HONOLULU: "Missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 is like our own plane. We're involved in the search effort as if we're looking for our own Vietnamese plane."
According to Malaysian Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, those words uttered by his Vietnamese counterpart Gen Phung Quang Thanh encapsulated Asean solidarity with Malaysia as Kuala Lumpur and its partners mounted a massive hunt for the aircraft missing since March 8.
He and his Asean counterparts are in Honolulu for the United States-Asean Defence Forum convened by US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel on Thursday, preceded a day earlier by the Non-Traditional Security Roundtable.
Widely regarded as 'the face of the search for MH370', Hishammuddin somewhat became the focal attention among those present at Tuesday's welcoming reception for forum participants that capped a hectic day for the Malaysian minister.
It was all in a day's work as he criss-crossed Honolulu to fulfil various engagements lined up for the day in verdant Hawaii.
First came the bilateral meeting with his Philippine counterpart, Voltaire Tuvera Gazmin, before heading for a meeting with the commanding general of the United States Marine Corp Forces, Pacific, Lt Gen Terry G. Robling.
A short distance away found Hishammuddin in the office of Admiral Samuel Locklear, commander of the US Pacific Command (PACOM).
He then travelled back for three other bilateral meetings - with Phung, Brunei's Pehin Yasmin and Singapore's Ng Eng Hen.
Summarising the day's events, he told Bernama that the people he met generally felt that Malaysia's handling of the disappearance of MH370 was spot on as they noted the complexity involved in coordinating an international search and rescue (SAR) operation involving 26 nations.
Hishammuddin said he conveyed Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and the people of Malaysia's gratitude to his Asean counterparts and US military top brass in Hawaii for the role played by their respective countries at all levels of the SAR mission.
"I also appealed to those with the right kind of assets to continue to assist us," Hishammuddin said.
The search for the Malaysian Boeing 777-200 jetliner with 239 people on board, which vanished about an hour into its Kuala Lumpur-Beijing flight, gained an added urgency with the inclusion of British submarine HMS Tireless in the search mission in the southern Indian Ocean.
Hishammuddin said this was confirmed by his British counterpart Philip Hammond in a telephone conversation Tuesday morning. Hawaii is 18 hours behind Malaysia.
Hishammuddin noted that as far as Asean was concerned, what Malaysia was going through in relation to the disappearance of MH370 "could well be something that they may have to go through".
"This is bigger than one country to handle. Who could Malaysia count on for assistance other than its regional neighbours and other friendly nations," he said.
Following an unprecedented type of analysis of satellite data, it was concluded that Flight MH370's last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth, Australia.
Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak then announced on March 24, seventeen days after the disappearance of the plane, that Flight MH370 "ended in the southern Indian Ocean". The search continues there.
Hishammuddin reckoned that the world was watching Asean following the MH370 tragedy, and this, according to him, was the right moment for Malaysia to show its leadership capabilities.
He said there was also the realisation that the link-up between Asean defence ministers had to be expanded, but this should occur without jeopardising the fundamental basis of Asean's creation.
Asean groups Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Hishammuddin counted the ability of Malaysia's leadership, the fact that it was friends with everybody and the courage to stand its ground, as factors that drew other countries, including big powers like the United States, to extend a helping hand in the search mission.
"It gives me some sense of comfort that we're not alone, and this is most important when you're facing something unprecedented, something that few people have gone through," he said.
He said his interactions in Hawaii revealed that no one was accusing Malaysia of making missteps in handling the MH370 issue, with many of his interlocutors taking a swipe at certain media outlets for irresponsible reporting in their coverage of MH370's disappearance.
The minister also pointed out that speculation over the vanishing of the Malaysian airliner was an unwelcome distraction as it had led to resources being wasted in the race-against-time search for the plane's black box.
He said families too had been put on a roller-coaster ride with each bit of speculation with regard to the missing plane, just because some media organisations were bent on boosting their ratings on the back of the MH370 coverage.
"That's unfair, that's irresponsible. Hence, the importance of releasing only verified information, which has been the case with the government of Malaysia," he added. -- BERNAMA
Read more: MH370 Tragedy: Missing airliner dominates Hishammuddin's day in Hawaii - Latest - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/latest/font-color-red-mh370-tragedy-font-missing-airliner-dominates-hishammuddin-s-day-in-hawaii-1.545752#ixzz2xlCY5eHm
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