The 'Disappearance' of Flight MH370: Why China Is Correct In It's Criticisms of The Malaysian Authorities

          

     Why China Is Correct In It's Criticisms of Malaysian Authorities

Without speculating about the fate of the aircraft MH370, I would like to comment on something I do know about.

The information being relayed by Malaysian authorities concerning the unresolved location of flight MH370 appears to be wholly inadequate.

This is according to Chinese authorities - who have every right to criticism as the majority of the passengers on MH370 were Chinese nationals, whose relatives are now beyond distraught.

From a Western perspective it appears at first perplexing that say, for example, a Malaysian Minister will at first politely and courteously invite journalistic scrutiny then when the hard hitting questions are asked about anomalies in the air loss search and recover investigation, will then 'punish' such criticisms with the withdrawal of transparency and accountability for both the general public and the grieving families.

The Chinese Government, in this particular instant, has gone out of it's way to ensure full transparency and accountability and has, according to media reports, provided both adequate facilities for transport, rest and recuperation, and professional personnel for grieving relatives.

(The only facility it appears to have omitted is the availability of Monks, Imams, Priests and Pastors to talk with and console relatives of the travelers on Flight MH370 but probably such would to be expected in a professed Atheist country.)

From the South East Asian perspective, the most important criteria is not to loose face before your peers or indeed before the international community.

With smiles and polite dismissal of detailed direct questions (something South East Asian Politicians/Air Aviation Ministers and Senior Officials of Air Malaysia find discourteous - since you should never ask 'embarrassing' questions which might be heading, in their perception, in the direction of public 'confusion' and public disgrace to that Official or Officials) all efforts to get honest and direct answers (from a Western mentality perspective) are met with polite smiles and incidental answers - which are actually meaningless for the grieving distraught relatives at such 'briefings'.

This is a direct result with unfamiliarity in many societies of what we in the West would call public accountability, scrutiny and transparency in the way we understand the concept of  'transparency' and accountability.

What Malaysia appears to be most worried about is the ridicule it will most likely face as it becomes evident that it simply has no indigenous autonomous coordinated air defense system and is entirely reliant on that of it's senior military regional partners for security.  It's civilian airline tracking system is, as we can see, likewise abysmal, not subscribed into the global (pay-as-you-go) real time tracking systems and as the full extent of this weakness becomes more evident, one has to question it's ability to integrate it's systems in the event a major regional terrorist or military crises.

This could have profound implications for systems integration and real-time intelligence coordination and such implications should not be lost in the aftermath of this (probable) tragedy.

The only conclusion is that as things currently stand, Malaysia would expect it's senior Allied partners to take the responsibility for security coordination in the event of an external security threat or a major strategic or terrorist emergency of an aviation nature as it's own air defense system appears (at present) hopelessly inadequate.
This incident should also have highlighted to all South East Asian and African nations their own vulnerability to a 9/11 incident and steps which they will be required to integrate to prevent such scenarios.

We appear to be in a remarkable 'virtual reality' 'twilight'  zone of the story which as much display the Malaysian authorities inept air defense system as it does their inability, for cultural reasons, to admit systems weaknesses (it just happens to be occurring at present in the aviation sector but it could be reflective of any other aspect  life) for fear of 'loss of face'.

So we have several confabulated stories given out which frustrate the Chinese authorities as they waste valuable time and resources chasing ghost 'leads' evocated in briefings of 'smoke and mirrors' - all designed to save face.  The Director of Malaysian Airlines, Dr Hugh Dunleavy, appears more concerned at not further embarrassing the Malaysian authorities - appealing to the distraught victims families to exercise 'reason' by not asking  'awkward' questions [A SKY World Television News interview is the source of this information.]  This is one of the results of spending just too much time in such countries - you really do 'go Native' and the neural logic, reason, and speech networks get entangled when trying to reconcile the public expectations of East and West.

What you need to understand is that in many South East Asian Societies the loss of face in public is a terrible humiliation and when such occurs, somebody (or persons) must then resign in public and social disgrace - as their offense has, in this instance, will or could have humiliated the nation, before the entire world.

What we (in the West) might regard as an 'opportunity' to identify and correct areas of profound 'weakness' is sometimes perceived in the East only as something causing huge embarrassment which must not be allowed to happen again.

The boundaries of conformity and individual identity expression are shape-shifted as we move from East to West.

So, where do they go from here?

What's needed, in my opinion, is a fresh approach to this baffling enigma and an honest and open security appraisal in it's aftermath.

Perhaps inviting China, The United States, Indonesia, India and Australia to form a special joint partnership task force with the Malaysian authorities might not be the worst decision the Malaysian government might consider so that there are some new grounds for civil security cooperation (as opposed to competition) in so vital an economic region.

It appears that the United States, India, China and Australia (not to forget New Zealand) are now appreciating the 'opportunity' which this unfortunate tragedy has incidentally created, mobilizing their considerable technological satellite intelligence, maritime, military and human resources so that the initiative shifts to practical considerations and 'thinking outside the box' rather than just platitudes.

Patrick Emek