KUALA LUMPUR, March 30 — Regardless whether the “black boxes” of the missing flight MH370 are found or not, DAP’s Lim Kit Siang insisted today that a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on the incident must start three weeks from now.

After three weeks of fruitless search, the Gelang Patah claimed that such action must be taken and led by the opposition coalition Pakatan Rakyat (PR), in order to send an international message against an alleged cover-up by Putrajaya.

“The Malaysian Cabinet should come out, without any further hesitation, with a clear-cut position that it would support the establishment of an opposition-headed Parliamentary Select Committee on the MH370 regardless of whether the “black boxes” of MH370 could be retrieved,” Lim said in a statement emailed here.

“This will go a long way to send a clear and unmistakable message, both nationally and internationally, that the Malaysian authorities have nothing to hide and is prepared to support a full and independent investigation into the MH370 Disaster.”

Lim added that the PSC must start its preparation and investigation six weeks after March 8, the date the plane went missing.

He also claimed that the PSC should be prepared to be the basis for another “full-scale and wide-ranging” international multi-Parliamentary inquiry.

This is because the passengers came from a number of different countries, and the search and rescue operation itself had involved 26 countries, he said.

On Thursday, minister Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim insisted that Putrajaya will not set up a special parliamentary committee or a panel to conduct a royal inquiry into a missing Malaysian jet before the “black boxes” are found.

Shahidan stressed that the federal government’s top priority now was to find the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370’s flight data and cockpit voice recorders, key pieces that could unravel the puzzle over the plane’s fate.

On March 25, Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said he was not in a position to decide whether a PSC or Royal Commission of Inquiry should be formed to look into the disappearance of flight MH370.