Asia-Pacific, Development & Aid, Global, Global Geopolitics, Headlines, Population

TSUNAMI IMPACT: Malaysian Gov’t Playing Politics With Aid?

Anil Netto

PENANG, Malaysia, Jan 4 2005 (IPS) - Record humanitarian aid might be pouring in for victims of Asia’s tsunami disaster, but critics here have accused the Malaysian government of delaying the distribution of badly needed emergency supplies to survivors in Malaysia’s coastal areas, northwest of the peninsula.

”There are mattresses and blankets piled up to the ceiling in the relief centers, but they (the authorities) are waiting for some big-shot government politician to come and distribute them, so that everyone gets media publicity,” said an angry Saiful Izham, a relief worker with the Merbok Community Development Center in Kedah.

Some 4,200 people are still at eight relief centers in Kedah, said Saiful, and they have not been allowed to return home yet.

Over 1,000 homes in seven villages in the state have been affected with almost 500 homes either badly damaged or destroyed, when an undersea quake in the northernmost tip of Indonesia’s Sumatra island spawned tsunamis which tore through the Indian Ocean coastlines the day after Christmas.

Though fishing villages in Kedah state were destroyed, it was densely populated Penang Island that recorded the most fatalities in the catastrophe that has killed nearly 150,000 people in the region.

In Penang Island and on the mainland, fishing villages, squatter settlements and shops along the coast have suffered severe damage. The death toll in Malaysia has risen to 68, while 299 people have sustained injuries.

”No one took responsibility, nor allow anyone else to. Government agencies and departments, which should have rushed in automatically did not since they were not ordered to,” wrote prominent columnist M G G Pillai in his weekly column in the popular on-line daily Malaysiakini.

Some of the fund-raising initiatives carried out by prominent firms and media corporations in Kuala Lumpur have already collected hundreds of thousands of dollars for tsunami victims.

But a few evacuees from Kampung Masjid – a fishing village in northern Penang – told IPS they had each only received around 700 Malaysian ringgit (184 U.S. dollars) in the last seven days – 500 Malaysian ringgit (131 U.S. dollars) from the state’s Social Welfare Board and smaller amounts from ‘zakat’ (Muslim tithes relief) and Buddhist relief organisations.

”We have to wait and see if there’s more to come,” said a fisherman who only wanted to be known as Salim.

Up to 5,000 fishermen in Penang are affected, and 90 percent of some 1,600 boats were damaged or destroyed. A new boat together with an engine would cost close to 20,000 Malaysian ringgit (5,263 U.S. dollars) while repairs to a damaged boat or engine could set the owner back from 1,000 to 3,000 Malaysian ringgit (263 to 789 U.S. dollars).

”Where do we get the money for this?” asked Salim. ”Our houses have been damaged and we have nowhere to go.”

Out of 100 fishermen at this village, about half are members of the local fishermen’s association.

”They (the fishermen’s association) only promised aid to their members,” Salim laughs, derisively. ”In contrast, the Buddhists didn’t care whether we, Muslims, were members or not when they gave us aid.”

Some fishermen claim that aid is being channelled to victims through politicians from the ruling United Malays National Organisation.

Aziz Kassim, a trader from the same village, looks annoyed.

”Aid should go directly to the victims wherever they are in Malaysia,” he insisted. ”We don’t want what has happened here to happen elsewhere.”

On Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak said survivors of the tsunami in Malaysia will have to wait for aid until the government undertakes a full evaluation of losses, which could take ”more than two to three weeks”.

He said the exercise would determine disbursement of disaster-relief funds now being collected by various parties, so that aid can be distributed fairly and to the right people.

”There is some perception on the ground that there is a lot of money coming in, but there is a delay, (with people wondering) why we are not distributing it and so on,” he was quoted as telling the national news agency ‘Bernama’. ”The money will be distributed, but we have to do a proper evaluation of the losses.”

Meanwhile the Penang state government said it will look into ways to help the fishermen regain their livelihood. The relief centre in Tanjong Bungah houses about 50 families or some 200 evacuees from Kampong Masjid village. The evacuees believe they might be given temporary housing in a longhouse but some want to return to their village.

The situation looks chaotic at relief centres in neighbouring Kedah state, according to one report. ”The survivors are all in shock. Many are walking around in a daze and at times incoherent,” said the independent ‘Malaysia Today’ website. ”It is clear they require counselling at best or psychiatric help at worst.”

”Some of the relief centres are well stocked with supplies but they are being closely guarded by the government coalition members and are not being distributed to those in need,” the website claimed. ”They refuse to distribute anything until a minister…can find time to personally do so with the television crew and reporters in tow.”

One concerned woman, writing in an e-mail discussion group, said she had spoken to the head of a charity organisation who went to a relief centre to deliver some donations on Friday. He had brought 100 relief packages of water, biscuits, towels, sarongs, pillows and blankets to distribute to the victims.

”When he got there, he was not allowed into the school compound, ‘for security reasons’,” she said.

The head of the charity, she said, was told that a certain ministry was in charge of receiving donations.

”They directed him to a storeroom where he had to leave the goods,” she wrote. ”He was not even allowed to go in to see what else the people needed and was told that the goods would be distributed when the people go home.”