Today is D5 of the Bukit Antarabangsa tragedy. During the highland tower incident, I was part of the medical team assisting in the rescue and support effort but today I am a victim of a similar tragedy. Something that I never thought that would have an impact on me. Relatively in comparison, what happen to those families who loss their love ones is nothing compared to what me and probably 2000 other residents had to endure past 4 days. Many tragedies took place this time around. I am not going to be diplomatic about it. I will say it the way I see it.
Within 2 hour after being made aware of landslide, I and several resident of Taman Bukit Utama activated an Ops Centre (known as TBU Ops Centre). We look at importance issues that we need to tackle mainly water supply, waste disposal, security, food distribution and medical evacuation. What was supposed to be our Taman Ops centre became the Ops Centre to eight “Taman” surrounding ours who were cut off from the outside world. We had no electricity, water, fixed telephone line internet. Most people had limited food in their house as they had already plan to travel for Raya and did not stock up any food.
Within an hour after meeting, we setup and completed a temporary water supply by laying pipes to get mountain water for the resident. Ops centre was up in the next hour and we started communication channel with the outside channel via SMS and arranging food and drinking water supply. We took preventive measures to manage disease outbreak by managing waste. All this was done by a handful of people from Taman Bukit Utama Resident Association (PPTBU). We setup the helipad for the rescue team to come in.
With the help of a friend DSP Kumar, we manage to evacuate by air (Medivac) a total of 39 patients which consist of stroke patients, elderly people, kidney failure patients etc. The patients were evacuated by police air wing which was arranged by DSP Kumar from the UTK through his personal contacts. We did all this independently without the support of any help from the Base station at Ground zero.
Within the first 48 hours, while in darkness several homes was reported to be broken into by unknown people in residential areas adjacent to TBU where there was no or minimal residential coordination among the residents. Food was shortage and cooked food from PBSM (Persatuan Bulan Sabit Merah) did not arrive in timely manner. The longest time was dinner that only reaches us in the morning which was not consumable.
While we are stuck, we had VVIP visitors that come to our area. I would say out of many people that came only a handful was actually helpful. YB Elizabeth Wong, a state Exco came with a working group and arrange generators, fuel, candles, garbage bags and others. She came by foot with very few people and carried the relevant information without empty promises. The IGP came and given me his personal commitment and blessing that, I continue to handle all air evacuation with the support of Police Udara. I was told that the Minister of Information visited only the UMNO relief center at a Condo nearby. He did not come to our place.
The NGO that is worth mentioning is Mercy who gave me some drugs, INSAF who open a small medical clinic for 2 days and MAVFCL (Kapt Bala and his crew) which open a temporary access between Athenaeum condo and a generator set to charge hand phones and Bukit Utama which allows people to leave by foot. It is a regret to note that NO government agency deserves any mention in the first 36 hours of tragedy except for Polis Udara and Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat. I think they forgot about us.
While 2000 people were surviving in the darkness and the absence of proper food, Concord Hotel, Ali Maju restaurant, Burger King and many others donated tons of food. Unfortunately, no one attempted to send the food to us. Residents that were not affected by the tragedy and the rescue workers were enjoying them. The kind of food they get down there was lavish. There was fresh roti chanai, tosai mee goreng etc. The best word to describe the situation down there is “food fiesta”. Someone commented that there is so much “Teh Tarik” that you can wash your shoes with it.
The landslide is a major tragedy. The bigger tragedy is that the failure of the government to act fast enough. While multiple agencies went into action fast, most of them work independently. On the 3rd day, we had 10 soldiers from RAMD with two officers with the rank of Major that came to our centre. I ask them a basic question on their role and the officers could not give me a straight answer. He was very blur. To me his presence was a liability to the ops center as we had to feed an additional 10 mouth with our limited stocks.
This is not the first time a tragedy takes place. The disaster relief operation was not well coordinated. The command and control was lacking. Information dissemination to the media was scattered and causes panic among the people. Many friends and relatives outside calls us and we could not entertain them, as our battery power was limited.
In terms of political publicity, I would say UMNO was a clear winner. This is because they control the media. Unfortunately, I would say that in the hearts of the people UMNO loss big time. The high-level conduct of their people on the ground and their selective helps that was given out was too much to bear. In fact, the Putri Umno head that I had known past few months was behaving in such a highhanded manner that really shows her true colours. They were hoarding food and distributing them to “their people”. Their action has only reinforced my idea that the Federal and the State Government must be from different parties. This is needed for check and balance.
