Author(s)

M. Raman, A. O. Ojo, M. Dorasamy

Abstract

The recent torrential rains and monsoon rain that hit several states in the East Coast of the Peninsular caused massive flooding, never witnessed in Malaysia before. The sheer catastrophic consequences of the floods were akin to an inland tsunami, as commented by several officials in the country. Official reports and media release estimated that the recent floods would cost Putrajaya and State Governments more than RM 1 billion. Although floods occur annually in Malaysia, there exists a low level of perception about flood disaster risk in Malaysia. This is because many people have considered the prevention and management of natural disaster as one of the government’s responsibilities. Nevertheless, individuals are likely to employ different coping strategies in responding to such disasters. This study posits an inclusive approach to disaster risk reduction (DRR) by arguing that the perspectives of those affected by flood are relevant to formulating and implementing DRR strategy. Thus, there is need to understand the factors underlying people’s abilities to minimise the impact of disasters and the extent to which they are vulnerable to such disaster. This is expected to support the development of risk communication and reduction strategies that can address the specific need of the affected people. Based on the social psychological perspective, we suggest that resilience is dependent on individual characteristics and community supportive networks. Accordingly, the former is delineated into individual coping strategy and self-efficacy, while the latter is expressed as the individual’s perception of social support. Furthermore, vulnerability is proposed as the moderator of the relationship between resilience and the underlying factors. The hypothesized model will be tested with data to be collected from the survey of those affected by the recent flooding across two states in Malaysia (i.e. Kelantan and Pahang).

Keywords

resilience, coping strategy, self-efficacy, social support, vulnerability, Malaysia, flood, disaster risk reduction strategies