Projected Flight Path of MH370 Mistaken? Authorities Not Sure if Data Analysis was Correct
By Gopi Chandra Kharel
International Business Times
May 6, 2014
The projected flight trajectory of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, shown by an arc, could have been a mistake. (Photo: Australian Maritime Safety Authority)
It appears that the authorities are not sure if the data gathered in the nearly two-month hunt for the missing Malaysia jet, which projected the likely flight trajectory of MH370 shown by an arc, was a correct analysis after all.
An international panel of experts is in the process of re-examining all data gathered so far, in order to be sure if the international team has been looking for the missing plane in the right place, officials said on Tuesday.
Senior officials from Malaysia, Australia and China met in the Australian capital to discuss the next move in search for MH370, after two months of intense efforts in the southern Indian Ocean yielded no tangible results. The meeting hashed out details of plans for another search operation that could take up to a year to complete and will cost about A$60million – an amount that has raised quite a few eyebrows.
Now that the authorities are not even sure if the search operation thus far for the missing MH370 plane was taking place in the right place, it is likely to raise further questions from the family members of the passengers aboard, as well as the public. Read the rest of this entry »
Europe draws up tougher black box rules after MH370 mystery
BY TIM HEPHER PARIS
Reuters
May 6, 2014
(Reuters) – European safety officials on Tuesday proposed tougher rules for ‘black box’ flight recorders in the strongest regulatory reaction yet to the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said it would propose increasing the recording time on cockpit voice recorders to 20 hours from two to make it easier to understand plane accidents and prevent vital evidence being overwritten.
Newly published proposals would also bring into force recommendations made by French crash investigators after the loss of an Air France jet in the Atlantic in 2009, but which remain bogged down in talks among regulators.
These include the addition of a new pinger frequency making it easier to locate the recording devices under water, where lower frequencies travel further. Read the rest of this entry »
Missing MH370: Only ‘Handful’ of Subs Capable of Hunting Jet
by Henry Austin
NBC News
6th May 2014
Only “a handful” of commercial vehicles can search the depths of the southern Indian Ocean in the area that is believed to be the final resting place of missing Flight MH370, an expert said Tuesday.
Officials announced Monday that all of the data compiled in the hunt for the Boeing 777 will be re-examined to make sure the right area is being scoured as part of a new $55-million phase of the operation.
Capt. John Noble, the former general manager of the International Salvage Union, told NBC News that it made sense to narrow down the search area as much as possible.
“You’d be lucky if there was a handful of vehicles that can to go to the sort depths of the ocean that we are talking about here because they simply don’t make them,” Noble said. Read the rest of this entry »
MH370: Hope transcends frustration in quest to bring families closure
By David Molko, CNN
May 6, 2014
“I’m an engineer, so we don’t talk emotions too much.” Those were the words of Capt. Mark Matthews of the U.S. Navy shortly after the Australian Defense vessel Ocean Shield had discovered a series of pings in the southern Indian Ocean.Perhaps he didn’t want to discuss his feelings. But he had a twinkle in his eye, a bit of what he called “cautious optimism.” I’ve seen that same glimmer shining through on the faces of dozens of others involved in the arduous search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. It’s been there through each new lead, and even through some of the setbacks.
The search for the missing Boeing 777 has gone on for eight weeks now. We’ve all had to learn a new technical language: from Inmarsat satellite data and the “Doppler Effect,” to the TPL-25 and Bluefin-21. We’ve heard countless theories about where the plane might have gone and who might have been flying it.
Both the science and the science fiction have, at times, almost drowned out what this search is about at its core: solving the mystery of what happened to the 239 men, women, and children who were on board MH370. Read the rest of this entry »
‘She dedicated and sacrificed life to Karpal’
Susan Loone
Malaysiakin
May 6, 2014
Being the loyal and devoted wife, she stood in his shadows all these years without public recognition and appreciation.
But last night’s memorial for the late Karpal Singh at the Han Chiang College Hall, Penang, saw tribute paid to his widow, Gurmit Kaur, who sat amid the 1,000 odd crowd at the event.
“This woman dedicated and sacrificed her whole life to Karpal for years in silence, standing steadfastly behind her husband as he went about his work, contributing to the nation,” said her second son, Puchong MP Gobind Singh Deo.
