00:00Hello and good evening. I'm Melissa Idris. Welcome to Consider This. This is the show
00:24where we want you to consider and reconsider what you know of the news of the day. It's
00:28been nearly a month since a powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck central Myanmar, killing
00:35over 3,700 people and injuring thousands more. Yesterday, the military junta extended its
00:43ceasefire after meeting with Malaysian President Anwar Ibrahim in Bangkok for rare backroom
00:49talks with ASEAN. Now, is this disaster a brief window of pause for peace and cooperation
00:58or does the humanitarian response risk becoming another front in Myanmar's civil war? Well,
01:06joining me now on the show to discuss this further is Alexander Matthew, Asia Pacific Regional
01:12Director for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, IFRC.
01:20Alexander, thank you so much for being on the show with me today. Maybe you can begin our
01:23conversation today by giving us a bit of an overview of the current humanitarian situation
01:29in Myanmar following the devastating earthquake and the aftershocks that came after.
01:35Thank you for having me. Well, when you drive into Mandalay at the moment, it's not immediately
01:41striking that something huge has happened because the earthquake has hit houses and buildings quite
01:48sporadically. So you might see one side of a street is ineffective and then you look to your left and
01:54several houses are destroyed. You might find one street that looks totally intact and you might go
01:59to another and half of the houses or more are flattened. You go past temples or churches and mosques
02:05and many of those buildings have been totally destroyed. One of the striking features you see at the
02:11moment is hundreds of thousands of people are living on the streets because it's not possible to go back
02:17because their houses have been destroyed or because it's not safe to go back because their houses have
02:23been partially damaged and they don't longer feel comfortable sleeping in them because there are
02:27constant aftershocks. Now the presence of so many people living on the streets is of course a huge
02:32humanitarian and logistics challenge because they don't have access to clean drinking water,
02:38don't have access to latrines, it's difficult to stay hygienic, it's difficult to cook,
02:43all of these and it's not always safe. There's lots of women and children sleeping out in parks with
02:49parks full of strangers. So it's an unnerving situation with aftershocks and living outside in
02:56extreme heat and the monsoon coming and of course what people really want is to go home as soon as they
03:01can. All right so talk to me about your work there. The IFRC has been there addressing the issues of
03:11the humanitarian crisis even before the earthquake. Right now what are the primary challenges you're
03:19facing delivering aid to those who need it the most, the most affected areas? Where do you see the needs
03:25to be most urgent? Well it's good that you started by saying the work before the earthquake because
03:31if you take Sagain Township for example, the epicentre of the earthquake, there were around 1.5 million
03:39displaced people in Sagain already staying in monasteries or in mosques sometimes, sometimes
03:45churches supported but mostly it was monasteries. Now many of those buildings have been destroyed so
03:51you have people who are already displaced and vulnerable now doubly vulnerable because their one
03:57solid, their one opportunity for shelter and protection has been taken away from it. So what are
04:03the immediate needs at the moment? The most immediate needs are related to the fact that people are
04:08living on the street, sleeping outside in extreme heat, sleeping on the floor. It's a huge health risk
04:15because cooking and staying clean is very difficult in those environments, very easy to fall sick. The
04:22monsoon rains will start soon, people are sleeping on the floor. That is going to be extremely uncomfortable
04:28and generally that sense of where is your next meal coming from, where can you get clean drinking water,
04:33how do you stay clean and healthy while living on the streets under a tarpaulin. Now credit to Myanmar,
04:41they really do help each other in times of crisis so it's not just monks and monasteries although they
04:47have been fantastic, it's local businesses, neighbours, they come out, they look after each other but in the
04:53long run it won't be enough because ultimately what is the solution? There's only one solution, people need to go
04:58back home. That means clearing rubble for hundreds of thousands of houses and reconstructing them. Now
05:04that is a huge enterprise. For us at the moment big priority keep people sheltered, bed, clean water,
05:14given medical care that they need while they're living on the streets but our big long-term priority
05:19is to support that return home. Okay well let's talk about the short term then, the temporary ceasefire that
05:26was declared by the military junta, had that helped in terms of access to relief efforts or are you still
05:34finding that there are limitations to access and that the ceasefire really doesn't actually improve
05:41the situation? Well it is helpful because some of the affected populations live in areas where control is
05:51contested and therefore special permissions and need to need to be received in order to get access to
05:57those communities. I would say that this particular earthquake, the vast majority of affected people
06:05are in areas that are largely accessible and can be accessible to humanitarian organizations. So the
06:12conflict itself heavily shapes Myanmar, it massively shapes the quality of life in the country, it's fundamentally
06:20changed the lives of all those millions of people who have been displaced or stuck in areas affected
06:25by fighting but this particular earthquake has largely been in areas less directly affected by conflict
06:32and are therefore more accessible to humanitarian organizations. Now ultimately Myanmar for many many
06:38years has been one of the top 10 most vulnerable countries in the world and that is related to conflict and
06:45any hope for peace is going to start with ceasefires, ceasefires that at least allow people to receive basic
06:53life-saving assistance. So we don't know how long this will last, we hope it will last a long time
06:59but it's the sort of thing you would want to see and need to see in order to have hope for peace.
