Make safety culture our own

By Terence Fernandez, The Sun

“WE began with a small group of orphans in a building built from timber we found while clearing the land. We cut the slope to make space for the building.” These telling words of Mohamed Noor Ismail illustrate how we take things for granted when it comes to adhering to safety rules.

Mohamed Noor is the co-founder of Madrasah Al-Taqwa Al Hidayah in Hulu Langat which was lost to a landslide that killed 16 people, mostly young boys, on May 21.

To call it an orphanage is an anomaly, as our reporters discovered when they spoke to Mohamed Noor recently. Many of the children who were killed had parents and relatives. Anyway, we are not going to split hairs over this, as what is important is to prevent further occurrences of such tragedies – which are becoming all too common.

I was in two minds over writing about this tragedy. After the landslide in Taman Bukit Mewah, Bukit Antarabangsa, on Dec 6, 2008 buried 14 bungalows and killed five people, the authorities promised to be more pro-active and vigilant in ensuring that developers played by the rules.

Unfortunately this had not happened due to the turf war between the Public Works Department (PWD) and the local councils – both of which are pushing the buck to each other.

To make matters worse, a declassification exercise by the state government turned into a political tirade as both sides – the past and present administration as well as the federal government started pointing fingers at each other.

There were also games of one-upmanship being played as the state government was given the runaround between the police, the PWD and the Housing and Local Government Ministry in getting preliminary reports on the Taman Bukit Mewah landslide.

Now, with regards to the latest tragedy, someone needs to be held accountable for not fulfilling safety requirements when setting up the building. The fact that there was no certificate of fitness (CF) puts the Kajang Municipal Council (MPKj) in the spotlight.

It is not enough for council president Datuk Hassan Nawawi Abdul Rahman to say that the 17-year-old building existed before the council was even formed (in 1997). The fact is the council did not conduct the checks it could have done to ensure that homes and buildings on slopes are safe and issued with CFs.

Now suddenly, MPKj realises that all homes in this landslide-prone area do not possess this vital document. That those who ran the centre also did not feel compelled to ensure they got one also makes them culpable.

The architects, engineers and contractors must be equally held accountable. If they had breached their professional duties by cutting corners and bending the rules, criminal charges must be brought against them. It is encouraging that the police have opened a criminal negligence investigation.

Hopefully this time at least, someone pays for the lives lost.

PWD senior director Datuk Ashaari Mohamad had gathered that massive tree-felling had compromised the integrity of the soil, causing it to give way following abnormal rainfall in the days preceding the tragedy.

He also said the orphanage building had been erected too close to the hillside. This alone gives one a good head start to find out the cause and the culprits.

However, I risk sounding like a broken record. The same points were put forward by many columnists and yours truly after every landslide. These tragedies are often followed by visits by VIPs and politicians who come bearing sombre faces, cheques and strong words.

But once the focus of the media shifts to other pressing matters, the promises are forgotten or take a back seat to other issues that need immediate attention.

This has always been the case. And the fact that the Highland Towers verdict which absolved the local council from negligence “because local councils cannot be sued”, is a slap in the face to those who are campaigning for stricter guidelines or even a ban on hillslope development.

That the release of the Taman Bukit Mewah tragedy report is impeded by the Official Secrets Act (OSA) flies in the face of logic and yes, decency. That the authorities want to keep things under wraps in bringing to book those responsible for flouting the law is mind-boggling and does not reflect any sincerity in wanting to put things right.

Now with Hulu Langat, there seems to be more urgency in wanting to fix faults of the past, probably due to the 14 young lives that were lost. The announcement of initiatives in this direction by Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Chor Chee Heung while welcomed, begs the question: shouldn’t requirements such as submitting plans and the imposition of deadlines be the basic necessities of any development?

Even so, it is good that the authorities and the rest of us have woken up. Hopefully these recent positive developments do not get side-tracked by politicking, cover-ups and short memories.