New Policy To Tackle Disasters Soon. Will We Better Prepared In Future?
The present floods that have ravaged our nation has been an eye-opener of sorts for all Malaysians. For far too long have we felt that we've been spared these horrors which happen only in other countries. Either by sheer good luck or God's providence we have largely escaped unscathed all this while. Even then I feel that over the past few years there have been more natural disasters here than say a decade ago.Therefore it was with relief I read the statement of Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz that the government will draw up a new policy on natural disasters to reduce the dangers arising from them.
Mohamed Nazri said the disasters that had taken place were not only caused by natural phenomena, but were also due to man-made problems which must be handled through preventive measures.
The new policy was still in the discussion stage, he told reporters after launching the Disaster Awareness Day here today. "We have to sit down immediately (to discuss the policy). We can't wait," he added.
Nazri said the policy would apply the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015 which stressed on the mainstreaming of disaster risk reduction into development policies, planning and implementation.
The framework provides for multi-hazard approach to disaster risk management and was adopted at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction held in January 2005 in Hyogo, Kobe, Japan.
The first Disaster Awareness Day was held to instil public awareness of natural disasters, especially of the Dec 26, 2004 tsunami in the Asia-Pacific region.
Image - sajiltk
Labels: Malaysia - General
posted by The Malaysian. at 12/26/2006 06:45:00 PM
2 Comments:
It is not like Malaysia is having some kind of disaster for the first time. We have been having landslides, flash floods, fires, haze, etc as far as I can remember. Samy Vellu even used the "Act of God" reason in some of them. I even talked about how "well" Malaysian authorities are prepared for disasters here and that was last year.
But only now, these politicians decided to spend time to look into ways to handle them? Why now?
Because the general election is coming soon and people in flooded areas are pissed off with BN? Or is it because people have started to question why the PM was on leave during the critical times?
It is easy to say that man-made problems must be handled through preventive measure. We all know that but how many of the lazy bums in the local Majlis Perbandaran are quick to vet the development at the hill sides, clogged drains, etc - long before disaster happens? If they were, Highland Towers would probably be still standing today.
Talk is cheap but to execute ideal preventive measures is another thing. So, if I were you, I won't be so fast to feel relief with Mohamed Nazri's latest "wayang kulit". We have been here before! The question is what is the catch?
Thanks for your comments balajoe. I get your drift. Your suspicions on our politicians' motives are justified. BTW your article last year was very comprehensive and informative.
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