A DAP lawmaker criticised Najib Abdul Razak for attempting to score political brownie points over the latest revelation regarding the disappearance of flight MH370.

Charles Santiago said there is no reason for the former premier to focus on the political leanings of the pilot, Zaharie Ahmad Shah.

He noted that in 2018, the MH370 Safety Investigation Team concluded that it was unable to determine the real cause of the disappearance but did not rule out the possibility that "unlawful interference" by a third party caused the incident.

“While unlawful interference might allude to the pilot, we cannot be sure. In fact no one has made a definite conclusion.

“Having said that, there is no necessity for Najib to make references to Zaharie's political leanings. It is a known fact the was a PKR supporter but what does that have to do with his alleged role in the disappearance of the aircraft?

“As a former premier, it would do Najib good to stop using such an unfortunate incident as a political tool to try and garner support, now that he is facing incriminating evidence in court,” he told Malaysiakini.

Yesterday, Najib, who was prime minister when the plane disappeared in 2014, revealed that investigators had looked into possible criminal elements and the pilot's political leanings but did not make this public.

He said Zaharie (photo, above) was a "known active opposition party member who had attended various political activities and the opposition leader had admitted later that the pilot was related to him."

This was a clear reference to PKR president Anwar Ibrahim who admitted that Zaharie was related to his in-laws.

Although Najib said the then opposition could not be held responsible for the pilot's alleged actions, he, however, claimed that the political campaign at the time was replete with falsehoods and slander, which radicalised Malaysians.

“The mass rallies were attended by hundreds of thousands of people after the general election in the previous year before the plane went missing, who believed the malicious and false claims that there were 40,000 phantom voters and mass blackout during the polling day, is proof of such fanaticism.

“Such claims have since been proven to be outright lies by the then opposition and yet many were absolutely convinced at that time,” he added.

Najib was responding to former Australian premier Tony Abbot, who said that Putrajaya had believed the flight went missing as a result of murder-suicide.

Meanwhile, Charles reminded the former premier that family members and friends of those who lost their loved ones were devastated.

“Every Malaysian was grieving and there has been no closure. People are still grappling for answers and those affected are struggling to move on with their lives.

“The one important trait of a leader is to be a unifying factor, he or she is someone who empathises with the people. Najib has shown he isn't made of that material. And to me, that's not surprising.

“I would like to take this opportunity to show my solidarity with those who are still grieving because they simply couldn’t lay their children, spouses, siblings and friends to rest,” he added.