At the end of their tether after 52 days of waiting for news of those on board MH370, family members lash out at the government
KUALA LUMPUR: Increasingly frustrated at the lack of transparency, most of the next of kin of those on board Flight MH370 say they have lost confidence in the government.
The animosity was evident at last week’s meeting with Deputy Foreign Minister Hamzah Zainuddin at a leading hotel in Bukit Bintang.
Almost two months have passed since the Boeing 777-200ER went missing, and the authorities have yet to provide satisfactory answers to the families.
All those present at the meeting with Hamzah vented their anger at the authorities for not answering their questions.
“They are just wasting our time. It’s as if they are hiding something,” said Nur Syafinaz, the younger sister of flight attendant Mohamad Hazrin Mohamed Hasnan, who was on board MH370.
“They can’t even answer a simple yes or no question. They treat us like as if we are stupid. How are we supposed to trust them when they can’t be honest with us?” asked Syafinaz.
“At the same time, they were so arrogant. Some of the answers given to us were cocky. That was also why some of us got very angry,” she said.
On April 21, 40 grieving families calling themselves the United Families of MH370 posted a statement on Facebook in which they raised 15 issues, none of which was addressed by Hamzah.
One of them was why the government accepted the Inmarsat data for analysis and another was why a suggestion for an independent peer review was rejected.
Death certificates
Syafinaz’s elder sister, Zarina Mohamed Hasnan, lambasted the authorities for asking the grieving family members to acknowledge death certificates the government plans to issue.
“If you can’t find the plane or the passengers, how can you ask us to agree to the issuance of death certificates? At that point many of us were livid. I was not alone,” she said.
Zarina said she was furious with the decision taken by the authorities. “On what basis are they planning to issue the death certificates? Where’s the body of my brother?”
Disappointed with the lack of transparency, Syafinaz, also said that the majority of the family members were not asking for money from the government, just answers to their questions.
“Stop flip-flopping and be honest. Until today we have yet to receive the cargo manifest. The reason given is that it is still under investigation. How long must we wait?”
On March 8, MH370 with 227 passengers and 12 crew, went missing enroute to Beijing from KLIA. It left at 12.41am but disappeared from the civilian radar about an hour later over the South China Sea.
Satellite pings from the plane revealed that it diverted from its flight path and headed towards the southern Indian Ocean. Searchers are still looking for the plane.
The animosity was evident at last week’s meeting with Deputy Foreign Minister Hamzah Zainuddin at a leading hotel in Bukit Bintang.
Almost two months have passed since the Boeing 777-200ER went missing, and the authorities have yet to provide satisfactory answers to the families.
All those present at the meeting with Hamzah vented their anger at the authorities for not answering their questions.
“They are just wasting our time. It’s as if they are hiding something,” said Nur Syafinaz, the younger sister of flight attendant Mohamad Hazrin Mohamed Hasnan, who was on board MH370.
“They can’t even answer a simple yes or no question. They treat us like as if we are stupid. How are we supposed to trust them when they can’t be honest with us?” asked Syafinaz.
“At the same time, they were so arrogant. Some of the answers given to us were cocky. That was also why some of us got very angry,” she said.
On April 21, 40 grieving families calling themselves the United Families of MH370 posted a statement on Facebook in which they raised 15 issues, none of which was addressed by Hamzah.
One of them was why the government accepted the Inmarsat data for analysis and another was why a suggestion for an independent peer review was rejected.
Death certificates
Syafinaz’s elder sister, Zarina Mohamed Hasnan, lambasted the authorities for asking the grieving family members to acknowledge death certificates the government plans to issue.
“If you can’t find the plane or the passengers, how can you ask us to agree to the issuance of death certificates? At that point many of us were livid. I was not alone,” she said.
Zarina said she was furious with the decision taken by the authorities. “On what basis are they planning to issue the death certificates? Where’s the body of my brother?”
Disappointed with the lack of transparency, Syafinaz, also said that the majority of the family members were not asking for money from the government, just answers to their questions.
“Stop flip-flopping and be honest. Until today we have yet to receive the cargo manifest. The reason given is that it is still under investigation. How long must we wait?”
On March 8, MH370 with 227 passengers and 12 crew, went missing enroute to Beijing from KLIA. It left at 12.41am but disappeared from the civilian radar about an hour later over the South China Sea.
Satellite pings from the plane revealed that it diverted from its flight path and headed towards the southern Indian Ocean. Searchers are still looking for the plane.
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