Floods in Kuantan December 2012

                   Floods in Kuantan in December 2012               12Jan2013   

          It is said the latest just concluded floods in Kuantan in Pahang is the biggest in 65 years.  I dare to say it will not be the only one.  You will see the  volume of floods to become a norm.  Najib blamed the global warming for causing such huge floods in Kuantan.  But…….why did the global warming not bring as much water to Sibu, Sarawak?  Sibu before 2011 was the most flood-prone town.  But and but, Sibu in December 2012 did not experience as much floods as before 2011. 

I must say flood mitigation has brought the effect and the excessive water is channelled properly up to 60%-100%.  Jalan Hua Kiew which was always so well-flooded and for months like hell to tell in the 200?  Is no longer flooded anymore after 2011.  Am I right, friends, young and old; male / female?  Let me know if I am wrong.  For the areas which are not treated properly like Sungai Bidut, Santosa, ……….were just flooded but not as heavy and long and frequent as before.

It is true the global warming have become a reality.  I believe every sensitive being feels and notices it.  The global warming causes abnormal droughts and torrential rain.  The whole stretch of rainfall for a week may be equivalent to the amount of eight months’ / a year’s rain normally.  When abnormal rainfall has become ‘normal’, I wonder what has the BN government done so far to manage floods in different places?

I know so little about Kuantan in Pahang.  Kuantan only brought to my attention because of Lynas factory in Gobeng there.  The chief minister there and the BN political thugs and crowned clowns trades health for wealth at the expense of the mass to allow the production of rare earth there.  Though I know so little about Kuantan besides Lynas in Gobeng there, I know the nature of water and logic quite well to talk about floods in Kuantan, too.

          You will agree with me that water forever flows downwards by nature.  Hence a proper drainage system is a must to prevent floods.  Believe me your house will be flooded if waste water from your house is blocked / water from the rooftop cannot find the passage out.  Personally, I experienced blocked piped and how my bathroom upstairs flooded like hell.  Check around every nook and creek of Kuantan to see if it has a proper drainage system to discharge water smoothly.  The place is also well-prepared to handle excessive water that may amount to 8 months / a year rainfall that come in  few days.  If Kuantan is well-prepared for abnormal rainfall that has become normal, do you think Kuantan would be so well-flooded like hell to tell in December 2012? 

          Are the upper reaches of Kuantan well taken care of to prevent rain water rushing down slope?  Do the upper reaches of Kuantan also face the plundering and blundering form of development of the BN government?  Remember the upper reaches are an important factor to prevent floods. 

          What about the river where all the water from the drains / streams flows to?  Is the river deep enough for the proper discharge of water?  Siltation of the river will impede the flow of water.   Our mother river, the Rejang River once experienced siltation and shallowness and sandbars at many places.  The swollen river can also cause hell-floods, too.

          Thus to prevent floods, you need to take these 3 steps seriously: (1) the drainage system  (2)  the conservation and preservation of the upper reaches  (3) the smooth and easy flow of your rivers.  To deal with excessive rain due to global warming, there are ways to deal with too:  (1) preserve and converse the vegetation  and plant as many trees as possible and wherever we can (2) make each house to have the tanks to take the water from the rooftop (3) build the pools to take in excessive water.

          If you have taken all these steps to deal with water (one of the most precious elements in life), where on earth will we have floods?   Well, tell me. 

The road conditions and the people

The road conditions and the people                          10Jan2013   

          The 95% or more of the roads everywhere, be they municipal, state / federal in Sarawak do not have the quality in relation to the amount of allocation funds.  To express in %, it is only 30%-40% in terms of quality.  I hope more and more Sarawakians are prepared to step forwards to describe the road conditions they are using.  We should collectively demand Michael Manyin and Yong Khoon Seng to tell us once again through mass media how much federal allocation  funds the Public Works Department received each year for the past ten years. 

Ask them if it is true the allocation funds now for the repair / upgrading for the state roads are RM23,000 per km and RM31,000 per km for the federal roads.  Why are so many roads in poor / deplorable conditions?  Why are they not repaired or upgraded every year for many and many roads?  Why are these / those roads not given due attention?  Why do they allow misappropriation of allocation funds to take place year after year?  In other words why are corruptions and collusions so rampant in Public Works Department at state / federal level?

