Padu’s struggle for public trust: a bold vision or a risky gamble?

 

The vision of creating a comprehensive socioeconomic database is a commendable one. A lack of data often impedes evidence-based policymaking and gears the governance sector towards qualitative or opinion-based dynamics.

The establishment of a national consolidated socioeconomic database seems to be in line with the data-driven nature of economy minister Rafizi Ramli who is the founder of Invoke Malaysia, a data-driven firm that utilises artificial intelligence and machine learning in predictive behavioural models.

Padu, the central database hub, seeks to provide a complete overview of the socioeconomic conditions of all Malaysians above 18 years old, enabling accurate assessment, in-depth analytics, and better subsidy targeting in the public sector. One of the important roles of Padu is to ensure that people who are eligible for benefits are not left out of receiving targeted subsidies, assistance, and social protection.

At the same time, the system is also intended to minimise leakages in a blanket subsidy system, such as the diesel and petrol subsidy, which has disproportionately benefited the wealthy and those who exploit the system by purchasing cheap diesel and petrol only to sell it across the border, typically in Thailand which follows free market prices.

For context, RON 95 goes at the rate of RM2.05 per litre in Malaysia and 35.75 Thai Bhat (RM4.75) in Thailand. Removing these blanket subsidies and rechanneling the funds back to the low and middle-income groups would require such a nuanced database.

While all this sounds good on paper, many questions remain pertaining to the Padu system. The most rudimentary is whether the government is well-equipped to set up, maintain and utilise the system in a competent and accountable manner. The controversy surrounding the system has been unveiled day after day with concerns over data security breaches and identity theft.

Data security breaches in the government sector have been happening even before Padu. In 2023, such cases were at a historic high, with 130 data breach cases reported to the Personal Data Protection Department in the first half of the year, compared with just 30 cases reported in the whole of 2022. The federal police’s Commercial Crime Investigation Department also reported a drastic increase in cybercrime cases, from 10,753 in 2018 to 19,175 in 2022. According to the CyberSecurity Malaysia report, the government sector faced the greatest number of data breaches, compromising 291.49GB of data in the first half of 2023.

The early failure points of the system erode much of public trust and raise many questions surrounding the system, from whether it will be able to achieve its intended purpose to why existing socioeconomic data gathered in different government agencies cannot be consolidated. The Inland Revenue Board (LHDN), the database used for the Rahmah cash assistance programme, and i-Sejahtera have massive amounts of data that cover most of the Malaysian population – and the consolidation of these databases could form the basis of the Padu system.

Instead, the government asks 29 million Malaysians over 18 years of age to manually key in their personal particulars into an online system that is open for only three months. Even though the economy ministry has reassured Malaysians that data from the multiple government agencies had already been included in the system, recent reports show that registrants often found most of the columns remaining blank, and that they required further input.

There is also a lack of clarity on the data verification process, in case of conflict between self-declared data and those in the government record.

Additionally, even though one of the purposes of Padu is to address leakages and better identify eligible recipients who fall through the existing subsidy system, there is no compelling evidence to believe that the Padu system, at its current implementation stage, can address these issues.

The whole quagmire further erodes public confidence in the government system, which directly requires the whole nation’s cooperation and support to work. With inefficiency already inching into every aspect of society, from the systemic failure of registration and the e-KYC process (just to note that my own application is still encumbered by a series of errors) to the elderly flocking to the offices of assemblymen and MPs for registration, there are also questions as to whether the system will end up a success or another government wastage.

The stakes are high for the current administration to prove itself. While early data security failure could have been prevented, the next step is crucial to regain public confidence. The ministry should also be responsive to the many questions raised on the system. Most importantly, the public needs to feel confident that the Padu system will serve to benefit them, instead of being another of the government’s projects that are subject to abuse and end up as a waste of public funds.

As the Anwar Ibrahim administration approaches its second year, and the Padu system being its first largest performance marker due to its intertwining nature with the government’s fiscal consolidation and subsidy targeting measures, a growing concern of the public in an environment of eroding purchasing power amid a series of ongoing inflation, the economy ministry needs to step up and put in extra effort to ensure its success and regain the people’s trust. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.