Sumud Nusantara Tracker System Developed By MAPIM Volunteers Able To Monitor GSF Mission To Gaza

SEPANG, Oct 1 (Bernama) -- The Tracker System for Sumud Nusantara, an innovation developed by volunteers of the Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia (MAPIM), not only displays the progress of the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) mission but also brings together the global community to care about the plight of Gaza.

MAPIM Chief Executive Officer Datuk Dr Sani Araby Abdul Alim Araby said the tracker system, developed in just four days, allows the world to directly witness the challenging journey of the GSF mission, which is carrying humanitarian aid and international activists to assist the people of Gaza.

"Alhamdulillah (Praise be to God), I feel very proud because this innovation can open eyes, attract interest, and also cultivate the public's desire to follow the developments of the humanitarian mission to Gaza.

"The moment they look at this tracker, they feel they are already part of Sumud Nusantara. That sense of belonging makes people feel that for all of Malaysia, this (GSF) is our mission," he told the media, who have been on standby here since this morning.

He said MAPIM uses a technological approach in its effort to ensure that the situation in Gaza and its residents reaches the knowledge of the international community.

"To translate that and to carry that wave (of Gaza's struggle) is not just through social media, but it must be backed by facts. So, when this tracker is created by Malaysians, it shows that we can contribute in various ways when it comes to good deeds," he said.

Meanwhile, the developer of the Tracker System for Sumud Nusantara, Dr Mohd Hafiz Md Hanif, said the website application is an improvement on the tracker system originally developed by the GSF team.

"We started developing this web tracker in about three to four days after we discovered that GSF also had their tracker out, so we contacted them to get Application Programming Interface (API) access.

"Once we had API access, we added many features. Initially, users could only see the location of the vessels or ships. We started adding a timeline, timeline playback, historical data, and the latest latitude and longitude data for each ship every 15 minutes," he explained.

He added that there is also an added feature like zones, where users can see and follow which zone the ship is currently in.

“We also provide an automatic calculation from the ship to the point of interest so users can know how long until the ship arrives, the distance from the ship to that location, and even the distance from that location to the mainland is also displayed," said Dr Mohd Hafiz, who is also MAPIM's Strategy Director.

-- BERNAMA