MH370 mystery: New data but no details

Malaysia today confirmed that it has some new radar data on the missing MH370.

SEPANG: Malaysia today confirmed that it has some new radar data on the missing MH370, said all passengers, pilots and crew of the missing Boeing 777-200ER remain innocent until proven otherwise.

Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Tun Hussein today confirmed that Malaysia had received “some radar data”, but the authorities were not at the liberty to release information from other countries.

“I appeal to all our partners to continue volunteering any and all information that could help with the investigation and the search for MH370.

“Regarding reports that the plane was sighted in the Maldives, I can confirm that the Malaysian chief of the defence force has contacted his counterpart in the Maldives, who has confirmed that these reports are not true,” he said at a daily press conference here today.

MH370 has been missing since March 8 on a flight from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Beijing, China, carrying some 239 passengers and crew . The plane was last spotted by the civilian radar flying over the South China Sea, an hour after takeoff about 12.40am Saturday morning. The plane appeared in the military radar an hour later, in the western side of peninsula Malaysia heading towards the Andaman Sea.

Authorities have not ruled out possibility of a hijack as the plane had its internal transponders switched off after losing contact with the civilian aircraft radar.

On the police investigations into the passengers and crew of the jetliner, Hishammuddin, who is also Defence Minister, said the case has been classified under section 130C of the Penal Code.

“All passengers, crew and ground staff handling the aircraft are being investigated. We are sharing all information relevant to the case with all relevant international investigative agencies that require it. We have received passenger background checks from all countries apart from Ukraine and Russia, both of which had nationals on board.

“So far, no information of significance on any passengers has been found. Local and international expertise has been recruited to examine the pilot’s flight simulator (found at the pilot’s house). Some data had been deleted from the simulator and forensic work to retrieve this data is on-going.

“I would like to take this opportunity to state that the passengers, the pilots and the crew remain innocent until proven otherwise. For the sake of their families, I ask that we refrain from any unnecessary speculation that might make an already difficult time even harder,” he added.

High-level team to Beijing

On the search for the missing jet, he said the focus remain on narrowing the search corridor, by gathering satellite information, analysing radar data, increasing air and surface assets and increasing the number of technical experts.

“On the diplomatic front, all 26 countries involved in the search and rescue operation have verbally agreed to assist the operations, and Malaysia has written to all countries formally requesting co-operation.

“A number of assets which have already been committed are awaiting diplomatic clearance to begin operations. Once we receive formal clearance, we can then speed up the deployment of assets along the search corridors,” he said.

The minister also announced the formation of a high-level team that will travel to Beijing immediately.

“I would like to announce that in addition to the team that is already on the ground, Malaysia is currently assembling a high-level team that will immediately travel to Beijing. The team will give briefings and updates to the next of kin on the latest situation, and on search and rescue plans,” he said.

The team will include representatives from the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Royal Malaysian Air Force, the Department of Civil Aviation, and Malaysia Airlines.

It will be led by Lieutenant General Ackbal Haji Abdul Samad (Air Operation Commander, Royal Malaysia Air Force), assisted by Ahmad Nizar Zolfakar (Director, Air Traffic Services, Department of Civil Aviation) and will include a senior 777 pilot.

Wan Junaidi’s shocking child rape remark

Azrul Mohd Khalib, The Malay Mail

I think most of us were shocked to hear the reply in Parliament by Deputy Home Minister Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar to the question of why the incidence of child rape is more common among Malays.

His outrageous unsubstantiated statement that Malays were more sensitive than non-Malays to the issue of statutory rape borders on the ridiculous. However, the sad fact is that it seems that even a serious crime such as sexual violence and child abuse is viewed or even judged through the lens of race. Even at the highest levels of government, mind-sets continue to be imprisoned by the straitjacket of racism.

No person at the Cabinet level, whose responsibility it is to look at issues which affect all Malaysians, should be making racist and sweeping statements which inevitably reflect the level of seriousness of which such issues are considered as well as the policies linked to it.

Rightly or wrongly, based on the Deputy Home Minister’s statement in Parliament, people would be justified in thinking that the government has a misplaced sense of understanding regarding sexual violence and child abuse.

What the Deputy Home Minister stated in his answer to the question in Parliament is a serious issue because this is not about his personal opinion, which would be sufficiently appalling and despicable enough. This is about the position of the government on a serious issue which affects women and girls in this country. His answers in the House, therefore becomes the position.

Therefore, I must ask, is the position of our government therefore that the incidence of child rape is more common among Malays, because Malays were more sensitive than non-Malays to the issue of statutory rape?

Another sad fact is that the Deputy Home Minister’s statement seems to focus on the issue of reporting. He appears to reject a fundamental problem: the reality that there is a high incidence of rape and sexual violence occurring to children in Malaysia, irrespective of their ethnicity.

Royal Malaysian Police statistics indicate that 10 women and girls are sexually assaulted each day. Fifty per cent of all such cases, which includes rape, involve children below the age of 16. Bear in mind that these numbers do not include cases where the rape survivor was married off to the rapist, changing the status of the crime from haram to halal.

Like a true politician born and bred in divisive racial politics, the Deputy Home Minister decided instead to take the defensive approach as if the question was a criticism of the Malay community, and respond to the effect that the children of other races are raped too but that they are more accepting or tolerant about it and therefore don’t report. What rubbish.

For the benefit of Yang Berhomat Timbalan Mentri, allow me to repeat this sobering statistic: 50 per cent of sexual violence in Malaysia occurs to girls below the age of 16. Don’t believe me? Go and visit PDRM’s Sexual Crimes Unit.

Perhaps he needs to spend some time with some of the urban poor families living in Malaysia’s cities. Many of them live in low cost and high density apartments and in conditions which would be terrifying and vulnerable for any child. READ MORE HERE

Hishammuddin should not have dishonoured Parliament by causing a parliamentary crack on the MH370 crisis when he should have presented a united national front in world’s largest-ever multi-national air-sea SAR

By Lim Kit Siang,

The Acting Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein should not have dishonoured Parliament by causing a parliamentary crack on the MH370 crisis when he should have presented a united national front in the world’s largest-ever 26-nation multi-national air-sea search-and-rescue (SAR) operation for the missing Malaysian Airlines aircraft with 239 passengers and crew on board.

Over a hundred ships, helicopters and aircrafts as well as radar systems from 26 nations are involved in a SAR mission scouring two vast tracts of territories totaling 2.24 million sq nautical miles (about 7.68 million square kilometres) stretching from the southern Indian Ocean to Kazakhstan in the north to find the missing MH370 Boeing 777-200 aircraft.

The world’s largest-ever multi-national air-sea SAR, entering the 12th day after over 250 hours without any clue on the whereabouts of the aircraft or what happened on March 8, is in a race against time as there are only 18 days left for the search teams to locate the aircraft’s black box, the most important piece of aviation technology, as it will only transmit a signal for 30 days.

When Malaysia expects unprecedented international unity in the world’s largest-ever multi-national SAR operation, Malaysians and in particular the Malaysian Parliament must demonstrate unprecedented national unity in support of the SAR mission for the missing aircraft and not to present any parliamentary crack, division or disunity to the world on this issue.

Unfortunately, this is what Hishammuddin did when he held a “For Barisan Nasional MPs” briefing on the missing MH370 at Aloft Kuala Lumpur Sentral BallRoom last night – completely unmindful of the undesirable, unfortunate and untrue message he is beaming to the world that the Malaysian Parliament is divided into two camps on the MH370 SAR mission!

It is not that Hishammuddin had not been forewarned beforehand that he should not be partisan and give a “For BN MPs only” briefing, when he should be giving a briefing – in fact regular briefings – to all Malaysian MPs!

Hishammuddin himself knows that what he had done was both wrong and improper which is why he had come out with the lame excuse that Pakatan Rakyat MPs had not asked for a briefing – when he should know that both BN and PR MPs have spoken up about their concerns for the fate of the 239 passengers and crew onboard MH370.

In fact, Pakatan Rakyat through PAS MP for Pokok Sena Mahfuz Omar had even sought to have an urgent parliamentary debate on the MH370 crisis last week under Dewan Rakyat Standing Order 18(1) but this was not allowed.

Invitations for the MH370 “For BN MPs only” briefing at the Aloft Kuala Lumpur Sentral Ballroom was sent out in the name of the Acting Transport Minister, Datuk Hishammuddin Hussein – raising the question whether this was a BNBBC event or an official Transport Ministry function.

