LETTER | Managing the pandemic with MySejahtera

LETTER | In late 2019, when the coronavirus spread to every nook and corner of the world and held us ransom in the physical world, we had to comply and rely on a virtual world of mobile management.

In Malaysia, right from the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, we were guided by a digital mobile app, MySejahtera, which helped trace, monitor, and enable a seamless world-class vaccination process.

We did not raise issues on digital privacy and data ownership or even question if there was a better app than MySejahtera because, at that time, our health trumped any other concerns.

The app made it easy to scan our phone within a second, instead of standing behind a long queue to scribble our personal details in a public book. We also did not have to wait for a labour intensive and time consuming follow up where important information could have been lost manually.

No one dared to temporarily halt this mechanism, not even long enough to assess its parts, fix it or look for a better engine platform.

However, as we open our borders and approach endemicity, the very politicians who have violated global social distancing guidelines with unnecessary state elections, have depicted the app as a dystopian surveillance nightmare.

Other “hindsight Einsteins” had the courage to announce that they would have built a more intelligent mobile app at a much lower cost. Where were these experts at the onset of the pandemic?

When the pandemic hit Malaysia, our nation was plunged into a week of political crisis following the unexpected resignation of 94-year-old Dr Mahathir Mohamad as prime minister on Feb 24, 2020.

After a weeklong political manipulation during which Muhyiddin Yassin took over as prime minister and our first lockdown was imposed on March 18, 2020, in a move to manage the pandemic.

On April 20, 2020, MySejahtera was launched by the Health Ministry under former minister Dr Adham Baba. This app was initially being developed for “a proposed dengue contact tracing project.”

However, with the foresight of the MOH team and the app developers, it was pivoted as an application for Covid 19 self-health evaluation and reprogrammed as the national app for digital contact tracing.

11 proposals received

Dr Mahesh Appannan, who leads the Digital Health team for Covid-19 management said that MOH, received 11 proposals from various companies on digital solutions but the team selected MySejahtera.

Later the app was enhanced to include vaccination scheduling, digital traveller home surveillance and quarantine centre modules.

When Khairy Jamaluddin became health minister in August 2021, he told the cabinet that MySejahtera which serviced about 24.5 million registered users cannot work on a CSR basis forever.

“So far, we have not paid anything for this app. The matter was brought up to the cabinet. Negotiations are going on for a contract to be signed between the government and the company operating this platform,” Khairy answered to recent queries raised on payments made for the MySejahtera app.

Currently, the app is managed under a new entity, MYSJ Sdn Bhd, for the sole purpose of managing the application under MOH.

As to data ownership, Khairy assured, “MOH owns it now and will remain the sole custodian for the data which is saved at AIMS Data Centre in Kuala Lumpur. All data will be kept secured under the National Cyber Security Agency, the National Security Council and the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit.”

All over the world, no response to Covid-19 has been completely perfect but we cannot afford to drop our guard.

Hong Kong, which once led the way in containing Covid-19 is now being hit by a fifth Covid wave and recently had the highest death rate per capita in the world. There were severe criticisms against Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, for mishandling in managing the pandemic.

At the end of the day, no clever stand-alone technology would have been able to bring us this close to endemicity.

We have to thank the efficient management of at least a million people here – understated app developers, frontline health workers, volunteers and a MOH team – all of whom were working around the clock during the pandemic.

We should reflect and think about the costs and consequences to all of us if this entire overworked system had crashed midway through our vaccination.

Though the rakyat did not pay a cent for using the app or for being fully vaccinated, I believe the cost for the salvation of human lives in this pandemic is priceless – in whatever form the help may have come.

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