07:05Just focusing a little bit more on the urgency of the short-term needs, you talked about the
07:10monsoon rains coming and with so many displaced individuals and lacking proper shelter and sanitation.
07:20How concerned are you about potential disease outbreaks? Are you getting ahead of that? Is
07:26there some measures being put in place to prevent the risk of a potential disease outbreak?
07:33I think it is a major concern at the moment. If you go there right now this week you would go into
07:39football fields or parks you would see many many tents or plastic sheets. People will be staying away
07:46from the tents because of the extreme heat in the day but there will be sheltered there in the night.
07:52You would see that they are not easily accessing clean water. Many of them don't have access to soap
08:00and many of them don't have ways of cleaning their cooking utensils. So right now that risk of health
08:07outbreaks are really is really quite high. Now there's nothing inevitable about it staying that way.
08:12We're for example shipping in 200 metric tons of relief items, soaps, hygiene kits, things that people
08:21will need to stay clean and healthy and to protect themselves and their loved ones while they're living
08:27outside even during the monsoon rains. So if that humanitarian operation can move fast enough,
08:34if everyone can be given adequate shelter, soap, cooking materials, access to clean water, then you
08:43should be able to prevent the worst outbreak. But right now I think there's really reason to be nervous.
08:50Okay. Are you seeing, Alexander, you and your team, are you seeing efforts to address some of the
08:56removing the rubble and getting people back to their homes safely so they can have proper shelter?
09:03Is that being done or is right now still the focus on immediate humanitarian aid dispersion?
09:11Melissa, it must be both. Because the two things, one has to start while the other is still going on.
09:18Because clearing the rubble away will take a long time. Right now there is nowhere near enough
09:23equipment to clear that rubble. There's a few private contractors who are being hired out by
09:29wealthier families or by, for example, some of the churches and the monasteries are trying to clear up
09:35quickly. But there is nowhere near enough to meet the demand from so many families. Plus the less
09:43wealthy ones may not be able to afford the price of clearing that rubble. So that's where I think
09:47we can come in and help. But the two things will happen at the same time. Hundreds of thousands
09:53of people will stay living on the streets while the rubble is being cleared. So we want to move
09:58forward as quickly as we can with both. Probably the best thing for us to do is to give as much
10:04money as possible directly into the hands of the people who have been affected, the poorest ones,
10:09so they can hire people or companies to clear away their rubble and reconstruct their homes.
10:15That's probably easier than us trying to do it for so many people. And ultimately when you ask people
10:20now what do they want most, of course they need soap and clean water and shelter. They're worried
10:25about today. But more than anything they're worried about tomorrow. So it's people ask for cash support.
10:32They want to go home. And that's how we, I think we can really help them in there.
10:36Right. They need support to rebuild their lives. They want to be hopeful for the future.
10:42Alexander, what then would you say to the international community watching this crisis
10:46unfold right now? Particularly also from a regional standpoint. Malaysians today watching
10:52as we are Chair of ASEAN and we take pride in that. But what can we do to be more effective,
10:59not just in supporting from a diplomacy standpoint, but also in helping people on the ground?
11:07Well, we start with compassion and solidarity. An earthquake can happen to anybody. Nobody's to
11:12blame for it. Life was ticking along as normal for many people in a difficult way in Myanmar,
11:17rather ticking along as normal. And then suddenly something absolutely out of their control happened
11:23and fundamentally changed their lives. It took thousands of lives, left lots of people shocked
11:30and heartbroken and many more hundreds of thousands without their homes. It's the moment when solidarity
11:36between neighbours, regional neighbours and the global community is very, very necessary. ASEAN,
11:44I think, plays a particular role in mobilising that first response, getting in search and rescue teams,
11:51getting in medicines. Some of the ASEAN neighbours have done that particularly well. So we're very,
11:57very grateful to them. But I would say this, both to ASEAN and the global community, the recovery
12:04is going to last a lot longer than the new story. And it will take commitment, time and effort to get
12:11hundreds of thousands of people from the streets into homes so they can restore something of a normal
12:17life. There's no one agency that is able to do that. It's something that we all need to do together.
12:23ASEAN individuals who are willing to contribute, the global community, everyone can help. But if we do it
12:29well, within the next six to 12 months, the majority of people who have been displaced can be back home.
12:36If we don't do it well, if we neglect them, or if we fail to raise enough money or to engage
12:42constructively in their recovery, then this extremely vulnerable country, already full of displacement,
12:49is going to have two or three hundred thousand more destitute people. And that's not good
12:54from Myanmar, it's not good for the region, not good for the world.
12:57Alexander, thank you so much for being on the show today. Alexander Matthew here,
13:02Asia Pacific Regional Director for IFRC. We're going to take a quick break here and consider this.
13:08We'll be back with more. Stay tuned.
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