Thailand
Restructuring of Nadma: Philippines, Indonesia to be used as benchmark
KUALA LUMPUR: Disaster management bodies in the Philippines and Indonesia will be among those to be used as a ‘benchmark’ for the restructuring of the country’s National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA), said Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Special Functions) Datuk Mastura Mohd Yazid (pix).
She said the reason being that measures to strengthen the country’s disaster management should take into account the practicalities in other countries having similar disaster management mechanisms.
“This includes the characteristics of a multi-cultural and multi-religious society, disaster risk and competency level, as well as disaster management technology,“ she said in response to a supplementary question from Datuk Seri Hasan Arifin (BN-Rompin) in the Dewan Rakyat today.
Comparing the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) in the Asean countries, she said the National Disaster Management Agency in Indonesia had a staff of 630 people, not including at the 33 provincial branches and 12 districts.
She said the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) in the Philippines had 900 support officers.
She said according to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, a disaster management governance under one lead agency had become a model for most countries, with 140 countries currently having their own disaster agencies.
However, she said, Malaysia was lagging behind compared to many other countries in terms of the number of officers, experts and experienced officers in Nadma.
“Strong teams and mechanisms, as well as legislation, should also be in place to ensure all gazetting policies and laws involving disaster management do not conflict with each other, and to avoid legal disputes,“ she added.
Earlier, in response to Hasan’s original question, Mastura said among the significant weaknesses in Nadma which were identified following the recent floods, was the issue on chain of command in the implementation of disaster response mechanisms and small organisational structure.
“Nadma only operates at the central level involving 94 posts of various management and professional grades, as well as support group that makes coordination difficult,“ she added.
To a supplementary question from Teo Nie Ching (PH-Kulai) on whether elected representatives from the opposition were also invited to sit in the District Disaster Management Committee, Mastura said currently it only involved government agencies. — Bernama