SEMPORNA: Rural and Regional Development Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said Malaysians should pray for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Razak’s well-being in handling the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 incident in Ukraine.
He said they should thank the Prime Minister for his untiring effort and risk in contacting Ukraine to get the bodies of the victims back home.
“Najib has taken a risk in dealing with the Ukraine rebels and we really praise the efforts taken by him.
“We also express our gratitude to him (Najib) for enabling the bodies that were at the crash site to be taken out to a safe place in the Netherlands and also the black box in a short time,” he said when met at the Hari Raya open house at his residence here yesterday.
Shafie said if other quarters contacted the Ukraine, they would definitely not get any cooperation but based on their confidence towards Malaysia, the victims’ remains and black box were handed over in a short time.
He said the diplomacy used in handling in the incident could not only resolve problems but also reflected the nation’s positive image.
As such, he urged the people to emulate the action of the Prime Minister in addressing the issue.
“The Prime minister will depart for Amsterdam tomorrow to ensure DNA test could be hastened so that the Malaysians’ remains could be sent home. We pray this can be overcome,” he said.
Shafie, who is also the Semporna member of parliament, added the Prime Minister also had appointed Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom to handle the Muslim bodies on arrival in Malaysia for burial and Tan Seri Joseph Kurup will handle the bodies of Christians and non-Muslims,” he added.
Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein will handle the arrival of bodies and Home Minister Datuk Zahid Hamidi would bring more than 60 security personnel to the MH17 crash site to conduct test and analysis.
“The government will ensure the bodies are managed well but all this will take time and that is why the Prime Minister is going to Netherlands to ensure all these,” he said.