Malaysia's disaster management; civil- military cooperation, comparative studies between Japan and Malaysia

The research intended to revolve around the cooperation between the civil and military organizations in Malaysia in handling the issue of disaster responses, by doing a comparative study with Japan’s experiences. The focus of the research is on the gaps that exist between the set disaster response strategy and the operation execution of disaster response in Malaysia, through the examination of the document “Directive No.20” by Malaysia’s National Security Council (NSC). The idea of the research stems from the researcher’s observations regarding a number of disasters in Malaysia, where there seem to be inadequacies in the responses provided by the relevant agencies, which presented not just problems, but also dangers to both the victims and the personnel undertaking the rescue operations. There are clearly certain elements that have not properly been addressed on both sides. In this matter, Japan provides a meaningful example of disaster operations, not Just because of the rate of success they have achieved, but also in terms of the preparations they have instilled into the people, which makes rescue operations more successful. In simpler terms, the ideal situation for Malaysia will be good DM coordination which reduces the time required for saving operations that can significantly reduce casualties. Yet, in reality, the actual situation is seeing a lack of coordination that seriously impedes such operations. The research itself is based on three objectives, which are to examine Malaysia’s policy on disaster management, to evaluate the effectiveness of Malaysia’s DM system, and to suggest the ways in which Malaysia improves in terms of its DM system by adopting best practices from Japan. According to the findings, Malaysia’s DM structure, compared to Japan, has a policy that is more complicated and ineffective in practice. This leads to a DM system that is equally ineffective. Thus, there are various aspects of the DM system that need to be addressed if the effectiveness is to be increased, especially in rallying everyone from the public to the agencies and government to work together.