JANUARY 9 — Personal cost is immense, it even conjures up comedy. And there is naked panic and desperation. The screaming and crying, there is no end to the pain. There is no end in sight. Poor devastated souls.

I’m talking about Malaysian politicians and their power-play over the floods— you have to read other columns and news reports to know about how the other 300,000 people displaced by rising waters are faring.

Apparently the politicians never got the memo. Every side — Barisan and Pakatan — has gone pear shaped in their response, which means one thing.

Somewhere out there in some meeting room consultants are rubbing their palms in glee.

BN Facebook pages are displaying aerial views of Kelantan jungle cleared and logging stats. Pakatan operators as expected dish out in response the logging pictures and stats from the BN states afflicted. A silence follows.

Much hubbub was made over the late arrival of the prime minister to the floods, and he won’t ever live it down. But on the same token the leader of the Opposition did not rush back from his holidays too. And the various politicians on both sides of the divide pick and choose when commenting on the double absenteeism.

He had a jet, yeah but the other guy can book a flight back too. No really, he can. But he’s prime minister, sure, but wasn’t he supposed to be prime minister if not for counting errors? Aspire so you inspire, no?

And don’t ask how the money for the flooding has been disbursed, not right now. Any government expenditure is up for scrutiny, in time. The sound-bites are awful any which way you look at it because the guy on the ground is sitting on his roof so he won’t drown.

While Pakatan can get holier than thou about government flood workers marking all relief goods with the coalition emblem or leader pics, they might want to form a single voice over why Kelantan is in such a mess — federal government’s obstinence notwithstanding — PAS is still in Pakatan, they’ve run the state for 25 years and it is the epicentre of the calamity.

Though, politicians are not the only ones facing the heat... there are the disaster tourists.

Selfies have become double-edged swords in the rescue efforts all over the country.  While thousands of Malaysians have headed over to help their brethren in the flood-fraught states, some — a real minority but substantial enough to cause traffic jams — have opted for tourism in a time of tragedy.

The ethos being “I was here”, rather than “let’s help”, and coupled with “I need the photo to prove it” has become too irresistible. Come on, let’s be fair, it’s not easy to switch off the selfie button. Classic case of Klang Valley couples upset there was nothing on TV on a Saturday night and decided to take a drive to Kuala Krai to experience the sights and sounds with their new ASUS camera phone.

Plus they actually keep the attention on the flood situation, even if they are slightly self-involved.

I rather have benign Malaysians taking selfies beside flooded homes than say a disconnected Malaysian taking selfies in a Bangkok department store.

Someone lost a school debate

It has to crack anyone up. Top exec leaves in a huff controversial fund with huge implications on the Malaysian economy, and we are made to time travel to the early 90s boarding school scene.

Hazem Rahman resigns as CEO of 1MDB with instant effect and the top brass replace him on the spot with Arul Kanda Kandasamy. A VI (Victoria Institution) boy resigns and a RMC (Royal Military College) boy replaces him.

An MCKK (Malay College Kuala Kangsar) boy — Opposition whistleblower extraordinaire and MP Rafizi Ramli — cautions about the move because Arul used to have good communication skills as a schoolboy debater in the inter-boarding school competition. Everyone studied in the United Kingdom.

And I get booed when I say that elitism reigns in Malaysian power structures.

How about giving a leg up to the boys and girls from Kepong’s Raja Ali and Klang’s Raja Mahadi? #JustSaying

Still, 1MDB is about to be overcooked and all eyes are on all the players, and even second stringers.

But not far from the maddening crowd, our home minister is smashing up an arsenic-filled dish, for himself.

Here’s the story.

A Malaysian bases himself in Hong Kong and runs a business in Macau. So far, nothing special. He’s a gambling kingpin according to many, has gambling operations in the island and is involved with football betting. A bit like my local Hokkien mee stall owner, he gives good odds and doesn’t fail to collect despite being illegal. Paul Phua, that’s his name, gets arrested in the United States because it’s illegal. Paul seemingly has less trouble in Hong Kong because they say he’s with the triad, the 14K Triad — which I am assuming is far more polished than the 13K Triad (I don’t have stock triad jokes).

Anyhow, this sounds like a random story, except when Paul Phua gets arrested and charged in Las Vegas for illegal football betting out of the blue, the Malaysian Home Minister Zahid Hamidi writes a note to vouch for him.

I don’t know. It’s nice when you have friends from afar. But I wonder if the home minister would write an official letter backing me the next time I organise illegal gaming in countries 20,000 miles away.

Will you Zahid Hamidi?

Moderately moderate

Finally, to the Johnny come lately. 

In the liberal circles the group of 25, and their supporters are seemingly the best thing since sliced bread.

I want change, so I have a soft spot for those willing to rock the boat. But this lot?

What I get from the whole play is that they are dignified members of a dignified class who have always acted well. But since there are too many shenanigans by the undignified, they are bent on returning our collective dignity by praising moderation. You know, say this and that about Perkasa and Isma. Seriously you don’t need to have been a diplomat for 30 years to piss on them, Perkasa and Isma write their own comedy.

G25 are meeting everyone, the prime minister, ex-prime ministers, religionists and owners of pink Cadillacs to convince them that moderation is the answer.

I’m in shock and awe.

The thing is moderation is two steps to the left and two steps to the right, and to never step on the cake. It is as arbitrary as it gets. How about this instead? Don’t argue about moderation, argue about principle, and defend it even if it hurts you. That’s what the country needs now.

If you want the cheeky, one would ask, where were all these senior retired civil servants during all those years these things we bemoan today were being implemented?

Loyal and obedient servants of the state. Civil servants run the country, and if the politicians got their way for decades then what were the civil servants, the senior ones, doing then? Standing up or standing out of the way?

I applaud them for sticking their necks out today, but don’t expect others to follow your lead. You kept quiet then, because you needed to get little Mikey and Tina to uni and pay the mortgage for the Damansara Heights home. And now retired the conscience acting up?

It’s still raining

This is just the first work week. If it stays like this people might just cancel their Astro subscription and watch the political drama playing out in high dimension.

While hogging the limelight is fun, and surviving political attacks a necessity, somewhere between these preoccupations ideas that give long term gains are desperately wanted.

The economy is contracting for sure and the value of the country’s human capital is not on the up and up.

Real solutions are not sexy, but really, were they ever expected to be?

*This is the personal opinion of the columnist.