Day that everybody in the country would celebrate. That was eighteen years ago.

And after arriving at the new Sukarno-Hatta International Airport I took a cab and found a small hotel in the city and the next morning went out to venture the city and ending in a mall.

I was naturally excited to be able to return to this city and country after so long.

Here I saw a bank of television monitors all had the images or videos of Diana on them. But there was no sound coming from any of the sets as they were all inside the store.

I had to walk closer to them and read the text which mentioned how Diana and Dodi had been involved in a car crash in Paris. Dodi had died while Diana’s life was hanging in the balance.

She would soon die later of severe injuries.

And speculations in Jakarta and Indonesia were that she was killed because she had contemplated reverting to Islam which was such a simple thing that someone like her could do, knowing how fascinated she was with the religion and the two Muslim men.

Unfortunately, she had not been given the proper Islamic way of life and style from any of the two Muslim men who preferred to spend their lives in the western fashion, drinking and cohabitating which are not encouraged or barred by Islam, which were all there to help save the souls of men including and especially those two who should have known better not to go against the values of the religion they professed which could have saved them from harm.

They too could have saved Diana, but they were careless and did not see beyond their personal excitements and also satisfaction. 

Whatever it is, the death of Diana, may be a conspiracy as alleged by Dodi’s father, but who could pinpoint who exactly had done the deed.

Some others suggested there were agents who did not want to see her marrying a Muslim man and reverting to Islam so that the future king of England has a mother who is of that faith and whose grandson taking over from the king too would have a grandmother who is Muslim.

The HBO production did not dwell on such matters or issues; it only talks about the sexual escapades that the trio were involved in with Diana feeling rejected by Hasnat and falling into the arms of Dodi, not to find salvation but her untimely death.