SHAH ALAM, December 26th: Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh will communicate directly with the Government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to ensure flood victims in Kuantan are not sidelined in the distribution of aid provided by the UAE government.
According to Fuziah, such steps are necessary to ensure that the aid distribution process if fair and transparent as the constituency belongs to Pakatan Rakyat (PR).
“I will work with the UAE to provide an accurate description of the Kuantan as it the worst hit by the floods because they may not have real information about the situation at hand.
“This action was taken because the original statement regarding the government aid extended to flood victims in Pekan, Pahang and Kelantan whereas Kuantan is not mentioned,at all,” she told SelangorKini, here, yesterday.
Additionally, Fuziah is concerned about the distribution process which is not transparent and has caused certain groups to profit from managing the aid.
“The aid will be used to build houses by purchasing construction materials from the local market and will likely involve middlemen who will try to make a profit.”
“When the houses are complete, we do not want the cost of a house that should be between RM30-RM40 thousand to cross the RM70 thousand mark and this is my worry,” she said.
Fuziah says that the irresponsible actions of these groups can cause actual victims to be excluded from the benefits of the aid.
UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan ordered the state government to allocate US $ 10 million (RM32.5 million) in aid to victims of the floods that hit several areas in Malaysia recently.
The aid involved basic necessities such as housing materials to be obtained from the local market and are expected to benefit more than 100,000 Malaysians.
