Admit your mistake over MH370, Pakatan tells Najib

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announcing on March 24 that MH370 had ended in the southern Indian Ocean. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, April 2, 2014.Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak must admit that he made a mistake when he announced on March 24 that MH370 had ended in the southern Indian Ocean and later attempted to imply that he did not mean that the plane had crashed or that there were no survivors, opposition politicians said today.

DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang told reporters at the Parliament lobby that the mistake was obvious when Najib tabled a motion of sympathy for the families the day after making the announcement, implying that there were no survivors.

He said text messages were also sent out by MAS while its chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya had mentioned in a press conference that there were no survivors.

After the announcement caused anger and frustration among mainly families of the Chinese passengers, acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein defended Najib by saying the prime minister did not say the plane had crashed or there were no survivors.

Relatives of passengers said Putrajaya should apologise for prematurely claiming that the plane had crashed.

Datuk Mahfuz Omar (Pas-Pokok Sena) wanted to know if the government would be taking action against local media which had reported that the plane had crashed in the Indian Ocean, and implied that all those on board had died.

"The acting transport minister said they were considering taking action against international media that carried false reports on the missing plane.

“Are they going to take action against the media that carried the reports suggesting there were no survivors?" he asked.

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