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.