Thursday, 13 March 2014
Hardline Kenya cleric, the face of homegrown radical Islam
Mombasa — When Islamist gunmen stormed Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall on a busy Saturday in September, the ensuing carnage also intensified fears that Kenya's homegrown Islamists were on the rise.
Although the attackers were from Somalia's Al-Qaeda-inspired Shebab rebels, the group's ability to infiltrate and operate in Kenya, as well as find a stream of willing recruits, has focused attention on radical Islamists based down the coast in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa.
At the heart of the steamy port hub sits the Musa mosque, seen by Kenyan authorities as the epicentre of a new terrorist threat. Its key figure, Abubaker Shariff Ahmed, better known as Makaburi, does little to hide his firebrand leanings.
"It's our innocents for your innocents. It was justified. As per the Koran, as per the religion of Islam, Westgate was 100 percent justified," the Muslim cleric said of the attack that left at least 67 dead, among them women and children cut down by machine gun fire or grenades.
"Are the ones being killed and raped in Somalia not innocent?" Makaburi said in an interview with AFP in his austere Mombasa office, seizing on Shebab's justification for the mall attack -- Kenya's military presence in southern Somalia.
"The KDF (Kenyan army) is doing the same thing and worse in Somalia than what happened at Westgate. So as per the Islamic religion, they had every right to avenge whatever the KDF is doing in Somalia."
Makaburi asserted that no real Muslims died in the upmarket, part-Israeli-owned mall.
"How come a Muslim is at a shopping mall instead of being at a mosque?" he said, adding that the "Americans and the Western governments are killing innocent people all over the world everyday, they're bombing weddings, funerals."
The real "terrorists", Makaburi argued, were the military personnel operating drones.
"How come the pilots of the drones are not labelled as terrorists? How come when we Muslims are being killed by the Americans using drones, by the British, by whoever, by the West, it's nothing, but when you have a single non-Muslim killed by a Muslim, it's terrorism?"
- 'True Islam' -
In August 2012, the Musa mosque's radical preacher, Aboud Rogo Mohammed, was gunned down, and in October last year his successor, Sheikh Ibrahim Ismail, met the same fate on a road near Mombasa, again sparking riots. Most believe the Kenyan authorities were behind the killings.
Last month the mosque was yet again the scene of violence when armed police launched a massive raid to put an end to what officials said was a "jihadist convention" and a Shebab recruitment exercise taking place inside.
Makaburi, who is in his 50s, is currently subject to UN sanctions -- a travel ban, assets freeze and targeted arms embargo -- for being a "leading facilitator and recruiter of young Kenyan Muslims for violent militant activity in Somalia", and for having "strong ties with senior Al-Shebab members."
"I do not support Al-Shebab, I do not know Al-Shebab. I support the implementation of Sharia Law anywhere in the world," Makaburi insisted in the interview.
"These are just accusations. Where is the proof that I have recruited anybody? Who have I recruited? When, how, where? These are just accusations."
He also said that "the highest motivator for the youth to go into Somalia to fight Jihad is the Kenyan government doing injustice to the Muslim youth here in Kenya. How do you think the youth feel after they were sitting peacefully in a mosque and they were invaded, shot at, killed, meant to disappear?"
Instead, Makaburi presents himself as a simple man promoting "true Islam", and not the kind practiced in Saudi Arabia, which he dismisses as "a Christian country ruled by somebody who pretends to be a Muslim".
In his view the best examples of Islam are found in parts of Fallujah in Iraq, Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and Shebab-held areas of Somalia.
"Radical Islam is a creation of people who do not believe in Islam. We don't have radical Islam, we don't have moderates, we don't have extremists. Islam is one religion following the Koran and the Sunnah," said Makaburi.
But he also seems resigned to his fate as Kenya's crackdown, which has been stepped up post-Westgate, continues: "My life is in danger. They will eventually kill me. They do that."
More expert help coming to assist in finding missing plane, says Hishammuddin
Hishammuddin
says that there has been no conflicting statements from the government,
despite the confusion over what has been reported so far. - The
Malaysian Insider pic by Afif Abd Halim, March 12, 2014.
Amid mounting international criticism, Putrajaya today said they are bringing in more experts to help in the search and rescue operations of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370."We are bringing in experts to analyse data gathered by the military and civilian investigators from the west and the east, including the US NTSB," said Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, referring to the United States National Transportation Safety Board.
He said the search for the missing flight is now focused in the Malacca Strait and the South China Sea, covering 27,000 square nautical miles.
He said in a press conference at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport this evening that 39 aircraft and 42 ships from 12 countries are scouring these areas in the search, which is in its fifth day.
Hishammuddin also stressed that the government has been consistent in what they have been saying.
He said the prime minister had said that the search area will be expanded and that is what they are doing now.
"We will not spare any effort to find the missing plane. The search has been extended to two areas and we are now searching nearly 27,000 square nautical miles – 12,425 square nautical miles in the Strait of Malacca and 14,440 square nautical miles in the South China Sea.
"Forty-two ships and 39 aircraft have now been deployed in the search for MH370. Twelve countries have now joined the search, with India, Japan and Brunei being the latest to join the team," he said.
Hishammuddin said no new leads have turned up in the search for the missing aircraft with 239 people on board, and warned that the race to find out what happened to the plane could be a protracted affair.
"It's going to be long, drawn out," Hishamuddin told The Wall Street Journal in brief remarks.
He also said that the main focus is to find the aircraft and the black box which can help in answering lots of questions.
Denying speculation that Malaysia might be hiding some information due to the lack of clarity and coordination in the search and rescue effort, the minister said coordinating such a large team is not an easy task.
“This is unprecedented what we are going through, it is not something easy to coordinate so many countries and so many vessels. This search also includes a vast area,” Hishammuddin said.
He said the search and rescue team will never give up hope, adding “we owe this to the families”.
With the continuous criticism, especially coming from China, Hishammuddin said it was understandable as there are many Chinese nationals onboard flight MH370.
“China feels aggrieved because so many of their nationals are involved. It is also natural, as time passes, it will involve a lot of emotion and frustration. But it will not distract from our main focus of finding the missing plane,” he said.
Flight MH370 carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members disappeared from the radar early Saturday morning.
Of the total number of passengers, 153 were from China. The other passengers include 38 Malaysians, seven Indonesians, seven Australians, five Indian nationals and four from France.
The aircraft was on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it disappeared. – March 12, 2014.
RMAF radar spotted mystery aircraft on west coast
Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) radar detected an unidentified aircraft
northwest of Penang shortly after flight MH370 had gone missing, and is
working to identify whether it is the ill-fated aircraft.
RMAF chief Rodzali Daud said the "unidentified plot" appeared
intermittently on radar and its last known position is 200 miles (322km)
northwest of the island, 45 minutes after MH370 had gone missing.
It was flying 29,500 feet (almost 9 kilometres) above sea level
"I am not saying that this is MH370. We are still corroborating this. We
are still working with the experts," he told a press conference today.
MH370 was last detected via air traffic controller radar on March 8 at
1.30am, off the coast of Kota Bharu before contact was lost.
