The Chinese community's generally poor response to the ongoing national census exercise may be linked to a nagging perception it was aimed at determining their taxable income.

Federation of Chinese Associations of Malaysia (Hua Zong) president Pheng Yin Huah wants to right the wrong perception.

He believes a better publicity campaign initiated by the Department of Statistics Malaysia might just be the answer.

"Most people do not know what 'banci' or census is all about. Suddenly, when the census officer begins asking for information related to their income, these people get worried and start wondering if they are census or income tax officers.

"Therefore, we have suggested that a better publicity campaign is needed, such as informing the public the scope of the census and questions that are going to be asked during the census," he told Bernama today.

Pheng said such feedback was conveyed to the statistics department during their meeting on Monday, after the department had approached Hua Zong to assist in eliciting better response from the community in lieu of the on-going national census.

Pheng said Hua Zong also suggested some strategies to the statistics department to get better response for the on-going exercise.

One of them was to employ more Chinese-speaking staff and conduct interviews after office hours when most owners were at home.

Another suggestion, Pheng said, was that the census officer interview the right person - and not the maid, as in some cases.

"I was told that some of them interviewed the maid to gather data pertaining to the family she worked for. Maids will not be able to provide the right information," he added.

Urging the Chinese community to give full its fullest cooperation to the ongoing national census, Pheng said confidentiality was assured, in as far as the census was concerned.

"The data is important to help the government prepare the national development programme," he said.

The national census exercise was launched on July 7 and will end on Aug 22.

- Bernama