With all the hullabaloo over the inept use of technology to announce the national service programme candidates, one cannot help but to ask: why not just print the IC numbers of those selected in the newspapers?

All the technology in the world is pointless, if the people deploying it are incompetent. It is interesting how the contractor for the national service website , Xybase, describe themselves as the leading Malaysian software integrator. Yet, the way they have handled the site is downright unprofessional.

Already there are individuals who reported that their names were not found on Khidmat Negara's website, but were on the Ministry of Defence's list. I wonder whether the same problem would occur over SMS? Will the people given the wrong information be refunded their RM2?

One thing this whole fiasco proved is the attitude of 'form over function' is still prevalent among many in the government sector. The Khidmat Negara website was beautiful no doubt, but it failed to serve its purpose. Never mind if the system works, but ' gaya mesti ada '.

Will taxpayers be refunded for the gross incompetence of the webhost? Will the company pay the Defence Ministry for coming to their aid (and deployed a mirror site) when they failed to deliver the service as promised? Most importantly, will the government insist that the company compensate the government for loss of face?

It is a shame that in this world of modern technology, papyrus and the good old postal mail would probably have been a more reliable. They would have saved a lot of people unnecessary headache. I am still waiting for an apology from the defence minister because his ministry has obviously failed to deliver the goods in informing Malaysians who were drafted. Or has he been too busy gunning for the deputy prime minister's post?