MH370 pilot’s support for Anwar shows ‘he had firm grip on reality’, says US journalist
A senior American journalist has slammed any attempts to link the loss of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 to its political opponents, following reports that the pilot, Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah (pic), is an opposition supporter.
British tabloid Daily Mail had described Zaharie as a fanatical supporter of opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, and quoted Malaysian officials as saying that the investigation was also looking into the experienced pilot's political affiliation.
But writing on the US current affairs magazine Slate.com, its foreign affairs editor William J Dobson said the fact that Zaharie was an Anwar supporter should put a stop to suggestions that he had a role in the plane's disappearance.
"Because, whatever happened on board flight 370, Zaharie’s support of Anwar Ibrahim is the one piece of evidence that suggests he had a firm grip on reality, not that he was trying to escape it," said Dobson.
The Daily Mail had described Zaharie, who is a PKR member, as a "fanatical supporter" of Anwar.
"A fanatical supporter of Anwar Ibrahim does sound scary – as long as you know nothing about him," said Dobson, briefly describing the events which led to the Court of Appeal overturning Anwar's acquittal on a charge of sodomising his former aide.
On March 7
, Zaharie was said to have been present at the court as a show of support for Anwar.
Dobson, who has interviewed Anwar several times, said few Malaysians took the sodomy allegation seriously, adding that Anwar's quest to overthrow the government was through peaceful means.
"Anwar is trying to defeat Malaysia’s authoritarian regime through elections – not terrorism, let alone revolution. So, to be clear, what we know is that the pilot of MH370 is a fanatical supporter of a non-violent man who supports a pluralistic and democratic Malaysia," he said.
Dobson also scathingly described the Malaysian authorities handling of the investigation as reflecting its "corrupt, nepotistic regime that long ago lost any purpose besides accumulating wealth and extending its own power".
"There is an axiom in Malaysian politics: eventually everything comes back to Anwar Ibrahim. So, the longer that the fumbling and inept investigation into the missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 has gone on, the more certain it became that it would somehow boomerang to the leader of the country’s democratic opposition," Dobson said. – March 17, 2014.
