M'sia awaits go-ahead to send aid to lombok quake victims

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said yesterday the government has yet to receive the go- ahead from the Indonesian government to send aid to quake-hit Lombok in the republic.

The Deputy Prime Minister said the government had expressed its readiness and offered assistance to the Indonesian government.

Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had offered aid and conveyed his condolences to the Indonesian government, she said to reporters at her office at Parliament House after presenting to the next- of-kin RM2,000 for the funeral arrangements of Siti Nur Ies’Mawida Ismail, a Malaysian woman who was killed in the first earthquake to strike Lombok on July 29.

Lombok was hit by a second, bigger earthquake on Aug 6.

Dr Wan Azizah said the government had to wait for the green light from the Indonesian government so as to facilitate coordination.

Siti Nur les’Mawida’s husband Mohd Hafiz Mohd Kassim, 30, and her mother Mazinah Mahmood, 57, received the cheque.

Mohd Hafiz will also receive a pension of RM863 per month under the Social Security Insurance Scheme. Also present was Human Resource Minister M Kulasegaran.

The Aug 6 quake, which measured 7.0 on the Richter scale, reportedly killed 142 people.

The July 29 quake was of magnitude 6.8 and took 16 lives.