1 Apr, 2014
Chinese Media Calls For Rationality Over Missing MH370
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia March 31 (NNN-Bernama) — The Chinese media has appealed to the families of passengers on board the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 aircraft “not to let their anger prevail over facts and rationality”, no matter how distressed they are.
In an opinion column headlined, ‘Treat MH370 Tragedy Rationally’ published in the China Daily today, writer Mei Xinyu said relatives of the victims and public opinions to the government should comply with the fundamental norms of a civilised society. He said it was imperative that they showed “the demeanour of a great power”.
“Irrational words and behavior that run against the fundamental norms, even if in the name of ‘safeguarding legal rights’, will not help matters. Instead, they might backfire and even harm overall national interests, making the Chinese people pay for the tragedy,” he said in the government-run daily.
Xinyu, who is a researcher at the International Trade and Economic Cooperation Institute of the Ministry of Commerce China, said the Chinese needed to understand that this was perhaps, the most bizarre incident in Asian civil aviation history.
He stressed that finding the aircraft and analysing the related technical data would take time.
“Flight MH370 seems to have crashed in the inhospitable southern Indian Ocean, where the waves run high and the depths reach thousands of metres. There are few civil flights or regular shipping lanes through that region.
“We should bear in mind that there have been cases where the wreckage of a plane was found only after several years of searching. All parties should strive for the best result, but also need to be prepared for a long search,” he said.
Xinyu said the families and next-of-kin needed to understand that searching for the lost flight involved a country’s military capabilities and defence secrets.
Hence, demanding an independent sovereign state to release all the information was not appropriate, and it was impossible for such sensitive information to be made public.
“Public opinion should not blame the Malaysian authorities for deliberately covering up information in the absence of hard evidence as there is a need to speak with evidence and act according to the law, rather than through “making a noise” or indulging in aggressive or irrational behavior,” he said.
Xinyu said the families should acknowledge that in this unprecedented incident involving Flight MH370, Malaysia did not pass the buck, and the entire Malaysian society showed deep sorrow. (Hence) The Chinese people should refrain from inciting criticism and instigating boycotts against Malaysia so as to avoid hurting the majority of people in Malaysia.
“All Chinese people sympathise with the relatives of the passengers on board MH370 and share their sufferings. But we should also remember that a time of adversity is no excuse for trampling on social norms,” he added.
Flight MH370, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew, left the KL International Airport at 12.41am on March 8 and disappeared from radar screens about an hour later. It was to have landed in Beijing at 6.30am on the same day. Up to 154 of the passengers were Chinese nationals.
Seventeen days after its disappearance, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak on March 24, announced it “ended in the southern Indian Ocean” based on an unprecedented type of analysis of satellite data by the United Kingdom satellite telecommunications company Inmarsat and the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch.
A multinational search is going on in the southern Indian Ocean where the Boeing 777-200ER aircraft, which had veered off course, is believed to have gone down.–NNN-BERNAMA
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