Samy Vanilli: Blame it on the rain... yeah, yeah

Samy Vanilli says that leaks in the parliament building are due to changes in weather patterns:

Global changes in the weather pattern that resulted in heavier rain is to be blamed for the recent leaks in the Parliament building, said Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu.

Commenting on yesterday's incident where Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak was greeted with a leak as he stepped out of Dewan Negara, Samy Vellu said it was due to the spell of heavy rain in the last few days.

"Rain is really heavy nowadays, not only here, but throughout the world. Like in England, streets are filled with five feet (deep) of water, in (the United States of) America there's also flood." - TheSun on Samy Vellu

This reminds me of excuses I used to hear when pesticides salespeople were challenged on poor sales performance. When sales of insecticides were low, the weather was too wet ie. low insect pressure. When herbicide and fungicide sales were low, the weather was too dry ie. low foliage and fungus growth.

My question to them was: "If your performance depends entirely on the weather... why the hell do we keep you around for? We can just have automated contracts to ship product to customers, triggered simply rainfall."

So, I'm thinking. Why the hell are we keeping Samy Vanilli around for?

Blaming "excess" rainfall... does he mean to tell us that he's only just recently found out that Malaysia is a tropical country with heavy rainfall? Each year, every year... without fail. What business does he have being Works Minister when buildings are being built in rain-soaked Malaysia (with public money), that cannot work when they get wet?

Now... I don't claim to be an architect or building engineer. But when you make a structure waterproof, doesn't it remain waterproof (not counting floods) regardless of whether it's torrential rain, intermittent rain or someone peeing on the roof?

Meanwhile, in direct contradiction to Samy's claim... UEM's chairman says that the issues with public (and private) buildings are due to political patronage. And he should know:

Political patronage in the awarding of contracts, excessive red tape and poor funding may be behind problems related to the maintenance of some government buildings.

Opus International Group and UEM World Berhad chairman Tan Sri Ahmad Tajuddin Ali said they could also have resulted in the improper design and construction of some public assets.

He said these problems had also affected privatised projects such as ports, airports, bridges and highways.

Ahmad Tajuddin said it was an uphill task managing such assets with large sums required for maintenance. - The NST on Ahmad Tajuddin