Online Platform AduanKu Is Looking Out for Communities in Malaysia

A fallen tree that is blocking the street. Street lights that do not work. Potholes that keep getting deeper. Certain issues fall under the responsibility of local government which often takes too long to actually resolve the problem.

Autor*in Anna Rees, 12.01.14

A fallen tree that is blocking the street. Street lights that do not work. Potholes that keep getting deeper. Certain issues fall under the responsibility of local government which often takes too long to actually resolve the problem. Residents in certain parts of Malaysia can bring the attention of their local representatives to problems that need fixing direct, thanks to the online platform AduanKu.

Corruption in Malaysia is a prevalent issue. Often, local authorities do not do enough to help fix community problems and finding the correct person responsible for certain decisions is not always so transparent. The Sinar Project, a non-profit organisation, looks to make the whole process more transparent using open source technology.

One of their initatives, AduanKu, has been developed together with Transparency International Malaysia and enables people to report local municipality problems like potholes or broken street lamps over the web (and soon via an app) directly to the person in charge. As soon as a report is made via AduanKu, it is forwarded (in an official format) and the report’s progress is then tracked on the website, putting the people in charge under pressure to act as quickly as possible.

The system is currently only available in certain parts of the country with plans to rollout the initiative all over Malaysia.

Monitoring on All Levels

The project serves to make information available to citizens as well as make clear what their rights are and monitors all facets of government from local to national. The application is purely informative and looks to bring a bit more transparency to the actions of elected officials.

There are a number of other platforms that offer similar services (such as I paid a bribe) that help citizens blow the lid off bribery and cases of corruption. Find out more about AduanKu here.

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Corruption

Call it a favour in Germany, small help in the Honduras or Gombi, Beer, taxi or even “le tschoko” in Cameroon, the words used for corruption are as diverse as its manifestations from bribery to fraud and from cronyism to an end with serious consequences.