Communications and Multimedia Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa said his ministry has achieved 100% of its three Key Performance Indicators planned under the 100-day Malaysian Family Aspiration (Aspirasi Keluarga Malaysia) report card initiative.
According to a Bernama report dated Nov 25, one of the ministry’s three KPIs was to restart the creative industry. Another was to launch the Keluarga Malaysia Teen Package and the Keluarga Malaysia Device Package for students and families in the B40 group, which Annuar said had been well-received thus far.
The ministry’s third KPI was to provide financial assistance in the form of funds, grants and incentive schemes to SMEs, as well as digital creative industry and digital industry companies. He said his ministry had successfully completed the distribution of funds to 200 companies.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob had earlier announced the report card initiative so that the public “can evaluate the ministers and ministries’ performance” in their first 100 days in office, a period starting from Sept 1, according to a report by The Star on Sept 30.
The National Tech Association of Malaysia (Pikom) chairman Dr Sean Seah said Annuar’s achievement is a good start for the first 100 days.
“The real test will be in the next few months and years as the country is going through post-pandemic economic recovery. Government should engage the industry more frequently for feedback and rebuild the nation’s tech and digital economy,” Seah added.
Prof Dr Suhaidi Hassan, chairperson for the InterNetWorks Research Laboratory at the School of Computing in Universiti Utara Malaysia in Kedah, said the minister’s initiatives in his first 100 days are relevant as they addressed some key issues during the pandemic. For example, he explained that the Keluarga Malaysia mobile device and Internet data packages initiative was commendable.
However, he felt it could be better implemented to consider how Internet coverage in some areas may not be sufficient to support daily activities such as online learning.
“This initiative brings more people to use the Internet, causing more congestion in the bottleneck links due to poor bandwidth provision, thus further aggravating Internet access.
“From another perspective, the initiative solves one problem – of some families not having enough devices for their children to access their online learning – but the child would later become frustrated due to poor Internet speed. Hence, a comprehensive solution tackling both Internet access and Internet performance problems should be urgently considered,” he said.
Real world problems
A former diploma student who only wanted to be identified as Daniel, 24, shared with LifestyleTech that he has been raising the issue of poor network connectivity at his hometown in Kemuyang in Sibu, Sarawak with relevant bodies such as the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and his telco service provider since 2012.
Daniel has asked if any action can be taken, such as building a new telco tower to improve 4G coverage in his area, but has only received responses such as “unable to commit to any immediate plans”.
He shared that an officer from a government agency had informed him that there were plans for new infrastructure to improve coverage in the area, which was supposed to be up by early December. However, he has not received any updates on the matter since October.
Though he is no longer studying, Daniel is hoping the situation can be improved for the sake of his younger siblings, who are 19 and 15 years of age.
“Internet is really important for online learning during the pandemic. My siblings have to travel to a hypermarket that is two hours away from home during exam period just for a stable Internet connection,” he said.
Suhaidi said it’s not only students who are affected by poor connectivity, as teachers and academics were also burdened by the stress of not being able to communicate effectively.
“Poor Internet coverage or connectivity can also affect workers in all economic sectors. It can lower their morale and the productivity of workers, thus affecting their wages and salaries. This would in turn affect the mental state of those workers,” he added.
Thinking ahead
In February, then Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin launched MyDigital, a blueprint with an action plan to steer the development of the country’s digital economy. Among its targets are to ensure all students have access to online learning and 100% of households have access to the Internet by 2025.
“In order to achieve those targets, the government should look into providing Internet services via satellite for remote rural areas with poor network coverage,” Seah said.
He also believed that an industry dialogue is key to discuss the ministry’s KPIs with progress being tracked through quarterly and annual progress reports, while Suhaidi suggested an approach that involved the consumers’ participation.
“I believe the overall rakyat’s satisfaction on the Internet speed could be suggested in the future as the Minister’s KPI. A periodic and rigorous opinion poll on the rakyat’s satisfaction on their Internet speed could provide an indicator to measure the performance of the Minister,” he said.
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