KUALA LUMPUR, April 5 — Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein denied today that Malaysian authorities were complicit in the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370.

Rejecting the claim by the federal opposition, the minister similarly brushed aside opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s suggestion for Malaysia to apologise now over the “unprecedented” aviation disaster.

He said an apology from Malaysia over the still-unresolved disaster was insufficient, stressing that more soul-searching, emotional support and information sharing was needed instead.

“As I have said before, the search for MH370 should be above politics,” Hishammuddin told reporters at a press conference here today.

“What’s important right now is to remain focused on locating the aircraft in the Indian Ocean,” he added.

Anwar reportedly said that Malaysia should apologise to China because of blunders made, such as the way Malaysia treated some passengers, and for allowing China and Vietnam to continue searching in the South China Sea despite knowing that the Boeing 777-200ER jet had turned back from its original flight path to Beijing.

Hishammuddin stressed today, however, that what gave Malaysia strength was the way so many nations had come forward to assist in the search for the plane that disappeared on March 8.

“It is not about the money or the apology, but the fact that so many people look at it in such a positive way. This gives us strength to go on,” he said.

Hishammuddin, who is also defence minister, quoted a joint statement issued by his ASEAN counterparts after attending the recent US-ASEAN Defence Forum.

“From the South China Sea, the Andaman Sea to the Indian Ocean — ASEAN has continued to assist in every way possible, true to the spirit of regional cooperation and friendship without any hesitation in sharing of information, assets and expertise.

We believe that Malaysia has done its level best in its response to this unprecedented predicament given the sheer scale of the Search and Rescue (SAR) operation which is the biggest and most complex we have ever seen.”

Hishammuddin also stressed that no nation has rejected Malaysia’s request for information in the search for Flight MH370, whether it was satellite, radar or military data.

When asked if Malaysia would scale back search efforts after the batteries on the plane’s black box are expected to die on Monday, Hishammuddin said: “Malaysia will not stop looking for MH370.”