Dato’ Sri Dr. Mohd Uzir Mahidin, Malaysia’s Chief Statistician said yesterday that PADU has already achieved over 30 million registrations. The new update raises eyebrows as PADU’s registration count was only 1.5 million the day before. Why the sudden jump from 1.5 million to 30 million? Here’s what we know so far.
To recap, PADU is Malaysia’s Central Database Hub which aims to collect the most up-to-date information on Malaysian citizens. All Malaysians are urged to register and update their information by 31st March 2024 so that they won’t be left out of targeted subsidies which are expected to start in Q2 this year.
During an interview with Astro Awani, Dr Mohd Uzir said PADU has successfully registered 30,076,018 individuals including Malaysian citizens and permanent residents as of 2pm on 23rd January 2024. Out of this figure, 21,966,690 individuals are aged 18 years and above.
He shared that the registration milestone was achieved through the integration of data sources from various agencies. He said data sources that were previously not integrated are finally included on PADU. The state with the highest PADU registration is Selangor at 5.8 million, followed by Johor with 3.7 million and Sarawak with 2.6 million.
In addition, DOSM claims that 1,568,820 individuals above 18 years old have successfully updated their information on PADU and this represents 7.1% completion rate.
Successful registrations = successful submission/update?
Looking back at the previous daily updates, PADU has been reporting the number of successful registrations on PADU. Here are the PADU registration numbers reported daily since 7th January (until 11:59pm):
- 7 January 2024 – 798,528
- 8 January 2024 – 853,832
- 9 January 2024 – 905,548
- 10 January 2024 – 953,138
- 11 January 2024 – 996,926
- 12 January 2024 – 1,032,215
- 13 January 2024 – 1,062,721
- 14 January 2024 – 1,093,124
- 15 January 2024 – 1,129,770
- 16 January 2024 – 1,169,353
- 17 January 2024 – 1,214,859
- 18 January 2024 – 1,264,226
- 19 January 2024 – 1,310,087
- 20 January 2024 – 1,367,324
- 21 January 2024 – 1,427,124
- 22 January 2024 – 1,518,746
Three hours ago, PADU reported 1,613,454 individuals have successfully updated their information on PADU as of 23rd January 2024 (11:59pm). It appears that PADU has switched their reporting from successful registrations to successful updates overnight. However, this raises questions as not all who have registered on PADU with complete eKYC would have necessary submitted or “updated” their records on the platform.
It is safe to say that the recent 30 million “registered” number doesn’t necessarily mean individuals who have registered an account with PADU and completed their eKYC process via IC and selfie verification. That’s still a long way to go as the government agencies are still going on ground to get as many people as possible to sign up. Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi even announced on Sunday that the Rural and Regional Development Ministry will implement manual form registrations to help rural communities to register manually in the PADU system.
The next biggest question is what is defined as individuals successfully updated their information on PADU? Does it count individuals who merely have created an account on PADU? Or does it count individuals who have actually completed and submitted their data on PADU.
PADU is still a data-entry exercise
A quick check reveals that despite the latest “registration” milestone, there’s no change on the information displayed at the PADU platform. Those who have registered previously would still get a blank form with barely any populated records and “updating” your records on PADU is still a data entry exercise.
Earlier this week, it was reported that the Public Service Department (JPA) has issued a circular urging all public servants to update their data on PADU by 15 February 2024.
