Thousands are thronging an IT fair in the city but only some 200 have signed up so far for the controversial 1 Malaysia email service, which is entering its beta or testing phase next month.
Tricubes Bhd, which is marketing the 1 Malaysia email service as myemail.my, has set up a booth at the Pikom Digital Lifestyle Expo at the KLCC Convention Centre for this weekend, where they have been visited by either those curious about the service or wanting to reserve their usernames.
Product Manager Amir Shariffuddin told The Malaysian Insider that the pre-registration started last month at the National ICT Conference 2011 at the Putrajaya International Convention Center (PICC), although he did not provide the total number of registered users to date.
“It is not just an email. It is a whole platform of information flow. It is also the official electronic correspondence between the government and the rakyat,” he said.
When asked if Myemail messages sent to government officials will get priority over those sent using other email services, he said “probably”.
Amir stressed that the service would make it is easier and faster for the government to send official documents to the users.
Among the benefits listed in an informational leaflet on Myemail are that it replaces paper bills with digital versions in portable document format (PDF); provides a “marketplace” where exclusive deals are offered to Myemail users; introduces social networking access through the email “dashboard”; provides an email inbox and access to online payment services; and allows direct access to Microsoft Office files.
The 1 Malaysia email service, which was supposed to start beta service at the end of April, has been marketed as a move that will reduce the use of paper and save the government RM200 million over 10 years.
The project has been met with scepticism by some Malaysians, who question to the redundancy of the facility. Most adults with Internet access have at least one personal email and another for work or education purposes.
Tricubes aims to sign up at least 20,000 users for its beta phase although it has yet to secure any government or private sector agencies to test the payment gateway.
Hamidreza Ghotb, another Tricubes representative at the booth, explained that the e-payment and paperless bills will only be available to government agencies as well as government-linked companies this year.
“Its (Myemail’s) ability is limitless. You can incorporate Facebook and everything you can imagine, with Myemail,” he said, adding that the possibility will happen “some time in the future”.
Myemail also promises security, cost-saving, convenience, fast delivery, and a green solution. The catch is, however, those signing up for the email service will have to buy a USB biometric device sold by Tricubes or go to any National Registration Department (NRD) office to use the additional services offered, on top of the emails.
Tricubes chief executive Khairun Zainal Mokhtar had also said the USB device would also allow Myemail users opt for the more secure end-to-end data encryption for an additional fee, which he described as “a fraction of the cost”.
But he declined to provide the price of this value-added service and the USB biometric reader.
Khairun Zainal said earlier that government agencies that wish to send emails to myemail.my accounts will have to pay a maximum of 50 sen an email, adding that Tricubes aims to sign up 5.4 million users by year-end.
A visit to the Myemail stall today showed that the amount of time taken to fill up the form to register took less than three minutes. But to activate the account, one needs to click on link sent to your current e-mail. Tricubes representatives had failed to make known at the time of registration that users will only receive the activation link next week.
“The biggest problem now is awareness. People are confused between Myemail with Gmail or Yahoo Mail (free email services provided by Google and Yahoo respectively).
“The main issue is security, to ensure that it is ‘hackproof’. We are talking to third parties, security agencies, for Myemail to be as secure as possible,” Amir said.
It is understood that Microsoft is offering its free Windows Live platform to Tricubes for the RM50 million project.
When criticism of the initiative was at its height, the government’s Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) ran a two-page advertorial in all major newspapers to defend the project but insisted that it was a private-sector initiative that would not cost the government a single sen.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has said that the 1 Malaysia e-mail project will have a gross national income (GNI) impact of RM39 million up to 2015 and will allow direct and secure communications between Malaysian citizens and the government.
But critics say the government should focus on infrastructure project such as providing clean water or broadband across the country rather than working on a free email service which is already available through Hotmail, Yahoo! and Google Inc.
Detractors also question why loss-making Tricubes, at risk of being delisted after its weak financial standing triggered Bursa Malaysia Securities’ Guidance Note 3 (GN3) in October last year, was tapped to spearhead the project.
comments
why should i endorsed this and make somebody flithy rich when it is free? moreover ? with malaysia track record when plane engine can disappear? staduim collapse? what is safe ? i am not releasing my privacy
Another waste of money, the government can just use google to set up a group e-mail account and everything can be handled from there, and it's free.
If u compare 50sens per email is cheap as compared to slow mail via Pos Malaysia. If u compare gmail, hotmail and yahoo mail, then it is expensive. Imagine when EPF sents out statements to 12 million members, it cost RM6.0 per shot. If u add in Inland Revenue, Banks etc it would be a tidy sum. It is just a new cyber cronyism.
There are still many Malaysians in rural areas of Sarawak and Sabah without electricity. The money should be given to them for solar panel.
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