Two extra reasons for a RCI into Floods Disaster Management Preparedness and why this should be top agenda of a Cabinet special meeting on floods disaster

The latest developments in the floods disaster have given two extra reasons why there should be a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Floods Disaster Management Preparedness and why this should be the top agenda of a special Cabinet meeting on the floods disaster.

First, the Malay Mail report that the medical evacuation (medevac) mission for two mothers with severe labour complications was delayed on Sunday for almost two hours at the Badang health clinic  by VVIP visits to flood-hit areas.

Dr. Afiq Rahim, stationed at Badang health clinic, recounted this in his facebook, https://www.facebook.com/affick, which has become one of the most closely-followed social media on the trials and tribulations of the dedicated medical personnel and public servants serving their duty under great odds in the current floods disaster.

Dr. Afiq should be an exemplary model for all Malaysians, right up to the Cabinet level, of how Malaysians should conduct themselves in the face of a colossal disaster – prioritizing the saving of the lives of others than to save oneself!

The first patient of a mother with difficult labour pains at the Badang health clinic came in on Sunday at 3.30am. At about 6am, doctors decided she required tertiary healthcare attention and medical evacuation.

But the  helicopter which was summoned only arrived at 8am two hours later as the helicopter had to be put “on hold” as a VVIP wanted to visit the flood-hit areas.

The second patient who arrived after 8am in labour was also faced with a similar predicament, slipping in and out of consciousness after losing a lot of blood.

Dr. Afiq was fully justified to be infuriated by the delays because the authorities had prioritised official visits despite the patients being in critical condition.

He said yesterday: “Two lives could have been lost yesterday due to the nonchalant attitude of the authorities.

“It is disappointing and frustrating for those of us who are ensuring the safety and health of the victims.”

Is this in accordance with the standard operating procedure (SOP) for disaster management that VVIP visits are given priority over patients in critical conditions?

Such cases should be investigated by the RCI on Floods Disaster Management Procedure so that there would be no repetition of such incidents, where VVIPs put the lives of ordinary rakyat at risk so that they could visit flood-hit areas.

Could the Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin reveal the full details of who are these VVIPs who had put at risk the lives of two mothers with severe labour complications at the Badang health clinic on Sunday, or must the question be directed to the Prime Minister himself?

The second incident was the statement by the National Security Council (NSC) yesterday defending Putrajaya’s flood relief efforts, in response to the criticisms by DAP leaders, in particular the DAP National Publicity Secretary Tony Pua and DAP National Vice Chairman S. Kulasegaran that the authorities’ disaster management plans and procedures had been “overwhelmed” by both the scale and scope of the floods disaster.

The weak excuse given by NSC was that the floods were abnormal, that “no matter how prepared we are, there will always be a bigger and more devastating disaster that will test the capability and resources of the country”.

As example, the NSC statement said that although the Japanese government had invested billions of dollars in disaster mitigation and preparedness plans, these plans were “overwhelmed” when the tsunami struck Tohoku region in 2011.

It said: “This is because the preparations that had been put in place are for a one in 100 years event but what came that day was a one in 1,000 years event”.

The NSC went on to absolve itself by  claiming that what was happening in Malaysia now with regard to the floods disaster, especially Kelantan, was a similar example.

This NSC statement and claim is most startling and self-serving to say the least, especially as the Deputy Mentri Besar of Kelantan Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah is on public record as saying that the current floods in Kelantan is not as bad as in 1967 – which is then a far cry from the worst ever floods to hit Kelantan in January 1926, referred to as the “red flood” (bah merah), which inundated almost all parts of the state with flood waters which were reddish in colour, a departure from the usual milk tea or brown-coloured water caused by the many landslides following 10 days of non-stop heavy rain.

So who is right, the NSC or the Deputy Mentri Besar of Kelantan?

Be that as it may, the NSC statement is the source of unintended revelation that  the NSC under the chairmanship of the Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin  had met only once this year on  floods disaster management and preparations before the  worst floods disaster in recent decades ravaged the country just before Christmas –  almost 12 months ago on January 3, 2014.

The second NSC meeting under the chairmanship of Muhyiddin was on Dec. 27, after the the floods disaster had hit the country!

According to the NSC statement, it continued the unintended revelation that the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim chaired a “second meeting” of the NSC on floods disaster on October 13, 2014 “to further iron out the crinkles in the co-ordination and preparation”, which was followed by a “third meeting” at the working level on the same day, chaired by the NSC secretary.

If these are all the meetings and preparations the NSC had made to face the nation’s worst floods in recent decades, then the whole NSC must be censured and even sacked and replaced – as it shows neither sense of responsibility nor seriousness in taking charge of the nation’s floods disaster preparations and plans which have caused nearly a quarter of a million flood victims and evacuees.

I call on Muhyiddin to clarify whether the NSC statement is correct that so far the NSC had only met once under him as Chairman on the floods disaster preparations on Jan 3, 2014 and the second meeting was after the  floods disaster on Dec. 27, and that even the Ministerial-level meeting under Shahidan only met once on Oct. 13, 2014, followed by a working-level meeting on the same day chaired by the NSC secretary – and that was all the preparations on the floods disaster made by the NSC.

If so, all the more a special Cabinet meeting must be held to completely revamp the NSC.

Can the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak clarify whether the Cabinet would meet tomorrow, or whether this is not possible because many Ministers are still vacationing overseas?

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 30 December 2014, 12:43 pm and is filed under
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UPDATE 6-Bodies, debris from missing AirAsia plane pulled from sea off Indonesia

Reuters

Dec 30, 2014

By Wilda Asmarini and Adriana Nina Kusuma

JAKARTA, Dec 30 (Reuters) – Indonesian rescuers searching for a missing AirAsia plane carrying 162 people pulled bodies and wreckage from the sea off the coast of Borneo on Tuesday as relatives of those on board broke down in tears on hearing the news.

Indonesia AirAsia’s Flight QZ8501, an Airbus A320-200, lost contact with air traffic control early on Sunday during bad weather on a flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.

The navy said 40 bodies had been recovered as dusk fell.

The plane has yet to be found and there was no word on the possibility of any survivors.

“My heart is filled with sadness for all the families involved in QZ8501,” airline boss Tony Fernandes tweeted. “On behalf of AirAsia, my condolences to all. Words cannot express how sorry I am.”

Pictures of floating bodies were broadcast on television and relatives of the missing gathered at a crisis centre in Surabaya wept with heads in their hands. Several people collapsed in grief and were helped away, a Reuters reporter said.

“You have to be strong,” the mayor of Surabaya, Tri Rismaharini, said as she comforted relatives.

“They are not ours, they belong to God.”

A navy spokesman said a plane door, oxygen tanks and one body had been recovered and taken away by helicopter for tests.

About 30 ships and 21 aircraft from Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and the United States have been involved in the search of up to 10,000 square nautical miles.

The plane, which did not issue a distress signal, disappeared after its pilot failed to get permission to fly higher to avoid bad weather because of heavy air traffic, officials said.

It was travelling at 32,000 feet (9,753 metres) and had asked to fly at 38,000 feet, officials said earlier.

Pilots and aviation experts said thunderstorms, and requests to gain altitude to avoid them, were not unusual in that area.

The Indonesian pilot was experienced and the plane last underwent maintenance in mid-November, the airline said.

The aircraft had accumulated about 23,000 flight hours in some 13,600 flights, according to Airbus.

Online discussion among pilots has centred on unconfirmed secondary radar data from Malaysia that suggested the aircraft was climbing at a speed of 353 knots, about 100 knots too slow, and that it might have stalled.

CLUES WHEN THINGS GO WRONG

The plane, whose engines were made by CFM International, co-owned by General Electric and Safran of France, lacked real-time engine diagnostics or monitoring, a GE spokesman said.

Such systems are mainly used on long-haul flights and can provide clues to airlines and investigators when things go wrong.

Three airline disasters involving Malaysian-affiliated carriers in less than a year have dented confidence in the country’s aviation industry and spooked travellers across the region.

Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 went missing on March 8 on a trip from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board and has not been found. On July 17, the same airline’s Flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.

On board Flight QZ8501 were 155 Indonesians, three South Koreans, and one person each from Singapore, Malaysia and Britain. The co-pilot was French.

U.S. law enforcement and security officials said passenger and crew lists were being examined but nothing significant had turned up and the incident was regarded as an unexplained accident.

Indonesia AirAsia is 49 percent owned by Malaysia-based budget carrier AirAsia.

The AirAsia group, including affiliates in Thailand, the Philippines and India, had not suffered a crash since its Malaysian budget operations began in 2002.

The plane’s disappearance comes at a sensitive time for Indonesia’s aviation authorities, as they strive to improve the country’s safety reputation to match its status as one of the airline industry’s fastest growing markets.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 30 December 2014, 6:53 pm and is filed under
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Villagers stranded on hills as floods swept away homes

by Anisah Shukry

The Malaysian Insider

30 December 2014

In the remote village of Kampung Manek Urai Lama, Kuala Krai, in the east coast state of Kelantan, hundreds of villagers had been stranded for days up on the hills, having fled for higher ground when flood waters surged into their homes without warning.

 The evacuation had been frightening and sudden, with no help from the authorities, according to Hayati (not her real name), who is among those seeking shelter on the hill after the flood devastated her house.

“The time when we needed them the most, the police, the firemen failed us,” she said, her eyes brimming with unshed tears.

No one in the village expected the flood to reach their homes. So when the water came rushing in at 3am last Tuesday, families scrambled to get to safety as frantic phone calls were made to the authorities to save them.

