Malaysians Help Flood Victims in `Eid

Flood victims have turned a van into a makeshift shelter.

Apart from performing the `Eid prayers and slaughtering sheep, cows and goats, they also sacrificed their time, energy and cash to help fellow Malaysians hit by the floods, Malaysia's The Star newspaper reported.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi donated 130 head of cattle to 34 mosques, 40 surau (prayer rooms), government agencies and departments, as well as non-governmental organizations in Kepala Batas and Seberang Prai Utara provinces, worst hit by floods.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib also donated 299 head of cattle to 52 mosques and 124 surau in Pekan.

For the flood victims, particularly in areas which took the brunt of the monstrous floods, the Udhiyah meat brought back smiles to many faces.

A financially-able Muslim sacrifices a single sheep or goat or shares six others in sacrificing a camel or a cow as an act of worship during `Eid Al-Adha, one of the two main festivals in the Islamic calendar.

The tradition marks the memory of Abraham who was about to sacrifice his son Ismail as requested by God, when God sent him a sheep to slaughter in the place of the child.

Rising Toll

The death toll from Malaysia's disastrous floods has risen to 12, with another youth missing, but authorities said fears of another round of flooding had been averted.

The latest confirmed victim is a five-year-old girl whose body was found late Saturday, December 30, the official Bernama news agency said.

She was swept away when the car her family was traveling in was caught by strong currents.

Her father survived, but her mother and three-year-old sister also died.

An 18-year-old youth is missing after he was lost in floodwaters late Friday, Bernama said.

Malaysia's opposition has called for an inquiry into the floods, the worst in decades, which have forced nearly 59,0000 people in southern Johor state to flee their homes and take shelter in relief centers.

However, Johor chief minister Abdul Ghani Othman said he was confident the situation in the state would be back to normal within the next few days.

Abdul Ghani said the second wave of rains predicted by forecasters would not take place as the rain-bearing clouds had been blown towards Singapore and Sabah state on Borneo Island.

All in all, the rain-triggered floods and landslides have killed at least 158 people and displaced at least half a million in the past week in Malaysia and Indonesia's Sumatra province.

Another 163 people remain missing and are feared dead after torrential waters swept away thousands of homes in the Southeast Asian nations, mostly in Indonesia.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, was the worst hit country when a 9.3 magnitude earthquake sent shockwaves through the Indian Ocean on December 26, 2004, unleashing tsunami waves that raced towards the shores of 11 nations.

The giant walls of water wrought devastation as never before, killing at least 168,000 people in Indonesia alone.