With the international spotlight on us, we should have been more open and transparent

There is no doubt we are lacking in sophisticated equipment in Search and Rescue operations. Even if we do possess the latest equipment, we are likely to lack the necessary trained personnel to man them.

For the MH370 search, we are relying on 25 other countries' equipment and personnel in the hope it can help bring us closer to finding the missing plane which mystery in the almost total loss in communication can be described as unprecedented. Yet, there were reports of Malaysia's reluctance in sharing vital information. Even under such dire circumstances, our old habits of holding back information for the purpose of spinning later seem to die hard. I believe our lack of credibility stems from being opaque and vague in dissemination of information, despite having daily press conferences.

The following reports suggest so:

According to The Sun:

'A transcript of the radio telephony conversation between the co-pilot and Malaysian air traffic controllers that was published in a UK-based news portal is untrue.

Department of Civil Aviation's (DCA) director-general Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said today that.the transcript of the cockpit communications published by The Telegraph (www.telegraph.co.uk) is inaccurate.

He declined to say if it was partially or fully inaccurate when asked.

"We are unable to give details as the transcript is part of the investigations and cannot be revealed." he said.

It is learnt that investigators found nothing suspicious in the contents of the original transcript and the flow of conversation throughout the duration of communications was normal.

Source:
http://www.thesundaily.my/node/245481

According to Hussein Hamid:

MH370 : Another reason why the world no longer believes what the Malaysian Government says.

'There have been criticism made of Malaysia's handling of the MH370 incident by China and many others as evident from the unfavorable comments in medias overseas. Following are two articles regarding the final cockpit communication from MH370. The first article is from Yahoo!7 and Agencies and the second one from FMT in Malaysia.

All Malaysia had to do to tell the world that what Malaysian authorities are saying is the truth is to release the transcript of the final cockpit communication but instead what Hishamuddin said was:
“The original transcript is with the investigation team. They need to analyse it, however, the details cannot be published to the media,”

“I can confirm to you that there was nothing abnormal in it,”

It would be more credible if Hishamuddin just release the transcript and end the speculation!

Does he not understand that his words are no longer believed by those inside and outside Malaysia?'

'Secondly, it appears that the loss of communication and subsequent change of MH370's direction occurred at the point where the air traffic control in Kuala Lumpur were to handover to those in Ho Chi Minh City.

"If I was going to steal the aeroplane, that would be the point I would do it," said Stephen Buzdygan, a former British Airways pilot.

"There might be a bit of dead space between the air traffic controllers. It was the only time during the flight they would maybe not have been able to be seen from the ground."

The development was reported in London's Telegraph, which claimed to have received no confirmation from authorities.

The Daily Telegraph has repeatedly asked Malaysia Airlines, Malaysia's Civil Aviation Authority and the office of Najib Razak, the Malaysian prime minister, to confirm the communications record; only the prime minister's office responded, saying it would not release this data.'

More:
http://steadyaku-steadyaku-husseinhamid.blogspot.com/2014/03/mh370-another-reason-why-world-no.html

According to Jeffrey FK Phang:

'In the MH370 case, the many answers given at the official press conferences border on misinformation.
No clear facts were stated as many were “still subject to official investigations”. No clear statement about the carriage of hazardous cargo – were they mangosteens or highly inflammable batteries?
If they were dangerous cargo, an elaboration of the security precautions taken in compliance with international requirements would be pacifying to the public.
This accumulation of unanswered and partly answered questions give rise to unhealthy speculations and rumours.
International press coverage on MH370 is forced to speculate even as we now hesitate to reveal our cargo manifest to aid the Australians in the SAR operation.'

More:
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/opinion/2014/03/26/information-misinformation-and-deception/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mycenews+%28MyCen+News%29

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PM Confirmed: MH370 lost in Indian Ocean

"After 17 days of extensive search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, authorities have finally concluded that the aircraft can only be in the southern region of the Indian Ocean.

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak revealed this tonight in a hastily convened press conference at Putra World Trade Centre, Kuala Lumpur.

Najib said the confirmation is based on "a type of analysis never before used" on Immarsat's satellite data."

More:
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/258084

How British satellite company Inmarsat tracked down MH370:

"Inmarsat’s role in the search for Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 began immediately after the aircraft disappeared. Although the main aircraft communications addressing and reporting system (which would usually transmit the plane's position) was switched off, one of Inmarsat’s satellites continued to pick up a series of automated hourly 'pings' from a terminal on the plane, which would normally be used to synchronise timing information.

By analysing these pings, Inmarsat was able to establish that MH370 continued to fly for at least five hours after the aircraft left Malaysian airspace, and that it had flown along one of two 'corridors' – one arcing north and the other south. The plane was reportedly flying at a cruising height above 30,000 feet.

"We looked at the Doppler effect, which is the change in frequency due to the movement of a satellite in its orbit. What that then gave us was a predicted path for the northerly route and a predicted path the southerly route," explained Chris McLaughlin, senior vice president of external affairs at Inmarsat. "That’s never been done before; our engineers came up with it as a unique contribution."

More:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10719304/How-British-satellite-company-Inmarsat-tracked-down-MH370.html

We have yet to retrieve any item which can be identified conclusively to MH370.

It is vital to find the black box in order to know more about what actually happened. With today's technology, the information in the black box can be used to reconstruct in 3-D form what could have happened. Here's an example:


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Congratulations to Kak Wan!

