It has been more than six weeks since Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared,shining an intense and sustained international spotlight on Malaysia.Top officials, such as Acting Transportation Minister Hishamuddin Hussein,have faced a barrage of tough questioning and criticism from the international media over their handling of the so far fruitless search.“I hope and I hope appeal to everybody that, though we understand their concerns we are trying our very best,”he said.Malaysia's ruling party has been in charge for more than 50 years.Professor Azmi Sharom says it was totally unprepared for such scrutiny.“They are more used to the more docile local media so it's not surprising that they didn't know how to handle it.Also there's a tradition of non-transparency with regards to governmentt activities and in this situation absolute transparency was necessary,”he said.Despite missteps in releasing information, strategic analyst Steve Wong and othershave praised Malaysia’s success in getting as many as two dozen countries, including both China and the U.S., to assist with the search.“It's a triumph of Malaysia's foreign policy and diplomacy within the region, although it is shaped as I said both by what it is capable of doing.
