They take us for fools

Either the Federal government think we are stupid or they themselves are stupid. Either they think we are gullible or they themselves are gullible. What is this that I've been reading in the news media in the last few days? A free 1Malaysia email address for every person above 18 years old? Heavens forbid!

Common, what sort of nonsense is the Federal government trying to push? As if there are no free email addresses anywhere in the world. I've been using Yahoo mail and Gmail for goodness knows how long and I haven't any problem with them. My son and daughter use Hotmail and they don't have any issue either. So why try to reinvent the wheel?

And then the government said that this email service will be secure. Any email transaction, especially with government departments, should be secure, they say. But it puzzles me. Whatever for do I need any extra security for my emails. I would expect that my present email service providers are already responsible and they ensure that all messages and attachments that are sent through them have sufficient security measures and the packages that go through the Internet are encrypted with the latest technology. So again, why try to reinvent the wheel?

Moreover, I should think that if I want to transact anything online, whether it be a financial or non-financial transaction, whether it's commercial or non-commercial website, whether it is with the government or non-government, the responsibility should be on the website to provide the necessary security. Amazon.com's website is pretty secure; our local banks' websites are very secure too; and I buy my airline tickets from Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia with full confidence that my financial data is safe when it goes through their servers. So what's the big deal about security unless by inference, Najib is suggesting that right now, his government department websites lack even the most basic of security. That all this while, we have been filing our online income tax returns on an unsecured server? Makes me wonder whether I should demand to go back to paper filing of my returns from next year!

So if they are trying to scare us by saying security is a concern, I think it is no issue at all. To me, it is incomprehensible that we should be forced to own this so-called 1Malaysia email address to maintain communication with government channels. It will be a real waste of tax-payer's money.

And then I hear that this is no longer a government initiative but instead a privately-led initiate. The government claims that they would not be spending any money on the 1Malaysia email addresses. It would all be borne by a relatively little-known company called Tricubes. Tricubes will bear the cost of the system and we citizens will not be arm-twisted into signing up for their email account. It will be on our own free will if we want their email account, etc, etc, etc...

But wait a second. You really want to own this fantastic email address? Then you need to have a USB dongle from them, purchased exclusively from them, of course! But wait another second. There's news that the government departments will be required to send out emails to us common plebians through Tricubes, and that's where the government departments pay and that's where our tax money goes to. For every transaction that Tricubes will deliver, the company stands to earn 50 cents. So that's where their income is coming from: from our pockets indirectly. Income that will finance the company's very own survivorship. Isn't it all so very devious? IMO, YES!

I'm sure that 10 million email messages that Najib sent over the Chinese New Year period was only the initial testing ground. I still don't know how those buggers in Najib's department managed to get their hands on my email address, and I'm still pretty sore over the episode. But I'm sure the government baulked at the amount they had to pay to the external commercial email service providers in order to send those damn messages. So I'm sure they have seen all that and then decided that instead of paying all those sums of money to people they don't know, why not set up their own email system and then transfer the money from the public right pocket to the private left pocket instead? I greatly suspect that's what they are trying to do, all at the expense of us people whom they think are gullible enough to swallow all their propaganda.