Selangor Journal
Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari delivering his New Year’s message at the Selangor State Secretariat building, Shah Alam, on January 24, 2022. — Picture by REMY ARIFIN/SELANGORKINI

MB: Quit the blaming game, learn lessons from Selangor floods

By Ida Nadirah Ibrahim

SHAH ALAM, Jan 24 — Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari has called for all parties to quit the blaming game over the December flooding incident, which had severely hit several states, including Selangor.

The Menteri Besar had called for all to adapt to changes to the climate that had resulted in the massive floods as the practice of criticising others for what had happened does not solve the problem.

“Even though some had criticised… they were not able to solve the (flood) problem, they had instead shifted the blame… blaming other states, blaming other districts.

“When unable to give instructions, they blamed others instead of correcting the wrong. My job is not to blame others. We have a problem, we face it, we admit our shortcomings,” said Amirudin when delivering his New Year’s message at the Selangor State Secretariat building here today.

In response to criticism of the state’s readiness in dealing with the floods, Amirudin said that the Selangor government had been prepared since September last year.

However, he said that the measures taken were sufficient to accommodate some 5,000 victims instead of the actual number of flood victims hit by the recent flood.

“Were we prepared? Yes, we were. Had we prepared for 108,000? No, we were only prepared 5,000 because that is based on the average figure we previously faced.

“As for the warning, the (Malaysian) Meteorology (department) had issued the warning on December 18. But despite the (continuous) heavy rain, Selangor was still not categorised as a red zone,” said Amirudin, adding that the state government had right the wrong and initiated various post-flood measures that have run quickly and smoothly.

He said the state administration had held a meeting in September and met in October to prepare for the floods. He said a training session was conducted by the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) the following month.

“Within three weeks, we were able to collect 180,000 tonnes of waste while our friends in Negeri Sembilan took one week to round up 1,000 tonnes of waste.

“And that is what we had done. We sped up the process and became agile in adapting to the changes,” he added.

On December 21, 2021, Amirudin had announced an allocation of RM100 million in funds under the ‘Ikhtiar Selangor Bangkit’ initiative to kickstart the state’s recovery process from the floods.

Out of the total, some RM20 million was allocated for cleanup and recovery operations, while the remaining RM80 million was dedicated to rebuilding damaged infrastructure.

The families of those who perished in the disaster were promised and given RM10,000 each. Others whose houses were damaged by floodwaters were given RM1,000 in cash under the Bantuan Selangor Bangkit (BSB) programme to help them rebuild and buy new items.

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