“This woman is my mother, let’s give her a big round of applause, it is not easy, not easy at all to do what she had done,” he added, as the crowd clapped loudly in her honour. Read the rest of this entry »
Karpal Singh – Will for Justice
by Liew Chin Tong
fz.com
May 05, 2014
The funeral rites for Karpal Singh ended with family members scattering his ashes in the sea off Green Hall, Penang, but the national soul-searching to understand his legacy and to commemorate it has just begun.
The massive outpouring of grief, especially at the funeral on April 20, 2014, for a statesman who had actually never held executive power was indeed unprecedented. Karpal’s legacies as a human rights lawyer and a staunch defender of constitutional democracy, and his leadership in DAP will be remembered, studied and perhaps critiqued.
The cruel attempt that was ongoing when Karpal died, to disqualify him as MP and even to jail him, will continue to haunt the ruling party with his image as victim and martyr “sealed” with his demise. Karpal’s perseverance against physical disability will also continue to inspire many, and hopefully his tragic accident on the highway will help the push for better transportation. Read the rest of this entry »
A Malaysia where all Malaysians are equal, that’s the perfect tribute to Karpal, says Gobind
by Looi Sue-Chern
The Malaysian Insider
May 06, 2014
The greatest tribute Malaysians could give to the late Karpal Singh would be to build a new Malaysia where everyone will be treated fairly and equally. That was the message at the last leg of a series of tributes for the Bukit Gelugor MP which coincided with the first anniversary of GE13.
Karpal’s son Gobind Singh Deo yesterday urged the people to remember his father’s fighting spirit and see his dreams realised with a new government in Putrajaya in the next general election.
“What is important is to remember how he lived because he was a man who fought for us and this country, believing that this country can change one day… a Malaysia where all Malaysians are equal and treated fairly by our government.
“If there was darkness, Karpal was the light. If there was weakness, it was him who gave us strength.
“But now that he is no longer with us, are we going to back down now because Karpal is no longer with us? Do we stop our fight because he is no longer here with us? Or do we remember the fighting spirit that the Tiger of Jelutong has left behind?” he said at the memorial held in Penang last night at the Hanchiang High School’s Lim Lean Teng hall. Read the rest of this entry »
Winning GE13 convincingly, by jailing political foes a year later?
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, Parliament on Tuesday, 6 May 2014, 7:46 am
COMMENTARY BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER
MAY 05, 2014
One year after the Barisan Nasional (BN) won the 13th general election (GE13) with fewer votes and fewer seats, more lawmakers from the opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) find themselves at the wrong end of the law and risking jail time.
Tomorrow, Seputeh MP Teresa Kok will be charged with sedition, weeks after the late Karpal Singh was convicted of the same charge.
Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim faces the possibility of jail for a second sodomy conviction while his PKR party colleague Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad is expected to charged again under the Peaceful Assembly Act.
Just two weeks ago, the Court of Appeal had declared Section 9(5) of the Peaceful Assembly Act – which criminalises the failure to give 10-day notice before a gathering – to be unconstitutional.
And in July 2012, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced that the Sedition Act will be repealed and replaced by a National Harmony Act. That has yet to take place and instead, more people have been charged with sedition. Read the rest of this entry »
Pakatan can’t sustain strong GE13 win in next polls due to internal strife, disagreements, forum told
Posted by Kit in DAP, Islam, Pakatan Rakyat, PAS on Tuesday, 6 May 2014, 7:34 am
BY ANISAH SHUKRY
The Malaysian Insider
MAY 06, 2014
Election 2013 could be the last strong win by Pakatan Rakyat (PR) as the issue of hudud, internal party conflicts and a lack of effort to court rural voters will hurt its chances in the next general election, a forum was told last night.
Speaking at the “GE 14: Will there be another political tsunami?” forum, panellists Liew Chin Tong, Wan Hamidi Hamid and Hishamuddin Rais noted that in the past year since the May 5 polls, the opposition pact had gained little ground in their dream to capture Putrajaya despite winning more seats in the 13th general election.
Liew said the hudud issue had worsened PR’s chances of triggering a political tsunami in the next election, and urged its Islamist ally PAS to review its priorities.
