I am sick of landslides, especially in Bukit Antarabangsa. I have been a resident there for eight years now and let me assure you, it is a nice place to live in. I have never been too concerned about landslides until now. My main worries have been falling trees and burglaries in the area.

The best part about Bukit Antarabangsa is the low density of the housing estates and the lush greenery everywhere, in particular the slope that collapsed. I was there after they started clearing away the debris on Saturday and noticed that the soil there was granulated sand. This is surprising because I was expecting to see boulders of mud or clay or even lime stone.

The sand points to one possible indication: that the slope is man-made or contractors or developers working on projects in Bukit Antarabangsa dumped excavated sand indiscriminately on hillslopes.

Quite a few people in authority, including Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, have been quoted as saying that the tragic landslide could have been caused by underground water seepage. Don’t these people know better than to speculate?

It seems speculation is a favourite past-time in Malaysia. How else do you explain the irresponsible soil engineers who had conducted checks on the area before approving the projects? If they had had any reservations about the state of the soil, couldn’t the engineers have just declared the area unsafe instead of doing the opposite and gambling away people’s lives?

I hope the authorities realise that something urgent needs to done to strengthen the collapsed banks instead of just cordoning off the area with police tape. You see, if the area is hit by any more landslides, the whole area will be totally cut off from the rest of Selangor.

So, who is to be blamed? Many are saying it is not time to point fingers but in my opinion, the thing to do now is for the person involved in approving this project, or any similar ones on steep slopes, to be held accountable.

Why can’t the Selangor state assembly pass an enactment or legislation that makes the person or authority that approves such projects fully responsible in the event of a tragedy? The law should be backdated to the year 1990 when hillside developments became a craze in the country.

Imagine this: I moved to Taman Bukit Utama in 2000 and every morning, I could see the sun rise between two hills. It was truly a gift to be able to enjoy such a thing every morning.

However, my happiness lasted only six months before the construction of a condominium block commenced. Then came Laman Utama and Puncak Utama which were just behind my house. MPAJ gave us flyers to attend a meeting at their office for the approval of these housing projects.

The thing is, they gave us the flyers on a Sunday and the meeting was scheduled for the next day at 9am. No prizes for guessing how many residents turned up. Best of all, MPAJ and the developer came well prepared with documents and the like to back up their presentation.

The land that the houses was built on was supposed to be reserve land. How were these projects approved? Was the former menteri besar of Selangor blind to the fact that this area comprised steep hillslopes, not suitable for development?

I am sure most Malaysians are tired of making a fuss of such issues. However, all I want is for the current state government and the other Pakatan Rakyat-led states to pass laws making the previous administration fully responsible for any disasters that may befall projects on steep slopes.

Believe me, the victims of such disasters do not need sympathy, food, clothing or money. All we want is a right to live in peace - something that has become rare for us now. By the way, the Highland Towers and Bukit Antarabangsa are located in two totally different areas, but nobody seems to get this!

Before I end, I would like to extend sincere appreciation to the uniformed and volunteer personnel that have worked hard to make this tragedy a little bit more bearable for us victims. Many thanks also to YB Tian Chua for his moral support.