Kemaman – the ‘gold standard’

Joceline Tan, The Star

TENGKU Razaleigh Hamzah was not his usual immaculately groomed self when he turned up to meet Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak in Gua Musang recently. His snow-white hair looked windblown and his shirt somewhat wrinkled.

Gua Musang had been badly inundated and the Prime Minister was there to assess the damage.

A huge lorry filled with provisions for the flood victims had also arrived from Kota Baru. After a briefing on the relief effort, Najib and Tengku Razaleigh posed in a symbolic handing over of the goods, holding a bag of rice.

Tengku Razaleigh, recognising the irony of the moment, quipped: “Well, I am also a flood victim.”

The Gua Musang MP’s house is built on the foothills but the Sungai Galas, which flows past the front of his house, was like a water dragon during the floods and the waters had reached the ceiling of his house. Everyone who heard about it was stunned that even a house on the slopes was engulfed.

But these are unusual times and Kelantanese are still struggling to cope with the aftermath of the deluge.

According to Senator Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki, who sits on the state disaster committee, a total of 778 houses in Gua Musang were destroyed while Kuala Krai recorded the worst damage with 1,774 houses washed away or ruined.

By the time the deluge from the incessant rains mixed with red earth from over-logged hills in Gua Musang reached Kuala Krai, it was like hell had arrived on earth.

Tengku Razaleigh, 77, has been politically associated with Gua Musang since the 1960s. The last great deluge in these parts happened when his political career was taking off and this one is taking place in his sunset years.

The floods must have seemed like some sort of signal for this one-time political giant. Things have finally come full circle.

The situation in Gua Musang was a world of contrast to that in Kemaman, Terengganu, where two Umno politicians emerged with flying colours.

One of them is Kemaman MP Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek for whom Tengku Razaleigh had once been a mentor figure.

The student has come out into his own because Kemaman has become a glowing benchmark for what ought to be done in preparing for the floods.

The flood preparations in Kemaman were so well planned and executed that when the Prime Minister visited one of the evacuation centres, his jaw practically dropped at the level of thinking that had gone into everything. Najib has since described the Kemaman efforts as “gold standard” calibre.

A huge chunk of the credit goes to Air Putih assemblyman Wan Hakim Wan Mokhtar, the initiator of the plan.

Kemaman was the worst hit district in Terengganu during the 2012 and 2013 floods. Things were made worse by the haphazard preparations and response.

Wan Hakim’s low-lying constituency was badly flooded and he was determined to be on the ball this time around.

“We cannot stop the rain from falling but we can be as ready as we can,” he said.

Air Putih is one of the state seats under Kemaman and Wan Hakim brought his ideas to Ahmad Shabery who immediately saw its relevance and threw his support behind it. They got the greenlight from Mentri Besar Datuk Razif Abdul Rahman and roped in the district officer Datuk Mustapha Khalid because the administration chain of command starts from the district office.

Planning began as early as March 2014. Committees were formed and evacuation centres identified. Lists of what needed to be stockpiled were drawn up – food, mats, cooking gas tanks, giant kuali, rescue boats.

They also got some 12,000 sleeping bags so that the children and elderly would be more comfortable. Volunteers were recruited and given training.

The team had done their research and planned things down to the last logistic. They even built three basic concrete rinks in strategic locations so that the army could land their helicopters to send or pick up supplies.

Wan Hakim recalled how some of the government officers would give him “one kind of look” when he pushed them to get ready back in April.

He also spent weeks calculating the capacity of evacuation centres where people from flood-prone villages would be housed.

Pamphlets were distributed informing people which centres they should go to when the waters start to rise and text messages advised people where to move their vehicles and which roads were still passable.

Wan Hakim was some sort of “rain man” for Kemaman. Two months before the monsoon, he spent time monitoring the river levels in Kampung Teladas, usually the first village to flood when the waters go up. He even calculated how long it would take for different areas to start flooding once the water started to rise in Kampung Teladas.

A fresh round of handbills went out when the rains finally came to remind people where to go. SMS were sent out to tell people without transport where they should wait to be picked up to the evacuation centres.

There was no such thing as desperate people seeking safe haven in the hills like in Kelantan.

“Most people knew exactly what they were supposed to do once the flood signal went out,” said Ahmad Shabery.

The team prepared for the worst-case scenario – 69 evacuation centres for an estimated 40,000 people with food supplies to last six days. There were eventually about 32,000 people affected.

They even prepared a special centre for the army, police and bomba personnel to stay in.

“They are the real heroes, we have to see to their needs too. Many of them put their lives on the line to help flood victims,” said Ahmad Shabery.

Army personnel even took charge of food preparation at the bigger evacuation centres. There were also religious ceramah at night at the main centre as well as a children’s play area.

Najib was stumped when told that a simulation exercise had been held several months before the floods. He said he had heard of dry runs for the general election, but a dry run for floods was a first for him.

As the last evacuees prepared to return home, Wan Hakim joked to Ahmad Shabery: “Brother, together we can make magic.”

It was his way of saying that this is what happens with great team work. It was a test of what thinking Yang Berhormats can accomplish. Wan Hakim was educated in an American Ivy League university and Ahmad Shabery holds double degrees in economics and political science.

Kelantan Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yakob has likened the catastrophe to the Great Flood in Islamic history, making references to the Prophet Nuh. He also pointed out that during Prophet Mohamed’s time, flood waters rose so high that the Kaaba suffered damages.

Ahmad was probably trying to remind Kelantanese that natural calamities happen even to great figures in Islam and that as Muslims, they should exercise patience and accept it as a test from God.

He has been under tremendous pressure and there have been rumours that he is going to step down, all of which are untrue.

He has announced allocations for the clean-up effort, providing temporary homes and aiding school-going children. The situation is so dire that he has appealed for vacant buildings to be turned into temporary shelter.

Some in PAS have criticised him for working so closely with the federal authorities (read Barisan Nasional).

His deputy Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah said cooperation between the state and federal government is required at every level.

“Mutual respect is important in state-federal relations. We have agreed to work together for the sake of the people and everyone is trying to help. What happened was a shock for all of us. Even the MB’s village was under water. My house was not flooded but my soul is flooded,” said Mohd Amar.

It will take some time before lives in the affected areas return to normal although in Kelantan, some lives may never be the same again.

The floods changed the landscape in parts of Kelantan and it is possible that it may also change the political landscape.

Dr Asyraf was in Kuala Krai on Wednesday to deliver provisions as well as to check on a family he had found living under a bridge because their house had disappeared.

The water has left a thick layer of mud everywhere, some more than a foot deep. But it was the human tragedy that Dr Asyraf struggled to deal with. Everywhere he turned there were families rendered destitute.

He stood by helplessly as tears rolled down the face of a man whose family was living under a shed by the roadside.

The only bright spot in his day was when he delivered bottles of budu, the condiment that Kelantanese love so much, to several villages in the Kuala Krai area. It brought out the smiles because budu was their comfort food in a time when they needed comforting.