Consider security before implementing Sarawak Pay, state govt urged

IRENE Chang ( DAP-Bukit Assek) said the state government should give due consideration to security before implementing Sarawak Pay and pushing Sarawak into digital economy.

“With the desire to keep abreast with the technology world comes the heavy responsibility of safeguarding our government and people from cyber theft of our government and personal data,” she said during the debate on the Sarawak Multimedia Authority Bill, 2017 yesterday.

Noting that a cashless society is the way of the future, she expressed concerns that nothing much has been revealed about the mechanism of this newest proposed electronic bill payment engine.

“We only know that we have the approval of Bank Negara to go cashless by 2018 and that the digital payment system is a collaboration between our state government and the Chinese multinational company, Huawei,” she said.

“And we have been informed that the state government would gently ease us into the cashless society by using it for payment of all local government services,” she added.

The people, Chang continued, were anxious to know the arrangement of the proposed joint venture between the state government and Huawei Company.

“What is the cost of installing the digital payment system? Who bears them? Are these costs allocated on a ‘ user pays’ basis? Would the people incur service charge for the use of the system and who would be collecting these service charges, Huawei or our state government?

“Furthermore, in what way is the mechanism for Sarawak Pay different from our current electronic bill payment system and payment engine in PayBillsMalaysia and PayBillsSarawak which is already available for online payment for local government agencies and participating merchants?” she asked.

Most importantly, Chang stressed, cyber security system to safeguard personal and government data must be in place considering that Huawei is considered a threat to national cyber security by many foreign governments including Singapore, Australia, United States and India.

“These countries are still resisting the infiltration of Huawei’s technologies into their national infrastructure. And what is of particular concern is the speculation that Huawei is owned by the Chinese government,” she said.

If the state government proceeds without giving any special attention to the concerns regarding Huawei, Chang warned that there would be possible that the people might find their personal data and government data in the hands of the Chinese government.

Earlier on, she criticised the manner in which the soft copies of the Government Bills were distributed to members of the august House, which she said would limit the time for state lawmakers to study the bills thoroughly.

“I refer to the Government Bills, the soft copies of which were only extended to some of us, the opposition members outside Kuching, one day before the sitting in this august House starts. I only received mine yesterday morning when I was in the middle of my preparation to fly to Kuching,” she said.