So much for our current prime minister scoring himself and his team a 90% mark for their performance since taking over the government about three months ago.

The response for the hundreds of thousands of Malaysians caught up in the worst floods in 50 years was nothing short of monumentally chaotic and shambolic. There have been enough accounts and reports to illustrate the messy and muddled way this catastrophe is being handled.

My 60-year-old aunt, her husband, daughter and son-in-law were holed-up on the first floor of their modest terrace house in Taman Sri Muda for 36 hours without food, water and help.

Brandon, who works with me, saw his father, in the same area, stuck for 48 hours with no help, until he and his sister waded through the flood-waters themselves, to rescue him.

Visuals of desperate people clinging on to dear life and whatever salvageable possessions from rooftops, spread like wildfire. Videos of ordinary folks, moved by the magnitude of the disaster, who came out in droves to help their fellow Malaysians in need, went viral.

Videos posted on social media also showed overflowing rivers, landslides, cars submerged in river-like streets, and malfunctioning or faulty water pumps at the Sri Muda River.

I woke up on Sunday, and decided that together with my team at my restaurant, The Fire Grill, we must do whatever we can to help.

It was our day off. I made a call to my team, everyone volunteered immediately and, within a few hours, we rushed out 500 hot-meals to those affected, via the offices of the member of parliament for Klang.

For the next three days, with the combined effort from two interfaith organisations, and generous donors to my restaurant, we sent out another 2,000 hot-meals a day.

Similarly, so many individuals, NGOs, fishing folks, anglers and such, got to the ground to offer their services and help. It was like a “private government” made of the people of this nation, who sprang into action to come to the aid of their fellow citizens, in their hour of need.

What were our esteemed ministers and politicians doing in the meanwhile?

Well, they were busy organising “launch ceremonies” for volunteers to help during the crisis, printing banners to say that they were about to do something, crafting stickers with their logos to put on whatever paltry help they were offering, and generally doing nothing of any significance.

All the usual suspects who talk a big talk, and who bang on about nonsensical issues like whisky brands, chopsticks, using western names for townships, bringing a transgender business person to book etc were nowhere to be seen.

None of them were doing anything to help the plight of those caught up in this colossal devastation.

In my training programmes for corporate Malaysia, I run a session on crisis management. Yet, it looks like no one in this current government has ever been trained or schooled in this vital subject.

There is a simple technique taught to most top management in corporations.

First is detection, by identifying any warning signs and working on preventative measures. In our nation’s case, no one seemed to foresee this catastrophe. This, notwithstanding the rapid and unbridled development that our government approves.

Next, we are taught to probe and reduce risks. Does this happen in Malaysia with our politicians? Do they even have the time to attend to this while they are busy looking after themselves? Or gallivanting, and stoking the fires of racial differences, simply for their own benefit?

Third, we have to do damage containment when a crisis occurs and take instant action to limit its spread. This is the immediate response when a crisis happens. The last three to four days have shown how pathetic the Malaysian authorities are in responding and containing the crisis.

Next is the recovery effort to normalise operations. Oh, this will happen. But I am sure the efforts to rebuild will benefit certain elites and their cronies. Is there a concerted action plan already in place to mitigate this disaster for thousands who have lost everything?

And finally, in crisis management, we are taught to review the effort and learn from it.

What have these few days shown us? Nothing has been learnt from the floods that have hit various parts of Malaysia every single year. It’s not like floods don’t happen regularly in our country. The government was just so unprepared and woeful in responding, even though there were so many indicators and red-flags.

We live in a country that is, at best, dichotomous.

On the one hand, we have a self-congratulating government and a pompous set of bureaucrats who think they are managing our affairs really well. But on the other hand, when tragedies like these floods occur, and displace hundreds of thousands of people, there is absolutely no leadership in a crisis.

Malaysia is dichotomous or has a really sharp division of ideas and actions into two contradictory parts.

Even as we witness the lackadaisical response from the people who are charged with running our nation, it is these very same people that say they’re doing a grand job, by their own account. And strangely, a sizeable portion of Malaysians continue to vote for these people repeatedly.

Perhaps, this is the final reality check we all need. Isn’t it time we changed everyone and everything?

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.