MARCH 16 — Day 8 after the Malaysia Airline flight MH370 went missing, and international media, experts and scholars have gathered momentum to criticize the country's crisis management and leadership capabilities. Such negative comments have invariably bruised the country's global image and reputation.

The question does not lie with the fact that this is indeed a very tacky, mysterious and highly complicated jetliner disappearance, but the way our authorities handle it.

In the past, the government's rigid approach in handling domestic issues has been largely spared from public criticisms because local media have been well accustomed to this modus operandi. But the latest incident is of a global scale, having involved some 14 countries and territories and 239 passengers and crew members on board. It is no more an internal issue which could be dealt with the way we are used to be.

The following deficiencies on the part of the Malaysian authorities could be deduced based on what happened over the last few days.

First and foremost, lack of coordination. The government should have set up a command centre as soon as it had learned that a plane went missing, putting together all responsible units and experts, including the transport minister, DCA director-general, IGP, Immigration Department director-general and aviation experts, etc to map out an action plan while sharing information before integrating the multinational SAR mission for more systematic deployment.

The lack of coordination makes the dissemination of information confusing. On the two passengers boarding the flight with fake passports, the home minister said they looked like Asians but the Immigration chief denied, citing the example of Italian footballer Mario Balotelli.

The information on the five passengers who checked in but did not get on the plane, was also conflicting. While the MAS CEO and DCA director-general said five checked-in passengers did not board the flight, the IGP denied downright, and before it was rumoured that four did not board the flight and they were replaced by the other four in the passenger waiting list.

Such confounding information offered a fertile ground for speculations as the public started to question the credibility of the authorities.

Next, we have the transparency issue. the military radar picked up some signals from an unidentified aircraft 2.15am on the morning MH370 went missing, about 200 nautical miles northwest of Penang. The information was only released to the public on Wednesday (March 12).

Family members of passengers aboard the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 react as they watch Malaysia's Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak speak on a television screen at a hotel in Beijing, March 15, 2014. — Reuters pic

As the signals picked up by the military radar could not determine the model of the aircraft, the government should have consulted experts but why did the government not do this on March 8? The longer the delay, the more unlikely we could locate the plane.

If we knew earlier that the plane had indeed turned back, then we shouldn't have squandered so much effort searching for it over South China Sea.

To the experts, the last location of the jetliner could only be determined if the information were transparent, comprehensive and accurate. No information should be spared in tackling a disaster of such an enormous scale.

Thirdly, lack of professionalism and competency. When the images of the two Iranians were released by the police, the media immediately found that the lower half of both men was identical, and questions arose that such pictures had been composites. The police defended by saying that it was a printing issue which they had realized, adding that the upper half was more important.

What the global media have wanted is “truthful and non-fictitious” information, and composite images only reflect the poor attitude we handle matters.

The ability of two Iranian men to board the flight with fake passports could expose the lax procedures in inspecting passengers' passports. In the meantime, the co-pilot posing with female passenger in the cockpit is a severe breach of safety protocol, the appearance of bomoh at the airport a gross disrespect for science., and poor knowledge of our air space a humiliating setback in our defence.

Finally, lack of communication skills. Other than listening, we must also have empathy to respect and discern the feelings of other people.

While the government has repeatedly stressed that we must care about the feelings of the passengers' families, but the police said in a media conference they did not rule out possibility of someone heavy in debt had invested in a big insurance policy, rubbing more salt into the wound.

The MH370 incident has taught Malaysians a very valuable lesson in dealing with the world. We must overhaul our antiquated modus operandi, thinking, value system and attitude, or be dislocated from the outside world.

The harm has been inflicted. It is now time to fix our problems urgently or risk extended harms.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malay Mail Online.