Points To Points (12)
Woes
of floods
It has been 5 long long
years since the really huge flood warning of our lengthy years of negligence of
our environment. One of our ministers
declared it to be a rare occurence (once in 40 years) and ‘a natural disaster’
[Yi hou buon tyen]. A really huge flood
occured in 1963. (My mother told me she
was giving birth to my younger sister and was stranded in the clinic for
several days. At that time, the whole
town was flooding heavily.)
This is the problems of
our ministers who always take things for granted. He took the serious warning as a happening
‘once in a blue moon!’ [Gin mo di sih] :
(They did not consider the frequent devastating heavy flash floods in West Malaysia as warnings and saw them as the
consequences of man-induced disasters.)
(In 2002, i was in
Kuching and again i bear witness as huge flood also taking place there. My parents’ house was built on the high
grounds. But it was flooded to ‘3 feet
deep’. This told me clearly that the
poor drainage and speedy development without considering the impact on our
environment were the two main factors contributing to heavy floods. Everyone was taken by surprise but no one
bothered to know the causes. They all
thought it only occurred ‘once in a century’ and so life went on
bla................ Now, i think flash
floods have also become a common scene in Kuching and very heavy flood is no
longer a rare occurence taking place ‘once in a century’) [chiu si nyen]
(No one before 2005 could believe the fact that
Bintulu and Miri where the land is so high above the sea-level also flooded
like low lying area like our Sibu town.)
(Floods have become a common feature everywhere. It is no longer a unique feature in Sibu (Venice
Then we had another very
heavy floods again in 2003. In low lying
area like Jalan Tong Sang, flooded so heavily that only boats could serve the
purpose then. (My sister-in-law was down
with sickness and could only take a boat to see the doctor!)
Only another bout of
huge, heavy flood that took place in 2003 that our leaders of Vision started to
panic a little bit and realised it was not an rare happening (once in 40 years)
and it could occur so often. However,
they were still not sure what to do to solve the problems. When the floods subsided, they abandoned the
problem of floods as well. They never
took the problems of floods seriously.
Thus we had ‘not so heavy and long floods’ in 2004 and 2005 and they saw
these happening as natural phenomena. (They then blamed the geographical
situation of Sibu all the time for the cause of floods. Our leaders of Vision abnormally lack
critical and analytical thinking. I bet
they still think like this.)
After so much pestering
and begging, they started to clear the drains more often than ever before. Actually, floods have been a characteristic
feature in Sibu. (It floods so often
that our leaders have taken floods for granted since our independent
days.) Not even one leader has ever
bothered to take ‘not so big floods’ seriously and thought of doing something
to remedy the situation. They did not
start to remedy the situation at the very beginning. They all took floods in Sibu ‘too natural’ to
require remedy and effort. The
consequences of devastating heavy floods in 2001 and 2003 were the results of
this mentality of our leaders of Vision and other leaders since the independent
day.
Our leaders of Vision also lack of the
sense of sight and insight to solve the urgent problems of floods bit by bit
and little by little with micro-projects.
I often wonder how our leaders of Vision are going to implement the mega
project if they do not care to carry out the micro-projects to solve the problems
of floods. Isn’t it the mega-project
made up of many micro-projects?
The fact that none of
our leaders of Vision (LV) live in the flood prone areas to
feel and experience the pain and difficulties of floods:
1)
Flood water came into the sitting room and soaked
the furniture and other
household equipment.
2)
Some people living on the ground floor had the
experience of floods raising
to the level of their beds and higher.
They were forced to live in the hotel.
(You see they suffered great loss in
silence.)
People suffered great
loss in different aspects of their lives:
brakes and number plates of the motorcycle and cars were spoilt and
needed repair or for new ones; plots and plots of vegetables were ‘drowned’;
goods in the shops got wet and shops had
to close down for business............
But they were just too innocent and ignorant to demand for justice from
our leaders of Vision.
And our leaders of Vision have never helped
on behalf of the flood victims to request the government to pay for the
loss. (They observe the rule ‘Silence is
golden’ when people need their voice to speak out.) [si li mai kong, kong ni
ing ni] [buon tyen sou kuong] They are indifferent to the suffering of the
people. That’s why the problems of flood plight the Sibu people year after year. (In West Malaysia ,
the government pay the flood victims readily. “ 63 million has just been paid
out to the victims of the floods for the loss” (13 January, 2006 . The Borneo Post)) (What
about the victims of flood in Sibu?) [si ni sibu nyen ha gai siu ku nang ar!]
