Where is all the aid doing?

V.K. Chin, The Star Online, Asia News Network, Selangor, Malaysia

Malaysians have responded magnificently to appeals to help victims of the Dec. 26 tsunami and this shows clearly that the milk of human kindness still flows strongly in their veins.

While they have contributed tens of millions spontaneously, without expecting anything in return, they also have a right to know how fast their cash and materials are reaching the victims and whether this is evenly spread out.

While time is of the essence in an emergency situation, this is not the case in Malaysia as the number of people killed or wounded and left homeless was rather small compared to the other countries affected by the disaster.

This has enabled the authorities and non-governmental organizations to deal effectively in providing food, shelter and cash to the victims almost immediately.

The government and its agencies can now concentrate on the longer-term projects like reconstruction and rehabilitation without further delay.

This is crucial where the majority of the donors are concerned, as they would like to know too how their contributions in cash and kind are being dispersed.

In other words, they would like some transparency and accountability in the carrying out of this operation, which is not too much to ask for in return for their support to this campaign.

This is also in line with the Abdullah administration's principles on how the government and even the private sector should conduct its business. The public and shareholders should be given as much information and details as possible.

The government wants the national disaster fund to be responsible for the donations and decide on how the money should be spent. This is of course a good policy, as the government would want to safeguard the funds collected.

However, the disaster fund committee is staffed with bureaucrats who are most probably wearing many other hats apart from their official duties.

Their decisions, if approved by the government leader in charge, are likely to be final. What the public wants is for these senior government officials to ensure that no victim is left out.

After all, they are humans too and the best way of ensuring a fair distribution of funds is to make it known how the funds are allocated and the number of sufferers who have received financial assistance.

Since this is not an exercise where official secrets are involved, there should be no worry of making such information public as national interest and security will not be compromised.

At the same time, it is the duty of the government to do a proper check on those applying for financial assistance to separate the genuine ones from the cheats and scroungers.