But the rescue team wouldn’t, or couldn’t, come, and the villagers had only themselves to rely on.

“The water was coming in so fast. When the police said they couldn’t come here, I thought, ‘that’s it, we’ll just have to climb onto the roof.

“But, thank God, someone in the village had a sampan so I quickly climbed in and squeezed into it with my two-month-old baby and we fled for the homes higher up on the hills,” she said.

That night, each house on the hill had about five families crammed safely inside. Everyone had to make do with sleeping on the floor, and food was limited to whatever the homeowner had, she said.

“Even though there were so many of us seeking shelter, the homeowners welcomed us with open arms. They were very reassuring; they told us it was a good thing they had just popped over to the store that day so there was enough food to go around.”

It was only two days later that more supplies reached them, as helicopters and boats dropped food and clothing to the villagers marooned on the hill.

Finally, the flood began to recede yesterday and they were able to slowly made their way back down the hill to check on their ravaged houses.

“Nothing’s left,” said Hayati with a shake of her head.

She was cleaning her house when approached by The Malaysian Insider.

Although the house itself was intact, it was uninhabitable. Every inch of surface was covered in filth and wet mud, while the furniture was ruined.

“Everything is gone. Our furniture, our clothes, our food. We have nothing left,” she said, as her brothers lifted up the muddy remains of a wardrobe and dumped it in a heap in the street.

“I can’t even imagine how my children will start school in the next few days, everything I’ve bought for them is destroyed,” she said, her voice breaking.

The lower part of her village was almost entirely wiped out. Some houses, like Hayati’s, had survived the flood’s vicious onslaught, but others had been swept away by the sheer force of the water.

One wooden house had been lifted entirely from its foundation and was found smashed into the concrete house opposite the street.

Pieces of yellow plank – what remained of the wooden house’s living room walls – almost buried the neighbour’s home, which still managed to remain upright.

A sodden, pink mattress spattered with dirt lay dangling on the roof, while a metal bedframe and a few textbooks bloated with mud were the only things left from the wooden house.

Suhaimi (not his real name), 41, was grateful that the house had been empty when the flood carried it away; it had belonged to his mother-in-law, who had been in Kuala Lumpur the past week.

“I stayed in that house for 20 years, and even though I now live in Bachok, I do come here once a week. But it’s entirely gone now and no amount of cash vouchers will be able to bring it back,” he said.

Next to him, his mother-in-law wrung her hands and stared at the devastating scene before her, too distressed to speak.

It was the first time his family had returned to Kampung Manek Urai Lama since the floods struck. For the past few days, all access by land was impossible as the village had become a tiny island cut off from the rest of the world.

The bridge leading up to the village had only resurfaced from the flood waters the previous day. It was now strewn with waterlogged cars tangled in uprooted trees, while the murky brown river flowed calmly underneath.

But even with the flood subsiding, Suhaimi said at this point, all his family could do was clear their neighbour’s house from the debris left by their own house.

“There’s nothing left for us to salvage,” he said helplessly, as his relatives painstakingly tore apart the large yellow planks with a hammer and tossed them aside.

“We’re just hoping for help from the government to rebuild this village, and maybe raise the roads leading to it so that this area won’t be inaccessible the next time there’s a flood.”

Husaini Hamzah, 40, stood by himself among the rubble several hundred metres away.

He had arrived here alone from Kuala Lumpur the day before, after he heard that his family’s village was flooded.

“When I arrived yesterday, I was devastated to see all my relatives squeezed inside a mosque outside of this village with a few hundred other people. They had been without any supplies for days.

“They survived by looting other vacated shop lots. They had no other choice. It was either that or starve,” he said, adding that most of the elderly still remained in the mosque despite the floods subsiding, as they were too traumatised to go back to the village.

As we speak, a 64-year-old woman trudged past him, a donated sack of rice held on her head with one hand, a plastic bag full of medicine grasped in the other, as she returned to the dry houses on the hill.

Refusing to give her name, she told The Malaysian Insider that this was the first time since the floods swept her home away that she had left the safety of the hill, and this was only because some volunteers had come that day with medicinal supplies.

“My husband is up there, he has kidney problems and needs the medicine. Otherwise I would have just stayed up there as well.

“It was up to me to come down and get the medicine for him as it’s just the two of us. We have no money anymore, no home, and no young ones to help, not like them,” she said, pointing at a few teenagers trailing behind their mother, each balancing sacks of rice on their heads. A villager carrying donated rice and other necessities as she looks at the damaged caused by the flood in Kampung Manek Urai Lama.

She paused at the sight of the limp body of a cat on the ground which was already beginning to smell of decay, before resuming her journey up the hill, navigating carefully through the wreckage and mud.

Up on the hill, a 29-year-old who only wanted to be known as Midi said he had opened the doors of his house to 25 people since Tuesday.

“I still remember how shocked I was when all the families came rushing for shelter up here. We had enough food to fill our stomachs for a few days until supplies from outside finally came through.”

Even though the floods had subsided, no one had moved out of his house yet, he said.

“We’re all still staying here – men, women, children. Even though the flood’s gone, their houses are too damaged for them to return.

“I don’t mind,” he said with a smile. “It’s what the situation calls for.”

He added that in the past few days, food had not been an issue as several Good Samaritans had brought supplies by boats.

“We don’t have enough blankets, though. We’ve been getting quite a few clothes, but no blankets.” – December 30, 2014.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 30 December 2014, 8:49 am and is filed under
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What has Umno/BN government learned from natural disasters?

– Nawawi Mohamad

The Malaysian Insider

29 December 2014

Malaysia has experienced several natural disasters which resulted in loss of lives and properties starting back in December 1993 with the collapse of two blocks of the Highland Towers, then the tsunami in 2004, recent Cameron Highlands landslides and the latest being the unprecedented floods in Kelantan, Pahang and Terengganu.

By the way, with so frequent flooding, we ought to be professional in facing them by now. Unfortunately, we are never ready and never prepared.

In the Highland Towers tragedy, we lacked experience such that the Japanese Civil Defence sent a team to help in the search and rescue effort. Search and rescue teams from Singapore, France, United Kingdom and the United States also came to help.

Besides helping, they also showed us the relevant techniques and the equipment they used in disasters. In fact, at the end of the search, the Japanese left their equipment and donated them to Malaysia.

From that incident, Malaysia formed its own Search and Rescue Team under the Fire Department. Our team had also been sent overseas to help disaster victims, like in Aceh during the tsunami in 2004. Naturally, every Malaysian should feel proud that we have our own reliable team and managed to help others in foreign countries as well.

Besides the elite team mentioned above, we also have several non-governmental organisations that play significant roles both at home and overseas. We have other agencies like JKR, JPA, PDRM, military and volunteers who at times have been at the forefront in the rescue efforts.

Malaysians are generally generous and we are all proud to be Malaysians in that sense. We also have the means: the equipment, machinery, resources and manpower to undertake the search, rescue and help victims in almost any natural disaster. We can do it.

But at the government and political levels, our ministers and politicians have not shown their will to improve themselves. Despite having declared that they work for the people since it is the people who put them into power anyway, at these times of need they seem to be lost and preoccupied with their own personal world.

We all know that Datuk Seri Najib Razak was holidaying and golfing in Hawaii, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein was said to be in London, loud-mouth Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was quiet as a mouse, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was also said to be in Australia and Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yasin was not in control.

Never mind the politicians but even if they want to have fun while the people are facing hardship, make sure that there is a system established and could run on auto-pilot.

The Umno/Barisan Nasional government should set up a central command at the federal level with branches in every state to coordinate the various NGOs, volunteers, government agencies and above all the control of correct information should be given to the public.

Coordination is important so that every area is covered by the various teams and overlapping of efforts could be avoided. The disaster command centre will also be able to know the exact amount of resources at hand, and what kind of help is needed most.

Just look at the recent blunder as reported in the papers when TNB managed to send 45 gensets to Pahang and only 1 genset to Kelantan despite the latter being affected most.

TNB has limited logistics resources and they are not a logistics specialist either. If there had been a proper disaster management, some form of transport could be provided, may be by the military to help send the gensets where they are most needed.

The centre should only have one contact number, which will be connected to several help and information lines. Do not give the individual contact numbers of the NGOs, government departments and agencies because the central command must be the reference point. None of them should act alone, all should be under the central command and be coordinated efficiently.

There must also be a website meant to cater for any disaster where everybody can reach and not depend on the social media which most of the time spread false or half-truths. The website should be interactive where applicable so that those who need to know feel more comfortable.

The Umno/BN government must also educate the people in the flood-prone areas to be ready with survival supplies: food, drinking water, clothes, medicines, toiletries and other necessities should be carried along during evacuation.

The whole supply could be in the form of standard ration placed in a lightweight bag which could have multiple uses. For instance, it could be used as a life buoy if the victims are swept away. Add in an identification beacon for easy searching.

What we have now is the National Security Council (MKN) which is lousy but we do not feel secure. They have done nothing much except simply to exist and may be just to get paid. And nothing else except blunders in every disaster that we faced.

It seems the Umno/BN government has not learned much, if not nothing, from the disasters that we have had. Now if Najib and all the politicians want to go elsewhere during any disaster, please do something about it. – December 29, 2014.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 30 December 2014, 9:34 pm and is filed under
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Why Do Planes Keep Disappearing?

By Jeff Wise

Slate

Dec. 29, 2014

With AirAsia 8501, a storm could have been the cause. With Malaysia Airlines 370, we still don’t know.

