Yong assuring the crowd at the hall yesterday.
A staff member holding a stackful of MyKads.
KOTA KINABALU: A woman complained that she went to the Damai Multipurpose Hall as early as 6am to claim her 1Malaysia People’s Aid (BR1M) voucher yesterday, only to go home empty-handed after hours of waiting.
Mrs Wong said she went to the hall early in the morning as she thought that the vouchers would be distributed on a first come first serve basis as she was not informed of the time to go and claim her voucher.
“I have checked my application status at the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) headquarters yesterday and upon being informed that I’m qualified for the assistance, I came here today to claim my voucher, along with thousands of others.
“We waited for hours but the officers-in-charge said we need to wait for the ‘YB’ (guest of honour) for the official launching ceremony before they could start distributing,” said Wong.
She added that other than the amount of time spent waiting, she was appalled by the way the whole distribution ceremony was conducted, describing it as unsystematic.
“While waiting, they (officers-in-charge) asked the BR1M recipients and applicants to hand over our MyKads to them, which I’m not sure what the objective of that move was. Some obeyed and handed over their MyKads, but I was worried about how they handled the situation and decided not to hand over mine.
“By that time, at around 10am, people were already agitated due to the amount of time spent waiting, they started demanding for the officer to return their MyKads. The officer had in his hands a stackful of MyKads which he later placed in a plastic bag. Seeing how messed up it was, I made the decision to just leave,” lamented Wong.
Wong was one of the thousands who convened at the Damai Multipurpose Hall here yesterday expecting to receive their BR1M vouchers but were left dissatisfied upon experiencing the unsystematic way the distribution ceremony was conducted.
Despite managing to remain composed for the first few hours of the process and waiting patiently for the official launching ceremony to start, the crowd eventually lost their patience and started verbally expressing their frustration towards the officers and staff on duty.
The crowd started storming towards those in charge demanding the return of their MyKads, which was what the officers finally had to do upon realising the situation was out of control.
Fifty-year-old Roslan Buhal, who is disabled, was also at the hall helping his 80-year-old neighbour to check the location where they were supposed to claim his BR1M voucher. Roslan ended up in a heated argument with City Hall officers after his request for a location check was met with a negative.
“I’m a disabled person who is here helping a senior citizen. Forcing us to wait with all the others in a crowded room is still forgivable. But not being able to help us check our location due to their incompetence in handling the distribution in a systematic way is unacceptable,” said Roslan as he left the hall empty-handed.
Ondorias Holabo, 43, was seen waiting among the crowd with her seven-month-old son.
“We waited since 8am but until now (10am), other than not getting our vouchers, none of us really know what to do because of the chaotic way the ceremony has turned out. I would like to ask but all of the officers are busy trying to calm the crowd down. I’m not even sure what’s happening right now,” said Ondorias, who was heavily sweating and struggling to keep her baby calm.
The mnister in charge of Kota Kinabalu City Hall cum Tanjung Aru assemblyman, Datuk Edward Yong Oui Fah, finally arrived about 10am to officiate at the ceremony and helped City Hall officers to calm down the crowd that had gotten out of control by the time he arrived.