Inside Generasi 5G: 4 Malaysian changemakers using connectivity to drive real-world impact

In a nation’s rush toward urbanisation, something essential was slipping away. Malaysia’s small towns—repositories of living history and disappearing traditions—were becoming somewhat overlooked compared to bigger cosmopolitan cities.

For Ash Raja and Jonathan Dexter, this posed a challenge that underscored a deeply personal mission. Raja, who grew up in Batang Berjuntai with his grandparents, intimately understood “the slow life, where mornings are without rush and you can sit at your favourite kopitiam and chat with your friends.” Dexter believed it was possible to showcase Malaysia with the same cinematic reverence given to European vistas or nostalgic Americana—it just required developing the skills to do it properly and the network connectivity to showcase the end results to a wider audience.

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When the Covid-19 pandemic confined them to Kampung Air Batang in Tioman for three months, they witnessed something profound. “Being there made us really slow down,” Raja reflects. “We started to notice the beauty of not only the place we were in, but in the people too. It was a lesson in how important your community is, and how these communities exist in almost every kampung and small town." That revelation sparked their determination to preserve and share these communities before they disappeared entirely. 

Small Towns Malaysia was thus born—a series of short video-documentaries showcasing facets of small-town life in Malaysia previously non-existent in the social media space. 

The duo has produced over 120 videos, each requiring extensive research, travel across Malaysia, and meticulous post-production. Their workflow demands sophisticated coordination: drones capturing sweeping aerial perspectives, high-resolution cameras documenting details in challenging lighting conditions, and rapid editing turnarounds enabled by Apple Silicon's processing power. 

Without reliable high-speed internet across rural and remote locations, uploading high-resolution footage, collaborating remotely, and engaging with their growing audience would remain impossible.

“Technology has been a central component for Small Towns Malaysia, but it’s always been a means, not the end,” Raja explains. “Drones allow us to show towns from a perspective people rarely get to see, while social media helps us bring those stories directly to people’s screens.”

Technology serves a deeper purpose here. Social media platforms transform their visual content into conversations, creating communities around cultural pride. “A drone shot is beautiful, but it’s the story or information that gives it meaning. Social media spreads fast, but it’s authenticity that makes people stop and feel something,” Raja adds. 

Connectivity doesn’t just enable their technical workflow—it bridges the gap between isolated small towns and a national audience hungry for authenticity. 

Their proudest moment came with Small Towns Malaysia’s Papan video—“That video was magic; all the elements just came together and showed me, at least, what our small towns represent: community and harmony,” Dexter recalls. The duo ultimately worked their way to a collaboration with Tourism Malaysia in 2023, a milestone that validated their vision on a national scale.

Beyond views and partnerships, the duo have even coached small town new creators through Think City, building capacity within communities to document their own narratives. Future plans include building and connecting communities of small-town enthusiasts, making information more accessible for visitors, and empowering town residents to become advocates and documentarians for their own communities.

So, what it is that makes Small Towns Malaysia so universally appealing? “I think it’s the honesty,” Raja observes. “We’re not trying to polish or romanticise too much. We're showing life as it is, and that honesty connects with people.”

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Ellice Ng’s story begins with survival. Abandoned by her birth parents in Kuala Lumpur, illegally sold as a baby and homeless seven times before her fifth birthday, she taught herself to believe that “tomorrow could be better”, less a fridge magnet-worthy mantra and more a survival mechanism.

“As a child, my coping mechanism was always to look for light in the darkness,” says the CEO and co-founder of low-code technology firm Orangeleaf Consulting. During an internship almost 20 years ago, she first envisioned a platform providing children in foster care with “a means to have a voice, make choices and form meaningful connections.”

That vision became DoReMi: a comprehensive ecosystem where donors, mentors, NGOs, foster families and adopters could unite to support vulnerable children. “Change today often requires resources and networks I simply did not have when I was younger.” DoReMi addresses this disparity by creating what Malaysia's charity sector has never had: a super app integrating mentorship, donations, job opportunities, event listings and support services into a single, accessible platform. 

"DoReMi is built from my lived experiences,” Ng reflects, “designed to transform hardship into a platform that scales empathy, dignity, and opportunity for others. In Malaysia, we have apps for fund management, panel clinics, and B40 healthcare, but there is no super app for the charity sector.”

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While artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes industries globally, Ng recognised that many underprivileged communities remain largely untouched meaningfully by technology. “In fact, the rise of AI has created new anxieties, young people are even turning to chatbots for comfort, only to receive theoretical answers without the human touch,” she observes. “That is why I believe I’m on the right track: focusing technology where it is most needed, for those often overlooked.”

High-speed internet forms the foundation of this ecosystem. “With seamless connectivity, children and foster families can access mentorship sessions, mental health support and even job opportunities that would otherwise be out of reach,” Ng explains. “Imagine a caretaker on the East Coast being able to connect a teenager to a mentor in Kuala Lumpur, or a foster home being able to list its needs transparently so sponsors can respond in real time.”

