IN a utopian world, natural disasters that hit a country wouldn’t cause too much pain to the citizens. In that world, the government will do everything in their power to ensure their citizens’ wellbeing is well taken care of.

However, we do not live in that utopia because we are governed by incompetent individuals, who care more about propaganda than the lives of the innocents.

The extreme series of flooding that hit Malaysia last week have caused physical, mental and emotional damage to those affected. The victims have been through enough. They have lost families, food, homes, basic furniture and utensils, electronic devices, personal items and even vehicles. 

On top of that, we are stuck in a Covid-19 epidemic that has caused employment rates to decrease dramatically. This means most victims are already in a lot of trouble even before the floods began. 

So the question is, what did the government do to help these people? The saying goes, “Don’t dwell on the past,” but it’s impossible to not mention how useless the government is. Most of our so-called leaders embarrassingly brought a whole camera crew to “help” the victims, when in reality, it’s just propaganda. 

Social media platforms were awash with comments and anger but the authorities couldn’t care less because they have money. Money is important for power but it is also extremely important for survival.

The government has started the National Disaster Fund 2021 – RM1,000 in flood relief to help the victims. This initiative was doomed on the day of launch itself due to its ridiculous method of application. It’s insane how tone deaf the authorities are at how victims are in of need help urgently. Yet, they still take their own sweet time to execute this plan.

However, as a human being living in a developing country like ours, is RM1,000 really enough to replace the losses suffered? The simple answer is a definite NO. 

The citizens of our country, along with many civil society groups, have all joined forces to help those who are in need in terms of food, donations and clean-up activities. Their contributions were evidently useful and the victims will forever be grateful for their love and support. 

That being said, the lack of involvement from the government is also very apparent. If they can’t contribute to help the citizens in terms of those mentioned above, they could at least help more in terms of financial aid.

Nevertheless, the government failed to lend a helping hand again when they did not approve Employees Provident Fund (EPF) withdrawals, which in all honesty, will be such relief to the victims. 

Instead, they are pushing people who have suffered enough to ask for loans when they could’ve used their OWN EPF contributions. 

It is extremely devastating to see how the government is not looking to address the issue with long-term solutions. A loan during these unprecedented times is not a good idea. The reason being, we don’t want future citizens of Malaysia to focus on paying debts, which will get them blacklisted if they do not pay and hinder their progress towards success in the future.  

We can still accept it if the government couldn’t care less about the long-term effects of this problem. What is unacceptable is how they don’t think about the citizens who have to fight hard to survive. 

It is not only about the economic state of the country. For the victims, it is also about being able to put food on their tables. The responsibility of the government is to ensure their citizens comes first and then focus on rebuilding the country’s economy.

What is a country without their people, and why have a government when they are killing the people? 

We have seen the absurd number of suicides that hit our country earlier this year when the pandemic left us with financial difficulties. People gave up on their lives and their families.

Have we learnt anything from this?

The government should take charge and give all they can to their citizens to help them rebuild their lives, through government initiatives such as moratoriums, EPF withdrawals, subsidies, job opportunities and more financial assistance to ensure a better future for the citizens of our country. 

To make a fair comparison to our previous prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin, citizens were given several options to ensure their survival. Initiatives such i-Lestari and i-Sinar were extremely helpful to the people. 

The initiatives were able to ease their burden during the worsening virus outbreak. Even though there were groups of individuals who opposed the governance of our former prime minister, he managed to help the people in every way possible.

The news we received from the government yesterday has broken the hearts of many Malaysians. 

The rejection of EPF withdrawals, the little to no physical help, late action taken and the lack of financial aid to lessen the hardship the citizens are going through, are all major contributors to the rage and sadness that the people are feeling.

Is this the fate of the people of our beautiful nation? Do we deserve below-than-average leadership every time a disaster hits this country? 

All these questions will be answered in the next election, where justice will find a way to shine through. The people will be heard and they will be led by those who are capable. – December 28, 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.