Floods In Malaysia

Flood is not something new to Malaysia. From my school days (late 80s onwards), every year end schools would be closed and news about flood sprung all over. The time frame is usually between November to December and slightly spilling over to early January.

So why after years of experience going through the flood situation that has become piratically a norm is getting from bad to worse? To add fuel to fire, the way the flood situation is handled in some states is nothing short of the lack of preparedness.

Yes times have changed significantly. I am sure many would agree on the fact that the weather pattern of the world is changing. Natural disasters are getting from bad to worse. The climate change is way different compared to what it was 10 years ago.

Now, what I have mentioned above is information that are already known to us. We know climates are changing, we can almost accurately predict when the next big rains going to come and we also know the area that are usually are prone to floods.

Despite all the above knowledge, we still have people getting stuck for days at home, delay in delivering aid to flood victims, relief centres of very poor facilities. The way some relieve centres are, as what I would liken to “kandang lembu” where victims are packed together. For the benefit of some who sits high up, talk but no action, these victims are humans who had voted you in….

I agree with one of the suggestion by Tun Mahathir in his blog (http://chedet.cc/?p=1169#comment-116961), that we need to re-visit the way we build our buildings. Architectural designs should look into making building more flood proof. But you and I know that construction companies are there to make money. So if we want to have buildings with flood proof made, local laws and regulations need to be changed to force the design of these flood proof building.

On top of that, we should also have strong enforcement. What good is a fancy law with no enforcement? We have department of irrigation, and yet why was Sungai Kajang allowed to be polluted to the extend where it caused flash floods in Kajang? What die the authorities do? Basically they say what we all already know. They send in a team to tell us that the flood occurred very fast because the rivers were blocked? By what? mostly logs and debris? Looking back, one question looms, which Idiot approved the logging company to use the river without consulting department of irrigation to asses the impact of such activity?

To my utter surprise what did politicians comment on papers? Another round of sweet talk and blame game. Ohh the people at fault for polluting the river. Yes, I agree that people especially the citizens of Kajang are at fault when it comes to polluting the rive. But who don't know this? I dont think I voted the wakil Rakyat to tell me what I already know. Don’t we have municipal council, the police, the ministry of environment, town planning unit and God know how many more departments to ensure all this don’t happen in the first place?

It has become sickening and boring to hear politicians giving press conference talking rubbish and yet another year goes by and we are in more worse condition than we were. I would like to see the time where politicians stop talking but start walking. Take action. Make sure the related authorities and enforcement units do what they are suppose to do. Action speaks louder than words can. Readers please note, I mentioned politicians. So it is not related to a political party. It is directed to whomever were elected to represent the Rakyat for the particular area.

A final thought……did the Rakyat made a mistake choosing the wrong wakil rakyat? or did we chose the right wakil Rakyat but the current system does not allow him/her to perform his duties effectively??

May God be with us all....