Archive for March, 2015
Malaysia’s IS problem
Posted by Kit in Bridget Welsh, Islamic state on Saturday, 14 March 2015
Malaysia’s focus on stopping would-be fighters masks growing domestic support for Islamic extremists
By Bridget Welsh and Zachary Abuza
The Edge Review | 6 March 2015
When local papers reported last month that a 14-year old Malaysian girl had been stopped from heading to the Middle East to fight for the Islamic State (IS) movement, the headlines quickly faded into the background.
Her thwarted departure was marked as another “success”, but there was little discussion of the factors shaping the IS movement within Malaysia. Are there domestic factors that contribute? Let’s take stock of what we know so far.
While Malaysia – in common with other Southeast Asian countries – does not rank among the top 20 countries involved in the fighting, its presence is large enough not to be dismissed.
So far 71 people have been detained in Malaysia for their alleged participation in IS, with 59 recorded as fighting. Six Malaysians have died, including its first suicide bomber. There have been enough volunteers from Malaysia and Indonesia that a Malay-speaking unit was formed. Two Malaysians were also identified in a grisly beheading video.
Read the rest of this entry »
Let all previous Home Ministers from Tun Mahathir to Tun Abdullah declare whether they had signed a “stack of letters and agreements” to the US like Zahid’s infamous letter to FBI vouching for the character of an alleged international gambling kingpin?
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, Zahid on Saturday, 14 March 2015
The Home Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s revelation that that he has a “stack of letters and agreements” his predecessors as Home Minister had signed with the United States which are like his infamous letter to the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) vouching for the character of an alleged international gambling kingpin is a real shocker, especially as his two immediate predecessors Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar (March 2008 – May 2013) had publicly denied that they had ever sent any such support letter unilaterally to the FBI.
Is Zahid seriously suggesting that his two immediate predecessors as Home Minister have publicly lied when in fact they had signed a “stack of lean international gambling kingpin, Paul Phua?
This matter has gone beyond the realm of internal power rivalry in a political party as it now concerns not only national security and Malaysia’s international reputation as well.
If Zahid is referring to either Hishammuddin or Syed Hamid Albar, then there is only one final solution – let the truth be out and it is either Zahid on one side or Hishammuddin and Syed Hamid Albar on the other who have to bow out of public life.
Or is Zahid referring to Home Ministers before Hishammuddin and Syed Hamid Albar?
Who are they? Read the rest of this entry »
Moving forward – a simple formula for Pakatan
Posted by Kit in Pakatan Rakyat on Saturday, 14 March 2015
By Stephen Ng
Malaysiakini
Mar 13, 2015
COMMENT With the current stalemate within the Pakatan Rakyat coalition as a result of having to deal with PAS president Hadi Awang and the ulama faction of PAS, there is only one way forward for Pakatan.
The solution may be found in a simple formula, which can work only when it is agreed upon by all Pakatan supporters.
After all, faced with the possibility of a split in the near future, Pakatan Rakyat may not have too many options to choose from if it seeks to offer a united front to go for the final push in the next general election.
History teaches us that the moment the three component parties parted ways in Barisan Alternatif, there is no way for the opposition to offer a strong challenge against Umno/Barisan Nasional in the elections.
BN strategists have been working doubly hard at splitting the Pakatan votes. By now, Pakatan leaders should have realised that whenever there is a three-cornered fight, Umno’s odds to win the seat become 2:1.
Given that scenario, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim would have gone to jail in vain, and for a nation in birthpangs, all hopes for a better Malaysia that Pakatan sought to offer would be dashed against the rocks.
Every Malaysian’s dream to have a two-party system would be dissipated by the next general election. Before that happens, Pakatan leaders would do well to discuss their strategies and forge ahead amidst the current challenges. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia needs not only a new Finance Minister, but also new world-class Education Minister
Posted by Kit in Education, Muhyiddin Yassin, Najib Razak, university on Friday, 13 March 2015
Calls on the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak to stand down as Finance Minister led by DAP MP for Kluang and DAP National Political Education Director, Liew Chin Tong have reached a new crescendo with last Friday’s statement by the Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin withdrawing blind and total support to Najib’s handling of the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal, with the triple position:
1. That the Auditor-General should audit freely and independently, and tracing back to the accounts in 2009 when 1MDB first started, not just the accounts of 2013, as well as a forensic audit to ensure “there is no corruption in 1MDB transactions.
