ONE BIG COCK-UP I must comment on involved the CONTRARIAN accounts given by the head of DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL AVIATION in his press appearance on
March 10. The DCA chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, announced that five people checked into the flight but did not board it, and so their baggage was offloaded from the plane before it took off.
So Desi reiterates this FACT:
DCA chief said there were FIVE passengers who CHECKED IN for MH370 BUT DID NOT BOARD THE FLIGHT. He added that the baggage of the five passengers were then all off-loaded. (IF I HAD BEEN PRESENT as a newsman, I would have requested the spokesman for the identities of the five plus the number of luggage items off-loaded, perhaps the information to be given at the next press briefing...BUT SUQSEQUENT DAYS' NEWS REPORTS DID NOT HAVE ANY FOLLOW-UP ON THIS ANGLE -- IS OUR LOCAL MEDIA NOT UP TO THEIR DUTIES? Desi's THINKING ALLOWED, OK!)
On the following day at a press briefing March 11, the INSPECTOR-GENERAL OF POLICE Khalid Abu Bakar in no uncertain terms said THERE WAS NO SUCH INCIDENT OF FIVE PASSENGERS HAVING CHECKED IN BUT DID NOT BOARD THE PLANE! So this is FACT: COMPLETE DENIAL BY THE IGP OF THE DCA Chief's narraive just the day before.
SO WHO IS TELLING A LIE?
Such a glaring contradiction between two accounts within a span of two days, coming from no less than the chiefs of the two respective fields of expertise representing the Malaysian government.
My first instinct as a former newsman is to accept the truth of the first account. One does not simply cook up a story of five passengers who checked in for MH370 and not borading the plane but having their baggage removed. These are fact-based events NOT EASILY CONCOCTED involing an international event which has now attracted all the media of the world focusede on Malaysia. Desi is more ionclined to believe the earlier account.
And such foreign media like CNN, AlJazeera and CCTV are not going to accept what is spoken by Malaysian high officials as THE GOSPEL TRUTH. When two hight officials gave CONFLICTING ACCOUNTS, the second narrative raises a lot of questions as to WHY THE FIRST NARRATIVE WAS OFFICIATED STATED, not less than by the head of DCA!
This IS NOT a speculative report -- its is what I term THINKING ALLOWED like what a reporter's mind should be doing in the normal course of things, if the reporter is worth two sen of what he/she writes. If there were a forum like an evening Q&A discussion by experts following the two conflicting accounts, surely one of the experts wouldforward a conclusion that SOMEONE IS TELLING A LIE.
Now Desi's question is: Is the DCA chief or is it the IGP who told the Malaysian people and all the foreign listeners a LIE?
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From the MALAYSIAN INSIDER TODAY:
Malaysia
Malaysian officials are either poor communicators or just incompetent, says expert
The credibility of Malaysia's leaders took a further battering today when CNN reported that a top American transport official had described local officials as being either “poor communicators or at worst, plain incompetent.”Former National Transportation Safety Board managing director Peter Goelz said this was the worst he had ever seen in disaster management.
"There has been misinformation and corrections from Malaysian authorities on the whereabouts of MH370," Goelz told CNN.
"Is the wreckage of MH370 near the last location where their radar was detected?" Goelz asked.
"At best, Malaysian officials have thus far been poor communicators;at worst, they are incompetent," he said
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, carrying 12 crew members and 227 passengers, dropped off the radar at 1.20am on Saturday.
Despite a massive 12-nation search and rescue operation, there have been no clues as to the whereabouts of MH370.
"There is a reason for this. As you know, every time there is an accident, especially an international one like this, there is chaos during the first 24 to 36 hours," Goelz said.
"That is why there is a treaty which everyone has signed, including the Malaysians."
"The treaty explains the necessary steps and measures which are carried out to handle an investigation of this magnitude," Goelz told CNN.
"It also explains how to involve other countries which have a vested interest, how to control rumours and release factual information."
Goelz said to this day, Malaysia has not followed the treaty, hence the contradicting information being released by various quarters.
Goelz is the latest to take Putrajaya to task over the way the crisis is being managed.
Acclaimed American journalist who specialises in South East Asia affairs, Thomas Fuller, writing in The New York Times today, said the lack of coordination between Malaysian agencies and the conflicting updates on the worldwide search for the jet only shows how the country's leaders were just reacting to growing criticism of the way the situation is handled, rather than having a firm grasp of things.
"But worldwide bafflement at the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has challenged the country’s paternalistic political culture and exposed its coddled leaders to the withering judgments of critics from around the world," he said.
That authoritarian trait, according to critics, is now reflected in Malaysia's management of the mysterious disappearance of MH370, which went missing last Saturday shortly after taking off Kuala Lumpur International Airport for Beijing. – March 13, 2014.
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