YET again, we had flash floods in Kuala Lumpur, the third time in just four months. 

The standard replies followed. “Unexpected”, “out of ordinary” and “luar jangkaan” have become such common answers, that they have lost whatever novelty they had. 

Twenty years have passed, and we should have learned to anticipate the extraordinary by now.  

Kuala Lumpur is more fortunate than our Asean neighbours in many ways. At 66m, its elevation above sea level is technically the highest of any Asean capital.  

Jakarta is at 8m, Singapore (15m), Brunei (10m), Phnom Penh (12m) and Manila (16m). Bangkok has the lowest elevation of 1.5m, and they flood less than us. 

KL has five rivers to deal with within its borders, while Singapore has to contend with seven, Jakarta (13) and Manila (8). Chao Phraya, which was Bangkok’s lifeblood, is three times the length of Sungai Klang and branches out into many more streams than the latter. 

We have built elevated highways, including one with the most overlays, two tallest buildings and relatively decent infrastructure. KL folk tolerate high tax rates, a large portion of its roads are tolled, with nearly twenty highways connecting parts of KL and they really do deserve better. 

Traffic jams and flash floods are unacceptable. 

This tolerance needs to stop, and accountability needs to start. 

Heads need to roll, and people need to be held accountable for bad management. The mayor, the Kuala Lumpur City Hall executive directors and certainly the politicians helming the richest city council in Malaysia, with a budget exceeding many Malaysian state governments. 

The people need fewer aid packages and pictures of leaders “turun padang”. It needs action and proper policy and competence to execute them properly.  

Civil servants and those entrusted in keeping the country running well, should not have to wait for public backlash, political repercussions or even royal reprimands before photo op sessions and public relations campaigns to placate sentiments. 

It should come from a sense of duty and moral obligation of action, from being paid at the public’s expense, and for the public good. A public that includes those entrusted to do it. These are decisions that affect their lives as well. 

Some ministers do so little, the public does not even recognise their names, or worse, identify them with inaction. 

It should not require a Tengku Mahkota and consort to get a minister to look at a case seriously, nor should a prime minister form a special committee on what is a straightforward issue that could have been handled better and faster. 

It should be a norm for ministers and even directors to resign, as is the case in many countries.

Yet in recent memory, most Malaysian ministerial resignations stem from political reasons or loss of support rather than accountability to the public.

Despite the weak handling of the economy and pandemic, there were few drops and reshuffles when the present prime minister took over, and the previous prime minister saw two resignations from his cabinet largely due to political manoeuvring by Umno.  

Resignations for taking responsibility are too few and far in between, compared with the number of failures and scandals by our ministers. 

The last voluntary resignations due to scandals were probably Dr Shahrizat Abdul Jalil in 2012 and Dr Chua Soi Lek in 2008. Chua’s was a personal scandal, while Shahrizat resisted resignation for two years. 

While Muhyiddin Yassin was opposed to Najib Razak’s administration in 2015, he was technically sacked. The only minister in recent history to resign due to principle was Zaid Ibrahim.  

Regionally, Thailand’s finance minister stepped down just a month after failing to improve the Covid-slumped economy. Like our finance minister, he was a banker.

The Filipino power minister resigned in 2013 after failing to restore power to a typhoon struck area in time, and Indonesia has a healthy habit of ministers resigning for failing to execute their duties, or when they are embroiled under any suspicion of scandal. 

Perhaps we could take a leaf from our neighbours, as public accountability appears to be bringing their countries forward, at our cost. – April 27, 2022.

* Emmanuel Joseph firmly believes that Klang is the best place on Earth, and that motivated people can do far more good than any leader with motive.

* 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.