Built using low-code technology, DoReMi demonstrates how rapid development can meet urgent social needs. “AI and low-code allow us to transform ideas into digital solutions quickly, and for vulnerable communities, that speed can mean earlier access to mentorship, mental health support or career opportunities.”

DoReMi’s first major collaboration with Rumah KIDS, an orphanage in USJ and Klang, went beyond the practical benefits, creating opportunities for genuine connection. 

"Many people don't realise the hidden struggles of caretakers and children: the pain of having nothing, the dependency on handouts, and the stigma of being judged," Ng notes. "With DoReMi, the goal is to give them access to support without discrimination, to replace isolation with connection.”

Ng says the feedback has been humbling. Seeing users experience the product firsthand and recognise its potential validated the technology and the vision behind it. “What makes this success story even more significant is that such forward-thinking solutions are often expected to come from more developed countries,” she says. “Many are surprised to learn that DoReMi was built in Malaysia.”

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But Ng’s vision extends beyond Malaysia. DoReMi has attracted interest from as far as Africa, proving its potential for regional and global impact. However, scaling requires sustainable partnerships and funding from brands sharing the vision of technology for social good. “Orangeleaf Consulting funded the first round of DoReMi, but for it to grow into a true digital ecosystem for social good across Asia, we will need support from corporates, NGOs and international partners who believe in the vision.” 

The impact is palpable: for future generations who may feel as invisible as she once did, Ng imagines technology powered by meaningful connectivity, enabling previously overlooked children and teens to “tell their own stories on their own terms, building portfolios, sharing innovations, and proving their worth in ways that transcend bias.” 

Golf has long carried an exclusivity problem—not just the cost of membership and equipment, but something more fundamental: access to community. As entrepreneur David Wong discovered, “two things tend to stop people from playing golf: money and buddies. The money part I can't solve for people, but the buddy part is where Deemples comes in.”

His frustration at the difficulty in finding and connecting with new golf partners evolved into the creation of Deemples, a digital platform that where golfers can find each other to play, as well as book courses directly, track scores and golf handicaps and more.

Unlike basketball, tennis, or badminton where courts remain identical worldwide, golf is inherently a traveling sport, Wong says. “No two golf courses are similar, no two golf holes are the same, so golfers do travel a lot for golf,” he muses.

This mobility created opportunity. If technology could help golfers find each other and seamlessly book courses across regions, it could turn a technologically under-served sport into a genuinely social experience.

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Deemples operates across Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei and Australia—a regional footprint that depends entirely on reliable, high-speed connectivity. 

“In the digital world, communication is key,” Wong emphasises. While most golfers self-serve through the app, customer success teams remain ready to assist with booking issues, and golf course partners receive support managing reservations.

What began as a simple matchmaking service now includes direct course booking, score tracking, handicap management, and stay-and-play packages—a comprehensive digital infrastructure for a sport that is growing in appeal amongst younger and younger players each day. This real-time responsiveness—managing bookings, coordinating across time zones, and maintaining relationships with courses throughout the region—depends on consistent, reliable internet access.

Beyond convenience, Deemples has fostered genuine connections. “Golf is such a networking sport,” Wong notes. “You spend more time talking than actually playing the game itself.” One story is particularly close to his heart as a founder: “Two golfers actually met via Deemples on the golf course, dated, got married, and now have a happy family of kids.”

For sports communities more broadly, Deemples demonstrates how digital platforms can dissolve barriers to participation while strengthening the human connections at sports' core. “Technology is here to make things more seamless, more efficient, and accurate,” Wong explains.

“Our jobs are to advocate and help the golf industry adopt technology so that yields are higher, processes are more efficient, and man-made mistakes are minimised.”

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Ash Raja and Jonathan Dexter capture vanishing communities before they disappear. Ellice Ng builds bridges for young people whose voices might otherwise never be heard. David Wong creates spaces where strangers become friends over shared passions. These three stories—preservation, empowerment and access—illustrate what becomes possible when technology serves human purpose. 

Each journey required more than vision or determination. It required infrastructure: the cameras, drones, and editing software to document small towns; the cloud platforms and real-time connectivity enabling vulnerable children to reach mentors across the country; the seamless booking systems connecting golfers across Southeast Asia.

Through high-speed connectivity and greater digital inclusion, we all have potential to become everyday change-makers using the resources within our reach. CelcomDigi powers Generasi 5G—the internet generation using connectivity create real impact. By ensuring reliable, high-speed internet reaches not just urban centres but small towns, rural communities, and everywhere in between, the network enables innovations that might otherwise remain unrealised dreams.  

This is Generasi 5G: Malaysians using connectivity to inspire, empower and connect a nation.

Inspired by this movement? Learn more about Generasi 5G here

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