Vile ‘ping-pong’ blame game over flood disaster [a.k.a NADMA = NIAMAH]

Vile ‘ping-pong’ blame game over flood disaster

Andrew Sia


COMMENT | As usual, the blame game has started on who screwed up over the recent devastating floods in the Klang Valley. Malaysia may not have won gold medals (yet) at the Olympics but we are serial champions when it comes to the ping pong of responsibility. It’s our national sport after major disasters.

It began when Prime Minister Ismail Sabri claimed that the federal government was only prepared for floods on the east coast, but not the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Perhaps he has conveniently forgotten huge west coast floods in Penang (2017), Kedah (2010) and Kuala Lumpur (multiple times) itself?

One area of tragedy – Taman Sri Muda, Shah Alam – was also inundated back on Christmas Day, 1995. Despite this sad record, Environment and Water Ministry secretary-general Zaini Ujang claimed that the record rainfall was a “once in 100 years” event.

In common English, that is known as an “act of God”. In Malaysian English, that is like saying, “The rains were God’s fault.” Was Zaini trying to cover up for his boss, who comes from the most “holy” party PAS? Yes, the minister Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man had declared that Malaysia faced no threat from climate change!

One doubts if the great divine will be very impressed with such an excuse for failing to berusaha or plan ahead… especially since the heavens had already given ample rainy warnings in previous years.

Nadma’s pathetic excuses

Then we come to Nadma, or the National Disaster Management Agency. It was formed in 2015 after the catastrophic floods that hit Kelantan to coordinate relief efforts between a whole bunch of government bodies such as the army, police, civil defence and bomba.

This included working with the Meteorological Department (MET) and the Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) to send out early warnings via SMS, the media as well as local sirens.

Despite this grand mission statement, did we see any of this before the floods hit the Klang Valley? Instead, people woke up terrified in the middle of the night as the waters silently entered their home porches, crept into their living rooms and then climbed the stairs like an orang minyak ghost.

It was a colossal failure of responsibility by Nadma, leading to calls for its chief, Abdul Latiff Ahmad, to resign. In countries with more honour, such as Japan, leaders would have committed political hara-kiri, bowing humbly in shame publicly and quitting before being asked to.

But our Nadma chief instead chose to spew out various ridiculous excuses. Firstly, he claimed that the floods were “unexpected”. Hellooo…was he waiting for this disaster to announce itself like a VIPs “mengumumkan ketibaan Yang Amat Berhormat so and so”? No, it’s his job to anticipate dangers!

Secondly, Latiff said that “the disaster shouldn’t be politicised” because it is “colour blind.” This is a classic pretext in Malaysia nowadays when leaders claim that any genuine criticism of failures are invalid because they spring from political or racial motives.

But wait a minute, he could be right after all. Wasn’t he given the Nadma post because he’s a minister from Bersatu? Is this what happens when important jobs are handed out based on political loyalty rather than actual ability? So pissed off were people at his pathetic excuses that several said Nadma should be renamed as the Cantonese foul word N**mah!

Volleyball of accountability

The volleyball of accountability continued with a story leaked to the media that the army was “fed up of waiting” for Nadma and decided to start its own rescue work “after Friday prayers”.

But this story, citing a mysterious unnamed source, does not fit into the timeline seen on the Facebook posts by Klang MP Charles Santiago and others. As I explained in my previous column, the floodwaters in Klang began rising late on Friday night (Dec 17). So it seems rather strange that “rescue work” had begun “after Friday prayers”.

And those doing rescue work on the ground, such as Bangi MP Ong Kian Ming, only saw the authorities taking charge on Sunday night/Monday morning.

Klang MP Charles Santiago visits families affected by the floods.

On Sunday night (7.45pm, Dec 19), with people still stuck on rooftops without food after two days, Charles had to practically beg Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein on Facebook to send in the army for help.

I believe in the capability and sincerity of our soldiers. But I am not so sure about the politician called a minister. If the army had indeed been ordered to start rolling in “after Friday prayers”, as claimed, why was there a need to wait for (and get supposedly “fed up” with) Nadma? Or is the anonymous source trying to spin and revise history? And to shift blame to Nadma?

Whatever the real story is, Hishammuddin could have publicly announced on Friday night (or Saturday morning) that he was sending in the army, come hell or high water, pardon the pun. That would have proven that leadership from an Umno minister was better than from a Bersatu one (the Nadma joker).

Selangor vs Selangor tennis match

The tennis match of mutual accusations continued when Selangor MB Amirudin Shari claimed he could not mobilise the army and police to help out because the state National Security Council (NSC) was led by Selangor Umno chief Noh Omar.

Only half true, fired back Noh, as he explained some obscure details that he was only chairing the state NSC committee for “security” but not the committee for “disaster relief”. Is he just trying to muddy the waters with petty bureaucratic technicalities? To taichi blame?

Never mind who was “really” in charge. Both men missed a historical opportunity to be real heroes during the crisis. Noh could have linked up with his Umno buddies in powerful Putrajaya to mobilise massive relief efforts. He could have been a Rudy Giuliani, who became a national icon for his leadership as New York mayor after the 9-11 attacks.

As for Amirudin, he may or may not have had the power over the police and army. And the Selangor government may have had very few boats. But surely, he could have mobilised all the state’s lorries (government and private) to bring in small fishing boats from places like Kuala Selangor and Sekinchan for flood rescues? It would have been like Dunkirk during World War Two, when small private boats from all over England came to help evacuate Allied troops.

Toxic politics?

Apart from incompetence or lack of imagination, was there a deeper explanation to the delay in rescue efforts? The Amirudin vs Noh fight suggests that our toxic politics may have played a role.

After the floodwaters rose, a whole slew of posters appeared online attacking various state Pakatan Harapan leaders, including Amirudin.

They were all designed in a similar way, with titles screaming ‘MISSING’ over the politicians’ photos and various reasons given for it.

For example, one poster accused Klang MP Charles Santiago of being “missing” and “last seen at Parliament cafe”. This was clearly a lazy, clumsy attempt at character assassination when he was one of the real heroes of the relief effort, getting together lorries and volunteers to run all over Klang distributing food and badgering authorities to do more.

Yet, these posters looked like a coordinated smear effort. Were they designed to coincide with an ahem… “unfortunate” delay in rescue missions? To make Selangor voters angry with Harapan leaders?

So vicious was the attack on Amanah president Mohamad Sabu that he was felt compelled to explain that he had been trapped by floodwaters for eight hours at a petrol station.

But karma has a funny way of dealing with political tricks. And so, the heavens decided to pour rain, not in 100 years, but soon after the 100-day mark of Ismail Sabri's government. This exposed that the real report card was not the fantastic “90 percent score” (as claimed) but a big fat F.

F for Fail or whatever word you care to imagine.

These bunch of backdoor fellows were mostly recycled from the previous ‘kerajaan gagal’ (failed government) of Muhyiddin Yasin which had handled Covid and the economy so badly. It shows what happens when leaders are appointed not based on capability but on political links.

So please, it’s time for the voters to realise that meritocracy is not a DAP-linked “dirty word”. It’s what we need to avoid disasters. Otherwise, in future, we’re going to see more of this ridiculous blame game whenever the sh*t hits the fan, or rather, when the sh*t floats up from flooded septic tanks. It’s time that Malaysia grows up.



ANDREW SIA is a veteran journalist who likes teh tarik khau kurang manis. You are welcome to give him ideas to brew at tehtarik@gmail.com