Rodzali said this just several hours after denying a news report quoting him saying that military radar had detected flight MH370 in the northern part of the Malacca Straits.
Transponder switched off or malfunctioned
Throughout press conference, Rodzali repeatedly stressed that it is
still unclear whether this is unidentified aircraft is MH370, and
authorities are working to use radar tracks from neighbouring countries
to determine this.
Department of Civil Aviation director-general Azharuddin Abdul Rahman
added that at the time civilian radars lost contact with MH370, military
radar did not have any contact with it.
He
also explained that civilian radar rely on secondary search radars,
which can use a transponder on board the aircraft to identify the
airline, flight number and other information.
On the other hand, primary radar can only detect the aircraft’s position
without any identifying information. However, it does not require the
aircraft to have a working transponder to operate.
These statements gives rise to the possibility that the missing MH370’s
transponder was switched off or malfunctioned, and then turned west.
Armed forces chief Zulkifeli Mohd Zin said after MH370 went missing, the
military had reviewed its radar records and found this unidentified
aircraft originating from the vicinity of MH370’s last known position.
“We sent some ships immediately from Lumut that particular night to where we suspected that aircraft would be.
“That morning at first light, we sent a C-130 (aircraft) immediately to
scout the area. It is a possibility (that MH370 is there) and at the
slightest possibility, I must respond for the sake passengers on MH370.
Might declasify raw data
Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein added that if the
government was sure that MH370 had crashed in the Straits of Melaka, all
search and rescue (SAR) teams would have been deployed there instead of
also searching the South China Sea, near where MH370 was last seen on
civilian radar.
He said search currently covers 12,425 square nautical miles (42,617
square kilometres) in the Straits of Malacca and 14,440 square nautical
miles (49,528 square kilometres) in the South China Sea, involving SAR
teams from 12 countries.
For comparison, the size of Pahang and Terengganu combined is 49,172 square kilometres.
To a question why fighters were not scrambled to intercept the
unidentified aircraft, Rodzali said radar operators had recognised it as
a civilian aircraft.
“It is not classified as hostile. We only do an intercept or respond when they are classified as hostile,” he said.
To a question whether the radar tracks would be released to public,
Hishammuddin points out that the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) and
the US National Transport Safety Board (NTSB) are assisting
investigations.
“If FAA and NTSB can confirm that this flight - from the military’s raw
data – is the flight we are concerned (it), tomorrow I will release it,"
said Hishammuddin, stressing that he said "if".
US regulators warned of problems on Boeing 777s
However both the DCA chief and Malaysia Airlines' boss assured the airworthiness of all MAS planes.
WASHINGTON: Months before Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 mysteriously vanished, US regulators warned of a “cracking and corrosion” problem on Boeing 777s that could lead to a mid-air breakup and drastic drop in cabin pressure.
The revelation comes amid a desperate search for traces of the plane with 239 people on board, which lost contact with air traffic control about an hour after take-off from Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing on Saturday morning.
“We are issuing this AD (Airworthiness Directive) to detect and correct cracking and corrosion in the fuselage skin, which could lead to rapid decompression and loss of structural integrity of the airplane,” the Federal Aviation Administration said.
During a sudden drop in cabin pressure, the crew and passengers can become unconscious, leaving no one at the controls of the affected aircraft.
In 1999, a Learjet carrying golfer Payne Stewart crashed into a field in the US state of South Dakota after flying uncontrolled for several hours after those on board apparently became unconscious due to a lack of oxygen brought on by a loss of cabin pressure.
Malaysia’s air force chief has raised the possibility that MH370 inexplicably turned back and was quoted as saying the jet had been tracked hundreds of miles from its intended flight path.
The FAA circulated a draft of the directive warning of the cracking and corrosion problem on Sept 26, 2013.
A final directive was issued March 5, three days before the Malaysia Airlines jet disappeared. The FAA directive is to take effect April 9.
The FAA said it was “prompted by a report of cracking in the fuselage skin underneath the satellite communication (SATCOM) antenna adapter.”
“This AD requires repetitive inspections of the visible fuselage skin and doubler if installed, for cracking, corrosion, and any indication of contact of a certain fastener to a bonding jumper, and repair if necessary,” it added.
The FAA said an estimated 120 US registered aircraft are affected by the directive.
A supporting document accompanying the directive indicates that one unidentified operator reported a “16-inch crack” (940.6 centimeter) of the fuselage skin in an aircraft that was 14 years old.
Boeing performed a “metallurgical fracture analysis” of the affected section of the fuselage skin, according to the document.
As the hunt for the missing plane dragged into its fifth day, Malaysian authorities said they were expanding their search zone off Vietnam’s South China Sea coast to the Andaman Sea north of Indonesia, hundreds of kilometers away.
Malaysian Department of Civil Aviation director general Azharuddin Abdul Rahman today told a press conference that his department was aware of the FFA directive but assured that all Malaysia Airlines planes were fit to fly.
Likewise Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya also vouched for the airworthiness of his Boeing fleet but could not confirm if MH370 had undergone specific checks in compliance with the FAA directive.
WASHINGTON: Months before Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 mysteriously vanished, US regulators warned of a “cracking and corrosion” problem on Boeing 777s that could lead to a mid-air breakup and drastic drop in cabin pressure.The revelation comes amid a desperate search for traces of the plane with 239 people on board, which lost contact with air traffic control about an hour after take-off from Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing on Saturday morning.
“We are issuing this AD (Airworthiness Directive) to detect and correct cracking and corrosion in the fuselage skin, which could lead to rapid decompression and loss of structural integrity of the airplane,” the Federal Aviation Administration said.
During a sudden drop in cabin pressure, the crew and passengers can become unconscious, leaving no one at the controls of the affected aircraft.
In 1999, a Learjet carrying golfer Payne Stewart crashed into a field in the US state of South Dakota after flying uncontrolled for several hours after those on board apparently became unconscious due to a lack of oxygen brought on by a loss of cabin pressure.
Malaysia’s air force chief has raised the possibility that MH370 inexplicably turned back and was quoted as saying the jet had been tracked hundreds of miles from its intended flight path.
The FAA circulated a draft of the directive warning of the cracking and corrosion problem on Sept 26, 2013.
A final directive was issued March 5, three days before the Malaysia Airlines jet disappeared. The FAA directive is to take effect April 9.
The FAA said it was “prompted by a report of cracking in the fuselage skin underneath the satellite communication (SATCOM) antenna adapter.”
“This AD requires repetitive inspections of the visible fuselage skin and doubler if installed, for cracking, corrosion, and any indication of contact of a certain fastener to a bonding jumper, and repair if necessary,” it added.
The FAA said an estimated 120 US registered aircraft are affected by the directive.
A supporting document accompanying the directive indicates that one unidentified operator reported a “16-inch crack” (940.6 centimeter) of the fuselage skin in an aircraft that was 14 years old.
Boeing performed a “metallurgical fracture analysis” of the affected section of the fuselage skin, according to the document.
