A year after 31 died in landslide near Genting Highlands, wounds remain raw and questions unanswered

KUALA LUMPUR: On the evening of Dec 15, 2022, Mr Leong Kim Meng and Mr Wong Wai Foong, together with their families, wrapped up an alfresco steamboat dinner in a campsite on the idyllic hills of Father’s Organic Farm, near the popular resort of Genting Highlands.

They chatted in the cool night, excited about going for a trek the next day on what was supposed to be just another yearly family vacation. Past 11pm, they retired to their tents. 

Little did they know that in the next few hours, they would be caught up in one of Malaysia’s worst disasters in terms of death toll.

At around 2am on Dec 16, a slope above the campsite crumbled, sending a first deluge of earth and mud crashing down. The debris that pooled at the foot of the slope then caved in, triggering a second landslide that swept through the entire campsite, burying tents filled with vacationers and sending cars tumbling down the hill.

A total of 92 people were at the campsite when it happened. The two men and their families survived, but others were not as lucky. 

In total, 31 people died: 18 adults and 13 children. This toll is only second to the 1993 Highland Towers condominium collapse in Selangor, which was also caused by a landslide and claimed 48 lives.

An official government report on the Batang Kali landslide was released in October this year following repeated delays, citing heavy rainfall as the main cause of the incident. It found no concrete evidence to show that human activities contributed to the landslide.

For victims’ families who waited 10 months in hopes of closure, the report was a kick in the teeth. It did not address some of their most burning questions, like why the campsite land — once considered environmentally sensitive — was eventually