Malaysian must realize that for the sake of our own lives and our own children lives, we have to have balance of power. It was because of lack of balance of power; the water catchment area that is a state land was given to MBF and is now known as “Bukit Antarabangsa”. In my assessment, the government is liable. In this case, the government was led by BN in the state of Selangor and at National level past 50 odd years that is liable for the suffering of the people of Bukit Antarabangsa. They are liable because they alienated unsuitable land for development. They are liable for giving the people the false sense of security by approving development plans and projects. They are liable for hiding information from the people that shows that the area that we are buying is not safe for living.
I will only vote for balance of power in the future and UMNO will not be part of that balance.
Dr Raffick, you do more than fulfil the Hippocratic oath you took on graduation. May God bless and protect you and yours and count you always as among his most beloved. Malaysia deserves now more than ever before to have selfless, compassionate, practical people like you take charge at every level. I remain your humble admirer.
Dear Dr Raffick, I am the one who FORWARDED your article to the letters@nst.com.my which was printed yesterday. I purposely put your name at the top of the article after the heading to highlight the writer’s name but the paper chose to print my name instead.
When I found this out, I wrote another letter yesterday to NST to credit you as the writer and I emphasised that I had no part at all in the two tragedies you mentioned and I merely forwarded your article to NST so that more people are aware of what you and fellow victims endured.
This is what I wrote yesterday to them;
“Dear Editor,
First of all, I would like to thank you for printing the article that I sent to you yesterday regarding the above tragedy. Unfortunately, you have left out the most important part of the article, i.e., credit for this article should go to a ” drrafick” who wrote it on December 10, 2008 and sent it to some of his friends. I merely forwarded it to your paper to highlight what some victims went through because obviously this was kept under wraps. I would like to state here that I myself HAD NEVER BEEN INVOLVED IN HIGHLAND TOWERS NOR BUKIT ANTARABANGSA TRAGEDIES. It was “drrafick” who helped out in the Highland Towers and he himself was a victim in the recent Bukit Antarabangsa landslide. I sincerely do hope that your paper make this correction and give the credit where it is due and my role was merely as a messenger. Nevertheless, what you have done may ruffle some feathers but more importantly highlight the plight of those who suffered and some in silence.”
Best regards
Hashim Kamil Harun M Hashim
two video clips YB Elizabeth. worth watching…
dr, saw you on tv. funny to see right after your PC, there was another PC blaming your team for being too agresive. poor TV3, playing stupid issue to turn stories around. you are right. UMNO is very good when it comes to getting publicity during disaster. opportunist i would say. they should put aside political position during hard times like this and please don’t try to be a hero. YB Elizabeth was not mention anywhere until i read your blog. by the way, TBU is lucky to have you around. keep up with the good work. hope to see more posting from you
Doc ,
You did not mince your words in your article and I though apolitical will agree with Raja Nasarudin and Dr Kassim that you were bias in your writing. I am not saying you are wrong but I question your impartiality/insensitivity.
No doubt there were unwarranted special treatments and they were from both sides of the political fence but the desire to assist the affected residents from political parties , authorities , government welfare agencies , NGOs , the general public and the residents helping each other were evidenced .
The organisation skill could be short of desired but it is expected without proper designated authority. All the more in the commotion many wanted to lead and some took opportunity to be in the limelight.
Whatever it is , the kind of caring attitude shown by many is what we , Malaysians should be proud of regardless of the shortcomings.
You did your best in the circumstances and a good job at it.
I know of many MPAJ officers who are on leave and were recalled for duties and the TYDP was already in his hometown , Langkawi and immediately flew back to attend to the disaster.
Dear Dr kasim
Thank you for your compliments. Please read my comments to address the issues raised by Raja. When it comes to being a doctor and politics, I am very clear and professional.
I am sure many people would have seen that I walk around wearing normal shirts without any political emblems or color.
As mention I am not a member of any political party.I dont have a political ambition. I say something based on what I see and what I feel.
As for Linda, you must accept that Linda was not with you 24/7. As mention, I receive 3 brutal and unwarranted salvo from her. I intent to speak to her after things cools down. She is a friend and if I had counter attack her it would have been counter productive. That is why I chose to maintain to harmonize the situation because I realized that she could not handle the pressure.
