COMMENT | Bangi MP Ong Kian Ming’s sharing of his sunburn tweet captures the narcissism of some Harapan political operatives in dealing with this flood. Ong is so insecure that online folks are dissing the flood activism that he needs to respond to folks (anonymous or otherwise) that his actions are the real deal. It is not. Any time you see a political operative at a disaster site dressed in the required yellow boots or otherwise posing as if they are doing something, chances are they are not.Ong’s role in this disaster, as is the role of any federal MP, is to coordinate with the federal bureaucracy and keep updating the rakyat on the efforts of the federal government to mitigate the problems of those affected.

Meanwhile, state assemblypersons should be organising volunteer efforts and coordinating with various state agencies, NGOs, and the federal apparatus to ensure that whatever aid given is coordinated and not replicated while maintaining lines of communication with the public and the press.

If the report is true and the army had decided to intervene in flood relief efforts because of the inaction of state and federal operators, this opens up a whole can of worms when it comes to how the state and the federal governments are interacting when it comes to the welfare of the people.

All those fait acommpli statements by federal operatives and the Selangor MB sanctioning this intervention by the army is not only perverse – the army should have been called in immediately – but points to the dysfunctional politics of this country.

The man who wants to be the prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, calls for another useless royal commission of inquiry (RCI) on this whole fiasco because he needs to deflect from the utter incompetence of his own cohorts in running the state. 

I would argue for an independent third-party post mortem on Selangor’s response to this disaster that includes flood preparation but what would be the point?

Meanwhile, the man who is prime minister says for him “everyone must be held accountable,” which basically means no one will be held accountable and all this will devolve into a partisan pissing contest. 

Each side attempts to shape the narrative that folks were left stranded, abandoned, and in some cases dead, because of the inaction of the other side.

You can see the politics at play when it comes to the state National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) position when DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang implying that the PM had something to do with the change of position – which he most probably did – and Syahredzan Johan asking "Why didn’t the (then) Selangor NSC chairperson call for a state-level NSC meeting?"

Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari said that his not being the state-level chief of Nadma hampered efforts but he did all that he could including calling the prime minister and pleading for federal help.

Now if the reportage is factual and the Selangor Nadma were reluctant in calling in the army’s help, then there is a severe dereliction of duty and there should be an investigation. 

All this, of course, would turn into a partisan witch-hunt and unfortunately, no lesson would be learnt beyond partisans demonising each other.

Circular firing squad 

The real question is why the Selangor MB did not call for a meeting with all relevant agencies. Indeed why didn’t the MB, Harapan operatives in the state and federal levels offer the rakyat a coordinated plan of action instead of Twitter and Facebook activism of touring the disaster site and showboating?

Malaysian Relief Agency (MRA) vice-president Khairil Annuar Khalid claimed: “They (authorities and agencies) have no idea what to do because Klang Valley has never experienced a flood like this. There was no coordination between the federal and state governments, as well as inter-district coordination.”

The first point at first seems reasonable but considering that Selangor (Klang Valley) has a host of environmental issues which occur on a regular basis, claiming that you were not prepared for this kind of flooding when flooding does occur on a regular basis, makes fools of the folks who voted for you.

Now of course everyone seems to be pointing their fingers at various departments and agencies, which they claim were not listened to. 

All of this actually amounts to a circular firing squad and the fact that political operatives only listen to experts when they tell them things they want to hear and very often federal and state agencies are ignored because, as I said, the issues they bring up are not sexy enough for partisan appetites.

When I was in the armed forces, you made plans for the worst-case scenario and not only for things you can handle. 

There are enough policy and environmental wonks in Selangor who have been sounding the alarm for better preparedness for years but who have been ignored by the political apparatus.

The reality is that relevant state authorities and disaster management response teams do not get the same kind of political consideration as do other more press-friendly issues that state operators deem important to keep them in power.

The second point shows how the political culture in this country has become so toxic, that the average rakyat is at the mercy of political operatives who only seem responsive to their needs – and badly at that – when they can score political points.

Nobody should be arguing that the federal response was not complete horse manure but the reality is that the state is the first responder and how the state deals with this disaster demonstrate not only a lack of planning and coordination but more importantly, a lack of empathy.

Meanwhile, we have reports that “foreigners” were saving people, everyday citizens were helping out each other and folks had to hire boats to save themselves and their families. 

Former minister Rafidah Aziz had it right when it came to the federal response when she said: “All that the government seems to understand is to fall back on cash handouts, when people have lost their clothes and wouldn’t even be able to shop for things, with roads and vehicles badly damaged.”

Harapan holds itself to a higher standard and they should because this current government is demonstrating that it has no problem sinking to depths unheard of in past administrations, but all this just proves that Harapan yet again, could not organise an orgy in a brothel.

This time though it is about life and death.