March 8, 2014. Malaysia Airlines 370 takes off from Kuala Lumpur, heads north, and disappears 40 minutes into its flight. Dec. 28, 2014. AirAsia 8501 takes off from Surabaya, Indonesia, heads north, and disappears about 40 minutes into its flight.*

Are the events coincidental? Is there something about Southeast Asian passenger flights that makes them particularly vulnerable to Twilight Zone–style vanishing? Or have we entered a new era of air travel, in which anyone could disappear midair for no apparent reason?

There are certainly a number of parallels between the flights. AirAsia Indonesia is a daughter company of AirAsia, which—like Malaysia Airlines—is headquartered near Kuala Lumpur. Both flights were scheduled to arrive in the morning. Neither issued a distress call or sent out an emergency locator beacon signal. And then there’s the question of proximity, both temporal (the incidents took place less than 10 months apart) and spatial (QZ8501 was last seen on radar less than 50 miles from the final MH370 “ping ring”).

The incidents also share similar opening chapters. In the case of MH370, air traffic controllers took longer than they should have—17 minutes—to start asking questions after the plane failed to appear in their control zone. The initial area searched was the South China Sea, near the flight’s observed position on secondary radar. In the case of QZ8501, Indonesian controllers took half an hour to alert their Singaporean counterparts that the flight was missing. The initial search area is at the western end of the Java Sea, near the flight’s observed position on secondary radar.

What remains to be seen is whether the stories will now diverge. After searchers spent days looking in vain for surface debris, the Malaysian military revealed that its primary radar had spotted the plane pulling a 180 and flying west back over the Malay Peninsula. To this day, no one can really explain why that happened, or pinpoint where the plane subsequently went, as no debris or wreckage of any kind has turned up.

If no debris ever turns up from QZ8501, we’ll be left with an even greater enigma than that of MH370.

So far, nothing so strange has transpired in the AirAsia case. True, after two days of searching, no trace of QZ8501 has been found, despite the fact that 30 surface vessels and 15 planes from Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, and Australia are combing the area. But only one of those days enjoyed favorable weather conditions. And the search area encompasses 50,000 square miles, the size of the state of Mississippi. Still, we shouldn’t have to wait too much longer before wreckage starts to turn up. Searchers took five days to locate floating debris from Air France 447 when it went missing en route from Rio to Paris in 2009, and that was out in the middle of the vast Atlantic.

The factor that makes QZ8501 look most different from MH370 is the weather. MH370 vanished under calm conditions; there was never any reason to suspect that weather played a role. The AirAsia flight, in contrast, disappeared in close proximity to a tropical thunderstorm; shortly before it vanished the pilot reportedly asked air traffic control for permission to change altitude and direction. According to the New York Times, that request was denied due to the fact that other traffic was nearby.

It’s quite understandable that a pilot would want to avoid a thunderstorm, especially a tropical one, which can pack energies on the scale of thermonuclear weapons—think huge chunks of hail, severe turbulence, 100 mph downdrafts, and rain so intense that it can douse the fire in an airliner’s engines. AF447 came down after it passed through the turbulent top of a tropical thunderstorm and its pitot tubes froze up, leaving the pilot flying confused about his airspeed. As a general rule, pilots are advised to stay at least 20 nautical miles away from a thunderstorm. If the pilot of QZ5801 saw a massive thunderhead dead ahead, and was concerned enough to request a change in his flight path, then maybe he should have gone ahead and diverted, even without permission. Ultimately, a captain is the person responsible for the fate of an airplane, and it is understood by everyone that if following air traffic control’s instructions puts the aircraft in danger, then it’s his duty to respond with “unable” and do whatever’s necessary to get himself and his passengers to safety.

Then again, that’s always easier to say from the ground.

There’s still every reason to believe that QZ8501 was lost as a result of natural causes, unlike the truly unusual MH370 case, where the evidence points to hijacking as the most plausible explanation for its disappearance; how and why the plane ultimately wound up flying off into the southern Indian Ocean, as most experts believe it did, remains utterly unclear. That impression will be reinforced as soon as the AirAsia flight’s surface debris is spotted; once that happens, searchers will begin trawling with audio equipment to pick up the plane’s black box acoustic pingers. Pulled from the sea, the black boxes will show exactly what the plane was doing and what the pilots were saying up to the bitter end. If this investigation goes the way most do, the mystery will be resolved in short order.

On the other hand, in the rather unlikely event that no debris ever turns up from QZ8501, then we’ll be left with an even greater enigma than that of MH370. A short-haul workhorse, the AirAsia Airbus A320 lacked a satellite communications system of the kind that provided the “ping rings” that gave us the sole clues to MH370’s mysterious fate. It also didn’t have the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System that provided clues to AF447’s final location. (While some A320s have these systems, they’re optional.) In the absence of physical evidence, we’ll have nothing to go on at all.

And yes, that will be very creepy.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 30 December 2014, 7:26 am and is filed under
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10 questions about the AirAsia Flight QZ8501 tragedy

By Laura Smith-Spark and Ashley Fantz, CNN

December 30, 2014

(CNN) — The discovery of debris from AirAsia Flight QZ8501 means investigators have taken a big step toward answering the questions haunting the families of those aboard the doomed plane. What are the key questions, and what might come next?

What caused the plane to crash?

It’s the million-dollar question. And as yet, nobody knows. Ahead lies a possibly months-long investigation into what happened after the Airbus A320-200 lost contact with air traffic control early Sunday.

Shortly beforehand, the pilot requested permission to turn and climb to a higher altitude because of bad weather, according to Indonesian officials.

Some experts have said the aircraft might have experienced an aerodynamic stall because of a lack of speed or from flying at too sharp an angle to get enough lift.

Analysts have also said that the pilots might not have been getting information from onboard systems about the plane’s position or that rain or hail from thunderstorms in the area could have damaged the engines.

The key to understanding what happened is likely to be contained in the aircraft’s cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, commonly known as black boxes.

“Until we get the black boxes, we won’t know what’s going on with the engines,” Bill Savage, a former pilot with 30 years of experience, told CNN.

How will search crews retrieve bodies?

The recovery of the victims is the first priority for those involved in the operation.

Helicopters can lower divers to help recover bodies and debris from the surface of the water. Surface vessels may also play a role, as may submersibles if bodies are trapped in wreckage below the surface.

There are some victims who will be on the surface of the water and others trapped in the wreckage at the bottom of the Java Sea, about 140 feet (43 meters) down, said Peter Goelz, the former managing director of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.

It will be a challenge for divers to reach bodies because that depth is as far as a diver can descend, he said. The divers will probably have to use recovery chambers — systems to help their bodies acclimate and continue. “It will take time,” Goelz said. “You have to find the debris field, and that will take a week or 10 days.”

How will they be identified?

Hospitals in the Indonesian city of Surabaya are being prepared to help house and identify bodies recovered off the coast of Borneo.

To help them, heartbroken relatives have already been asked to bring along photographs of their loved ones and to provide DNA samples.

But finding and identifying the bodies of all 162 people on board is a big task. And not all bodies may be found.

A recovered body wasn’t wearing a life jacket. What could that indicate?

Goelz said that could mean that whatever happened to the plane, it happened quickly. It’s possible that passengers didn’t have time to act, said Mary Schiavo, a lawyer and former inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Could any of the passengers have survived?

There have been air crashes in the past where there has been a sole survivor, said Deborah Hersman, president of the National Safety Council and former chairwoman of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. But finding anyone alive from Flight 8501 would be an incredibly unlikely scenario, she said.

A searcher said he could see the shadow of a plane through the water. If that’s true, what then?

If that claim is true, searchers will be able to more quickly recover its flight data recorder, Schiavo said.

With the help of sonar, it shouldn’t take long to recover recorders that contain an account of what happened on the plane, said Tim Taylor, a diver with 30 years of experience and an expert on submersible techniques and tools.

The plane’s pingers, or underwater locator beacons, are still going off, Taylor said, so that should help speed up recovery of the recorder.

How will they find and retrieve the wreckage?

The debris was found in the Karimata Strait, about 110 nautical miles southwest of the Indonesian city of Pangkalan Bun, AirAsia said. That’s just 6 miles from the plane’s last known point of contact.

Divers and ships with sonar equipment are being sent to the site, where the water depth varies between 25 and 30 meters (about 80 to 100 feet), said Bambang Sulistyo, head of Indonesia’s search and rescue agency.

As was the case in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, a towed pinger locator could be used to pinpoint the flight data recorders.

Schiavo said the proximity of the wreckage to the last known radar point suggested that there was not an inflight breakup and that the plane may have hit the water intact.

The shallow depth of the water also means that heavy pieces of wreckage are not likely to have drifted very far before reaching the bottom.

Any large pieces of the plane will be brought up so that they can be reconstructed as part of the crash investigation.

But first, the site must be mapped because the location of the separate pieces is an important part of figuring out what happened, Taylor said.

What does the debris found so far indicate?

The sight of an emergency exit door floating free on the water, as well as some life jackets, may raise questions about whether the crew had time to deploy safety equipment before the plane hit the water. But Schiavo said she has seen other crash sites where the emergency exit door or chutes had popped out without being deliberately deployed.

“In many cases, those things just come apart as the accident aircraft breaks apart in the water — but we certainly need to know that,” she said.

When found, the cockpit voice recorder will probably help determine whether orders were given to prepare for a ditching in water.

What’s next for the relatives of the victims?

