KUALA LUMPUR, April 2 ― Putrajaya has promised a special briefing for Pakatan Rakyat (PR) lawmakers on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 next week, the DAP’s Lim Kit Siang said today.
The DAP’s parliamentary leader added that Minister in the Prime Minister Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kasim had given his word and that the briefing would be conducted by either acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein or Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak himself.
“We met with Shahidan just now and he told us that there will be a briefing next week,” Lim told reporters in Parliament here.
“We hope it would happen,” the Gelang Patah MP added.
Yesterday Shahidan said opposition lawmakers will not be briefed on missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 as they did not confirm their attendance.
Shahidan, who is the minister in charge of Parliament, reportedly promised in Dewan Rakyat last week to hold a briefing on the crisis last night.
The minister in the Prime Minister’s Department asserted that the leadership of PR failed to submit a memo to him confirming the day and date of the briefing, claiming it was the proper administrative procedure.
Lim, however, explained that the opposition coalition saw no reason for them to produce the memo as Hishammuddin will be away for a defence conference in Hawaii this week and will not be present to hold the briefing.
Hishammuddin's absence had prompted PR MPs to accused Putrajaya of politicising the issue by snubbing the opposition pact.
Shahidan, however, claimed that he was only informed of Hishammuddin’s absence today after he made the promise in Parliament.
Flight MH370, carrying 239 people on board, disappeared from civilian radars shortly after departing the Kuala Lumpur International Airport for Beijing on March 8.
Military radars and satellites had picked up the Boeing 777’s signal after that, which enabled investigators to plot an erratic flight path that ended several hours later over the Indian Ocean.
A multi-nation search for the missing plane is taking place in the southern waters off West Australia after several objects were spotted there.
The search is now into its 26th day.
