Listen up, folks—because while politicians in designer suits are busy flooding your timelines with scripted empathy and budgeted climate pledges, actual citizens are getting swept down the spine of Borneo in literal rivers of mountain wrath. Yes, I’m talking about Malaysia’s Mount Kinabalu—the sacred beast of Sabah—and this week’s wet-and-wild proving grounds for hikers whose idea of adventure apparently includes dodging landslides in God’s personal bathtub.
Picture this: torrential rains so vicious they make Noah’s Ark feel under-engineered. Mount Kinabalu wasn’t just damp. It wasn’t just slippery. It turned into a cascading waterfall of “Why didn’t we check the forecast?” Footage that has since gone viral (and not in the ‘TikTok dance’ way) shows hikers—ponchos flapping, eyes wide with regret—descending the peak through surging rapids that looked less like a hiking trail and more like a waterpark operated by Zeus during a tantrum.
Now, let’s not blame Mother Nature entirely—nope. This is where we zoom out and slap on the political lens because, my friends, everything is political when infrastructure and crisis-preparedness are involved. Was mountain access restricted during the weather warning? Were climbers briefed? Was emergency protocol executed? Or was this just another example of bureaucracy playing Sudoku while citizens play Russian roulette with monsoons?
Here’s the kicker: Malaysia isn’t new to this. Kinabalu is as temperamental as a backbencher who doesn’t get his Cabinet seat. The mountain is known for rainstorms that turn trails into torrents, and yet, year after year, policy around tourism management on this site gets treated like a side salad at an oil exec’s steak dinner—optional and underfunded. Where’s the emergency climate response unit when you need it? Tied up drafting “commitment statements” for the next UN climate summit? Spoiler alert: recyclable language won’t stop flash floods.
And before we move on, a word to local leaders who think tweets are disaster relief: If your idea of management is a press release after the fact, I hope your PR agency has flotation devices. These hikers shouldn’t need to be semi-aquatic thrill seekers to survive a hike. They came for the view, not a baptism.
Meanwhile, tourists keep rolling in, the mountain keeps weeping, and policymaking remains drier than a bureaucrat’s sense of irony. It’s a dangerous cocktail: climate change shaken with poor disaster readiness, and garnished with a slice of blissful negligence.
To the hikers: You didn’t just conquer Sabah’s highest peak—you survived the passive-aggressive wrath of nature plus the usual slapstick reaction from the human systems meant to protect you. For that, I tip my hat.
To the officials: The next time the mountain cries, maybe show up before it drowns your PR narrative.
Until then, stay dry, stay defiant, and remember—when the political weather says “partly cloudy,” pack a boat.
The game’s on, and I play to win.
– Mr. 47
