What’s the most important thing the people have done this year? Survived.

Will we be okay? Not with Malaysia’s political class, specifically the jokers in the prime minister’s pack of cards.

Vulture politicians are clearly more adept at showboating than hands-on management. Those most responsible for flood disaster management and relief appear to be the least discomfited.

Why doesn’t Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob shuffle his jokers out? Could it be because he would be left with nobody?

Since the past week, the nation has been flooded with stories of tragedy, tears, survivors and saviours that have unleashed a flood of emotion.

More tears flowed as the spirit of caring brought race-blind people together at the crucial moments of the massive floods.

Yet the tears did not receive the respect they deserved as politicians did little to erase the impression that they see disaster relief more as a political story than a human one.

The gush of emotion escaped the show-off politicians who each had their own opera of showboating, making the victims feel used by them.

Soon they will forget the victims and that’s when things will start to get bad.

“Are we going to be okay? When you have lost almost everything, where do you start,” asked a new bride as drained and devastated survivors began the long clean-up in hard-hit Taman Sri Muda in Selangor.

While comforting a friend in the same neighbourhood, I offered: “It looks bleak now, but things are going to get better.” She answered: “Perhaps with a new leader.”

There it was – the straight line of responsibility for the deaths and sufferings pointing to one direction.

At the heart of the problem is the glory-seeking by the politicians and their cohort which has taken over from serious policy-making.

Not a single statement has restored confidence in the government. Whatever the bureaucrats said and did only created more doubt.

The statements focused on approval of themselves and the federal government even as the death toll rose, people went missing and thousands fled their homes.

Ismail’s rambling explanation that rescuers at Taman Sri Muda had a tough time responding to victims stuck on rooftops as they could not see the addresses because of submerged road signs was stupefying.

It was equal to the actions of his fellow politicians and key federal officials who were not proactive, gave faulty information to the public, and were not adequately knowledgeable or trained.

While the nation was weeping, inconsiderate politicians organised events to launch their so-called relief efforts, went by boat to flood-stricken areas when the assets could have fitted victims, revelled in photo opportunities and plastered their faces on food and water boxes, banners and t-shirts.

They hammed up social media with their grandstanding, so if you take the first four letters of Twitter and add an S, you have a fair description of its users.

Elsewhere, foreigners, themselves victims, rescued people while government agencies were nowhere in sight. Yet, the RM1,000 relief is only for Malaysians even though migrant workers also sustained heavy losses.

Meanwhile, the politicians are telling us not to complain even as it is hard to fathom the full extent of the ecological crisis, the chaos, the trauma and the indignity that people are being subjected to.

We expect our leaders to foul up and are genuinely surprised if they don’t. No surprise then that news reports of the uncertainty over who was in charge and the incomprehensible red tape matched the sad stories.

The floods exposed major failures in Malaysia’s disaster preparedness and response systems but there have been denials, reassurances – no apologies.

It is now clear that the government’s emergency response system is far too complex as it fractionates responsibilities across multiple layers of governments and multiple agencies.

The mismatch between the statements from the central and local governments and the realities for staff on the ground needs to end, and fast.

The lava-like rage bubbling throughout Malaysia today burst forth out of fading trust, an indication of national decline and a sign of a government on the back foot.

But what do you expect from a government that is too conceited to listen to or accept any weaknesses in their system?

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