Gelang Patah MP Lim Kit Siang had repeated his call for the Parliamentary Select Comittee (PSC) on the MH370 tragedy to be established and that the government should brief the Pakatan Rakyat MPs in order to put to rest speculations that the government has not been fully transparent on the of handling the case.
The government’s credibility in the case has been sullied further after a report by the Cable News Network’s (CNN) surfaced yesterday alleging that the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) had scrambled its search aircraft on the morning of the missing Malaysian Airlines Boeing 737 at around 8 am, but did not inform authorities until three days later, quoting a senior Malaysian government official and another source involved in the investigation.
It reported that search aircraft were scrambled before authorities could corroborate data indicating the Boeing 777 turned westward from its northbound flight path. The unnamed source stated RMAF had “not informed the Department of Civil Aviation or search and rescue operations until three days later, March 11″. Acting transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein has denied the CNN report, describing it as “a false allegation”.
“Who is right? Hishammuddin or CNN?” asked Lim Kit Siang who added that unless CNN is prepared to name the “senior Malaysian government official and another source” to substantiate its report, it would be difficult for anyone to accept it as the truth.
The Gelang Patah MP said that if an Opposition-led Parliamentary Select Committee had been established, it would have investigated and produced a credible and authoritative report to back Hishammuddin’s denial which would put all doubts regarding the allegations to rest, adding that a mere denial by Hishamuddin was not enough, due to the contradictory nature of information received thus far regarding the missing flight.
According to Lim, the PSC would have also investigated why there was no scrambling of RMAF search aircraft when the military radar tracked MH370 as having diverted from its course from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, when in the first few minutes between 1.40 and 1.45 am, at least two RMAF Sukhoi-30s from Gong Kedak could have been scrambled to intercept the jetliner in Kelantan airspace.
He also said that the PSC would also investigate into why a second chance was lost in intercepting the plane when it approached Penang when it was picked up on the military radar in Butterworth, although the RMAF was on 24-hour standby at the airbase.
“For these reasons, I would call on the Prime Minister to honour his word that Malaysia has nothing to hide by honouring two broken promises so far; an authoritative briefing to Pakatan Rakyat MPs on the MH370 tragedy and the establishment of an Opposition-headed Parliamentary Select Committee on MH 370 tragedy,” he concluded in his statement today.-The Rocket