What are the costs of the event at the post hotel, Aloft Kuala Lumpur Sentral Ballroom, and was it borne by the taxpayers through the Transport Ministry or by the BNBBC?

Why wasn’t the briefing, even “For BN MPs only” held in Parliament House, which would not have incurred the exorbitant costs of holding it in a post hotel like Aloft Kuala Lumpur Sentral Ballroom – which must have “cost a bomb”?

BN Beluran MP and Deputy Speaker Ronald Kiandee is quoted as saying that Hishammuddin said nothing extra at the briefing as “Everything said at the daily briefings was repeated last night. There was nothing new or special instructions given.”

Hishammuddin admitted as much after the Aloft “briefing” saying that he had only updated the BNBBC on the timeline of the events and had not shared confidential information beyond what the investigation team could divulge.

He said such information BN backbenchers received had also been released to the public.

If Hishammuddin had not revealed anything new at the “For BN MPs only” briefing, and only recycled information which had already been made public, what is the use of such a briefing for BN MPs?

If the Aloft “dinner briefing” is basically only a social event, why should the Department of Civil Aviations director-general Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, the MAS CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya and top generals from the Royal Malaysian Armed Forces be dragged to attend such social functions of BNBBC when their time should be very precious and critical in the 11th day of the world’s largest-ever multi-national air-sea SAR mission to locate MH370 and to save the 239 passengers and crew onboard?

In giving a briefing on MH370 crisis which is confined only to BN MPs only, and which is only a rehash what had already been announced at the MH370 crisis daily media conferences without anything new or extra, and tying down important officials from the DAC, Armed Forces and MAS in the SAR operation in the BNBBC social dinner, Hishammuddin has got his priorities all wrong.

I for one would not want to attend any briefing by Hishammuddin which is a rehash of what he and others had already publicly announced.

Hishammuddin should provide the government leadership in Parliament to enable all MPs, whether BN or PR, to play their role not only in giving full support to the SAR mission, but even more important, to subsequently conduct full investigations into the MH 370 tragedy so as to provide answers to the multitude of queries arising from numerous controversies and confusions surrounding the MH 370 crisis.

In my speech in Parliament last Thursday, I had suggested the immediate formation of a Parliamentary Select Committee on Disasters to give full support to MH 370 “search and rescue” operation and to hold itself in readiness to conduct investigations after SAR ops to address all queries on the MH 370 tragedy.

Is Hishammuddin prepared to provide government leadership in Parliament and support the establishment of such a Parliamentary Select Committee, including supporting an amendment to the Motion of Thanks on the Royal Address currently being debated in the House for the establishment of such a Parliamentary Select Committee?

(Media Statement in Parliament on Wednesday, 19th March 2014)

Underage rape cases drop to 1,424 in 2013

The New Straits Times

KUALA LUMPUR: The number of statutory rape cases has declined from 1,550 cases in 2012 to 1,424 cases last year Deputy Home Minister Datuk Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said at Dewan Rakyat yesterday.

He said although the number of cases had declined, the trend was still worrying. Wan Junaidi was responding to a question by Che Mohamad Zulkifly Jusoh (BN-Setiu), who had asked the ministry to state the number of underage rape cases nationwide and the government's measures to stop them.

He said the government had added a special division in the Criminal Investigation Department to research combating crimes related to sexual and child abuse.

"One-stop crisis centres have been established in hospitals to help victims and handle them in a more professional manner.

"Counselling services are given in police stations to help victims who are traumatised. Reports are also taken in a special room so that victims do not have to testify in public."

He said children under the age of 16 could now testify on video at the Child Interview Centre.

"This is to protect the children from being threatened by suspects."

MH370: Najib Holds Discussion With Ministers, Senior Officials Wednesday

KUALA LUMPUR, March 19 (Bernama) -- Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on Wednesday held discussion with ministers and relevant senior officials on the search area pertaining to the missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH370.

"Discussing the search for MH370 with (Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri) Hishammuddin Hussein and (Foreign Minister Datuk Seri) Anifah Aman this morning.

"Also present to give clarification in our search area - which has expanded to 2.24 million square miles - were chief of armed forces, air force, police, DCA (Department of Civil Aviation) and MAS," Najib said in his latest Facebook posting.

The discussion was held at his office in Parliament House.

In his Facebook, Najib also shared a picture during the discussion which included him with Hishammuddin, Anifah, armed forces chief Gen Tan Sri Zulkifli Mohd Zin and air force chief Gen Tan Sri Rodzali Daud.

The mission to search for the aircraft carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members has entered its 12th day, since it went missing on March 8.

Angry Chinese nationals barge into briefing room - Malaysiakini

 

There was chaos at the auditorium used by the authorities for the daily press briefings on Flight MH370 after a group of Chinese nationals barged in to speak to reporters.

The group, numbering at about a dozen people, said they were relatives of those on board the plane and want to express their anguish and anger after being brought to Malaysia, but are left with little information on the progress of the search for the missing plane.

A press officer announced through a microphone that the venue is for Department of Civil Aviation's (DCA) press conferences only, and security personnel arrived shortly after to remove the gatecrashers by force.

Some of them were seen crying and screaming as they were dragged into the media secretariat office in an adjacent room, which is off-limits to media personnel.

"I've been here for four days! Please help me get back my son!" cried one elderly woman in Mandarin.

"From the South China Sea and now elsewhere. We don't know where the plane had gone... There is no information at all," cried another person, who was on the verge of tears.

Another was seen carrying a banner which read "We are against the Malaysian government for hiding the truth and delaying the rescue. Release our families unconditionally!"

The entire episode lasted less than 10 minutes.

Hisham: It is heart-wrenching for me too

The incident happened as reporters were stationed in the auditorium. The standard practice is to reserve seats about an hour before the press briefing, which usually takes place at 5.30pm.

Relatives of some of the 152 Chinese nationals aboard the missing Flight MH370 have been flown to Malaysia and are currently staying at a hotel in Putrajaya.

MAS has claimed that they have been assigned a staff for each family in Malaysia and China, who will provide updates on the progress of the search.

However, there are some families who have grown impatient with the lack of progress while several families, in Beijing, have threatened to go on hunger strike.

Meanwhile, Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein (left), during the press briefing which followed, said he could empathise with what the families are going through.

"One of our main priorities is how to handle their emotions and the families. That is why we are sending a team to Beijing.

"I hope and appeal to everybody, that we are trying our very best. This is also heart-wrenching for me," he said.

Earlier during the briefing, Hishammuddin had also said that they are sending a high-level team that comprise of representatives of the prime minister, foreign ministry and the DCA to Beijing.

Fresh chaos

As the press briefing was going on, another round of commotion erupted elsewhere when the families were escorted out of the media secretariat office under heavy police guard at about 5.40pm.

Journalists were pushed away when they tried to approach the Chinese nationals as they were being taken to an upper floor.

Several journalist fell down while policemen could be heard shouting "tahan, tahan (detain them)"  at the press.

After the family members were led to the new room, a police line was formed outside to bar entry of pressmen.

"Who is the officer in charge here and why we are not allowed to talk to the Chinese families?" asked a BBC journalist while recording a live report.

The latter was later pushed against a wall while he tried to approach Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar for comment at about 6pm.

The police chief then entered the room without talking to the press.

KJ: Wan Azizah too busy to become a good assemblyman

Hindu in Pakistan suffer acid attack for celebrating Holi

Three Hindus were injured in an acid attack during a religious festival in Pakistan’s southern port city Karachi on Monday, according to police.

“People were throwing colors on each other at a ceremony to celebrate [Hindu religious festival] Holi in Model Colony area, when one of the participants threw acid-mixed color on the crowd and sped away,” said Pir Mohammad Shah, a city police chief.

We can hardly doubt the motivation behind this attack on Minority Hindus in Pakistan. As per the Standing Committee on Academic Research and Issuing Fatwas, it is strictly prohibited for Muslims to take part, celebrate the festivals of Kuffar (Hindus). It reads:

It is not permissible for the Muslim to join the kuffaar in their festivals and to express joy and happiness on these occasions, or to take the day off work, whether the occasion is religious or secular, because this is a kind of imitating the enemies of Allaah, which is forbidden, and a kind of co-operating with them in falsehood. It was proven that the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Whoever imitates a people is one of them.” [Fatwa no. 2540]

Muslims in Karachi believe that the attacker was a Hindu, ironically the acid-throwing incident follows the burning of a Hindu temple and a community office in the southern Larkana district on Sunday, by angry mobs protesting the alleged burning of a Quran by a Hindu.

