Kuala lumpur: Appointing, training, and deploying 'Rakan Digital' from among the Orang Asli community is the most effective step to ensure that the development of new Internet infrastructure has an impact on digital inclusion and reaches the community for socio-economic improvement.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, Senior Lecturer at the Arshad Ayub Graduate School of Business, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UITM), Dr Hamidah Md Yusop, stated that Rakan Digital from the community are more suitable to be trained because they understand the culture, language, and needs of the Orang Asli community.
Hamidah mentioned that while the majority of the Orang Asli community welcomed internet facilities, several constraints were identified, including service disruptions, difficulty contacting customer service lines, and issues with setting Internet connection passwords.
"To overcome these weaknesses, we propose the deployment of 'Rakan Digital' from among the Orang Asli themselves as reference individuals to assist their own local community, in terms of education, business, or basic use of the Internet," she said.
She made these remarks after presenting the findings of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) in its 'Impact Analysis of Wireless Broadband Internet Services for the Orang Asli and Rural Communities' at the MCMC 2025 Research Symposium.
Hamidah stated that the study was conducted in September 2022 across seven Orang Asli villages in Johor, Kelantan, Perak, and Pahang involving 189 respondents.
She emphasized that this approach also enabled the empowerment of content and communication in the mother tongue of the Orang Asli community, facilitating the delivery of messages more effectively in the native language.
'Although there are NADI (National Information Dissemination Centre) community Internet centres, this more personal approach is believed to be needed to guide the residents,' she said.
Elaborating further on the study findings, Hamidah noted that the problems faced in relation to internet use did not prevent a few Orang Asli communities, especially the young, from embracing online entrepreneurship to showcase the uniqueness of their native products.
'If we can identify them, we can propose to the government to create a micro-grant scheme to support individuals who have the potential to run businesses to improve their family economic standing,' she said.
Hamidah also stressed the importance of joint planning activities among stakeholders to formulate clear policies and real incentives for the Orang Asli community, including financial assistance or the provision of subsidised devices.
She added that the success of the country's digital inclusion agenda as outlined in the 13th Malaysia Plan (13MP) and the JENDELA (National Digital Network) initiative scheduled to conclude this year, depends on the careful and effective implementation of government initiatives.