MH370: Read What You Don't Already Know

Like it or not, corruption, abuse of power, incompetency, complacency, and negligence & utter stupidity, contributed to the flight MH370 crisis. Even Mahathir’s mouthpiece Kadir Jasin agrees on this. 

 

It’s business as usual if you wish to enter Malaysia illegally from Indonesia using speedboats. It’s even easier for you to enter Sabah from Philippines to do whatever you like. If you’re caught by the authorities, just flash couple of hundreds and you’re free to go........bisa diatur dong !

On Tuesday, March 18, 2014 1:25 PM, Ashok P <ashok@scanavionics.com> wrote:

Missing Jet - Results of Endless Corruption, Incompetence, Extremism
Posted By financetwitter On March 11, 2014 (1:05 pm) In Corruption, Crisis, Education, Finance and Economy, Government

Global Times, one of China’s government mouthpieces have expressed its displeasure at Malaysia government. Apparently, the pro-Beijing newspaper couldn’t afford anymore of Najib administration’s “slow motion” in handling the disappearance of flight MH370 crisis. Indirectly, Beijing was telling Putrajaya to stop all the nonsense of being secretive about almost everything and come clean with their investigations.

 

According to Global Times:
 

• The plane’s disappearance “must be investigated thoroughly and the crux of problems on the Malaysian side must be found out” …

• “There are loopholes in the work of Malaysia Airlines and security authorities,” …

• “The missing MH370 took place high in the sky, which makes us doubtful. No matter what the reason, it has influenced the way in which people see air safety” …

• “If it is due to a deadly mechanical breakdown or pilot error, then Malaysia Airlines should take the blame.” …

• “If this is a terrorist attack, then the security check at the Kuala Lumpur airport and on the flight is questionable. If it is due to some natural or uncontrollable factors, all airlines across the world, including Malaysia Airlines, should draw a lesson,” …

 

Now that the Chinese government has openly criticise the Malaysian government, will we get to see stunts from UMNO-linked NGO leaders such as Ibrahim Ali, Zulkifli Noordin and all the pay-to-rent “Machais” making thousands of police report and take to the street condemning China for insulting the “Malay, Religion and the King”? If these jokers believed Theresa Kok’s mimicking Aunty Rosy was an insult to the “Malay, Religion and the King”, surely the Chinese latest criticism targeting the whole of BN-led government is more serious than that, no (*grin*)?

 

It’s not hard to understand why the Chinese losses patience over Najib administration in handling the crisis. Almost everyday, there’re some discoveries from neighbouring “friends” especially from Vietnam and Singapore (though later it were found to be false alarms). But Malaysia, on the other hand, seems to be very secretive about its own progress. People’s hunger for information are often fed with “We’re still investigating … Can’t reveal more” standard response from Malaysian authorities.

 

Najib administration has to understand that “Tai-Chi” originated from China. The Chinese government can smell 5,000 kilometers away when the Malaysian government is playing “tai-chi” during this crisis. The China government is under tremendous pressure from its own people for answers. Unlike 20-years ago whereby you can tell the Chinese to fly-kite, the economic power-house today has the ability to cause serious economic problem to Malaysia if they wish to do so.

If feet-dragging was not enough to frustrate you, Malaysian authorities’ statements are full of contradictions. Earlier into the crisis, Malaysia Airlines claimed the plane disappeared from air traffic control radar in Subang Kuala Lumpur at 2:40 a.m., but Mr. Lindahl of Flightradar 24 said that the last radar contact had been at 1:19 a.m., less than 40 minutes after the flight began. So, what happened during that 1-hour time frame?

 

Now, in what seems to be “under international pressure” about security breach within Malaysia’s immigration, Home Minister Ahmad Zahid took the short-cut by blaming immigration officers who couldn’t think (or rather dumb?) or differentiate between Italian / Austrian and Asian facial features. But Defence and acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein later denied the two passengers traveling with stolen passports on board MH370 had “Asian features”.