As the hunt for the missing plane dragged into its fifth day, Malaysian authorities said they were expanding their search zone off Vietnam’s South China Sea coast to the Andaman Sea north of Indonesia, hundreds of kilometers away.
Malaysian Department of Civil Aviation director general Azharuddin Abdul Rahman today told a press conference that his department was aware of the FFA directive but assured that all Malaysia Airlines planes were fit to fly.
Likewise Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya also vouched for the airworthiness of his Boeing fleet but could not confirm if MH370 had undergone specific checks in compliance with the FAA directive.
Raja bomoh bingung
Saya sedang cuba sedaya upaya untuk membantu dalam misi pencarian ini.
PUTRAJAYA: Raja bomoh Ibrahim Mat Zin yang popular selepas mendakwa pernah ‘menampar’ mati seekor buaya hari ini meluahkan rasa bingung keatas kehilangan pesawat MH370 Sabtu lepas.
Ditemui di KLIA tengahari ini, Ibrahim bersama sama beberapa pengikut lain dilihat sibuk menjalankan upacara memanggil semula pesawat tersebut serta menafikan dakwaan bahawa beliau menggunakan jampi serapah.
“Saya sendiri tidak tahu di mana pesawat itu berada,” kata Ibrahim dalam nada bingung.
“Tetapi saya sedang cuba sedaya upaya untuk membantu dalam misi pencarian ini. Saya tidak menggunakan jampi,”
“Saya ikhlas dalam hal ini,” tambah beliau.
Semasa upacara tersebut Ibrahim dilihat membawa dua biji buah kelapa. Ketika ditanya, beliau menjawab bahawa kelapa tersebut bertujuan untuk melepaskan tahanan didalam kapal terbang.
“Simboliknya, dua biji kelapa ini akan dilagakan kerana dapat melepaskan kubu tahanan ghaib,”
“Andainya di udara ataupun di laut dapat ditimbulkan kerana kelapa tidak tenggelam,” ujar beliau.
Pesawat MH370 hilang dari radar Sabtu lepas sewaktu terbang dari Kuala Lumpur ke Beijing.
Seramai 239 penumpang termasuk anak kapal berada didalam pesawat tersebut sebelum dilaporkan hilang setelah tidak tiba dilapangan terbang di Beijing.
Spekulasi dari pelbagai pihak telah muncul ekoran misteri kehilangan pesawat tersebut. Ramai yang mendakwa pesawat boeing itu terhempas dan ada juga yang meramal bahawa pesawat itu telah dirampas penjenayah.
Sementara itu, pihak berkuasa masih lagi tidak dapat memberi jawapan tepat berkenaan status pesawat tersebut. Kenyataan pihak berkuasa didapati bercanggah antara satu sama lain.
PUTRAJAYA: Raja bomoh Ibrahim Mat Zin yang popular selepas mendakwa pernah ‘menampar’ mati seekor buaya hari ini meluahkan rasa bingung keatas kehilangan pesawat MH370 Sabtu lepas.Ditemui di KLIA tengahari ini, Ibrahim bersama sama beberapa pengikut lain dilihat sibuk menjalankan upacara memanggil semula pesawat tersebut serta menafikan dakwaan bahawa beliau menggunakan jampi serapah.
“Saya sendiri tidak tahu di mana pesawat itu berada,” kata Ibrahim dalam nada bingung.
“Tetapi saya sedang cuba sedaya upaya untuk membantu dalam misi pencarian ini. Saya tidak menggunakan jampi,”
“Saya ikhlas dalam hal ini,” tambah beliau.
Semasa upacara tersebut Ibrahim dilihat membawa dua biji buah kelapa. Ketika ditanya, beliau menjawab bahawa kelapa tersebut bertujuan untuk melepaskan tahanan didalam kapal terbang.
“Simboliknya, dua biji kelapa ini akan dilagakan kerana dapat melepaskan kubu tahanan ghaib,”
“Andainya di udara ataupun di laut dapat ditimbulkan kerana kelapa tidak tenggelam,” ujar beliau.
Pesawat MH370 hilang dari radar Sabtu lepas sewaktu terbang dari Kuala Lumpur ke Beijing.
Seramai 239 penumpang termasuk anak kapal berada didalam pesawat tersebut sebelum dilaporkan hilang setelah tidak tiba dilapangan terbang di Beijing.Spekulasi dari pelbagai pihak telah muncul ekoran misteri kehilangan pesawat tersebut. Ramai yang mendakwa pesawat boeing itu terhempas dan ada juga yang meramal bahawa pesawat itu telah dirampas penjenayah.
Sementara itu, pihak berkuasa masih lagi tidak dapat memberi jawapan tepat berkenaan status pesawat tersebut. Kenyataan pihak berkuasa didapati bercanggah antara satu sama lain.
Hate-mongering: Nurturing fear in the Malay community
by Syerleena Abdul Rashid
It is time we set aside our differences and get in touch with the core values of humility, respectfulness and above all, faith in God, says Syerleena Abdul Rashid.
Instigating political violence and creating disunity amongst Malaysians seems to be a daily feature in modern local politics. Hard right-wing groups that claim to be champions of Islamic rights and Malay rights seem to stray from fundamental values that are naturally upheld within the Malay-Muslim community.
As for peace-loving Malays, quite a number of us may find some of the points raised by these ‘champions’ as hurtful.
Violence is not only discouraged in Malay culture, it is abhorred, as it goes against our core values – both culturally and religiously. In general, Malays are non-confrontational and polite in nature. Actually, you can learn a lot about real Malay values and culture just by watching P Ramlee movies!
We respect everyone and our ‘indirectness’ or subtlety shows how much we honour preserving a person’s ‘face’ (air muka). For example, if a Malay man or woman is confronted by something that makes them uneasy, they tend to get long-winded and beat around the bush before getting to the point.
Malays will respectively address strangers by embracing them as one of our families; hence, everyone is either our Mak Cik, Pak Cik, Kakak, Adik or Abang. Maintaining a close-knit family unit within the Malay community is seen as something of great importance and trumps everything else. Then again, all Malaysian communities stress the importance of upholding a strong family unit, and that makes Malaysia a beautiful place to live in.
It is most unfortunate, however, that these values have been replaced by destructive and negative aspirations.
An MP from Seputeh caused an uproar within the hard right-wing Malay communities through a video that was released during the Lunar New Year. For the average Malaysians, the video was clearly a satire and was intended to poke fun at current issues and especially, at ourselves.
But the humorous message of the video was lost and several politicians from the other end of the political spectrum decided it was time to manipulate the situation and bring in the hate-mongers.
At the flick of a switch and several finger guns later, Teresa Kok is now the poster child (or woman) for allegedly insulting the King and the Malays. What is more disturbing is the attitude of several of our Malay brethren, who instantly lap up the deceitful mix of lies and unreasonable accusations hurled towards her.
When the ire of the gullible is provoked, racial hatred ensues thereafter, no matter how senseless and illogical the whole thing may seem.
