-Dr. S.Ramakrishnan, January3, 2014.

Malaysia faced an unprecedented flood in decades with more than 200000 people evacuated and many motorists stranded in East Cost Expressways for days with either side flooding. The heavy northeast monsoon rainfalls expected to cause maximum damage to the east coast states. Prime Minister Najib Razak who was on vacation in Hawaii has to cut short his holidays and return on the 27^th December. He then announced an additional 500 million ringgit to aid victims after the flood subsides, following an initial government allocation of 50 million ringgit two days ago.  

Malaysians are disappointed that heavy rainfall of this scale did not receive any warning alert by the meteorology department and the national disaster management and relief committee. The deputy prime minister too went overseas and returned on 25^thDecember received briefing from the National Security Council. By the time PM and DPM got briefing and issued media statement major towns in east coast are already submerged under water. Why didn’t the national disaster committee, National Security Council or even the meteorological department issue or alert Malaysians well before the flood? If cyclones and hurricanes can be forecast days before they arrive, heavy rainfall can also be forecast.

Early warning by the national weather center on the forth coming floods could have alerted residents to move out and made all other flood relief efforts much earlier reducing the economic losses suffered by flood victims. CNN reported one week ago that strong high pressure develops over Eastern Europe and China and strengthens northeasterly winds from the South China Sea, bringing heavier rainfall over Malaysia, Indonesia and southern Thailand. If CNN can, why didn’t Malaysian meteorology department give early warnings? Are Malaysian government disaster management committee, meteorological department and National Security Council sleeping on the job? If informed earlier the Prime Minister too would not have gone to Hawaii to play golf with US president!

All these events only confirm that our government agencies are totally unprepared for any disasters. They can do very little to people should any calamity happen. Only on the 28^th December  Muhyiddin Yassin announced that the standard operating procedures on national disaster management to be reviewed to increase efficiency in weather forecasting. He further added that Malaysia should learn from other countries’ disaster management systems especially Japan and Korea. He called for more waterways, canals and drains to be built. Such call in the middle of a crisis only confirms that meteorology department, National Security Council and the National Disaster Management Committee are sleeping on the job. All these should have been done many years ago not when confronted with the worst flood.

Global warming and weather changes are not new phenomena. We all have heard about the EL NINO effect on global climate change long time ago which Malaysia too will have to face. But the Malaysian agencies have not upgraded their weather forecasting and the communication systems and skills. Because of the government failure to forewarn the flood prone areas many are caught unprepared and did not remove their belongings. On top of the 500 million allocated, the other economic losses will run into hundreds of millions at these challenging times. All these could have been reduced with forewarning which the government agencies failed miserably. Hope this despair at standard operating procedures are taken seriously and necessary changes brought and not swept under the carpet.