KUALA LUMPUR: DAP wants Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to hold a special parliamentary meeting next month to discuss ways to help flood victims to rebuild their lives.

The party’s national organising secretary Anthony Loke Siew Fook said the session would allow Dewan Rakyat to come up with specific steps to help the victims and approve an additional budget, if necessary.

“The PM has announced an additional allocation of RM500 million to help them, but the distribution mechanism has yet to be finalised,” he said in a press conference at DAP headquarters yesterday.

“If RM500 million is distributed to more than 220,000 flood victims, on average one victim only receives RM2,000... definitely not enough for those whose houses were destroyed by the disaster.”

“We need to immediately discuss how they are going to rebuild their lives... especially those whose houses were completely ravaged. The situation in Kuala Krai is like a town hit by a tsunami, not a flood.”

Loke, who returned from a flood relief mission in Kuala Krai a few days ago, said the Kuala Krai town looked crippled and abandoned after one week without electricity, clean water supply and means of communication.

The Seremban MP also said the special session would allow MPs representing the affected areas to voice out their opinions and highlight the problems faced in their respective areas.

He said there was a need for federal and state governments to work together and discuss with the relevant departments to estimate the total cost of the destruction.

“When the PM announced the additional allocation, I think he did not have the precise value of the total destruction just yet,” Loke said.

“Let the finance ministry and the works ministry calculate the exact amount of damages incurred.”

On the Kelantan government’s decision to postpone the state legislative assembly’s special sitting on hudud, Loke said it was the right move to take as all parties should focus on helping the flood victims.

“The focus must now be on helping the flood victims,” he said.

Loke said DAP had deployed two containers of food and water to Gua Musang and Kuala Krai to date. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on December 31, 2014.