The Society for Rights of Indigenous Peoples of Sarawak (Scrips) has called on political parties in Sarawak to rope in telecommunication companies Celcom, Maxis, Digi, TMNet and others to help out with registration for the Central Database Hub (Padu) in rural and remote settlements.
The telcos should set up mobile counter services to help folk with no handphones to register themselves with Padu before the end of the March deadline, said Scrips’ northern Sarawak coordinator Michael Ding.
“The latest move by the government to require every citizen to register with the Padu system is posing a big challenge for the rural population.
“The government may have good intentions to have this registration exercise, but they have forgotten that there are enormous telecommunications problems that we rural Sarawakians are facing every day.
“Even in places where there are telecommunication towers, the handphone frequency is often weak,” he said.
Ding pointed out that mobile phone connections can be very weak even in places where there are supposed to be reasonable frequency connections.
“For example, sometimes in the middle Baram district, we cannot make calls or receive messages if the weather is rainy, or the sky is very cloudy.
“And of course, there are many locations where there is no coverage at all,” he added. Under these circumstances, the only parties that can help sort things out are the telecommunications giants, he said.
“They must go to every rural settlement and set up mobile facilities that can enable linkages to the Padu system for the residents,” he told The Vibes.
Ding, whose longhouse is about six hours by river travel from Miri city, said the political representatives need to get the telecommunications companies to act fast.
“There are about one million rural people in Sarawak living in about 6,000 longhouses and scattered villages.
“Will we be able to get all of them to be registered before end of March?” he asked.
The Padu system was launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim on January 2.
The federal government is implementing the system to enable it to channel aid and subsidies for essential items to those who are from the lower income brackets.
This is to avoid government subsidies from being exploited by those with higher incomes, such as is happening now.
Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli has said that Malaysians can update their personals details that are on the system by doing so online until March 31.
The data is managed by the Statistics Department. It covers nearly 300 types of data under the federal government and will also progressively in the future take in data from state and local governments.
The Vibes has highlighted concerns by various activists and grassroots politicians that many rural and isolated folk do not have Internet connection or even a mobile phone, and would thus not be able to access the online system.
There are about a million rural folk living in remote districts in Sarawak.
Most of them, who still have little or no access to mobile telecommunications networks, stand to miss out on the government’s central data registration exercise.
When this happens, it is very likely that hundreds of thousands of them will not be able to enjoy government subsidies targeted for those with low income. – The Vibes, January 10, 2024
