KUALA LUMPUR: Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein has been urged to put his foot down and clear the air with regard to the missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH370.
Speaking on behalf of Pakatan Rakyat, Batu MP Tian Chua said contradictiory statements from the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA), the police, MAS and the military was not helping.
“He owes an explanation. People must be told the truth,” he told a press conference at the Parliament lobby today.
He added that this was especially so since it was the Defence Minister who had first hinted that the flight could have made a turn around.
Hishammuddin, who is also Acting Transport Minister, on Sunday said there was a possibility that the missing Beijing-bound flight had to make an “air turn back”.
Tian Chua added that the discrepancies were damaging to the country’s international image, with different government agencies telling the public different things.
“It shows how everything is simply uncoordinated and disjointed. Hishammuddin should put his foot down and tell the public what exactly that had happened.”
On reports quoting Air Force chief Rodzali Daud who said that the plane was last seen in the Straits of Malacca, Tian Chua said it wasunfortunate that the information only came four days later.
“The late information may have wasted four valuable days, searching at a place where the plane would not be in existence.”
Rodzali was quoted saying that based on military radar readings from its station in Butterworth, the plane was last detected near Pulau Perak, in the Straits of Malacca at 2.40am.
It was earlier reported that the plane was last on the radar at approximately 120 nautical miles off Kota Baru, in the South China Sea.
Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar also contradicted DCA director-general Azharuddin Abdul Rahman’s statement on the five passengers who had checked in but did not board the flight.
Khalid had said that only one person had missed the flight.
Utusan should apologise
In a related matter, Tian Chua urged Umno mouthpiece Utusan Malaysia to apologise to family members of flight MH370 passengers for coming out with a speculative piece on the incident.
Among others, the Malay daily said that the plane’s pilot could have committed suicide.
“It is outrageous for a mainstream newspaper to come out with insensitive statements while people are suffering,” said Tian Chua.
The article, said the PKR vice president, goes against the warning by the IGP and Acting Transport Minister for the public not to spread rumours and speculations in the social media.
“Utusan should retract the statement and apologise to family members of passengers of the flight MH370,” he said.
He added that the least the Malay daily could do was to quote experts on the matter, such as when they cited bad weather as the cause of the missing flight.
“How can a paper publish this sort of rubbish. Utusan must retract and apologise, there’s no two ways about it,” said Tian Chua.