PKR - 16,741
BN - 11,362

Majority - 5,379

Malaysiakini's report...
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/257966

Lim Kit Siang suggested she could be our first female PM. Zahid Hamidi replied that he should not be day-dreaming. Someone commented that if someone like Zahid can be a minister, then Dr Wan Azizah can be PM.

Anyway, we shall see whether the eye doctor can help Malaysia achieve perfect vision of 20/20 by the year 2020.
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Kajang by-election: That Wan Azizah shall win is just a formality?

Sakmongkol AK47: On Political Platforms in the Kajang by-Election. Manifesto vs MONEYfesto

Excerpt:

"Last night, I attended the launching of Reformasi 2 at Kajang stadium. The stadium was filled to the brim. It was a huge crowd. As usual this morning, after waking up with arithmetitis, mainstream media will downplay the size of the huge crowd. Maybe 232 attnded.
There were so many speakers. So we end up mostly making rallying calls. The political platform has been explained widely throughout  the campaign period.
That Wan Azizah shall go on to win this by-election is just a formality. The question is how big will her majority be."

"The non-Malays will come out in big numbers to vote Wan Azizah. They are motivated by one reason only. The UMNO people can challenge them to explain their conduct and ask once again what do the Chinese want- that will be an irrelevant question. The question will be simply ignored. The basic desire and motivation is just to see BN get its butt kicked. They don’t like BN and its a subjective choice. Nothing much to explain."

"...The Malays who did not vote Pakatan the last time because they didn’t want to vote a CC Lee will  come out to vote this time. They will vote Wan Azizah."

Rest of the article:
http://sakmongkol.blogspot.com/2014/03/on-political-platforms-in-kajang-by.html

This is no ordinary by-election. That Anwar created it so that he could be Menteri Besar of Selangor was known. That BN hastily put an end to his ambition is also generally accepted by the public, despite BN's denial. That Wan Azizah has to take Anwar's place as candidate is a reaction to BN's malicious scheme of things, not of her choice. Could it be a blessing in disguise that Wan Azizah shall benefit from sympathy votes, and as a result, become MB of Selangor? Highly possible, given the turnout of Reformasi 2. It is also possible that we might get to have Wan Azizah as first woman PM of Malaysia at the next GE.

Sodomy I was unprecedented in its aim of denying Anwar a chance to be PM. That Sodomy II was used again seems so lacking in ideas and certainly malicious in intention. We should let the powers be know that whether a person is fit to be PM should be left to the people to decide, not anyone else under the pretext of protecting the country. The Kajang by-election is now like a referendum which the voters shall decide on behalf of the rest of the country's voters. The margin of majority is vital in this context.
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We have learned quite a bit from the ill-fated MH370

With the constant inflow of information from all and sundry, about plausible or probable causes or likely scenarios, we now know about primary and secondary transponders; black box (actually orange in colour) and its uses; satellite images and their limitations; flight simulators and their uses and abuses; capabilities as well as limitations (mainly to safeguard national security) of radar monitors; and so on.

We have learned more about geography, especially where the oceans are and how deep they could be.

We have also learned how unprepared we are in case of hostile aircrafts entering our airspace. This is not unexpected when dealing with security: when nothing happens, it can be boring for those in charge to be constantly on the alert.

Though the incident has shown how cooperative the 25 countries can be in their joint efforts to locate the missing plane, it also highlighted the reluctance to divulge certain information which could undermine each country's national defence capability.

With the daily press conferences given by acting Transport Minister, DCA chief, MAS CEO, and occasionally, by some other ministers or relevant officers, the importance of English as an international language of communication has also been highlighted. Those with foreign education like Hishamuddin and Najib had confidence in putting across their points, though they are hampered by the lack of information to offer and the latter was known to have avoided answering any questions from the floor.

One thing I noticed is that we had been fooled by some TV films and series which gave us the wrong impression that the latest technologies on satellites and the cyberworld could do wonders within seconds. Recently, I watched an episode of Hawaii 5 'O' which showed how easy it was for someone with the right knowledge to hijack a plane using a notebook remotely. It was also easy for someone from 5 'O' to counter the hijack and arrest the culprit in time. Though it is not impossible for such things to happen, the fast-tracking of the scenes in an episode gave us the wrong impression that almost anything could be done with the timely press of the right buttons!

The reality of MH370 is such that the latest satellite images from Australia could not be confirmed immediately, and to get to the right location would take at least 2 to 3 days! A couple of planes tried but could not locate the debris. We were told that planes or ships have to make sure they have sufficient fuel to search and to return back to base! A warship using nuclear power is more helpful where this is concerned.

So far, no cost is spared in the efforts to locate the missing plane. But finance is something which will crop up later. The big brothers like US, Australia and China (almost two thirds of passengers are from China) are obliged to help, in the hope that they can show off their capability if any search is proven positive. In comparison, host country Malaysia is seen as lacking in assets as well as reluctance to use its own submarine, for instance, for this vital search and rescue mission to locate its own plane.

By the way, we taught the world how to be more specific in describing family ties:
Christianne Amanpour, quoting from Anwar’s press secretary, had asked Anwar to confirm if Zaharie was indeed his "son’s wife’s mother’s father’s brother’s son".

We can't be more specific than that, can we? In other words, Zaharie was Anwar's daughter-in-law's uncle, or her mother's cousin, descriptions of which are rather vague to us, Asians.

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