This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on May 24, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: The new Malaysian government will review its ongoing agreement with US firm Ocean Infinity relating to the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

“We are reviewing the contract and we need to terminate it if not useful,” said Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. “We want to know the details of this [search], the necessity of this, and if we find it is not necessary, we will not renew.”

This comes as the new Pakatan Harapan government sought to cut spending in order to deliver its election manifesto while keeping the national economy safe from Malaysia’s ballooning national debt, said to already breach RM1 trillion.

Beijing-bound MH370, carrying 239 people, went missing several hours after taking off from Kuala Lumpur on March 8, 2014.

Ocean Infinity is the latest of several state- and private-owned teams looking for the remains of the plane in the Andaman Sea and the Indian Ocean.

In January, Malaysia’s previous Barisan Nasional administration agreed to pay the firm up to US$70 million if it succeeds during the 90-day search for the plane, which was initially scheduled to end in June.

But Ocean Infinity finished scouring its targeted search area in April. Yesterday, it received approval from Transport Minister Anthony Loke to have the search extended until May 29.

Meanwhile, the change in government brought high hopes for the plane’s family support group Voice370, which has since requested the new ruling coalition to conduct fresh investigations into the missing flight as part of its agenda over the next 100 days.

The request also includes a comprehensive review of all matters linked to the flight “especially the release of all relevant documents such as a full cargo manifest”.

It also called for an investigation into falsification or elimination of MH370-linked records, and further enquiry into any omission across the operations that “may have impaired tracking, search, rescue and recovery” of the plane.

“We also hope, like with other recent matters, Malaysia will be more open to sharing MH370-related information with other international governments and agencies in order to allow and complete a thorough review to take place,” the group said.

“We also call upon the government to engage Voice370 in ongoing dialogue and consultations regarding the search and investigation into MH370, and on issues related to the well-being of the families especially if the current search bears no fruit,” it added.