Issues of Disaster Management Preparedness: A Case Study of Directive 20 of National Security Council Malaysia
Badruddin A. Rahman

Abstract
This article highlighted a study done on the determining factors of disaster management preparedness involving several agencies in Kedah, Malaysia. The factors involve are the level of understanding (knowledge) and practice of Directive No.20. The National Security Council (NSC) in the Prime Minister’s Department is responsible for the coordination of all activities related to disaster. In carrying out its responsibilities NSC had established Disaster Management and Relief Committee (DMRC) at the national, state and district level depending on the magnitude of disaster occurred. Directive No.20 is about the Policy and Mechanism related to the national disaster management and relief activities. The main purpose of the directive is to create systematic coordination among agencies involve in disaster management as well as relief and rehabilitation activities. It was issued by The Prime Minister in 1997 to provide clear and appropriate guidelines on the management of disasters which include the responsibilities and functions of the various agencies involved in the process. Disasters are extreme environmental events that adversely affect all areas in the world. A natural or manmade disaster causes excess morbidity and mortality in both predictable and unpredictable ways. It is now becoming a global threat to all nations hence challenges and mechanism in handling and managing them becomes more imperative than ever. .A total of 15 agencies covering 9 districts made up the population of the study in which 120 respondents were selected based on proportionate stratified sampling. The hypotheses are whether there is a relationship between knowledge and practice of Directive 20 and do both factors explain the variance in disaster preparedness. The other hypothesis is whether there is a significance difference between all districts in terms of disaster preparedness level. The response rate was 40% and the findings did confirm the relationships (positive correlation) between understanding the knowledge of Directive No. 20and the practice of Directive No.20 (r =0.867, p<0.05). Multiple Regressions had also been used to ascertain whether the knowledge and practice of Directives No. 20 contribute to disaster preparedness factors. The test confirmed that both the independent variables explained 86 per cent (R2 = 0.860) of the variance in disaster preparedness, which is highly significant as indicated by the F-value (F = 137.651, p < 0.05).The ANOVA test shows that there is no significance difference among all districts in terms of their level of disaster preparedness. The findings confirm that all agencies involved in DMRC at district level in Kedah had good knowledge of the Directive 20 and also had good practice of it. This will help to promote disaster preparedness in almost all districts in the state of Kedah.

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