COMMENT | Vile ‘ping-pong’ blame game over flood disaster

COMMENT | As usual, the blame game has started on who screwed up over the recent devastating floods in the Klang Valley. Malaysia may not have won gold medals (yet) at the Olympics but we are serial champions when it comes to the ping pong of responsibility. It’s our national sport after major disasters.

It began when Prime Minister Ismail Sabri claimed that the federal government was only prepared for floods on the east coast, but not the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Perhaps he has conveniently forgotten huge west coast floods in Penang (2017), Kedah (2010) and Kuala Lumpur (multiple times) itself?

One area of tragedy – Taman Sri Muda, Shah Alam – was also inundated back on Christmas Day, 1995. Despite this sad record, Environment and Water Ministry secretary-general Zaini Ujang claimed that the record rainfall was a “once in 100 years” event.

In common English, that is known as an “act of God”. In Malaysian English, that is like saying, “The rains were God’s fault.” Was Zaini trying to cover up for his boss, who comes from the most “holy” party PAS? Yes, the minister Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man had declared that Malaysia faced no threat from climate change!

One doubts if the great divine will be very impressed with such an excuse for failing to berusaha or plan ahead… especially since the heavens had already given ample rainy warnings in previous years.

Then we come to Nadma, or the National Disaster Management Agency. It was formed in 2015 after the catastrophic floods that hit Kelantan to coordinate relief efforts between a whole bunch of government bodies such as the army, police, civil defence and bomba.

This included working with the Meteorological Department (MET) and the Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) to send out early warnings via SMS, the media as well as local sirens.

Despite this grand mission statement, did we see any of this before the floods hit the Klang Valley? Instead, people woke up terrified in the middle of the night as the waters silently entered their home porches, crept into their living rooms and then climbed the stairs like an orang minyak ghost....