Four questions, no answers
The blame for this tragic episode should fall on those who detected the turn back but chose not to act on it.
COMMENT
The MH370 puzzle continues to hog the headlines. Many people are now questioning why no action was taken when it was detected that the plane had made a turn back.
The person who had detected the route change could have easily picked up the telephone and called the KLIA Air Traffic Control (ATC) Tower to find out if indeed the plane had been directed to make a turn back.
That this was not done constitutes a severe dereliction of duty.
For all we know, at that point in time our pilots could have already been knocked unconscious by hijackers who were piloting the plane.
Or our pilots could have been forced at gunpoint to alter the flight route. Anything could have happened.
“The plane disappeared from radar at 1.30am. Only at 7.25am which is six hours later was there an announcement that flight MH370 is lost from the radar and action initiated to look for its location.
“This is a terribly lax attitude taken for such a grave matter. The time difference could be a matter of life and death,” said Khalid Samad, the PAS Shah Alam MP.
Therefore the blame for this tragic episode should fall on those who detected the turn back but chose not to act on it.
In this case, the lax attitude of those on duty at that material time should be a grave cause of concern for all of us right-thinking Malaysians.
The second question that should be put to the relevant authorities concerns the plane’s cargo. It was reported in a local English newspaper dated March 25, 2014 that the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) had requested for information pertaining to the cargo manifest but was refused and was told to request for it from the investigation team.
What was the plane carrying besides mangosteens and lithium-ion batteries? Uranium isotopes? Fans of espionage thrillers are speculating.
The rakyat must therefore demand the truth and the government must furnish the truth. All must be revealed in a tragedy of such immense proportions and those responsible must be held accountable.
The third question concerns the lax immigration procedures that had enabled passengers with stolen passports to board the plane. Has anyone been sacked in regard to this lapse in security procedures?
Water issue
The fourth question that should be put to the government, this time pertaining to the water ration issue is: why can’t the amount of NRW (non-revenue water) be lessened so that the water supply to the citizens can be increased?
KL and Selangor folks must again brace themselves for another round of water rationing scheduled to begin from April 4 to month-end. The whole month of March was already a torture.
Again the lackadaisical attitude in water matters has caused people to suffer due to the water ration imposed.
This lousy attitude in managing our water resources has now reached a critical point.
In the past, we the citizens have also posed many questions to the authorities, questions such as those pertaining to what really happened to Teoh Beng Hock before his body was discovered.
None of the questions received satisfactory answers. There is something seriously wrong in our society if we fail to demand for logical and truthful answers from our government.
This time the world is watching us.
The SAR (Search And Rescue) effort initiated by our government to locate the missing plane is praiseworthy but the dereliction of duty involving the turn back of flight MH370 is a grave misdeed. How is the government going to explain this?
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has appeared on television numerous times to talk about the missing plane.
Hopefully our Prime Minister too will appear on television to talk at length about the matter as it is our plane and our people on duty at that material time.
Our government must take note of the flood incident in England last year. At the height of the floods, the English people blamed the British Prime Minister David Cameron for not digging the Thames deeper. They did not blame the government nor the city council but they blamed David Cameron directly as if he is the one supposed to be holding a shovel and doing the digging works.
Our leaders should take note of this.
Malaysia is now under the observation of the world microscope. Our government is now in the radar of the world community.
How we handle the MH370 crisis will certainly make or break this nation and give a clear definition to the world how far we have progressed.
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