Police To Question Malaysian Journalist Over Report On Slow Flood Relief Response
Sean Augustin was previously a reporter for The News Straits Times and The Rakyat Post.
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Police have called in Malaysian journalist Sean Augustin, who writes for Free Malaysia Today (FMT), to question him on Wednesday regarding a report he wrote.
The report according to a source is believed to be a story that ran last year on December 21 and carried the headline “Fed up of waiting, the military rolls into flood relief”.
Augustin wrote that Malaysia’s Armed Forces sprang into action to help flood victims on December 17, 2021, without waiting for the approval of the National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA).
He also wrote that his source told him the Selangor government was reluctant to get the military involved when flash floods hit the state at the end of the week.
In response, NADMA director-general Datuk Dr. Aminuddin Hassim has said there is no rift between them and the Army.
Chief of Defence Forces Gen Tan Sri Affendi Buang has also said that if the water is rising, he won’t wait for approval to send his men in to save people.
Augustin also wrote that Defence Ministry personnel were “screaming” at NADMA personnel who had not monitored social media for SOS messages from victims of the floods.
The flood in Selangor, which was the worse the state had seen in 50 years and the worse the country had seen since 2014, displaced over 50,000 people and claimed 46 lives.
Augustin was previously a reporter for The News Straits Times and The Rakyat Post.
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