          We people understand that corruptions and collusions are just too rampant to build and improve the roads properly.  The whole road system is a living evidence how corrupt the BN government is.  How could they allow a construction company to continue the shoddy work for 15 over years without any action taken to punish them as reported ( 9Jan2013 See Hua Daily News) in the case study in Bintulu?  Was Yong Khoon Seng invited by Tiong King Sing to investigate the road conditions in Bintulu?  They only found out the truth of the road conditions in Bintulu then.  Heeeeeeee……

When more and more people are aware of the poor quality of the roads everywhere and know whom they should turn to blame and curse as well as know whom to choose in the 13^th election for a change for good.

          It is very irresponsible of Tiong King Sing to blame the contractor only for the shoddy workmanship of the road.  What about MP Michael Manyin, MP Yong Khoon Seng, Tiong King Sing himself, those high ranking officials ………?  What about the BN government led by Taib Mahmud and his cronies as a whole?  Who signed the contract and got RM?????????????????? in commission?   Shout out to tell us if there has not been such a thing called commission in % to get for signing the contract.  As we know that Taib Mahmud and his cronies as well as those high ranking officials have amassed so much ill-gotten wealth at the expense of us people.  Disprove me if you can.

          Bintulu has been plagued with many problems, to name a few: frequent floods, poor road system and transport,  high crime rate, …………..  We all understand Tiong King Sing, an elected MP was once very, very busy with his businesses of his company called Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd in Port Klang Free Zone to care about the proper development and conditions of living in Bintulu.  One of my sisters and her family were living there for 10 years to so much worry of my parents.  They were finally relieved when my sister and her family migrated to Australia.

         I wonder if Yong Khoon Seng ever went around in the state to see the road conditions in the past.  I wonder how many times he has gone around the state to see the conditions everywhere in Sarawak.  I know he has always been so busy attending to different functions and feasts in Kuching. 

          I must say all in all it is people’s fault as people everywhere in the past before 2006 in Sarawak did not participate actively and were not responsible.  Besides, they seldom cared to take the Goddess of Democracy seriously and thus the demons of Autocracy  reared up their heads high and beat us all.  Thus Taib Mahmud and his cronies had taken full advantages of everything and monopolised almost everything.  Is there any difference between the conditions here and those countries like Tunisia once under Ben Ali, Egypt under Hosni Mubarak, Libya, Gadaffi……….

          Why are 90% of the road conditions so poor / deplorable in Sarawak?  Who is still not clear?  I cannot understand why :Fadillah brushes off Anwar’s claim PKR gaining ground (Tuesday, 8Jan2013, Home, The Borneo Post).  I wonder if he is still dreaming as much as Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah who is ever ready to condemn and belittle PR.  In “Abdul Karim ticks off Pakatan”, he sneered at PR for their promises and boasted about what BN could do for the state, not knowing that we people almost everywhere curse and blame and condemn the BN government for not doing their work.  I think Abdul Karim and Fadillah should go down to the grass-root levels to study and investigate before they open up their big mouths to bark and howl. 

Fools and bloody floods

Fools and bloody floods                        

          Whenever I see floods occur here and there in Malaysia throughpersonal experience / mass media, I just feel sorry and very sorry for those flood victims.  I often wonder if these or those flood victims are aware of the causes of their disasters.   Or are they still remain so much like fools and in ignorance of their plights and disasters without knowing whom to curse and blame.  Do they know now who should hold accountable for all these bloody floods repeated year after year? And you allow these / those political thugs and crowned clowns to put on shows and perform the rite of cleaning your muddy grounds in your compounds flood after flood.

          I wonder if they still feel touched to see the political thugs and crowned clowns  like Rosmah or Shahrizat coming around in groups / troupe / troops to clean up the muddy grounds of their compounds aftermath of floods.  This time, Najib’s beloved wife, Rosmah came with  a troop.  I wonder how many flood victims would not think that the bloody floods happen again and again because the BN government are not responsible as they are not doing their work properly.  

Do you think if it is true?

If you think like fools, act and behave like ones.