Pakistan is a Muslim-majority country where Hindus are the second largest minority after the Christians. They make up 2 percent of the 180 million population.

Diverted MH370 path never used by pilots before

Neither the pilot nor co-pilot of the missing Flight MH370 had any experience flying on areas which are now subject to search and rescue operations.

 

"None," Malaysia Airlines chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya told journalists at the daily briefing for MH370 when queried about the pilot's and co-pilot's experience using the new route which diverted from the KLIA-Beijing route.

 

"As far as pilots are concerned, looking at the northern corridor, we do not fly there at all as a commercial airline.

 

"(For) the southern corridor, unless you fly to these islands, (but) we don't fly to any of these islands," he said at Sama-Sama Hotel, KL International Airport.

 

Based on satellite data, an international investigation team had established that the aircraft's last position could have been either in what is now known as a "northern corridor" which ranges from the northern Thai border to the borders of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan or the "souhern corridor" which ranges from Indonesia to South of the Indian Ocean.

 

The plane had at 1.30am on March 8 lost communication over the Gulf of Thailand and later detected by military and satellite data flying westwards, possibly for several hours, away from its destination.

 

Unfamiliar route

 

MAS' confirmation today indicate that pilot Zaharie Ahmah Shah or co-pilot Fariq Ab Hamid were flying on an unfamiliar route, if they were indeed the ones in control of the cockpit when communications with air traffic controllers were lost.

 

But MAS' official routes are not necessarily a measure of the pilots' real experience, as a Berita Harian report today quoted unnamed investigators saying Zaharie's flight simulator at home had five airstrips which he could practice on, including one which sits in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

 

While the other four airstrips in the simulator are situated in India, the Maldives and Sri Lanka, countries where MAS flies to, the British territory of Diego Garcia, located in the central Indian Ocean, is an exception.

 

Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein who was present at the press conference refused to confirm if these airstrips did indeed exist in the simulator, instead asked journalists quiz the police.

 

The aberration raises legitimate questions but does not necessarily suggest something devious, as it could also just be an innocent fascination of an aviation enthusiast with over 18,000 flight hours.

 

No one else could fly

 

Investigations to date showed none of the other 237 passengers knew how to fly an aircraft, at least officially, if the international intelligence agencies are correct. 

 

"None of the passengers have pilot background," said Jauhari.

 

This fact, coupled with a New York Times report quoting US investigators that Flight MH370 was reprogrammed to be diverted, something only doable by experienced individuals, meant that the spotlight remains on Zaharie and Fariq.

 

"Instead of manually operating the plane's controls, whoever altered Flight MH370's path typed seven or eight keystrokes into a computer on a knee-high pedestal between the captain and the first officer," the report said.

 

Responding to the report, Jauhari said this "could be speculation", but did not put the speculation to rest as he added that "anything is possible in the aircraft" when asked if it was plausible for Flight MH370's original KLIA-Beijing route to be reprogrammed.

Malays less willing than non-Malays to accept child rape, says deputy minister

Question: Why is the incident of child rape more common among Malays?


Answer by Deputy Home Minister Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar in parliament: Because non-Malays are less sensitive and under report such cases.

He said this was because the majority of Muslim parents are unable to accept the idea of sex before marriage compared with non-Malay parents who are presumably less sensitive over the issue.

Wan Junaidi said statistics showed 80% or 1,147 of the 1,424 of statutory rape cases reported last year involved Malays. Statutory rape covers those aged below 16, regardless of whether it involved consensual sex.

In comparison, he said, Chinese accounted for 4.3% (62 victims), Indians accounted for 2% (32) while other races made up about 13% (183).

He said this was consistent with the numbers for 2012, whereby out of the 1,243 underage rape victims, Malays accounted for 80%, Chinese 5%, Indians 3% while other races accounted for 12%.

Wan Junaidi said the statistics for the Malay community were higher than that of the other races because they were more inclined to lodge reports of teenage sex, whereas non-Muslims were possibly less sensitive over the issue.

"This is because Muslim parents cannot accept sex before marriage or babies born out of wedlock as it is against Islamic teachings," he said in reply to a question from Che Mohamad Zulkifly Jusoh (BN-Setiu) on underage rape cases.

He added that police investigations found that statutory rape cases were mostly caused by access to pornographic material available easily on the Internet.

He said other reasons for underage rape included young people being influenced by friends and also the urge to give sex a try.

Wan Junaidi said that although there was a reduction in the number of cases, it was still a worrying trend as young people aged between 13 and 16 accounted for 90% of underage rape victims.

To a question from Siti Zailah Mohd Yusoff (PAS-Rantau Panjang) on whether weak enforcement was a factor, Wan Junaidi said parents were duty bound to ensure the safety of their children and not leave it to enforcement agencies. – March 18, 2014.

Chinese MH370 relatives threaten ‘hunger strike’

Some of the relatives had stopped going to MAS briefings, given how long they had been waiting for information.

BEIJING: Desperate relatives of Chinese passengers aboard flight MH370 threatened to go on hunger strike Tuesday as they demanded answers about the missing aircraft from Malaysian officials.

“Now we have no news, and everyone is understandably worried. The relatives say they will go to the (Malaysian) embassy to find the ambassador,” said Wen Wancheng, whose son was aboard the missing flight.

“The Malaysian ambassador should be presenting himself here. But he’s not,” Wen said, updating reporters after a regular meeting between Malaysia Airlines officials and family members at a hotel in Beijing.

“Relatives are very unsatisfied. So you hear them saying ‘hunger strike’,” added the 63-year-old from the eastern province of Shandong, speaking as the search entered its 11th day.

Two-thirds of the passengers on the flight, which had 239 people on board, were Chinese.

Outside the meeting room, a woman clutching a placard reading “Respect life. Give us back our families” told reporters that the relatives were going on hunger strike.

She declined to say how many were doing so, or give her name.

“Since they haven’t given us the truth about those people’s lives, all of us are protesting,” the woman said furiously.

“All the relatives are facing mental breakdowns,” she added.

Wen also said some of the relatives had stopped going to the meetings, given how long they had been waiting for information.

“It doesn’t mean giving up,” he added. “It’s normal to return home. Like me, I have been out for a long time.”

A poem was hung on a wall directly outside the relatives briefing room, credited to “Xue Song”, although it was not clear whether it was put up by a family member.

“On Malaysia Airlines our relatives have ridden, we don’t know where the plane is hidden,” said the poem.

“The Malaysian spokesman statements make us guess, and turn the search into a great big mess.

“Let down, accusing and deep frustration, our families are left in desolation.

“We just long to meet one more time, counting seconds flowing like tears in a line.”

Beijing has been critical of Malaysia’s sharing of information, with state media and China’s huge army of netizens in expressing anger at the handling of the incident by Kuala Lumpur.

MAS to look into hunger strike claims

Meanwhile in Sepang, Bernama reports that Malaysia Airlines is looking into reports which claimed that relatives of Chinese passengers onboard the missing MH370 are threatening to go on a hunger strike in Beijing.

MAS chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said he would look into the claims and was in regular contact with the MAS team in Beijing.

“Should there be anything like that happening, MAS will certainly look into the matter immediately.

“Within all we can, we ensure that we have given sufficient assistance, information and care to all the family members in Beijing,” he told a daily press conference on the missing flight here today.

AFP

Anwar: Don’t link pilot’s PKR ties to missing jet

Political allegiance of the MH370 pilot has nothing to do with the missing plane unless there are facts to support the hijack theory.

KUALA LUMPUR: PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim said today it is unfair to link the pilot of MH370 to a possible hijack just because he is a PKR supporter.

Anwar urged the government and pro-Umno bloggers not to cast aspersions unless there were facts to support the theory.

He said Zaharie was present at the Court of Appeal to express anger against the judgment in the sodomy trial on March 7. The appellate court had overturned Anwar’s acquittal and sentenced him to five years jail for sodomy.

“This does not mean he will bring his emotion to work,” he added.

“Most of the taxi drivers are our supporters, but they did not hijack their company’s vehicles to Kajang,” he said at a press conference in Parliament lobby today.

Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak said last Saturday that somebody on board on the Malaysia Airlines jetliner has deliberately switched off the main communication devices and turned back the plane after it reached Malaysia-Vietnam airspace border.

British tabloid Daily Mail reported that Zaharie was a fervent supporter of Anwar and was upset over the Court of Appeal’s conviction of Anwar on the sodomy charge.

The report said Zaharie went straight to the airport for the MH370 flight bound for Beijing after the court hearing.

Foreign media and pro-Umno bloggers had speculated that Zaharie had allegedly wanted to send a political message by taking over the Malaysia Airlines plane.

Related to Anwar

Meanwhile, Anwar admitted that Zaharie was related to his daughter-in-law and he could recall meeting Zaharie several times at party functions.

“He is a family man and has a strong passion for justice,” he said.

He urged the authorities to give space to Zaharie’s family and focus their investigation on locating the plane.

When the investigators turned their focus on the pilots of the missing jetliner, numerous PKR leaders had similarly warned against linking Zaharie to any misdeed that could have happened to the vanished plane.

Some PKR leaders even drew a distance between the party and Zaharie, with some rejecting reports that the pilot had been at the Court of Appeal on the day Anwar’s acquittal was reversed.

PKR vice president Tian Chua was reported in Astro Awani as saying that there was no evidence to suggest that Zahariae was there at the court, adding that it did not matter what his political leanings were.

Tian Chua was today questioned by the police under the Sedition Act for tweeting: “Najib sentenced Anwar to 5-year imprisonment – the people will bring down Najib in 5 months, that I promise you!!.”

Anwar disgusted

This morning, Anwar told AFP he was “disgusted” by what he saw as an attempt to smear Zaharie and somehow implicate the opposition leadership in the disappearance of Flight 370.

He condemned speculation that Zaharie – a member of Anwar’s party – may have been driven by political motives to sabotage the plane.

“Is it a crime for anyone to be a member of PKR? To me it is an attempt to deflect the government’s incompetence,” Anwar told AFP.

“I of course did not take the news reports seriously but I am speaking out because I sympathise with the pilot and his family,” he said.

“The mysterious disappearance of MH370 reflects not only an incompetent regime ruling the country but an irresponsible government,” he added.

The Malaysian authorities have had to defend themselves against repeated accusations that they withheld key information during the early stages of the search for the missing aircraft.

Missing MH370: Anwar has seen Zaharie but has no links to him

(The Star) - Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (pic) has seen Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370 pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah at PKR meetings but does not know him personally.

Anwar criticised attempts to link Zaharie’s political affiliations to the plane’s disappearance on March 8.

“I don’t recollect the name, but when the photographs were shown I remembered I had seen him at party meetings,” the South China Morning Post quoted Anwar as saying.

“He doesn’t hold positions in the party, but is an active member in the sense that he has been seen with the party’s parliamentary leaders, taking photographs with them.”

Anwar said they had had no personal contact, but Zaharie was a follower of his Twitter account.

Anwar said that instead of trying to associate the missing plane with him, the focus should be on carrying out transparent and objective investigations.

He also said China’s condemnation of Malaysia’s handling of the search for the Boeing 777 was “absolutely justified”.

Prove non-Malays ‘more accepting’ of child rape, deputy minister told

(MM) - DAP MP Gobind Singh Deo challenged today Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar to back his claim that Malaysia’s minorities were more tolerant of statutory rape.

The deputy home minister had told Parliament earlier during Question Time that “non-Malays are maybe more accepting” of sexual violations involving underaged children, earning Gobind’s wrath.

“This is absolute and utter rubbish,” Gobind said in a statement.

The Puchong MP said Wan Junaidi’s statement was a very serious allegation and “casts a most damning insinuation” on all Malaysians as if to suggest there were racial groups in society that condoned child rape.

Gobind, who is also a criminal lawyer and the DAP’s head of legal affairs, described the deputy home minister’s statement as “most shallow, irresponsible and outrageous”.

He noted that the police statistics Wan Junaidi had cited in his parliamentary reply cannot be used to support any statement that race played a role or stretched to mean non-Malays were less sensitive to child rape compared to Malays.

“Can he show us how many of such rapes have occurred and gone unreported until now because those affected were of a certain race who ‘were less sensitive towards it’ or ‘could accept it’?” Gobind asked, of Wan Junaidi.

The opposition lawmaker demanded Wan Junaidi retract his statement and apologise immediately if he was unable to furnish proof to support his theory.

Wan Junaidi had suggested that Malays were more intolerant of their youths who preyed sexually on minors compared to Malaysians of other ethnicities, when asked about the high number of reported statutory rape cases involving the country’s biggest community.

“This doesn’t mean the cases mostly involve Malays. Because Malays are culturally more sensitive about its youth so there are more police reports about it.

“Non-Malays are maybe more accepting about it so the margin (is lower),” Wan Junaidi said in reply to Setiu Barisan Nasional MP Che Mohamad Zulkifly Jusoh.

The Santubong MP said that in 2012, there were 1,550 reported incidents of statutory rape, with Malays taking the top spot at 48 per cent, followed by the Chinese at 5 per cent and Indians at 3 per cent, and added that the number last year had dropped to 1,424 cases.

Wan Junaidi also said close to 90 per cent of the cases reported involved those aged between 16 and 19.

Malaysia was rocked in the past two years by several high-profile cases of men having sex with underage girls, some barely in their teens, which raised questions over the Penal Code.

Bernama KPS Interview

EXCLUSIVE: Did MH370 crew succumb to fire catastrophe?

by Aimee Turner

The former head of security for the United States’ Federal Aviation Administration insists that rather than portraying the crew of the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 as saboteurs, the pilots struggled heroically to save their aircraft until overcome by smoke from a catastrophic cargo fire.

Billie Vincent who served as the FAA’s civil aviation security chief played a key policy and crisis management role in the handling of all hijackings of US aircraft in the 1980s. He was also in charge of the agency’s armed Federal Air Marshals and served as an expert witness in the trial of the Pan Am 103 terrorist bombing.

After leaving the FAA he led an international consulting firm which was contracted in the 1990s to design and implement the security system of Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur International Airport where Flight 370, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew, started its journey at 12.41 am on March 8 before disappearing from civilian radar en route to Beijing at 1.21 am.

Officials in Malaysia claim that, based on ‘pings’ sent from the aircraft to an Inmarsat satellite, the aircraft was deliberately diverted and may have flown as far north as Central Asia or south over the Indian Ocean. They suspect that someone on board the aircraft first disabled one of its communications systems – the Aircraft and Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) around 40 minutes after takeoff before switching off the aircraft’s transponder in a systematic effort to render the aircraft invisible to air traffic surveillance.

Speaking exclusively to Air Traffic Management, Vincent dismisses the likelihood of a bomb being detonated on board which would have ruptured the pressure hull of the aircraft citing the fact that the aircraft was tracked by a series of satellite ‘pings’. That would indicate that Flight MH370 flew for up to seven more hours which would not have been possible if it had been compromised.

“The data released thus far most likely points to a problem with hazardous materials. This scenario begins with the eruption of hazardous materials within the cargo hold – either improperly packaged or illegally shipped – or both,” says Vincent.

In his view, a fire which started in the cargo hold progressively and serially destroyed the aircraft’s communications systems; toxic fumes quickly overwhelmed the passenger cabin and the cockpit where at least one of the flight crew managed to don an oxygen mask allowing them to turn the aircraft back to Kuala Lumpur.

Flight 370 is reported to have climbed to 45,000ft which Vincent believes could have been due simply to the inability of the flight crew to clearly see and set the controls for a return to Kuala Lumpur.

Vincent guesses that control could have been regained and the aircraft sent back to a lower altitude of around 23,000 ft – which is a diversion altitude set by manufacturers of large transport aircraft to prevent a fire taking further hold and which both allows better survivability for those on board and vents the avionics bays.

The final report of a UPS B747 crash in Dubai in 2010, details how that crew similarly attempted to depressurise the freighter aircraft to slow down the fire 30 seconds after the loss of aircraft systems and flight controls. In that accident, the time interval between fire detection and the onset of aircraft system failures was around two and a half minutes.
The last verbal communication from Flight 370 was issued at 1.19 am as the aircraft left Malaysian airspace. It then disappeared from air traffic controllers’ screens at 1.21 am whilst flying over the South China Sea.

