Among the many mysteries thrown up by the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 is how the Malaysian authorities have managed to flounder so badly, right in front of the massed cameras of the world's media. Perhaps the most outstanding blunder was the enforced removal this week of distraught Chinese relatives seeking to protest at a government press conference. Dozens of photographers and cameramen recorded a screaming woman being manhandled out of the room. Then, when the Chinese relatives were confined to another area of the hotel where the press conference was being held, journalists were stopped from interviewing them by a line of Malaysian policemen. These impassive-faced law officers refused to answer questions from reporters whom they pushed back. All of this was captured on film and broadcast minutes later around the world. What were the Malaysian authorities thinking about when they organized this appalling over-reaction? In the press conference itself, officials hardly distinguished themselves by refusing to answer detailed questions, pleading that what was really important was getting on with the search. It did not matter that the government later apologized for what had happened to the Chinese relatives and promised an investigation into the behavior of the police. The damage to Malaysia's international reputation had been done. Moreover, official Chinese displeasure at what Beijing sees as Malaysia's incompetent handling of the whole MH370 affair was only deepened. Yet to a degree, the Malaysian authorities deserve some sympathy. A disaster of this scale and complexity is hardly an everyday event. Any country would have been hard-pressed to handle immediately the massive media attention that suddenly shone a bright light on everything that the authorities were doing. Some very serious mistakes were made at the beginning. Faced with an endless barrage of questioning, officials began to give out information that had not yet been verified. Attempts by some to curb speculation were undermined by background briefings from other, probably well-meaning, officials which encouraged a raft of explanations for the increasingly bizarre and mysterious route of the airliner. In the coming months, the Malaysian government will doubtless be holding a post-mortem to assess its performance and the succession of damaging public relations failures. If it is wise, the core conclusion of an enquiry will be that while no specific detailed preparation could ever be made for a particular disaster, basic principles can be put in place. Not the least of these would be the immediate assignment of “ownership” of the information flows on a tragic event to a single official body. The dissemination of news and updates would need to be coordinated and closely controlled. Nothing will ever stop journalists from speculating, as the sad mystery of Flight MH370 has demonstrated, but an official government source needs to establish itself as a credible and reliable point for the handing out of confirmed data. What has gone wrong over the handling of the perplexing loss of the Malaysian Airlines plane may also have had something to do with complacency by politicians and officials, who are unused to being quizzed critically and asked to explain themselves. Whatever happened to this airliner and the unfortunate people on board, the biggest discovery that ought to be made by the Malaysian authorities is that in a world of immediate news, positive media coverage can only be obtained by careful contingency planning and clear lines of responsibility.
