MH370: Chinese families' aggression will not help search effort

According to South China Morning Post (SCMP) in an article by Alex Lo yesterday, many of the Chinese relatives and their online supporters behaved like "raging bulls", made wild accusations and physically confronted Malaysian officials.

This, it said, was in contrast to how the non-Chinese families of the missing passengers were grieving.

"Perhaps, they (Chinese families) find it natural to act out their anger and frustrations. That's understandable. Whether or not that helps anyone in the search for the plane is a different matter.

"Non-Chinese families of the missing passengers (may) grieve as much as the Chinese but you don't see them displaying the same level of aggression," the Hong-Kong based English daily said in the article entitled "Chinese Families' Aggression Won't Help to Find Missing Flight MH370".

The daily said, because officialdom in China was often unresponsive and unaccountable, it had become second nature for many Chinese to mistrust government accounts and flight officials.

"Confrontation and aggression become their default mode in fighting for what they think are within their rights to demand. Such behaviour has been on ample display in the relatives' dealings with the Malaysians.

"But whatever their faults, I am sure the officials from the Malaysian airline and the government are not murderers or conspirators, as some Chinese families have accused them of being."

The daily said no doubt that MAS and the government initially "fumbled" in their handling of arguably the greatest aviation crisis the country had faced.

"But to be fair, their performance and coordination improved over the following weeks and the officials from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak downwards have shown patience and humanity," it added.