Don’t wait for black box, set up panel to probe MH370 disaster immediately, say DAP

The Cabinet should not wait until the black box from the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is retrieved to begin a probe into the disaster, said DAP parliamentarian leader Lim Kit Siang.

Calling on Putrajaya to support an opposition-headed Parliamentary Select Committee to look into the events surrounding the disappearance of the aircraft 20 days ago, Lim said the Cabinet should immediately lay the basis for a full-scale investigation.

He was responding to the statement by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim, that the government would consider setting up a parliamentary select committee or a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) into the MH370 disaster only after the black box was discovered.

"More and more questions have come up with each passing day since MH370 went missing, many of which have nothing to do with the technical explanations of the disaster or the retrieval of the black box," Lim said in a statement today.

Describing Shahidan's statement as "highly debatable and questionable", he asked if there would be no investigation into the incident if the black box was never found.

"This will make Malaysia an even bigger laughing stock," he added.

The DAP adviser and Gelang Patah MP noted there were many questions surrounding the plane's disappearance which has nothing to do with the black box.

The fact that the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) had not intercepted MH370 when it was detected on military radar flying in Malaysian air space on March 8 due to the "assumption" that the flight had been ordered to turn back by the civil aviation control tower, was one such question, Lim said.

Yesterday, Deputy Defence Minister Datuk Abdul Rahim Bakri told Parliament that the RMAF had detected the plane but as it was a non-hostile aircraft, they had assumed that it was under instructions from the control tower located in Subang.

Today, Abdul Rahim retracted his statement. He said his statement in Parliament was "just an assumption and that it might be incorrect".

"Wasn't the failure to cross-check with the civil aviation authorities a gross dereliction of duty, especially as national security was involved?" asked Lim.

Besides that, whether or not the search and rescue operation was launched in a timely manner, "when time was of the essence in an air disaster to ensure the safe rescue of passengers and crew", should also be investigated, he said.

"I call on the Cabinet to decide tomorrow to support an opposition-headed Parliamentary Select Committee on MH370 to be established at the current meeting of Parliament."

Lim said the establishment of a select committee on the MH370 disaster is imperative to restore national and international confidence in Malaysia and to lay a basis for a larger investigation into the incident later on.

"It will send a clear and unmistakable message that the Malaysian government has nothing to hide and wants a full and transparent accounting of the whole series of events constituting the MH370 disaster," he added. – March 27, 2014.