KELANTAN FLOOD FIASCO: Foul-mouth 'Queen Bee' vs 'stealing' aid foundation - tensions erupt among volunteers

An ugly scene between flood aid volunteers in Gua Musang interiors last weekend underscores complexities of ad hoc flood aid distribution, still on-going more than a month after the disaster paralysed the east coast.

Activist lawyer Siti Kasim stunned volunteers when she barged into the base camp of 4X4 Elite Search and Rescue Squad for the Malaysian Elite Disaster Rescue Foundation (MEDRF)’s base camp at Kg Bawek spewing profanities.

In the incident witnessed by Malaysiakini, Siti accused MEDRF of stealing food donations collected by her team from a storeroom in Kg Parik, a charge MEDRF denies.

Disregarding the presence of children, she screamed: “Just because you think you have the right to go there and take out stuff. At whose f*****g instructions is this?” she said in the incident, also recorded on video.

MEDRF said it was instructed to retrieve the goods stored in the same storeroom at Kg Parik by the Centre for Orang Asli Concerns chief Colin Nicholas, and had only collected COAC’s items.

But when contacted, Siti said volunteers on her team said that MEDRF asked them to load donations her team had collected onto MEDRF four wheel drive vehicles for distribution.

This struck a raw nerve, she said, because her team believes that MEDRF had the week prior claimed credit for donations which they had dropped off.

Siti’s team of volunteers are supported in cash and kind by various groups including a prominent insurance company and the Bar Council, she said.

She claimed they have collected and distributed at least 20 tonnes of food in the Gua Musang interiors.

“The river was too high to cross and the bridge was broken so we left it on the river bank covered with a blue tarp and then MEDRF took pictures of it and posted it on Facebook to tell their donors, ‘look we have delivered your food’,” she said.

Queen Bee

She also claimed that flood-hit Orang Asli waiting for aid sent from the Klang Valley via MEDRF complained of waiting in vain.

“What have they been doing with the donations?” she asked.

She also claimed she was heckled by MEDRF volunteers who among others called her a “Queen Bee”.

“When heckled, I retaliated,” she said, accusing MEDRF of running adventure escapades for urbanites instead of disaster relief missions.

MEDRF, however, dismissed the theft claims and said there were two different convoys – MEDRF and Siti’s team - which unloaded goods to the same riverbank.

It has delivered at least 30 tonnes of food to the most remote areas by running what it terms as “jungle taxi” services since December, MEDRF added.

MEDRF volunteers said last weekend’s outburst was the third time the lawyer, who is part of the Bar Council’s Orang Asli rights committee, barged into their camp in such a manner.

It is now demanding that the Bar Council remove Siti from the area so that she “does not cause any more trouble”.

Not illegal to cuss

However, Siti stressed that her flood relief efforts is done in her personal capacity.

“There is no law against swearing. People want to look down on me because of the swearing. So f******g what?

“Swearing is not against the law, but have they (MEDRF) broken the law? Their activities are questionable,” she said.

When contacted, COAC’s Colin said Orang Asli volunteers have been running the relief centre at Kg Parik, which serves as a food collection point for the whole of Kelantan, since December without hiccups.

“From the very beginning, from when the floods started right after Christmas, they already had a very good and organised system with several committees, and a very clear way of operating.

“So they know where the food has gone, who has received food, who hasn't received food and so on. Everything was packed according to (the number of) families,” Colin said.

When donated supplies reach a certain drop off point, a village representative waiting there will have to sign off on a sheet of paper indicating that goods have been received.

Orang Asli brushed aside

An Orang Asli rep who declined to be named said this was all brushed aside by Siti, who disregarded the locals’ system causing a rift among volunteers.

She said Siti had “broken the heart of the Temiar people” by disrespecting the locals’ own flood relief efforts set up since Dec 23.

“I've never had so many Orang Asli complaining to me about a single person before,” he said.

However, Siti said she had a well-attended post-mortem meeting with Orang Asli representatives after the incident and none raised unhappiness.

“They just said they have to learn to speak up and organise better. It is up to the Orang Asli to say they don’t want to work with me.” - M'kini