As I watch video clip after video clip posted by ordinary members of the public, I’m beginning to understand their anger over the ineptitude of the government and its bunch of civil servants.
As I watch photograph after photograph of the devastating floods that struck several states, especially Selangor, I am beginning to share their frustration over the clueless, uncoordinated actions of the government.
As I listen to some of the excuses given by the authorities, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Take the statement of National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) director-general Aminuddin Hassim, for instance. On Dec 21, he said state governments were responsible for managing disasters. He also said federal agencies would only intervene when a situation became “severe”, or when there was confusion and the “necessary agencies” did not respond appropriately.
If state governments are solely responsible for disaster management, why have an agency called Nadma in the first place? Why waste taxpayer money on the salaries of Nadma staff and the purchase of assets for the agency?
If federal agencies will only intervene when a situation becomes severe, what is Nadma’s definition of “severe”? Was the situation in, say, Taman Sri Muda not “severe” enough?
If federal agencies will only intervene when there is confusion and the “necessary agencies” do not respond appropriately, why was there no action despite the confusion, delay and inadequate response from government agencies?
Yesterday, we had Selangor National Security Council (MKN) chairman Noh Omar explaining why it is wrong to blame him for the failure to properly tackle the flood situation in the state.
He revealed that there were two committees under the MKN and that the one chaired by him handles security while another chaired by the state secretary handles disaster management. We were also told that from yesterday, Selangor menteri besar Amirudin Shari would chair this second committee.
This is the problem with playing politics. Why do you need two different heads for this? Does Selangor have two heads for two committees because the state government is under the opposition? Noh, as we know, is an Umno leader, and part of the ruling government, and he was appointed to the post last November. Until then Amirudin was heading it.
Amirudin had said yesterday that he could not call the security forces to help because he was not the state MKN head.
The public is not interested in this type of childish political rivalry. The public is also not interested in political games or government leaders – whether state or federal – pointing fingers.
The public just wants leaders and civil servants to do their work properly. The public just wants to see coordinated work and efficiency when a disaster, such as flooding, strikes.
Although special functions minister Abdul Latiff Ahmad dismissed talk of bad blood between government agencies involved in flood relief, the way government agencies acted on the ground seems to say otherwise. The army, for instance, was reported to have moved in on its own after waiting for instructions which never came.
Even if there was no bad blood between the various agencies and departments, there definitely was a horrible lack of coordination.
The fact is, from all accounts by victims, ordinary citizens proved better and faster than government personnel paid to handle disasters and rescue victims.
In none of the video clips I’ve watched, and I’ve seen quite a few, has anyone praised the government or government departments. However, all of them have high praise for ordinary members of the public who answered the cry for help.
These volunteers did not wait for instructions; they acted spontaneously. And I’m glad to hear that the volunteers did not care about race, religion or skin colour: they rescued fellow human beings.
Many of them were young men, including a few who, to some, might look like “gangster types” or “suspicious characters”. It is these people – people with feet on the ground, people who cared – who actually saved lives and helped hundreds reach safety. Not those who always look smart in their clothes or move in nice cars or give beautiful speeches.
Even foreign workers, who are sometimes discriminated against, waded through floodwaters to help rescue those trapped in buildings.
Well done to all the nameless people who got their feet and bodies wet so that someone could be saved from harm. Kudos also to those few politicians who, instead of issuing statements, actually went down to the ground to help.
Once again, it was people taking care of people, just as happened during the lockdowns that followed the Covid-19 pandemic. Then too, the government appeared lost.
Most Malaysians feel the government failed to effectively handle the Covid-19 pandemic. If it had, the number of deaths, if not cases, would be so much lower.
According to Statista Research Service figures, as at Dec 13, there were 966.4 deaths per million people in Malaysia which has a population of 32 million. Indonesia, with a population of 270 million, only had 531.8 deaths per million, while India, with a population of 1.36 billion, had 348 deaths per million.
What does that tell you about the efficiency of our government’s or health system’s response? What does that also say about the state of our health as a population, for doctors say people with comorbidities are at greater risk of dying?
The government’s economic recovery efforts do not seem to have been successful so far. Many people remain jobless and disgruntled, while businesses continue to suffer.
And the rising prices of goods and services, especially food, has led to even more public anger.
Only last week, economist Geoffrey Williams of the Malaysia University of Science and Technology said the economic crisis the country was facing had more to do with “wrong” policies – such as the stimulus packages and the Covid-19 lockdowns – than the pandemic itself.
FMT quoted him as saying that although the government had introduced eight stimulus packages worth RM530 billion, these had failed to address the financial issues faced by the affected groups such as people in the bottom 40 category and small- and medium-sized enterprises.
And there’s the question of why investors are leaving the country and why Indonesia, Vietnam and other neighbours of ours are able to attract huge investments and big players but not Malaysia.
Now, the government has fallen flat on its face again – this time on muddy water.
People are asking, quite correctly, why government agencies failed to alert them to the heavy rains although the Meteorological Department constantly monitors weather conditions.
People are asking, quite correctly, why government agencies took so long to respond; in many cases victims remained trapped for more than 24 hours and had to spend the night without food on the upper floor of their houses.
People are asking, quite correctly, what happened to the billions of ringgit spent on flood alleviation projects over the years and on buying disaster relief equipment and on training people to handle such disasters.
The truth is, government agencies have failed big time. The truth is, our civil servants have become too comfortable, doing only as much as is needed or less and collecting their salaries.
I don’t want to talk about the effectiveness of the government. I’m tempted to say though, that since we already have so many advisers to the government, perhaps we should add another to the pool: Adviser cum Envoy for Monitoring Weather Conditions, Alerting the Public, Flood Relief, Clearing Mud, Catching Snakes and Coordinating Federal-State Actions Towards Saving Lives.
I’m sure we’ll be able to find someone from the ruling coalition who needs a job that pays about RM50,000 or so a month.
The public is convinced that the current and previous governments have failed, and failed miserably, not only in dealing with the floods, but also in handling Covid-19 and economic recovery.
But we can’t lay the blame solely on the government. Although the government is supposed to provide leadership, it is the salaried government servant who carries out such work as weather and river monitoring and flood relief work.
These guys failed big time. They should be ashamed.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.
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