The families of those on board got the news they were dreading Tuesday with confirmation that the wreckage of the plane had been found.

Some fainted as they live watched a news conference about the discovery of the debris and saw video of a helicopter lowering a diver to what appeared to be a floating body. Others burst into tears.

The key element is to keep the relatives informed while the investigation continues, said Hersman.

“It’s about making the decisions to share the information with the family,” she said. Those in charge also need to maintain credibility by making sure they have the facts correct and share them in a timely manner, she said.

It’s also important to protect families amid the media frenzy, she said, particularly when distressing scenes are broadcast — for example, of bodies being brought up.

Hersman also pointed to the impact of the news of the AirAsia crash on the relatives of those lost in other air disasters, such as the mysterious disappearance of Flight 370 in March. The search for that plane continues, 10 months later.

“The lack of ability to close things down emotionally is just exhausting,” Sarah Bajc told CNN on Monday night. Her partner, Philip Woods, was on board MH370.

When news broke that another plane had disappeared this week, Bajc said, “I just started to shake.”

Flight 8501 took off two hours ahead of schedule. Is that something investigators will consider?

Schiavo said they will take that into account. A plane leaving before its scheduled departure time is unheard of in the United States, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t common practice in other countries, she noted.

“The question I would have is why,” she said. “Were they trying to beat the weather?”

CNN’s Will Ripley contributed to this report.

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A wretched, horrendous year, with little cheer

COMMENTARY BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER

31 December 2014

2014 has been a wretched and horrendous year for Malaysia, with very little spots of sunny cheer for Malaysians. All 52 weeks have seen us angry and sad – not quite the happy Malaysia Truly Asia that we portray in tourism advertisements.

Grief has been Malaysia’s main point of unity – from the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 on March 8 to flight MH17 that was shot out of the sky on July 17 to the tragic crash of AirAsia Bhd Indonesian affiliate’s flight QZ8501 on December 28, in the last days of the year.

Three commercial plane crashes linked to Malaysia in just a year – what are the chances of that?

And while that dominated the headlines, there has been other events that added to Malaysia’s grief. Statistics showed that 189 people died of dengue so far this year, up from 95 in 2013.

It has also been a record year for dengue cases which reached 98,128 up to December 6, according to the government statistics.

That is about 40% of the record number of evacuees in the worst floods to strike Malaysia in decades. Even now, some 150,000 remain in evacuation centres as rescuers and aid workers try to grapple with a logistics failure to send food and water supplies.

At least 21 people have died in the current floods, police said.

Ironically, Malaysia is suffering the worst floods in a year when a severe drought led to water rationing in Selangor and a few other states. Climate change and indiscriminate logging have turned Malaysia into a country of extreme weather and disasters.

Also, veteran politician and DAP national chairman Karpal Singh was killed in a road accident in April while another towering Malaysian, ex-TNB executive chairman Tan Sri Ani Arope, succumbed to cancer earlier this month.

But death was not the only thing to stalk Malaysia in 2014.

Fundamentalism strode in again in the second day of 2014 when Selangor Islamic authorities seized Malay and Iban-language Bibles, saying it cannot be used in the country’s wealthiest state.

There had been cases earlier, at least one still pending in court, but the Selangor confiscation pitted the state against the advice of the country’s top lawyer, the Attorney-General.

It would take a change of menteri besar and 11 months for the seized Bibles to be returned, but to another party. All the Bibles were stamped with a warning that it cannot be used in Selangor – reflecting Malaysia’s shrinking space for religious freedom.

Apart from religious authorities, other groups came to the picture to dominate the national discourse on race and religion. Putrajaya kept silent although on the global stage, Malaysia was a champion of moderation.

Kelantan’s renewed push for Islamic criminal laws, or hudud, tore up an already festering wound in a divided political pact and a country where some politicians and people believe an Islamic nation means a theocracy is in charge.

In a reflection of poorer electoral fortunes, Putrajaya went along with the idea of hudud, saying it will set up a technical committee to look into Kelantan’s request. This was an absolute reversal of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’ stance that hudud was unjust to a section of Malaysians.

Regular as clockwork, Dr Mahathir took issue with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s leadership, in a repeat of what happened to the person who held the same office between them – Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

With anything from the BR1M cash aid to strategic investor 1MDB’s accounts, Dr Mahathir criticised a man some called his political son.

A gloomy global economic outlook and plunging global oil prices led to more criticisms from Dr Mahathir and the opposition.

But Najib, a politician who gets criticised when he opens or closes his mouth, kept his cool and silence, even managed to squeeze a golf game with US President Barack Obama in Hawaii on Christmas Eve – adding to the long list of global destinations he visited in 2014 while the country ran on auto-pilot.

That earned him some barracking as the golf round happened the same time that Kelantan and other states were inundated with fast-rising flood waters. In many ways, it was similar to Abdullah who was holidaying and opening a nasi kandar restaurant in Perth when floods struck Johor in 2006.

While the political drama within Umno and Pakatan Rakyat (PR) played out in an already horrid year, Malaysians grouped up in civil societies in the last months of the year to write open letters to plead for rational dialogue, for common sense to set in.

The law courts made a few landmark decisions – that it was unconstitutional for religious authorities to restrict a Malaysian’s dressing or even seize books that have yet to be banned by the government.

And in the last week of the year, Malaysians went past the noise and rhetoric of fringe groups and divisive politicians to do what they do best – rally around other Malaysians in need.

They raised donations, bought food and water supplies and delivered them personally to flood victims in eight states – apart from a military and civil defence that did their job in the face of many hardships.

Perhaps Malaysians were happy that ministers and the fringe groups were abroad on holidays or silenced by the floods that the last week of the year showed us at our best – being Malaysians who help each other when push comes to shove.

We might want to forget 2014 for all the bad news and anger it has caused but if there is any lesson from this year, it is simply this – we are Malaysians united not by grief but for the great empathy and love for each other.

We proudly show it abroad and we dutifully do it when disaster strikes us. But we need to do it every day, no matter how much some try to divide us according to race or religion.

It has been a terrible year but when it came to the crunch, we are Malaysians for each other. May we have a better year ahead. – December 31, 2014.

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In Kelantan floods, unsung heroes emerge

by Anisah Shukry

The Malaysian Insider

31 December 2014

The flood that engulfed several areas in Kelantan the past week has left a trail of destruction and misery, but harrowing reports of altruism and bravery have also emerged as ordinary Malaysians step up to the task of helping out their fellow men.

Teacher Muhammad Apandi Hashim, 46, spent the first night of the floods in his 3.5m boat, manoeuvring through electric poles in the dark through the rushing water to rescue countless villagers in Tanah Merah who were beyond the reach of official rescue teams.

The first pair he rescued that Wednesday evening were his neighbour’s elderly parents, who were stranded in a village about an hour away from his house.

“I was all prepared to evacuate my house with my family, when my neighbour asked me if I could pick up his parents with my boat. When people ask for help like that, how can you refuse?” he told The Malaysian Insider when met at his house in Kampung Cherang Lali, Tanah Merah, yesterday.

But getting from one place to another even by boat becomes a challenge as recognisable landmarks are swallowed up by the raging floods, while tree branches and electric wires protruding from the surging water’s surface threaten to damage the boat’s motor.

“We had to just rely on our gut instinct to get there, and, thank God, we reached the house in about an hour. It was already flooded up to the doorsteps by the time we arrived.

“But like my neighbour warned me, the old man refused to come out. He said that if he left, who would take care of the house, the motorcycle, the cars?

“I said to him, ‘Ayah, you’ve got to come with us. It’s getting dark, we have no time.’ We forced him into the boat.

“If Ayah had stayed, he wouldn’t have been able to save himself, never mind his motorcycle. Last I heard, the water in his house went up to chest level and everything was destroyed.”

But after Apandi had dropped the elderly pair off around 7pm, his task wasn’t over – others who spotted him on his boat begged him to help their marooned relatives in other villagers.

Although ill-equipped for rescue missions – the boat only has a 5hp engine and capacity for just four people at a time – the teacher said he lost count of the number of families he rescued that night.

He only returned home by 5am, and was relieved to learn that while the flood had cut off road access to his neighbourhood, his house and the surrounding homes remained dry.

But at home he only managed to pray and eat, and within an hour, he was out again rescuing more people trapped in their homes. This went on for three days, said Apandi, until the rescue teams finally arrived in their village.

“Once, as I was visiting the relief centre, another person came up to me and asked me to save people in his village. I had to refuse. I was drained, and my boat isn’t built for rescuing people.

“I told him to appeal to the rescue team instead, who were already stationed nearby. If I went in with my little boat, exhausted, and it capsized, that’s four lives I have to answer for,” said Apandi.

The boat which teacher Muhammad Apandi Hashim used to rescue villagers in Tanah Merah. The boat can only take five people at a time. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Hasnoor Hussain, December 31, 2014.But even with the authorities taking over Apandi’s task, his work wasn’t over. From retrieving stranded people, he now had to feed dozens of hungry mouths as his neighbourhood remained cut off from the main road due to the flood.

Several times a day, he would go knocking on his neighbours’ doors to find out what supplies they needed, before going out on his boat to dryer land, switching to his car and driving about an hour to Machang, where the nearest operating grocery store was located.

Yesterday was the first day he was finally able to rest at home as the floods had finally subsided, he said, and only now did the aches and pains of all his earlier exertion sink in.

“Strangely enough, I didn’t feel any pain when I was out there chugging through the water in my boat. But now when I’m resting, it hurts all over,” he said.

