Letter to the editor: Dear Sir, Flood relief operations would be smoother if there is less interference I can’t help but notice that people from ‘don’t know where’ are interfering with flood relief operations and these people, more often than not, unfortunately, happened to be some elected representatives or politicians and also others who claim to be so and so. The government spend millions of RM to train people from the Army, Police, Fire Dept., Civil Defence Dept., Health Dept. personnel, Doctors, Medics, nurses, etc. but at many locations, it seems that they are unable to carry out their duties smoothly because of those interferences. Maybe those elected representatives or politicians and the others who claim to be so and so felt that they are responsible and are in charge of affairs so, they put up a show by interfering with the relief operations carried out by the professionals. Simple things became complicated, some relief work that should take less time to complete were taking longer to be completed and more often than not the end result is chaos. During my time as an army officer, in the 70s and the 80s, whenever we carried out flood relief operations, we all knew exactly what to do and we carried them out smoothly and professionally according to the way we were trained without any interference from any outside party whatsoever. We, as young officers then, only took orders from one person and that was our immediate superior officer, normally the Company Commander, and he would take orders from the Commanding Officer. The next level up was the Brigade Commander and he normally attended the daily briefings at the state operations room chaired by the Menteri Besar or Chief Minister. All the requirements to ensure that the flood relief operations were carried out properly and professionally were discussed and decided at that meeting. If there were any need to issue statements to the press, there were spokesmen appointed to do just that. No one else would issue any statements. All the other government bodies and organisations were also represented at the state level meetings and each and every member of those bodies and organisations knew exactly what to do. The separation of duties and responsibilities and the line of command were observed strictly and things went on very smoothly. We did get visits from the PM, Rulers and members of the royal families of that time who wanted to see for themselves what were happening, especially if their respective states were affected, but they never ever interfered. Whilst the PM did issue some press statements as it was his duty to do so, we never heard of any Rulers or members of the royal families making statements to the press. Once, the then Raja Kecil Bongsu of Perak, who was also an officer of the Territorial Army, came in combat uniform to visit our Operations Hq. in Kuala Kangsar and after the normal greetings and after giving him a short briefing of the situation, we carried on with our work. Later that day, all the officers were invited to tea with him at the Istana across the river. Those days, we did not have as many sophisticated equipment (assets) like what are available now. There was no Civil Defence Dept. people that could come with the latest gadgets and fully equipped boats to help out and at the very most, we had support from the Territorial Army of personnel. We only had assault boats powered by outboard motors for our use and, of course, we had fully qualified and trained coxswains to drive those boats. All safety precautions were observed strictly and no civilians, except for victims or people we were trying to rescue, were allowed to ride our boats. There were no helicopters like what we see now because then, the military had a bigger and more important mission to accomplish at the same time, i.e. fighting the communist terrorists, and all the assets were mobilised for that. There were also no jet skis, inflatable rafts or hovercraft that we have now. Some of the floods that happened then were bigger and more dangerous than what we see now. The challenges that came were met with properly and professionally. Nowadays, besides the Air Force providing air support, there are also some wealthy volunteer teams that can afford to pay the RM5000 hourly helicopter rental rates to assist in the flood relief operations. Communications during our time were not very good, in fact, they were quite unreliable and there were no mobile phones like what we have now. Nevertheless, flood relief operations went on quite smoothly, casualties and damages were kept at the minimal level possible. As we had experienced many times before, flood relief or disaster relief operations carried out would be smoother, if there is less interference or no interference at all. Capt. Hussaini Abdul Karim, RAD (Rtd), Shah Alam, Selangor
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 15:10:13 +0000
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