Malaysia’s travel reopening cheer tainted by controversy over Covid-19 contact-tracing app

Critics say controversy surrounding MySejahtera app, Malaysia’s answer to LeaveHomeSafe, symbolises country’s poor government accountability the last two years

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin insisted there is nothing untoward in the entire saga and citizens personal data is secure

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The ‘MySejahtera’ Covid tracking app was at the centre of a controversy in Malaysia as the country allows quarantine-free travel to all vaccinated travellers Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 11:30am, 2 Apr 2022Updated: 11:00pm, 3 Apr 2022

A multilayered ownership controversy over Malaysia’s Covid-19 tracking application marred what would have been a week to remember for Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s government as the country allows quarantine-free travel to all vaccinated travellers.

After a trying two years of the health crisis, the reopening has been highly anticipated by citizens and officials alike, with Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin taking to social media to welcome foreign arrivals.

At home, however, the government’s critics and some observers said the travel milestone did not mean they would mute their repeated calls for accountability on some of the government’s questionable decisions the last two years.

Vehicles form a long queue to enter the Woodlands Checkpoint in Singapore early on Friday, before crossing the causeway to Malaysia’s southern Johor state, as both countries reopen its borders to fully vaccinated travellers. Photo: AFP

The current controversy surrounding the MySejahtera app – similar to Singapore’s TraceTogether and Hong Kong’s LeaveHomeSafe – pertains to recent reports by the health news portal CodeBlue that revealed the Malaysian app might not be fully government owned as many were led to believe.

Instead, its proprietor was a Singapore-based company.