2. That the Public Accounts Committee begin investigating 1MDB without having to wait for the outcome of the Auditor-General’s findings.
3. No bail-out of 1MDB whether in the proposed disposals of lands in Tun Razak Exchange and Bandar Malaysia which were “obtained from the government on the cheap”.
However, the nation needs not only a new Finance Minister, but also a new Education, a need driven home after Muhyiddin’s speech today admitting his shock with the poor performance of Malaysian students in international assessments, despite the millions of ringgit being spent to improve the education system.
What is most shocking about Muhyiddin’s “shock” is that it has to take him 15 months for the Deputy Prime Minister-cum-Education Minister to be shocked by the dismal performance of Malaysia’s 15-year-olds in the three subjects of mathematics, science and reading in the 2012 PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment), when the results were released 15 months ago in early December 2013. Read the rest of this entry »
Something is really “rotten in the state of Denmark” when the twitter-happy IGP can chop and change on an important issue on police investigations into the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal
Posted by Kit in Financial Scandals, Najib Razak, Police, Zahid on Thursday, 12 March 2015
On February 10, former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohamad quoted Shakespeare’s Hamlet on “something is rotten in the state of Denmark”, and this sense of “rottenness” in Malaysia is increasingly exacerbated with passing weeks and days.
When the twitter-happy Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar can chop and change on an important issue on police investigations into the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal, something is really rotten in the “state of Denmark” in Malaysia.
On Monday, 9th March, the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar caused quite a media sensation when he announced a high-powered three-agency special task force to investigate the biggest financial scandal in the nation’s history, the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal comprising the police, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the Attorney-General’s Chambers.
But Khalid, who said the task force would even investigate the Prime Minister, was contradicted by the MACC Chief Commissioner Abu Kassim Mohamed who said on the same day that the MACC would wait for the Auditor-General’s report on 1MDB before starting its own probe.
The MACC Chief Commissioner seemed to be unaware of the three-agency task force on 1MDB which Khalid said was formed the previous week.
The IGP and the MACC should clarify whether there is such a three-agency special task force on the 1MDB or whether it only existed in the imagination of the IGP.
But strangest of all, the very next day, Tuesday, 10th March, Khalid backtracked and announced that the special task force would only start their investigations into the 1MDB after the Auditor-General had completed his scrutiny and uncovered discrepancies and wrongdoings. Read the rest of this entry »
Yet again, Malaysian varsities not among world’s top
Posted by Kit in university on Thursday, 12 March 2015
BY ANISAH SHUKRY
The Malaysian Insider
12 March 2015
Malaysian universities have once again failed to make the cut in the latest Times Higher Education (THE) World Reputation Rankings 2015, with too few scholars citing the country’s tertiary institutions as being among the best in the world.
The list of the world’s 100 most prestigious universities released today includes two Singapore varsities, and is based on the largest survey of leading academics across the world, said THE rankings editor, Phil Baty.
“As long as academics cite them as being among the very best universities in the world, they will appear in the rankings,” Baty told The Malaysian Insider in an email.
“Unfortunately, not enough scholars around the world named any Malaysian university in sufficient numbers for them to make the top 100. Singapore had two top entries – NUS (National University of Singapore) in 24th place and NTU (Nanyang Technological University) in the 91-100 band.”
Malaysia has never been featured on the list, which is in its fifth year, despite Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh’s recent statement that the country’s universities are world class and on par with varsities in Britain, Germany and Australia.
But unlike Malaysia, those three countries were singled out by THE as having among the highest number of institutions in the World Reputation Rankings 2015.
