NSC handling of flood criticism shows denial syndrome, says DAP
The National Security Council's (NSC) response to public criticism about how the
federal government had handled the flood disaster epitomises Putrajaya’s denial
syndrome, said DAP.
Its national publicity secretary Tony Pua said the NSC had also raised more questions than answers when it defended the government against the criticism.
"I cannot help but feel both vindicated and mildly amused with the strident response the NSC issued to rebut criticisms against its poor management and preparation against the country’s current flood disaster.
They even took the trouble to name me four times in the lengthy reply, accusing critics of 'making their remarks from the bench' who 'are full of pomp'," he said in a statement today.
Pua, who is also Petaling Jaya Utara MP, said he could respond to the NSC rant, paragraph by paragraph, but he would only focus on the two key points in the response issued two days ago.
The first was the NSC's inability to take criticism, Pua said, as if it could do no wrong and no one else, even an MP, should comment on it if they were not involved in the government's disaster management operations.
"The NSC cannot be more wrong. While the public are not directly involved in NSC operations, it is certainly our duty to highlight these issues if the NSC does a terrible job.
"We highlight the issues not for the sake of embarrassing the NSC and the government, but to tell those in power that they can right those mistakes, buck up and mitigate the problems faced by the people," he said.
Pua also said he did not quote rumours in the social media when he criticised authorities over their response to the floods.
"The NSC accused me of making wild allegations by quoting unfounded rumours in the social media, saying that it felt especially sorry that a public figure like Tony Pua would stoop to quoting information from an unreliable source to lambast the government, particularly towards the NSC.
"I reviewed my two prior press statements again and I did not find myself quoting any such rumours. Instead, I quoted Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, who is also Kelantan Umno chief," he said.
Pua agreed that there would often be unpredictable challenges in managing disasters, but NSC had failed to demonstrate any urgency in its leadership as a “commander” and was "terribly slow in responding to the rapidly escalating crisis."
Secondly, he said the complete lack of preparedness and urgency to deal with the crisis was exposed by NSC’s own statement.
"It appears that NSC was only interested in taking a leaf of the Prime Minister (Datuk Ser Najib Razak) to imply a threat of 'libel' against me."
The NSC in its statement suggested that Pua could face a libel suit for claiming that Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had only met the NSC on December 27, 2014 to deal with the flood situation; and that no prior meetings were held.
It said several meetings had been held prior to the beginning of the monsoon season, with the first meeting chaired by Muhyiddin on January 3 this year.
A second meeting was chaired by Minister at the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Dr Shahidan Kassim on October 13 this year, and a third at the working level on the same day, chaired by the NSC secretary.
Pua noted that the meeting chaired by Muhyiddin on January 3 was nearly one year ago, and suggested that it could have been to discuss the floods in December of the previous year instead of preparing for the coming one.
"The fact that the NSC admitted that there was only an additional two meetings held on October 13 this year since a year ago only proved that the NSC clearly did not put great importance or emphasis on managing the annual flood crisis.
"The severity of this year’s flood only starkly exposed NSC’s lackadaisal preparations and caught the Najib administration with its pants down," he said.
Pua said NSC's own statement proved the need for a detailed public post-mortem once the current crisis is dealt with.
"It is hence important for us to support both the call by my colleagues, (Seremban MP) Anthony Loke and (Gelang Patah MP) Lim Kit Siang, for a emergency parliamentary sitting to debate the crisis and to set up an independent Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate into the cause and management of the worst natural disaster to hit Malaysia in recent years," he said.
In a statement to defend the federal government from critics, the NSC said the floods which led to the displacement of over 200,000 people in the East Coast states were "abnormal" and were causing major obstacles and problems to the relief efforts by the government.
NSC also said it was disturbed by the allegations made over social media and in web portals, including a commentary published by The Malaysian Insider; and described such criticism as being politically motivated.
