The Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said yesterday that Malaysian experts will be engaged by the Government to determine the cause of recent floods and how to mitigate them in future.
The Star report “Experts to be engaged to check floods” quoted Najib as saying yesterday at the official launch of Menara Razak at Universiti Tecknologi Malaysia (UTM): “The issue has been raised in the Cabinet and we have decided we must know the factors that cause the disaster.” Najib said the Government believed there was sufficient local expertise to conduct the relevant studies.
He said: “We want our experts to guide the Government on what needs to be done both in terms of mitigation as well as sustainable development”. I find Najib’s announcement most disappointing.
While I welcome an investigation into the worst flood disaster in living memory, the exclusion of the inquiry into the failures of the National Security Council (NSC) in making proper Floods Disaster Relief, Mitigation and Management Preparedness will only perpetuate the government’s denial syndrome and cover-up complex.
This is why I had been pressing for a high-powered and wide-ranging Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the 2014-2015 Floods Catastrophe and the Floods Disaster Management Preparedness, particularly whether there had been a “complete breakdown” or what extent of breakdown of the NSC chain of command and communications in the worst floods catastrophe in living memory.
All the local experts can be sub-poenaed by the RCI to determine the causes of the floods catastrophe, and to propose the most effective mitigation measures in the context of sustainable development but these experts on their own would not have the weight or authority to examine the weaknesses of the NSC, in particular why the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is Chairman of the NSC, only had only one NSC meeting for one whole year before the floods catastrophe – and that was some 12 months earlier on Jan 3, 2014!
I would urge the Prime Minister to reconsider the decision not to set up a RCI into the worst floods catastrophe within living memory, as this tantamounts to a serious dereliction of duty if the Federal government fails to set up a RCI in view of the severity, scale and scope of the 2014-2015 floods catastrophe, which covered nine states, claimed 23 lives, evacuated a quarter of a million victims, affected millions of people and caused billions of ringgit of losses to the people and public coffers.