Man made disaster

Weather: Rain
Temperature: 19 c

I refer to my earlier posting where I wrote about Typhoon Krosa and its strength and effects. I was very excited at that time albeit a little scared because the strong wind was smashing against the windows of my office so hard as if the windows were going to be shattered any time.

But in the end, of course, Shanghai prevails. There was no flood or casualty reported. The next morning, Shanghai was back in business. Life goes on. After all, Typhoon Krosa, regardless of how strong it was, was just one of many typhoons that attack Shanghai in a year.

I was thrilled by the natural disaster because I have never seen one. In Malaysia, we only have “kecelakaan buatan tempatan”.

I said, if typhoon of this scale hits KL, I really couldn’t imagine what KL will become. Maybe our smart tunnel would come to the rescue. Has the smart tunnel really been tested?

My good friend Harley, alerted me this evening about another unfortunate event that has occurred in Malaysia: the collapse of a two-storey building on a hill slope at the edge of Tasik Banding in Gerik, Perak (please click here to read the news). I was stunned by this news because my father loved to bring us to picnic at Tasik Banding when I was a small kid. As if “projek pembangunan terbengkalai” is not bad enough, now we have “projek pembangunan terhampus”.

Well, was that building hit by a typhoon? Nope. Was that building attacked by terrorist? Nope. Was there an earthquake? Nope. Was there a flood? Nope. You know what, the building just collapsed by itself, regrettably, after RM4.5 m was spent to build it. In other words, RM 4.5 m from public coffers was burnt into ashes, completely gone without a trace. If you think David Blaine is good, have a look at the Malaysian style street magic, we are able to demolish a 2 storey building in 2 hours without using explosives, and make RM 4.5 m disappear before your eyes without you feeling the weight of the money. David Blaine looks like an amateur if compared to our government officials.

Not too long ago, in the name of safeguarding the interest of house buyers, our government was studying the feasibility of implementing a “build and sell” policy i.e. developers could only enter into sale and purchase agreements with purchasers after the building has been built.

Seems like before the “build and sell” policy could be implemented, the government officials have started the policy of “build and collapse”.

The Star reported that our good friend Samy Vellue was furious about this incident. My dear Sammy, don’t get too furious, careful of your blood pressure. We, the people, after reading the news report, understand that you have worked very hard to prevent such incidents. But like you have said before, “ini dipasang oleh manusia, bukan Tuhan”, so errors caused by mere mortals should be excused. After all, who is perfect?

Yes, we should spend additional money to form a team of investigators to investigate the cause of this collapse. But my advice is, please give them longer time to prepare the report. The longer the better. General Election is coming, and I am sure you don’t want the people to read about such report during this very sensitive period. Don’t worry too much, people forget easily. Once the media controlled by your government has stopped to follow up on the collapsed building, you can even instruct the investigators to stop all investigation and burn all their findings. Since accountability is not a concept emphasized by the government and people, I am very sure you will come out from this tragedy unscratched.

So, why so furious? Oh, I almost forget that is the politically correct reaction at this juncture. Well, you have survived politic longer than I have lived my life, so, whatever you do must be right.

To the Malaysians, please don’t get upset or disappointed by the tragedy. Look at the bright side, no one was hurt, wasn’t it? I know RM 4.5 m has been wasted, but what is RM 4.5 m compared to the billions buried somewhere in the ghost town of Port Klang Free Zone? If we don’t even blink our eyes every time we drive through the said ghost town, why bother about a mere RM 4.5 m?

Tomorrow, Malaysia will be business as usual.

Again, why kick a dead dog?