IN MY recent trip back to my Sabah hometown, I met up with friends and relatives who complained about uneven roads, collapsed or blocked ditches and dim street lights in their kampung or housing area.

A friend who returned from abroad asked, “How can you stand it? Haven’t you thought of lodging a complaint?”

The elder living in the area retorted, “I have complained, but no one cares!”

When asked where he went to file a complaint, the elder said he approached the “Yang Berhormat” or Ketua Kampung (Village Chief).

But is it really the responsibility of the “YB” to address all these complaints?

Is there no other way to file a complaint?

Many among the general public would think that this is supposed to be one of the “YB” or people’s representative’s tasks because they feel it is his or her duty to solve all the “local problems” and think that this is why they voted for them in the first place.

The biggest problem is that residents of small towns lack information, and as a result not everyone knows how and where to file an official complaint.

Most villagers or small-town residents are the elderly or children. The elderly assume that the most effective and direct channel is to go to their village chief or YB’s service centre to file a complaint. However, this is neither correct nor appropriate.

It is disturbing that many complaint cases remain unresolved.

One elder complained that the roads in the village were full of potholes. 

After taking the issue to the Ketua Kampung, and when no one came to fix the roads after a long period of time, he blamed the Ketua Kampung for being ineffective.

I believe that the problem may not be just with the Ketua Kampung, but perhaps the person that made the complaint, as he or she does not know where the complaint should be addressed to.

The official channels are not well-known and popular, while procedures could be confusing as well.

However, the villagers are familiar with the correct way to make a complaint about power supply and telephone line issues, as they use the correct and direct official complaint channel, which is via the dedicated hotline of their respective service provider.

The villagers were more satisfied with the efficiency of these services because these service providers responded swiftly after receiving the complaints.

It appears that the villagers may feel that there is no other way to seek help for local municipal issues because they are not well-informed and aware how to do so.

What intrigues me the most is, why do the elderly only want to seek help from their “YB” for these community daily life issues?

It does not help that many local governments in Sabah do not have complaint e-platforms similar to Penang’s Better Penang App, MyMPSP app and Shah Alam city council’s i-ADU apps.

Existing but underwhelming platform for complaints

While struggling to provide the right information to my elderly relatives about complaint channels, I realised that there is another way to file a complaint in our country, but it has not been widely publicised and promoted.

A friend, who is a former Ketua Kampung, discovered a complaint channel called Rakyat Responz Apps (People’s Response App).

He often uses it to help villagers file a complaint about unresolved problems in the village like roads, ditches, street lights, and other local management issues.

The mobile app was introduced by the Public Complaints Bureau (Biro Pengaduan Awam) under the Prime Minister’s Department in 2016.

It allows the public to make complaints, suggestions and commendations through mobile phones so that government agencies or local councils can handle and respond to the complaints quickly. This complaint channel is accessible to all, and not limited to a particular region or state.

Most of our complaint apps can be downloaded for free through Google Play as well as the Apple App Store, and users merely need to fill in the basic personal information.

However, the service selection items of the programme will differ from one app to another.

Through the app, citizens can record the case matter they want to make a complain about, and then upload the relevant photos and the geographical coordinates of the place of occurrence to the relevant authorities for processing.

After successful submission, the relevant authorities will investigate and check the information based on the complaint.

Not many know about these apps

Of course, complaining through mobile apps is not necessarily the most ideal or suitable for people of all ages. Some people still prefer to use the traditional complaint methods, such as calling, faxing, writing or visiting in person.

However, it is important to note that whether the complaint is made through e-government or traditional means, upon receiving the complaint the relevant department is expected to investigate and resolve the matter within a certain period.

Each complaint should have a reference number for record filing and follow-up, so that the relevant department staff will be able to communicate with the person making a complaint easily.

Regardless of the investigation’s final outcome, the department should respond and explain to the complainant, and make it a standard practice to always inform the complainant about the progress of the investigation.

In this way, the complainant will know whether his or her complaint has been handled, followed up and resolved.

Nevertheless, people can use the convenience of mobile phone apps to make a public complaint more easily, by following the steps of mentioning the details of the incident and uploading photos.

The government should promote these platforms and teach people how to use them on a larger scale.

Mobile apps are just one of the tools that can work. Ideally, people should know which government department or agency is responsible for the corresponding local problem, and then go directly to them for accountability.

Public awareness is the only way to help people understand about public service complaints. – June 21, 2022.

* Esther Sinirisan Chong is a member of Agora Society. She was born and raised in the Land Below the Wind. Her research interest lies in education and government policies, and the history and heritage of East Malaysia.