Total may be less than the sum of its parts

Lee Hsien Loong, Jakarta

We have all been shaken by the horrific television images of waters crashing in, terrified people being swept away, towns and villages reduced to rubble, and piles of corpses bloated beyond recognition. On the ground, the impact is immeasurably greater. Two days ago, I visited Banda Aceh and Meulaboh. I was overwhelmed by the endless and total devastation; the smell of death hanging in the air, and the sense of the deep loss and shock of the survivors.

But amidst pain, fear and despair, I also saw the resilience of the human spirit. Scattered among the countless tragic stories, are heroic tales of survival, and of selfless sacrifice for others. They speak of our shared humanity, without regard to race, nationality or religion. And now after the disaster, the survivors are picking themselves up, tackling the urgent problems, and rebuilding their lives and communities. The global community must help them to do so.

Countries big and small have pledged generous sums of aid, and also valuable help in kind -- navy battle groups and helicopters to deliver emergency supplies, rescue teams to search for bodies and survivors, medical teams to treat the injured and sick, and scientific advice on tsunami prediction and warning.

Contributions have come not only from countries, but also from many companies and private individuals, who felt that they simply had to do something. The result has been extraordinary.

The United Nations Office for Coordination and Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has reported that global pledges of aid for the tsunami stricken countries have reached almost US$5 billion which is a large amount, but not excessive when compared to the tasks at hand.

Singapore is a small country and what we can do by ourselves is only a drop in the ocean. But Singapore can still make a useful contribution, because fortuitously we are strategically located close to the afflicted region, and have well developed communications and transport links. Hence our relief efforts could reach our affected neighbors quickly, when they were most needed.

We have opened our air and naval bases to all countries for use as staging areas for the disaster relief operations to Aceh. We have also offered the UN the use of facilities in Singapore for its relief efforts. This will complement facilities that the UN already has elsewhere in the region.

Many individual Singaporeans have also responded spontaneously. Besides making donations, several hundreds have also volunteered as medical and relief personnel or logistics and communications specialists, and are working alongside other NGOs in the affected areas.

Beyond what individual countries are doing, we need to coordinate the efforts of different countries, and help to focus these efforts on the most urgent problems. Otherwise, with so many donors giving help to so many different countries, the total may well add up to less than the sum of its parts.

In global crises, countries turn to the United Nations. Despite its limitations, the UN is the only universal global institution able to fulfill this role. Secretary General Kofi Annan's presence here symbolizes the UN's commitment. The OCHA under Jan Egeland, in particular, has quickly mobilized all available resources to tackle this crisis. I commend the UN for its swift response. Every country should do all it can to support them.

I believe that the UN is uniquely placed to do three things:

- To coordinate the immediate relief efforts and resources;

- To put in place an international early warning system for tsunamis in the Indian Ocean; and

- To sustain the political will for the immense longer term reconstruction effort.

An extraordinary effort will be required. I commend the UN for launching a flash appeal at this Conference, and organizing an International Pledging Conference in Geneva next week.

Singapore will pledge US$10 million beyond what we have already committed to do.

I also propose that the UN Secretary-General appoint a Special Representative with primary responsibility for coordinating international relief efforts for the affected countries and to work with International Financial Institutions, such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, to mobilize new and additional resources for reconstruction. The Special Representative should also work closely with the WHO and national public health authorities to address the immediate and longer term public health challenges.

The most important long term role of the Special Representative will be to sustain international attention and political will for the reconstruction effort. Past tragedies have shown that natural disasters leave a long aftermath, but the world's attention span is, unfortunately, short.

For now, the world is focussed on the earthquake and tsunami, and so are the international media. But before long some other event elsewhere in the world (like terrorism in Iraq during the elections at the end of January) will grab the world's attention. Then the headlines will shift to it, and Banda Aceh, Meulaboh, Galle, Male, Nicobar, Cuddalore and Khao Lak will again recede from our collective consciousness. But the people living in these and other affected regions will have to live with their hard problems for a long time to come.

Therefore let us seize this unique moment of focus and shared purpose, to commit ourselves to concrete steps that will help the affected countries to tackle their problems in a prompt, effective, and, most importantly, in a sustained way. Then in time we can rebuild what we have lost, and prevent a similar disaster from happening again.

The article is an excerpt from Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's speech at the Special ASEAN Leaders' Meeting on the Aftermath of the Earthquake and Tsunami.