ADMIT IT, YOU WERE WRONGLY ADVISED - Teresa ticks off Najib on floods handling

KUALA LUMPUR - DAP has called on the Prime Minister to explain his refusal to declare a state of emergency to deal with the devastating floods in the East Coast.

The party’s national vice-chairman Teresa Kok said Najib owes Malaysians, especially flood victims an explanation why the government was reluctant to do so.

“Five days ago, following criticisms that the federal government was caught unprepared for the nation’s worst floods, the National Security Council defended Putrajaya’s relief efforts.

“It claimed that the floods, which led to the displacement of more than 200,000 people in the East Coast states were abnormal and had caused major problems to relief efforts.

“There is no doubt that the floods are abnormal, but the fact remains that the federal government was certainly caught unprepared for flooding of such scale,” she said in a statement today.

The Seputeh Member of Parliament also questioned why the federal government was handling such abnormal floods with normal measures instead of declaring an emergency to fully and quickly mobilise government resources in dealing with such large scale disasters.

Last Saturday, Datuk Seri Najib Razak said for the time being there was no necessity for the federal government to declare a disaster emergency for Kelantan, after taking into consideration the implications involved.

DAP national vice-chairman Teresa Kok says that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's reason for not declaring a state of emergency in view of the massive floods has been denied by the General Insurance Association of Malaysia.

Najib was quoted as saying that an emergency declaration would see insurance companies absolved from paying compensation which would be “enormous”.

Kok, however, argued that Najib’s reason was proven to be baseless as the General Insurance Association of Malaysia (PIAM) had three days ago confirmed insurance firms would not be absolved of liability in paying out compensation for flood claims filed if a state of emergency were to be declared.

Piam said its member companies must process claims as long as floods were an “insured peril”.

“Can Najib deny that he had been wrongly advised on the insurance issue?”

She added with Najib’s insurance argument rubbished by Piam, he now owed Malaysians, especially flood victims a proper explanation. - http://www.therakyatpost.com/