Computing Professional Bill – my take
When I saw Erna blog and tweet about it, something interesting came across my mind. So it seems. It talks about registering the IT professionals and even the corporation as well. In her part II, it drills down to limit for those involved the CNII – Critical National Information Infrastructure
It brings me back to my first encounter of such kind. It was in 2007 when blogging still at its infant. Few of us (bloggers) were approached to setup a similar kind. A body or board that registering all the Malaysia bloggers. Back then the PPS still alive. Luckily it doesn’t go through. We wouldn’t want to be associated with any political motives.
Now when this CPB appears, I realized the same intentions as previous encounter. Furthermore I personally thinks that the system is created not for crony but also to protect the government investment…. In a good way. I guess the approach to this is rather wrong.
Why I would say that? In year 2008-2009, I was working on a tender for a government project. It was so huge the amount that there were many parties aiming for that chunk of pie. It begins with a proposal to digitize the ministry. So a consultant was engaged. That was way before I joined the company. The consultant proposed an overview and a blueprint of that solution. Then when the proposal got up to the ministry, it was siphon out to cronies. They came back with another
proposal. Similar to the initial proposal but was from different company.
A tender was called. Few months later, cancelled. Then the project was re-tender for the second time. This time it doesn’t go through again. Another intervention. By the third tender was out, it was compiled by a person without background of IT. He was simply cut and paste of all the proposal submitted from earlier tender.
By then, it was awarded to a company which was newly setup. A company without any track record. Most of the pieces of the credentials were borrowed from their sub-contractors. The thing was these sub contractors does not have the required license to bid for the project. For example, any government tender requires the participated company to have a MoF certification. These certification usually means they have to be a Bumi status company.
When my company was approached to work for the infrastructure based on the earlier proposal, my consultant was having the time of his life. The proposal was 2 years old and by then it has been replaced with newer technology. It was no longer valid or make sense to run on the older technology platform. We have to spend a lot of time to provide variations on the obsolete products.
Luckily in then end, the project was called off even they have awarded it to that 2-dollar company. I not sure what happen next because the guy who was the director of that company went missing in action. We even joked that he seems to be exiled to neighboring country.
Still, with this kind of fiasco it make sense that why the relevant parties wanted to have this bill so dearly. First is to ensure their market protected from any 2-dollar company. Secondly, they want to make it harder for smaller and capable company from gaining an access to these projects. This is just a roadblock to certain decent company and it is a huge roadblock.
Imagine that you have to hire a CCNA, CCIE or whatever Cisco, SAP, etc… That already cost oh a bomb. Any private corporation nowadays require their vendor to be certified in any of their field. Likewise, even I was able to advise and consult on the design on the network infrastructure, I still need to engage my vendor who are certified in their field to support as well as be involved for the design & deployment.
Coming back to that CPB, I am strongly oppose the bill. In fact, I believe there could better way to manage it. Nonetheless, we need to consider the national interest especially when they have MyIX deployed or for example the network infrastructure of the KWAP. =p Or else there will be another wikileaks.
Lets hope for the best and pray for the worst. We all gonna die!!!!!!!!!!!
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