KAJANG The MH370 crisis continues to be Kajang by-election campaign fodder, with PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim roping in Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s father and his handling of a 1975 hostage crisis.

Anwar said that unlike his son, second prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein ( centre in photo ) and his team were internationally lauded over their deft handling  of the Japanese Red Army (JRA) hostage crisis at the American Insurance Associates (AIA) building in Kuala Lumpur.

He said that on the contrary, Najib has been panned for his ministers’ contradictory statements made in the ongoing investigation into the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines aircraft.

“Razak was more strict. He was smarter than his son, perhaps because no one was controlling him,” he said on the ceramah trail last night.

Anwar ( left ) was presumably giving a nod to a member of the audience of about 100 at Sungai Kantan who yelled out that Razak “did not have Rosmah (Mansor)”, Najib’s wife.

The AIA building then housed several embassies and 53 people were taken hostage by the communist militant group JRA, who demanded the Japanese government release five JRA members. Japan relented.

Then home minister Ghazalie Shafie negotiated the hostages’ release while Home Ministry secretary-general Osman Samsuddin Cassim and then deputy transport minister Ramli Omar were exchanged as hostages to guarantee safe conduct.

‘International media call me as PM won’t speak’

Anwar said that the poor handling of the MH370 crisis by the government has painted a shabby picture of Malaysia internationally, especially among the media.

Exacerbating it, he said, was PM Najib’s decision to not take questions when he announced on Saturday that the plane’s transponders were deliberately turned off before it was manoeuvred off course.

Anwar, who is also opposition leader, added that because of Najib’s silence, the international media are now hounding Anwar for updates on the matter.

“(CNN anchor Christianne) Amanpour asked me to go to their studio for a direct interview as she cannot get an explanation from the PM who gave a statement but won’t take questions...

“Today BBC interviewed me, along with the South China Morning Post, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, New York Times and two Jakarta television stations.

“The PM cannot talk so they ask me. Tomorrow I will speak to Channel New Asia and CNN . I hope this illustrates leadership failure (in government),” he said.

The search for the Boeing 777-200ER has entered its 11th day when it first disappeared off air traffic controller radars at 1.30am on March 8.

The authorities now say that the plane, due to arrive in Beijing at 6.30am that day with 239 passenger and crew, flew on until 8.11am undetected by civilian radar.

It flew above the peninsula, making a turn back from the South China Sea towards the Malacca Straits on the west of peninsula Malaysia.

“China now says we knew for a week now that the plane was likely in the Indian Ocean and not the South China Sea, but we told China to look at the South China Sea. For what? Resources were depleted. This is not China’s fault,” Anwar said.