By Mariam Mokhtar

Why did it allegedly take two days before flood victims were rescued, evacuated and fed?

Immediate help came from friends, family or strangers!

Shame on the government of Malaysia! We have the largest cabinet in the history of the country, but it is probably the most inefficient and incompetent gathering of men and women the nation has ever known.

As the latest flooding crisis has shown, our bloated civil service, cabinet and ministerial aides are useless.

Some ministers appear to be more interested in officiating at various ceremonies instead of doing their jobs to help the rakyat.

These irresponsible ministers appear to place more importance on publicity then giving immediate help.

They are the Minister for Sports and Youth Ahmad Faizal Azumu, and the Minister for Women, Family and Community Development, Rina Harun. They should resign!

In Malaysian’s worst flooding crisis for decades, victims can do without the official ceremonies. They want help and they want it immediately.

Are our ministers unable to set their priorities?

Last week, thousands of Malaysians in Klang Valley were displaced when record rainfall fell from Friday to Sunday.

Flash floods caused the evacuation of thousands of residents, and many road users were stranded on highways.

Landslides were reported and some buildings were considered unsafe.

Floods were also reported across multiple states including Pahang, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Perak and Kelantan.

Not one minister responded with urgency to help the people who were affected by the floods.

The ministers failed to visit the stricken areas in the immediate aftermath of the floods, presumably because they feared being heckled by residents who would doubtlessly confront them and criticize their failure to act.

So, did the government learn anything from the mistakes that were made during the last flooding to hit Malaysia, albeit in another part of the country, in Kelantan?

After the terrible floods of 2014, there must have been many mitigation and flood control measures to prevent flooding from recurring.

What happened to those plans? Or is the disaster management manual gathering dust on a ministerial shelf in Putrajaya?

Perhaps it was behind the much larger book, “How to rake in money whilst doing absolutely nothing.”

What happened to the assets that were purchased by the relevant agencies to be utilized in flood rescue efforts? These are things such as small boats, rubber dinghies, medicines, tents, temporary wooden houses and special foil blankets to keep rescued victims warm.

In 2014, then prime minister Najib Abdul Razak was happier playing golf in Hawaii with former President of the United States of America, Obama, than to return to Malaysia and deal with the severe flooding on the east coast.

At the time, volunteers were more active than the government machinery in helping flood victims; but we learned then that volunteers had to be managed so that the disbursement of aid donated by the public was effective.

In 2014, Malaysians responded quickly to appeals for help with donations of food, clothes, tents, blankets and essentials like infant formula and milk powder for children.

However, one of the many mistakes made was that few people had donated water.

Water is needed for drinking but more importantly water is also needed to prepare the milk before it can be consumed by the child.

So, did we learn anything from the Kelantan floods?

All last week, Malaysians driving along the Federal Highway would have been alerted by warnings flashed on electronic signboards beside the road that the country would receive heavy rainfall and storms over the next few days.

How many people took heed? Ordinary people may not have bothered to take extra precautions, but there is no excuse for the ministries not to be prepared.

As events have shown, it looked like many ministers were caught sleeping on the job. A number of them can be singled out for their sheer incompetence.

Heads should roll, because they are responsible for their various portfolios and for running the country.

People in positions of power should be made accountable for their actions. They should be punished for failing to discharge their duties.

If the coronavirus pandemic successfully exposed the failure of ministers to respond to the health threat with speed, exposed the alleged corruption of supplies of PPEs and vaccines, exposed the double standards between politicians and the ordinary people when they break the strict lockdown rules; then this flood crisis has helped expose the lack of preparedness of the government machinery in dealing with a national disaster.

The flooding has also exposed the lackadaisical attitude of certain government departments, exposed the lack of teamwork between government agencies, and exposed their failure to quickly mobilize help for the victims.

Most of all, the flood crisis has exposed the sheer arrogance of some ministers who treated the suffering victims as photo opportunities to boost their personal egos and political future.

Many people have alleged on social media that they were stranded on rooftops for at least two days with nothing to eat and no rescue forthcoming.

What happened to the policemen, bomba or medical personnel?

In previous floods, many people claimed that they were rescued by the army. So, what happened in 2021?

The person who should be singled out for criticism is prime minister Ismail Sabri because he is in charge of the government. The buck stops with him.

Charles Santiago, the elected representative for Klang, was furious that Ismail had failed to notify him and other members of the Klang City Council (MPK), including the state assembly representatives, that he was going to visit two flood evacuation centers.

Santiago wanted to brief Ismail on the need for funds to deal with recurring flash floods; but, Ismail was more keen on scoring brownie points through publicity photos with flood victims solely to boost his personal image.

Another person who deserves the sack is minister in the prime minister’s department (special functions) Abdul Latiff Ahmad who is in charge of the National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA).

The allegation is that NADMA failed to coordinate and mobilize the rescue missions in the floods.

If NADMA was not ready, why wasn’t the armed forces deployed to help in the rescue effort? This is the responsibility of home minister Hamzah Zainuddin. Where was he?

Will the minister of environment Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man share the government’s flood mitigation measures presumably laid after the huge floods affecting the east coast in 2014? He has also gone missing!

The Malaysian rakyat quickly responded to calls for help, unlike the government which failed to provide manpower and aid. That is why these ministers should resign.

Sources:

1. Malaysiakini: Minister concurs after Najib pans him for ‘launching ceremony’ to help flood victims

2. Nabalu News: Belum habis dikutuk, Rina Harun buat hal lagi

(Mariam Mokhtar is a Freelance Writer.)