The former chief minister said the people had to help each other because of the late response and lack of coordination by government agencies, for instance in Selangor.

“Why did this happen? Because of the (lack of) leadership and lack of focus,” he said, during the Unity Show programme aired live on Facebook last night.

“The focus is (instead) on who wants to be the prime minister, who wants to become minister or who gets which project. So, we are not running the country (properly), we are not helping the people.

“The politicians are just trying to help themselves. This is why the people are fed up with politicians, with all the governments, one after the other.”

Shafie also criticised the government for not immediately deploying assets like boats to help flood victims.

He said the government has spent billions of ringgit to purchase equipment and assets for various ministries which could be used to provide aid to the victims instead of being left unutilised.

“That’s why I keep saying in Parliament that we should put those assets where they are mostly needed. There are many military boats, why not use them? We are not at war now.

“I also heard in Parliament recently that the defence ministry was planning to buy fighter jets. But at a time when our country is in debt and our people need help, why do we need to do so?” he said.

Shafie said the funds would be better off used to help victims who lacked food supplies or who have lost their houses and belongings in the floods.

He also lamented on the apparent inability of the federal government and Selangor government to work with each other on flood relief efforts. “We must have a plan and proper coordination when floods occur but (instead) the menteri besar is at odds with the federal ministry over whose responsibility it is (relief efforts).

“There must be cooperation but they can’t cooperate, why? It’s because they are not aligned with each other despite signing a memorandum of understanding,” he said, referring to the political pact between the federal government and Pakatan Harapan.

“We know that there will be floods every year in Malaysia. Why can’t we have a flood centre in each state and it can be, for example, placed at higher grounds and used to store sufficient food supply,” he said.

The government should also consider building temporary houses for flood victims, he added.