I believe you left the UMNO (BN relieve center) center after 2 days. On one occasion I called linda for assistance for drugs for a patient as I dont have much stock with me. You were back at your clinic. I proposed that she should consider to pass all the drugs to me as it would difficult for me to run between Bukit Utama and Kyoto Garden, every time I have a case, I was given earful sarcasm of the highest order. I was told that if I want to use any, I have to go down and get what is needed and dished out what is needed. She expects me to do this for every time I need to use the drugs. She says that those drugs belongs to UMNO and it will stay there.
We are in disaster area. I am the only doctor around. What is wrong for me to keep the meds with me. It would have been helpful to the patients and easier for me to manage my time under such circumstances. No need to tell me that the drugs belongs to UMNO. In the end, I just kept quiet. I went down collect meds for one patient and went back up.
I have known linda for a while and I would say her true colors appears under during the crisis management. This is not the same linda that I know..
lastly, I am apolitical and has no political agendas as you had implied. When you and I are free we can sit down and have coffee and chat. That way you will know me better.
Dear Dr. Rafick ,
As a fellow colleague I appreciate what you did in Bkt Antarabangsa. You should be recognised for what you did as a doctor. I agree to what you said about the poor coordination, may be we all learn through experience, lets not point fingers at anyone but give our expert opinion to help them to organise the next time if it happens ( pray that it doesnt happen ). Do your good work . What Raja Nasarudin commented is right too. Brave man. As a doctor dont be political when commenting , as you will loose your right path, Though I support a party but totally become apolitical and work together with other organisations when a disaster occurs. I personally saw Miss. Linda did not misbehave at anytime with anyone. She lacked of rest and sleep, may be you mistook her and called as High Handedness. Everyone was emotional and tired so being a doctor. dont accuse someone this way. There were incidence where some other political party members misbehaved but its excusable as everyone was highly emotional . Through away your ways to limelight , I know you want a good mileage in politics.
Lets be apolitical at time like this.
DK
hai doc,
do keep up the good work.i’m sad when people being choosy on who they want to help.this goes for the political party.both,BN and PR,want to show to eachother who is better and who is more concern about the tragedy in Bukit Antarabangsa.
but then again i feel grateful as well that they willing to help people and show their concern towards the people in Bukit Antarabangsa.kudos to both UMNO and PKR.
Dear Raja
I apologize if you feel that my writings was rather lopsided and giving a different perception but I would like to correct your comments.
a. I do not belong to any political party neither I am member or owner of any political party nor I support any political party. I only vote for people for their stand and not political party.
b. If you read my other articles in my blog, you will appreciate what I meant. For a long time I have voted for balance of power
c. I have reserved to name names in my writing out of friendship and if you speak to people that knows me I am very much impartial.
d.About the political advertising, that is an important matter that I want to address in the PC that will be held later today. I feel it is WRONG by all parties. For this reason, I took down the banner on D4 that was put up by other resident twice and on both occasion it came back up. A compromise was reached when they remove the letter A from the word ADUN and subsequently they put up a new banner with a state logo on D5. This also made me uncomfortable and I repeatedly talk to them that the OPS Center was a resident initiatives and not others.
It is sad that politicians on both side of divide took advantage of the situation. In your area, UMNO did so and in our areas PKR did the same. I intent to address this issue to the fullest in a fair manner. That is why the PC on the (12/12/08) was done under the banner of the Ops center Committee. There will be an article which is currently half done on the same subject will talk more about the political issues.
e. With regards to the food distribution, from the onset we were dealing with JKM. I was too busy running around to attend to medical cases to notice about the food stuff being handled by PKR and till your comments appears, I was not aware of the allegations that PKR people hijacking food. The food that came to us ONLY came from JKM, PBSM ( food from D1-D4), Pusat Zakat Selangor (D5) and some food under the label of De Palma hotel (which was brought in personally by one very angry resident of TBU 1 of seeing the disparity of food quality at Ground Zero Command Center and at ours. He literally went down with his own vehicle and TAKE the food in his own car and brought it up to us. We only receive basic necessities from JKM.
f. From the onset, our communication has been with PBSM in food preparation and Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat for food distribution. This was handled my other committee members. I do hope that you realize that the first 72 hours, I was too busy with medical evacuations and had no time to look into food matter. Only somewhere on mid D3. I got involved in food logistic and distribution as I was relatively free. I then took food distribution in my own hands to ensure that Kyoto residence gets a portion of what we get. I delivered them personally to 4 different locations everyday Our discussion has never been with PKR or any other political party.
