KUALA LUMPUR, April 3 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) has submitted an official request for a special briefing on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 and urged the government not to keep them in the dark longer.

Opposition MPs have kicked up a fuss in the last few days, accusing the government of throwing up hurdles with red tape in their path to find out more about the unprecedented aviation disaster that has seen 239 people on board the plane vanish without a trace.

“With this letter I hope there will be no more excuses after this,” Seremban DAP lawmaker Anthony Loke told reporters at Parliament here.

He said the notice submitted yesterday evening, contained a request for the briefing to be conducted by either Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak or acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein.

It also requested that the briefing be held next Tuesday in Parliament.

“You don’t have to spend that much money and do it in a hotel, you can do it in the briefing room here,” Loke said, referring to a closed-door briefing held by the Transport Ministry for Barisan Nasional (BN) backbenchers at a post hotel two weeks ago.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim confirmed receiving the letter with reporters today and said he would consult with Hishammuddin first.

In a confusing turn of events yesterday, Shahidan denied verbally agreeing to a special briefing for PR lawmakers just hours after DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang said the minister had given his word that the meeting would take place.

Both Shahidan and Lim have been sparring verbally over the exclusion of PR MPs in meetings on the missing jumbo jet since for the past week.

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 27th day.