KUALA LUMPUR, April 6 - DAP’s Lim Kit Siang asked today the status of the proposal to form a parliamentary select committee (PSC) on the missing flight MH370, pointing out that more than 10 days have lapsed since the matter as raised.

The Gelang Patah MP told acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein to explain if the newly-formed ministerial committees on MH370’s disappearance “precluded and pre-empted” the formation of a House committee, and to publicly state Cabinet’s stand on the issue.

Hishammuddin announced yesterday that three ministerial committees will be formed to streamline ongoing efforts in the hunt for the missing jetliner. The next-of-kin committee will be headed by deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Hamzah Zainuddin, the technical committee will be led by deputy Transport Minister Abdul Aziz Kaprawi while deputy Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Bakri will lead the deployment of assets committee.

But the rationale behind the formation of a House committee is far more entrenching, said Lim, as the terms of reference of such a committee could go beyond the issues of the airworthiness of the Boeing 777-200 aircraft, the operational aspects of the flight and the psychological and pathological aspects of the 239 passengers and crew.

“(It will uncover) the whole series of events after its disappearance which have provoked a thousand-and-one questions, controversies, confusion and conspiracy theories and most important of all, to send out a clear and unmistakable message - both nationally and internationally - that Malaysia has nothing to hide and to restore national and international confidence in the transparency, good governance and reputation of the nation badly afflicted by the MH370 disaster,” he said in a statement today.

Lim added that forming a PSC would also allow for questions on the capabilities of the Malaysia's air traffic controllers and the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) radar operators, and whether if they had been more “vigilant and acted promptly”, the disappearance of MH370 could have been averted.

He added that the PSC should also study if a week was wasted in the hunt for MH370 in the South China Sea before switching the search area was switched from the east to the west, moving from the Straits of Malacca, the Andaman Sea and eventually the Indian Ocean.

“Also whether three days had been wasted looking for MH370 in the wrong part of the Indian Ocean because of poor coordination among countries working on locating the missing aircraft,” said Lim.

He also said the PSC would be able to review if additional budget is warranted in order to boost the Malaysia's military assets and the civil aviation sector.

Lim asked that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak dedicate the last day of the current Parliament meeting on April 10 for “a full parliamentary debate on the MH370 disaster, and what Malaysians MPs can do to help restore national and international confidence in Malaysia.

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 but promised to take the matter to the cabinet for deliberation.

A couple of days later, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department 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.

Yesterday, China’s patrol vessel hunting for MH370 had picked up an “ultrasonic ping”, raising hopes that it could be from the underwater beacon of the plane’s “black box” voice and data recorders but the government stressed that there was no conclusive evidence linking it to vanished aircraft.