Robbing rural students of their future

September 12, 2024

KUALA LUMPUR – HOW fast is Malaysia’s Internet Siput (snail-paced Internet)?

If you are a student at a remote school on the east coast of Sabah, you need to climb a tree to get any reception at all. Or, for a slightly faster signal, you can climb a water tank tower.

The signal at both locations is super slow, about 1Mbps (megabits per second). And Internet Siput is intermittent, so you’ll receive chat messages only sporadically. If you want a better signal, drive a 4WD along muddy roads up a hill 6km away.

A few years ago, I wrote about the Internet Siput experienced by the students of SK Lubang Buaya.

Kampung Lubang Buaya – Crocodile Hole Village – is located by the 6m-wide Sungai Paitan, about 200km from Beluran town in Sabah. The colourful name comes from a reptile pit upstream from the village where, according to legend, a big crocodile named Black lives.

About 95% of SK Lubang Buaya students come from the village where the school is located. The villagers are mostly vegetable farmers and estate workers who earn about RM250 to RM400 a month. There is no electricity or piped water supply in the village. For potable water, the villagers rely on rain and the river. They bathe in Sungai Paitan when it is not the season for the crocodiles to venture downstream of the reptile pit.

Spotting a crocodile in Kampung Lubang Buaya is easier than getting an Internet signal.

The situation is the same in many remote areas in Sabah and Sarawak. Remember that viral story about a determined student climbing a tree to get a signal to do her exams? There are many such tales that don’t get as much publicity.

“Now we have ConnectMe Now, which is quite fast. The only thing is the limited Internet quota, just 5GB per