SEPANG, June 24 — Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said he is willing to keep leading Malaysia’s efforts to locate flight MH370, even as the prime minister today suggested his days as acting transport minister were drawing to a close.
Hishammuddin has been the face of Putrajaya in the ongoing search for the Malaysia Airlines flight that went missing on March 8, and said it would be easier in the short term if he continued in the role even with a successor in the Transport Ministry.
“If asked to continue to monitor, set the direction and coordinate, I understand that I have been handling this since day one, it's hard for anyone to take over immediately but the effort to delegate the tasks have been done.
“My face is synonymous with MH370; in fact some countries in the Middle East, they refer to me as ‘minister 370’ but I have no problem holding and carrying [out the duty],” he told reporters after seeing off Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak after the launch of Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2.
Najib had earlier acknowledged and thanked Hishammuddin, who is also the defence minister for overseeing the completion of the much delayed construction of the low cost airport while coordinating an international search effort for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane along with the 239 people on board. He added that this may be Hishammuddin's last official function as the acting transport minister.
Hishammuddin said that as acting transport minister, he has prepared for seamless transition for whoever is appointed to take over the portfolio.
“It is a very big ministry and to cover both ministries is not easy, Mindef and MoT, but today's launch of KLIA2 by the prime minister is something that I am very proud about because it was not easy.
“Basically I can assure everybody that MoT is on the right footing but there are many many areas that requires a full-time minister to look at it but at the end of the day, it's the prerogative of the prime minister to decide the timing but as far as I'm concerned I've always realised I'm only acting minister of transport,” he said.
Hishammuddin added that Malaysia, Australia and China would be announcing the new search area for the missing plane on Thursday.
