Category: Parliament

We had just experienced what I would describe as “mankind’s longest month” from March 8 to April 7, not only for the families, loved ones and friends of the 239 passengers and crew on board MH370 Boeing 777-200ER which had disappeared in the early hours of March 8, but also for Malaysians and well-wishers worldwide.

For the first time in human history, for a whole month in real time, 24/7 (i.e. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 31 days a month), the world has been haunted and tortured by the question as to how in the modern age, a hi-tech passenger plan can just vanish without a trace for a month with 239 passengers and crew onboard.

The families and loved ones of the 239 passengers and crew are drowned in grief and yet cannot really begin to grieve, for they are not prepared to abandon the glimmer of hope that there could be a miracle, for there has been no evidence or piece of wreckage to establish that MH370 had met a disastrous end.

On the 31st day of the disappearance of MH 370 Boeing 777 aircraft, three pings from deep in the Indian Ocean gave new hope to the world that they were signals from the plane’s black boxes before their beacons fall silent – promising a finality which had eluded the world’s longest and biggest-ever sea, undersea, air, satellite search which had involved 26 nations and scores of aircrafts, ships, submarines and even undersea drones. Continue reading “Hishammuddin and Shahidan’s reneging on their undertaking to give briefing to PR MPs and shooting down proposal for a Parliamentary Select Committee on MH 370 Disaster will reinforce adverse national and international perceptions about Malaysia’s transparency and crisis management of the MH 370 disaster”

Yesterday, the Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein announced an investigation team as well as three ministerial committees on the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, which enters into the 30th day of its disappearance on March 8, viz:

1. As per ICAO standards, an independent “investigator-in-charge” to lead an investigation team comprising three groups:

*an airworthiness group, which will look into maintenance records, structure and system of the airline;

*an operational group, which will examine flight recorders operations and meteorological aspects of the investigation;
and

*a medical and human factor group, which will look into psychological and pathological aspects as well as survival factors of those on board the plane.

2. Three ministerial committees, namely a next-of-kin committee, headed by Hamzah Zainuddin, the Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister; a technical committee led by Abdul Aziz Kaprawi, the Deputy Transport Minister and a deployment of assets committee, helmed by Deputy Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Bakri.

The investigating team is led by the Malaysian Government, but would include individuals from other accredited countries, including Australia, China, the United States, the United Kingdom and France and other countries who are in a position to help.

The first question to crop up is whether Hishammuddin and the Cabinet have abandoned the proposal of a Parliamentary Select Committee on MH370 and if so, why? Continue reading “Hishammuddin should explain whether he and the Cabinet had abandoned the proposal of a Parliamentary Select Committee on MH370 and if so, why?”

The 28-day Malaysian Airlines (MAS) disaster of the missing MH370 Boeing 777-200 aircraft with 239 passengers and crew on board is both a national and international disaster, and this is why it has spawned the longest and largest multi-national air-sea-undersea-satellite search for the missing plane, at one time involving 26 nations.

Today, a United States underwater drone has joined the race against time in the eight-nation search involving 14 planes, ten ships and a submarine in an area of around 86,000 square miles some 1,000 miles west-north-west of Perth, Australia as there are only two days left to retrieve MH370 black boxes as their battery-powered signal usually last only about 30 days.

At a press conference in Parliament yesterday, I had urged all MPs, whether Pakatan Rakyat or Barisan Nasional, to think hard and fast whether Parliament should adjourn next Thursday utterly lost and indecisive if it becomes increasingly unlikely that the black boxes of the missing Malaysian Airlines (MAS) aircraft MH370 is going to be retrieved in the coming weeks and months.

As the current meeting of Parliament adjourns next Thursday, April 10, I suggest that Parliament should reserve next Thursday for a special debate on the MH370 disaster and what MPs should do to help restore national and international confidence in the transparency, good governance and reputation of Malaysia. Continue reading “Parliament should reserve next Thursday for a special debate on the MH370 disaster and what MPs should do to help restore national and international confidence in the transparency, good governance and reputation of Malaysia”

After 27 days of the longest and largest ever multi-national sea-air-satellite search of the missing MAS Boeing 777 from South China Sea to the Straits of Malacca; from the Andaman Sea to the Northern and Southern corridors; and now to the Indian Ocean, no clue has been uncovered with regard to the whereabouts of MH370.

The MH 370 “black boxes” – which records flight data and cockpit voice communications – is now the only hope for clues to the mystery of the flight’s March 8 disappearance or the mystery may never be solved.
Time is fast running out as there are only three days left to retrieve MH370 boxes as their battery-powered signal usually last only about 30 days.

The entry of the British nuclear submarine, HSM Tireless, to join the search for Flight MH370 from Perth, has made it an eight-nation sea-undersea-and-air search involving Australia, Malaysia, China, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, the United States and United Kingdom.

However, despite a search involving 12 planes and 10 ships and now one submarine, with more than 100 men and women in the air and more than 1,000 at sea, the prospects of the 27-day search of the missing MH370 Boeing 777 have become increasingly pessimistic, forlorn and desperate with no one any the wiser as to where the Malaysia Airlines jet hit the sea. Continue reading “Members of Parliament must think hard and fast whether Parliament should adjourn next Thursday utterly lost and indecisive if it becomes increasingly unlikely that the black boxes of MH370 is going to be retrieved in the coming weeks and months?”

The 25th day of the missing Malaysian Airlines (MAS) MH370 starts with another emotional roller-coaster not only for the loved ones of the 239 passengers and crew onboard the Boeing 777 airliner, but for all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, territory or politics.

This is the medley of shame, sadness and anger felt by most Malaysians when they learn of the correction issued by the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) just before midnight confirming that MH370’s last radio communication was “Good night Malaysian 370” and not “All right, good night” as earlier reported.

The Chinese broadcaster CCTV had on Sunday reported that the last words from the cockpit of MH370 before it disappeared from civilian radar were actually “Good night, Malaysian 370”, and not “all right, good night” as the Department of Civil Aviation had previously claimed.

The final sign off, said as the plane left Malaysian airspace and was about to enter that of Vietnam at 1.19 am on March 8, is much more formal than the words that were originally reported.

I believe I share the feelings of the overwhelming number of Malaysians when I cringe at the DCA’s clarification, feeling shame, sadness and even anger that we have made another mistake which should not have occurred, as it reflects most adversely on the competence of our system of governance and therefore on our national pride.

The past 25 days have exposed at least half-dozen mistakes and weaknesses, viz: Continue reading “Correction of the last words from the cockpit of MH370 – why it is even more imperative for an opposition-headed Parliamentary Select Committee on MH 370 before Parliament adjourns on April 10!”

Leven Woon| March 25, 2014
Free Malaysia Today

Opposition leaders demand a Parliamentary Select Committee to investigate MH370 disappearance.

KUALA LUMPUR: Pakatan Rakyat leaders today made repeated calls to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to be forthcoming with the details over his statement last night on the missing MH370.

DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang and PAS’ Pokok Sena MP Mahfuz Omar were adamant that the parliament should best deal with MH370 crisis by setting up a bipartisan select committee (PSC).

They made the requests before and after Najib’s visit to Parliament today.

Najib was in the House today to table a motion of condolence to the passengers and crew of MH370, and it was followed by a debate session. Continue reading “‘Set up PSC to probe MH370 mystery’”