The hate-mongers enjoy ‘reminding Malaysians – especially the Malays, of the ‘Ghost of May 13’. Modern Malaysians and peace-loving Malays, or at least the ones who do not subscribe to Utusan Malaysia’s daily heretics, will find this ‘boogeyman’ utterly unimaginative. Nevertheless, there is a significant number of folks at the grass-roots who still believe in this fable and will continue to aggressively defend Malay rights, even if it calls for bloodshed.
This is all made possible through years of perfecting the practice of gutter politics. The hate mongers want to do more than just create a ripple in our sea of solidarity. They still assume that we are unable to tell what is right or wrong. They want us to believe that everything is white or black, good or bad.
Most of us are able to see the underlying agendas that perpetuate this nurturing of fear within our communities – but there are those who are unable.
Therein lies the problem: the ruling elite has successfully nurtured a superficial culture based on fear, hate and ignorance by dumbing down the education system, our schools, the syllabus and by pacifying the academicians by instilling their own kind to administer institutions of learning.
Then there are the threats of expulsion, severance, rejected promotions, the fear of being ostracised. Decades of mental and emotional abuse have left most of us feeling highly insecure – in ourselves and in our pursuits.
Several factions within the ruling regime mooted the idea of banishing ‘race’ from all forms. This is seen as a step towards positive nation-building and towards bridging the gap that decades of race-based policies have caused.
But the hate-mongers conjure yet another fable: Malays would lose all rights and privileges if such a ruling is passed. Meanwhile, these hate-mongers vehemently accuse moderate Malays of being too embarrassed by their own ethnicity/race and therefore opting not to read ‘Utusan Malaysia’ or study in national schools.
But the truth is far more complicated than that.
Most of us believe in the importance of developing positive relationships with other fellow Malaysians regardless of ethnicity, and most of us understand why the hate-mongers do what they do. After all, they are doing this just to ensure that certain things remain unchanged and unchallenged for generations to come. Change is never an easy thing to adapt to.
We also understand why people react the way they do and why certain detestable remarks are made. But what we do not understand is the passive obedience that seems to prevail when dangerous political games are summoned through means that collide with our true nature. Is the self-esteem and self-worth of some communities that low that any form of manipulation can be carried out with great ease?
It is time we set aside our differences and get in touch with the core values that centre on humility, politeness, respectfulness and above all, faith in God – the kind that is untainted by the politics of drivel.
We are constantly told that Malays are under threat. It used to the Portuguese, the Dutch, the British and Communism; now it’s the ‘pendatangs’, the PATIs (undocumented immigrants), the moderates and Christianity.
Truth is, the only threat that exists is our own insecurity.
It is time we set aside our differences and get in touch with the core values of humility, respectfulness and above all, faith in God, says Syerleena Abdul Rashid. Instigating political violence and creating disunity amongst Malaysians seems to be a daily feature in modern local politics. Hard right-wing groups that claim to be champions of Islamic rights and Malay rights seem to stray from fundamental values that are naturally upheld within the Malay-Muslim community.
As for peace-loving Malays, quite a number of us may find some of the points raised by these ‘champions’ as hurtful.
Violence is not only discouraged in Malay culture, it is abhorred, as it goes against our core values – both culturally and religiously. In general, Malays are non-confrontational and polite in nature. Actually, you can learn a lot about real Malay values and culture just by watching P Ramlee movies!
We respect everyone and our ‘indirectness’ or subtlety shows how much we honour preserving a person’s ‘face’ (air muka). For example, if a Malay man or woman is confronted by something that makes them uneasy, they tend to get long-winded and beat around the bush before getting to the point.
Malays will respectively address strangers by embracing them as one of our families; hence, everyone is either our Mak Cik, Pak Cik, Kakak, Adik or Abang. Maintaining a close-knit family unit within the Malay community is seen as something of great importance and trumps everything else. Then again, all Malaysian communities stress the importance of upholding a strong family unit, and that makes Malaysia a beautiful place to live in.
It is most unfortunate, however, that these values have been replaced by destructive and negative aspirations.
An MP from Seputeh caused an uproar within the hard right-wing Malay communities through a video that was released during the Lunar New Year. For the average Malaysians, the video was clearly a satire and was intended to poke fun at current issues and especially, at ourselves.
But the humorous message of the video was lost and several politicians from the other end of the political spectrum decided it was time to manipulate the situation and bring in the hate-mongers.
At the flick of a switch and several finger guns later, Teresa Kok is now the poster child (or woman) for allegedly insulting the King and the Malays. What is more disturbing is the attitude of several of our Malay brethren, who instantly lap up the deceitful mix of lies and unreasonable accusations hurled towards her.
When the ire of the gullible is provoked, racial hatred ensues thereafter, no matter how senseless and illogical the whole thing may seem.
The hate-mongers enjoy ‘reminding Malaysians – especially the Malays, of the ‘Ghost of May 13’. Modern Malaysians and peace-loving Malays, or at least the ones who do not subscribe to Utusan Malaysia’s daily heretics, will find this ‘boogeyman’ utterly unimaginative. Nevertheless, there is a significant number of folks at the grass-roots who still believe in this fable and will continue to aggressively defend Malay rights, even if it calls for bloodshed.
This is all made possible through years of perfecting the practice of gutter politics. The hate mongers want to do more than just create a ripple in our sea of solidarity. They still assume that we are unable to tell what is right or wrong. They want us to believe that everything is white or black, good or bad.
Most of us are able to see the underlying agendas that perpetuate this nurturing of fear within our communities – but there are those who are unable.
Therein lies the problem: the ruling elite has successfully nurtured a superficial culture based on fear, hate and ignorance by dumbing down the education system, our schools, the syllabus and by pacifying the academicians by instilling their own kind to administer institutions of learning.
Then there are the threats of expulsion, severance, rejected promotions, the fear of being ostracised. Decades of mental and emotional abuse have left most of us feeling highly insecure – in ourselves and in our pursuits.
Several factions within the ruling regime mooted the idea of banishing ‘race’ from all forms. This is seen as a step towards positive nation-building and towards bridging the gap that decades of race-based policies have caused.
But the hate-mongers conjure yet another fable: Malays would lose all rights and privileges if such a ruling is passed. Meanwhile, these hate-mongers vehemently accuse moderate Malays of being too embarrassed by their own ethnicity/race and therefore opting not to read ‘Utusan Malaysia’ or study in national schools.
But the truth is far more complicated than that.
Most of us believe in the importance of developing positive relationships with other fellow Malaysians regardless of ethnicity, and most of us understand why the hate-mongers do what they do. After all, they are doing this just to ensure that certain things remain unchanged and unchallenged for generations to come. Change is never an easy thing to adapt to.
We also understand why people react the way they do and why certain detestable remarks are made. But what we do not understand is the passive obedience that seems to prevail when dangerous political games are summoned through means that collide with our true nature. Is the self-esteem and self-worth of some communities that low that any form of manipulation can be carried out with great ease?
It is time we set aside our differences and get in touch with the core values that centre on humility, politeness, respectfulness and above all, faith in God – the kind that is untainted by the politics of drivel.
