The disappearance of flight MH370 has already reached mythical status. People are hailing it as the greatest aeronautical mystery since the disappearance of Amelia Earhart.
But the problems with locating the wreckage of the plane carrying hundreds of people are more to be found with long standing practices that reek of laziness, and lax attitude towards the obvious perils of flying in the new century. It also speaks of terrible weaknesses in the security chain, and the obvious inability to handle the responsibility that comes with such a horrible incident, and Malaysia's own reckoning with its powerful neighbor China. A majority of the people who perished in the flight, if that is their fate, are Chinese nationals.
In the six days since the plane disappeared from the skies, and someone aboard MH370 shut off the transponder and other tracking devices - a sure sign of foul play- Malaysia has shows an almost complete ineptitude in handling the incident.
Between the hemming and hawing, Malaysia has come up with few answers and a slew of contradictory statements. Such levity in handling crucial information that deals with the lives of hundreds of people has been criticized by almost everyone involved, and foreign countries. But, more importantly, it has caused great confusion in the search, to the point where Thailand, one of the main actors in the search for the wreckage stopped searching, citing untrustworthy information supplied by Malaysia.
The NSTB chimed in, in the person of retired official Peter Goelz, and the assessment was not positive. In his opinion, given during a recent interview, Goelz declared that the handling of the incident is the "worst" he's even seen. He also cited the fact that Malaysia as a signatory of international agreements on aviation procedures and protocols, has all but failed to observe such protocols. Not only has Malaysia not followed such guidelines for the screening and management of international flights, such as MH370, but also in handling the incident's aftermath.
China for one is seething, in a very quiet, but palpable way. Chinese media have heavily criticized the handling of the incident and the bungling of the investigation. They have even broken protocol to issue pictures of their own spy satellites showing what seem to be pieces of the plane. That move, 4 days after the disappearance, indicates the loss of patience with Malaysia's lack of success in producing the plane. And it also is a not so veiled message to Malaysia to look where the plane probably is, instead of chasing it through four different quadrants.
China has also complained about Malaysia's lack of timeliness in setting up the investigation, which, again, is a symptom of Malaysia's lack of concern for flight security and protocol. The way China sees it, Malaysia must shoulder the responsibility for the loss of MH370, whether it was caused by mechanical failure, or a terrorist act, since both lead back to Malaysia's handling of pre-flight procedures.
One of the things that China pointed out, with good reason, is why did Malay airport personnel not balk at the fact that two Iranian citizens were holding passports of people who are of completely different ethnicity. Although the stolen passport ring is a flourishing trade in Pukhet, where many people flock to obtain them so they can escape to Europe or other countries, the fact that neither a visual inspection of the passport nor a crosscheck with Interpol databases was done, does not bode well for Malaysian civil aviation.
There is even a suspicion, raised by some, that Malaysian authorities are hiding evidence to avoid a confrontation with China, which has become Malaysia's leading trading partners. To boot, millions of Chinese travel to Malaysia for vacation. Obviously such suspicion may be allayed when the truth finally surfaces, but for now all theories are valid, and no answers are available. In addition, Malaysia is becoming a radicalized Muslim country, and has landed on the table of terrorism watchdog agencies. There has been, in the past decade, a discreet turn towards religious intolerance.
New evidence surfaced in the past two days has sent Malaysia scurrying for help in the search to a new geographical quadrant, in the strait of Malacca and the Andaman sea. It has even asked India to pitch in, since the Andaman islands are Indian territory. But the evidence for such detour of the plane is constantly being affirmed and then denied by separate, and sometimes the same, authorities.
In a recent article, Mark Sherwin, president of CorpWorld, has said that the handling of the crisis of flight MH370, has become a crisis on its own. That says a lot about how this incident is proceeding. If things are bungled at the beginning, everything else is delayed and sometime lost. Credibility, at this stage, has almost vanished.
Malaysia is a country where the government is not used to having to come up with answer. A corrupt, paternalistic society, where people have long since given up on government accountability, has fostered incompetent administration to thrive.
It must have come as a shock then, for Malaysian authorities, to have to cough up answers and deliver certainties. This is a cautionary tale for weary travellers. Know your airline, but more importantly , know your country of destination or thru-travel.
Although Malaysia has enjoyed decades of relative calm, its geographical location and its societal structure make is a hotbed of terrorist possibility. With China on the alert for possible terrorist attacks, the disappearance of flight MH370 has fast become another thorn in the side of the Chinese administration.
Sources: The Malay Mail/TheStar/AlJazeera/
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