The US had the most number of institutions at 43, followed by the United Kingdom (12), Germany (six) and Australia (five). Read the rest of this entry »
The Najib administration has become a hydra-headed government with Ministers and heads of departments giving different stands on a whole variety of issues
Posted by Kit in Crime, Najib Razak, Parliament, Police, Zahid on Wednesday, 11 March 2015
The Najib administration has become a hydra-headed government with Ministers and heads of government giving different stands on a whole variety of issues.
The present meeting of Parliament is providing multiple examples of a hydra-headed government.
For instance, the Home Minister Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi in a written answer to the DAP MP for Kulai, Teo Nie Ching, said police have completed investigations on incendiary statements by Umno leaders, the Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob and the former Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Dr Mashitah Ibrahim and are waiting for further instructions from the Attorney-General.
A total of 32 police reports were lodged against Ismail over his call for Malay consumers to boycott Chinese businesses as a way to force down the prices of goods while ten police reports were lodged against Mashitah, who had said that Chinese people had burned the Quran in a religious rite in Kuala Kedah, which was a downright lie as it never happened.
But while the Home Minister said that the Police are waiting for instructions from the Attorney-General, another Minister, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim, cleared Ismail Sabri of any offence or any crime! Read the rest of this entry »
Khalid’s ‘Twitter policing’ gets home minister okay
BY EILEEN NG
The Malaysian Insider
11 March 2015
The Twitter habits of Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar got an endorsement from the home minister, who said today using the social media platform to make announcements did not break any laws.
Instead, it was aimed at keeping the public informed on the police’s actions and was not politically motivated or out to scare anyone, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said.
Police have always acted professionally, maintained law and public order, and set out to detect and eradicate crime without fear or favour, he said today.
“As such, PDRM uses Twitter to inform the public on actions taken on matters which can cause worry among the public, and the successes achieved by PDRM,” he said, using the Malay acronym for the Royal Malaysian Police Force. Read the rest of this entry »
Removal of Free Anwar petition an error, says US embassy
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim on Wednesday, 11 March 2015
The Malaysian Insider
11 March 2015
The White House made a mistake when it removed a petition posted on its website urging the Obama administration to free jailed opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, said the United States Embassy in Malaysia.
It said today that the White House standard fraud checks indicated a high number of anomalous signatures on a petition related to Anwar’s imprisonment, but because of the multiple petitions on the issue, it had mistakenly taken down the free Anwar petition.
“There were multiple petitions related to this issue, and after follow-up assessment, The White House determined that the petition it removed was not the one that contained fraudulent signatures,” the US embassy posted on its Facebook page.
“To account for the error, the White House has since re-enabled the petition titled ‘Make the Release of Malaysian Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim from Prison a Top Priority for US Policy Toward Malaysia’, and is extending the deadline to account for the time lost while the petition was disabled. No signatures were removed.”
It said the White House later determined that the fraudulent signatures existed in the petition ‘Respecting the Sovereign Nation of Malaysia’, and had temporarily disabled it from the website. Read the rest of this entry »
Auditor-General’s assurance of professional audit of 1MDB most welcome although public confidence have not been helped by contradictory or uncharacteristic statements by MACC and Police
Posted by Kit in Auditor-General Report, Corruption, Financial Scandals on Tuesday, 10 March 2015
I welcome the promise by the Auditor-General Tan Sri Ambrin Buang that his department will call up any individual necessary even Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in completing an independent audit on strategic fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).
The Auditor-General’s assurance of professional audit of 1MDB and not to be swayed by extraneous considerations is most welcome, although public confidence that the various authorities would adopt a professional, accountable and responsible approach in the handling of the 1MDB scandal had not been helped by contradictory or uncharacteristic statements by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the Police.
Suddenly, there seems to be a competition among the various departments to show courage and eagerness to investigate the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak himself – as not only Ambrin does not rule out such possibility, even the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar pointedly said that Najib would be one of the targets of investigation by a three-agency task force to probe the 1MDB scandal.
