Malaysia Airlines flight: This is not a normal investigation Zarina Banu The crisis over Malaysias missing Flight MH370 would surely test any government. But Malaysias handling of the search, investigation and communication with the outside world has thrown it into an uncomfortable spotlight and caught it severely off guard. The catastrophe is exposing the deep fault lines characterising the countrys political economy. Since independence from the British in 1957, Malaysias ruling elite have built and reinforced a political system that has institutionalised their cultural and economic dominance. Inconsistency The system is so entrenched, it shapes and permeates all layers of Malaysian society. Now were seeing it play out in how the administration is managing and communicating the investigation to the rest of the world. A catalogue of backtracking is defining the investigation thus far, frustrating the families of those on board and provoking a backlash of anti-government feeling. Weve seen Malaysian officials contradict each other over vital early details about MH370s satellite communications systems. Acting Transport Minister Hishamuddin Hussein and Malaysian Airlines CEO, Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, have disagreed over whether the system was switched off before or after the flights co-pilot uttered the now infamous signoff: Alright goodnight to ground control on the morning of March 8 when the plane disappeared. Consequently, the pilot and co-pilot, Zaharie Shah and Fariq Ab Hamid, became the first suspects, in a possible plot to sabotage or hijack the Boeing 777, which led to bewilderment and distress amongst the families. Inconsistencies also stood out in the police investigation. At one point, Hishamuddin said police officers had visited the homes of the pilots as early as March 9, the day after the aircraft vanished. But police chief Khalid Abu Bakar then confused the issue by saying officers had in fact not gone to the pilots homes. Things were muddled from the start. The hunt for the ill-fated jet began on March 8 in the South China Sea, was abandoned and diverted to the Andaman Sea and Indian Ocean. Malaysians are concerned about the state of readiness of their military, after radar tracked an unidentified object moving west over peninsular Malaysia on March 8 and the air force took no further action to ascertain what that object was. Sources close to the government have said, off-the-record since they are not authorised to talk to the media, that they are unsure how to manage the message. Sure, it is a trial that would test any government, agency or communications team. With a daunting search involving more than 20 countries and stretching across some 6.2 million square miles, its like looking for a needle in a haystack. Yet, there are some fundamentals here that Malaysian government agencies arent following. What they should be doing is: Verify the incoming information; unify the message; decide which agency takes control of its dissemination and keep the families informed at all times. The baffling stream of information must be heart-breaking for the relatives of the 227 passengers and crew. Of those, 154 are Chinese, a ratio which has prompted the mainland to rally behind their cause. Families of the victims have been filmed shouting at Malaysian officials as their grievance builds over the lack of information and disorienting turn of events. Chinas Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Hong Lei, has even urged Malaysia to provide, comprehensive and correct information. Malaysian government under microscope Lets put it into context. The global glare of publicity is landing on an administration deeply uncomfortable with any level of scrutiny. Malaysias ruling party keeps tight control of all aspects of domestic media - it is either state-sponsored, choked by authorities, or opposition-led. Media outlets or editors that dare question the administration perish by the wayside, or are ordered back in line. At election time, the New Straits Times newspaper, a mouthpiece for the ruling coalition will be awash with barely rewritten government press releases, eulogising about the achievements of those in power. What has this to do with Flight MH370? This stranglehold on free expression has nurtured a government unused to being cross-examined in public and more accustomed to changing its mind and message at will. Moreover, the lack of oxygen given to rational democratic debate within Malaysia has fostered a cosseted leadership that either goes on the attack or retreats to its ideological ivory tower when it feels imperiled. To enforce its intolerance of dissent, the Malaysian government deploys powerful tools of control. Until September 2011, the Internal Security Act (ISA) was a catch-all deterrent to those who spoke out openly against the government.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 07:51:11 +0000
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