Sabah has become the second state in the country to request that the Federal government defer the registration for the Central Database Hub, also known as PADU. Like the state of Sarawak, Sabah Deputy Chief Minister, Jeffrey Kitingan, is asking the government to reassess the system.
Kitingan expressed deep concern over the Federal government’s push to get citizens to registered on PADU and says privacy and a lack of personal data protection as the reasons behind his reluctance of getting the state of Sabah onboard with the program. “I am also uncomfortable with Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli’s remarks on this issue, which seems too assertive, verging on coercive.”
Sabah Deputy Chief Minister. (Image source: FMT.)
To quickly recap, Sarawak became the first state, both in the country and East Malaysia, to instruct people in the state to hold from registering on PADU, for the security concerns mentioned in the paragraphs above. These concerns likely stem from recent cyber attack claims on the system which economy minister Rafizi Ramli previously denied, stating that no attacks on the Central Database has been successful since it launched in January.
“How prepared is the government to ensure that the data will be managed and protected securely with the influx of personal data coming into the system in such a short time?” Kitingan further said in a statement.
Rafizi has recently stated that registrations on PADU had increased to 7.7 million as of 24 March 2024, a climb from the 5.4 million that was previously recorded on 17 March. He added that of the registrations to date, the percentage of individuals aged 18 years and above has reached 35.1 per cent.
