I am seeking an urgent meeting with the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, before Wednesday with a four-point proposal for adoption by the Cabinet with regard to the floods catastrophe which had ravaged nine states in the past two weeks.
It would appear that the Cabinet had not met since Dec. 17, as the two previous Wednedays had fallen on Christmas eve on Dec. 24 and New Year’s Eve on Dec. 31.
Although both these dates are not public holidays in Malaysia, it is the tradition that the Cabinet would not meet on these two dates as most Ministers would be overseas on vacations.
I believe that the Cabinet had also not met on Dec. 24 and 31 last year, as there had been no reports about Cabinet meetings on these two dates, which would be most unusual and extraordinary, as the country’s worst floods in decades had spanned both these dates.
However, I confess I am not privy to information as to whether the Cabinet had met on Dec. 24 and 31, and I am prepared to stand corrected if I am proved wrong.
If I am right that the Cabinet had not met since Dec. 17, then this is a gross remiss of public duties and responsibilities by the entire Cabinet and Najib owes the country a full and satisfactory explanation for the Cabinet playing truant when the country was faced with an unprecedented floods catastrophe, which caused the evacuation of a quarter of a million people, with over a million in nine states adversely affected by the floods catastrophe and the death of at least 21 people.
Although the worst of the second wave of the floods catastrophe seemed to be over, the Meteorological Department has warned of a a third wave of a moonsoon surge to begin on Jan 7 or 8, with possible continuous heavy rainfall up to three days over cerrtain states, especially in Johor, Sabah and Sarawak.
The National Security Council, and in particular, the Federal Government, should not be caught off-guard as happened in the second wave of the floods catastrophe in the past fortnight.
The four-point proposals concern:
# the declaration of a state of emergency for the flood-stricken states;
# the formation of a BN-PR Joint Action Council on Floods Catastrophe; # Convening of a Special Parliament this month on the Floods Catastrophe;’
# Doubling of the RM500 million allocation for relief of flood victims to RM1 billion to enable every flood victim whose livelihood/business had been wiped out by the floods catastrophe to apply for interest free loans, ranging from RM1,000 to RM250,l000 to start life and business anew.