Pakatan Harapan MPs blame Azmin for Miti website crash

By MT Webmaster On Apr 14, 2020

Fahmi Fadzil, Dr Ong Kian Ming and Dr Hatta Ramli.

(FMT) – Three Pakatan Harapan MPs have called on International Trade and Industry Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali to take responsibility after the ministry’s website crashed due to the flood of applications by businesses seeking permits to operate during the movement control order (MCO).

They also urged Azmin to come up with a plan to resolve the issue immediately.

The international trade and industry ministry (Miti) yesterday suspended applications following a spike in traffic on its website.

In a statement, Miti said the portal to apply for permits to conduct business under the MCO was opened at 9am. In just two hours, as many as 176,000 visitors had tried to access the site.

Miti also found that a majority of visitors were not businesses but individuals accessing its portal.

It said it would reconfigure the application system to ensure that only companies in approved sectors are allowed access.

However, Fahmi Fadzil (PKR), Ong Kian Ming (DAP) and Hatta Ramli (Amanah) said the problem could not be resolved by reconfiguring the system.

“We already predicted that it would take time to process the thousands of applications when there is no clear guideline,” they added in a joint statement today.

They also questioned how Miti could differentiate between individuals and companies visiting its site, especially as many are working from home and therefore accessing the internet from home as well.

They also pointed out that the 176,000 visitors may not have been unique visitors but rather those trying multiple times to access the site.

They said Miti should have expected its site to be flooded by visitors following the announcement allowing more sectors to open shop.

They added that the ministry’s definition of the type of sectors given the green light was too general, which had led to more people applying for permits.

“Miti also encouraged all the companies that were allowed to operate before to re-apply for approval,” they said.