Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak set for caution in 40th anniversary visit to China
Malaysian prime minister has to balance celebration of 40 years of ties with feeling for grieving relatives of missing passengers
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak must walk a diplomatic tightrope on his visit to China next month.
Najib's trip is intended to celebrate the 40th anniversary of bilateral ties, and he will have to strike a balance between showing enthusiasm for the historic occasion and conveying respect for the relatives of Chinese passengers aboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which went missing last month.
"We have to be sensitive towards the feeling of the families, and large-scale celebration seems not very possible," said Najib's political secretary, Wong Nai Chee. "Without the missing flight incident, we could have [had] the celebrations in a different manner.
"We are not saying we should not celebrate, but we have to do it in an appropriate way to take care of the sentiment of the families."
Relatives of the passengers have expressed anger and frustration over the Malaysian government's handling of the affair, accusing them of withholding key information that could have saved time.
Tension turned into wails of grief when Najib announced on March 24 that the flight, with 227 passengers and 12 crew on board, "ended" in the southern Indian Ocean.
Families protested outside the Malaysian embassy in Beijing, and accused the prime minister of being "inhumane" to their plight.