Caucasian Names … Asian Faces … No, They’re Blacks! What’s Going On?
The Government is being hit by criticism again, and this time not just from Malaysians but foreigners as well.
Its handling of the case of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane MH370 bound for China from Kuala Lumpur is appalling. Instead of answering questions, it is provoking people to ask even more. Is it being cagey to cover up its own embarrassment for carelessly allowing the two men using stolen passports to board the plane? Or perhaps even more?
At a press conference held last Sunday, a New York Times reporter asked the Director-General of the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA), Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, what the Malaysian authorities saw on a CCTV recording of the two impostors and the D-G replied he couldn’t disclose this because of “security reasons”. Was it really just that?
As it turned out, we were told the next day that although the stolen passports carried Italian and Austrian names, the impostors looked Asian!
It even prompted Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to hit out at immigration officers in the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) for what appears a stupid blunder. “I am still puzzled how come (immigration officers) cannot think, an Italian and Austrian (passengers) but with Asian facial features,” he reportedly said.
Frankly, I was surprised he said that because it only made his own side, i.e. the Government, look awful.
After this disclosure, D-G Azharuddin was asked by the media for more information about the two impostors and whether their photographs would be released. Again, instead of being forthcoming, he hummed and hawed about the possibility of this jeopardising investigations and also that he would need to discuss it first with the investigating officers and relevant agencies.
Now his latest revelation (on Monday evening) is that the two men are black! He likens them to Mario Balotelli, the famous footballer who plays for A.C. Milan. He is a black Italian. Does this now justify why the immigration officers allowed the two men to pass through? Because when they looked at the names on the passports and then at the faces of the men, it occurred to them that there are Italians and Austrians who are black, and therefore they could answer to the names Luigi Maraldi and Christian Kozel? Were the officers fans of Balotelli?
But why has it taken Azharuddin so long to come out with this revelation? And now that he claims those two passengers are black, does it clear the air or does it make the mystery more of a mystery? Indeed, we are prompted to ask yet another question: Why then did Zahid say they had Asian faces?
Whatever it is, this still doesn’t detract from the other indication of the laxity of our airport security protocols. Interpol provides a database on stolen passports to all airports; if our immigration officers had checked that, they could have discovered that the two suspicious passengers were using those very passports. But they apparently didn’t check.
