The federal government finally published another MH370 investigation documents one year after the first Interim Report was released last year on 8 March 2015. (Source: http://mh370.gov.my/phocadownload/2nd_Interim_Statement/2nd%20Interim%20Statement%20-%20English.pdf)
However, this latest document, the so-called “2nd Interim Statement”, still does not address some very fundamental matters.
No action against systemic non-compliances may lead to recurrence of MH370
First, after two long painful year, the government still does not find it fit to tell us how non-compliances in the MH370 crisis are dealt with or whether they even are dealt with or not.
We are not conspiracy theorists. We are not pointing out fantastical ideas about MH370. No, we are asking about systemic non-compliances, many which have been admitted by the government in the first Interim Report a year ago.
For example, what has happened to some of the major non-compliances such as:
- passengers with stolen passports;
- discrepancies in cargoes manifest;
- the lack of response from KL Air Traffic Control (ATC) who is the custodian of the air space after the lost of communication with MH370;
- lack of supervision at the KL ATC when it was alleged that at least one supervisor was asleep during his shift and had to be woken up by his subordinate hours after the lost of communication with MH370;
- the lack of response after military radar detected the so-called unidentified flying object on a rogue path over our air space for at least half an hour;
- the breach by Ho Chih Min of the Operation Letter of Agreement between DCA Malaysia and the Vietnam Air Traffic Management when the Ho Chih Min Air Traffic Control Centre (HCM ATCC) failed to comply with the five minutes rule to alert the transferring unit when it could not establish communication with MH370 during the Transfer of Control Point. HCM only alerted KL 20 minutes later;
- the delay in DETRESFA message, which should have been triggered within an hour after no-contact with MH370 but the first distress message was only released more than five hours later!
What Malaysians and the world want to know are: what are the actions taken against such non-compliances, both disciplinary and legal, and what are the corrective measures implemented to prevent recurrences?
The scary part is, no one knows if these problems have been resolved. This means, all of us are flying daily with the shadow of MH370 looming over us, not knowing if our flight will be the next MH370.
Eight areas reviewed do not cover major non-compliances
Secondly, looking at the list of eight areas being reviewed by the Investigation Team produced in the 2nd Interim Report, it is obvious that there will be three major areas which are not covered in the Final Report, namely, 1) immigration process, 2) military investigation, and 3) police investigation.
These are vital because there are major non-compliances related to the three areas.
We understand that the scope of the Investigation Team may be limited, however, it is the duty of the federal government to be transparent and accountable on this aviation crisis which has not only national but global implication.
Why Parliament is kept in the dark?
Thirdly, in dealing with a crisis at this scale, the Parliament is being kept in the dark by the government.
Steven Sim’s parliamentary question in June 2014 on the important subject of military negligence for not taking action despite detecting MH370 on a rogue path was rejected on the pretext of it being a “secret” (perkara rahsia).
Sim has submitted two more questions in this sitting on this matter and thus we called on the government to respond in a clear and transparent manner.
We have also repeatedly called for a bipartisan parliamentary select committee to oversee the investigation process with the final view to publish a white paper on this landmark aviation crisis affecting not just Malaysia and Malaysians but which has global implication. Yet this demand was rejected with silence from the government in the last two years.
The Prime Minister should immediately set up such parliamentary select committee in this sitting in anticipation of the completion of the Final Report by the Investigation Team.