Here’s the right app to navigate around the Waze-Tuju mess

So now “gomen” employees can’t use Waze, the popular navigation app. This is a truly funny-but-not-funny situation. Somebody must have invoked some scary natural security scenarios about the dangers this US-owned, Israeli-founded company poses to our nation.

Here’s why this isn’t trivial. A company I once worked in experienced a massive computer hack. Experts from overseas were brought in to investigate. Panic reigned at the top. What I remember most from the briefings by the experts was the experts saying that everyone in the industry has either been hacked, or has been hacked and didn’t know about it.

I felt rather naked knowing somebody somewhere has a lot of detailed info about me, even if the only juicy details were about at which street corners were the best char kuey teow stalls.

It turns out one of the easiest ways to hack a human target and steal information more critical than just the locations of char kuey teow stalls is to hack their co-workers, assistants, family, friends, or football buddies and not necessarily the targets themselves.

That’s not as exciting as what happens in a James Bond movie, but rather the more plodding and low-key style of a John le Carre novel. One way or another, though, with enough cunning and guile and resources, people can find out a lot of things that others would prefer left hidden.

Why they snoop

Digital surveillance has become a massive business as well as a national security tool – checking what, when, and where we went or bought or spoke, as well as where we browsed on the internet and what social media content we generated or consumed. Artificial Intelligence has made it all easier.

The purpose of all this snooping is often just to sell you stuff, but increasingly it’s also becoming a way to control people and societies and even conduct warfare – as in the case of Elon Musk personally throttling his Starlink and Starshield services to Ukraine, thus harming Ukraine’s war efforts. That was one of the reasons many European nations are building digital alternatives to what Musk and the US offer, a trend that’s only gaining speed.

They’re not just looking for alternatives for the latest digital stuff, either. Many nations have begun cutting off links they have relied on for decades with nations they no longer deem reliable for software, data centres and cloud services, computer chips, critical scientific research etc.

The big powers, especially the US and China, have been manipulating each other and others for years. China, which is fast catching up with the West in digital capabilities, looks safer today by comparison, but certainly they’re playing this same game too.

The Malaysian way

After banning Waze, Malaysia took the obvious next step by recommending the use of a home-grown alternative called TuJu, an app apparently running off the same backbone as Waze, but hosting all the captured data in some secure local data centres.

I haven’t downloaded TuJu, or used it in any shape or form. I know the locations of the best char kuey teow stalls by heart and can get there come rain or shine or traffic jams or anything else, up to a haze API level of 200. I’m fine, thank you.

Of course, we’re going about this the typical time-honoured Malaysia-Boleh way. First the government declares a critical national objective – industrialisation, national security, safety, pandemic response, etc.—and then, lo and behold, there appears a ready-made Malaysian solution!

We’ve seen this all before. The secrecy behind such decisions is often at a high level. Don’t forget even a toll highway concession agreement between the government and private parties is considered a sensitive national secret. Malaysia Boleh often actually means Malaysia Tak Boleh for the rest of us.

What little I know about TuJu doesn’t give me much confidence. The names associated with it seems to be the usual cast of characters of door openers to lucrative government contracts and not quite young genius alumni of the world’s top research universities or tech corporations or research institutions.

The other way

When it comes to high-tech, especially digital ones, I’m sceptical of people of my age and generation. We’re often the generation that calls AI “A-One”, as a famous episode involving a US cabinet member – handling education of all things! – hilariously reveals.

I wouldn’t even trust myself, even if I’m actually AI personified! The only good thing I can design and develop would be maps on napkins about the aforementioned char kuey teow locations which are, if I’m honest, not that great, after all.

But I’ve thought about making my own digital contributions during these critical times because it seems any old fogey can do it. I plan to release TuDia, an app that points out where you need to go; TangTu and TangNi to tell you when you’ve arrived here or there, and TuPun and TuLah to argue or commiserate with you when you’re lost.

And why not? The needs are real and urgent. All I’m asking for is complete access to all Malaysians’ personal data with a promise not to sell it to Elon Musk or Israel under a 50-year exclusive agreement that’ll be classified as a national secret forever.

Ah, silly dreams. I think all that’ll happen to me is, as Penangites like to say, that I’ll Pi Mai Pi Mai Tang Tu Jugak.

Which may work out as the name of another app that describes life in Malaysia Bolehland.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.

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