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[Watch] A Handwritten Sign And A Royal Motorcade Ended A 13-Year Wait For Electricity In Rural Pahang
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Muhammad Ramadhan Abd Hamid had filed the applications.
He had waited, he had filed again, and after nearly 13 years without a connection to the national power grid, the 30-year-old warung operator from Kampung Kuala Sat Ulu Tembeling, Jerantut, decided to try something else entirely.
He wrote a message on a piece of board, closed his stall for the day, and stood at the roadside at 6.30 in the morning with his wife and five-year-old son — waiting for the Sultan of Pahang to drive past, and three hours later, the royal motorcade stopped.
Muhammad Ramadhan had learned that Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah was in the area for a three-day programme, which included officiating at a mosque in a nearby Orang Asli village.
He prepared the night before; the sign read: “Ampun Tuanku Mohon Berhenti Sekejap” — “Your Majesty, please stop for a moment.”
Standing beside him were his wife, Nur Afiqah Malek, 32, and their son, Muhammad Afiq Danial.
A video of the encounter, posted on TikTok, showed the family holding the sign as the convoy approached.
@muhammadramadhan9602 ♬ Oh Tuhan Mudahkanlah Jalan Hidupku – Naylaluthfia
One Kilometre, 13 Years
The vehicle stopped, and the meeting lasted nearly 20 minutes.
“I asked for His Majesty’s help, and he listened, then said he would try to assist,” Muhammad Ramadhan told Harian Metro.
That same afternoon, at around 3.30 pm, his phone rang. It was a contractor. His application had been approved.
The reason for the long wait, Muhammad Ramadhan explained, was distance.
His home sits roughly one kilometre from the nearest existing electricity pole — far enough that connecting it required additional approval and cost, far enough that previous applications had stalled.
In the meantime, the family had been running their home on lorry batteries charged through a solar panel.
It was enough to charge a phone. Not enough for a refrigerator. Not enough for a fan.
We couldn’t buy electrical appliances like a refrigerator or a fan. That’s how we lived.
“Please Don’t Blame Anyone”
The electricity poles have since arrived outside his home; the connection, he said, is expected soon.
Muhammad Ramadhan was careful in how he told his story.
Despite 13 years of waiting and a resolution that came within hours of a royal intervention, he asked the public not to direct anger at the authorities.
I believe they were doing their best. I just ask that people not blame any party after watching the video I shared.
It was a measured closing to a story that, read plainly, raises harder questions — about how rural infrastructure requests are processed, about what it takes to move an application that had been sitting since 2024, and about what happens to families in similar situations who never get the chance to stop a motorcade.
For Muhammad Ramadhan, his wife, and their son, those questions are secondary to one simple fact: after 13 years, the lights are finally coming on.
TNB: Application Only Received In December 2025
In a statement posted on its official Facebook page on Wednesday (20 May), TNB said it had only received the application through a contractor in late December 2025, and had submitted the necessary approvals to the relevant authorities in January 2026.
The utility company said work at the site is subject to clearances covering safety, technical requirements, and compliance with land status.
TNB said it received final authorisation to proceed with pole-planting on 17 May — three days before the video went viral.
Work began on Wednesday (20 May), and the supply connection is targeted for 24 May.
TNB will continue to work with the relevant parties to ensure cases like this can be managed in a more orderly and inclusive manner with the appropriate authorities in the future.
What the TNB statement does not address is the gap between Muhammad Ramadhan’s earliest applications and the formal submission, which only reached them in December 2025.
The response was swift and largely unconvinced — most commenters argued that 13 years of inaction had been resolved in days only because a sultan stopped to listen.
READ MORE: Grandmother And Grandson Welcome Light After 10 Years Without Electricity On Penang Island
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[Watch] A Handwritten Sign And A Royal Motorcade Ended A 13-Year Wait For Electricity In Rural Pahang
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