Malaysia is dealing with one of its worst floods in history. Almost a quarter of a million people have reportedly been displaced in several states, namely Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang and Perak. – December 31, 2014.
Its national publicity secretary Tony Pua said the NSC had also raised more questions than answers when it defended the government against the criticism.
"I cannot help but feel both vindicated and mildly amused with the strident response the NSC issued to rebut criticisms against its poor management and preparation against the country’s current flood disaster.
They even took the trouble to name me four times in the lengthy reply, accusing critics of 'making their remarks from the bench' who 'are full of pomp'," he said in a statement today.
Pua, who is also Petaling Jaya Utara MP, said he could respond to the NSC rant, paragraph by paragraph, but he would only focus on the two key points in the response issued two days ago.
The first was the NSC's inability to take criticism, Pua said, as if it could do no wrong and no one else, even an MP, should comment on it if they were not involved in the government's disaster management operations.
"The NSC cannot be more wrong. While the public are not directly involved in NSC operations, it is certainly our duty to highlight these issues if the NSC does a terrible job.
"We highlight the issues not for the sake of embarrassing the NSC and the government, but to tell those in power that they can right those mistakes, buck up and mitigate the problems faced by the people," he said.
Pua also said he did not quote rumours in the social media when he criticised authorities over their response to the floods.
"The NSC accused me of making wild allegations by quoting unfounded rumours in the social media, saying that it felt especially sorry that a public figure like Tony Pua would stoop to quoting information from an unreliable source to lambast the government, particularly towards the NSC.
"I reviewed my two prior press statements again and I did not find myself quoting any such rumours. Instead, I quoted Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, who is also Kelantan Umno chief," he said.
Pua agreed that there would often be unpredictable challenges in managing disasters, but NSC had failed to demonstrate any urgency in its leadership as a “commander” and was "terribly slow in responding to the rapidly escalating crisis."
Secondly, he said the complete lack of preparedness and urgency to deal with the crisis was exposed by NSC’s own statement.
"It appears that NSC was only interested in taking a leaf of the Prime Minister (Datuk Ser Najib Razak) to imply a threat of 'libel' against me."
The NSC in its statement suggested that Pua could face a libel suit for claiming that Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had only met the NSC on December 27, 2014 to deal with the flood situation; and that no prior meetings were held.
It said several meetings had been held prior to the beginning of the monsoon season, with the first meeting chaired by Muhyiddin on January 3 this year.
A second meeting was chaired by Minister at the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Dr Shahidan Kassim on October 13 this year, and a third at the working level on the same day, chaired by the NSC secretary.
Pua noted that the meeting chaired by Muhyiddin on January 3 was nearly one year ago, and suggested that it could have been to discuss the floods in December of the previous year instead of preparing for the coming one.
"The fact that the NSC admitted that there was only an additional two meetings held on October 13 this year since a year ago only proved that the NSC clearly did not put great importance or emphasis on managing the annual flood crisis.
"The severity of this year’s flood only starkly exposed NSC’s lackadaisal preparations and caught the Najib administration with its pants down," he said.
Pua said NSC's own statement proved the need for a detailed public post-mortem once the current crisis is dealt with.
"It is hence important for us to support both the call by my colleagues, (Seremban MP) Anthony Loke and (Gelang Patah MP) Lim Kit Siang, for a emergency parliamentary sitting to debate the crisis and to set up an independent Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate into the cause and management of the worst natural disaster to hit Malaysia in recent years," he said.
In a statement to defend the federal government from critics, the NSC said the floods which led to the displacement of over 200,000 people in the East Coast states were "abnormal" and were causing major obstacles and problems to the relief efforts by the government.
NSC also said it was disturbed by the allegations made over social media and in web portals, including a commentary published by The Malaysian Insider; and described such criticism as being politically motivated.
Malaysia is dealing with one of its worst floods in history. Almost a quarter of a million people have reportedly been displaced in several states, namely Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang and Perak. – December 31, 2014.
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