Lim: Too much resignation, too little outrage

Premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his deputy Najib Abdul Razak have shown “too much resignation and too little outrage” over the landslide that killed four people and led to some 5,000 residents having to be evacuated since Saturday.

Targeting the nation’s top two in his blog post, veteran opposition lawmaker Lim Kit Siang also criticised the government and its officials for having been “much too complacent” in preventing the tragedy.

Residents had complained, he said, that the main road to Bukit Antarabangsa had been affected earlier, but that the Ampang Jaya Municipal Council had not given serious attention to this.

“(There has also been) criminal negligence in failing to learn the lessons of the Highland Towers collapse, which claimed 48 lives 15 years ago,” he wrote.

“Apart from wringing their hands in despair and spouting the usual platitudes about a halt to hill- slope development, which no one believes in, there is even no political will to set up a royal commission of inquiry.”

He pointed out that, when the nearby Highland Towers collapsed in 1993, he had suggested in Parliament that a Geotechnical Engineering Office be set up to investigate slopes for potential risks and to take preventive measures.

The department would “control the geotechnical aspects of new buildings and civil engineering works, to promote slope maintenance by owners, to undertake landslide warnings and emergency services and to advise on land-use plans to minimise public risks”.

Three points of reference

The Ipoh Timor DAP MP, who called for a royal commission of inquiry to be set up, said that the first of its three points of reference should be to inquire into the causes of the landslide .

Secondly, it should have a larger mandate to inquire whether and why the federal, state and local government agencies “have not learned the lessons of the Highland Towers tragedy 15 years ago, specifically for Bukit Antarabangsa but even further afield”.

Thirdly, it should determine why countries like Hong Kong have been able to prevent landslides by ensuring hill slope safety despite development.

Lim also attacked Housing and Local Government Minister Ong Ka Chuan (left) , claiming that the minister had not visited Bukit Antarabangsa or even expressed concern about the disaster.

“It was a few hours after my public query that the Deputy Housing and Local Government Minister Robert Lau, showed up at the site claiming that he was making the visit on behalf of the minister,” said Lim.

Furthermore, he claimed that Ong could not be contacted by his press secretary, as the minister was apparently not in the country.

Demanding to know the minister’s whereabouts, he also wondered if Ong would be in Parliament on Wednesday “to announce the establishment of a royal commission of inquiry”.