A SERIES of terrible floods has affected several parts of Malaysia. Around 62,999 citizens of Malaysia have been affected by this devastating incident. 

Even as I am writing this, the number of deaths and people affected by the floods are still increasing. My team and I are trying our best to help those who are in need to ensure that their basic needs such as food, water and personal hygienic items could be delivered to them during these stressful times.

It is evident that the whole situation was not handled decently by the government. The people on the ground are angry, upset and tired at the incompetency of the government. They have every right to feel that way. 

Hashtags such as #KerajaanPembunuh and #KerajaanGagal have been trending in the past few days. 

The citizens are angry at the lack of urgency shown by the government and the work it has done as a whole. 

The question is, what went wrong?

First and foremost, the extremity of the situation could have been avoided if only the government had listened to the Malaysian Meteorological Department (MetMalaysia) since mid-2021. 

This department is directly under the Environment and Water Ministry. It is highly irresponsible of the government to ignore such data given by MetMalaysia because it is well-known that floods happen almost every year in this country. 

The government might say that familiarity with the calculated floods is the reason why they did not take this matter into account but truthfully, with a pandemic under way, this is actually the perfect time to look into these things. 

The main thing is is to be sure that natural disasters such as floods will not case daily cases of Covid-19 to increase. It is clear that the government has failed to look at this from this point of view. 

Every situation today’ must be assessed from a “new normal” perspective. The council preaches about the new norms daily yet they seem to be only relevant to one part of the problem.

The people who are affected by the floods are in terrible condition. They are physically, mentally and emotionally burned out from this tragedy. The lives that have been lost can never be brought back. 

The pain that these people have to go through is mainly due to the late action that was taken by the government. There are many things the government could have done to save everyone from disaster.

The country’s assets should’ve been used to full capacity to help those who were trapped in their homes. Instead, these poor people had to wait for days for help.

Even then the help cam mainly came from fellow Malaysians, who took to social media to sharee the locations and conditions of the people who were trapped. 

The hashtags #DaruratBanjir and #KitaJagaKita are trending, even right now, because the people had to take the situation into their own hands to save lives. 

This brings up the question, is the government truly capable of ensuring the safety of the citizens of Malaysia? Is our country in safe hands? 

Every agency and organisation is pointing fingers at one another regarding the causes and the effects of the floods but no one dares to answer any of the critics. 

Earlier this year, the higher-ups in the Environment and Water Ministry have stated that Malaysia is not affected by climate change. This is obviously proven wrong today considering the devastating situation that the people are currently facing. 

The government must shift their focus into saving the people instead of carrying out their own personal agendas. 

The agencies under the government must start to be more useful in collecting, receiving and giving data and information to the higher-ups and the citizens. 

At the end of the day, a politician’s job  is to represent the people. If the citizens don’t feel safe and cared for by their leaders, then the government has failed. – December 22, 2021.

* Mahathir Mohd Rais is Segambut Bersatu division chief.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.