Mohammed Azman
THERE was a time when the names of the forgotten filled the headlines, and PERKESO knew it could no longer stand still.
Accidents, deaths, fires and floods arrived in many forms.
The stories were everywhere on television, in print and now on mobile feeds.
Malaysians were slipping through the cracks, not because they were unreachable, but because no one had gone looking for them.
At our counters, quiet heartbreaks came into view. Widows, children, the elderly, some visiting long after the trauma had passed, unaware that assistance had always been their right.
A routine check revealed the scale of the silence. Many claims were never filed. Lives were altered and dreams abandoned, all because they did not know they could ask for help.
A child dropped out of school after losing a father.
A mother picked up a second job because her husband’s injury cut off the household income.
These are not just stories, it is the harsh reality. It was this stark reality that became our moment of reckoning.
If social protection only responded when the paperwork arrived, it would be too late. It was time to go beyond the counter.
If tragedy had no timetable, then neither should our service.
We needed to be where the suffering began, not where it ended. And so, in 2015, Skuad PERKESO Prihatin was born. More than a mere policy initiative, it was a birth from conscience.
The squad began with one mission: to be physically present. Not just to offer condolence letters or confirm eligibility, but to bring humanity into the room.
To comfort families. To explain rights. To ensure that the first knock on the door was not from a bill collector, but from someone extending support. This was not charity but social justice.
The more we showed up, the more we discovered. The gaps in delivery were not emotional but they were systemic.
According to the last Bank Negara Malaysia report, despite Malaysia channelling RM17.1bil into more than 60 social programmes in 2019, many were still missing out. Aid was dispersed across ministries, state departments, religious agencies and non-governmental bodies.
Everyone meant well, but too often, we were helping the same families twice, while others got nothing at all and left dry.
The system was bloated with good intentions but starved of coordination.
There were overlaps in rudimentary support.
Multiple agencies managed separate lists, guarded their own data and worked in silos.
The result was a social safety net that was stretched thin and tangled.
No single agency had the full picture. And those who needed help the most were still being asked to run from counter to counter, retelling their grief in every queue.
Recognising our potential to bridge these gaps, we knew PERKESO had to be a catalyst for revolution.
In 2019, PERKESO introduced the Social Synergy Programme, a coordinated, cross agency ecosystem that turned fragmented goodwill into focused action.
It brought together partners from federal ministries and state bodies to zakat centres and local councils, in line with “no wrong door” policy.
It broke down the maze and replaced it with one simple promise: you need help, and we will bring the entire cavalry comprising over 300 agencies with us.
Social Synergy was not just about sharing resources. It was about reclaiming dignity. It meant one family, one visit, one case file with full spectrum of aid: job matching, reskilling, financial relief, childcare, psychosocial support and more.
The system listened, responded and adapted. It moved from help desks to home visits, from memorandums to real-time referrals, resulting in 39,656 channelled cases nationwide for their life to be resuscitated with timely aid.
But collaboration alone was not enough.
We needed precision. So, in that same year, we built MySynergy System, a digital platform developed in-house by PERKESO.
It was designed to do what decades of decentralised record keeping could not. It tracked cases, flagged duplication and allowed agencies to see what had been done, what was missing and what could be offered next.
This is not merely a database, instead it is a compass to generate guided decisions.
It ensures accountability and allows social protection to become what it is always meant to be, efficient, integrated and compassionate.
Today, as Skuad PERKESO Prihatin marks a decade of tireless service, we are no longer just bearing witness to suffering. We are changing how the country responds to it.
Therefore, we are now pushing for the Social Synergy Programme and MySynergy System to be recognised as Malaysia’s national platform for social protection, interlinked with existing databases across agencies; not just as a PERKESO success story, but as a public service revolution.
This is because the truth is clear, aid delayed is opportunity denied. A child’s dream deferred because the system stalled. A widow was burdened because help got lost in red tape. It should never have happened, not on our watch.
Let us not mistake bureaucracy for policy or complexity for progress. Let us be clear in our mission, that is to protect, to respond and to lift.
Within a decade, from boots on the ground, Skuad PERKESO Prihatin today strides forward with an ever growing legion of collaborators under a whole-of-government approach, reaching deeper into communities through united action and strengthened partnerships.
Empowered by the MySynergy System, it continues to evolve by leveraging technology to monitor, coordinate and deliver support with precision, compassion and national scale.
Now is the time to do more and carry forward the mandate to ensure that no Malaysian is left behind. Let this be the next chapter, not of celebration, but of commitment.
Datuk Seri Dr Mohammed Azman Aziz Mohammed is group chief executive officer, PERKESO
