KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 17 – An amputee has complained about the inconveniences of Social Welfare Department (JKM) Kuala Lumpur’s “zero welfare” services for people with disabilities (OKU).
Melvin Tong said he went to the department to get his OKU card replaced and was first met with a series of issues regarding parking and location of the office, which is at Level 9 of Grand Seasons Hotel.
“While having absolutely no signage outside to confirm the location, and having a parking rate of min RM5.50 for first hour, that is not the ridiculous part of my experience here,” he said on Facebook last Tuesday.
Following this, upon reaching the office, he was told that he needed to present a photocopy of his IC.
“But the problem is they do not provide the service there and require the OKUs to go to the lobby, walk across the street to find a convenient store just to make a copy of my IC.
“What’s the use of our high-end IC if a simple procedure is so tedious?” he asked.
“When asked why can’t this simple step be part of the service for the department, I was told that this is office work and they are not an office. Heck, I for one wouldn’t even mind paying more for the copy even at RM1 or 2 than to run around printing unnecessary paper when everything was already in the system,” he further said.
“When the lady in the counter insert my IC to the card reader, she could conveniently see and get all my details there in the system!
“And guess what, to print the OKU card, they will send a physical letter to my house informing the card has been done between one to three months and either myself or representative has to come back to this hotel to manually pick up the card,” Tong added.
According to Tong’s website, he was diagnosed with a rare type of malignant tumour known as fibrosarcoma, a soft tissue cancer that necessitated a limb amputation when he was 17. He had a hip disarticulation on his right leg shortly after the biopsies confirmed his diagnosis.
Tong is an advocate for child abuse issues. He has climbed Mount Kinabalu to raise awareness and collect funds for the cause.
“As this is a problem faced by hundreds of OKUs going to the center every day, I can only hope this can and will be improved,” he expounded in his post.
