Minister deflects probe queries despite grilling

 

MH370 Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein today took a grilling from the international press as Malaysian authorities continue to be tight-lipped about details of investigations 24 days after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 went missing.

However, Hishammuddin, who is also defence minister, refused to shed light on the authenticity of various leaked information on the Internet and instead said he will be answerable to various inquiries that will be set up in future.

"If you are asking questions which are part and parcel of the investigation (such as) talking about (cockpit) transcripts, you must be fair to us because only those who are doing the investigation can give us the okay (to release information).

"When there comes a time they can be shared with the public with their (investigators) consent, by all means I will reveal it.

"But in any event, at the end of the day I am answerable to the royal commission of inquiry or parliamentary select committee  and the international inquiry board (that will be set up)," he told a press briefing in Kuala Lumpur this evening.

Hishammuddin insisted that the government was not attempting to cover up by refusing to release details of investigations.

"We are not hiding anything, we are just following procedures that are being set," he said.

The minister was queried about a transcript of MH370's cockpit conversation with tower controllers and the exact nature of the aircraft’s trajectory which have been leaked on the Internet, but authorities have adamantly refused to address them.

'I don't want to debate'

Hishammuddin’s explanation did not placate the demand for more information, as an ABC journalist quizzed him on why details of the probe could be released elsewhere, including in briefings to family members, but not to the media.

"I will not go into a debate... here we have our press conferences every day, if there is something that is informed by us, we will clarify it, there is no big deal.

"As for information revealed outside of press conferences, speculations and diagrams in Google or in anything else on the internet, I cannot confirm or discount them," he said.

Hishammuddin added that any information obtained by family members that were not released to the press were through closed-door briefings.

Later, Hishammuddin was again asked about the ongoing probe, this time on whether the statement by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that investigators have cleared the pilot of Flight MH370 was true.

At this, he replied: "Any indications, 'yes', 'no' or otherwise coming from the FBI, they (media) have to take it at FBI’s face value.

"On our part, I would like to go through the process of the inquiry."

However, after being pressed several times, Hishammuddin finally repeated his promise to talk to investigators about possibly releasing the cockpit’s transcript.