Interesting news in Malaysia as the government has announced its US$16 million plan to provide every Malaysian, 18 years or above with an official email account. The email account will be used to receive important documents like bills and notices from the government.
The government has chosen Tricubes Bhd, a local public listed tech corporation, as the company to develop the 1Malaysia Email together with Microsoft.
The idea is similar to Singapore’s OneInbox which also plans to provide Singaporeans with one inbox for all government related emails. The difference, however, is the reaction from the people. There are quite some Malaysians who seem to have some strong opinions about the government’s 1Malaysia Email plan.
Free Malaysia Today, a news site providing independent perspectives of Malaysian current affairs wrote an article titled “Confused, bewildered by the 1Malaysia e-mail project,” which contains several strong opinions about the plan. Haris Ibrahim, a blogger at People’s Parliament, termed the project a “hare-brained” scheme that is “absolutely and utterly nonsensical.”
“We are talking of spending RM50 million (US$16 million) when we can get an e-mail account (for free) from any major server providers,” he said, as quoted from Free Malaysia Today.
Aaron Lee, an avid Twitter user and undergraduate in Malaysia echoed the same point, “Yes, gmail is not only free but much more secured and simple.”
However, Aaron also acknowledged that there is a great benefit for all citizens to be able to receive government notices all in one email account.
“I feel it has great benefits since we’re able to receive government notices like driving license renewal, summons etc. But still, I would prefer my gmail,” he said.
Readers, do you think this is a good idea? Let us know via comments.
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