The issues being discussed mostly revolved around government websites and its lack of functions despite its many colourful interactive tabs, said Sarinah Hj Abd Hamid, a secondary school teacher from Kuala Belait.
Based on her experience of visiting government websites, most are still just pages of information for the department or ministry while those that do have a proper website posted on the Internet have features that are still under construction.
It has been like this for quite sometime, Sarimah added, pointing out that the situation has made her stop hoping to get anything out of visiting the sites.
Some have functions that promise to make things easier for visitors but even those are sometimes not very helpful, she said giving an example of a particular website which require users who are interested in applying for a service to print out the application form and hand it in personally to the office of that particular website.
Hj Aziz Hj Matnor, a business owner who deals in plants, made similar comments regarding his experience of online applications offered by various government departments and ministries.
Most online applications offered by these websites require the applicant to print out a copy of the form and send it in personally or through the post, he said.
This defeats the purpose of having online applications since the service requires you to do the opposite, he noted, adding that some websites even have links that direct the user to something else other than what it was intended for.
Sites like these are more 'hassle than helpful' since it takes up a lot of the user's time by clicking on `dead-end' links, said Hj Aziz.
The issue was brought up recently in the THiNKBIG Technology Forum by Hj Azhar Hj Ahmad, deputy permanent secretary (IT & E-Government) at the Prime Minister's Office.
In his observation of the issue the deputy permanent secretary attributed the situation to the initial focus of building up the infrastructure and internal system rather than the type of services that can best serve the public.
"What we are now actually focusing on are the services that are to be used by the citizens. We are looking at some things like home and utilities. For example, the payments of bills online, so people don't have to come to the counters to pay."
He said that one of the areas being focused on was that of applications, such as applications to transfer students or for passports. Rather than having people go and queue at the counters of government offices, people would be able to handle such matters online.
The deputy permanent secretary said, "This is something that we try to urge the agencies to look into their processes and how they can improve to give the citizens another channel for them to get that service from the government".
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Syed Rory Malai Hassan
Quelle/Source: Bru Direct, 02.11.2010
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