MyDistress was launched by the then Selangor CPO Dato’ Hj Tun Hisan Bin Hj Tun Hamzah on August 24, 2011. It was a mobile application that sent out a distress signal to the police when its user in Selangor activated it. It has been downloaded about 201,146 times to date.
However, it was announced by Bukit Aman Logistics director Datuk Zulkifli Abdullah on November 25 that MyDistress panic button smartphone app for Selangor residents would be replaced by SaveME 999 for nationwide coverage.
According to several parliamentary written replies, MyDistress was developed by a local company without any charges in fulfilment of their corporate social responsibility. On the other hand, SaveME 999 was developed by the Communication and Multimedia Ministry at a cost of almost RM1 billion. We demand BN government to reveal the breakdown of the actual costs of developing SaveME 999 and explain to the taxpayers why it scrapped a free application but spent almost RM1 billion to develop a new application that has similar functions?
Secondly, SaveME 999 was developed through the Malaysian Emergency Response System MERS 999, a system that was developed by Telekom Malaysa Berhad (TM) at the costs of RM801.55 million. However, in Auditor-General’s Report 2012, despite the fact that TM was found overpaid by RM27.59 million, it was found that the MERS 999 had performed poorly as a total of 7.65 million calls, or 32.4% of the total calls made to the emergency number were left unanswered. Hence, the effectiveness of SaveME 999 is seriously questionable.
It is imperative for the Minister of Home Affairs to explain to the public why MyDistress, an award-winning application, was replaced by a RM1 billion system which has yet to prove its effectiveness? Tax-payers also deserve to know if the project was awarded through open tender to ensure that the government would not overpay for the system again?