Recently, there have been reports that students were attempting to sell the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 tablets they received for free via PerantiSiswa on an online marketplace.
This drew criticism nationwide as those students were condemned for taking advantage of something is free and supposed to be used for their education, to make money.
However, this practice appears to have been nipped in the bud by the Ministry of Communications.
In a press conference yesterday (October 25), Communications and Multimedia Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa announced that although there are indeed cases of PerantiSiswa tablets being sold, stern action would be taken against individuals involved in selling the device.
He explained that 14 cases of the tablets being sold had been reported nationwide so far and the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry is closely monitoring developments.
“Action will be taken against students who sell their PerantiSiswa tablets, such as by putting their names on display at the PerantiSiswa portal and notifying their universities of their activities.”
The Keluarga Malaysia PerantiSiswa Programme is the ministry’s initiative to help students and undergraduates from B40 households get tablets that they wouldn’t have been able to afford.
Annuar said that the selling of the device was indeed irresponsible and could be likened to breaching the pledge they signed when they received the tablets.
Meanwhile, he added that the tablets given under the programme had specific applications which made it possible for them to be tracked down.
“The application enables the device to track its owner to know whether it has been sold. So far, several of the PerantiSiswa tablets have been blocked from use.”
Furthermore, Annuar said that the ministry was also looking into the possibility to implement a buy-back policy for recipients to sell their tablets back to the government if they no longer require them.
“I will look into it rather than having them sell the device at a lower price…that’s not good,” he explained.
Do you think that this is the right move?