Vincent guesses that the crew did manage to stabilise the aircraft and set it on a new course before once again succumbing to either a loss of oxygen or the remaining toxic fumes.

“The airplane then continues flying until no fuel remains and crashes – most likely into the ocean as there has been no report of any Emergency Locater Transmitter (ELT) signal which can be received by satellite if the crash were on land,” says Vincent.

Vincent insists other scenarios involving hijacking and sabotage are improbable. “For instance, there is no indication that either of the pilots was criminally involved in the disappearance of this airplane. Neither has Malaysia released any data indicating anything amiss in the security clearance of the passengers for this flight. The one question raised about the two passengers travelling on stolen passports has been cleared indicating that they were planning on illegally claiming refugee status in another country, probably Germany.”

“I have yet to see anything released about the nature and content of the cargo carried in the cargo hold of Flight 370. Hazardous cargo can be legally carried on passenger aircraft. However, the amount and type of such hazardous materials are strictly controlled,” says Vincent.

While all hazardous materials must be properly contained and labelled – and declared to the airline transporting it, Vincent notes that hazardous materials have been – knowingly and unknowingly – labelled improperly for carriage on passenger aircraft in addition to having been carried on board unlawfully by passengers.

Though entirely within the law, a 2013 report by the UK’s Royal Aeronautical Society warned that passengers flying on a typical single aisle jet could be bringing more than 500 potentially lethal batteries on board – both in the cabin and the hold – to power personal gadgets.

The report documents how a fire occurred in April 2012 on a flight from Toronto to Minneapolis at 28,000ft when the battery from a passenger’s air purifier device combusted. A cabin crew member wet paper towels to put out the fire before submerging the smouldering battery in a cup of water. On the flight deck, meanwhile, the captain, smelling a strong burning electrical odour, declared an emergency and diverted to Michigan.

Public nominations for Human Rights Awards 2014

The Sun

PETALING JAYA: The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) is calling for public nominations for its Human Rights Awards 2014.

The award will honour Malaysians in five categories namely individual awards, organisation or group awards, media awards, as well as awards for government agencies and business entities.

Suhakam chairman Tan Sri Hasmy Agam said this provides a broader opportunity for the Commission to pay tribute to those who have dedicated their time and energy towards upholding human rights in their own meaningful ways.

Nominations will close on 30 June 2014. Nomination forms and other relevant information can be obtained from the Commission's official portal at www.suhakam.org.my.

Statement By Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Tuesday On Missing MAS Plane

KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 (Bernama) -- Following is the statement by Defence Minister and acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein at a press briefing on the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH370, in Sepang, Selangor, Tuesday:

Introductory Statement

Yesterday, I stated that the search for MH370 had entered a new phase, which brings new diplomatic, technical and logistical challenges.

Today, I would like to give you an update on the logistical and diplomatic aspects of the search.

The search and rescue operations have taken on a new international dimension. The search is still coordinated by Malaysia, but our partners have taken an increasing role in organising and carrying out operations, both within their own territory and also within agreed search sectors. My colleague, the Foreign Minister, Datuk Seri Anifah Aman, will give a more detailed statement on our diplomatic efforts in a moment.

On the logistical front, over the past 24 hours we have been working hard with other countries to narrow the search corridors. Our focus is on four tasks: gathering information from satellite surveillance, analysis of surveillance radar data, increasing air and surface assets, and increasing the number of technical and subject matter experts.

On satellite surveillance, I cannot disclose who has what satellite capability, but I can confirm we have contacted every relevant country that has access to satellite data.

On analysis of radar data, in the southern corridor Australia and Indonesia have agreed to take the lead of their respective parts of the search corridor.

In the northern corridor, China and Kazakhstan have agreed to lead in the search areas closest to their countries.

On air and surface assets, I have spoken to almost all Asean leaders to request further support, including assets with deep ocean surveillance detection capabilities. We are also asking international partners who have assisted us before to take another look at their primary radar data.

1. Operational Update

In the northern corridor, we have divided the search area into seven quadrants. Each of the seven quadrants is 400 nautical miles by 400 nautical miles

or 160,000 square nautical miles in total.

We have also divided up the southern corridor into seven quadrants. Just like in the north, each quadrant covers an area of 160,000 square nautical miles.

The entire search area is now 2.24 million square nautical miles.

This is an enormous search area. And it is something that Malaysia cannot possibly search on its own. I am therefore very pleased that so many countries have come forward to offer assistance and support to the search and rescue operation.

In terms of the deployment of specific assets:

Today, the Royal Malaysian Navy deployed two more ships to the southern corridor. This deployment includes a Super Lynx helicopter, which can operate from either ship. This brings the total number of Malaysian ships deployed to the southern corridor to four, with two Super Lynx helicopters.

Today, Malaysia also deployed two C-130 aircraft to the Indonesian sector of the southern search corridor.

Other countries are also contributing the following assets:

The United States has deployed one P-8 Poseidon, and will redeploy a P-3 Orion aircraft.

Australia, as I mentioned yesterday, has deployed three P-3 Orion and one C-130 Hercules.

In terms of the deployment of specific assets:

Today, the Royal Malaysian Navy deployed two more ships to the southern corridor. This deployment includes a Super Lynx helicopter, which can operate from either ship. This brings the total number of Malaysian ships deployed to the southern corridor to four, with two Super Lynx helicopters.

Today, Malaysia also deployed two C-130 aircraft to the Indonesian sector of the southern search corridor.

Other countries are also contributing the following assets:

The United States has deployed one P-8 Poseidon, and will redeploy a P-3 Orion aircraft.

Australia, as I mentioned yesterday, has deployed three P-3 Orion and one C-130 Hercules.

New Zealand is redeploying a P-3 Orion to support Australian search efforts.

The Republic of Korea has committed one P-3 Orion and one C-130 Hercules.

Japan has committed two P-3 Orion, two C-130 and one Gulfstream jet.

The UAE has committed one C-17 aircraft and one Bombardier Dash-8 aircraft.

The assets from Korea, Japan, and the UAE are currently in Malaysia awaiting orders from their respective governments.

Aside from deploying its assets to the northern corridor, China has also made arrangements with Australia to deploy an aircraft to the southern corridor.

2. ACARS (Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System)

I would like to clarify what has been said about ACARS and the sequence of events before the air turn-back.

On Saturday, we stated that

and I quote: Based on new satellite information, we can say with a high degree of certainty that the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) was disabled just before the aircraft reached the east coast of peninsular Malaysia.

"Shortly afterwards, near the border between Malaysian and Vietnamese air traffic control, the aircraft s transponder was switched off.

These findings were drafted together with representatives from the lead international investigators, based on the information available at the time.

Yesterday, Malaysia Airlines clarified that we cannot determine exactly when ACARS had been disabled, only that it occurred within a specific time range: from 01:07

approximately when the aircraft reached the east coast of peninsular Malaysia, and the last ACARS transmission occurred

to 01:37, which was the next scheduled reporting time. That is indeed the case.

This does not change our belief, as stated, that up until the point at which it left military primary radar coverage, the aircraft s movements were consistent with deliberate action by someone on the plane. That remains the position of the investigating team.

It is also important to recognise that the precise time ACARS was disabled has no bearing on the search and rescue operation. We know that the last known position of the plane as confirmed by the international investigations team was in either the northern or southern corridors, which is where our search and rescue efforts are focused. Our priority has always been to find the aircraft.

3. Police Investigation

I am aware there is a lot of interest in the Royal Malaysia Police investigation into the passengers and crew of MH370. I hope you understand that I cannot comment on the specifics of the investigation, which is still ongoing.

I would also like to state that the search for MH370 is bigger than politics. I urge all Malaysians to put our differences aside and unite during this difficult time as we focus on finding the aircraft and the 239 people on board. 4. Concluding Remarks

The search for MH370 remains our top priority. We will continue to provide you with operational updates, including further information about assets being deployed, as soon as they are available.

In the last few days we have been intensively contacting our friends across the search regions. The cooperation we saw in the first phase continues in this new phase. In fact, there is even more commitment to assist us in this much larger and more complex multinational operation.

In the meantime, our thoughts remain with the families and friends of those on board.

China urged to re-look into passenger manifest

Minneapolis Lesbian Police Chief Dons Hijab for “Hijab Day”

When the left finally cracks up, the few survivors will have a really good laugh.

