by Lee Shi-Ian
The Malaysian Insider
April 14, 2014
More than half of Malaysians polled last month believe that the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) government has been hiding information about flight MH370’s disappearance, according to a new survey by The Malaysian Insider.
Out of the 1,029 respondents polled in The Malaysian Insider survey carried out by the Merdeka Center, 54% said Putrajaya was not transparent in releasing information about flight MH370 which vanished on March 8.
In response to the question whether they thought Putrajaya had been truthful or had been hiding anything about MH370, 54% of respondents felt Malaysia had been hiding information, 26% said the government had been truthful while 20% were unsure.
Ever since the Malaysia Airlines jetliner disappeared on March 8, this allegation has been made on numerous occasions by Chinese relatives of the 227 passengers on board the Boeing 777-200ER (9M-MRO) jetliner.
And more than five weeks after the plane disappeared, it appears that Malaysians are also inclined to believe that Putrajaya has not been forthcoming with information about the flight.
Once again, Chinese respondents were almost unanimous in giving the thumbs down to the BN federal government.
The poll figures showed that the slight majority of Indian and Malay respondents, too, believed Putrajaya had been hiding information.
This time, respondents from both rural and urban areas were united in believing that Putrajaya has been less than forthcoming with information about MH370.
Respondents were selected through random stratified sampling methods along the lines of ethnicity, gender and age, and covered all the federal seats in the peninsula.
The survey was carried out from March 24 to 30 with the selection of respondents proportional to the population in each parliamentary constituency.
On the performance of Malaysian ministers in the MH370 crisis, 21% of the respondents said they were very dissatisfied while 19% were very satisfied.
Despite the criticism Putrajaya has faced from local and international quarters since the MH370 crisis, 51% of respondents said they were confident about the government.
However, 45% of respondents said they were not confident about Putrajaya post-MH370 crisis.
The respondents were asked whether the performance of Putrajaya in handling the MH370 crisis has made them more/less confident about the government.
Within days of MH370’s disappearance, China’s Foreign Ministry had urged Malaysia to speed up its investigations and provide more accurate information.
However, China’s criticism of Malaysia’s investigation into MH370 also unleashed an ugly bout of nationalism.
Anger at Malaysia’s handling of the investigation erupted on Chinese social media, and even on the streets with demonstrations outside the Malaysian embassy in Beijing.
The state-run Xinhua News Agency complained of an “unforgivable” lack of capacity, effort or transparency on the part of Putrajaya.
The adjective “Malaysian” became a popular byword for irresponsibility and unreliability; Malaysian singers of Chinese descent were abused online.
After Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced that MH370 ended its flight in the southern Indian Ocean, family members and relatives in Beijing snapped.
Grief-stricken and angry over what they called two weeks of “lies and misleading information” after MH370 disappeared, family members marched to the Malaysian embassy.
They carried placards bearing the words “Malaysia Airlines, you owe us an explanation”, “Corrupt Malaysian government” and “Mom, please come home”.
Another bone of contention has been a CNN report on Thursday quoting an unnamed senior Malaysian government official as saying that the air force had scrambled search at 8am on March 8 soon after MH370 was reported missing.
Both acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and the Royal Malaysian Air Force chief have denied the report. However, CNN said it was standing by the report. – April 14, 2014.
With all due respect, I think the Malaysian Authorities have in fact said too much to the extent that they even contradict themselves in many instances.
To me, they are not trying to hide the truth as they don’t even know or appear to know what the whole truth is.
First the debris. Second the ping. Third what excuse ?
Out of touch, dude!!!!!
Firstly. they denied hysterically the plane turned back and headed to Strait of Malacca even one of local military personal spoke anonymously to the media. Thus, let bunch of resources and times wasted in searching South China Sea over 5 days… Initially, they even challenged some western media reported the plane turned back. After full releasing of the British investigator of satellite data with ping signals, they zipped up their damn mouths…
Secondly, the bunch of monkeys publicly claimed that two travelers with false passports were African blacks. Eventually, it turned out to be Iranians
Thirdly, they altered the cockpit conversation from ” All right, good night” to ” Good night, MH Three Seven Zero”, after the British investigators pursued the final conversation seriously for possible clues… Finally released list of conversations could be distorted and manipulated without the actual hardcopy, dudes!!!
And….
Are they trying to manipulating and hiding somethings, dudes???? Think about it…
The response is almost the same percentage compared to the general election. Over 50% rejection.
The Boeing 777-200ER is a very large aircraft.
If the flight had actually ended in the ocean, then there should be a few large pieces of wreckage on the floor, and many smaller pieces of debris floating on the surface.
But if the flight did not end in the ocean, then no matter how long they search, they will never find debris floating on the surface nor wreckage on the floor.
Can you blame them no matter what the truth is? UMNO/BN track record for the truth especially under Najib is basically stinks like crap.
Take GST for example, its clear that the initial tax is going to go up because the reason they are doing it is because of dependency on oil revenue. They are already lying when they say its small because the money from GST, more reliable, allows UMNO/BN to borrow more, hawking our children’s future. Its also clear the GST charge initially will not be enough and will have to go up in the future.
You really blame Malaysian for they cynicism when they break instiutions, after institutions – to the extend even a new convert who has failed his responsibility as husband and father quickly grab hold of religion to make excuses for breaking the law and has the police chief no less helping him..
Really. All Malaysian doing is being rationale..
Perkosa-UmnoB/BN NO credibility, but OK 1 what, life still goes on, Perkosa-UmnoB/BN still controls P’jaya