IN late 2019, when the coronavirus spread to every nook and corner of the world and held us ransom, 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 My Sejahtera because, at that time, our health trumped any other concerns. The app made it easy for us to scan our phone within a second, instead of standing in a long queue to scribble our personal details in a public book.
We also did not have to wait for labour intensive and time consuming follow up on vaccinations where important information could have been lost manually. No one dared to temporarily halt this mechanism long enough to assess its parts, fix it or look for a better platform.
When the pandemic hit Malaysia, our nation was plunged into a week of political crisis. After a week-long of political manipulation, Tan Sri 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 (MoH) under former health minister, Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba. The 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 app for Covid-19 self-health evaluation and reprogrammed as the national app for digital contact tracing.
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 the health minister in August 2021, he told the Cabinet that MySejahtera, which serviced about 24.5 million registered users, cannot work on a corporate social responsibility basis forever.
“So far, we have not paid anything for this app. The matter was brought up to the Cabinet. Negotiations are ongoing for a contract to be signed between the government and the company operating the platform,” said Khairy.
Currently, the app is being managed under a new entity, for the sole purpose of MoH. As to data ownership, Khairy assured, “MoH owns it and will remain the sole custodian for the data, which is 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 the 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 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 the management of 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 the MoH team – all of whom worked 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 vaccinations. Though the rakyat did not pay a cent for using the app, I believe the cost for the salvation of human lives during the pandemic is priceless – in whatever form help may have come.
The writer is an author, brand strategist and runs Helping Hands.
Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
