Disaster relief - the S'pore way

name:Xu Jiawei (Joyce)
article title: Disaster relief - the S'pore way
source of article:http://www.straitstimes.com/STForum/Story/STIStory_481592.htmlname of article writer: Sudesh Maniar
date of article: Jan 25, 2010



Original Article:

Disaster relief - the S'pore way
I REFER to last Saturday's commentary, 'Is Singapore doing too little for Haiti?' by Ms Chua Mui Hoong. She criticised the Singapore Government for not making a bigger contribution to Haiti after the earthquake when we had contributed far more to disaster relief and humanitarian assistance efforts after the 2004 tsunami, the 2005 Pakistan earthquake and the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.
As a responsible member of the international community, the Singapore Government has consistently made contributions to international humanitarian assistance and disaster relief efforts in our region and beyond. Singaporeans are familiar with the contributions we have made over the years, especially to the many countries hit by the tsunami in 2004, and after the Sichuan earthquake.
Last year, we provided humanitarian assistance in the form of cash, supplies and equipment after Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan; Cyclone Aila in Bhutan; Typhoon Ketsana in the Philippines, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia; the Padang earthquake in Indonesia; the cyclone in Fiji; the earthquake and tsunami in Samoa and Tonga; as well as for victims of the civil war in Sri Lanka; and food aid for internally displaced people in Pakistan.
As a responsible government, we have to examine the considerations and priorities when deciding how much and what type of assistance Singapore can provide after each disaster. Singapore is not in the league of major donor countries, nor do we aspire to be one. Among other things, we have to consider the nature of our relations with the affected country and whether we can provide aid which will add value to the relief efforts when deciding what to contribute, as we have limited resources and cannot respond to every disaster in the same way.
Hence, we had responded with more significant contributions when Indonesia suffered the devastation of the tsunami and various earthquakes - because it is a neighbour with longstanding and close ties and we were in the position to deploy our military and civil defence assets so that they could carry out effective missions.
The amount or type of humanitarian assistance given by the Singapore Government is not intended to match the scale of a disaster. In the case of massive disasters in countries beyond our own region, our contributions often cannot be more than a show of moral support and a gesture of sympathy to the affected country.
The support from Singapore for Haiti need not be demonstrated just by the Government. Singaporeans who want to make a contribution can do so through the Red Cross and other groups, and indeed many have. The Singaporeans who have gone to Haiti on relief missions amply demonstrate their compassion for the victims of the earthquake.
Sudesh Maniar
Director, Public Affairs
Ministry of Foreign Affairs


My reflection:

I refer to ‘Disaster relief- the S’pore way’ by Sudesh Maniar. He said that Singapore government has made a suitable contribution to Haiti’s earthquake after considerate the situations and priorities. Due to the limitation of the resources and the responsibility to its people, Singapore government cannot give the same amount of humanitarian assistance to every disaster and the assistance is also not match the scale of the disaster.

I agree that Singapore is a relatively small country and do really has limited resources so that Singapore is not intent to be in the league of major donor countries. I was very glad to see both Singapore government and Singaporeans contribute generously to China, Indonesia, Philippines, etc. in the past year. However, I cannot really understand why Singapore government makes contribution according to region instead of the degree of the disaster. It seems Singapore government thinks carefully about the neighbor relationship and the priorities before giving out the humanitarian assistance. I am just wondering: how to tell the priorities? Are the lives in the neighbor countries more precious than those in the remote area? Moreover, I believe government is always leading its people actions. I can still remember the blood donation and the fund raising for Indonesia and Philippines that organized by NTU Red Cross last year. However, till now I still didn’t see any actions taken in NTU for the massive earthquake in Haiti. Is it just a coincidence that students are too busy with their academic work?

25 Jan 2010