As Peninsula Malaysia is hit by the worst natural disaster in recent history with more then 90,000 people evacuated from their homes as floods worsen in the country, there has been almost no demonstration of urgency and leadership from the National Security Council chaired by the Prime Minister, who is away golfing in Hawaii.
Instead, all we have heard 2 days ago was the National Security Council secretary Datuk Mohamed Thajudeen Abdul Wahab warning people against spreading false rumours regarding the flood situation.
Datuk Mohamed Thajudeen was only interested in the formalities of the process of calling for a state of emergency by claiming that it could “only be declared by the Prime Minister” and” the announcement would be made through official channels”.
Worse, instead of informing the distressed public what are the pro-active and concrete efforts the Government will undertake to manage the disaster, he was more concerned with going after those responsible for starting the rumours once the flood in the east coast had abated. “We won’t let them off the hook,” he said.
Why is our Malaysian Federal Government so headless in dealing with such emergencies? If the fact that 90,000 Malaysians are forced to leave their flood-stricken homes into shelters with barely sufficient necessities isn’t a clear cut case to declare a “state of emergency”, what is?
We do not have a problem with Dato’ Seri Najib Razak taking his time to complete his year-end holidays in Hawaii, if the Federal Government agencies are demonstrating leadership and taking concrete steps to tackle the flood woes in his absence. However, all we are getting is officials spewing daily statistics and reacting to circumstances as they happen.
The Finance Ministry has just announced a RM50 million allocation for the flood victims to ease their burdern with emergency aid. While the aid is certainly welcome, it doesn’t solve the various practical problems on the ground, which has been described as chaotic.
We call upon the Federal Government to mobilise all possible resources to mitigate the flood situation, including setting up operations in areas which hasn’t been flooded yet, but might be severely affected in the event of more rain and rising tides. If a “state of emergency” needs to be declared to ensure such large scale coordinated mobilisation, then the Prime Minister must immediately declare a “state of emergency”.
If the Federal agencies remain lackasaidal with little sense of urgency, then the Prime Minister must return to the country with his golf irons immediately to strike “fear” into the members of his National Security Council to get their act together. The Council must not rest until the flood disaster is over.