We are constantly told that Malays are under threat. It used to the Portuguese, the Dutch, the British and Communism; now it’s the ‘pendatangs’, the PATIs (undocumented immigrants), the moderates and Christianity.
Truth is, the only threat that exists is our own insecurity.
Dr M says he fears Vision 2020 may not be achieved
He said the present government was focusing too much on effort on increasing the income per capita and the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which were seen as not helpful for the country in achieving the status of a fully developed nation.
“If we want to become a fully-developed country, it should not be limited to only wealth. To achieve the status of a developed nation, we must a
lso advance in industrialisation, in innovation, as well as in research and development. Then only we can become a fully-developed country.”
Dr Mahathir said this in response to a question about the status of Vision 2020, which he introduced in 1991, at the ‘Professional Talk With Tun Dr Mahathir’ programme at Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) here today.
The programme was moderated by AirAsia Group deputy chief executive chairman Datuk Kamarudin Meranun.
Mishaps Mar Malaysia’s Handling of Flight Tragedy
Critics furious over crossed signals from government officials as search grows more confused
A series of miscues and media gaffes are turning Malaysia into an object of anger and criticism in the aftermath of the disappearance early Saturday morning of a Malaysian Airlines jetliner carrying 239 passengers and crew.
No trace of the craft has been found despite a search encompassing thousands of square kilometers. On Wednesday, the day was dominated by confusion over reports that the aircraft might have attempted to head back toward Malaysia before it disappeared.
Malaysia’s air force chief told reporters very early Wednesday that the plane had veered off course. Later in the morning, the same officer denied the report sharply. By Wednesday afternoon, the government seemed to reverse itself again, requesting assistance from India in searching the Andaman Sea, north of the Malacca Strait, where the plane may have gone down far from the current search area off the coast of Vietnam.
Officials finally said the plane "may" have been heading toward the Strait of Malacca when it disappeared and that the search was now also concentrated in that area.
Other countries have grown frustrated. The Chinese, with 152 passengers on board, have complained about a lack of transparency over details. They have also complained that Malaysian Airlines staff handling relatives of the victims in Beijing have been short of information and in many cases don’t speak Mandarin.
From the start, according to critics, the Malaysians have treated the disappearance and ensuing inconsistencies as a local problem instead of one that has focused the attention of the entire world’s media on the tragedy. In a semi-democratic country with a largely supine domestic media, the government insists it has the situation in hand but that hardly seems the case.
Often, those giving press briefings about the affair communicate badly in English to an international press whose lingua franca is English. Because of widely differing reports of where the aircraft actually disappeared, the picture being delivered is one of incompetence. Networks like the BBC and CNN are openly declaring that the post-accident situation is a mess.
Some of it isn’t Malaysia’s fault. An initial report that two possible hijackers using fake passports somehow got through the country’s passport control because of lax surveillance turned out to be false. While the two were traveling on false passports, apparently the stolen documents had never been reported to Interpol, which tracks such incidents. The pair turned out to be Iranians seeking asylum in Europe.
But that wasn’t helped by the fact that Malaysian authorities originally said erroneously that as many as four to five people could have been traveling with suspect passports, raising the possibility of a fully-fledged hijack gang aboard.
But five days into the loss of the aircraft and with no idea of where it could have disappeared, there is growing concern over who is in charge, coupled with the fact that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has largely removed himself from the picture, allowing his cousin, Hishammuddin Hussein, the defense minister and acting transport minister, to deal with the affair.
International treaties that allow for Malaysia to greatly expand the probe by calling in experts from foreign governments to help were not invoked until Wednesday, it seems, when it was reported that US and other foreign experts had finally been invited to take part in the formal investigation. It seemed again that valuable time had been lost.
Much of the problem is due to the fact that the Malaysian government has habitually handled information as a problem rather than as a means of communication. The mainstream news media are all owned by the ruling political parties and are used to being fed information the government wants them to hear. Government-owned MAS at one point issued a press release only to recall it twice because of misspellings and misinformation.
In a deeply divided political culture, especially in the last year as the opposition has grown more effective, the government is finding it difficult to manage the flow of information on a disaster. In addition, in the midst of this flight crisis the government is seeming preoccupied by court actions to drive two opposition leaders, Anwar Ibrahim of Parti Keadilan Rakyat, and Karpal Singh of the Democratic Action Party, out of Parliament.
At the start, the plane was characterized as having simply gone off the radar – until Wednesday, when a report carried in Berita Harian, a government-controlled Malay-language newspaper, quoted Air Force chief Gen. Rodzali Daud as saying Malaysian radar had tracked the missing Boeing 777-200 turning left from its last known location on radar. It then supposedly crossed Malaysia itself and disappeared over the Strait of Malacca.
The report set off a frenzy. CNN and the BBC carried maps of the new possible crash site as it was reported that the massive search for the wreckage had shifted to the waters between Malaysia and Indonesia instead of the South China Sea off the coast of Vietnam.
Then the report was emphatically denied by Daud, who told a press conference that "I wish to state that I did not make any such statements as above.”
CNN, however, quoted an unnamed “senior air force source” as saying the plane indeed had shown up on radar for more than an hour after contact was lost at around 1:30 a.m. Saturday. The craft was last detected, according to the official, near Pulau Perak, a small island in the Strait of Malacca.
Has four days been wasted by a huge flotilla of airplanes and ships that have been scouring the South China Sea for wreckage while the plane might actually be somewhere 900 km. to the west? The Vietnamese announced they were suspending their participation in the search.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang on Tuesday complained about the lack of progress in finding the plane, saying “We once again request and urge the Malaysia side to enhance and strengthen rescue and searching efforts.” The Chinese government itself is starting to feel the heat, offering to deploy 10 satellites in the effort to find the plane.
The crisis wasn’t helped any by a sensational revelation from Australia by a young South African woman that she and a friend had once ridden in the cockpit of an MAS flight from Phuket to Kuala Lumpur at the invitation of the missing co-pilot, Fariq Abdul Hamid, and had pictures of themselves flirting with the pilots, who were even smoking in the cockpit, to prove to prove it.
Since 9/11 in the United States, airline regulations forbid anyone not part of the crew from gaining access to the cockpit. If nothing else, the story, and the pictures are an indication of lax flight deck discipline and raise questions if someone could have got into the pilots’ cabin aboard MH370.
A series of miscues and media gaffes are turning Malaysia into an object of anger and criticism in the aftermath of the disappearance early Saturday morning of a Malaysian Airlines jetliner carrying 239 passengers and crew.
No trace of the craft has been found despite a search encompassing thousands of square kilometers. On Wednesday, the day was dominated by confusion over reports that the aircraft might have attempted to head back toward Malaysia before it disappeared.
Malaysia’s air force chief told reporters very early Wednesday that the plane had veered off course. Later in the morning, the same officer denied the report sharply. By Wednesday afternoon, the government seemed to reverse itself again, requesting assistance from India in searching the Andaman Sea, north of the Malacca Strait, where the plane may have gone down far from the current search area off the coast of Vietnam.
Officials finally said the plane "may" have been heading toward the Strait of Malacca when it disappeared and that the search was now also concentrated in that area.
