Kuala Lampur, July 24 -- When a flood hits, it is often not the uniformed officials who arrive first. It's the volunteers - teenagers with towels over their shoulders, students with stacks of packed meals, neighbours with fishing boats turned rescue crafts.

In quiet corners of disaster zones, under bridges and inside school halls, you'll find them: the invisible hands that move faster than any formal system ever could.

I've seen this too many times to call it coincidence. It is not a one-off act of kindness. It's a pattern. And like all patterns, it points to something deeper - a system that exists, but one that we've never truly invested in.

As Malaysia prepares to table the 13th Malaysia Plan (RMK-13), we're once again talking about ...