China’s daily urges Putrajaya to come clean with details on MH370
As China reels from news that 153 of its citizens could have perished when Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 crashed into the southern Indian Ocean, a leading English-language daily repeated the call for Putrajaya not to hide information which could provide answers to key questions surrounding the aircraft's mysterious disappearance.
An editorial in Global Times said Malaysia should divulge all information it has, saying doubts surrounding the missing aircraft would only damage its credibility.
"Malaysia should utilise all forces to confirm the exact position of the crashed plane as soon as possible, track the wreckage and find the black box, and confirm the real reason behind the accident with the international community.
"Before all this happens, doubts will linger over the final fate of the airplane. Making the truth public is in the national interests of Malaysia," it said.
The daily said with 154 of its nationals on board, China had every right to urge Putrajaya to make the truth public.
"We need to know clearly if this disaster was caused by the crew on board or whether any air or ground forces had something to do with it.
"We hope the Malaysian government will not conceal any information, despite its concerns about national security and internal politics," its editorial said.
It went on to say that when the investigation into the missing aircraft began, not many people in China had associated it with conspiracies.
"The Chinese public has always viewed Malaysia as a friendly country. China's demand for truth is not an excessive one.
"Hopefully, the Chinese government, together with countries with strong intelligence capabilities, can assist and urge the Malaysian side to be transparent in disclosing information," the paper added.
Yesterday, some 200 distraught relatives and family members of MH370 passengers from China staged a protest near the Malaysian embassy in Beijing, demanding that Malaysia Airlines and Putrajaya explain what happened.
They clashed with police who formed a human wall outside the embassy, and shouted slogans condemning the Malaysian government as "murderers".
China has demanded that Putrajaya hand over the satellite data which led it to conclude that the Beijing-bound MH370 crashed at sea and that none of the 239 people aboard survived.
Malaysia's handling of the crisis has been criticised by some international media and also experts, who said contradictory statements and delay in disclosing military radar data might have hampered the search for the missing Boeing 777-200ER.
Putrajaya is sending a high level delegation to Beijing to brief the families of passengers.
On Monday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced what he termed was the result of a groundbreaking satellite-data analysis by the British company Inmarsat, concluding that the aircraft had crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.
But closure for the affected family members will only come once the plane's wreckage or the black box is found.
Until then, as the editorial in the Global Times said: "This air accident is rare and mysterious, and should not be recorded into history as an unresolved matter, but serve as a lesson for the future." – March 26, 2014.