Are you (flood victims ) sure that you are not treated like fools? 

         

          From Sibu, Sarawak, I study the floods, huge ones, big ones, medium ones and small ones everywhere in Malaysia through my personal experiences and mass media. Sibu was once the most well-flooded area which almost all the political thugs and crowned clowns  told us the same thing: it was too low-lying to avoid floods.   They treated floods as a natural cause and adopted “tidak-apa attitudes” towards floods.  Hence we had annual floods and many and many non-annual flash / non-flash floods.  Each flood after 2000 was getting bigger and bigger and more frequent. 

          I lived in flood-prone areas when I was small and when I was an adult.  I witnessed the floods reached up to 2 – 3 feet in my area in Jalan Tong Sang in 2000.  It came to the waist-height of my brother-in-law who is about 5’ 6” when I saw him wadding in.  This kind of big, big floods came whenever there was a heavy downpour upstream and downstream as well as high tides.  Hence, you can imagine how torturing and frustrating we Sibuans experienced for 15-16 over years.  The flood crises, beyond doubt, woke up many Ah Gows and Ah Maws like me to take a serious look at the SUPP-BN government in Sibu.

          I also had the chance to stay in Rantau Panjang, Batu Kawa, Kuching for about a year plus.  It was a flood-free area.  But in 2002, it was so well-flooded like hell to tell.  There, I realised and was confirmed that it was the problem of drainage that was the real cause of floods everywhere in Sarawak based on my personal experiences and witnesses as well as my informal studies. Then I started examine every monsoon drains whenever I had the chance to come across and studied every flood-prone areas in Sibu.

          At the same time, I also studied all the BN political thugs and crowned clowns to see what they talked, promised and acted as well as what had been realised to date.  I followed them closely especially after 2000.   Besides blaming the low-lying areas for the cause, they also told people that it was the clement weather conditions and global warming that resulted in frequent and heavy floods in Sibu. 

I believed I was not the only one.  They must be 60% of Sibuans who felt desperate and lost hope of SUPP-BN government.  Instead of taking actions to remedy situations, these SUPP political thugs and crowned clowns barked and howled louder and louder.  Thus, in the 2006 state election, we Sibuans and Sarawakians expressed ourselves aggressively especially when many people were angry at the price hike of petrol, too.   We Sarawakians were even more aggressive in the 2010 state election.  This is the lesson we learnt from floods. 

          We also saw Taib Mahmud and his cronies more clearly than ever before.  We finally knew which tree we should collectively bark up to.  This is the collective awareness.  Hence we saw the flood mitigation finally taking place in Sibu and Kuching which was no better off than Sibu.  Here I will tell you the improvement of flood-prone areas like Jalan Tong Sang, Jalan Hua Kiew, Jalan Tiong Hua, Jalan Bukit Assek……………. in Sibu.  Even if when Jalan Lanang was inundated, they were still spared in December 2012.  Since 2011, 60% of the flood-prone areas have shown the improvement.

          When I saw what huge floods striking Kuantan, Trenggau,………….. I knew what had gone wrong?  There is possible for improvement only when the people in these areas have wakened up and wanted to identify the causes and force / sue the BN government to action to mitigate floods.  Sibu, Sarawak should serve a perfect reference what has to be done to mitigate floods, believe me.

          It is very irresponsible and cunning of Najib to say that it was due to the global warming that caused widespread of floods in many states in West Malaysia when the BN government is not prepared and has not done enough to mitigate floods in these states.  Floods taking place  everyywhere Malaysia are mainly because of very poor drainage and flood managements based on my personal experiences, observations and informal studies for over 15 years.   Disprove me if I am wrong. 

          Najib and Muhyiddin both pleaded us people to support the BN government.  Well………..let’s take the conditions of floods into evaluation, too.  Find out if they have done enough for us.

