LETTER | Twin tragedies mark a depressing, fateful week

LETTER | In the past few days, there has been a lot of sad and bad news.

As if the socio-economic problems created by the Covid-19 pandemic were not enough, the tragedy on Dec 18 near the Subang Jaya R&R in which a mother and her eight children were killed together with the mechanic who was repairing their car is too heart-rending to contemplate.

Just think, 10 lives snuffed out in a jiffy due to the recklessness of the trailer driver. I have observed how trailers and lorries whizz past the leftmost lane and are not at all bothered about vehicles being repaired, preparing to be towed or breaking down at that lane.

The speed of the heavy vehicles on the leftmost lane is truly worrisome and is a danger for anyone standing on the emergency lane awaiting help. Heavy vehicle drivers, as they are seated in a higher position than car drivers, can see from 100 metres away if there are vehicles along the emergency lane and therefore, need to slow down.

This is not the case, as they simply drive at the usual fast pace. The emergency lane has now become even more dangerous than the fast lane.

In the Subang Jaya accident, the trailer driver could have seen the stalled vehicle being repaired in the emergency lane from afar and since it was raining heavily, he should have not only slowed down but should have been more cautious. This he did not do, and 10 lives were lost.

Highway users should take note that if a vehicle breaks down, everyone inside the vehicle must get out and wait at a safe distance in the emergency lane or better still, behind the railing along the emergency lane. The highways have become racing tracks with a lot of lunatics behind the wheels.

It is hoped that the government will help the surviving members of the family to the maximum as possible and I hope Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob will, after the floods have receded, visit the family and offer assistance. There is no better example to showcase the Malaysian Family concept than by attending to the grief-stricken family members and offering help.

The unprecedented floods in the country especially in the Klang Valley is a wakeup call to all that climate change is not what was debated only in faraway Glasgow but is a reality here in Malaysia. Most of the river beautification works in the Klang and Gombak rivers in Kuala Lumpur would have been swept away by last weeks’ floods.

So much for DBKL and the federal government's multi-million ringgit river beautification project. It would have been more sensible and for run-off and flood mitigation measures upstream. The ravages of the 1971 floods in Kuala Lumpur were totally overlooked.

Even though the torrential rains were extremely heavy to cause the floods, the irresponsible hand of the Selangor government is also to blame. There has been no let-up in development and the urban sprawl of concrete jungle, all in the name of progress despite Selangor having been declared a developed state in 2005.

Since 2008, the Pakatan Harapan administration has been governing the state. The municipal administration is in a mess due to high-level incompetency, corruption, and tidak apa attitude on the part of the civil servants and the political leadership.

The local councillors do not do their jobs properly or dutifully, both the municipal contractors and workers (mainly foreigners) are an incompetent lot and the civil servants who are supposed to monitor their work are usually indifferent.

Most of the flash floods and deluges in Selangor can be traced to blocked or clogged large drains and rivers. The local authorities should have been ready from late September soon after the equinox when the rainy season starts.

The government spends large amounts on infrastructures like roads and drains but are the expenses worthwhile with an inefficient departmental staff? Perhaps all these shortcomings can be done away with local government elections which could clear the deadwood that passes for local councillorship and municipal leadership in Selangor.

It is a fallacy to state that holding elections for the third tier of government is expensive and therefore should be avoided. However, the savings brought from unnecessary expenditure in the free-spending local authorities far outweigh the expenses and it will also save the people - the ratepayers - from a lot of misery such as floods. 

Selangorians need a more effective local government to rectify their municipal woes. The status quo has to go!

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.