Remarks Delivered by H.E. Ong Keng Yong, Secretary-General of ASEAN

At the Asian Leadership Conference 2005

Seoul, 3 March 2005

Ladies and Gentlemen,

1.         Let me first thank the organisers for this opportunity to speak at this prestigious gathering.

2.         The earthquake and tsunami disaster of 26 December 2004 have brought in their wake not only  unprecedented loss of life and property, but more importantly laid bare our  unpreparedness and our weaknesses in collectively addressing such large scale calamities. The sad thing is we, in fact, have the technology and resources to deal with such disasters. Unfortunately, we have not made the best use of these assets. Leadership is crucial and can make the difference in emergency situations.

3.         The earthquake and tsunami brought to us the realization that many of our communities are vulnerable to natural hazards, and that such vulnerability is heightened as long as development investment in those communities do not appropriately consider disaster risks. While in a way the tsunami was truly unprecedented, it still serves as a stark reminder of how natural disasters kill more people in developing countries compared to developed countries.

4.         In brief, the world is never the same again. This unprecedented disaster has reminded us, yet again, to pursue sustainable development in such a way that helps reduce losses from disasters. Disaster management has to be integrated into mainstream development and investment efforts. At the very least, development and material progress should not leave us even more vulnerable to natural disasters.

Unprecedented Response

5.         Governments, international organizations, humanitarian organizations, the private sector and community groups responded in an unprecedented fashion and demonstrated the finest international cooperation, solidarity and partnership.  This brought out the best in humanity all around the world. This demonstrated that even though we are divided by borders, political ideology, race and creed, humanity has the inherent instinct to rise to the occasion if needed.

6.         The world witnessed the largest relief operation ever coordinated by the United Nations in the recorded history. It generated an unprecedented amount of pledges and realized support from all corners of the world and from all walks of life. Indeed, the world demonstrated that it could come together as one to help the victims.

7.         ASEAN member countries also rose to the occasion to help their affected neighbors. Search and rescue teams and relief organizations were the first on the ground helping the victims. Even affected countries offered relief supplies and monetary support to other affected countries.

8.         In a matter of days after the tsunami struck, ASEAN leaders demonstrated their leadership, by bringing together their colleagues from around the world to Jakarta, to take stock of what had happened, and to chart the road ahead in hastening emergency relief operations,  coordinating the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the affected areas, and reinforcing the need for prevention and mitigation of natural disasters.

9.         ASEAN member countries also led the adoption of the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 59/279 of 19 January 2005 to strengthen emergency relief, rehabilitation, reconstruction and prevention in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster

10.        Rising to the challenge, the scheduled UN World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe, Japan in January 2005 called for substantial efforts to reduce disaster losses of lives and other social, economic and environmental assets worldwide, mindful of the importance of international cooperation, solidarity and partnership, as well as good governance at all levels. To that end, the Conference set out strategic goals and priorities for action for the period of 2005 to 2015.

11.        Following on to the Kobe World Conference, the ASEAN-China Workshop on Earthquake-Generated Tsunami Early Warning held in Beijing, China, in January 2005, articulated the need to strengthen early warning capacities of ASEAN in the framework of ASEAN-China cooperation.

12.        Back-to-back with this meeting, Thailand hosted a ministerial meeting on tsunami early warning arrangements in Phuket, Thailand. The Meeting further laid the groundwork for concerted action at the national, regional and international level to improve tsunami early warning in the region. The upgrading of the existing Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre in Bangkok as a key point in a multi-nodal network for the region was affirmed.

13.        These are but a few events that illustrate the quick pace of response which our leaders adopted to recover speedily from natural disasters. Many other initiatives are currently ongoing in various parts of the world to pursue this goal.

ASEAN’s Current Efforts

14.        In the ASEAN region, several important initiatives are currently ongoing, many of which aims to tackle disaster management on a comprehensive and long-term basis. These include the following:

Formulation of a coherent multi-hazard legal and policy framework.

15.        ASEAN has adopted the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution Control, the world’s first such regional arrangement to control and manage forest fires and transboundary haze pollution – an environmental hazard that occurs frequently in our region. In addition there are a number of ASEAN regional agreements such as the agreements on search and rescue for missing aircraft, for ships in distress, and on emergency rice reserve. These agreements tackle issues on a sectoral basis and demonstrate fragmentation.