In fact, the IGP’s announcement has detracted the credibility of the Auditor-General’s statement that his department’s audit would not exclude an investigation into the Prime Minister, for who would believe the IGP’s claim when he had been guilty of kid-glove treatment to BN Ministers and leaders, letting off the Minister of Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Datuk Ismail Sabri for the most racist and seditious incitement in calling on Malay consumers to boycott Chinese businessmen and allowing the former Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Mashitah Ibrahim to enjoy impunity and immunity for spouting heinous lies to incite religious hatred, conflict and tension in plural Malaysia. Read the rest of this entry »
Joseph Pairin invited to forum on “How many are REAL Sabahans – Report on RCI Report on Illegal Immigrants in Sabah” in Kuala Lumpur on Monday 16/3 to present his blue-print to resolve once and for all the 45-year Sabah Illegal Immigrants Nightmare
I have written to the PBS President and Sabah Deputy Chief Minister, Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan, who is also Chairman of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Illegal Immigrants in Sabah (RCIIIS) Working Committee, inviting him to a forum in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, 16th March 2015 for him to present his blueprint to resolve once and for all the 45-year Sabah Illegal Immigrants Nightmare.
Ten months have passed since the RCIIIS presented its report to the Yang di Pertuan Agong and the Federal Government, and more than three months have passed since the RCIIIS report was made public in Kota Kinabalu, but up to now, nothing has been done to resolve the 45-year Sabah Illegal Immigrants nightmare.
In fact, it would not be wrong to say that despite the Cabinet decision to establish the RCIIIS in February more than three years ago in February 2012, and the submission of the RCIIIS Report to Putrajaya10 months ago, there had been no concrete measure to break the back of the 45-year problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah apart from the establishment of ESSCOM and ESSZONE as a result of the Lahad Datuk Intrusion in February/March 2013.
Pairin is no stranger to the issue of the 45-year Sabah Illegal Immigrants Nightmare, as he had been as long in active politics in Sabah as the problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s time for women to liberate women
– Dyana Sofya
The Malaysian Insider
8 March 2015
The ‘Wake Up To A Good Cause’ campaign by Marie Claire Malaysia and the Women’s Aid Organisation is meant to raise awareness and give every woman who has ever suffered abuse a voice while raising funds for one of the country’s most established NGOs dedicated to empowering abused women.
One in every three women in this world have suffered from some form of abuse. Meanwhile, about 39% of Malaysian women have been physically, mentally or emotionally abused. Although physical abuse is usually more obvious, the same can’t be said for mental and emotional abuse.
Ironically, even this very campaign to end violence and abuse against women has found itself the target of online abuse in the social media by certain quarters. An uproar has erupted in the last few days over the campaign simply because it depicts pictures of women posing as if they had just gotten out of bed. I am not sure about some, but I am sure everyone else sleeps in a bed.
Instead of focusing on the purpose of the campaign, these “abusers” prefer to denigrate women who are working towards a good cause. Strangely enough, some of these comments even come from women themselves. Read the rest of this entry »
Auditor General Ambrin must buck up as six-day inaction on investigation into 1MDB dereliction of duty
Posted by Kit in Financial Scandals, Parliament on Monday, 9 March 2015
The Auditor-General Tan Sri Ambrin Buang must buck up and get on with his work and responsibility as the six-day inaction on investigations into the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal is a major dereliction of duty.
Malaysians want to know why the Auditor-General has not swung into immediate action to investigate into the biggest financial scandal in the nation’s history after the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak had directed him on Wednesday to independently verify 1MDB’s accounts
Malaysians can still remember the poor and unacceptable reasons given by Ambrin last November why he was not auditing 1MDB accounts.
This was what Ambrin said on November 12, 2014 at a media session in Kuala Lumpur in conjunction with the third series of the auditor’s report 2013:
“My answer is as far as their accounts are concerned, it has already been audited by one of the big four (audit firms), so there is no reason why we should ask them to open up their books because auditing financial statements is very laborious (with) examination of documents and things like that.”
