CYBERJAYA: Government agencies must make concerted efforts to improve on ways to share transformation programmes which were created to enhance the well-being of the rakyat, said the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).
Its head of the Digital Community and Programme Coordination Division, Nor Akmar Shah Minan said these agencies needed to keep the society well-informed in order to avoid people from voicing their grouses online.
“MCMC did investigate to find out why people put their grouses online, and found that people especially the Bottom 40 group (B40) felt neglected in areas related to education, health and housing.
“They felt less informed and unaware of the benefits. So, together with anger and emotions, they voice their grouses online,” she said at the ‘Enculturing An Informed Society Forum’ here yesterday.
Nor Akmar was one of the panelists, who spoke on ‘The Roles of Authorities in Harmonising An Informed Society’ at the forum, which was held in conjunction with the World Development Information Day here yesterday.
The session was moderated by the Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) general manager Datuk Zulkefli Salleh.
Since 2008, MCMC has received numerous complaints and faced a huge number of issues related to online posts, which has resulted in blocking of several sites due to their posting that violated the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.
“I personally believe that the rakyat need to be informed of what the government is doing from time to time so that they (rakyat) do not feel left out. The information is there but the input is not enough and complete,” she added.
Meanwhile, another panelist Malaysian Press Institute chairman and chief executive officer Datuk Dr Chamil Wariya said both traditional and social media were equally important as they complemented each other and a part of the media system.
Presenting on ‘Media as an Empowerment Tool’, he said: “As an empowerment tool, the real value of media, both old and new news hinges among others on access that is media freedom and the openess of the internet. — Bernama