Kepong MP moots April 1 to retire MySejahtera as privacy concerns grow

KUALA LUMPUR, March 30 — With Malaysia transitioning to Covid-19 endemicity, Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng today joined a bipartisan choir urging the government to end the mandatory use of the MySejahtera application.

The Opposition lawmaker said it is time for Putrajaya to stop compelling the public to register their presence at premises from April 1 because there is no good reason to do so anymore.

“In fact, the government does not even need to explain the rationale for keeping the MySejahtera application beyond April 1 because there is simply no reason for the tracking anymore and most scientists now believe the Covid-19 virus is here for good but it could pose less dangerous over time — a status known as endemicity.

“Just as we have already done away with the checking of body temperature, the government should also stop tracking people’s movement. This is basically an intrusion into people’s privacy,” the DAP politician said in a statement.

He also questioned Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin’s assertion that personal data contained in MySejahtera is safe amid news reports of the involvement of a private company in the purchase of the app.

Lim said it does not make sense for a private company to purchase an application that will not profit it.

“If Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin’s statement is true that the massive personal database is safe, secured and would not be utilised in any commercial way by MySJ Sdn Bhd, why then did the private company reportedly pay RM338.6 million for the MySejahtera app software licence?

“It is only natural for a private company to enter into any activity mainly for profit, especially when RM338.6 million was paid for a product,” Lim said.

On March 27, Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim raised concerns about the government’s plan to sell its Covid-19 tracker app to a private firm he claimed is owned by known political cronies.

The planned sale was disclosed at a Public Accounts Committee hearing on March 24. An official from the Ministry of Health, which operates the smartphone app, informed the panel that the Cabinet had approved the sale on November 26, 2021, via a direct tender.

Since then, several MPs from both sides of the political divide have called for MySejahtera to be retired.

Among them are Umno deputy president Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan, who yesterday called for the government to set a deadline for when Malaysians will no longer need to check in with MySejahtera, raising data security and privacy concerns.

Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii also called on the federal government to begin phasing out the need to check in with the MySejahtera app, since there was “little epidemiological value” in doing so as the country transitions into Covid-19 endemicity.

In response, Khairy said he will address their concerns in the senate tomorrow.