Harapan calls for Parliament sitting, RCI over deadly floods
Pakatan Harapan has called upon Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob and his cabinet to hold a special Dewan Rakyat sitting over their management of the deadly flood crisis.
The opposition coalition also called for a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to investigate the matter.
“The Harapan presidential council is of the opinion that...
Pakatan Harapan has called upon Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob and his cabinet to hold a special Dewan Rakyat sitting over their management of the deadly flood crisis.
The opposition coalition also called for a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to investigate the matter.
“The Harapan presidential council is of the opinion that the PM and cabinet members must give a full explanation in a special Parliament sitting with regard to the massive floods.
“At the same time, we are also of the opinion that the government needs to advise the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to establish an RCI, which is in line with Tuanku’s decree that a postmortem of the massive floods needs to be done, including for Sabah and Sarawak,” it said in a statement.
The statement was jointly issued by opposition leader and PKR president Anwar Ibrahim, Amanah president Mohamad Sabu, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng and Upko president Madius Tangau.
The ongoing floods have claimed 48 lives thus far, with five people still missing as of three days ago.
Parts of the Klang Valley were heavily inundated earlier this month. Pahang, Kelantan and Terengganu are currently experiencing heavy rainfall and floods.
Harapan said there was a need for parliamentary debate and an RCI to determine the cause of these widespread floods.
“This is to identify planning weaknesses and overcome implementation delays.
“Including shortcomings stated in the Auditor General’s report as revealed by Segambut MP (Hannah Yeoh) regarding the six flood retention ponds in Kuala Lumpur that were allocated for development,” they added.
Earlier this week, Yeoh highlighted that six flood retention ponds in the capital had been alienated for development between October 2015 and September 2020.
The six ponds were the Batu pond, Nanyang pond, Dilemma pond, Taman Wahyu pond, Batu 4 ½ pond and Taman Desa pond.
Not only were these plans inconsistent with the Kuala Lumpur City Plan 2020, Yeoh questioned if they crippled flood mitigation infrastructure in the city.
She urged the MACC to investigate the matter.
Aside from Yeoh, PKR Lembah Pantai MP Fahmi Fadzil also demanded answers.
In response, Federal Territories Minister Shahidan Kassim said his predecessors and mayors were not to blame for alienating the flood retention ponds.
