"Looking in the West of the country" must be a mistake on the part of a reporter. What was probably intended to be a reference to looking to the West of the presumed crash site has been distorted.
There is no reason to look to the western side of the country at all and apart from a couple of airports there is really no place for a 777 to land and it is heavily populated
No, I was watching the interview. The Malaysian commanding general specifically said that they had placed aircraft to look for debris off the coast of west Malaysia, and he specifically mentioned Penang.