But while water levels are receding across the east coast, dozens of houses on the outskirts of Kusial Baru, Tanah Merah, remain completely submerged under flood waters.

Its owners have fled to the three relief centres. To survive, the thousands trapped there rely solely on goods transported by NGOs, volunteers and authorities by boat.

During a visit there yesterday, The Malaysian Insider found the murky waters that separated the village from the rest of the state busy with boats carrying a variety of supplies, while the muddy road was packed with trucks and four-wheel-drives loaded with bags of rice and boxes of clothes ready for distribution.

Among them was a group of six men who had travelled from Kuala Lumpur in their two Hilux trucks to help ensure that the tonnes of donations coming from across the country actually reached the people in need.

“There are many people donating items, but there are few people who are actually in Kelantan to distribute the aid. We knew manpower and equipment was needed, so that’s why we came here,” Muhaidin Mokhsin, 51, told The Malaysian Insider.

In preparation for their trip, the team had bought two boats which cost over RM1,000 each and made sure their trucks were well-equipped to withstand the gruelling task.

For the past three days, Muhaidin had led the group of six, who are all members of an adventure club called the Oscar Tango Adventure Team, through seven flooded districts in Kelantan bringing fuel, food, water and other goods.

“We ran out of supplies quickly enough, so we’ve had to restock at any sundry store we passed on the road. So far, we’ve spent about RM10,000,” said Johari Ali, 63, whose family is stranded in Kusial Baru.

“Logistics hasn’t been much of a problem. We’ve been sleeping at friends’ or relatives’ houses here in Kelantan, and when that wasn’t an option, we slept in our cars. It’s not as bad as it sounds,” he said with a grin.

Meanwhile, another teacher, Mohd Khairul Azhar Md Now, 42, has been driving around his hometown of Tanah Merah alone for the past three days to distribute donated clothes and food to flood victims.

Khairul said he had posted on Facebook last week that he expected his house to be flooded, and his friends had quickly raised money for him and donations came pouring in.

But after a night spent at the relief centre, he returned home to discover that his house had been spared from the floodwaters.

“So I’m using 100% of the money donated for me to buy supplies for the people who actually do need help, and driving around distributing it to them,” he told The Malaysian Insider.

He said he entered as many flooded villages as possible in Tanah Merah, at all hours, while updating his friends on Facebook on where the money they had donated was going to and how much more was needed.

“The flood could have happened to me, but it didn’t. So now it’s my turn to help out.” – December 31, 2014.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 31 December 2014, 5:24 pm and is filed under
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Insurance regulator confirms emergency declaration won’t affect payout for floods

Malay Mail Online

December 31, 2014 04:41 PM

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 31 — Despite Putrajaya’s argument, Malaysia’s insurance regulator has confirmed insurance firms will not be absolved of liability in paying out compensation for flood claims filed if a state of emergency were declared.

The General Insurance Association of Malaysia (Piam) said its member companies must process the claims so long as flood is an “insured peril”.

While standard motor and fire insurance policies exclude coverage against losses caused by natural catastrophes, PIAM said that the option to cover disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis and typhoons, cover for flood-related loss or damage, can be purchased as an extension to the policies.

“All policyholders, both businesses and individuals, located at the flood-stricken areas are therefore advised to check their fire and motor policies to determine whether they are covered for loss or damage resulting from the floods,” Piam, which is made up of 29 insurance firms, said in a statement emailed today.

“Piam would like to advise the public to review their insurance policies with their insurers or insurance agents to establish if the cover provided is sufficient to mitigate any serious financial impact due to flood losses and damages,” it said.

Similarly, it also said businesses are also advised to take up insurance products to protect themselves and their businesses against such losses.

Despite the massive flooding that has so now forced over 200,000 Malaysians from their homes in six states in the peninsula, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said on Saturday that there was no need to declare an emergency.

“If the government announces an emergency, the implications that will arise include the insurance companies being absolved from paying compensation… and compensation arising from damages to property and vehicles is enormous.

“That’s why if we declare (an emergency), this means it includes the ‘force majeure’ category, and insurance companies need not pay compensation (in this case),” Najib was quoted saying in a later news report by Bernama.

The remarks drew flak from opposition politicians and civil society groups alike compelling Putrajaya to consider declaring an emergency to enable the mobilisation of the entire government machinery to mitigate the disaster.

Piam had previously given its assurance that all the insurance companies registered with the body is committed to offer assistance to all flood victims, including allowing an instalment of payment of annual premiums and by expediting the settlement of claims made by policyholders.

“In the case of larger claims which may require longer processing time, considerations would be given to allow for interim payments of a certain percentage of the total estimated loss pending full settlement later,” said the regulators.

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Kuala Krai devastated by floods

 – The Malaysian Insider/Bernama

31 December 2014

Like a place attacked by a giant bird or the ancient ‘garuda’. This is the description of the severe destruction caused by the floods in several villages in the district of Kuala Krai.

It also gives a reminder of the tsunami tragedy that occurred in 2004 when one looks at the damage suffered by the villagers.

In Sungai Durian, several houses totally collapsed after the the village was submerged by the floods on December 23 and forced the residents to seek shelter at evacuation centres.

Rosmaria Ghazali, 34, could only cry when seeing her home submerged up to the roof, her house and furniture totally ruined.

“I was shocked and stunned when I came to see the house. I don’t know what else to do,” she said in tears when talking to Bernama.

Rosmaria, who sought shelter at the Sekolah Kebangsaan Sungai Embak, said that she was nevertheless thankful because all five of her family members were safe.

“It’s alright to lose the property. What is important is that my family members, including my parents, are safe,” she said.

Rosmaria hoped that financial aid could be provided immediately to her and her family so that they could buy much needed basic necessities.

“I am also thankful when the 1Malaysia People’s Aid is speeded up as announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak,” she said.

Another resident, Salamah Mahmud, 56, could only cry when asked by Bernama about her home which also collapsed due to the floods.

“I am poor … where else can we stay? I hope that the evacuation centre that I am staying in will remain open for some time,” she said sadly. Salamah, who is staying at the centre with her husband Mamat Kassim, 63, hoped that the government would provide them with a new home.

A check at the Kampung Hutan Batu Balai also showed that the situation was almost similar and when food aid was distributed by the 1Malaysia Community, they came in groups to receive the supplies.

Yusof Ghani, 52, said that during the recent floods, the village was almost cut off by the flood water.

“Alhamdulillah (thank god) aid came by helicopter and we thank the government for giving the aid rather quickly,” he said. His house was submerged up to the roof, which had not happened in the area for quite some time.

In Kuala Krai town, a refrigerator was seen stuck on the rooftop of an eating shop, illustrating the severity of the flood in the area. – Bernama, December 31, 2014.

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Malaysians must stay strong, hopeful and confident despite a year of great adversities with three air disasters, worst floods disaster in decades and the rise of bigotry and extremism to build a common, united, moderate and prosperous future for all Malaysians

2015 New Year Message

It is so easy to give way to despair at the tides of adversity Malaysians have to go through in 2014 and to write off the future for Malaysia –  the unprecedented three air disasters  in a year (MH370, MH17 and QZ8501) which no other country had ever had to experience, the worst floods disaster in recent decades and the rise of bigotry and extremism putting to the ultimate test the Merdeka and Malaysia national compacts of 1957 and 1963 to be an oasis of multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural harmony, tolerance and co-existence in an increasingly troubled and fractious world.

Every cloud has a silver lining and this holds true for the adversities Malaysians had to undergo in 2014 – the air disasters and the worst floods disaster in decades galvanizing Malaysians to stand in sympathy, support and solidarity with the victims and the aggrieved and the rise of moderates, best exemplified by the Open Letter by 25 Eminent Malays to the Prime Minister and the snowballing of support by ordinary moderate Malaysians regardless of race, religion, politics or  region to save Malaysia from the bigots and extremists.

Malaysians must stay strong, hopeful and confident despite a year of great adversities with three air disasters, the worst floods disaster in decades and the rise of bigotry and extremism to build a common, united, moderate and prosperous future for all Malaysians.

It may not be appropriate to wish “Happy New Year” with the close of a very unhappy 2014, but it would be most pertinent and fitting for Malaysians to wish each other a “Purposeful New Year” – to make 2015 a watershed year to end the rhetoric and politics of falsehood, hate, bigotry and intolerance which threaten to pulverize not only Malaysia but the world as well!

Moderates in Malaysia, regardless of race, religion, politics or region, must stand up as one to save not only Malaysia but the world and drown out the siren calls of the extremists and bigots which had spawned the emergence of the barbarities and savageries of Islamic State and such-like organisations.

After the 13th General Elections in May last year, DAP and Pakatan Rakyat had endorsed a National Reconciliation Programme.

This should be the national programme for all moderates in Malaysia to unite on to save Malaysia from the bigots and extremists.

I reiterate the call made by many quarters for an emergency meeting of Parliament in January with at least four specific agendas:

(1)	A new budget 2015 and National Economic Salvation Plan in the wake of fast-changing economic world;

(2)	National Reconciliation Plan to save Malaysia and the world from bigots and extremists;

(3)	The worst floods disaster in decades; and

(4)	The Royal Commission of Inquiry Report into the Ilelgal Immigrants in Sabah.

Purposeful New Year 2015.

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Why Najib only realised that the floods disaster is a “major catastrophe” on the fourth day his return from Hawaii and why he had not visited the two worst-hit areas of Gua Musang and Kuala Krai last Saturday?