Ambrin was rightly flayed in the media for “passing the buck to The Big Four”, and “lectured” that if auditors were infallible, there would be no financial scandals in the world. Read the rest of this entry »
DAP calls for a “land for landless” policy in Sabah, derived from the Batu Sumpah guarantee of land rights for Sabahans
This is the fifth Batu Sumpah replica to be raised in Sabah since the start of the Batu Sumpah movement five months ago. The first Batu Sumpah replice was in Inanam, second in Mempulut in Pensiangan, third a double mammoth Batu Sumpah in Moyog and the fourth in Kg Iban in Merotai last night.
The Batu Sumpah movement has brought about a quickening of the awareness among Sabahans about their basic rights, symblising the three basic issues which are fundamental to the formation of Malaysia 52 years ago in 1963 – firstly, freedom of religion and land rights and adat istiadat for native Sabahans.
This is taken place at a critical time in the history of Sabah and Malaysia.
For the first time in Sabah history, the voice and aspirations of the people of Sabah are being given more attention by Putrajaya than at any time in the state’s history. Read the rest of this entry »
Muhyddin should not have a sudden attack of “cold feet” suffering withdrawal symptoms but must continue to be bold and forthright to defend public interests and the principles of accountability and good governance in the handling of the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal
Posted by Kit in Financial Scandals, Muhyiddin Yassin, Najib Razak on Sunday, 8 March 2015
The Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy UMNO President, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin should not have a sudden attack of “cold feet”, suffering withdrawal symptoms from his courageous and commendable statement on the 1MDB on Friday night, but must continue to be bold and forthright to defend public interests and the principles of accountability and good governance in the handling of the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal.
Muhyiddin was denying the undeniable when he said yesterday that his Friday night statement on 1MDB did not contradict the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
His so-called “denial” that he had contradicted Najib has only drawn further attention to the differences between Muhyiddin’s seven-para statement and the six-para PMO Statement on the Cabinet position on 1MDB released after the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
A study of the two statements will reach the ineluctable conclusion that Muhyiddin’s statement was not just “expressing what the cabinet had discussed with regard to the issue (1MDB) but also gone beyond that”, when was in fact a repudiation of the PMO Statement, smashing it to smithereens.
Had Muhyiddin fully studied and realised the full implications of his Friday night statement when he lent his signature to it?
Read the rest of this entry »
MH370: Mysteries, missteps and mistrust
by Boo Su-Lyn
The Malay Mail Online
March 8, 2015
COMMENTARY, March 8 — Experts appear no closer to solving the enigma of Flight MH370 one year after the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) jet vanished without a trace, making it one of the world’s biggest plane mysteries.
Contact with Flight MH370, which carried 239 people on board comprising mostly China nationals, was lost less than an hour after take-off from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 12.41am local time en route to Beijing, China, on March 8 last year.
There was no distress signal and two communication systems aboard the Boeing 777 commercial jet were shut down during the flight in what experts believe was a deliberate move.
The transponder — which identifies the plane and transmits its altitude and location to ground controllers — was turned off at 1.21am local time as the aircraft flew into Vietnamese airspace from Malaysian air traffic control over the South China Sea, a vulnerable point noted by aviation experts in a Reuters report as Malaysian and Vietnamese controllers could assume that the plane was the other’s responsibility.
Another unanswered question is why Flight MH370 veered off from its original flight path and turned west back over the Malaysian peninsula. Read the rest of this entry »
In MH370, military should have learned from 9-11, says ex-airman
by Muzliza Mustafa
The Malaysian Insider
8 March 2015
When Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370 vanished on March 8 last year, many believed the mystery as to its whereabouts could have been prevented had the Malaysian military scrambled jets to investigate an unknown aircraft its radar was tracking across the northern part of the peninsula.
It is still unclear whether any official has been held to account for this lapse in judgment, as questions posed to ministers have been sidestepped.
Former Royal Malaysian Air Force pilot Maj Zaidi Ahmad said the lack of military action at the time stressed the need to change and update certain standard operating procedure (SOP) for the military, as well as for military-civilian cooperation.
