Kecelakaan Buatan Tempatan (revisited)

Weather: Clear
Temperature: 9 c

I am so tired and lazy to blog tonight, and I have no plans of writing anything. But after reading the news of the recent landslide in Bukit Antarabangsa, I just couldn’t switch off my computer and go to bed. I am furious. And more than being furious, I am feeling sad. How can things like this happened in my country, Malaysia? Aren’t we governed by a strict set of moral values and religious virtues? What happened to Rukun Negara # 1 – Kepercayaan kepada Tuhan? Aren’t we supposed to be God-fearing? We even ban yoga for that sole reason.

I am talking about the lootings that happened to the landslide victims. It was reported that the search and rescue operations team did not provide prompt assistance to a buried victim, which resulted in the death of a woman. They did something of course – they gave the victim’s husband a spade and expected him to dig her out himself.

As usual and expected, the officials swiftly denied such allegations. But we have lived long enough to know who can be trusted and who cannot. Our police force is definitely not on the top of the list of people you can trust. Otherwise, tonight, you can leave your doors unlocked when you go to bed, because according to our wise leaders, Malaysia is safer than Japan and Hong Kong, even comparable to Singapore. So, why lock the doors? What are you afraid of? Why do you lock your car doors even before you put on the seat belt? Why do you need to pay the private security guards to guard your neighborhood? All these are unnecessary. Why? Because we are safer than Japan and Hong Kong. Aduih! Kepala sakit…

I know lives were lost due to this landslide and I should not make jokes out of it. But please be informed that I am not the joker here. The real joker is the one who said this:

"You don't expect an ambulance driver to save a buried victim. He is not trained, so if we request untrained personnel for help and they refuse, we shouldn't blame them.

"This is because their lives are in danger too. I think we should respect their decision. To dig and save someone, one has to be trained. For an untrained person, it's a very dangerous task."

No prize for guessing who has the intelligence to utter the above statement. Yes, he is none other than our Selangor Police Chief. He was trying to defend the rescue team members who refused to help the buried victim. I think his argument is quite logic and reasonable, i.e., it is unfair to expect an untrained individual to carry out rescue mission.

However, my question is this: If they were untrained, WHAT the hell were they at the scene? Sightseeing? Makan angin? And WHY sent an untrained team there? Where were the trained ones?

Further, do you need proper training to dig? I am sure even a monkey can do that! Haven’t you seen our wise leaders using a spade to “tanam pokok” in front of cameras? If an “untrained” politician can dig, do you need to go to school to learn how to use a spade?

On another issue, is this landslide an act of God? Is this unfortunate incident unpreventable? Who should we blame? Of course, it is always convenient to blame God. Hujan kuat mar… berhari-hari hujan, banyak air mar. Air masuk tanah, tanah runtuh lah! Senang saja, bukan? Takkan kita suruh Tuhan jangan hujan pulak? Ini kejadian tidak boleh elak.

Interestingly, in this case, there are 2 parties which you can’t sue: one is God; the other is the local council, which enjoys immunity in such incident. Yes, our local council is God-like. Why can't we sue them? Go read the Federal Court’s decision in the Highland Tower case.

Aiyor kepala sakit…