It is disheartening to see the entire state of Johor being inundated by a second wave floods and this has displaced no less than 100,000 people. Many of these affected are second-time victims and it is heart-wrecking to see families being displaced and disrupted.

Having followed the events and reports in the local newspapers over the past three weeks concerning this grave disaster, I would like to express my opinion and point out some matters which I fell have been overlooked and ignored.

When the first wave of floods occurred (mid-December 2006), Johor Menteri Besar Ghani Othman, together with other state politicians, mentioned categorically that this surge in water levels was due to very heavy downpours and unexpected rainfalls of 1:100 years return period.

He said that our drainage capacities could not cope with such discharges. A return period of 1:100 years rainfall means that based on past statistical records, this amount of rainfall has not been encountered the past 100 years in Johor's history.

And yet, barely three weeks later, the entire state was again submerged due to a second wave of rainfall of similar intensity as the first wave. Of course, this second time around, no one was heard making statements that this is another 100-year flood returning in a space of three weeks!Somehow our menteri besar must have been hopelessly misinformed or God must have felt that the state should be punished twice for some godly seasons.

The prime minister, whilst he was back in KL after his dash to Perth, Australia (during the period between the two waves of flooding) announced that victims will be given further assistance by the government and he mentioned that if not the government, who else would help? Fine words.

The PM also made it clear, however, that such assistance should not be construed as compensation for losses suffered by the flood victims.

As a fellow Malaysian who works hard to raise a family, it pains me to see the damages to properties and household assets the floods have caused to these poor folks. Rows of houses and shoplots have been submerged in water for days.

Through no fault of theirs, not only do they suffer material losses, their daily activities have also been disrupted. They are unable to go to work and roads have been washed away, electric supply has been cut off due to floods submerging electric substations, children are unable to attend schools and in fact, entire families are being forced to camp at relief centres.

Genuine victims ought to be compensated for their horrible losses and it is the duty of the government to identify these unfortunate people.

This is a national disaster of a scale we have never encountered in the past 50 years of our own nation's history. Yet, it is sad to see that the politicians and ministers only given scant responses and passing remarks on this problem.

During the first wave, almost all the ministers were on year-end holidays and this explained their absence. There seems to be no words coming out from the works minister (unless he thinks he has nothing to say at all) nor the minister of environment.

Lastly, I would like to ask the chief of our Crisis and Disaster Management Directorate whether he would admit that relief operations amongst the involved ministries and departments (even during this second round of rescue operations) has so far been very poorly coordinated and disorganised with efforts being far too slow to provide effective relief to the flood victims.