BENGKOKA: Bengkoka Assemblyman Datuk Harun Durabi called on the State Government to improve how it profiles hardcore poor households, pointing out that the current system is letting some truly needy families fall through the cracks.
“Some residents listed under the hardcore poor register are found to own farmland and several vehicles, while their neighbours with far fewer means are left out from the list,” he said.
“Some people with farms and one or two cars are in the e-Kasih list, while genuinely hardcore poor families are not included in the list,” he said.
He said the blanket aid distribution approach practised for years is no longer effective and must be replaced with a data-driven policy based on detailed socioeconomic profiling of each household head.
“We need to analyse whether they are poor because they lack skills or because of health problems or because they are geographically cut off,” he said.
Harun welcomed the government’s move to carry out aggressive data cleansing and matching, saying only clean and accurate data will ensure aid reaches the right people and truly lifts families out of poverty.
He praised the government’s housing initiatives to build SMJ Rumah Mesra in all 73 constituencies, calling it one of the most impactful measures for the B40 group.
“Giving a family a house is not just about four walls and a roof, it genuinely changes their fate,” he said.
However, he raised concerns over construction quality, saying some SMJ Rumah Mesra in his area are already showing cracks and signs of wear after just two to three years.
“A good policy that is not carried out properly will not give the results our people deserve,” he said, urging project managers to ensure SMJ Rumah Mesra homes are built to proper standards.
He also spoke about the infrastructure gaps in Bengkoka, which he described as a new and vast constituency covering 1,014 square kilometres with a population of 27,140 and 1,132 hardcore poor households.
He said the Bengkoka constituency was previously split between two state seats, N1 and N3 and had long been neglected, with communities in both coastal and inland areas lacking basic amenities.
“In other areas, people complain when they go without water for four or five days. In my constituency, 80 per cent of villages have never had piped water at all,” he said.
He added that about 40 per cent of villages in Bengkoka are also without electricity.
He therefore called on the government to increase allocations to the Rural Development Ministry and the Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Industry Ministry, saying both are critical to resolving problems faced by his constituents.
He said his recent request to the Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Industry Ministry for better road access to farms in his constituency could not be acted on quickly due to insufficient funds.
“When the Rural Development Minister visits a village, people think their problems will be solved … that is how much faith they place in the Ministry,” he said, pointing out the need for adequate funding to match community expectations.
“I hope every policy implementer gives their full attention to executing the government’s plans on the ground.
“The policy is good. What matters now is that those carrying it out give it their full focus,” he said.
