'Kelantan must hold public inquiry on floods'
Published: Feb 1, 2015 5:00 PM | Updated: Feb 1, 2015 9:43 PM
The Kelantan state government should establish a public inquiry into the handling of the recent floods to identify weaknesses and failures to be better prepared in future.
This is to identify weaknesses and be better prepared in future.
The Kelantan state government should establish a public inquiry into the handling of the recent floods to identify weaknesses and failures to be better prepared in future.
DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang said this is especially needed if the federal government is not prepared to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the floods.
Lim (left) in a statement today said although it was not possible to avoid the disaster, the damage could have been minimised if there had been better procedures and plans in all three phases of response, relief and reconstruction.
He said he shuddered to think of the damage and suffering in Kelantan and other east coast states if NGOs and individuals had not come forward to aid victims which the government had not been able to help.
He also said that it was also “useless and laughable” for the National Security Council to compare the East Coast floods with Japan’s 2011 tsunami.
The World Bank had estimated the economic cost of the triple disasters in Japan in March 2011 as US$235 billion, making it the costliest natural disaster in world history.
“Although the 2014 floods in Kelantan and the east coast were undoubtedly the worst flood catastrophe within living memory in Malaysia, they were no comparison to the triple earthquake-tsunami-nuclear meltdown apocalypses in Japan in March 2011," Lim asserted.
He added that making such comparisons would only undermine their credibility.
Lim further stressed that the country’s leaders should "wake up" from their complacency and comfort zones and learn from the lessons, mistakes and failures of this attempt at disaster management.
Lim also paid tribute to the contributions of NGOs and individuals, saying that without their help, the suffering of the flood victims and the damage that occurred would have been "immensely greater".
The recent floods in the east coast had claimed 25 lives, witnessed over one million flood victims, a quarter-of-million evacuees and billions of ringgit in losses.
Meanwhile, Lim said the Gabungan Impian Kelantan, which has prominent activists Ambiga Sreenevasan and A Samad Said (left) as spokespersons, is set to "blaze the path for a greater role by the civil society in the decision-making process about the future of the country".
Lim said Impian Kelantan was born out two convictions: that Malaysia cannot be progressive and prosperous if Kelantan continues to be poor and backward in infrastructure development, and that the people and the state of Kelantan are entitled to the right of development, compared to other states and not be relegated to the status of Malaysia’s poorest state.
DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang said this is especially needed if the federal government is not prepared to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the floods.
Lim (left) in a statement today said although it was not possible to avoid the disaster, the damage could have been minimised if there had been better procedures and plans in all three phases of response, relief and reconstruction.He said he shuddered to think of the damage and suffering in Kelantan and other east coast states if NGOs and individuals had not come forward to aid victims which the government had not been able to help.
He also said that it was also “useless and laughable” for the National Security Council to compare the East Coast floods with Japan’s 2011 tsunami.
The World Bank had estimated the economic cost of the triple disasters in Japan in March 2011 as US$235 billion, making it the costliest natural disaster in world history.
“Although the 2014 floods in Kelantan and the east coast were undoubtedly the worst flood catastrophe within living memory in Malaysia, they were no comparison to the triple earthquake-tsunami-nuclear meltdown apocalypses in Japan in March 2011," Lim asserted.
He added that making such comparisons would only undermine their credibility.
Lim further stressed that the country’s leaders should "wake up" from their complacency and comfort zones and learn from the lessons, mistakes and failures of this attempt at disaster management.
Lim also paid tribute to the contributions of NGOs and individuals, saying that without their help, the suffering of the flood victims and the damage that occurred would have been "immensely greater".
The recent floods in the east coast had claimed 25 lives, witnessed over one million flood victims, a quarter-of-million evacuees and billions of ringgit in losses.
Meanwhile, Lim said the Gabungan Impian Kelantan, which has prominent activists Ambiga Sreenevasan and A Samad Said (left) as spokespersons, is set to "blaze the path for a greater role by the civil society in the decision-making process about the future of the country".Lim said Impian Kelantan was born out two convictions: that Malaysia cannot be progressive and prosperous if Kelantan continues to be poor and backward in infrastructure development, and that the people and the state of Kelantan are entitled to the right of development, compared to other states and not be relegated to the status of Malaysia’s poorest state.
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