LETTER | The Pakatan Harapan government promises to effect change and become more people-friendly. 

However, letters and emails to various government departments including ministries, the police, local authorities and others are mostly not acknowledged or given a reply. 

This is a negative practice and it is hoped that a directive will be issued by the chief secretary to the government for all government departments to acknowledge the emails and letters. 

People do not send letters for trivial issues but mainly for important complaints to be addressed. When one does not get a reply it means that the complaint or feedback is not worthy. 

Is that so? At times the government departments take the easy way out by informing that the email or letter was not received. 

Websites do not give adequate information about all government departments. There is also a suspicion that the higher-ups are not being informed of these written complaints deliberately.

Another complaint concerns telephone calls to government departments and other offices. Sometimes no one receives the call even after a few minutes of the phone ringing. 

Usually, a computer-generated message informs the caller to press this or that number button and it takes a long time to get to the right person. On mobile phones it could be even harder and costlier. 

Why can't telcos, Tenaga Nasional, Telekom Malaysia, state waterworks departments, emergency services and the likes make it easier for the people to complain, ask for assistance or contact them easily for other reasons?

It would be so good to have a human voice at the other end to deal with. I hope Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo will look into this. 

Usually the complaint is only about tilting telephone poles or a pipe leak or a faulty street light. Why should the complainant doing public service have to go through such a hassle to inform the relevant authorities to take action? Compare this situation with the US or European firms that are so efficient in this regard.

Those departments, offices and ministries that fail to acknowledge or reply need to know that the frustrated complainant will take it out by criticising them on social or print media or through other means. 

This negative action can dent the image of the concerned department and should be prevented by the government and others.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.