Today turned out to be a rather long day. The search for MH370 was suspended, effective today, a fact made known over email a hour or so before noon. We could say, an email is an improvement over an SMS message, famously resorted to by Malaysia in March 2014, to declare that MH370 has ended in the inhospitable southern Indian Ocean.

So, small mercies in an otherwise difficult period.

The decision came on the back of a recommendation by experts assembled by the authorities charged with the search effort, to extend the search to an additional 25,000 sq km north of the present search area. In light of this, the decision is inexplicable.

But the signs were there.

Malaysia, never came through as serious from the early days. It was apparent that they would have been happy to wind down the search, and wrap up the investigation too with or without answers, and move on. They seemed reluctant to demonstrate leadership and remained content to keep up the pretence of steering the search and investigation, while having Australia do all the heavy lifting.

China has been mute, and invisible for the most part, preferring to operate in the background. It neither contributed much to the search nor expressed itself publicly, preferring a low-key profile lest the large number of affected families harbour raised expectations from their Government.

Australia has appeared committed to the search. They made a sizeable financial contribution too. Their interactions with families were always cordial and sensitive. They were accessible. Malaysia by contrast for reasons that are hard to fathom seemed either indifferent or were mortally scared to engage the families. So families had come to expect much from Australia. Whether it is sport (like cricket) or in life, they are never quitters. So it seemed quite out of character for the Transport Minister, Darren Chester, to speak of suspension of search soon after the experts recommended a new search area. Perhaps it has to do with the character of politics found everywhere, and not of the average Australian.

The announcement today was a deep disappointment. As the day rolled on, I got in touch with anger, disappointment, disturbance, dismay, and many moments of futility. I sensed my faith in the search and investigation erode precipitously, indeed faith in the entire gamut of institutional arrangements in place globally to keep us safe and secure, reassured that the journeys we undertake will indeed take us to our chosen destinations. MH370 didn’t make it to Beijing. And we may never know why it didn’t. We can never be sure that there will not be another tragedy.

It has all these months struck me as strange that Governments around the world prefer silence over unilateral offers of support to Malaysia – financial, personnel, equipment, sea borne assets, etc. Is it even conceivable that they think they have no cause for worry, or no cause to collaborate? Are countries so insulated, or is the world so bound by protocol that no government lets out even a murmur? This silence is not merely unnerving, it is truly shocking.

Likewise, does it not surprise anyone that no airline, aircraft manufacturer, service provider, airline Unions or associations, or IATA speaks up, expresses doubts, concerns, demands answers, or nudges the Governments to do the right thing and search for answers? Barring a stray pilots association or a Tim Clark (Emirates), all voices are muted or have been drowned in the clamour for more revenues and bottom lines. I am tempted to ask when was the last that anyone heard from Tim? Have his masters or industry peers silenced him with threats or inducements? Are we to continue living in a bubble of cozy collusion where we are presumed to be safe in the skies till a plane drops from the sky or drops out of sight forever?

I am tired of arguments that air travel is the safest mode of travel and that there is a one in a million chance of a mishap or some such statistic. It doesn’t wash with me.

I have been asked over and over today what options or next steps do we have. ‘We’ as in MH370 families. That is what it has been. A mostly sympathetic Press and the families who too run the risk of encashing all the goodwill that has been built in the last months and years. I wonder if every Transport Minister or Foreign Secretary / Minister in every capital will ever be asked why they don’t believe in speaking up or making a contribution. Even as a gesture. A token act of support. A dollar contribution that could ultimately have a payoff for all.

While so much attention has been focused on the underwater search, there are obvious and barely begun tasks of orchestrating the search for potential debris along the east African coast where debris has been found in previous months. Let’s remind ourselves, that confirmed debris has been found in the islands and coast of east / south Africa. No such luck in the ocean depths off of Australia where more than $150 million has been sunk in the Inmarsat-inspired underwater search.

But based on the callous neglect of the coastal search off of Africa, are we to conclude that in some twisted way, the underwater debris must be more privileged that what washes up on shores? That sounds perverse but perfectly understandable when stacked up against the extended malaise of Malaysia’s search leadership.

Just one more thing.

One of the casualties of today’s decision is the unflinching faith in Inmarsat’s data and analysis. There is enough in the decision to suggest that the Governments too have begun to wobble on the Inmarsat gospel. And if the faith remains intact, then there is much that remains to be explained about why the search has yielded nothing so far.

So all things considered, as the search stands ‘suspended’ (the ministers came up with this play with words to end suspense), it is time to redouble efforts for a resumption rather than despair. Maybe it is time for all those billionaires to step in for the next cycle of big ticket underwater search.

Meanwhile Malaysia cannot continue to pretend that debris finds so far don’t matter, or that they can conveniently ignore the challenge of a coastal search.

If one thing is clear, it is this: the search and investigation (for MH370, more specifically) are inseparable. The investigation is unlikely to come up with answers without the search yielding debris based clues.

Unless it is possible to close the case file by recording a failure and hoping that with time all will be forgotten even if not forgiven.

Or, unless… the entire search is a smokescreen to divert attention from a more compelling and sinister story that must eventually be brought to a quiet end. And the chosen moment is now.

Saudi Arabia got onto the UN Human Rights Council recently. One can only guess it must in deep appreciation of the decimation of human rights in Yemen. Maybe, in a similar vein, Malaysia will now be persuaded to lead the ICAO Council in recognition of its leadership in the search for MH370.

Image from Toonpool.

This article originally appeared on my Facebook page.