Sensitive to the plight of the thousands of evacuees, TM immediately mobilized RM10,000 of the company’s funds to the relief centres to help with the relief efforts for the community there. 

The TM flood relief mission reached out to more than 8,000 flood victims and community members when the volunteers were mobilised in cleanup, moving and disbursing supplies at 3 relief centres, 10 schools, 3 mosques at the affected neighbourhoods in the Kota Setar vicinity. 

“TM staff living in these states were also not spared. About 110 staff were affected by the flood and some have been evacuated to relief centres. I am happy with the spirit of volunteerism and support given by TM employees in assisting the flood victims. As a caring employer, TM has not forgotten its employees who are affected by the floods. Employees whose houses were severely affected by the flood were immediately given RM500 in cash to ease their financial burden. On top of this, they will also receive additional financial assistance from the Group’s Staff Welfare Fund to help them to get back on their feet. Further to that, we have also launched a donation drive among our employees to help their fellow colleagues who are affected by the floods,” said Dato’ Sri Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa, Group Chief Executive Officer of TM. 

In the spirit of 1TM, Datuk Dr. Halim Shafie, Chairman of TM also visited 3 schools which were hit by the flood in Kedah namely Sekolah Kebangsaan Lengkuas, Bukit Pinang, Sekolah Menengah Jitra and Sekolah Menengah Vokasional Kangar. In addition, Datuk Dr. Halim paid a visit and rolled up his sleeves to assist in cleaning houses of 2 TM families and TM exchange in Arau, Perlis.

“I am also heartened by the quick response by the various ‘NGOs’ in TM. Members of our Askar Wataniah Specialist Signal Units or better known as ‘PAKAR Semboyan’ were in Kedah since last weekend to help clean up the houses. Kelab TM Malaysia and Badan Kebajikan Islam Telekom Malaysia (BAKIT) are also mobilising their members to rush to the scene to bring in the much-needed manpower support. BAKIT Pusat is giving RM5,000 for “bantuan persekolahan” to TM families who are affected by the flood. Multimedia University (MMU) has also sent their students to help clean up the victims’ houses and provide some basic necessities eg food supplies and clothes to the victims. Even our members of the association of woman employees and wives of TM employees, Tiaranita ladies lent a hand with their cash contribution of RM7,000 and cooking up hot meals for the heroic volunteers. I’m also touched to learn that 50 Kedah and Perlis based staff also joined hands earlier this week to clean up TMpoint Jitra, TMpoint Kangar and 3 TM exchanges which were also affected by the flood. To me, this is truly 1TM at its best. In the spirit of unity, everyone in the Company came together to share the pain of our colleagues and help in any way that we can,” said Datuk Dr. Halim.

The volunteer members from TM went to the aid of the totally submerged Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan Lengkuas, Alor Setar by cleaning up the entire school facilities. 20 PAKAR Semboyan members focused their energies to lend a helping hand to 9 TM staff and members of the community to clean their houses by clearing out rubble, hose down muddy surfaces and helped with moving furniture and heavy objects. Meanwhile, the other teams assisted the community members in the cleaning up of 3 mosques and 9 other schools. At the same time, another team of 10 volunteers visited 2 relief centres to hand over mineral water, food supplies and other necessities to the evacuees.

Current Status of TM’s services in Kedah and Perlis 

On 1 November 2010, TM activated its Network Operation Centre in Cyberjaya and the State Operation centre at Kompleks TM in Jalan Kolam Air, Alor Setar, which have been operational round the clock to monitor the situation. TM also responded fast to provide additional telephones to Bilik Gerakan Bencana Alam Negeri in Kangar and Alor Setar during the incident and made available a hotline for customers to contact TM. TM has since closed its operation centres as all services which were affected last week have been restored. 

Due to the high levels of water, some of TM’s facilities and premises, including TMpoint, exchanges, telephone cabinets and Pusat Internet Desa (PID) in some areas were affected hence disrupting TM’s telephony, data and Internet services customers in the flood affected areas in Arau, Perlis as well as Alor Setar, Padang Abdul Aziz, Changlun, Jitra, Langgar and Bukit Kayu Hitam in Kedah. At point of reporting, all TM Exchanges are now already in good working condition. The restoration and repair works for the services in the affected areas have been completed and TM services have resumed to normal.  

For the convenience of the flood victims, TM earlier stationed its employees and set up telecommunications facilities via Wireless CDMA technology at eight (8) main flood evacuation centres which collectively housed close to 12,000 victims to enable them to make free calls to their families.  

TM also dispatched its mobile TMpoint, TMpoint On Wheels (TMOW) to be stationed at Stadium Suka Menanti to entertain customer enquiries and complaints,  accept bill payments and service applications. Free internet connectivity is also provided for public to access the Internet. Customer service representatives were on duty to entertain the custumers daily from 10.00 am until 8.00 pm.  

Operationally, TM wishes to assure its customers that the Company is monitoring the flood situation closely. TM is currently precautious of the second wave of the flood and the Company is exerting all efforts to ensure service continuity for its customers.  

Meanwhile, please visit www.tm.com.my for the latest development on the situation affecting TM’s services or e-mail to help@tm.com.my for any further enquiries.