Ruhizal Roosli

Social learning in managing disasters in Malaysia

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to argue that there is still much scope for improvement in planning and training, for both actors and disaster victims, in the front line of disaster management in Malaysia. Although the established ethos of Malaysias public service sector has tended to be one of control from above, there is promise and virtue in seeking to promote a professional culture. Ideas and recommendations in finding new solutions to old problems can move upwards as well as downwards due to the technical design in rules and regulations which is now to be accompanied by organisational design.Design/methodology/approach – Research was undertaken to determine attitudes of actors in disaster management mechanism in Malaysia.Findings – The actors in public service sectors in Malaysia had a negative attitude towards disaster planning implementation because they are usually not familiar with the Standard Operational Procedure in handling land disaster management in Malaysia called the MNSC Directiv...

Project Management Success for Post-disaster Reconstruction Projects: International NGOs Perspectives☆

Abstract Natural disaster happened frequently around the world and caused great loss of lives and properties. Since incidents of natural disasters increase, it is crucial that NGOs and other agencies involved in reconstruction to learn as much as possible from previous projects they involved with; its successes and failures. Post-disaster reconstruction (PDR) is a complex and highly demanding process that involves a number of different and well coordinated courses of action. Therefore, it is vital that these complex activities are well planned, subject to thorough consultation. The broad objective of this research is to study the issues and challenges and investigating the success factors to determine which critical success factors are most influential in avoiding particular project failures. The goal of this research is to improve project management practice in PDR project specifically for International NGOs that participate in the phase of Post-Disaster Reconstruction. It can serve as a platform for other researchers to launch into this evolving new field.

Lessons From Tsunami Recovery Towards Guidelines of Housing Provision in Malaysia

Abstract Learning from the process of housing reconstruction after the tsunami, Malaysia is now more alert to the secondary impacts of this type of disaster particularly in relation to sustainable housing provision to the disaster victims. This chapter will explicate the importance of previous studies in order to understand recent national disaster mechanism experiences in the housing sector that best describes the situation in Malaysia, which in line with the international practice. An overall objective is to support humanitarian responses toward resilience community from the impact of tsunami. Malaysia is still in the phase of restructuring and reorganizing the disaster system in order to fit in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 and ISDR Programme. This positive development envisage a subsequent reference to the guidelines in the provision of housing in Malaysia after the tsunami. This local progress can become a good example of an Asean country against the challenge of climate change.

Non-Structural Elements of the Traditional Malay Houses in the East Coast and Northern Peninsular Malaysia: Similarities and Differences

This paper presents the results of the literature review on the non-structural elements of the traditional Malay houses in the East Coast and Northern Peninsular Malaysia. The main aim of the review is to seek for similarities and differences between the unique features of the elements in traditional house of Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah, Perlis and Penang, which most of the houses have been largely influenced by the architectural styles of Siam and Cambodia. For this purpose, a series of reviews have been done on relevant written documents like journal and proceeding articles, books, thesis, research reports and monographs, as well as documented measured drawings. The results showed that although the features of the non-structural elements in most of the houses are quite identical, but there are some aesthetical elements on the wall, door, window and roof of the houses are found to be significantly different, especially the elements like ‘gerbang pintu’, ‘kepala pintu & kepala tingkap’, types of wall, ‘tunjuk langit’, ‘sulur bayung’ and ‘kayu pemeleh’.