It is most shocking that two of these Ministers are in the Prime Minister’s Department in Putrajaya, which is supposed to be fully electronic seven days a week and 24 hours a day and totally paperless. If these two Ministers operate in a paperless environment and yet cannot be reached by email, one must wonder whether they have become “phantom” Ministers.
It is also most shocking that one of the Ministers without email is none other than the Minister directly responsible for IT - the Minister for Energy, Communications and Multi-Media, Datuk Leo Moggie, whose email could not be found either on the website of the Prime Minister’s Department:
http://www.smpke.jpm.my/government/cabinet.htm
or the website of his own Ministry:
http://www.ktkm.gov.my/organisation/kpjbeg1.html
The Seventh Malaysia Plan was the first time Information Technology (IT) was addressed in a serious manner in the six five-year plans in the past three decades, and as a human year is said to be about five Internet years, Malaysia has been pushing IT for the past six years or 30 Internet years.
It should be no surprise that Malaysia’s IT development has lagged behind and failed to maintain the pace of development of other IT-oriented countries when there is still so much computer illiteracy in the Cabinet after 30 Internet years!
I hope the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad would crack the whip and direct all Ministers to be available through email contact within a month.
(4/5/2001)