Malaysians step up to help victims stranded by floods

KUALA LUMPUR • Malaysians from all walks of life stepped up to mobilise rescue and relief efforts, after photos of victims stranded by floods over the weekend circulated on social media and criticism grew that government agencies were not responding fast enough.

Volunteer group Kembara Kitchen, which has been working round the clock, has distributed some 1,500 hot meals and 3,000 packed meals to flood victims.

"We are working with the first responders to get packed meals to those still stranded and who can be reached only by boats. We are also working with the authorities to distribute hot meals to shelters which lack food," Kembara Kitchen co-founder Chan Yi Lyn told The Straits Times.

Social media users also reported seeing private boats being transported by cars and trucks to flood-hit areas.

Democratic Action Party (DAP) MP Ong Kian Ming posted on Facebook that he used two of his own kayaks to carry out rescue missions in Taman Sri Muda, Shah Alam, in worst-hit Selangor state from Sunday.

He said it was a challenge as the residential area had more than 10,000 residents and was submerged in water up to 2.4m high. He managed to rescue about 40 people.

Opposition MPs in Parliament raised questions over why the authorities were so ill-prepared for the devastating floods.

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said: "This has affected thousands of victims... Some have taken refuge on their roofs, and this is happening in the Klang Valley, the most developed area in Malaysia."

Meanwhile, netizens have accused Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob's son-in-law Jovian Mandagie of using a government helicopter to escape the flood while others remained stranded.

But he denied this, saying that it was a commercial helicopter.

"I did not use the government's assets, I will not use something that is not my right. You all want to curse me, go ahead but that is slander," he said on his Instagram account.