Other countries have grown frustrated. The Chinese, with 152 passengers on board, have complained about a lack of transparency over details. They have also complained that Malaysian Airlines staff handling relatives of the victims in Beijing have been short of information and in many cases don’t speak Mandarin.
From the start, according to critics, the Malaysians have treated the disappearance and ensuing inconsistencies as a local problem instead of one that has focused the attention of the entire world’s media on the tragedy. In a semi-democratic country with a largely supine domestic media, the government insists it has the situation in hand but that hardly seems the case.
Often, those giving press briefings about the affair communicate badly in English to an international press whose lingua franca is English. Because of widely differing reports of where the aircraft actually disappeared, the picture being delivered is one of incompetence. Networks like the BBC and CNN are openly declaring that the post-accident situation is a mess.
Some of it isn’t Malaysia’s fault. An initial report that two possible hijackers using fake passports somehow got through the country’s passport control because of lax surveillance turned out to be false. While the two were traveling on false passports, apparently the stolen documents had never been reported to Interpol, which tracks such incidents. The pair turned out to be Iranians seeking asylum in Europe.
But that wasn’t helped by the fact that Malaysian authorities originally said erroneously that as many as four to five people could have been traveling with suspect passports, raising the possibility of a fully-fledged hijack gang aboard.
But five days into the loss of the aircraft and with no idea of where it could have disappeared, there is growing concern over who is in charge, coupled with the fact that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has largely removed himself from the picture, allowing his cousin, Hishammuddin Hussein, the defense minister and acting transport minister, to deal with the affair.
International treaties that allow for Malaysia to greatly expand the probe by calling in experts from foreign governments to help were not invoked until Wednesday, it seems, when it was reported that US and other foreign experts had finally been invited to take part in the formal investigation. It seemed again that valuable time had been lost.
Much of the problem is due to the fact that the Malaysian government has habitually handled information as a problem rather than as a means of communication. The mainstream news media are all owned by the ruling political parties and are used to being fed information the government wants them to hear. Government-owned MAS at one point issued a press release only to recall it twice because of misspellings and misinformation.
In a deeply divided political culture, especially in the last year as the opposition has grown more effective, the government is finding it difficult to manage the flow of information on a disaster. In addition, in the midst of this flight crisis the government is seeming preoccupied by court actions to drive two opposition leaders, Anwar Ibrahim of Parti Keadilan Rakyat, and Karpal Singh of the Democratic Action Party, out of Parliament.
At the start, the plane was characterized as having simply gone off the radar – until Wednesday, when a report carried in Berita Harian, a government-controlled Malay-language newspaper, quoted Air Force chief Gen. Rodzali Daud as saying Malaysian radar had tracked the missing Boeing 777-200 turning left from its last known location on radar. It then supposedly crossed Malaysia itself and disappeared over the Strait of Malacca.
The report set off a frenzy. CNN and the BBC carried maps of the new possible crash site as it was reported that the massive search for the wreckage had shifted to the waters between Malaysia and Indonesia instead of the South China Sea off the coast of Vietnam.
Then the report was emphatically denied by Daud, who told a press conference that "I wish to state that I did not make any such statements as above.”
CNN, however, quoted an unnamed “senior air force source” as saying the plane indeed had shown up on radar for more than an hour after contact was lost at around 1:30 a.m. Saturday. The craft was last detected, according to the official, near Pulau Perak, a small island in the Strait of Malacca.
Has four days been wasted by a huge flotilla of airplanes and ships that have been scouring the South China Sea for wreckage while the plane might actually be somewhere 900 km. to the west? The Vietnamese announced they were suspending their participation in the search.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang on Tuesday complained about the lack of progress in finding the plane, saying “We once again request and urge the Malaysia side to enhance and strengthen rescue and searching efforts.” The Chinese government itself is starting to feel the heat, offering to deploy 10 satellites in the effort to find the plane.
The crisis wasn’t helped any by a sensational revelation from Australia by a young South African woman that she and a friend had once ridden in the cockpit of an MAS flight from Phuket to Kuala Lumpur at the invitation of the missing co-pilot, Fariq Abdul Hamid, and had pictures of themselves flirting with the pilots, who were even smoking in the cockpit, to prove to prove it.
Since 9/11 in the United States, airline regulations forbid anyone not part of the crew from gaining access to the cockpit. If nothing else, the story, and the pictures are an indication of lax flight deck discipline and raise questions if someone could have got into the pilots’ cabin aboard MH370.
Malaysia Airlines mystery: US issued warnings over Boeing 777 'weak spot'
Potential weakness in fuselage of Boeing 777s was identified by the Federal Aviation Administration last year
By David Millward, US Correspondent - telegraph.co.uk
American transport officials warned of a potential weak spot in Boeing 777s which could lead to the "loss of structural integrity of the aircraft" four months before the disappearance of Malaysia airlines Flight MH370.
The Federal Aviation Administration in Washington drew up an Airworthiness Directive in November. It was triggered by reports of cracking in the fuselage skin underneath a Boeing aircraft's satellite antennae.
In its directive the FAA, which is responsible for supervising the safety of American-made aircraft such as Boeing, told airlines to look out for corrosion under the fuselage skin.
This, the FAA said, could lead to a situation where the fuselage was compromised leading to possible rapid decompression as well as the plane breaking up.
"We received a report of cracking and corrosion in the fuselage skin underneath the SATCOM antenna adapter," the FAA warned. "During a maintenance planning data inspection, one operator reported a 16-inch crack under the 3-bay SATCOM antenna adapter plate in the crown skin of the fuselage on an aeroplane that was 14 years old with approximately 14,000 total flight cycles.
"Subsequent to this crack finding, the same operator inspected 42 other aeroplanes that are between 6 and 16 years old and found some local corrosion, but no other cracking. Cracking and corrosion in the fuselage skin, if not corrected, could lead to rapid decompression and loss of structural integrity of the aeroplane."
The FAA directive in November called for additional checks to be incorporated into the routine maintenance schedule of the worldwide 777 Boeing fleet.
According to a Malaysia Airlines spokesman, the missing aircraft was serviced on February 23, with further maintenance scheduled for June 19.
The FAA stated that carrying out necessary inspection work would cost airlines $3.060 (£1,841).
With terrorism now appearing less likely as a cause of the Malaysian airlines disaster, which claimed 239 lives, focus has switched to problems with the aircraft or pilot error.
Despite both the Boeing 777 and Malaysia Airlines having good safety records, there have been other incidents which could prove relevant during the investigation of the disappearance.
In 2005, a 777 operated by Malaysia Airlines suffered problems with its autopilot system on a flight between Perth and Kuala Lumpur.
It led to the plane pitching up into a sudden 3,000-foot climb, almost causing the plane to stall.
The problem led to another airworthiness directive to correct a computer fault that had been found on 500 Boeing 777s.
Airworthiness directives are commonplace, similar to car recalls.
In the majority of cases, airlines are told to look for and correct the fault, if found, during maintenance.
