By Koh Teng Gee | May 10, 2011
The Malaysian Insider

I refer to Idris Jala’s advertisement “Truth and Lies About myemail.”

I believe people at Pemandu are not aware that a practical and secured system is already in place which is also cost-effective. All that the government agencies need to do is to implement it.

Many GLC’s and Government Agencies already have their portals in place. Many had already made arrangement with banks for online payment. Currently, these agencies send billing statements by post to customers. Payment can be made online at their portals, via online banking bill payment, at one-stop payment centres or their office counter. To go paperless, what they need to do is to inform their customers when the eBilling statement is available at their portals.

This can be done by sending an email notification from the provider or via SMS. The amount to be paid could be stated in the SMS or email and to know the details, their customers would login to their portals for payment or print the eBilling statement. Their customers could make payments online using their bank account or credit card. They can even login to their bank portal to make a payment. If they wish to make a payment at a one-stop payment centre, all they would need to do would be to print out the eBilling statement from the portal and take it to the one-stop payment centre to make payment.

The myemail project by Tricubes Berhad had planned to charge government agencies for their service at 50 sen per email. They proposed the introduction of biometric authentication for security. Its success depends on customers’ willingness to register at the National Registration Department or to purchase a USB device. The test simulation using four government agencies are based on an ideal situation where internet access is readily available, people have a habit of checking their emails daily and most households have a computer at home with internet access.

First and foremost, the available infrastructure for internet usage is costly and relatively slow compared to Singapore. Next, people don’t have the habit of checking their email because they are busy with their work and family. Computer ownership and usage of the internet are still lacking in rural areas and their ICT literacy is still unsatisfactory.

As in most Government mega projects, the failure is in the implementation. Projects are envisaged based on ideal situations and not reality. Feasibility studies of myemail, if carried out, are done in favourable situations where there is high ICT literacy and where most households have a computer with internet access. Feasibility studies should be done across different socio-economic backgrounds for a truer picture.

What sort of security is required for billing statements when they are posted by ordinary mail by government agencies? How do these agencies know the billing statements posted have reached the correct customers? Similarly, why do these agencies need to use myemail for security when their current practices do not ensure billing statements reach the correct customers?

They might as well use the free emails that are readily available from Streamyx, Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo!. Why pay 50 sen per email?

The myemail service, if implemented, will not receive public support because it is not well conceived, and a duplication of what is already available. Pemandu didn’t take into account existing secured and cost-effective systems that are already in place.