Kota Kinabalu: The Internet outage suffered by UMS Professor Datuk Kassim Mansur when presenting his input online recently for the 12th Malaysia Plan at the “Stakeholder Engagement Forum 2020” was an example of how unstable Sabah’s broadband could be and still is affecting thousands of students in their online studies in the state due to Covid-19 lockdown.The virtual event was organised by Institute of Strategic Analysis & Policy Research themed ‘Sustainability, Shared Prosperity, Competitiveness’ in which the UMS Dean of Faculty of Business, Economics and Accountancy advocated the sustainable need for reliable broadband connectivity for Sabah to be competitive as part of shared prosperity within Malaysia.
It really brought home the point that the federal government has to urgently address the issue, as the professor had to apologise for the loss of visual and sound during a part of the live feed on his speaking slot, and he took the opportunity to regale to the online audience with Sabah tales of students on trees and a hanging bridge that collapsed as the students sought out optimal spots for Internet access in rural areas of Sabah in the year 2020 when Malaysia was slated to achieve developed, high income nation status.
Prof Kassim said, “Even in my place (residence) near UMS, the Internet connection is not very stable, what more in the rural areas.”
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