Why snub Ku Li's Gua Musang, Pas-held Kuala Krai: Kit Siang mocks in-alert Najib for only now realizing Kelantan floods a MAJOR DISASTER

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, said after his visit to Gua Musang and Kuala Krai yesterday that the floods disaster is a “disaster” or even “major catastrophe”, describing Gua Musang and Kuala Krai as two of the worst-hit districts in Kelantan.

I have been brooding over the Prime Minister’s comments since reading them on online news portals yesterday evening, and the question which kept returning to my mind was why the Prime Minister had not visited the two worst-hit flood-damaged areas when he rushed back from Hawaii last Saturday on 27th December.

Was the Prime Minister misled by the National Security Council (NSC), which gave the Prime Minister a special briefing on the floods situation when Najib arrived at the Sultan Ismail Petra Airport, Pengkalan Chepa, Kota Bharu at 1.40 pm last Saturday?

I would imagine that the Prime Minister would have wanted to visit the worst-hit flood-damaged areas on his immediate return from Hawaii.

Did the NSC withhold the information from the Prime Minister that Gua Musang and Kuala Krai were the two worst-hit areas, or did the Prime Minister decide on his own not to visit the two worst-hit areas of Gua Musang and Kuala Krai to bring immediate reliefs and comfort to the stranded people in Gua Musang and Kuala Krai?

Or was the NSC at the time unaware that Gua Musang and Kuala Krai were the two worst-hit flood areas, as the NSC in its statement yesterday admitted that there was a “complete collapse” of its chain of command and communications at the district level in Kelantan and Terengganu when the NSC “front-liners”, the village headmen and district officers, fell victim to the floods?

Did the NSC confess to the Prime Minister at its first briefing on the floods disaster to Najib at the Pengkalan Chepa Airport in Kota Bharu last Saturday that the NSC had suffered a “complete collapse” of its chain of command and communications, or was the Prime Minister only informed of this “complete collapse” very much later – leading to the blooper of the Prime Minister admitting to the worst floods disaster in recent decades as a “disaster” or even “major catastrophe” on the fourth day of his return from Hawaii, after spending three days visiting flood areas in Kelantan on Saturday (but not the worst-hit areas of Gua Musang and Kuala Krai), Pahang and Perak on Sunday and Monday?

This does not enhance public confidence in the competence, efficiency and professionalism of the NSC in being the master body responsible for floods disaster management in the country!

This also put the two earlier statements by the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in a very different light – his “I’m in charge” statement when he was not in charge as the entire NSC chain of command and communications had broken down, and his subsequent statement that “Putrajaya aware of flood victims’ plight” when it was clearly not so.

These are classic examples of Ministerial statements which are just meaningless gibberish for the Minister who made them did not know what he was talking about – like his infamous claim that Malaysia’s education system was better than in United State, Britain and Germany!

Muhyiddin promised yesterday that a post-mortem will be held to find out the actual cause of the worst flood disaster in decades once the flood issue has been resolved.

This is not good enough, not only because it sounds very self-serving as if Muhyiddin is preparing the ground to pin the blame on the worst floods disaster in recent decades on everybody but himself and the NSC.

This is why I have been calling for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the recent floods disaster, the deplorable Floods Disaster Management Preparedness including the shocking “complete collapse” of NSC chain of command and communications.

Will Muhyiddin agree to let Pakatan Rakyat nominate the Chairman of the RCI to demonstrate that the Federal Government wants the whole truth about the faults and weaknesses of the country’s Floods Disaster Management Preparedness to be probed and revealed, to ensure that Malaysia’s disaster management and preparations are not a standing joke in the world?

Such a RCI should be formed now, although it could start formal investigations after the floods had receded.

On the second day of his return from Hawaii on Sunday, when visiting flood-hit areas in Pahang, Najib ordered all Ministers vacationing overseas to return to the country to help in the flood-relief efforts.

Three days have passed. Have all Ministers returned from their vacation abroad to join the flood-relief operations? Who are the Ministers who are still vacationing abroad?

And will Najib issue specific instructions to ensure that Ministers and VVIPs do not hog the use of assets like helicopters as to cause the critically sick or wounded to risk their lives, as happened to two mothers with labour complications at the Badang health clinic in Kelantan on Sunday.

The 2014 floods disaster is a natural disaster which had been aggravated by man-made failures and excesses.

DAP and Pakatan Rakyat are prepared to put political differences aside and work with the Barisan Nasional government to bring relief to the flood victims.

It is therefore most deplorable that DAP MP for Kluang Liew Chin Tong and DAP Johor State Assemblyman for Mengkibol Tan Hong Pin were blocked by local authorities and village chiefs from giving aid to flood victims at relief centres in Kluang at Kampung Bentong and Kampung Bentong Dalam.

There have also been organised attempts to bomb my twitter site in the last two days, with scores of over 50 postings with the same incoherent message sent instantaneously from multiple robotic accounts at different times.

These are very petty and childish diversions at a time when the country is faced with a major disaster.

The worst floods disaster in recent decades is time for everyone to unite as Malaysians irrespective of race, religion, region or politics to help the needy and not to spread lies to incite racial and religious hatred and intolerance.

Malaysians whether Malays Chinese Indians Orang Asli must help each other in the humanitarian crisis because the country is faced with the worst floods disaster in decades.

DAP and Pakatan Rakyat are prepared to put aside our differences with Barisan Nasional and to work together in the flood relief operations as one team and unit to come to the help of the needy in the country’s worst floods disaster in decades and we hope that this readiness will be fully reciprocated.

Lim Kit Siang is the DAP adviser