According to a Facebook post, Somali staffers that work at Minneapolis City Hall declared February 28 “Hijab Day” at City Hall and convinced the police chief and female city council reps to wear hijabs on the job.

Pictures include: Minneapolis police chief Janee Harteau (who recently married her favorite female sergeant – not very hijab like), city council members Elizabeth Glidden and Lisa Bender as well as other staffers.

There’s nothing like a lesbian feminist authority figure who boasts of being the first female police chief in Minneapolis donning a symbol of male ownership in a patriarchal tribal society to express the deep schizophrenia of the left in its enthusiastic enabling of Islamists.

But I’m sure now that Janee donned the hijab, she thinks everything is going to be okay. Spoiler alert; it’s not.

Two women accused of having a lesbian relationship have been sentenced to death by a court in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland in northern Somalia. In the first case of its kind in Somalia, a culturally conservative and Muslim nation, the two — whose names were not revealed — were found guilty of “exercising unnatural behaviour”.

The relationship between the two women was discovered after one of them sued her partner, who had lived in the United States, for infecting her with a sexually transmitted disease.

Hundreds packed the court in the northern coastal town of Boosaaso earlier this week to hear the case. They cheered as the judge handed down death sentences on the two women. The pair are reported to have been tried under Somali Criminal Punishment Law, which is loosely based on Islamic Sharia law.


Coming soon to Minneapolis…

Mystery surrounds co-pilot's final words

"All right, good night" were the last words from the cockpit of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.

 

These words have come under intense scrutiny in the recent days over whether they were said by the pilot or someone who was not supposed to be in the cockpit.

 

However, Malaysian authorities said today preliminary investigations show that these last words were from co-pilot Fariq Ab Hamid (left).

 

"Initial investigations indicate that it was the co-pilot who basically spoke the last time, it was recorded on tape," MAS chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya told a press conference at Sama-Sama Hotel, KL International Airport.

 

This final conversation took place just 11 minutes before MH370 disappeared from Malaysian air traffic control radar at 1.30am on March 8.

 

Did something happen to the co-pilot in those 11 minutes or was the co-pilot part of something devious? [View timeline of final communication here]

 

These questions have prompted the international media to cast a spotlight on whether MH370's communication system, the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (Acars), was turned off before or after the final cockpit communication.

When was the Acars switched off?
 

Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said yesterday the Acars was turned off before the last cockpit communication with the control tower - now deduced to be with Fariq.

 

That statement, which was clarified to be inaccurate today, had raised questions as to why Fariq did not indicate anything amiss to the control tower, despite the Acars being turned off even though it should not have been.

 

Jauhari (right) said today it could not be established whether the Acars was turned off before or after Fariq's communication.

 

"The last Acars transmission was 1.07am. We don't know when the Acars was switched off after that but it was supposed to transmit every 30 minutes and the next transmission did not come through," he said.

 

That means the next Acars transmission - that did not take place - should have been at 1.37am.

 

This indicates the Acars could have been turned off at any time before or after 1.19am, but still between 1.07am and 1.37am, which is the time of the final communication with the control tower.

 

This latest information gives Fariq the benefit of the doubt, but does not shed light on what happened in the next crucial 11 minutes when the plane lost communication and deviated from its path.

Pilot was not a stand-in

The plane's transponder, a key communication device tracked by air traffic controllers, could not be picked up at 1.21am by Vietnamese air traffic controllers as scheduled.

 

Jauhari also denied that the pilot, Zaharie Ahmad Shah (left) was a last minute replacement for the flight.

 

"The roster used was according to schedule," he said.

 

Meanwhile, Hishammuddin who was also present at the press conference confirmed that pilot suicide was among several angles that are being investigated in investigation of the flight's passengers by the police.

 

However, he declined to state whether the investigation thus far found whether the pilot and co-pilot were suffering from any personal problems.

Only RoS can decide on MIC re-election’

Former MIC Youth chief says the MIC central working committee cannot decide not to hold a re-election.

PETALING JAYA: Only the Registrar of Societies (RoS) can decide on the party re-election and not the MIC central committee members, said former MIC Youth chief T Mohan.

Mohan said since more than 50 reports had been lodged with the RoS on irregularities in the CWC and division elections, only the registrar could decide now.

“It is unlawful for CWC members to dismiss appeals made by party members and leaders who now want a re-election.

“The letter from MIC president G Palanivel and CWC are their personal views and the final say is with the RoS,” he said in the statement.

He said only the RoS could decide if a re-election was warranted or not.

Mohan was commenting on an announcement by the party secretary-general last week that the party had dismissed all petitions calling for a re-election following alleged vote manipulation and voting irregularities at the party polls late last year.

Disgruntled leaders and members have been asking the party leadership to hold a re-election, claiming that the MIC polls, held on Nov 30, 2013 in Malacca, was marred with irregularities.

“We do not care about the party’s stand. The RoS is investigating party leaders and election committee personnel. Let them decide on whether a re-election is needed or not,” said Mohan.

He said Palanivel did not want to hold the party elections last year but was forced to do so by the RoS.

“The RoS intervened once and there is no reason why they cannot intervene again. Just hold a re-election and clear the air once and for all,” he added.

Dr Mahathir warns Malaysia to prepare for another financial crisis

(Bernama) - Malaysia needs to be ready to face another world financial crisis which was expected in the face of escalating prices and reduced purchasing power.

Former prime minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed (pic), said the country should formulate strategies based on past experiences and find the causes of the crisis.

“With current and past financial crises, we should dissect them and in turn get ideas on how to prepare ourselves to overcome them,” he told a media briefing after the Perdana Leadership Foundation International Roundtable on Surviving the Next Global Financial Crisis in Kuala Lumpur today.

He said the first stage would involve understanding the mechanics and once it was achieved, the crisis could be dealt with.

“I am a former doctor and the way we should approach it, should be like a doctor,” he said.

Meanwhile, the roundtable discussed ways to overcome a financial crisis and the findings will be forwarded to the government.

The roundtable is organised by the Perdana Leadership Foundation and sponsored by YTL Corp, Malaysia Airlines, Buna Puri, Westports, AmBank, UEM and Bank Rakyat.

The participants include Senator Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar (Minister in Prime Minister’s Department – Economic Planning Unit), Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar (Khazanah Nasional managing director), Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop (Khazanah Nasional deputy chairman), Tan Sri Azman Hashim (AmBank chairman), Tan Sri Francis Yeoh (YTL managing director), Tan Sri Sabbaruddin Chik (Bank Rakyat chairman), Tan Sri Azman Yahya (Symphony Life chairman/group chief executive officer), Tan Sri Jawhar Hassan (ISIS chairman), and, Datuk Mohaiyani Shamsudin (Maybank Asset Management).

Meanwhile, Dr Mahathir said he was saddened by the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines MH370 since March 8.

“It is strange that it can’t be detected through satellite with 20 nations assisting in the search and rescue operations,” he said.

China Presses Claim on MH370 Search

Troubling noises in the press about a special right for Beijing to lead the way, not Malaysia

The hunt for MH370 looks like becoming another wedge to be used by China to claim hegemony in Southeast Asia. A signed commentary on March 17 by the editor of the South China Morning Post, Wang Xiangwei makes it abundantly clear that Beijing is not just frustrated by Malaysia’s failure to find the plane but insists on its right to take a lead.

The article is headed: “Is Malaysia fit to lead search for flight 370?” and concludes with the following demand: “It is time for Beijing to step up and lead the operation using its influence to press the relevant nations to work more closely to solve the mystery”.

This is arguably not just the work of a columnist writing nonsense off the top of his head. Wang not only has very good connections in Beijing. He began his career on the state-owned China Daily and was a member of the China People's Political Consultative Committee of Jilin Province.

His commentary coincides with a bristling editorial in the state-owned news agency Xinhua, which said the delay in providing information on what appears to be the true course of the airplane instead of a possible location somewhere in the South China Sea “a huge waste of valuable time and resources.”

It went on to say that “due to the absence — or at least lack — of timely authoritative information, massive efforts have been squandered, and numerous rumors have been spawned, repeatedly wracking the nerves of the awaiting families. Given today’s technology, the delay smacks of either dereliction of duty or reluctance to share information in a full and timely manner. That would be intolerable.”

