Press statement by Teresa Kok, Selangor State Senior EXCO and Member of Parliament for Seputeh in Shah Alam dated 24 February 2011.<\/p>\n
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Malaysia should deploy Malaysia\u2019s SMART rescue team to Christchurch immediately<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Malaysia, as one of New Zealand\u2019s neighbouring countries, is shockingly not among the foreign rescue teams in Christchurch listed by New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully in his statement issued yesterday.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I urge the government to deploy Malaysia\u2019s Special Malaysia Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (SMART) to Christchurch to assist the Government of New Zealand in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake without further delay.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Malaysia has a long history of close and friendly links with New Zealand, stemming from our Commonwealth ties, education aid under the Colombo Plan and shared security concerns.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n During the \u201cEmergency\u201d and Konfrontasi in the 1950s and 1960s, New Zealand deployed substantial troops to assist Malaysia. Today, New Zealand remains in the top ten destinations for Malaysian students who seek education abroad. In addition, tourists from New Zealand are being targeted by Malaysia\u2019s Ministry of Tourism.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Therefore, Malaysia must not hesitate to help in what New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has described as New Zealand\u2019s \u2018darkest day’.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In contributing to the rescue efforts, SMART will stand to gain valuable knowledge and experience from other rescue teams who have already arrived such as Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and the UK.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Times of great adversity present an opportunity for great courage. Malaysia must not falter.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I offer my sincere condolences to the people of New Zealand and all who have suffered a loss in the earthquake.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Teresa Kok<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Press statement by Teresa Kok, Selangor State Senior EXCO and Member of Parliament for Seputeh in Shah Alam dated 24 February 2011. Malaysia should deploy Malaysia\u2019s SMART rescue team to Christchurch immediately Malaysia, as one of New Zealand\u2019s neighbouring countries, is shockingly not among the foreign rescue teams in Christchurch listed by New…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-statements"],"yoast_head":"\n