20 June 2022

ress statement by MCA Central Committee Member Lau Chin Kok

Nazri’s ‘voluntourism’ remarks insensitive and unhelpful

Padang Rengas MP Dato’ Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz recently said, “there is a potential for the annual floods in the country to become a “tourism attraction” by promoting "voluntourism", or volunteer tourism.” Such a daring statement could not be more off-based, simultaneously insulting our nation’s tourism sector, volunteer bodies and most of all, the affected and even displaced flood victims.

There is nothing that should be celebrated about the annual floods which afflict our nation. Looking at the loss of possessions and lives from the floods, as well as locals who now get anxious at the sight of cloudy weather; can Nazri still utter such insensitive remarks?

Furthermore, Nazri should not just casually bring up the role of volunteers as if it is a simple summer vacation. Time, energy, resources are needed, not to mention the risk to personal health and safety that they put themselves in. By oversimplifying the process as “we have a flood festival, where foreigners come to do volunteer work and they pay” is extremely disrespectful to volunteers.

The government’s responsibility is to protect people wherever possible, by finding ways to prevent floods from happening in the first place, or ensure minimal losses. The very last thing on the to-do list would be generating income from the people’s misery.

Therefore, I urge Nazri to put more thoughts into constructive suggestions, suggestions that can lift the people from the hardships, instead of clumsy attempts to make optimistic remarks after people have lost their homes and loved ones.  

Lau Chin Kok

MCA Central Committee Member

-MCA Online-