g. On State Excos that came to visit us, I was given the impression that they visited your side as well. You had confirm this when you said Dr Lo Lo (my medical school college mate) visited your end. While I was at the center and running around, I did not receive the visit of ANY politicians except for Azmin Ali ( which I mention last night meeting is a tourist) and Elizebeth wong. The appreciation list that we discussed last night did not carry the name of Azmin and other political tourist but only Elizabeth because she came with help that we needed most at the most critical moment
h. On Putri Head conduct, I was a victim. She gave me a direct SALVO. She raised her voice to me on 3 occasions and still right to the end, I chose to ignore and be close to her. I did not want to engage her in verbal debate as it is clear to me she was not able to take the stresses that was around us. My intention was to talk to her when both of us are free. She knows that I am APOLITICAL from our friendship since last GE.
i. Retrospectively, I felt if I could do it all over again, it would have been better for us not to invite the politicians on both side of the fence to our premises as it had divided the community
j. Raja, I humbly apologize if my writings hurts yours and other people that I have befriended in last few days. In fact I cherished our friendship. You are one of the few people that I admired and I takes my hats off to you. You were visiting at our center on regular basis and I really likes that.
h. On the issue of me buying the house here is another story all together (which is a funny story where I was misled by my wife) but at the time of purchase, I DID NOT KNOW that it was a water catchment area and landslide prone until Tan Sri Ismail house was destroyed by the landslide. If information was made available to me, I would not have bought it. I would have remained in Shah Alam where I had stayed for 6 years prior to moving to Shah Alam.
i. Lastly, I have no political ambition and let me reiterate that I do not belong to ANY political party. The PC that will be done this morning will be on the platform of TBU Ops Center Committee and not on any other political platform. I assure you that I will address the issue of “political advertising to the fullest and I will be fair on both side”
Thank you for highlighting my poor observation and writings.
Dear Doc,
After reading your article on the tragedy, i which to correct u on certain statement which i personally view it, as a one sided article which enhance your politicle party.
As you know, i am a resident in of Kyoto Garden in Bukit Antarabangsa who does not belong, or have any interest in politics or political parties (please check with UMNO,PAS or even PKR if i am registered with any of them) And I was one of the few to arrived at ground zero at 4.05am. The exact time of the landslide is at 3.50am, after looking at the amount of damage done by the landslide, i rush back and took from the our condo guards the key to the 17th floor to access the the lenght of distruction from an arial view. Having seing it, and like you decide that a Relief Center is needed to attent to the needs of the trap people of Bukit Antarabangsa. due to the struture design of our lobby which is very condusive to have have a relief center with the assistance of the man and ladies resident of Kyoto Garden we organize the Relief Center.
By 10am we recivied a visit by Putri Umno, lead by Cik Haslinda (which till today i do not know her binti, sory Linda)
together with AMAN Malaysia to seek permission to open a base for them to operate their food distribution store and a medical center for Aman Malaysia. It would be insane if we reject them on their request, so by 12.3 pm we were the first in operation with a limited supply of Maggi mee, Pampers and milk for babies, miniral water, bread and biscuts. the medical facilities we have 2 Doctors with stock of basic medicines. And i was the first patients treated by Dr Kassim with a jab on my bud due to gout, how lucky it was for me. Without them i will be suffering in pain till a solution is found to have and access, so i could go to my usaul Mano&Tan Clinic.
Your accusation of Cik Haslinda being highhanded in her behaviour is partly true, but this is due to your political group of people behaving like holigans toward peoples from the relief center of Kyoto Garden. The Kyoto Garden Relief Center Banner was cut in the early morning and place in the mud, and i personally saw the PKR boys doing it. The food by JKM should be handle by JKM staff, but it was control by PKR, Why was that? And rumours were a buzz stating that resident in Kyoto Garden has no food to it, our food supply by JKM was late. due to sabotage. And even i with no political interest was behaving highhandedly due to this. So i really wont blame Haslinda in fact i am very supprise the way she handle the PKR man by teling them off.
Your comment about leaders from UMNO that came to visits the so called UMNO center is an insult to me personally. did i ever stop your people coming in?Did we stop Dr LoLo from coming in and gave her my office space, so she and her group
could pray or did i sop you? DID I NOT OFFER YOUR PEOPLE TO JOIN HANDS TO COME AND MAKE KYOTO GARDEN OUR CENTER?
DID I NOT OFFER YOU TO HOLD LAST NITE ASSOCIATION MEETING AT KYOTO GARDEN?