This should have been done following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York, but the Malaysian military maintained a “lackadaisical” attitude, said Zaidi, who had been a fighter pilot for more than 20 years.
“The 9-11 incident proved that anything can happen and we should be prepared. After 9-11 there was still no SOP between the military and commercial airlines. We should be taking note of things that happen in other countries and be cautious,” Zaidi told The Malaysian Insider. Read the rest of this entry »
A year on, MH370 still a mystery, errors go unpunished
by Elizabeth Zachariah
The Malaysian Insider
8 March 2015
One year since Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370 vanished, the plane’s whereabouts remains a mystery, as does the nagging question – why can’t anyone be held responsible?
Scrutiny of the timeline of events after the Boeing-777 disappeared from radar on March 8, 2014 revealed gaps in communication and a lapse of judgment, in particular by the military, which saw the plane on primary surveillance radar, but did nothing to investigate why it had flown off course.
Malaysian military officials revealed on March 12 that an unidentified aircraft, believed to be MH370, had travelled across the peninsula after doing an air turn-back, and was last sighted on military radar 370km northwest of Penang.
Following this, the search area was then expanded from the Gulf of Thailand and South China Sea to include the Strait of Malacca.
It was reported then that senior military officers only became aware of the radar data after news of the aircraft’s disappearance had spread.
Criticism quickly rolled in after this revelation, from opposition politicians, civil society, the Malaysian public and international media.
“Clearly, they had let an unidentified aircraft pass through Malaysian sovereign territory without bothering to identify it; not something they were happy to admit,” aviation consultant David Learmount had said.
“There was clearly a significant failure of response on behalf of the Malaysian air force. There’s no real way around it and you might imagine heads would roll for that,” Bangkok-based analyst for defence-and-security-intelligence firm IHS-Jane, Anthony Davis was quoted as saying in a report by Time.
Veteran DAP leader Lim Kit Siang had also called for “heads to roll”, demanding that an inquiry be launched to seek accountability in the plane’s disappearance and subsequent response.
Renewing his calls for accountability, the Gelang Patah MP said no one has been brought to book for the grave error that could have saved millions of ringgit and given the families of the 239 on board the closure they need.
“This only highlights the need to hold an inquiry through the setting up of a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) to look into the incident,” he added.
Lim said then that one of the areas that should be investigated was whether the disappearance of the jet could have been averted if military radar operators had been more vigilant and had acted promptly. Read the rest of this entry »
A year into MH370 disappearance, Chinese aircraft maker pushes for new emergency recorder system
by Shuang Guo, Lei Yang
Xin Hua
2015-03-08
LOS ANGELES, March 7 (Xinhua) — In an event of a test model plane crash, an emergency recorder and tracking system is separated from the tail section of the plane.
The test, which is shown in a video clip, is part of a series of tests completed since October by the U.S. subsidiary of the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) on a comprehensive emergency information recorder and tracking system.
COMAC America Corporation says its emergency recorder system includes a data storage and transmitter called Harbinger, claiming for the system it had been applying new methods that transcend traditional designs of black box recorders used in commercial aircraft.
The yearlong searching effort for Malaysia Airlines’ missing flight MH370 has turned up with no sign of the plane, but it has fueled the company’s resolve to come up with a system more efficient instead. Read the rest of this entry »
The Mystery of Flight 370 Haunts Families and Baffles Experts a Year After Its Disappearance
David Stout
Time
March 6, 2015
Without a single scrap of debris, the search for the missing jet will likely end soon, taking with it all remaining hope
You can’t blame Jennifer Chong for being a nervous flyer.
Every time she boards a plane, the resident of Melbourne faces the inevitable walk past the cabin’s front row where her husband of more than 20 years, Chong Ling Tan, had been seated on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
Twelve months on from arguably the greatest aviation mystery of all time, Chong says those empty seats can still induce panic.
“I start to think that if anything happened, like a hijacking, then he would be the first one who knows because he’s the one nearest to the cockpit,” Chong tells TIME. Read the rest of this entry »
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