'How can our confidential data be given to a private company? Can we sue the government if this is implemented?'

Tricubes to charge 50 sen per email, confirms CEO

Oo Kok Siew: This really takes the cake and insults the intelligence of every Malaysian. Gmail, Yahoo, Windowsmail are all free. Google would probably even pay our government for allowing them to provide Internet advertising for all citizens - what a captive market for them.

Corruption has come to a new low in Malaysia. We must be the laughing stock of the world.

Anonymous _dhf3b: From GN3 to PN14 - that is the way out for this ridiculous company with a ridiculous idea. In the history of computing, no company has even tried to sell emails.

I hate to admit this as a BN supporter, but this is blatant corruption and a complete waste of energy, time and manpower. As I have always said, I do not actually like BN, but like many, I do not think the chauvinistic DAP, Islamic PAS and the rubbish PKR is going to make it any better.

I pray that God send to us a savior, and I believe as time goes by, we will get it organically or someone from opposition makes the grade.

SusahKes: There are days - like today - when I shake my head at this Umno government's lack of wisdom or insight. Is this how 1Malaysia is being run these days, giving us harebrained ideas and then expecting the 21st century crowd to buy them?

Umno, please wake up. This is not the dark ages; this is the age of the Internet. People know a snake oil scheme when they see one. Unless of course, you're expecting a couple of suckers...

3com: This is what you all need to know about email security. There are two - secure transport and cryptography.

The ‘secure transport' merely provide an encrypted network layer for email communications. This is same as HTTPS (SSL) for websites. The cost for this is one time, and can start as low as US$50 per year.

The ‘cryptography' is to encrypt your email so that it is only readable for your intended recipient(s). This is used by military (terrorists too) for very highly sensitive communications. It is available for you to use, called S/MIME (Secure MIME).

Even your Outlook Express has this feature. You just need to get a S/MIME certificate, which has free option too. If we want to sell commercially, then it can cost you as low as US$5 per year per email address. With this, you can send unlimited emails at no extra cost.

Gmail provides ‘Secure transportation' only. S/MIME is hard to deploy for the masses.

Quigonbond: Tricubes CEO Khairun Zainal Mokhtar is very dishonest to even dare to proclaim that investors will take up the rights issue because it is a "feasible" project.

In view of public opposition to this stupid idea, Najib Razak and Pemandu is going to have to scrap the project sooner or later.

The bottom line is not how much money the government can save in stamps and envelopes, but the necessity of the service and how the government ought not pay the RM50 million in the first place.

HYL: Why do I need to pay for a secured email account when I can get it free from Yahoo, MSN or Google mail?

And I definitely will not subscribe to this government email because I am sure they will monitor and scrutinise all my emails and if I write something which is innocent but for some reason the government deems it anti-Melayu, anti-1Malaysia or anti-BN, then I will get into big, big trouble.

It's another way for them to pocket our money and to monitor us and suppress our freedom of speech.

Veena Pillai: I can see where this is going. It starts off free and then a charge is applied for usage. Finally, all of us are required to go through Tricubes to access any government site, including making payments.

Werewolves: I believe all government agencies' employees will have to subscribe to the email. When these government agencies send out their email of notification to their employees, each email will be charged 50 sen.

Say two million emails is sent every month, that will generate RM1 million in revenue per month or RM12 million per year. Most of it is from the taxpayers since it is the government agencies which are going to pay this fees. Also it will reduce the revenue of post office.

Anonymous_5fb: See how 'smart' they can be, and they call it innovative, new business model with merits. Please go elsewhere to test your 'brilliant' model first before introduce it in Malaysia.

Meanwhile, we are satisfied with our existing emails and the government agencies can send information to us without hassles. Good luck to you, anyway. Hope you succeed elsewhere.

Kleo: This confirmation just made Najib a dumbass for 'assuring' the public that the 1Malaysia email will be free of charge, and as usual, it made Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin look like a fool for defending Najib against the so-called 'little Napoleon' in Pemandu.

El Nino: It is making a mockery of our privacy. How can our confidential data be given to a private company? Can we sue the government if this is implemented? Regardless of non-disclosure agreements, I for one do not agree to this.

Also, why should my taxpayer ringgit go to a private company when it can be delivered to me FOC (free of charge)? I have my Unifi email.

This is just another way to make more Umnoputra's rich. Trust me when I say that I will never vote for BN as long as these harebrained ideas are implemented. Najib, if you even hope to win a few seats in GE13, heed the words of the rakyat. Stop this now.

Changeagent: Khairun is a classic case of all that is wrong with so many of our other Umno-connected entrepreneurs. While the established email providers are competing among themselves to provide safer and faster services for free, here comes a local upstart who provides an inferior and admittedly insecure service that charges 50 sen per email.

Without the rent-seeking and patronage from Umno, Tricubes would be obliterated and torn to shreds by the competition. And yet, Khairun has the cheek to tell us that investors are 'confident in the merits of the project'.

NuckinFuts: Tricubes and the government has been very untruthful since day 1. Why should anyone use their email? And to get a USB dongle and surrender our NRD (National Registration Department) details to a private company is just plain suspicious.

It could turn out to be some black box to spy on the rakyat. What if Tricubes gets taken over by some Singapore or US technology company in the future? Would that pose a national security threat when everyone's data is up for sale?

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