KUALA LUMPUR, March 25 — Putrajaya must restrict information on the Internet about Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 to protect Malaysians from the rage of Chinese families who lost their relatives to the doomed plane, Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin said today.
According to the Kinabatangan MP, continued bad news about the plane that is now assumed lost with no survivors among the 239 people on board could move Chinese citizens to take out their anger on Malaysians abroad.
“With our uncontrolled media, everything can be uploaded to their heart’s content. What will then happen?” Bung asked in Parliament today.
“What will happen if Chinese citizens believe in such issues? They will riot and torture any Malaysians wherever they are. We don’t want this to happen.”
Bung made his remark when he, as a representative of the Barisan Nasional Backbenchers Club, was debating an emergency motion on MH370 proposed by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak earlier.
Najib this morning submitted an emergency motion in Dewan Rakyat to mourn the fate of passengers and crew on the missing airliner, expressing Putrajaya’s condolences over the incident.
The emergency motion was seconded by Arau MP Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim. Representatives from the main parties will debate the motion today.
This comes as scores of angry relatives of the Chinese passengers aboard flight MH370 set out on a protest march to the Malaysian embassy in Beijing today to demand more answers about the fate of the missing plane and those on board.
Around 200 family members, some in tears, linked arms and shouted slogans including “The Malaysian government are murderers” and “We want our relatives back”.
The move to protest outside the embassy took place hours after relatives reacted with grief and anguish to Malaysia’s confirmation late last night of their worst fears about the flight.
China has demanded that Kuala Lumpur hand over the British satellite data that led it to conclude that the Beijing-bound Malaysia Airlines flight crashed at sea and that none of the 239 people aboard survived. Two-thirds of the passengers were Chinese.
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission announced in 2013 that it has blocked 2,753 websites for violating the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 and other regulations last year.