“Hudud was a strategy for PAS to affirm its Islamic identity. But does it remain a relevant strategy, or are we just trapping ourselves behind this one single theme? What is our priority? Hudud, or economic justice?” the Kluang MP said at the Kuala Lumpur Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall. Read the rest of this entry »
Double advice to Ka Siong – don’t tell a bare-faced lie and don’t be caught immediately for such downright dishonesty
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Islam, MCA on Monday, 5 May 2014, 8:02 pm
Let me give a double advice to the MCA deputy president Wee Ka Siong: Don’t tell a bare-faced lie and don’t be caught immediately with such downright dishonesty.
Ka Siong committed both sins today when he rebutted my media conference statement in Batu Pahat yesterday that the MCA President, Liow Tiong Lai had missed a “golden opportunity” to say “No” to the Prime Minister and UMNO President, Datuk Seri Najib Razak who had attended the launch of the MCA’s “Stronger Together” programme at Tunku Abdul Rahman University College in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday that MCA cannot accept Najib’s unilateral and arbitrary announcement in Alor Star last Thursday that the Barisan Nasional Federal Government had never rejected hudud.
This was because what Najib said was not the original Barisan Nasional stand, and furthermore, violates an important BN principle that any change of Barisan Nasional policy must be the result of the consensus of all component parties and not unilaterally and arbitrarily by any one party, even if it is UMNO.
Ka Siong should know better than anyone that the Barisan Nasional Federal Government’s stand, even going back to the UMNO, MCA and MIC founders like Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein, Tun Tan Cheng Lock, Tun Tan Siew Sin and Tun V.T. Sambanthan was that hudud was inconsistent with the secular 1957 constitution. Read the rest of this entry »
On first anniversary of 13GE, Malaysians torn by grave disillusionment with Najib for a year of failed policies and the dire prospect of a break-up of Pakatan Rakyat over hudud law
Posted by Kit in Islam, Najib Razak, nation building, Pakatan Rakyat on Sunday, 4 May 2014, 4:19 pm
Tomorrow is the first anniversary of the 13th General Elections where Malaysians had hoped to see a change of federal government in Putrajaya for the first time in the 56-year history of the nation.
Unfortunately, although Pakatan Rakyat secured the support of the majority of the national electorate, with 52% of the national voters voting for PR, Barisan Nasional continued to occupy the citadels of power in Putrajaya because of unfair electoral practices, gerrymandering and unfair redelineation of electoral constituencies.
The past one year has brought greater disillusionment to the people who wanted to see political change to bring Malaysia back to the pursuit of the Malaysian Dream for all Malaysians by bringing the country back to the tracks of justice, the rule of law, democracy, good governance, excellence and prosperity which Malaysia had strayed from for more than 40 years.
The latest global survey on the average broadband speed is another index to highlight the continued regression and retrogression of Malaysia instead of progress way ahead in the forefront in th world in various aspects of national achievements. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia on US watch list for limitations on religious freedom
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Religion on Sunday, 4 May 2014, 9:28 am
BY ELIZABETH ZACHARIAH
The Malaysian Insider
May 03, 2014
Malaysia has been placed on a watch list by an advisory body of the United States government over concerns about its limitation on freedom of religion, putting it on a par with countries like Afghanistan, Cuba, Indonesia, Laos, Russia and Turkey.
In its 2014 annual report, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) placed Malaysia on Tier 2, one level down from Tier 1 (countries of particular concern) which lists countries like Myanmar, China, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and Sudan, among others.
“USCIRF found that the intertwining of religion, ethnicity, and politics in Malaysia complicate religious freedom protections for religious minorities and non-Sunni Muslims,” the commission said in the report.
USCIRF is an independent US government advisory body that monitors religious freedom worldwide and makes policy recommendations to the American president, the secretary of state and Congress. Read the rest of this entry »
In MH370 search, incompetence, lost time
By Bill Palmer
CNN
May 2, 2014
(CNN) — If we were hoping that the finally released — but month-old — preliminary report on the March 8 disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 would help explain what happened, we were mostly disappointed.
But the report, issued Thursday and dated April 9, does add new insights on snafus in crucial communication between air traffic control centers and Malaysia Airlines on the morning Flight 370 disappeared. They are disturbing — and put the competence of the airline’s operations center in question.