Our leaders of Vision, have been so
incapable to do anything to alleviate the situation. Hence floods occur year after year. We just had one on 8-9 January, 2006. The
same scenes repeat annually: roads are
flooded and impassable; water go into the houses in the low lying area with
poor drianage ; school children have to wade through water to get to their
schools; plots and plots of vegetables get soaked; traffic jam .............
Our leaders of Vision
lack of the senses of urgency, priority, direction and action. The worst of all is the lack of the common
sense as far as the problems of flood is concerned. They have wasted a lot of money consulting
the foreign expects on the matter of floods in Sibu when many and many our Sibu
people could tell them better what needs to be done to alleviate and solve the
problems of floods: preserve and
conserve our environment at all cost especially the upstream; reduce erosion to
its minimum; build proper and improve the drianage system; dredge the siltation
in the river regularly and take action straight away..........!
Come on to register the houses which have
been sinking, tilting, cracking,
and the like to be demolished. Please rehabitate the people
properly. Attend to the urgent matter
first. Prevent the people from wasting
money to repair, to jack, to do piling to stablise the house. Start doing now.
Our leaders of
Vision know now that the floods in Sibu
(99%) are caused by poor drianage and siltation of the river. But they have not done much to remedy the
situation. They still waste a lot of
money, time and energy on other matters.
They spent ONE MILLION on forum talking (nonsense) the economic
development in Sibu. (Correct me if i am
wrong about the amount of money spent.)
What a waste! They are blind to
the urgent needs of the people: Act
straight away to solve the problems of flood (It has been 5 long years for our
leaders of Vision to act positively! But
they remain inactive.) (They all seem to
wait for the mega project to be implemented to solve the problems of flood in
our Sibu town once and for all.) Good
infrastructures are the basic condition to economic development. (A 9- year-old child can understand, too.)
(Where has their common sense gone?)
Lack the every sense of priority. Our SMC has wasted a lot of money to
renovate, decorate and beautify our town centre; construct the luxurious
structures at the expense of the really needs of the people. (At this stage and
this place, we can’t afford these things.
Our Sibu town centre lacks the space and the Sibu people need more
conducive environment to do business to survive.) The Sibu people need good and flood-free
environment to continue the business.
Hence our wish is to have every cent saved to build and improve the
drainage system and dredge the river regularly.
They have no sense of
direction. That is why they have been
restless. They have wasted a lot of
money to consult for foreign experts for the problems of flood. The recent forum (One million spent) to
acquire knowledge to reconstruct and develop Sibu! (ruan kai bo shiu zien)
They
‘bilibala......hou.......’ too much to take prompt action to remedy the
situation. Hence a month or so after
(one million) forum, we had another blood. (on 8-9 January, 2006). I can assure if we have heavy rain 3-4 hours,
we will have heavy floods again and as soon.
But our leaders of Vision still lack every action to start the
work. I don’t know how many more floods,
we need to face before our wish for flood –free Sibu is fulfilled.
It is said the
mega-project would only be implemented under the 9th Malaysia Economic
Plan. We are assured that it will start
in 2007 (a year to wait only). It is a
long term project.
Meanwhile, i don’t our
leaders of Vision have started the short-term projects:
1) build more systematic drainage system to
channel excess water fast enough
2) improve the existing drainage conditions
3) dredge the siltation of the river
4) clear the drains more regulary
5) supply the people with 1-2 big tanks to each
household to keep rain water
from the
roofs. Consider it an effective
alternative method to prevent flash
floods. (When i was small, we did not have the
convenience of the tap
water. Every family had 2-3 tar ball drums to keep
water from the roofs.
Hence, i had never
heard of flash floods when i was small.
Besides, there
were enough
vegetation and trees to slow down the flow of rain water.
Now, on the other hand, huge tracts of
land have been cleared for
construction of
houses, road and other commercial purposes and thus a
widespread of land
are stripped bare of vegetation and trees which used to
serve the great purpose of soil
binding. Now flash floods have become a
characteristic
feature in Malaysia
lifestyle and
negligence of our environment.)
To conclude my points of
view: Act now to remedy the situation
(to show our leaders of Vision really ‘boleh’) in the short-term project and
implement the well-planned long-term project to overhaul and reconstruct our
Sibu town once and for all. Make it a
really ideal place to stay for good.
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