Where were they during the floods? – Tay Tian Yan

I have a question: At the peak of the massive floods in east coast states, where were the big shots and diehard supporters of Perkasa and Isma?

I flipped through all the news over the past two weeks and simply could not get anything about Perkasa's Ibrahim Ali, while the last piece of news about Isma was its call to Muslims not to say "Merry Christmas".

I thought both Perkasa and Isma built up their support bases around their unyielding defence for the rights of the Malays and Muslims?

In the east coast, the large swathe of land from Pahang through Terengganu to Kelantan forms the Malay belt on the peninsula, with over 90% of the population being Malays.

By right Perkasa and Isma, by virtue of their objective to help the Malays, should have mobilised their manpower and resources to assist hundreds of thousands of food victims.

In Ibrahim Ali's own words, there is no problem for Perkasa to mobilise the masses anytime.

Unfortunately, I did not see Perkasa, nor Isma, these past few weeks.

On the contrary, I saw plenty of Chinese organisations offering their support.

I saw Buddhist organisations, such as Tzu Chi and Foguang, rushing to the disaster zone to distribute the essential supplies while the Young Malaysians' Movement and the like were seen busily transporting supplies to the flood-hit areas.

Even after the floodwaters had receded, we still see countless volunteers helping to clean up the mess left behind by the devastating floods.

Many flood victims, including the Malays, were moved to tears at such selfless contributions regardless of race and religion.

I am not trying to blow up the effort from the Chinese community to help the victims. I don't believe we should look at the disaster from racial perspectives.

Indeed, in places with larger concentration of Chinese population, Malays were seen offering a hand to Chinese victims, not to mention the fact that most of the military police and rescue personnel were Malays.

I could feel that ill-intention doesn't really stand in the way of human beings in realistic life, especially in the face of a natural disaster of this magnitude. We should help one another through the hard times irrespective of race.

Aggressive outfits in the likes of Perkasa and Isma only know how to make a lot of noise to make people believe their existence is meant for the salvation of their own community and safeguarding of their own religion. But, when they are really needed, they are nowhere in sight.

This stark reality is now revealed to all Malaysians through the floods. What the people need is moderation and mutual help, not boisterous promises.

What we need are organisations and individuals who will give, and not take from our society.

Perhaps the next time Perkasa and Isma make a fuss about nothing, we should toss this question to them: Where were you during the floods? – mysinchew.com