* COMMENTARY BY MUSTAFA K ANUAR.

IT IS a cold irony that a government-approved MySejahtera application meant to monitor and mitigate Covid has now become an object of deep concern, distrust, confusion, fear and even derision among many Malaysians.

The curious situation emerged after health news website CodeBlue reported on transcripts of a parliamentary Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) meeting on March 8 with officials from the Health Ministry and Finance Ministry.

It was revealed that KPISoft Sdn Bhd (which is now known as Entomo Malaysia Sdn Bhd) developed the app without a proper contract, and that it later would sell its proprietary and software rights valid until 2025 to another private company, MySJ Sdn Bhd, at a reported price of RM338.6 million.

The transfer of ownership was reportedly decided by the cabinet on November 26 last year that allowed the Finance Ministry to approve the Health Ministry’s appointment of MySJ Sdn Bhd through direct negotiation.

This has cast doubts among concerned Malaysians about MySejahtera’s ownership, which in turn is feared to have compromised the personal data of some 38 million users.

To be sure, we are talking about vital data regarding people’s personal details, health, preferences, whereabouts and social interactions, the kind of data that could, if fallen into the hands of third parties, become fodder for scams, apart from marketing and political surveillance purposes.

That is why there has been great concern expressed by politicians, experts and netizens concerning data management and security of the app.

The PAC reportedly said that the government should not have paid for the MySejahtera app as it was developed without a contract with KPISoft that created and developed it on a corporate social responsibility (CSR) basis.

In September last year, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob reportedly said the government was finalising payments to KPISoft upon expiry of the CSR project.

In this regard, critics wondered why there was no contract signed between KPISoft and the government in the first place over an app that has become integral to our national health system.

This has left people wondering whether the CSR project was a means for KPISoft to get a contract.

Why was there no open tender for the takeover of the app, as transparency is vital especially when it comes to dealing with the sensitivity of personal data?

Why was MySJ preferred to other companies? Why can the government not take over the app directly from KPISoft, thereby avoiding middleman complications?

Another bone of contention is that among the MySJ board directors are former Sapura CEO Shahril Shamsuddin and former Umno turned Bersatu leader Megat Najmuddin Megat Khas, which seems to imply business and political ties.

In addition, the MySJ directors reportedly include two founders of KPISoft, Raveenderen Ramamoothie and Anuar Rozhan, which begs the question whether there is a conflict of interest here.

It is incumbent upon the Health Ministry to provide a better explanation pertaining to these turn of events, as trust deficit of the public is the last thing that the ministry needs, especially in the fight against the virus.

As Umno deputy president Mohamad Hasan has rightly pointed out, the MySejahtera app should not be a “surveillance” mechanism burdensome to the people in the long run as it is an invasion of privacy, adding that it must have a shelf life.

Any plans to add other features, such as mobile commerce, that are not directly related to contact tracing and virus monitoring should not be a justification for the continued use of the app.

The efficacy of MySejahtera is as good as the public’s trust invested in it. – March 30, 2022.