There are two dangerous implications in Wang’s column and the Xinhua editorial. The first is that because the majority of passengers were Chinese nationals and ethnic Chinese from Malaysia, this gives the Beijing government a special claim to lead the search. This sounds very much like old-fashioned race-based claims to be the protector of Chinese everywhere.

The Chinese did this once before, on the Mekong River in October of 2011, when eight gunmen stormed two Chinese cargo ships in an attempt to hijack about 900,000 amphetamine pills worth more than US$3 million, murdering the Chinese crew of the two vessels. The Chinese reaction was immediate. First they suspended all shipping on the Mekong, then sent more than 200 border police to join patrols looking for the culprits – whom the patrols eventually caught, They were later executed. It was the first such joint deployment into Southeast Asia, and was regarded as a troubling expansion of China's growing role in regional security.

This is also strikingly similar to Russia’s current claims to the right to defend the interests of ethnic Russians not merely in areas where they are a majority – Crimea and eastern Ukraine – but in other countries which were once part of the Soviet Russian empire and still have significant Russian minorities remaining from colonization under both the tsars and the commissars.

The second is Wang’s words “press the relevant nations to work more closely.” Which, one wonders, are the relevant nations supposed to share their data not with Malaysia but with China? Is this a demand on Vietnam? On India? On Thailand? How much data has China itself provided to Malaysia?

China’s one known contribution to date has been a report that one of its satellites found wreckage in the South China Sea. This turned out to be embarrassing and false and made life even more difficult for an already confused Malaysia. The satellite sighting, of “three suspected floating objects” in the South China Sea required a helicopter search that turned out to be ordinary flotsam.

Beyond that, China’s contribution to the search has been minimal compared with that of the US if only for the reason that it has little naval or air capability to the west and south of Malaysia. As far the possibility that the plane headed northwest, across Thailand, Myanmar and perhaps even China itself toward Kazakhstan, one would assume that China has its own radar data. Is it sharing that with anyone?

China may be able to lean on Thailand and Myanmar, who probably have scant data anyway, but does Beijing really believe that India, for instance, would open up its military surveillance capability by telling China everything it knows?

If any country other than Malaysia should coordinate the search it should be the US simply because it has the most and most sophisticated air, naval and satellite resources. But would India and China be happy with that?

The very fact that Beijing through its mouthpiece Wang Xiangwei feels entitled to demand leadership displays an attitude of mind which should make Southeast Asia shiver. That is an attitude which will not go away whether or not the plane is ever found and the mystery of its disappearance resolved.

Meanwhile, in the western press…

The dangerous assumptions of the Chinese form a useful contrast to the vacuity and irresponsibility of much western media coverage. The once-respected British newspaper The Guardian retailed a story first put out by a British tabloid that the pilot was a “political extremist” follower of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.

The story was unsourced, suggesting it was one of innumerable plot theories peddled on Twitter but nonetheless widely picked up, for example by television stations in Hong Kong. Perhaps this one was put out by UMNO loyalists eager to further tarnish opposition leader Anwar. But its dissemination by the Guardian showed the depths to which British journalism has sunk.

The Guardian also carried a report on MH 370 datelined “Songkhla,” omitting to tell its readers that this is a moderate size town in southern Thailand far from sources of MH 370 news – which probably explains why the story read like a brief rehash of wire services.

Numerous foreign media took the Malaysian military to task for not noticing the westward turn of MH 370 till days afterwards. But do small countries like Malaysia with constant heavy commercial traffic really need to spend huge resources constantly monitoring every aircraft in their airspace?

Malaysia is not threatened militarily by anyone – other than by China with its claims over Malaysian islands in the South China Sea – so one would hardly expect it to use radar to constantly closely monitor all air traffic, especially late at night when many flights leave KL for northeast Asia and Europe.

There could quickly be international incidents if Malaysia – or others – scrambled interceptor fighters every time an insufficiently identified plane showed up on the radar. Malaysia certainly badly mishandled the information that it eventually received from its military after data had been reviewed, but the fact is that Southeast Asia has long been at peace and no country is on alert for enemy aircraft.

Flight MH370: lost jet exposes gaps in Malaysia's defences

Allies and neighbours concerned after prime minister discloses flight MH370 crossed its territory without being picked up by military radar

Cabin crews of Vietnam Air Force are seen onboard a flying AN-26 Soviet made aircraft during a search operation for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 plane Photo: AP

 

Malaysia has rejected questions over its air defence systems following the seizure and disappearance of flight MH370 and claimed the lessons learned from the crisis could “change aviation history”.

The disclosure by Prime Minister Najib Razak that the Malaysia Airlines plane was seized shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, turned around over the South China Sea and flew back over Peninsular Malaysia without alerting the country’s defence forces has caused alarm among neighbours and allies.

After the September 11 2001 attacks on the United States, air defences across the world were tightened and new procedures adopted to speed the detection of rogue aircraft and intercept them before they could be used as weapons of terrorism.

But the apparent failure of Malaysia, which has a defence agreement with Britain, to notice that the plane had changed direction, fallen off the radar and then flown towards and through its air space has identified serious loopholes in its air defences.

Most countries with advanced air forces would detect an incoming hostile aircraft 200 miles from shore and scramble fighter jets to challenge it.

There has been strong criticism of the failure in China, India and in private by Western diplomats and defence analysts.

A Western security source said while the current focus is on helping Malaysia locate the missing plane, “there are a lot of questions – how did it get to the point where it came back and went wherever? You would have thought [planes] would have been scrambled and the Malaysians would have acted.”

Sugata Pramanik, an Indian air traffic controllers’ leader, said a plane can “can easily become invisible to civilian radar by switching off the transponder ... But it cannot avoid defence systems.”

One senior Indian Navy commander, Rear Admiral Sudhir Pillai, however said his country’s military radars were occasionally “switched off as we operate on an 'as required’ basis”.

The Royal Malaysian Air Force is widely respected and has a fleet of Sukhoi S30 and F16 fighter jets and does regular training exercises with their British, Australian, New Zealand and Singapore counterparts.

Malaysia’s Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein however dismissed the concerns and said the disaster was an “unprecedented case” with lessons for all.

“It’s not right to say there is a breach in the standard procedures ... what we’re going through here is being monitored throughout the world and may change aviation history,” he said.

His comments were supported by Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, Malaysia’s Director General of Civil Aviation, who said “many will have lessons to learn from this. I’ve been in aviation for 35 years and I’ve never seen this kind of incident before”.

Neither elaborated on the loopholes exposed beyond Malaysia by the seizure of MH370 and stressed that Kuala Lumpur would not focus on the issue until it had found the aircraft and its passengers on crew.

Anifah Aman, Malaysia’s foreign minister, told The Telegraph the world was “missing the point” by focusing on security implications and that he still hoped for a 'miracle’ in finding the passengers and crew alive.

“The focus must be on finding the plane. I don’t want to support any of the theories at this juncture. This involves a lot of lives. My worry is where is the plane and what little chance that people are safe so that they can come back ... we believe in miracles and like to think they’re safe and can return to their families,” he said.

The prime minister confirmed on Saturday that the Boeing 777 had been flown from close to Vietnamese air space over the South China Sea, back across the Malaysian peninsula to the Strait of Malacca, close to Penang, and then took two possible navigational corridors.

Search operations, now including 25 countries, are now focused on a northern corridor from the Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan border to northern Thailand and a southern sector from Indonesia to the vast southern Indian Ocean.

The investigation into what happened to the plane is now based on four theories – all of which follow from Mr Najib’s acceptance on Saturday that the plane had been deliberately seized or hijacked.

Police Inspector General Khalid Abu Bakar said those who had taken the plane were either hijackers, saboteurs, someone with a personal vendetta or a psychological problem.

His investigation had been launched under a Malaysian law which covers terrorism offences, he said.

Until now the government has been reluctant to refer to the seizure as a hijacking or act of terrorism because they have yet to find any evidence on the motive of whoever seized the plane on Saturday March 8th.

The minister and the police chief’s comments however marked a freer use of the terms following the prime minister’s confirmation that the plane had been deliberately taken and re-routed.

Malaysia has not suffered terrorism on the scale of neighbours Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines, although several Malaysian nationals are known to have received training from al-Qaeda.

India troops seeking jet rest at island base as Malaysia silent

PORT BLAIR (India), March 17 — As the sun set over Port Blair in the Andaman Sea during the past week, runway lights glowed to guide Indian aircraft searching for the missing Malaysian passenger jet back to land.

