Putrajaya slams Anwar for ‘smear campaign’ against Malaysia
The Malaysian Insider – 2 hours 24 minutes agoRELATED CONTENT
- Putrajaya slams Anwar for ‘smear campaign’ against Malaysia
Putrajaya today accused PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (pic) of repeated attempts to smear Malaysia's image in the eyes of the world.
In a brief statement, Putrajaya today denied allegations by Anwar that the cargo manifest for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 had been deleted or covered up.
Putrajaya said the complete cargo manifest for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 had been released on May 1.
"Anwar's allegation that the manifest had been deleted or covered up is false," the statement read.
"Anwar is trying to smear Malaysia's reputation by implying that Malaysian officials were complicit in a terrorist act regarding MH370," Putrajaya said.
"The cargo manifest allegation is just the latest attempt by Anwar to exploit the MH370 tragedy and damage the country's reputation for his personal gain."
On Tuesday, Anwar claimed that the cargo manifest for flight MH370 had been deleted by "people in authority" as part of efforts to conceal information on the plane's disappearance.
In an interview by Caro Meldrum-Hanna for the Australian Broadcasting Corp's Four Corners programme yesterday, Anwar said his sources told him that the manifest had been deleted.
"I could not verify that, the only reasonable action I could take was to raise specific questions and demand the cargo manifest," he said.
Anwar claimed that the matter had even been raised in Parliament but there was no response from the authorities.
"Even if it is deleted or not, the government must come (out and explain) in a transparent manner.
"You can't expect the international community to have this huge search and rescue operation to find the debris. We have to know what is the cargo on the flight."
Pressed by Meldrum-Hanna if his contact in MAS had actually seen the cargo manifest, Anwar said he would not know.
"But people volunteer information to him in the strictest confidence as they were afraid of repercussions," he added.
Asked why Putrajaya would conceal so much information, Anwar said: "The only plausible reason I could give is that either they want to conceal evidence in order to deflect (something) or (they are) fearful the infomation will cause further embarrassment.
"To my mind, it is not acceptable, you are talking about lives and national security."
MAS had previously revealed that the cargo on board flight MH370 included 4 tonnes of mangosteen and lithium ion batteries.
Flight MH370 disappeared on March 8 along with 12 crew members and 227 passengers. There has been no firm sighting of the aircraft since then. – May 21, 2014.
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