Until there is a clear understanding of what happened, it is unacceptable to use the MH370 incident to justify a shopping spree for defence assets, the government has been told.

Stampin MP Julian Tan ( right ), Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim ( left ) and senior follow at think-tank Research for Social Advancement (Refsa) Lam Choong Wah said this in a joint statement today.

They were referring to air force chief Rodzali Daud’s statement that the force has asked the government for funding an upgrade to its radar system  following the MAS aircraft disappearance.

“Until now there is no post-mortem report, no parliamentary select committee to probe the MH370 incident, no White Paper on how it affects our country and recently with even parliamentary questions by Sim being rejected.

“In short, there is no clear understanding of the incident and yet the government has decided that buying new, expensive military equipment is the way to address this crisis,” they said.

Search area to change

Sim and Tan had made a similar statement in April when the National Space Agency (Angkasa) reportedly used the MH370 incident to justify the commissioning of the RM270 million RazakSat-2 satellite slated for launch in 2016.

Meanwhile, Australia’s Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) said provisional results from analysts show that the search area for MH370 will be moved again.

“It is already clear from the provisional results of that analysis that the search zone will move, but still be on the seventh arc (where the aircraft last communicated with satellite),” it said in a statement, adding this will confirmed by the end of this month.

In the meantime, the Australian-contracted survey vessel Furgo Equator has started its bathymetric survey of the current search site with the Chinese survey vessel Zhu Kezhen joining it soon now that the defects in its sonar have been repaired.

Still relevant?

However, the Wall Street Journal in a report claimed the  usefulness of the surveys were in question since it was unclear whether the ocean floor map they produce would still be relevant if the search area changes.

“A Fugro representative in Perth, Western Australia said earlier its vessels cost between AU$75,000 (RM226,600) and AU$160,000 (RM483,300) a day to rent…

“Survey costs will be met from the AU$60 million (RM181 million) set aside by Australia and its partners to look for the missing plane.

“That means any cost overruns will eat into remaining capital to scour the seabed with deep-sea sonar equipment or to recover debris with remotely-operated vehicles,” the report added.