Indeed the brevity of the report (five pages) seems to show a Malaysian Ministry of Transport still interested in sharing as little information as possible, especially when compared with the extensive detail in preliminary reports from other accidents, such as the loss of Air France Flight 447 in June 2009.
What we do learn from this new report is that the airline told controllers — who were already looking for Flight 370 — that everything was normal, delaying the realization that the plane was many hundreds of miles from where it was thought to be, and any attempts at finding it.
In fact, it would be three hours and 52 minutes between the time that the controller in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, reported to air traffic control in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, that Flight 370 had not contacted him as instructed, and the time that the Kuala Lumpur rescue center was activated. Read the rest of this entry »
Hudud’s practical problems: The non-Muslim witness, state boundaries and the Constitution
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Islam, PAS on Sunday, 4 May 2014, 7:55 am
by Boo Su-Lyn and Joseph Sipalan
The Malay Mail Online
MAY 4, 2014
KUALA LUMPUR, May 4 — Even if PAS wins Parliament’s nod for its hudud bid, lawyers say the Islamist party will face even greater hurdles when the controversial law is implemented in Kelantan.
They said not only does the Islamic penal code run contrary to the Federal Constitution, it would also have limited reach in that it could not prescribe punishment on criminals who flee the state’s borders.
To complicate things further, the Shariah Court cannot compel a non-Muslim witness to testify before it and cannot cite them for perjury or contempt of court as its jurisdiction only covers Muslims, they said.
“It’s unworkable because non-Muslims will not be subject to those provisions, which means your witnesses, your accomplices who are non-Muslims, will not appear in those cases,” Malaysian Bar president Christopher Leong told The Malay Mail Online.
“It’s non-compellable. I don’t have to answer your questions, let alone attend court,” he added. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia gets ‘D’, South Korea ‘A-’ in handling of tragedies, says Bloomberg columnist
The Malaysian Insider
MAY 02, 2014
Putrajaya was once again slammed by a Bloomberg columnist who compared Malaysia’s handling of the MH370 saga with South Korea’s response to the recent Sewol ferry tragedy.
In a scathing attack, columnist William Pesek said he would give top marks to South Korea for their handling of the ferry tragedy but found Malaysia sorely lacking in handling the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
He said the incidents could be described as tests for the two governments, if not of Malaysian and South Korean societies.
“The grades so far? I’d give Korea an A-, Malaysia a D,” he said in his Bloomberg column titled “One missing jet, one sunken ferry, two responses”.
Read the rest of this entry »
Irregularities in MH370 audio recordings indicate possible editing, say experts
The Malaysian Insider
MAY 03, 2014
Audio forensic experts spotted several irregularities in audio recordings from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 which suggested they may have been edited, a United States news network reported.
According to NBC News, the experts said at least two different audio sources recorded the tapes, wherein one of those recordings may have been a digital recorder held up to a speaker.
The Malaysian Transport Ministry on Thursday released a 5-page preliminary report on the missing plane along with the audio recording.
Analysts who listened to the recordings also told NBC that they noticed four clear breaks in the audio that indicated edits, NBC reported. Read the rest of this entry »
Hishamuddin’s reiteration umpteenth time yesterday that “we have nothing to hide” is most potent proof he realizes he is fighting losing battle in the credibility war both nationally and internationally because of lack of openness and accountability in MH 370 disaster crisis management
Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammddin Hussein in his statement yesterday repeated ad nauseum that “we have nothing to hide” demonstrating a grave guilt complex on this issue.
In fact, Hishammuddin’s reiteration umpteenth time yesterday that “we have nothing to hide” is the most potent proof that he realizes that he is fighting a losing battle in the credibility war both nationally and internationally because of lack of openness and accountability in the MH 370 disaster crisis management.
While continuing to declare that “we have nothing to hide”, he continues to evade accountability and responsibility for what happened in the crucial and critical first few hours of the first day of the missing MH 370 tragedy on March 8, and even enlisted the help of Australia’s Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) chief Angus Houston in the latter’s first public appearance in Malaysia yesterday since heading the multinational search for MH370.
