The impact of a disaster is closely related to the response and recovery of the lead responding agency in managing the disaster effectively. Malaysia has established the MNSC20 policies for managing disasters. Unfortunately, the implementation of MNSC20 can only be evaluated through lead responding agency disaster exercises. Each responding agency’s responsibility is to identify and record the information as required to ensure effective emergency management; however, problems in terms of inaccurate and/or incomplete information may be many challenges that need to be addressed. Hence, this paper aims to propose several areas for improvement for planning and information management elements in effective emergency management theory by identifying its challenges through the FRDM, which may benefit Malaysia’s overall emergency management process. Four disaster exercises at the state and federal levels were observed using a structured checklist. The result indicates challenges were found in terms of proactivity in gaining information, disseminating critical information during emergencies, developing a specific incident action plan, and media management. A good area of improvement is suggested based on the evaluation. It is hoped that this paper could contribute to developing better disaster management by the lead responding agency in Malaysia.

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