By Petronella Langita Felix
KUCHING: Sarawak Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) commissioner, Datuk Dr Madeline Berma has suggested several ways for the state government to distribute its Bantuan Khas Sarawakku Sayang (BKSS) aid in future.
Besides increasing the number of banking agents in rural areas, she said assemblymen could be also roped in to help distribute the aid to rural recipients.
“They can distribute the BKSS aid the same way they distribute the food aid during the Covid-19 pandemic. After all, it is also their responsibility to serve the community in their constituency,” she added.
Madeline also suggested turning state government departments such as the residents’ offices, district offices, and sub-district offices into distribution centres in the rural areas to accommodate the large number of BKSS recipients.
“State government departments should consider collecting the BKSS aid and distributing it to the recipients in their respective constituencies.
“The worst-case scenario will be to make use of police facilities.”
Madeline also suggested increasing the number of mobile banking units and advised those who were more tech savvy to work on increasing accessibility to digital banking so that rural dwellers would not have to travel a long way to collect their financial aid.
On Aug 25, it was reported that some rural dwellers were at a bank in Miri since midnight to claim their BKSS 6.0 aid.
“While the state government and private sectors have established more banking facilities in the rural areas, such incidents proved that the demand still exceeded the supply,” said Madeline
Meanwhile, an academician with Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Farhana Ismail echoed Madeline’s suggestion to increase accessibility to digital banking.
She urged the state government to appoint more banks to facilitate the distribution of the financial aid, especially in the rural areas.
Farhana also suggested that the state government increase the number of mobile bank counters, especially in the rural areas.
The Covid-19 pandemic, she pointed out, had limited the capacity of banking facilities in the urban centres, thus resulting in longer queues and slower services.
“Mobile bank counters are essential to ease the plight of rural communities, especially the elderly, in setting up bank accounts and collecting the financial aid given to them,” said Farhana.
Meanwhile, economist Dr Jerome Kueh Swee Hui said the distribution of the financial aid could be improved with the participation of many banks.
“With increased mobile banking coverage, rural residents will be able to use banking services without having to drive to the urban centres,” he added.
Kueh added that the other option was to set up ATM facilities at relevant petrol kiosks in the rural areas to enable the rural residents to withdraw money and perform other basic banking services.
“In the long run, the financial inclusion framework’s effectiveness may depend on banks’ initiatives to expand access to technology-based financial services, such as internet, mobile banking and e-wallets.
“This indicates that rapid ICT infrastructure development is critical for Digital Economy,” said Kueh.
