KUALA LUMPUR, March 25 ― The Dewan Rakyat observed a minute of silence this morning to pay its respects to those aboard missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 that ended somewhere in the south Indian Ocean.
Just before the start of sitting and after the usual opening prayer, Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia addressed the House over Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s surprise confirmation of the plane’s fate last night.
“I, on behalf of the Dewan Rakyat members and the whole of Parliament, would like to record my condolences to the families of the passengers and crew of MH370,” Pandikar said today.
“I would like to take this opportunity to ask for them to stay strong and brave in this.”
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak also proposed an emergency motion in Dewan Rakyat today 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, and representatives from Umno, MCA, MIC, PKR, DAP and PAS will debate it today.
Najib revealed last night that analysis by UK commercial satellite firm Inmarsat and the Air Accidents Investigation Board concluded that MH370 flew towards the Indian Ocean after it deviated from its flight to Beijing.
MAS yesterday informed the families of passengers and crew that it must “assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those on board survived.”
But despite sightings of debris by satellites and planes searching the Indian
Ocean there have been no conclusive evidence to show that the plane did go down in the area.
MH370 and the 239 people on board disappeared less than an hour after the Beijing-bound flight left Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 12.41am on March 8.
The search for the jet is now in its third week.
