LETTER | I refer to the article written by Fazreen Kamal titled 'Di sebalik aplikasi SELangkah, kes harian Covid-19 Selangor terus meningkat' (Behind the SELangkah application, daily cases of Covid-19 in Selangor keep rising) on Feb 3, 2021, 8am, published on the MalaysiaNow website.

I must say that these preposterous lies have to stop and they have to stop now! We are here to share the truth (and correct blatant lies) with everyone, and to set the record straight.

SELangkah was put in place and started functioning on May 4, 2020. Its aim was to not only assist with QR-based contact tracing but also to obtain feedback from the rakyat, conduct quick surveys, and as an information/news outlet that will benefit users.

This was indeed a novel idea that quickly caught on, as the state government and rakyat quickly saw how useful this app could be in controlling the Covid-19 pandemic, which we all knew very little of then.

MySejahtera was launched on Apr 20, 2020, for the purpose of self-health checking that the rakyat could use. Later on, they decided to jump on the contact tracing train which SELangkah already rolled out way before them.

Now objectively, let us not get into the frivolous argument of who came first and who was ahead of the game. Rather, let us focus on these two systems.

The SELangkah app was made to allow automation as far as data analytics was concerned. Not only does it check-in an individual upon scanning, but it also informs users of high-risk areas and updates a central database (with anonymous output) on the possibility of outbreaks, along with predictive mechanisms to tell where the next outbreak will be.

The SELangkah app was formidably done so that contact tracing would require less manpower and allow quicker identification of individuals who have been exposed, so that mitigation can start almost immediately.

All data is stored in Malaysia by a secure database that only stores a person’s name, telephone number, and the location checked-in.

This data is fully secured and can only be accessed by authorised public health and Selangor Task Force Covid-19 (STFC) personnel. This can be revoked by the user at any time they desire.

The number of businesses using SELangkah was very encouraging and many did set up their premises with the offered QR code- and the SELangkah team also actively went on the ground to help premises register.

This didn’t stop there - SELangkah later rolled out registration for houses so that contact tracing would be possible especially during festive seasons.

MySejahtera on the other hand is a database created by the National Security Council (NSC) and was at one point seen as a rival to SELangkah.

Although it attempted to use contact tracing, the system was not fully automated and much upgrading was needed for it to reach the levels achieved by SELangkah already.

Until today, it is uncertain where the MySejahtera app is storing its data and who else has access to this data.

There have been allegations of data breaches with this app and that it leaked information to third parties. This unfortunately has neither been addressed by the government nor was there any rebuttal against those allegations.

Since there were two apps that were being used - one ostensibly better than the other, it came to the fateful day of Aug 3, 2020, when Senior Minister Ismail Sabri Yaacob announced on national television that it was compulsory for each business premise to have a MySejahtera QR code.

Though in the written statement later it said that any QR-based contact tracing app could be used, the ship had already sailed. Many who opted to stick with SELangkah later switched to MySejahtera.

Upon enquiring, many said they were fined by the authorities for not using MySejahtera. This paralysed a system that was so well set up.

When SELangkah was still being actively used, the STFC was able to utilise the data to mitigate the situation better - especially with education and testing to help reduce the number of cases in Selangor.

About two weeks after the announcement by the Senior Minister, many started to use the MySejahtera App for fear of being fined.

Why did this happen? STFC has the daunting task of helping Selangor mitigate the situation without being given data by the Health Ministry or the government.

We survived solely on the big data that SELangkah provided to us and, as can be seen, we mitigated the situation very well during the second wave.

For the record, as per the graph attached, SELangkah was actively used in Selangor during the period of May 3, 2020, to mid-August, 2020, and we managed to keep the positive cases (red line) low. Not zero - but low.

With the shared data we were able to identify high-risk districts and rapidly test, trace, isolate, and support people during their isolation period.

However, the success story of SELangkah contact tracing was short-lived, because on Aug 18, 2020, and subsequently Sept 2, MySejahtera was mandated and patient location data - that was previously shared with the Selangor government - was stopped. Sigh!

With the forceful shift and a firm refusal by the government to share anonymised data with us, we were left in the dark or were literally boxing in the dark.

Our mitigation plan was based on data, which then became out-dated and we couldn’t help much as far as utilising big data for analytics.

It was even more disheartening to learn that the reason data was not shared with STFC was because of the way the data was reported. This was simply a play of words to confuse the general public.

Data is data and truthful reporting is of the highest ethics. Much can’t be said about the recent plight of backlog cases not being reported until the STFC team investigated and identified the reason behind this.

This aftereffect of the shift to MySejahtera was seen lately. As poor automation offered by the system and the amateurish contact tracing system finally required our public health personnel to contact trace manually, the backlog set in over the months.

Though it must be said that many healthcare professionals and public health staff have privately admitted that they preferred the SELangkah app to help with the mitigation system, they were left with little choice but to use manual raw data for contact tracing.

The severe backlog in cases reported to the Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre (CPRC) resulted in cases being under-reported in the past.

With some help lately, the backlog clutter was beginning to clear but it did little to help with the mitigation.

Recent daily numbers do not reflect on current and past data (some backlogged from 2020 as admitted by the Health Ministry director-general himself) was of very little use, even to the SELangkah team to plan the next mitigation steps.

What happened in the last few days to the Selangor data, was exactly what STFC was facing ever since the fateful day of Aug 3, 2020.

The data has been at best contaminated and at worst tampered with, which makes it arguably 'useless' for mitigation.

We urge the government, Health Ministry, and Health director-general to come clean on this - report truthfully on the number of backlog cases so that they will not cause an unnecessary public scare.

STFC now has an implementation or operational arm, the Selangor Task Force Operation (STFO), which is on ground zero doing the technical work of community screening, etc.

STFO is assisted by an NGO named Imaret, and we are leveraging their expertise and resources. This is an embodiment of the 'Whole of Society' approach that the World Health Organisation advocates. And for now, they are doing it pro-bono, because STFC has limited resources to compensate them commensurately.

We shall continue to work for the betterment of the state of Selangor and Malaysia at large, in managing the devastating impact of this third wave of Covid-19 outbreak.

DZULKEFLY AHMAD is Kuala Selangor MP, chairperson of the Selangor Task Force Covid-19 (STFC), and former health minister.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.