THERE has to be an urgent improvement in the National Urgent Response Alert (NUR Alert) to make it more accessible when it comes to missing children to ensure that the alert is sent out fast or has the widest outreach to hasten an investigation process, thus increasing the chances of children being saved.
This is in view of the latest missing child report of a four-year-old boy who until today has not been found since he went missing on Feb 22 from a house in Taman Riverview, Bintawa (Sarawak).
This is something serious and I am disappointed that the alert and awareness of the missing child is not widespread even among the residents and public of that area.
NUR Alert is supposedly responsible to spread information as fast as possible through SMS/MMS to help trace missing children (below 12 years of age) who could be victims of crime or abuse.
When it comes to missing child, time is of the essence and a quick and widespread alert is important to increase chances of the child to be discovered and for law enforcement agencies to swiftly carry out their investigation which will lead to a fast arrest of the culprits.
Such alert is also important to inform the public to keep a good look-out and this is the best weapon to limit movement of the alleged abductors and even deter anyone from planning any abductions.
Remove obstacles
However, the accessibility of this Nur Alert is very limited. From this case alone, I have double checked with multiple residents in the area who claimed that they have not received any such alert.
According to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), cellular users must first go through some procedures and choose to accept the NUR Alert announcement before it can reach them.
To me, this creates all kinds of barriers or limits the outreach of such alert which is the most important factor for it to be effective and quick.
Instead we receive all kinds of unnecessary SMS from the National Security Council (MKN) or even SMS promoting Keluarga Malaysia events on our phones without consent.
They create barriers when it comes to saving children’s lives but when it comes to government propaganda and unnecessary SMS, they send it out anyway without our consent.
There must be a significant improvement to this alert system. We cannot just rely on enforcement officers sticking photocopied “missing person posters” at bank or even public notice boards. We need to adopt technology to ensure the alert is quickly disseminated and widespread.
First and foremost, there must be a single platform where all such important information can be accessed directly not just by different enforcement agencies, but also by shopping malls, banks, elected representatives’ office, cinemas, members of the public and many more.
Any obstacles to obtain such an alert, especially all kinds of confusing consent procedures should be removed.
Once such information is obtained it can be spread out on all social platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, Whatsapp and even SMS/MMS of residents in that area.
That way, malls can show it on their digital noticeboard, banks can show it on the ATM screen for few seconds before customers withdraw their money or many other ways to spread the message quicker and clearer.
A platform should also be created for the public to inform the authorities if they come across a suspicious behaviour or if they see the missing child from the alert they received.
This will expedite the reporting process while hastening an investigation process by the authorities thus increasing chances of finding the child.
I strongly believe that the public will be supportive of receiving NUR Alerts on their phone rather than all kinds of unnecessary spam and government propaganda especially when they can participate in saving a child’s life.
That is why the whole NUR Alert system must be significantly improved as every second counts when it comes to saving a child’s life. We hope for the best and pray for safe return of little Eric. – March 10, 2022
Kelvin Yii Lee Wuen is the MP for Bandar Kuching.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