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, said after his visit to Gua Musang and Kuala Krai yesterday that the floods disaster is a “disaster” or even  “major catastrophe”, describing Gua Musang and Kuala Krai as two of the worst-hit districts in Kelantan.

I have been brooding over the Prime Minister’s comments since reading them on online news portals yesterday evening, and the question which kept returning to my mind was why the Prime Minister had not visited the two worst-hit  flood-damaged areas when he rushed back from Hawaii last Saturday on 27th December.

Was the Prime Minister misled by the National Security Council (NSC), which gave the Prime Minister a special briefing on the floods situation when Najib arrived at the Sultan Ismail Petra Airport, Pengkalan Chepa, Kota Bharu at 1.40 pm last Saturday?

I would imagine that the Prime Minister would have wanted to visit the worst-hit flood-damaged areas on his immediate return from Hawaii.

Did the NSC withhold the information from the Prime Minister that Gua Musang and Kuala Krai were the two worst-hit areas, or did the Prime Minister decide on his own not to visit the two worst-hit areas of  Gua Musang and Kuala Krai to bring immediate reliefs and comfort to the stranded people in Gua Musang and Kuala Krai?

Or was the NSC at the time unaware that Gua Musang and Kuala Krai were the two worst-hit flood areas, as the NSC in its statement yesterday admitted that there was a “complete collapse” of its chain of command and communications at the district level in Kelantan and Terengganu when the NSC “front-liners”, the village headmen and district officers, fell victim to the floods?

Did the NSC confess to the Prime Minister at its first briefing on the floods disaster to Najib at the Pengkalan Chepa Airport in Kota Bharu last Saturday that the NSC had suffered a “complete collapse” of its chain of command and communications, or was the Prime Minister only informed of this “complete collapse” very much later – leading to the blooper of the Prime Minister  admitting to the worst floods disaster in recent decades as a “disaster” or even “major catastrophe” on the fourth day of his return from Hawaii, after spending three days visiting flood areas in Kelantan on Saturday (but not the worst-hit areas of Gua Musang and Kuala Krai), Pahang and Perak on Sunday and Monday?

This does not enhance public confidence in the competence, efficiency and professionalism of the NSC in being the master body responsible for floods disaster management in the country!

This also put the two earlier statements by the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in a very different light – his  “I’m in charge” statement when he was not in charge as the entire NSC chain of command and communications had broken down, and his subsequent statement that “Putrajaya aware of flood victims’ plight” when it was clearly not so.

These are classic examples of Ministerial statements which are just meaningless gibberish for the Minister who made them did not know what he was talking about – like his infamous claim that Malaysia’s education system was better than in United State, Britain and  Germany!

Muhyiddin promised yesterday that a post-mortem will be held to find out the actual cause of the worst flood disaster in decades once the flood issue has been resolved.

This is not good enough, not only because it sounds very self-serving as if Muhyiddin is preparing the ground to pin the blame on the worst floods disaster in recent decades on everybody but himself and the NSC.

This is why I have been calling for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the recent floods disaster, the deplorable Floods Disaster Management Preparedness including the shocking “complete collapse” of NSC chain of command and communications.

Will Muhyiddin agree to let Pakatan Rakyat nominate the Chairman of the RCI to demonstrate that the Federal Government wants the whole truth about the faults and weaknesses of the country’s Floods Disaster Management Preparedness to be probed and revealed, to ensure that Malaysia’s disaster management and preparations are not a standing joke in the world?

Such a RCI should be formed now, although it could start formal investigations after the floods had receded.

On the second day of his return from Hawaii on Sunday, when visiting flood-hit areas in Pahang, Najib ordered all Ministers vacationing overseas to return to the country to help in the flood-relief efforts.

Three days have passed. Have all Ministers returned from their vacation abroad to join the flood-relief operations? Who are the Ministers who are still vacationing abroad?

And will Najib issue specific instructions to ensure that Ministers and  VVIPs do not hog the use of assets like helicopters as to cause the critically sick or wounded to risk their lives, as happened to two mothers with labour complications at the Badang health clinic in Kelantan on Sunday.

The 2014 floods disaster is a natural disaster which had been aggravated by man-made failures and excesses.

DAP and Pakatan  Rakyat are prepared to put political differences aside and work with the Barisan Nasional government to bring relief to the flood victims.

It is therefore most deplorable that DAP MP for Kluang Liew Chin Tong and DAP Johor State Assemblyman for Mengkibol Tan Hong Pin were blocked by local authorities and village chiefs  from giving aid to flood victims at  relief centres in Kluang at Kampung Bentong and Kampung Bentong Dalam.

There have also been organised attempts to bomb my twitter site in the last two days, with scores of over 50 postings with the same incoherent message sent instantaneously from multiple robotic accounts at different times.

These are very petty and childish diversions at a time when the country is faced with a major disaster.

The worst floods disaster in  recent decades is time for everyone to unite as Malaysians irrespective of race, religion, region or politics to help the needy and not to spread lies to incite  racial and religious hatred and intolerance.

Malaysians whether Malays Chinese Indians Orang Asli must help each other in the humanitarian crisis because the country is faced with  the worst floods disaster in decades.

DAP and Pakatan Rakyat are prepared to put aside our differences with Barisan Nasional and to work together in the flood relief operations as one team and unit to come to the help of the needy in the country’s worst floods disaster in decades and we hope that this readiness will be fully reciprocated.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 31 December 2014, 11:50 am and is filed under
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2015, time for moderate Malaysians to stand up

BY MOHD FARHAN DARWIS AND MD IZWAN

The Malaysian Insider

31 December 2014

As Malaysians bid farewell to 2014, moderate Malaysians have been urged to stand up and beat back the tide of hate and bigotry that have inflamed communal relations throughout the year.

A group of progressive Malays today hoped that Malaysians would be able to reclaim the national conversation on race and religion and reject extremist elements brought about by certain quarters.

This, they argued, was because it was up to each individual to preserve the tolerance, moderation and respect that had been an enduring feature of the country’s pluralistic society.

“Moderation has to be promoted not just because that is what our forefathers wanted for us,” said former deputy prime minister Tun Musa Hitam.

“But because it is one of the ways which our country will remain peaceful and harmonious,” he said in a text message to The Malaysian Insider.

Musa said 2015 would be even more challenging for Malaysia socially and economically, given the depressing forecast on the world economy.

These humps in the economy and the social effects they entailed were why Umno Minister Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed feels that calmer voices must prevail against those who are divisive.

“The economy is slowing down, so we need to remain calm. This is my advice to everyone. Chinese, Malays, Indians, Perkasa, everyone.

“Malaysia is a moderate country, not an extremist one,” said Nur Jazlan, who is known to be among the more progressive leaders in Umno.

The Public Accounts Committee chairman has been the target of insults by Malay right-wing group Perkasa, whose members have called him “bangsat” (despicable) for daring to criticise the movement and its cause.

Nur Jazlan also hoped there would be less race and religious issues being played up in 2015 and if they were, that people would not get too sensitive when talking about them.

Another Umno leader Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah hoped that more groups, such as the 25 Malay former civil servants who had called on the government to start a national dialogue to resolve conflicts between Shariah and civil laws, to come forward.

Other good examples, he said were the 33 individuals who have called themselves “Malaysian Moderates”, youth groups and students from the Middle East and the ones behind the #Iam26 campaign he said.

“We need to make 2015 the year of moderation, in our values, approach, our thinking and policies in all fields.

“Moderation is the soul of the Malaysian identity but lately, from an ethnic and religious stand point, it is seen as problematic,” said Saifuddin, who heads the Global Movement of Moderates.

For Aura Merdeka founder Tariq Ismail, the claim by a Muslim NGO, Isma, and Perkasa of representing Muslims and Islam was misleading, since the faith had never taught ethnic chauvinism.

“I can understand where Isma and Perkasa are coming from but their message is wrong,” said Tariq, who is a grandson of former deputy prime minister Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman.

“There is no racialism in Islam. So if you want to talk about Islam, you cannot talk about race.”

If there is something that could motivate more moderates to come out is the fact that in reality, they are the silent majority, whereas extremists are the vocal minority.

This was alluded to by Sisters in Islam leader Ratna Osman who said that extremists did not represent the majority of Malaysians.

“I hope that peace-loving Malaysians will rise up and not let the country by manipulated by these extremists.

“They do not represent us as Malaysians and we should not let them spread their evil agenda,” said Ratna, whose organisation has also been targeted by religious conservatives. – December 31, 2014.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 1 January 2015, 6:08 am and is filed under
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China’s anti-corruption drive continues to net ‘tigers’ & ‘flies’

CCTV.com

12-30-2014

2014 saw the fall from grace of some of the country’s biggest names in politics and the military. And the wide-reaching, anti-corruption campaign launched by President Xi Jinping last year continues to net both high-ranking “tigers” and low-ranking “flies”.

China’s new leadership, two years in, and there’s no letting up in the fight against corruption. Some 25,000 officials were investigated on suspicion of corruption in just the first half of 2014. And no one, no matter how high their ranking, appears safe.

Zhou Yongkang, once one of the most powerful men in the country, has been arrested on a raft of corruption charges, including the leaking of official secrets and bribery.

Xu Caihou was one of China’s top generals. He is one of the highest level military officer to be investigated since 1949. And it’s sending shock waves through the People’s Liberation Army.

This all-out anti-corruption campaign has struck fear into the hearts of China’s corrupt officials, with one noticable result, they are shunning all forms of extravagance. Luxury sales are down, from fashion garments to shoes and jewellery.