 

Foreign news, AFP, on the other hand revealed that the two imposters who boarded MH370 booked their tickets under Maraldi and Kozel’s names on March 6, 2014, and issued in the Thai city of Pattaya, a popular beach resort south of the capital Bangkok. Surprisingly their e-ticket numbers for their flights are consecutive and both were paid for in Thai baht. Each ticket cost THB 19,560 (US$625). They knew each other and possibly partners.

Imposter Kozel booked the ticket to travel from Kuala Lumpur to (transit) Beijing, before continue to Amsterdam and Frankfurt. Meanwhile, Maraldi was to take the same flights until Amsterdam, where he was to continue to Copenhagen. Both do not need China’s Visa since their journey is on transit at Beijing only. Interestingly, the Austrian and Italian passports were added to Interpol’s SLTD database after their theft in Thailand in 2012 and 2013 respectively.

 

The Financial Times reported that the two passengers who boarded MH370 with stolen passports are believed to be from the Middle East - Iran to be specific. A Thai travel agent, Benjaporn Krutnait, apparently booked the tickets on behalf of “Mr Ali”. While it’s still early to conclude, does this means there was plan to blows up Malaysian airplane in revenge of UMNO’s latest anti-Shia campaign, as per our earlier article (read here)? Or the target was actually China or some European countries but somehow the plan got screwed up in the sky?

 

Meanwhile, when asked by a journalist why Malaysia authorities never cross-check these supposedly stolen passport against Interpol’s database, Hishammuddin flexed his muscles (trying to be smart) and questioned the journalist in return if she knows how many stolen passports are there in the database. Heck, he must have forgotten that there’s something called computers. Indirectly, the country’s Defence Minister was saying it’s alright to be “lazy”, as long as disaster hasn’t strike (yet). For now, the authorities said the two imposters looks like Mario Balotelli.

 

Fortunately MH370 is an international crisis, otherwise you can bet your last penny that journalists who ask “creative and professional” questions would be threatened with Sedition Act and put behind bars because those questions are, well, embarrassing Malaysian Ministers. If CNN would normally rush to publish photos of bad guys if similar crisis occurs in U.S., you can’t expect the same in Malaysia. The authorities here are too “shy” to share information, let alone photos.

In fact, Malaysian authorities somehow have a strange hobby of admiring and keeping photos to themselves, as if they’re photos of Jessica Simpson, Kim Kardashian or Megan Fox. Actually, this is a good tactic to hide their incompetency. They keep you in great suspense while buying time in dragging their feet reluctantly doing their job. And you wonder why they keep warning Tom, Dick and his cat to stop speculating. Because speculating means they’ve more explanation and jobs to do.

 

But why are Malaysian authorities still dragging its feet over this crisis, knowing very well the potential of international criticism if they do so? In reality, the local authorities are still at the drawing board scratching heads how to do damage controls. Unlike normal domestic crisis where there’re abundance of “scripts” to rely on, the missing flight MH370 crisis is “unique” and they don’t have ready-made scripts to hide their responsibility. They had already screwed up during Sabah invasion crisis, hence they (hope) not to screw up again.

No matter how Malaysian authorities wish to present it, it’s a lose-lose situation to Najib administration. There’s no doubt tons of lawsuits are coming. But money is not the problem as taxpayers money can always be used to bail out loss-making Malaysian Airline (KLSE: MAS, stock-code 3786), should insurance claims couldn’t do the trick. The main problem is the pandora box about the country being exposed internationally as one of the hubs for human trafficking, illegal transit point, smuggling and terrorists’ breeding ground.

 

Like it or not, corruption, abuse of power, incompetency, complacency, and negligence contributed to the flight MH370 crisis. Even Mahathir’s mouthpiece Kadir Jasin agrees on this. It’s business as usual if you wish to enter Malaysia illegally from Indonesia using speedboats. It’s even easier for you to enter Sabah from Philippines to do whatever you like. If you’re caught by the authorities, just flash couple of hundreds and you’re free to go.

If the revelation from Malaysian military that their radar had pickup MH370′s turn-back is any indicator, Malaysian authorities know more than what we know. But they’re not sharing that piece of information.

 

Borneo Herald