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When the tsunami left a trail of destruction in some parts of the country, Malaysians responded promptly and generously and millions of ringgit were collected within days.

Yet seven days later, when schools reopened there are newspapers reports of students from the disaster zone turning up for school, undeterred by the lack of school books, shoes and uniforms. While we salute the students for their determination to get on with life, we cannot help but ask why it has not been able to meet these basic needs of the school children so far.

We are not talking about tens of thousands of students, just a few thousand at the very most, and we are not talking about some rare, expensive goods, but things that are found in every town in the country.

One state education committee chairman is reported to have announced, no doubt with a sense of pride and achievement, that "school uniforms, shoes, books and stationery would be distributed to the students in the next few days".

How much effort would it have required for the education department to ensure that these basic needs were provided to the affected students on their first day in school. The gesture would have made a significant contribution towards helping these students regain a sense of normalcy in their lives.

One the other hand, the manner in which the relief is being organised suggests a lack of a sense of urgency on the part of the authorities in handling the millions of ringgit that have been contributed by Malaysians.

Similarly, another report in a major newspaper portrays a grim picture of over 800 displaced people from a fishing village in Langkawi, carrying on life as refugees, sleeping under makeshifts roofs of plastic sheets, sleeping on the bare ground without pillows, blankets and inadequate water and toilets, even after seven days have gone by since the tsunami struck.

While such a situation may be understandable in Sri Lanka or Aceh where the scale of destruction was immense, it is unacceptable in Malaysia where most of the infrastructure is intact and money is not wanting.

These two reports in the newspapers raise serious questions about the capacity or the political will of the authorities to respond effectively and efficiently in times of disaster. Unless there is a serious review of the seemingly lackadaisical manner in which the whole relief operations (apart from the rhetoric) are being handled, our organisational capacity will be grossly and tragically inadequate if a disaster of greater proportions than then recent tsunami strikes our country.

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