KUCHING: The police and other relevant authorities have been urged to expedite the enforcement of the Secondhand Dealers Act 1946 in Sarawak.
Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) national women’s vice-president Voon Shiak Ni said this is necessary considering the alarming rate of cable theft cases statewide.
According to her the law was extended and became operational in the state on July 12, 2011.
“Why is there a delay in the enforcement of the Act? The rampant cable theft cases in the state require the enforcement of the law to effectively deter and reduce the occurrences of the crime, which also compromise the people’s safety,” she told The Borneo Post yesterday.
Voon also urged the police and other relevant authorities to seriously formulate a plan to address the problem of cable theft.
She claimed the party received complaints from the public before Chinese New Year that their telephone lines and Internet service had been cut off due to cable theft.
Voon pointed out that besides Siburan, other areas often experiencing service interruptions as a result of cable theft were Jalan Setia Raja, Batu Kawa, Matang, Kuching-Bau Road and Tarat in Serian.
“We made many calls to the TM (Telekom Malaysia) hotline at 100 on behalf of our complainants and we also realised that it was not easy to get our complaint across to TM staff because the line was often unclear and also the hassle of repeating the complaints to more than one staff (member).
“As the hotline call centre is based in Kuala Lumpur, it was difficult to get TM hotline staff to understand and locate the location of the affected areas. Restoration work also seemed slow as some of the areas affected had not gotten their Internet service restored even after weeks of complaints.”
Voon said she visited TM’s office in Kuching to verify the complaints and discovered there were many other areas affected by cable theft.
“We do appreciate the efforts by TM in trying to expedite the repair of the cable lines in Siburan, which were reported to be massively cut off and damaged. Due to the severity of the damage, the repair work could not be done in time for the people in the housing estate due to the Chinese New Year holiday.”
She claimed whenever new cables were installed, they would be cut and stolen again on the same day.
Voon said replacing cables would not be a solution to the problem in the long-term.
Therefore, she proposed TM use fibre optic and underground cables as a cost effective solution in the long run.