KUALA LUMPUR – The government must come clean on the involvement of a foreign company in the management of the MySejahtera contact tracing app, which could expose the nation to potential security risks, opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said today.
Anwar said an independent investigation must be launched into the issue of MySejahtera’s ownership, and that the government must bring the matter to Parliament for debate.
“This is a serious matter because the company is a foreign company, a Singaporean company that was given the opportunity to handle the information of all Malaysians,” he told reporters at an event.
“What is also dangerous is the fact that the government are custodians of the data is also being disputed.”
A report by Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee released last week revealed that the developer of MySejahtera, KPISoft Malaysia, had in 2020 changed its name to Entomo Malaysia. The renamed entity is listed as wholly owned by Singapore based Entomo Pte Ltd.
The report said that the cabinet had last year decided to transfer ownership of MySejahtera from the developer to a special purpose vehicle called MySJ Sdn Bhd, which was appointed through direct negotiation.
In a separate statement, the Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism questioned the government’s rationale for privatising a mandated public health service.
The group said the government must also explain its selection criteria behind the selection of MySJ, and how it will ensure that the personal data of millions of MySejahtera users will be protected.
MySejahtera is the government’s primary tool in its Covid-19 contact tracing management, and also to administer vaccines under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme.
Yesterday, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the government is in the midst of negotiating with MySJ – which he described as the licence holder of MySejahtera – on services subscription terms.
Khairy said that MySejahtera and all the data collected through the app are owned by the government.
The government has said that it has compiled personal and movement data of some 38 million Malaysians, foreign residents and travellers through MySejahtera. – The Vibes, March 29, 2022
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