The Cabinet on Wednesday should end the confusion and make a smart decision that SMART (the Special Malaysian Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team) should be at the scene of disasters in future to search and rescue the living and not the dead.
The spectacle of SMART on a “stand-by” alert in Kuala Lumpur while the tropical storm Greg was ravaging the west coast of Sabah, claiming a death toll which now totals 158 with another 200 still reported missing, and only swinging into action in Keningau 50 hours after Greg first hit Sabah and 110 hours after the Meteorological Services Department first detected Greg heading towards Sabah, just leave Malaysians at a complete loss for words.
SMART was formed after the Highland Towers collapse tragedy in December 1993, which killed 48 people. Although SMART had talked about spearheading rescue operations in major disasters locally and overseas, it has very little to show for the RM10 million which had been spent for the equipment and training of the 28-member team.
It was the subject of criticism both during the Genting Highlands landslide tragedy in July 1996 which killed 20 and injured 22, arriving at the scene late, and at the Pos Dipang Orang Asli landslide disaster in August 1996, which killed 37, where SMART was conspicuously absent in the rescue operation.
I have no doubt that the 28-member elite rescue squad wants to be able to be in the thick of search-and-rescue operations for the living and not for the dead, and they should be at the scene of all disasters instead of on “stand-by alert” in the Federal Capital while the bureaucratic lines of command are sorted out as to whether SMART should be despatched or not to a national disaster.
Although the SMART deputy commander, Jamil Saadon, has been reported in one local press today as sayin that SMART would be among the first to arrive at the scene of disasters in future, the same report also quoted a spokesman of the National Security Council, which is responsible for the management of SMART, as dismissing public criticisms, saying their its deployment was on a case-by-case basis.
Malaysians want to be proud of SMART, but unless the Cabinet gives it green light to be among the first to arrive at the scene of disasters in future, Malaysians would begin to lose confidence in SMART and question whether it was a smart decision to spend RM10 million on an elite rescue unit whose primary tasks seem to be on a “stand-by alert” or to search and rescue the “dead” rather than the living.
(30/12/96)