MH370: Military information should be shared in times of crisis

Military information sharing between countries may sometimes face obstacles especially when it relates to the security and defence of a country.

Former Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) chief Tan Sri Suleiman Mahmud said that military information must be shared especially in the event of a humanitarian crisis such as the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370.

“Of course there are limitations in sharing military information, however in a crisis such as the mysterious disappearance of flight MH370 that involves human life, there is flexibility between the countries involved and they will usually share their information with Malaysia,” he said when he was interviewed at Astro AWANI.

Suleiman who once held the highest position in RMAF between 2001 and 2003, said that although there are countries who have not signed an agreement for the joint Search and Rescue (SAR) operation, there is military cooperation.

“ASEAN countries such as Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and Brunei have strong military connections with Malaysia,” he said.

Although the countries cannot release too much information that is available on their radars, but because this involves the Search and Rescue operation and also the lives of passengers, certain information can be shared as long as it does not jeopardize the nation’s security.

“Any information that needs to be shared through existing mediums and networks especially in cases of a humanitarian crisis will be channelled through a bilateral coalition among ASEAN countries.

“We do have a Search and Rescue operations committee, but it was achieved through bilateral relations between Malaysia and Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore and so forth,” Suleiman added.

Through this mutual understanding, joint military exercises have also been conducted such as Malindo (Malaysia and Indonesia), Air Thamal (Malaysia and Thailand) among others.

“Through this network, whatever information we share through existing communications and networking mediums in ASEAN is easy especially when we require help.

Meanwhile, , Profesor Madya Dr Abdul Rahman Abdul Razak Shaik from the Faculty of Defence and Management Studies, National Defence University of Malaysia (UPNM) said that there are a few possibilities as to why it is so difficult to share classified military information.

“Several countries want to verify information on anything related to flight MH370 first before sharing it with Malaysia. They need to ensure whatever they had detected on their radar is really flight MH370,” he said.

Any initial information which can be shared with Malaysia will be announced publically.

“For example, they will share information of an object or a plane that was detected on their radar on a certain day and time. This includes updates regarding a low-flying plane over the Maldives, that is the extent of the information shared as it is not confirmed whether the object was indeed flight MH370,” said Abdul Rahman.

This type of information is usually top secret and only shared between militaries and not shared with the public.