YOURSAY ‘If there is anyone to be ‘blame’, I do not think it is MAS.’

Deputy minister makes U-turn on 'turn back' claim

Gerard Lourdesamy: After 9/11, it is standard practice in most countries which have a modicum of common sense and intelligence that if a civilian ATC (air control tower) can no longer establish contact with an aircraft, then the military ATC and radar should be notified to attempt contact.

If no contact can be made and the plane has diverted from its original flight path then the standard response would be to scramble our RMAF (Royal Malaysian Air Force) interceptors to check the aircraft, try to establish contact and force it to land at the nearest airport if there is no response or it is deemed hostile.

As a last resort if the plane is deemed to be a security threat, it can be shot down on the express orders of the military top brass after consultation with civilian authorities i.e. the PM, defence and home ministers.

In our case, both civil and military ATCs and radar were sleeping and thought the plane was simply going on a joyride over our airspace and at some point in time, it would have got back on course and landed safely at Beijing.

Kuasa Rakyat: RMAF is an embarrassment. If there is anyone to be "blame", I do not think it is MAS. It is RMAF.

If they had done their job, MH370 would have been found perhaps as early as the next day it disappeared and perhaps even lives saved.

Dr Suresh Kumar: This is not about Deputy Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Bakri be praised for admitting his mistake, this is about facts, transparency and consistency.

We are dealing with an incident of epic proportions, we lost an aircraft with many souls presumed dead. The international spotlight is on us, awaiting answers.

Why can't the deputy minister check his facts first before shooting himself in the foot? Indeed, how to defend morons like this.

We Malaysians proudly identify ourselves as Malaysians when we travel abroad, now with nincompoops like this, many would be reluctant to do so. Sigh.

Anak Perak: Well, at least Abdul Rahim is man enough to admit that his remarks have been proven erroneous and his assumption was inaccurate, unlike some of them who keep denying and ‘putar’ (spin) over and over and then blame others.

At least he did not blame the Chinese or Malaysiakini for misquoting, etc, so let's give him a chance.

Spinnot: "However, Abdul Rahim stressed that conclusive answers will only be available when the debris from the plane is found," reported Malaysiakini .

What has the debris from the plane got to do with the RMAF radar? Don't tell me he has already destroyed the relevant data from the radar?

Commentable: Is Abdul Rahim meaning to say there is a double assumption? He assumed that RMAF assumed?

If we are to carry on living based on the belief that Malaysia is safe because we are protected by our army which is hinged upon a platform of assumptions, we are in deep trouble.

Abasir: It is apparent that the vocabulary of these semi-literates masquerading as ministers has seen a quantum increase with recent polysyllabic additions such as “unprecedented”, “corroborated”, “triangulated” and for the woefully deficient like Abdul Rahim, “assume”.

It is also apparent that their unique ability to spout unadulterated nonsense has been sharpened since March 8. As a result, we have Iranians who look like black football players and off-loaded luggage that were never loaded in the first place.

And as light relief for Malaysians struggling to cope with international ridicule, the ringmasters in Putrajaya have been showing us a seriously genuflecting Singh reveling in his 30 minutes of fame every evening.

Onyourtoes: See the baloney here; now you admit it was your own wrong assumption but at the same time you are not sure where the plane went either. But I thought the PM has said the plane crashed in the remote part of Southern Indian Ocean.

Have you not heard? So what do you mean by your statement, “conclusive answers will only be available when the debris from the plane is found”? How come we cannot even find one brain in the whole cabinet? This is really puzzling.

Drngsc: Now can you see why the Internet is full of theories. Responsible ministers are thoroughly irresponsible and do U-turns so often that the public can no longer hold any one of them to their word.

So we read, research and spin our own theories, purely out of desperation that the official sources are notoriously unreliable.

By the way, there are 239 lives at stake. We are desperate for answers. If you can provide them (and instead twist and turn), we will look on our own.

Mohan53: The bottom line - RMAF was sleeping on the job. If only RMAF has done their job, the plane could have been saved. Now, we have a deputy minister giving an assumption for inaction.

What kind of jokers we have in charge of the defence of Malaysia? Now all our neighbours know our weakness.

Perhaps they knew a long time ago and have been exploiting it all along. Singapore has been flying into Malaysian airspace at their own free will.

Oh Ya?: How could a parliamentary question be answered with "assumptions"? And how could he get away clarifying a parliamentary answer by making a clarification outside the august House?

How could the ruling elite blame the rest of the world for looking down on Bolehland?

Turvy: How can any debris clear this mess?

Was deputy minister's U-turn 'spotted' by RMAF?

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