NO. YOU ANSWER ME YOU RATHER BE WHERE YOU ARE, WITH THE MUD AND THE SMELL…
It was true that the Minister of Information came to visit us after he visited the an ambassador home just nex to Kyoto Garden. and agreed he should have visited you. But what about your Elizaberth Wong, Azmin Ali, yor Menteri Besar and others come and visit us to…
On your comment regarding political publicity your PKR banners at your TBU Center is the biggers and all your workers with PKR vest and your vihicle are all painted with PKR collours and with big logos so what the issue…
Lastly, you are a very inteligent man and i am sure you know that this is hill very near to the catchment area, then why did you buy your house in Bukit Utama.
LETS NOT CAPITALIZE THE TRAGEDY TO ENHANCE YOUR POLITICAL MILAGE AND OUT OF YOUR OWN FEAR THAT YOUR POLITICAL PARTY WOULD BE OVER SHADOW BY UMNO PRESENT, YOU MAKE MISTAKE
what to do…
we choose not to take risk and continue to elect them…
now we are facing deaths as if we are facing our daily nasi lemak breakfast!
all due to negligence!
http://www.cabai-kering.blogspot.com
Dear Doc,
The tragedy really tugged at my heart and after reading your blog the pain and hurt became anger.
Please convey my condolences to the families who lost their loved ones ( if you know them ).
I totally concur with you on your “balance of power” thingy and its same same for me for the next election.
Again, my deepest condolences to the victims of the tragedy and kudos to all that has actually assisted in the rescue operation.
A BolehLander in Bahrain…Jamie
If we didn’t learn from the 48 deaths of the Highland Towers tragedy 15 years ago, I doubt if the four deaths in the Bukit Antarabangsa incident last week would teach us anything.
My heartfelt condolences to families who lost their loved ones.
Well done , Doc. Hang on , do your best and may Allah bless you and your fellow residents who are caught by the tragedy and are victims of circumstances.
It is no point playing the blaming game. Bukit Antarabangsa is a planning issue that had gone wrong right from day one when the area was initially developed. Leave it at that but learn from the blunder , which is an expensive mistake that all parties have now to burden.
We hear of further reviews. Reviews mean Nothing without Execution. To execute you must have $$$$. Neither MPAJ nor the State Government have the funds to carry out & supervise proper maintenance works. Funds must be made available to research on slope stability & safety , monitor slopes , operate a landslip warning system , educate the public on slope safety and maintenance for hilltop & hillside developments.
It costs money and true the Government of the day has to take responsibility by enforcing regulations and legislation.
Who bears the costs ? Solely the common tax payers ? Should it not be the developers and property owners of hilltop & hillside developments !
Like it or not , correct costs allocations for construction and maintenance fees to maintain the infrastructure must be imposed on such development. Safety never compromised for the sake of viability. This is a QS advice but never taken into consideration at master planning stage.
I guess life is dirt cheap in Malaysia!
Glad to hear that you are well, sorry to hear about the troubles that you are facing.
Sorry to hear about your ordeal.
Perhaps the government IS liable. But then the economic forces works on both supply and DEMAND. Go figure.
If guys are serious call for the repeal Act 95 of the Street, Drainage and Building Act 1974.
Doc,
Good work and I can really empathise with you and your bunch of dedicated and selfless people.
I can appreciate your frustration with the intentional omissions of certain groups and government departments. These creatures have not emerged from civilisation and their tribal behavior shall be a shameful label they shall forever wear on their sleeves.
Dear Dr Rafick,
I am so glad you are alive and well and contributing so much (as usual!).
May God be with you in this trying time.
Doc,
I am saddened to read about your ordeal. My prayers are for you and all the victims. You and your team of residents have done good work. You guys hang in there.
I’m posting this now from the mamak restaurant at Wangsa Ukay. I believe the Action Committee had just finished their meeting at the room at the back of the restaurant. You guys go and raise some hell with the government. Our leaders really need to wake up, buck up or else ship out.
My friends and cousin are among those who had to trek out on foot.
Dr
I read with sadness that the government agencies are rather poor in their action to take effective action.
Ha a major from RAMD.. what do you think, dumb army Major bodoh. How did he get promoted. If there is a war tomorrow, I pity Malaysia.
It shows that the unit from which the Major came from has not contingency plan at all in the unit SOP.
Looks like the Police are well prepared. Well done Police.
Another is the selective assisstance provided and hoarding food and distributing them to “their people”. Well this is UMNO lah