Malaysian govt IT plan blasted

Malaysian govt IT plan blasted

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysia's opposition party on Friday criticized a scheme to sell computers through the post office and pressed the government to abolish the controversial program.

Lim Kit Siang, chairman of the Chinese dominated Democratic Action Party (DAP), said the post office should instead raise the low Internet penetration rate in the country.

"The post office should play a key role in a national strategy for community-based access to IT (information technology) to raise the Internet penetration rate instead of being a monopoly to sell computers under the EPF scheme," he said in a statement.

Workers, who must contribute 11 percent of their earnings to the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF), are allowed to withdraw some of the money before retirement age for house or computer purchases.

The government, worried that many people were cheating on the scheme and withdrawing cash for other purposes, last month decreed that all computer purchases using EPF money must be made through Pos Malaysia.