For the past two days, however, the headquarters of India’s search operations for the plane in the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands have been quiet as officials await new coordinates from Malaysia. Many of the 2,000 military officers stationed on the islands stayed home to celebrate the holiday of Holi, which marks the start of spring, by smearing coloured powder on each other’s faces.

“Our hands are tied until the Malaysians come back to us with coordinates,” Harmit Singh, spokesman for the Indian military in Port Blair, said today. “Until then, we just sit, wait and try to enjoy Holi.”

Indian officials had deployed ships and long-range aircraft from the island chain to search for Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 across 250,000 square kilometres (96,500 square miles), an area about the size of the UK Shifting the search further into the Indian Ocean may prove much more difficult.

“The Indian Ocean is daunting,” V.S.R. Murthy, the coast guard’s commander for the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, said in an interview on March 15. “There is a massive amount of sea that will need to be searched, which will require many more planes, ships.”

British prison

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands were used by British rulers to hold and hang criminals in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and later to imprison Indian freedom fighters. The islands officially became an Indian union territory in 1947 when the country won independence from the British.

India maintains a military presence in the island chain, seeking to counter Chinese maritime power as well as prevent attacks by pirates in key shipping routes. The archipelago of about 527 islands not far from Thailand, Myanmar and Indonesia also attracts tourists seeking pristine beaches.

India is among 25 countries that Malaysia is asking to help find the 777-200 wide-body Boeing Co aircraft carrying 239 people that disappeared on March 8. Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said it’s possible the plane might’ve travelled in a corridor reaching into the southern Indian Ocean as it continued flying for almost seven hours after its last contact with air-traffic controllers.

Southern assets

The Indian search fleet includes P8I long-range maritime patrol, C-130J Hercules and Dornier planes, according to the nation’s government. Naval warships INS Saryu and INS Kesari were also assigned to the task, it said in a March 15 statement.

India has no naval assets permanently stationed near or below the equator, the area where the new search may take place, according to Pradeep Kaushiva, a former Indian vice admiral who spent 40 years in the navy and specialises in electronic warfare.

“We are entering a new more daunting, more difficult search for something that we don’t even know is there,” he said. “It’s very much a search for a needle in the haystack.” — Bloomberg

Lawyers pass resolution to prohibit retired judges from litigating in court

The Malaysian Insider (Used by permission)
BY JENNIFER GOMEZ

The Malaysian Bar passed a resolution at its annual general meeting today that retired higher court judges be prohibited from representing clients in court.

It also called on the government not to bring into force the amendments to the Prevention of Crime Act 1959 and instead to repeal them, citing objectionable features such as detention without trial and a suspected person not having the right to apply for a judicial review unless on grounds of procedure.

During the passing of the bill in Parliament last year, opposition MPs objected to the amendments, arguing that the changes proposed were similar to the repealed ISA.

In its resolution passed today, the Bar called on the government to engage all relevant stakeholders, including the Bar, in meaningful dialogue on measures to combat serious and organised crime.

A total of four resolutions were passed while two were rejected by the 1,219 members who attended the AGM today.

Members of the Bar also expressed concern over the sentencing of Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for sodomy and veteran lawyer Karpal Singh for sedition.

Bar president Christopher Leong, in a press conference after the AGM, said that of concern was the lack of time given to Anwar to mitigate before sentencing, while in Karpal's case, the deputy public prosecutor's (DPP) submissions before sentencing were of grave concern.

"In her submissions, the DPP had said that if the court did not impose a heavy sentence on Karpal, it would be deemed as an insult to the institution of Rulers.

"Karpal’s obvious medical condition and disability were not relevant to the DPP, when we all know that he is paralysed and unable to fend for himself," he said, referring to Deputy Public Prosecutor Noorin Badaruddin.

Leong said that despite this, the DPP had strenuously pressed for a custodial sentence, when the reality was that for Karpal – who is 74 years old and wheelchair-bound – going to jail would have been a “death sentence” for him.

"Who is going to look after him in prison?" Leong said.

He said that there were international guidelines which provide for standards of professional conduct for all public prosecutors.

"We believe that these may not have been completely observed and so members at the AGM had requested overwhelmingly that the Bar Council make representations to the AG to  investigate the DPP immediately.

"And if thought fit, to take disciplinary action against her according  to the rules governing her appointment in service and according to law," he added.

A resolution was also passed on environment and climate change, which urged the government to ensure the effective enforcement of environmental laws.

Leong told reporters that on his recent drive from Kuala Lumpur to Putrajaya, he saw a number of open burning sites emitting thick smoke, adding that despite their visibility, enforcement agencies had obviously not acted against the polluters.

Leong was returned as president while Steven Thiru was returned as deputy president of the Bar at the AGM.

Asked whether a Royal Commission of Inquiry was needed on the missing MH370, Leong said that it was premature at this point, adding that what was important now was the search and rescue mission.

He said that they observed a minute of silence at the start of the AGM for the passengers and crew onboard and their families. – March 15, 2014.

M'sia Will Not Withhold Any Information On MH370 - Hishammuddin

KUALA LUMPUR, March 17 (Bernama) -- Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Haishammuddin Tun Hussein today denied an allegation that Malaysia has held back information about the missing Flight MH370's movements.

"For the families, I understand that every day prolongs the anguish. I understand because Malaysia, too, is missing its sons and daughters. There were 50 Malaysians on board the plane.

"Our priority has always been to find the aircraft. We would not withhold any information that could help. But we also have a responsibility not to release information until it has been verified by the international investigations team," he told a press conference, near here today.

He said the responsibility was not only to the families and to the investigation, but also the search and rescue operation and it would be irresponsible to deploy substantial assets merely on the basis of unverified and uncorroborated information.

"As soon as the possibility emerged that the plane had carried out an air turn back to the Straits of Malacca, we expanded our search to that area.

"I would like to reiterate the United States investigating team's statement about that decision, based on the information and data given by the Malaysian authorities, that there are reasonable grounds to deploy resources to conduct search on the western side of peninsular Malaysia," he said.

Hishammuddin said the search efforts to the northern and southern corridors were mobilised as soon the new satellite information as to the possible last known whereabouts of the aircraft were verified.

Over the past 48 hours, he said, Malaysia had been working on the diplomatic, technical and logistical requirements of the search for MH370 and continued to lead the overall co-ordination of the search effort.

He said the number of countries involved in the search and rescue (SAR)operation has increased to 26.

"During the last 24 hours, the Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak) has spoken to the Prime Minister of Australia (Tony Abbott) and the Premier of China (Li Keqiang).

"The Foreign Affairs Ministry has sent diplomatic notes to all countries involved in the SAR operation, including two groups - countries in the search corridors and countries from which we are seeking assistance and expertise," Hishammuddin said.

For countries in the search corridors, he said, Malaysia requested radar and satellite information as well as specific assets for the SAR operation.

"We are asking them to share their land, sea and aerial search and rescue action plans with the Rescue Co-ordination Centre here in Malaysia so that we can co-ordinate the search effort.

"We have asked for regular updates, including daily reports on both search activities and details of any information required from Malaysia," he said.

As the co-ordinating authority, he said, Malaysia was gathering all information as part of the on-going operation and was not at liberty to reveal information from specific countries.

Hishammuddin said SAR operations in the northern and southern corridors had already begun and countries, including Malaysia, Australia, China, Indonesia and Kazakhstan.

"The Royal Malaysian Air Force and the Royal Malaysian Navy have deployed assets to the southern corridor. Two Malaysian ships have been deployed - the offshore patrol vessels KD Kelantan and KD Selangor," he said, adding that the deployment also included a Super Lynx helicopter.

Australia had already moved a P-3 Orion aircraft to region of the Cocos and Christmas Islands, with the Australian prime minister confirming that it would send an additional two P-3 Orions and a C-130 Hercules while a US P-8 Poseidon aircraft would be travelling to Perth today to help with the search, he said.

He said yesterday, experts from the Civil Aviation Administration of China joined the investigations team and officials from the French Office of Investigations and Analysis for the Safety of Civil Aviation joined the team today.

Flight MH370, carrying with 227 passengers and 12 crew, disappeared about an hour after leaving the KL International Airport at 12.41 am on March 8. It was scheduled to arrive in Beijing at 6.30 am on the same day.