More allocations needed for cyberbullying law, police, vulnerable groups, says MP
SHAH ALAM - More allocation and attention should be given to the tabling of the anti-cyberbullying law especially when it involves online harassment towards children, says Batu Kawan MP Kasthuri Patto.
She said the government should not only be making announcements on the budget, but also ensure that the money will be going to the right places.
“I think setting up a grant without having realistic guidelines will defeat the purpose.
“I would like to see less leakages and money properly utilised for example for the senior citizen activity centre for every parliamentary constituency,” she told Sinar Daily.
She said she was planning to set up the centre, but the bureaucracy kept on dragging the matter for more than a year.
Subsequently, she said it was rejected by the government agency due to time constraint and lack of manpower.
This, she said needed to be ironed out.
Kasthuri said a "bloated" amount of money has been allocated but there were still people who claimed that they did not receive the cash assistance even after making an application.
“We have seen that in the past, a huge amount was allocated but still we find people who said that when they applied for it (cash aid), they did not receive it,” she said.
Meanwhile, in another development, she said the government should also focus on not just the pandemic, but also climate change and floods that were taking a toll on the children's education.
Besides that, she said she wanted to see more allocation provided for the police force as the manpower was insufficient especially when the population was increasing.
“The number of men in blue must be increased according to the population and this includes expertise and skills,”she said.
As a former proponent of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) who is now advocating for Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), she said the government needed to ensure the welfare of the police was taken care of.
As for the vulnerable groups, she said the focus should be on the rights-based approach and not the handout culture for them to generate income.
“Because you will never have enough money for everyone, when the going gets tough and the economy is improving, you give handouts, and when the economy crashes, where are you going to have the money to hand out to them?.
“In years to come, we will be an aging society. What is the allocation of the budget for the ageing community for their mental health, facilities, structures and many more,” she added.