The Pan Borneo Highway

The Pan Borneo ‘Highway’

          The Pan Borneo Highway is a very long and very long trunk road that has the link to Sabah, Brunei and Indonesia.  It must have a lot of feeder roads branching out all along the way.  If we take a bird’s view of,  it must look like a millipede. Though the Pan Borneo Highway is crowned “Highway”, it does not have much quality of the “Highway” that I know.  To express it  in %, how many % of it has reached the status or not at all.  I hope the ones who use the road often can help to evaluate / assess the trunk road and feeder roads to tell everybody the real conditions of the Pan Borneo trunk road in Sarawak, especially.  When corruption and collusion is so rampant, what can we expect to have the quality?

          To me a qualified highway should have the width and the thickness of asphalt layer specified properly.  It has a proper drainage system to prevent landslide.   How wide should it be?  How wide is the Pan Borneo trunk road from one end of Sarawak to another?  Let’s focus on the Pan Borneo trunk road in Sarawak.

          According to the reports in See Hua Daily News (on 22-23 Dec), the width of the road is 3.5 metres (Am I right? I don’t have the newspaper with me to refer to now.)  Find out the width.  But generally, the road look narrow and winding.  I travelled along it from Sibu to Kuching and Kuching to Sibu in 2008.  I had some gleam of it.  Hence I personally experience travelling on this “Highway” to blare and for other sections of the road, I got the ideas from the newspaper reports and by the words of mouth. 

          The poor road conditions, poor road users, poor car conditions, careless, reckless………..all contribute to fatal road accidents.  It is recorded to claim 3 lives daily and 365 days X 3 =???.  I wish Michael Manyin and Yong Khoon Seng ministers of the Public Works Department will do the calculation together.  I hope he will learn not to blame the road users responsible for 60% of the fatal road accidents when the BN government has never tried hard to improve and upgrade the road properly. 

Just recall, how many times he told us through the newspapers that it is hard and hard to upgrade the road thoroughly and speed up the work.  He told us at RM 16 billion are required to upgrade the whole trunk road from one end of Sarawak to another end. And he told the BN government does not have so much money to do so?  Hei………………he plays blind and deaf to the report of RM????????????????? in billion (RM2000亿) flowing out of the country illegally for laundering.  What a bullshit to say that the BN government does not have the money to upgrade our roads.  But he does not  seem to be able to get the allocation funds for upgrading at different sections of the road.  He always tells us to wait and wait for the funds to come when he get his pay monthly without any delay.  Is he doing your work?

The road system is one of important items that we people will evaluate and assess to decide whom to vote BN or PR.  Now we have the choice and we have the confidence to say that PR can perform well and even better if they are given the trust.  It is based on our personal observations of the states led by PR pact.  Well…… this is the age of awareness what people rights are.  Many plights we see, hear or experience are because of the poor policies and governance of the BN government.  It is the practice of autocracy as against democracy.  In the past, we people just trusted our leaders so much so that the practice of democracy has gone haywire and made a turn to autocracy.

Nobody will disagree with me that Malaysia led by the BN government by law is democratic but autocratic in practice.  We have enough evidences to say that/ so.  No matter how they blast and slogan “People first” and “Meritocracy based on performance”, it is really not much when we express the practices:  Democracy :  Autocracy  in % or ratio.  In Sarawak, we people generally agree that Taib Mahmud and his cronies have controlled almost all the  resources here.  They are bottomlessly greedy （贪得无厌）.  Have we not suffered enough?

Someone from Kapit complained about not having regular supply of  water from the tape almost daily for so long and they were not attended to (23^rd Dec 2012).  Who is the elected and highly paid minister responsible for the area?  Where is he?  What a shame and curse.  Count the number of houses which still do not have water and electricity supply in Sarawak.  Assess the penetration rate of telecommunication to different rural areas.  Check the access roads that our poor and helpless people travel.  Look at the medical services they can access.  For emergency cases, how many lives have been wasted due to irresponsible and poor helicopter services.  Which ministers care to stand up and speak out to rectify the situations?  Why did so many pupils, male and female cram in the same dormitory room for almost a year in Punan Ba?  Do Taib Mahmud and his cronies feel ashamed over all these plights that have plagued the poor and helpless people?  Have they ever felt any pang of remorse to lead such luxurious life at the expense of the mass, poor and helpless.

Taib Mahmud and his cronies will one day face the shame and humiliation like Hosni Mubarak, ex-president of Egypt and his cronies.  Just wait and see.