On rare occasions an entire fleet will be grounded as happened in January last year when the FAA ordered Boeing to stop flying its flagship 787 Dreamliner after faults were discovered with the plane's batteries.
While investigators from Malaysia and the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington search for the plane's black box, they will also be able to glean vital information from a live-data stream broadcast during the flight.
Known as Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, it is the equivalent of an "online black box".
However James Healy-Pratt, an aviation lawyer who has represented bereaved families in other air accidents, warned they face a long wait before the original black boxes are recovered.
A Boeing spokesman said it was working with the NTSB as a technical adviser.
"The team is now in position in the region to offer whatever assistance is required."
The company declined to comment further.
American transport officials warned of a potential weak spot in Boeing 777s which could lead to the "loss of structural integrity of the aircraft" four months before the disappearance of Malaysia airlines Flight MH370.
The Federal Aviation Administration in Washington drew up an Airworthiness Directive in November. It was triggered by reports of cracking in the fuselage skin underneath a Boeing aircraft's satellite antennae.
In its directive the FAA, which is responsible for supervising the safety of American-made aircraft such as Boeing, told airlines to look out for corrosion under the fuselage skin.
This, the FAA said, could lead to a situation where the fuselage was compromised leading to possible rapid decompression as well as the plane breaking up.
"We received a report of cracking and corrosion in the fuselage skin underneath the SATCOM antenna adapter," the FAA warned. "During a maintenance planning data inspection, one operator reported a 16-inch crack under the 3-bay SATCOM antenna adapter plate in the crown skin of the fuselage on an aeroplane that was 14 years old with approximately 14,000 total flight cycles.
"Subsequent to this crack finding, the same operator inspected 42 other aeroplanes that are between 6 and 16 years old and found some local corrosion, but no other cracking. Cracking and corrosion in the fuselage skin, if not corrected, could lead to rapid decompression and loss of structural integrity of the aeroplane."
The FAA directive in November called for additional checks to be incorporated into the routine maintenance schedule of the worldwide 777 Boeing fleet.
According to a Malaysia Airlines spokesman, the missing aircraft was serviced on February 23, with further maintenance scheduled for June 19.
The FAA stated that carrying out necessary inspection work would cost airlines $3.060 (£1,841).
With terrorism now appearing less likely as a cause of the Malaysian airlines disaster, which claimed 239 lives, focus has switched to problems with the aircraft or pilot error.
Despite both the Boeing 777 and Malaysia Airlines having good safety records, there have been other incidents which could prove relevant during the investigation of the disappearance.
In 2005, a 777 operated by Malaysia Airlines suffered problems with its autopilot system on a flight between Perth and Kuala Lumpur.
It led to the plane pitching up into a sudden 3,000-foot climb, almost causing the plane to stall.
The problem led to another airworthiness directive to correct a computer fault that had been found on 500 Boeing 777s.
Airworthiness directives are commonplace, similar to car recalls.
In the majority of cases, airlines are told to look for and correct the fault, if found, during maintenance.
On rare occasions an entire fleet will be grounded as happened in January last year when the FAA ordered Boeing to stop flying its flagship 787 Dreamliner after faults were discovered with the plane's batteries.
While investigators from Malaysia and the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington search for the plane's black box, they will also be able to glean vital information from a live-data stream broadcast during the flight.
Known as Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, it is the equivalent of an "online black box".
However James Healy-Pratt, an aviation lawyer who has represented bereaved families in other air accidents, warned they face a long wait before the original black boxes are recovered.
A Boeing spokesman said it was working with the NTSB as a technical adviser.
"The team is now in position in the region to offer whatever assistance is required."
The company declined to comment further.
Missing MH370 may have strayed toward Andaman Sea, says air force
The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, March 12 — Malaysia’s military has traced what could have been the jetliner missing for almost five days to an area near India’s Andaman and Nicobar islands, hundreds of miles from its last known position, the country’s air force chief said today.
After a series of at times conflicting statements, the latest revelation underlined that authorities remain uncertain even where to look for the plane, and no closer to explaining what happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 or the 239 people on board.
The flight disappeared from civilian radar screens shortly before 1:30am on Saturday, less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, as it flew northeast across the mouth of the Gulf of Thailand bound for Beijing. What happened next is one of the most baffling mysteries in modern aviation history.
Malaysian air force chief Tan Sri Rodzali Daud told a news conference that an aircraft was plotted on military radar at 2:15am, 320km northwest of Penang Island off Malaysia’s west coast.
It was not confirmed that the unidentified plane was Flight MH370, but Malaysia was sharing the data with international civilian and military authorities, Rodzali said.
“We are corroborating this,” he added. “We are still working with the experts, it’s an unidentified plot.”
Agonising wait
According to the data from Rodzali, if it was the missing plane it would have flown for 45 minutes and lost only about 1,500 metres in altitude.
There was no word on which direction it was headed and still no clue what happened aboard, prolonging the agonising wait for news for hundreds of relatives of those on board.
A position 200 miles northwest of Penang, in the northern part of the Straits of Malacca, would put the plane roughly south of the Thai holiday island of Phuket and east of the tip of Indonesia’s Aceh province and India’s Nicobar island chain.
Indonesia and Thailand have said their militaries detected no sign of any unusual aircraft in their airspace.
The position is hundreds of miles west of the point where the Boeing 777-200ER dropped off air traffic control screens. Malaysia has asked India for help in tracing the aircraft and New Delhi’s coastguard planes have joined the search.
Authorities, however, are continuing to search around both locations — at the last known position of the plane over the Gulf of Thailand and around the radar plotting site where the Malacca Strait meets the Andaman Sea.
In total, the search is over 27,000 square nautical miles (93,000 sq km), an area the size of Hungary or Indiana.
Until now, there has been no confirmed sighting of the plane or any debris.
A dozen countries are helping Malaysia in the search, with 42 ships and 39 aircraft involved, acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said.
“My heart reaches out to the families of the passengers and crew,” he said. “And I give you my assurance we will not reduce the tempo and that we will not spare any effort to find the missing plane.”
Confusing information
Malaysia has been criticised for giving conflicting and confusing information on the last known location of aircraft.
Earlier today, air force chief Daud had denied saying military radar had tracked MH370 flying over the Straits of Malacca.
Vietnam briefly scaled down search operations in waters off its southern coast, saying it was receiving scanty and confusing information from Malaysia over where the aircraft may have headed after it lost contact with air traffic control.
Hanoi later said the search — now in its fifth day — was back on in full force and was even extending on to land. China also said its air force would sweep areas in the sea, clarifying however that no searches over land were planned.
“As long as the plane is not found, we would continue doing our mission,” Vo Van Tuan, spokesman for Vietnam Search and Rescue Committee, told reporters in Hanoi.
“We should always keep up hope, there can be miracles, human can survive for a long time in difficult conditions. We must not give up hope that the missing people are still alive.”
Nothing ruled out
In the absence of any concrete evidence to explain the plane’s disappearance, authorities have not ruled out anything. Police have said they were investigating whether any passengers or crew on the plane had personal or psychological problems that might shed light on the mystery, along with the possibility of a hijacking, sabotage or mechanical failure.
