SIBU: After a year as the federal government, many people-centric programmes initiated by the PH government are still unknown to the people.
Sibu MP Oscar Ling blamed this lack of awareness to poor coverage by traditional media and social media.
“People nowadays rely on social media for information, but not all government programmes are found in social media,” he said after officiating at Socso engagement programme with community leaders and public yesterday.
He said he was shocked that many people still did not know about PeKa B40, a healthcare protection scheme for the low-income B40 group, and mySalam B40 health protection scheme.
“When I asked how much they know about PeKa40 and mySalam B40 programmes, most said they were not aware what these programmes are,” he said.
He said many people also did not know about the Ministry of International Trade and Industry’s loan scheme for SMEs.
The PH government, he opined, had a lot of catching up to do to inform the people on its activities and programmes.
Other than traditional and social media, he said the government needed to do many more direct engagements with the people to get information across to them.
Meanwhile state Socso director Philip Sangkan said due to lack of awareness, most applications for its invalidity scheme were received late by the department.
Philip also said that response from taxi drivers to register themselves with Socso was quite slow while e-hailing drivers had responded positively to become members.
