Senator: Telcos must provide services in rural Sarawak for Padu registration

KUCHING (Jan 4): Telecommunications companies must cooperate by providing services in the interior of Sarawak for the registration of the Central Database Hub (Padu), said Abun Sui Anyit.

The senator said failing to do so may deprive the people in rural Sarawak of registering for Padu.

“A mobile phone line must be available to receive the OTP (one-time password) from Padu. If it is not available then the OTP number cannot be received by the applicant.

“Therefore, telecommunications service providers such as Digi and Celcom need to immediately install their telecommunications services in all places that are populated.

“Relevant ministries need to act quickly to provide good telecommunications services first,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Abun Sui advised the government and ministries concerned not to continue using the ‘flying squad’ service for the interior because the lack of telecommunications services need to be resolved first.

He said, for instance, there may already be Internet services in Long Busang but mobile phone connections remained absent.

“If the ‘flying squad’ continues to be used without ensuring the existence of a mobile phone line first, this will be a waste.

“As such, the deadline of March 31, 2024 set to register and update Padu may not be met and need to be extended,” he said.

He reiterated that real constraints should be overcome first.

He feared that if people continued facing these constraints, they would drop out of Padu registration and end up not enjoying the subsidies and programmes that they are entitled to.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim launched Padu on Jan 2 to help plug leakages in the distribution of government aid and subsidies.

He said this was crucial to make sure that any financial assistance provided by the government would reach the target groups.

Managed by the Department of Statistics Malaysia, Padu serves as the provision of a secure and comprehensive national primary database that enables more accurate data to be produced as well as policy formulation and data-driven decision-making processes.

It also enables targeted policy implementation to balance the country’s fiscal position.