Allow me to spare my 0.02 on banning hillside developments in the wake of Bukit Antarabangsa landslide. First and foremost, I’m absolutely sorry to residents of Bukit Antarabangsa to see such fate befall them.

However, I don’t buy the fact that banning hillside developments is nipping the bud of the problem. Take some exotic countries like Monte Carlo or villages along the Swiss mountains for instance, infrastructure built on slopes add to their tourist attraction characteristics. Hong Kong too for instance proves that structures built on slopes isn’t just a Malaysian thing.

I’d be willing to bet that the real culprit to such disasters is the lack of enforcements of the highest standards by local development authorities. It is no secret that money in the form of bribery and corruption in Malaysia has the ability to move mountains. And the lack of faith in our government’s competency by the public is not just a perception but a reality. When we have undertable dealings between the authorities and developers, wheels start turning. The problem is, when the wheels are in motion, no one gives a damn who gets run over.

The authorities in charged of reviewing, monitoring and approving land development is expected to perform their duties at the highest standards. It calls for strict safety rules and regulations to be applied to all kinds of development. I concur with Bukit Antarabangsa residents and those who decide to take the government and developers to court because they have clearly NOT been doing their jobs right.

Sure, ban all hillside developments but is building safety limited to just how steep the hill slopes are? What about construction materials, construction methods, quality of materials, chemical composition of materials and many more safety and health issues related to building development? Does last year’s Sichuan province earthquake and shoddily built schools ring a bell? Even government buildings in Putrajaya is not spared of sub-standard quality building materials as proven by broken water pipes reported in the news recently.

Frankly, I do not hide my reservations and suspicions against the incompetence governing by the ruling coalition. If developers can bribe the local authorities to get the projects approved without full scrutiny, corruption if not dealt with, would mean we’ll be seeing another landslide tragedy in 2023.

PS: BTW, the news report about residents of Bukit Antarabangsa complaining about disaster relief workers looting their properties, is true. My sister’s bro-in-law works for the news agency media was there to witness it. The police and army is denying it of course but the stories about relief personnel looting valuables, drinking liquour and all those shit is not made up.