Members of Parliament have received the notice for an emergency meeting of Parliament on Wednesday, 17th July 2014, by the Parliament Secretary Datuk Roosme binti Hamzah by email timed 5.40 am to debate the MH 17 tragedy.
Malaysians are still reeling from the unspeakable and indescribable horror of a second air disaster in less than five months to hit the country and the national airline Malaysian Airlines, claiming a total of 537 lives from over 10 different countries.
There are great differences between the MH 370 disaster of March 8 with 239 passengers and crew on board and the MH 17 disaster of July 17 with 298 passengers and crew on board, firstly, the latter is an atrocious crime against humanity representing inexcusable and unpardonable war crimes while the cause of the latter remains a great mystery despite the largest and longest (and continuing) multi-national land, sea and under-sea search in history; and secondly, the bereaved families, relative and friends of the victims of the MH 17 disaster can have closure although still demanding for justice against the perpetrators of the crimes against humanity in downing the civilian aircraft from the skies while the bereaved families, relatives and friends of the victims of MH 370 disaster are still looking for a closure, as the announcement by the Prime Minister on March 24 that the Malaysian airline “ended it journey in the South Indian Ocean” proved to be “a closure without closure”.
I had no hesitation last night in immediately welcoming the announcement of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak for the convening of an emergency meeting of Parliament on Wednesday on the MH 17 disaster, although it was most unfortunate that my numerous previous calls and attempts for a special parliamentary debate on the MH 370 disaster in the April and June meetings of Parliament had not received any support or response whether by the Prime Minister or the then Acting Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein.
Just like MH 17, the MH 370 disaster deserves full and proper accountability which cannot wait until the missing aircraft is found – which may be weeks, months or even years, and for this reason, the emergency meeting of Parliament on Wednesday should have two separate motions, so as to debate not only Thursday’s MH 17 disaster which costs 298 lives but also the MH 370 disappearance 133 days ago with 239 lives on board.
For Wednesday’s emergency Parliament, the government should present separate White Papers on the MH 370 and MH 17 disasters and support the establishment of an Opposition-headed Parliamentary Select Committee to investigate into all aspects of the twin air disasters and tragedies.