Why should the Malaysian public be forced to bail a company out? Would Prime minister Najib Abdul Razak have been as generous and as accommodating if it was our company that was in trouble?
No, of course not. If it was any company needing a rescue package, we could try and raise more funds or have a change of management to rescue the company. Most times, a company that is in trouble just goes belly-up.
So, why should the rakyat be made to rescue Tricubes Bhd.?
Tricubes is the company which is tasked with the 1Malaysia free email account but more importantly, Tricubes is facing financial ruin.
The loss-making Tricubes is at risk of being delisted after its weak financial standing triggered Bursa Malaysia Securities' Guidance Note 3 (GN3) last October. At the time, Tricubes shares were worth RM0.05 sen each.
Najib had initially announced that every Malaysian aged 18 years and over, would receive a free 1Malaysia email account.
Then he announced that the company tasked with supplying the free email account planned to generate revenue via advertising, an online marketplace, and the online delivery of government bills and notices.
When public doubts and ridicule snowballed in cyberspace, even the government’s thinktank balked.
Pemandu, the Performance Management and Delivery Unit, changed details of the 1Malaysia email project on its website the day after it was announced.
Initially it said, Najib’s grand idea was a government initiative. After the public backlash, Pemandu registered the government’s U-turn and reclassified the project as a private sector initiative.
All this has made the public lose more confidence and made it more suspicious of government initiatives.
This is another attempt to fleece the public. It is an abuse of public funds.
Najib may try to mask this project in any which way he pleases, be it a government or private initiative, but the bottom line is he is swindling us of our money.
Mindful that we, as individuals, might not be convinced into helping Tricubes, Najib then announced that he would use taxpayers money to prop up this scheme.
This message was hidden in his remarks about how the email project would allow direct and secure communications between Malaysian citizens and the government.
His statement was strengthened with the statement from Tricubes which said that it hoped the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Internal Revenue Board (IRB) would sustain the service through pension and tax notifications.
Why should Najib be at liberty to use public funds to rescue this company?
We were told by Tricubes chief executive Khairun Zainal Mokhtar that those who wished to send emails to myemail.my accounts would have to pay a maximum of 50 sen an email, adding that Tricubes aimed to sign up 5.4 million users by 2012.
We already have free email accounts and have used them for years so why should anyone dream of paying 50 sen per email?
Khairun confirmed that a USB device would also allow myemail.my users to opt for the more secure end-to-end data encryption for an additional fee.
Khairun must think we are fools.
The whole, so called “free but not really free” 1Malaysia email account is another attempt by the government to snoop on us. It will track what we are to and who we speak to. It will even know what our innermost private thoughts are. It is Big Brother gone mad.
Najib’s mind is made up about awarding this service to Tricubes, in an effort to bail this company out. This 1 Malaysia email service is expected to be launched by July.
If we won’t sign up to it, he will direct government agencies to do so, in a gross misuse of public funds.
More importantly, why award this ‘contract’ to Tricubes, a financially unsound company. Why throw good money after bad? - Malaysia Chronicle
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