But China has had some trouble apprehending corrupt officials who have fled the country. So, at last month’s APEC meetings in Beijing, it proposed more cross-border cooperation in the pursuit of those outside its reach, and it managed to gain the support of key countries in its quest, including the United States.

“The APEC member economies have decided to set up a cross-border law enforcement network to strengthen trans-national anti-corruption cooperation in the region. We have reached consensus in hunting down fugitives at large, recovering their ill-gotten assets and expanding law enforcement cooperation,” Xi says.

So now anti-corruption is no longer simply a domestic problem — it has become a key part of China’s diplomatic efforts as well.

“When President Xi took over last year, he promised to stamp out corruption, from top bureaucrats to low-level clerks — in China they are nicknamed “tigers” and “flys”. From what we’ve seen so far, the leadership has more than shown its resolve to do just that.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 1 January 2015, 8:29 am and is filed under
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Fuel prices drop 30 sen, 35 sen

The Malaysian Insider

31 December 2014

The retail prices for fuel in the country will be reduced between 30 sen and 35 sen from tomorrow following the downtrend in global crude oil prices, said Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Ahmad Maslan today.

He tweeted that RON95 petrol will be priced at RM1.91 a litre, a reduction of 35 sen, RON97 at RM2.11 a litre (35 sen drop) and diesel at RM1.93 a litre (30 sen drop).

The prices were close to the calculations made by Pakatan Rakyat lawmaker Rafizi Ramli today when he said RON 95 petrol should be priced at RM1.91 per litre, while diesel should be set at RM1.94 a litre.

He tweeted: “Minyak turun lagi. Bila pula peniaga nak turunkan harga barang? Rakyat menunggu” (The price of oil has gone down again, when will retailers reduce the price of goods? The people are waiting.)

Bernama reported that the same announcement was also made by Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Datuk Seri Hasan Malek.

“The prices of petrol and diesel are based on the average cost price of the products for the whole of December 2014 and exchange rates.”

He said the government would continuously monitor the market development of the cost of the products and exchange rates in fixing the retail prices of petrol and diesel in the coming months.

“All oil companies and petrol station operators must abide by the new pricing and stern action will be taken against those who violate the new pricing rules,” he added.

On Monday, the global benchmark Brent crude settled at US$57.88 per barrel while the US crude settled at US$53.61 per barrel. Prices have fallen to their lowest level since May 2009.

Foreign analysts have said that oil prices this year were on track for the biggest decline since 2008 and the second biggest annual fall since futures started trading in the 1980s.

In November, Putrajaya announced that it would remove all fuel subsidies effective December 1 and use a managed float method to determine the retail price of fuel.

Through the managed float method, the average change in the product cost will determine pricing on a monthly basis.

However, with oil prices slumping worldwide and showing no signs of recovery, Malaysians should be able to look forward to cheaper oil prices as they usher in 2015. – December 31, 2014.

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Let RCI into Floods Disaster Management Preparedness inquire whether there had been a “complete breakdown” or what extent of breakdown of the National Security Council chain of command and communications in the current worst floods disaster in decades

Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has denied that there had been a “complete collapse” of the National Security Council (NSC) flood disaster response.

The NSC secretary Datuk Mohamed Thajudeen Abdul Wahab clarified that it was the Kelantan district office that collapsed as the government staff became flood victims themselves, claiming that the district offices in neighbouring Pahang and Terengganu could still function as those states were not as badly hit.

I do not envy Thajudeen as he spoke the truth but was being pilloried and vilified by UMNO/Barisan Nasional political leaders including his superiors, resulting in having to come out with a denial which, on scrutiny, is actually confirmation of the collapse of the NSC chain of command and communications showing deplorable flood disaster management preparedness in the main theatre of the worst floods disaster in the first five days from Dec. 23 to 27.

Thajuddin should know that there is no such thing as “the Kelantan district office that collapsed” as there are 10 districts in Kelantan, out of which only one district, Bachok was not ravaged by floods.

All the other nine district in Kelantan, viz: Kota Bharu, Pasir Mas, Tumpat, Pasir Puteh, Kuala Krai,Tanah Merah, Jeli, Gua Musang were deep under water with Gua Musang and Kuala Krai the two worst districts hit by the floods and cut off from “civilization” for the first few days of the floods catastrophe with villagers stranded on hills without water, power or food while homes were swept away.

Kelantan was the worst flood-stricken state in the first five days of the floods disaster from Dec. 23 to 27, when the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak rushed back from his vacation in Hawaii to take charge of the floods disaster relief operation.

For instance, the number of flood evacuees by Dec. 25 – 28 were:

Date	       Kelantan	      Terengganu	Pahang	         Perak	       Total

Dec. 25         34,955          29,082          28,578          5,5123          98,466

Dec. 26         45,467          34,109          33,324          6,335           120,368

Dec. 28         93,407          33,990          33,601          7,513          169,020

When the NSC floods disaster chain of command and communications broke down in nine of the ten districts in Kelantan, the worst flood-hit state, it is not too much of an exaggeration to say that there was a “complete collapse” of the NSC floods relief operation.

In fact, the situation in Kelantan was so bad that even the Kelantan Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yakob was trapped in his own house and could not go out to meet his constituents.

Let a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Floods Disaster Management Preparedness headed by a Chairman nominated by Pakatan Rakyat inquire whether there had been a “complete breakdown” or what extent of breakdown of the National Security Council chain of command and communications in the current worst floods disaster in decades, instead of prolonging an argument which does not serve any purpose.

This is because the top priority at present is to bring relief and help to the quarter of a million flood victims in Kelantan and the other seven states hit by the floods disaster.

(Media Statement in Kota Bharu when making second visit in five days on the floods situation in Kelantan on Thursday, 1st January 2015)

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 1 January 2015, 8:21 am and is filed under
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‘Unbelievably’ steep climb recorded before AirAsia crash, report says

FoxNews.com

December 31, 2014

Investigators working to piece together what led to the AirAsia Flight 8501 disaster discovered radar evidence indicating that the plane made an “unbelievably” steep climb moments before the crash, Reuters reported Wednesday.

“So far, the numbers taken by the radar are unbelievably high. This rate of climb is very high, too high. It appears to be beyond the performance envelope of the aircraft,” a source close to the investigation told the news agency.

Poor weather conditions Wednesday have prevented divers from carrying out their recovery operations and largely grounded helicopters, though ships were still scouring the area.

Indonesian search and rescue Chief Bambang Soelistyo said that the bodies of four men and three women had been recovered earlier in the morning.

He said one of the women was clad in the distinctive red uniform of an AirAsia flight attendant.

Tatang Zaenudin, deputy head of operations at the national search and rescue agency, earlier told Reuters that one of the bodies recovered was wearing a life jacket, but later took back the claim.

“There is no victim that has been found wearing a life jacket,” he said. “We found a body at 8.20 a.m. and a life jacket at 10.32 a.m. so there was a time difference. This is the latest information we have.”

Meanwhile, officials said that sonar images had identified what appeared to be large parts of the Airbus A320, but strong currents appeared to be moving the wreckage. Indonesia’s meteorology and geophysics agency predicted that the conditions would worsen, with more intense rains, through Friday.

“It seems all the wreckage found has drifted more than 50 kilometers (31 miles) from yesterday’s location,” said one official. “We are expecting those bodies will end up on beaches.”

The search for bodies had been expanded to approximately 94 miles of the nearby coastline to allow for that possibility.

The airliner’s disappearance halfway through a two-hour flight from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore early Sunday triggered an international search for the aircraft involving dozens of planes, ships and helicopters from numerous countries. It is still unclear what brought the plane down.

Malaysia-based AirAsia’s loss comes on top of the still-unsolved disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in March with 239 people aboard, and the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in July over Ukraine, which killed all 298 passengers and crew.

The jet’s last communication indicated the pilots were worried about bad weather. They sought permission to climb above threatening clouds but were denied because of heavy air traffic. Four minutes later, the jet disappeared from the radar without issuing a distress signal.

The aircraft’s cockpit voice and flight data recorders, or black boxes, must be recovered before officials can start determining what caused the crash. Items recovered so far include a life jacket, an emergency window, children’s shoes, a blue suitcase and backpacks filled with food.

Experts say that the recovery of the recorders would be aided by the relatively concentrated area of wreckage and the shallowness of the water.

Simple wooden coffins — numbered 001 and 002 — with purple flowers on top contained the first two bodies, which were sent from Pangkalan Bun to Surabaya for autopsies. The two victims were a woman wearing blue jeans and a boy.

Nearly all the passengers were Indonesian. The country is predominantly Muslim, but most of those aboard were Christians of Chinese descent.

One Surabaya church — Manwar Sharon Church — lost 40 members in the crash. On Wednesday, around 100 relatives gathered for a prayer service in an hall at the Surabaya airport where the Rev. Philip Mantofa urged the crowd to hold onto their faith, despite their pain.

Before breaking up, those gathered stood together and sang with their hands reaching upward: “I surrender all. I surrender all. I surrender all to God our savior. I surrender all.”

About 125 family members had planned to travel to Pangkalan Bun, 100 miles from the area where bodies were first spotted, to start identifying their loved ones.

“Some things do not make sense to us, but God is bigger than all this,” he said. “Our God is not evil … help us God to move forward even though we are surrounded by darkness.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 1 January 2015, 5:41 am and is filed under
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Visit to Kuala Krai 1.1.15

Tweet on visit to Kuala Krai, 1/1/2015

Kuala Krai is terrible sight 2behold after worst floods in history. Suggest all Ministers be assigned there 4 a week 2become better leaders.