16.        Despite the adoption of the Declaration of Mutual Assistance on Natural Disasters in 1976, ASEAN does not have as yet a fully operational action plan to respond collectively and expeditiously to disasters. Thus, just three weeks prior to the tsunami of 26 December 2004, ASEAN Ministers responsible for disaster management gave the necessary mandate and political commitment for ASEAN to proceed with the formulation of a regional agreement on disaster management and emergency response. This would put in place regional structures, mechanisms and strategies for undertaking regional cooperation on disaster management. This instrument is currently being negotiated by Member Countries and expected to be adopted within the year.

17.        The ASEAN Regional Programme on Disaster Management 2004-2010 sets out a comprehensive programmatic approach addressing various initiatives such as regional response action plan, disaster information and communication network, research and capacity building, and public awareness and education.

Risk surveillance and monitoring

18.        The ASEAN region continues to strive for a systematic and comprehensive database of both natural and human-induced hazards, vulnerabilities of communities and countries and their capacities to manage such hazards. In the near future, the region will be enlarging its sector-specific database to multi-hazard databases.

Early warning information.

19.        The region has various facilities and schemes for early warning information management. These include the ASEAN Specialized Meteorological Centre, the ASEAN Earthquake Information Centre and the ASEAN Coordinating Center for Transbounary Haze Pollution Control. Many of the ASEAN Member Countries are also members of regional networks such as the Typhoon Committee. Most recently, the Phuket Ministerial Meeting agreed on the establishment of Multi-Nodal Tsunami Early Warning arrangements. The challenge for ASEAN is to ensure that all these centers and facilities are linked in a coherent network to produce timely and credible early warning information. Delivery of information to the at-risk communities and the capacity to act upon that information is equally if not more important. This is where the soft or human side of early warning needs to be emphasized through public awareness and capacity building.

Regional stand-by emergency response arrangements for disasters.

20.        In responding to the call by the ASEAN Leaders’ Tsunami Summit, ASEAN is putting together regional stand-by arrangements, which included both military and civilian facilities, to be mobilized in time of need. The proposed regional instrument on disaster management and emergency response will further operationalize such an arrangement.

Public education and awareness.

21.        ASEAN has put together various campaigns on addressing trans-boundary haze pollution. There is now sufficient momentum in the ASEAN region to introduce arrangements to manage knowledge and education regarding disaster risks both in formal education sector and as well as with the general public.

Leadership for Post-Tsunami Asia

Visionary regional agenda for disaster reduction.

22.        In the world dictated by sensational reporting, the attention and fate of world’s agenda is at the mercy of the media. The media in a way had brought the world together during the tsunami disaster. The media could likewise distract the world’s attention to some other sensational news. Therefore, leadership is needed to sustain the world’s attention on what needs to be done in the longer term. There is a  need for Asia to assert a visionary agenda for disaster reduction and management. The Special ASEAN Leaders’ Meeting in Jakarta on 6 January 2005 has taken the first step, and the momentum generated will be around for quite sometime. It is a strategic opportunity to take bold steps forward before it withers.

Shifting the paradigm to risk reduction.

23.        If Asia is to continue to prosper in the 21^st Century, its leaders must shift their development paradigms to reducing risk through hazards  management and promotion of resilience by giving premium to pre-disaster investment strategies. Such paradigm shift is much need to shift the focus away from the prevailing emergency response-oriented approach to disasters.

Facilitating the convergence of all stakeholders.

24.        While in the final analysis, government is the duty bearer of disaster reduction and management, it does so by enlisting the participation of regional and international organizations, financial institutions, civil society, including non-governmental organizations and volunteers, the business and the scientific community. Certain leadership is required because understandably each of these players, have their own characteristics and interests, and unless carefully orchestrated, convergence could be counterproductive. Against this backdrop, political leadership is a necessity that one cannot afford to do away with. It must and shall remain the norm that regulate interaction among stakeholders, including in the context of disaster management.

Investing on people.

25.        Disaster is measured by its damaging impact on human lives and properties. Since people, particularly those facing high vulnerability and with low capacities,  are the one who would suffer most from natural disasters, they are also the main stakeholders in disaster reduction and management. That said, the leadership in Asia must give the assurance that unless otherwise required, all investment on disaster reduction and management must be vested on its people. These include continued emphasis on progressive development and poverty elimination.

Conclusion

26.        If anything, the tsunami of 26 December 2004 demonstrated that no nation is an island when it comes to large-scale calamities. Today, all nations are inter-connected and many of their economies are inter-dependent.  As such, leadership means that the national paradigm must be overcome and transnational challenges are managed in a multi-dimensional way.  I am optimistic that ASEAN Leaders are determined to do that.

Thank you.