Published on: Friday, January 14, 2005 |
Kota Kinabalu: Chile had just one bad experience with tsunamis in 1962 but the loss of 15,000 lives was enough to ensure its people will be forever alert for the next big hit.
"Fortunately, there has yet to be another," said its Ambassador to Malaysia, Patricio Torres. It's two-pronged approach in dealing with tsunamis may be worth considering since Malaysia is similarly surrounded by water and lost many lives when waves surged inland without warning on Dec. 26, 2004.
"Chileans are now well trained on how to deal with tsunamis. We teach children in school on how to react to earthquakes and tsunamis through regular drills. Our seismology experts also devised an early warning system to detect tsunamis," he said.
The tsunami that struck Chile 40 years ago followed an earthquake which measured 9.8 on the Richter scale, the same level as that which struck Acheh last month causing the loss of nearly 160,000 lives and affecting a dozen nations.
After drowning everything in its path, the tsunami that struck Chile reached Japan within 48 hours, causing further death and destruction there.
"Because of this, the Japanese still associate Chile with tsunami and wine," he said.
"But in the latest case we are also very disturbed because some Chilean lives were among the many that were lost in Thailand." Chile sent a medical team to help in the forensic work there.
Nevertheless, Torres noted that the reaction in Malaysia following the tsunami was better organised compared to others.
Another area where Malaysia could benefit from in terms of expertise is fishing as Chile ranks among the top five nations in the world in fish catch. He said the thrust in that sector now is sustainable fishing due to the depletion of migratory stocks by trawlers and "fish factories" that sweep entire stocks through drag nets, a problem not uncommon in Malaysia, including Sabah.
Torres feels there are also many other areas where Malaysia and Chile can cooperate, in view of the many similarities that both nations enjoy. He cited both nations having democracies with economies that are market-driven external trade as well as playing an important role in foreign affairs with Chile being in the UN Security Council and Malaysia heading both the OIC and NAM.
"We consult a lot at the UN and these similarities have brought us together," he said and cited the efforts of former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir, who showed a keen interest in South American affairs.
Malaysia established diplomatic relations with Chile in 1979 and opened embassies a decade later. But it was only in the late 1990s that the rapport became more pronounced, leading to the signing of a double taxation agreement by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi following the Apec meet there late last year.
He hopes this would lead to even better things now that Chile has the leading economy in Latin America with a growth rate expected at 7pc this year and the lowest financial risk in the region.
He said already Malaysia is Chile's fourth largest trading partner in South America with trading worth US200 million, mainly in mineral exports like iron.
Malaysian investors are also into construction of complexes and buildings in that nation. He said all this was due to the dictatorship being replaced by democracy in 1990.
"The Chilean economy took off when a democratic government was installed in 1990. Democracy did a lot for our economy and investments have been flowing in ever since. We can be that bridge for Malaysia in the region for trade and investment."
When told of the perception of many that governments in that region are pretty unstable due to army coups and financial irregularities, he said that notion was now a thing of the past.
He credited the change in image to a "democracy clause" agreed to among member OAS nations whereby they would not recognise any government that came to power through the barrel of a gun.
One thing that Torres wishes to see is more Chileans visiting Malaysia and vice versa. He notes that those who do drop by in Kuala Lumpur are those who happen to already be somewhere else like Bangkok with time and money to spare.
"Malaysians are already travelling to Buenos Aires by MAS and the flight is always full. I would like to see MAS continue the journey to Santiago.
That will be a good challenge," he said, adding that the Chilean capital was the same flight distance to Buenos Aires as KL to KK.
On his part, Torres has also been trying to make a contribution through promoting cultural ties. Last year his embassy invited 50 poets from around the world for a recital with Malaysian poets.
The occasion was the birth centenary of the 1971 Chilean Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda.
"People were reading poetry in their own language and everyone loved it," he said of his brainchild. When he has free time, Torres arranges recitals in libraries in Malaysia where he personally reads some Chilean works.
