Deputy Foreign Minister Hamzah Zainuddin laments that despite the effort of Malaysian officials, relatives of the Chinese passengers on-board MH370 continue to treat them with distrust.

 

He said that from the beginning, the team dealing with the families need to provide answers that have been "verified", and thus had been repeatedly conveying their queries to a technical team and back.

 

"Once we have convey it to them (the families), they will ask another question that also, for us, we have to actually give to the technical committee for them to give back the answer, and we pass it on to them.

 

"The problem is all the time - every time when we mention about the answers given - they will say that we are hiding something," he told a press conference today in his capacity of as the head of the committee overseeing affairs related to the next of kin of passengers.

 

However, Hamzah said it is "fair" that the next-of-kin to feel frustrated. This is especially since there had been no precedence, making the situation difficult to believe.

 

He said a technical team from MAS is in Beijing and will provide the briefings to the families from now on, and Malaysia will seek the Chinese government’s assistance to deal with any misunderstandings.

 

"They would have a better understanding of their culture and their origins. They come not only from Beijing, but from 26 different area across China.

 

"If they are asking about cultural issues, then how about us so far away? That is the discussion between Malaysia and China," he said.

 

MAS to foot bill

 

He adds that he will be travelling to Beijing soon to ensure that bilateral ties between Malaysian and China remain intact.

 

Meanwhile, Hamzah says that he had met with some of the family members of those on board the missing aircraft this morning, including two representatives from China.

 

He said during the meeting, the family members have decided to email a proposal on financial assistance to him as soon as possible, while Hamzah pledged to table it in a meeting tomorrow.

 

To a question, he said assistance given to the relatives of each passenger will be the same, and all of the money will come from MAS. The government will chip in only if necessary.

 

He added that the government is still studying the technicalities involved in issuing death certificates for the passengers on-board MH370.

 

Previously, it has been reported that some relatives had faced difficulty in filing insurance claims, dealing with outstanding bank loans, and other bureaucratic hurdles, due to the lack of a death certificate.

 

Since then however, groups such as Association of Banks in Malaysia and Life Insurance Association Malaysia has expressed willingness on behalf of their member organisations to give the relatives special consideration.