After the Bukit Antarabangsa landslide, and after hearing all the horror stories of “rescue” personnel doing everything from looting to watching people die except actually saving them, I’ve compiled a “survival guide” in Malaysia.

Flood

When flood hits your house, here’s what you should do first: TRUST NOBODY. If you see a rescue personnel, quickly dive into your house and collect all your valuables and swim AWAY. Prepare a scuba gear beforehand for such emergencies. If you are hurt, and you see the ambulance, swim AWAY. The swim to the hospital is safer than going with the ambulance.

Fire

When your house is burning, the last thing you want to do is to call the police or the fire station. Rouse the neighbourhood and ask everybody to bring their fire fighting tools. If you hear the sirens of a fire engine, immediately send people to blockade the street and PREVENT the fire engine from entering. Because if they do, they will demand payment from you and at the same time deny you usage of the fire hydrant to fight the fire. Same story with the police. Form a human chain if needed.

Landslide

If a landslide happens, IMMEDIATELY remove all your valuables and drive 30 km away and bury them. Nevermind if your relatives and family is buried under. You can’t save them, the rescue personnel are not trained to save them, and they are destinied to die anyway. At least cut your losses and prevent your personal belongings from being ransaked by the rescue personnel, which is their first priority on the scene.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 at 8:15 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.