I could not believe it when I read the media report that when asked about the Malaysian government’s preliminary report on the missing MH 370 made public on May 1 and how much attention should be given to past mistakes, Houston parroted Hishammuddin saying that efforts should be focussed “wholly and solely” on the ongoing search. Read the rest of this entry »
Karpal thrilled us with his delivery in court, former judge recalls
by Anisah Shukry
The Malaysian Insider
May 02, 2014
Judges at the Court of Appeal used to eagerly anticipate Karpal Singh’s presence before them, and news of his appearance would immediately give them a ‘lift’, a former appellate court judge recalled this evening.
Speaking at a memorial service for Karpal in Petaling Jaya, Datuk Mahadev Shankar remembered how the fiery lawyer was popular with the judges, all of whom held him in high esteem.
“After I became a judge, I had the opportunity to watch Karpal in action, and I found that he was the best lawyer who ever appeared before me.
“I would rank him the best lawyer in the country,” Mahadev told some 100 people at the memorial organised by Karpal’s former schoolmates from SMK La Salle and St. Xavier’s Institution.
Other speakers at the memorial were Karpal’s son and Puchong MP Gobind Singh Deo, DAP advisor and Gelang Patah MP Lim Kit Siang and former deputy minister of Land and Cooperative Development and former Penang deputy chief minister Dr Goh Cheng Teik.
“He never wasted the court’s time. When he came into court, he went straight for the jugular, without mincing his words.
“More often than not, I agreed with him. Other times, I did not, and I judged against him.
“But this was the opinion of all the judges that time: we put him as number one. When we heard he was coming to court that day, we immediately got a lift,” said the former judge. Read the rest of this entry »
Hudud, Islamic State and Malaysia’s future
Posted by Kit in DAP, Islamic state, Pakatan Rakyat, PAS on Saturday, 3 May 2014, 11:13 am
Neil Khor
Malaysiakini
May 2, 2014
COMMENT Come June 2014, some 56 years after independence, Malaysian parliamentarians will decide whether we are going to evolve into an Islamic State as a private members bill allowing the implementation of Hudud Laws in Kelantan is put to them.
For those committed to secularism like this writer, the mind boggles with questions of how we came to this cross-roads after half a century of urbanization and industrialization?
Did Globalization pass us by and left us more conservative or did we take a peek at the world and have decided to reject it.
Confucius said that one has to walk in the shoes of others to understand their perspective. To some Malaysians, the journey from independence through nation building is only meaningful if we recover our full integrity by returning this land to its original state prior to Western colonialism.
To them, Malaya continues to be defined not by its multiculturalism but by its Islamic heritage. Society can only fully recover if Muslims live by the laws of their religion. Read the rest of this entry »
A year after GE13, Malaysia remains in a political rut
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak on Saturday, 3 May 2014, 8:25 am
by Sheridan Mahavera
The Malaysian Insider
May 03, 2014
As the country marks one year after arguably the most fiercely fought general election, The Malaysian Insider takes a step back to look at how the country has come since then. In this first part, we look at what has changed since then and if we are better off under the second Barisan Nasional administration of Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
One year after winning an even smaller majority and his first personal mandate, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his Barisan Nasional (BN) find themselves in the same position as before GE13 – running a country divided by race and religion, and a majority dissatisfied with the ruling government.
Islamic fundamentalists want the Shariah criminal law, hudud, which prescribes amputation for theft; racial friction remains as right-wing groups stoke issues; inflation spiked to 3.5% in March; while three out of five people surveyed are against a 6% consumption tax due April 2015.
Loss-making flag carrier Malaysia Airlines has mysteriously lost a Boeing 777-200ER with 239 on board without any trace after a hunt that now enters its 57th day after days of confusion over its location. It has yet to be found.
Political scientist Dr Wong Chin Huat has described the atmosphere of the past year after the May 5 general elections as being the same as the first four years when Najib took over in 2009 from predecessor Tun Abdullah Badawi who quit over BN’s historic loss of the two-thirds parliamentary super-majority in Election 2008.
“The Najib government in the year after May 5 is characterised by both active suppression of dissents and minorities and passive failure in governance.
“(This is) represented by the persecution of Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders and marginalisation of non-Muslims, and its failure in managing the MH370 crisis,” Wong told The Malaysian Insider. Read the rest of this entry »