The airline said it was taking seriously a report by a South African woman who said the co-pilot of the missing plane had invited her and a female companion to sit in the cockpit during a flight two years ago, in an apparent breach of security.
“Malaysia Airlines has become aware of the allegations being made against First Officer Fariq Ab Hamid which we take very seriously. We are shocked by these allegations. We have not been able to confirm the validity of the pictures and videos of the alleged incident,” the airline said in a statement.
The woman, Jonti Roos, told Reuters that she and her friend were invited to fly in the cockpit by Fariq and the pilot between Phuket, Thailand, and Kuala Lumpur in December 2011.
“I thought that they were highly skilled and highly competent and since they were doing it that it was allowed,” Roos said. “I want to make it clear, at no point did I feel we were in danger or that they were acting irresponsibly.”
Hugh Dunleavy, the commercial director of Malaysia Airlines, told Reuters there was no reason to blame the crew.
“We have no reason to believe that there was anything, any actions, internally by the crew that caused the disappearance of this aircraft,” he said.
The Boeing 777 has one of the best safety records of any commercial aircraft in service. Its only previous fatal crash came on July 6 last year when Asiana Airlines Flight 214 struck a seawall on landing in San Francisco, killing three people.
US planemaker Boeing has declined to comment beyond a brief statement saying it was monitoring the situation. — Reuters
KUALA LUMPUR, March 12 — Malaysia’s military has traced what could have been the jetliner missing for almost five days to an area near India’s Andaman and Nicobar islands, hundreds of miles from its last known position, the country’s air force chief said today.
After a series of at times conflicting statements, the latest revelation underlined that authorities remain uncertain even where to look for the plane, and no closer to explaining what happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 or the 239 people on board.
The flight disappeared from civilian radar screens shortly before 1:30am on Saturday, less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, as it flew northeast across the mouth of the Gulf of Thailand bound for Beijing. What happened next is one of the most baffling mysteries in modern aviation history.
Malaysian air force chief Tan Sri Rodzali Daud told a news conference that an aircraft was plotted on military radar at 2:15am, 320km northwest of Penang Island off Malaysia’s west coast.
It was not confirmed that the unidentified plane was Flight MH370, but Malaysia was sharing the data with international civilian and military authorities, Rodzali said.
“We are corroborating this,” he added. “We are still working with the experts, it’s an unidentified plot.”
Agonising wait
According to the data from Rodzali, if it was the missing plane it would have flown for 45 minutes and lost only about 1,500 metres in altitude.
There was no word on which direction it was headed and still no clue what happened aboard, prolonging the agonising wait for news for hundreds of relatives of those on board.
A position 200 miles northwest of Penang, in the northern part of the Straits of Malacca, would put the plane roughly south of the Thai holiday island of Phuket and east of the tip of Indonesia’s Aceh province and India’s Nicobar island chain.
Indonesia and Thailand have said their militaries detected no sign of any unusual aircraft in their airspace.
The position is hundreds of miles west of the point where the Boeing 777-200ER dropped off air traffic control screens. Malaysia has asked India for help in tracing the aircraft and New Delhi’s coastguard planes have joined the search.
Authorities, however, are continuing to search around both locations — at the last known position of the plane over the Gulf of Thailand and around the radar plotting site where the Malacca Strait meets the Andaman Sea.
In total, the search is over 27,000 square nautical miles (93,000 sq km), an area the size of Hungary or Indiana.
Until now, there has been no confirmed sighting of the plane or any debris.
A dozen countries are helping Malaysia in the search, with 42 ships and 39 aircraft involved, acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said.
“My heart reaches out to the families of the passengers and crew,” he said. “And I give you my assurance we will not reduce the tempo and that we will not spare any effort to find the missing plane.”
Confusing information
Malaysia has been criticised for giving conflicting and confusing information on the last known location of aircraft.
Earlier today, air force chief Daud had denied saying military radar had tracked MH370 flying over the Straits of Malacca.
Vietnam briefly scaled down search operations in waters off its southern coast, saying it was receiving scanty and confusing information from Malaysia over where the aircraft may have headed after it lost contact with air traffic control.
Hanoi later said the search — now in its fifth day — was back on in full force and was even extending on to land. China also said its air force would sweep areas in the sea, clarifying however that no searches over land were planned.
“As long as the plane is not found, we would continue doing our mission,” Vo Van Tuan, spokesman for Vietnam Search and Rescue Committee, told reporters in Hanoi.
“We should always keep up hope, there can be miracles, human can survive for a long time in difficult conditions. We must not give up hope that the missing people are still alive.”
Nothing ruled out
In the absence of any concrete evidence to explain the plane’s disappearance, authorities have not ruled out anything. Police have said they were investigating whether any passengers or crew on the plane had personal or psychological problems that might shed light on the mystery, along with the possibility of a hijacking, sabotage or mechanical failure.
The airline said it was taking seriously a report by a South African woman who said the co-pilot of the missing plane had invited her and a female companion to sit in the cockpit during a flight two years ago, in an apparent breach of security.
“Malaysia Airlines has become aware of the allegations being made against First Officer Fariq Ab Hamid which we take very seriously. We are shocked by these allegations. We have not been able to confirm the validity of the pictures and videos of the alleged incident,” the airline said in a statement.
The woman, Jonti Roos, told Reuters that she and her friend were invited to fly in the cockpit by Fariq and the pilot between Phuket, Thailand, and Kuala Lumpur in December 2011.
“I thought that they were highly skilled and highly competent and since they were doing it that it was allowed,” Roos said. “I want to make it clear, at no point did I feel we were in danger or that they were acting irresponsibly.”
Hugh Dunleavy, the commercial director of Malaysia Airlines, told Reuters there was no reason to blame the crew.
“We have no reason to believe that there was anything, any actions, internally by the crew that caused the disappearance of this aircraft,” he said.
The Boeing 777 has one of the best safety records of any commercial aircraft in service. Its only previous fatal crash came on July 6 last year when Asiana Airlines Flight 214 struck a seawall on landing in San Francisco, killing three people.
US planemaker Boeing has declined to comment beyond a brief statement saying it was monitoring the situation. — Reuters
Najib Calls For Another Briefing On Missing Aircraft SAR Operation
KUALA
LUMPUR, March 12 (Bernama) -- Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has called for
another briefing today with the search and rescue (SAR) team mounted to
locate the missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) aircraft."I have called for another briefing today with the SAR team. We will work relentlessly, on multinational basis to find MH370," said the Prime Minister on his Twitter account today.
Yesterday, Najib attended a briefing, for about 90 minutes, given by Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) director-general Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman at the Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Centre at the DCA Air Traffic Control Centre in Subang, Selangor
In his twitter, Najib also shared a picture during the briefing which include him with Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein, Azharuddin and MAS Group chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya.
MAS flight MH370, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew, went missing enroute from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing about an hour after taking off from KL International Airport (KLIA) at 12.41 am on Saturday.
It should have landed in Beijing at 6.30 am on the same day.
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