PM recalled Ministers 2return from vacations abroad 2help flood victims. Wld do world of good if they r assigned various parts of KK 4week.

All with one common task – how 2help flood victims in kampongs or areas they r assigned to 4a week. They will be doing useful work 4 once.

But how many Ministers complied w PM’s directive 2return from their overseas vacation? Names of Ministers who return, dates n those x back?

Imagine put Liow TL in Kuala Krai town or Muhyiddin in Manek Urai for 24 hrs. Will they survive or run helter-skelter in less than 24 hrs?

LiowTL in KK town or Muhyiddin in Manek Urai for 24 hrs is unthinkable, what about their being there for a week to serve flood victims?

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 1 January 2015, 9:46 pm and is filed under
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Let’s band together against the extremists in 2015

Zan Azlee

The Malaysian Insider

2 January 2015

Another new year has arrived and we are now in 2015. I have never declared or committed myself to any new year resolution because I think it’s all crap. You change when you want to change.

But this time, I’m going to commit to a resolution. It is simple. I will continue to use every platform that I have to promote moderation, open-mindedness, multiculturalism and religious pluralism.

I have done it for years and will continue doing it with even stronger force this year because 2014, to me, was the year of overbearing racial and religious extremism.

Groups like Isma and Perkasa, and individuals like Ridhuan Tee Abdullah, have been so loud throughout last year that my ears are still aching and ringing into the new year. They definitely do not speak for me.

And I’m very sure that this feeling is shared by so many of my fellow sane, rational and logical Malaysians out there. We should all band together and do something about these annoying extremists.

Since we all believe that these people who go on and on about preserving a specific racial and religious supremacy are the loud minority, then why are we allowing them to be so loud?

If they are such a small group (Perkasa is reported to only have 900 odd official members), why are we allowing them to shout so loud without any repurcussions?

If we are the silent majority, then we need not be too worried about showing our strength in numbers and not be silent anymore. What can they do to a whole huge bunch of us, right?

There are among us those who have already stood up to voice their concerns. There are the Prominent 25, former ministers and politicians like Tun Musa Hitam, Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, etc, who have taken the lead.

And if we feel strongly about what the extremists are spreading, we need to also do our share and create a counter movement that will spread across the country.

I say it is enough what these loudmouths are trying to propagate. Malaysia is for Malaysians and it doesn’t matter what race or religion you are. We all have the right to live together with respect, understanding and harmony.

The days of Isma, Perkasa, Ridhuan Tee and their likes are numbered. Let 2014 be the last year of them having free reign saying whatever they please. We need to silence them and take Malaysia back starting this 2015.

Happy New Year Malaysia! – January 2, 2015.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 2 January 2015, 2:25 pm and is filed under
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The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501: Where things stand

By Jethro Mullen, CNN

January 1, 2015

(CNN) — Searchers looking for more bodies and wreckage from AirAsia Flight QZ8501 in the Java Sea faced fresh difficulties with bad weather Thursday.

Ships, planes and helicopters are being used to find victims of the disaster. Most of the people on board the flight remain missing, and officials are yet to confirm that they’ve found the plane’s fuselage.

Here’s key information about where things stand:

The flight

What we know: Flight QZ8501 took off early Sunday from Surabaya, Indonesia, bound for Singapore. Roughly 35 minutes into the flight, the pilot asked air traffic control for permission to turn left and climb to a higher altitude to avoid bad weather. Minutes later, the plane disappeared from air traffic control’s radar.

What we don’t know: What happened on board after contact with the plane was lost. No distress call was received. Indonesian aviation authorities have suggested that the plane ascended despite permission being denied because of traffic.

Some experts have speculated that the aircraft might have experienced an aerodynamic stall because of a lack of speed or from flying at too sharp an angle to get enough lift. Analysts have also suggested that the pilots might not have been getting information from onboard systems about the plane’s position, or that rain or hail from thunderstorms in the area could have damaged the engines.

Until the main wreckage of the plane is found, along with the flight recorders, experts have little evidence to support their theories.

The search

What we know: Search teams found debris and some bodies in the water Tuesday, 100 to 200 kilometers (about 60 to 120 miles) from the aircraft’s last known location over the Java Sea, Indonesia’s search and rescue agency said. Nine bodies have been recovered, authorities say, one of them a woman wearing a flight attendant’s uniform.

Indonesia is leading the international search effort, with assistance from a range of countries including Malaysia, Singapore and the United States.

What we don’t know: The exact location of the body of the aircraft. An Indonesian search official told CNN on Wednesday that he thought sonar equipment had detected wreckage from Flight 8501 at the bottom of the Java Sea. But the country’s search and rescue chief said the plane hadn’t been found yet. Bad weather has hindered the search operation.

The people on board

What we know: The plane was carrying 155 passengers and seven crew members. The overwhelming majority of those on board were Indonesians. There were also citizens of Britain, France, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea. Details are emerging about some of the people on the flight, recounted by family members and friends.

What we don’t know: Which passengers and crew members’ remains have been retrieved and which still remain missing in the Java Sea. On Thursday, Indonesian authorities announced the identification of one of the recovered bodies: a woman named Hayati Lutfiah Hamid. They are still working to identify the others. Many family members are waiting in Surabaya for news about their loved ones.

The investigation

What we know: The key to understanding what happened may be in the aircraft’s cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, commonly known as black boxes. The black boxes, which are actually orange, are in the tail of Airbus 320-200s. If recovered, they will be taken to a lab in Jakarta, Indonesia, to be analyzed, said Tatang Kurniadi, head of Indonesia’s National Committee for Transportation Safety. The batteries powering the “pingers” that send acoustic signals have only about 25 days of power left, he said.

What we don’t know: Where plane’s remains might have been taken by the elements. Investigators will need to use information gleaned from the flight recorders, but also clues from the wreckage itself.

“The more bits I can put into my mosaic, the better my picture will be,” aviation safety expert Michael Barr said. “The better the picture, the better I can come up with an understanding of what happened.” But the conditions at sea make that work much more difficult than on land. “In the water, you are working with currents and winds, and so the pieces won’t be where they had the initial impact.”

The plane and the pilots

What we know: The 6-year-old Airbus A320-200, operated by AirAsia’s Indonesian affiliate, had accumulated around 23,000 flight hours in about 13,600 flights, according to Airbus. The plane’s last scheduled maintenance was on November 16.

Flight 8501’s veteran captain, Iriyanto, 53, had 20,537 flying hours, 6,100 of them with AirAsia on the Airbus A320, the airline said. The first officer, Remi Emmanuel Plesel, 46, had 2,275 flying hours, a reasonable amount for his position.

What we don’t know: Whether technical problems, human error or other issues were involved in the crash. According to information from the Aviation Safety Network accident database, there have been 54 incidents involving the A320.

“In the A320 family, accidents and incidents range from fan-cowl detachment, landing gear collapse, bird strikes, right through to hull losses through pilot error,” said Kane Ray, an analyst with the International Bureau of Aviation, a global aviation consulting group. “Most aircraft have teething problems, and in most cases, these are eradicated. Very rarely, these issues cause disasters — largely because of a culmination of factors that lead to the event,” Ray said.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 2 January 2015, 9:27 am and is filed under
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Tweets on “Save Kuala Krai Convoy Mission” (1.1.2015)

 1.Visit to Kuala Krai today (1.1.2015), esp desolate town with Kuala Krai MP Dr. Mohd Hatta after ravages of flood catastrophe, unforgettable.

 2. Woes grievances unhappiness of people of Kuala Krai (from “horse’s mouth” so to say) over flood catastrophe eloquent/moving – being totally abandoned!

 3. Met flood victims – every Malay Chinese Indian in Kuala Krai – from all races who have one common universal grouse: they need help and urgently.

 4. Today full mobilisation by DAP States MPs SAs activists for relief of Kuala Krai and other flood-ravaged areas like Mentakab Gua Musang Kota Bharu.

 5. Three containers of over 3,000 cartons of essential supplies distributed in Kuala Krai – 2 from Penang 1 from Johor. Also some 60 FWDs of reliefs

 6. Sixty-odd FWDs of reliefs came from Penang (more than 20) Selangor KL (more than 20) NSembilan Johor. Whole Floods Relief Ops under leadership of Anthony Loke

 7. MPs/SAs who took part in today’s Ops include WongHW, DannyLaw, Rayer, TehLH (Pg); TeoKS, ArulK (NS) n 2MPs/7SAs from Johor -LiewCT, ErTH etc

 8. Penang “Save Kuala Krai” Convey Mission flagged off by DAP SG LGE at 1.30 am, reached Bentong 8 am – journeyed for 15 hours to reach Kuala Krai.

 9. Johor DAP had two teams – Kelantan (1container each for Kuala Krai and Kota Bharu) Mentakab (1 container). Kelantan team – SAs HonPin, ShuQi, CaiTung, Yi Hou MP Liew CT

 10. Mentakab team – SAs PekCheng PekChoo EngGuan MP ErTH. All who took part in Floods Relief Ops great sons/daughters of Msia. Help for all Msians.

 11. Thanks to all public support for Floods Relief Ops -Anthony led three relief missions to Kuala Krai. We help flood victims regardless of race/religion/place

 12. My visit to Kuala Krai is my 2nd visit to Kelantan in five days over the floods catastrophe. More public support needed for Flood Relief Ops. Let all Malaysians unite as one people over floods.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 2 January 2015, 9:33 am and is filed under
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