'I will not sleep well if I have an all-encompassing account with Tricubes knowing very well their link with the establishment.'
1Malaysia Email not entirely free
Gen2: This project will die midway like the Health Ministry's much-touted project where everybody's health data was supposed to be put online. The company that took the Health Ministry's project went bankrupt because basically they had no business model. This email project sounds the same.
Naaah!: One very bad example of migrating the online service portal from government agencies to that of a privately-managed portal is Companies Commission of Malaysia. It had been very smooth and good when the online filing was done through CCM own website.
However, it was later migrated to Mygovernment portal and since then, every single month I encountered problem with it - slow, website unexpectedly down, unable to make payment, etc.
Eric Koay: If you check Tricubes online , you will see that their products are either smart card reader or biometric related authentication software. Nothing related to ISP (Internet service provider) or email servicing.
Why in the world would our government support such a project from such a company? If it is a private project, why our PM need to endorse it publicly? Just the mere thought of consolidating all government services to a single service provided by this small GN3 company is scary ... very scary.
Hann Wei Toh: If I have understood correctly, the ‘1Malaysia Email' service is just an alternative to the many free email services available on the Internet these days.
The only obvious advantage it has is probably its close relationship with the Malaysian government, so many first-time Internet uses have a ready way to interact with the government without first having to learn tons of other things about the Internet.
The Internet is for everyone, not just for us who have decades of experience in it. So, I guess such a service should be given a chance to flourish. After all, it does have an audience that can benefit from it. As for us, who have loads of experience and whose daily work heavily rely on networks, we can make the new service as yet another email forwarding service.
The ‘1Malaysia Email' needs to survive on something. Advertisements and replacement services for the snail-mail postal company are legitimate ideas. I do not think the public should condemn the provider for adopting such survival techniques. Post Malaysia should have a diminishing role in this era anyway. And we should forsee its demise within a few decades.
As for other portals relying on similar techniques for revenues, they are just having an additional competitor. Overall, the ‘1Malaysia Email' will do some good to the many very new Internet users. Because of this, I believe the effort should be appreciated.
Whether it is an attempt to rescue an dying company is not a concern. What we need is something that works, and something which does some good for the society.
Wira: I will not sleep well if I have an all-encompassing account with Tricubes knowing very well their link with the establishment. They will be able to track everything I do online and when required by law to divulge personal information, they would quietly accede.
By default, they would spam me with government propaganda. I rather stick to Google, Yahoo or Hotmail.
CHKS: If you go to MyEG website today, there is a free service for PDRM summon notification alert through email. It doesn't matter which email you enter - Yahoo, Gmail, etc, it works.
But who knows in future, with this 1Malaysia email thing, the entire alert notification service will be taken over, which means that if you want to be notified of summons, you must use 1Malaysia email only; no other email accounts will be entertained.
In other words, is this a subtle way of forcing people to use the email although at the moment it is said to be voluntary sign-up?
Aku Malaysian: Another waste of public funds. Hey, how many percent mark up?
Ferdtan: With this 1Malaysia Email project, the government is killing two birds with one stone. Bailing out the ailing company, Tricubes, is only secondary - the primary aim is to keep in contact with the IT-savvy anti-establishment youths for political purposes.
The government is fully aware of the Malaysian youths disenchantment with its policies and corruption that they need to engage with them. It is well and good if no public fund is being used (which I doubt), and it is voluntary, which will not be when all government services like IR, EPF, RTD, insurance and even banking will be 'roped' in to 'attract' (or compel) more 1Malaysia e-mail users.
So it leaves many with no choice but to use 1Malaysia e-mail to get services done. And when general election comes, expect a personal e-mail from the PM himself wishing you well.
Changeagent: Here is an important incentive for Malaysians not sign up for this fiasco. If you do not have a 1Malaysia email account, you do not have to pay for any income tax, quit rent and summons to the government.
Better still, you also do not have to renew your driving licences since you cannot receive any renewal notices.
Alicescat: How do we stop these people from stealing from us? They steal our money, and now they are attempting to steal our information, which may lead to stealing our identities and ultimately stealing our children's future.
Why are we allowing this? Why can't we do something, anything? Don't our leaders in the federal government and their cronies and families have no shame? No morals? No religion?
The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now .