KUALA LUMPUR: The Selangor government plans to develop an integrated mobile application featuring the services and complaint channels of all 12 local authorities in the state.
The move has raised eyebrows as Malaysia already has the MyGov App, which serves as the country’s single digital gateway for government services.
Ironically, State Local Government and Tourism Committee chairman Datuk Ng Suee Lim said the Selangor government had received feedback from users that there were too many applications and they were sometimes confused about which one to use.
An industry insider said it was baffling that another mobile application was being developed when the state government could easily work with MyGov to ensure its services were also available on the platform.
“Touch ‘n Go has done it pretty well. They have tonnes of services that are compartmentalised and listed in an orderly fashion. The same can be done via the MyGov App,” the industry insider said.
“If the feedback from users is that there are too many applications and that they are confused about which application to use, then the natural thing to do is to concentrate on one mobile application, and one only. Why add to the confusion?”
Cybersecurity expert Murugason R. Thangaratnam said that Selangor’s proposed app would overlap with the federal MyGov platform.
“That platform already consolidates 34 services across 16 agencies and is expanding further. Duplicating infrastructure risks a fragmented user experience, wasted public funds and inconsistent security postures,” said Murugason.
“MyGov’s architecture explicitly allows the integration of state and local services. Selangor’s complaint channels, tax payments and licensing can be added as modules, avoiding redundant development and maintenance.”
He added that it would be safer to have one app rather than multiple ones.
“Each additional app multiplies attack surfaces, data silos and compliance overhead. Centralising within MyGov ensures uniform encryption, audit trails and PDPA alignment, making breaches easier to detect and contain,” he said.
Murugason added that his advice to the Selangor government was to pause its independent development.
“It should partner with GovTech Malaysia and the National Digital Department to embed Selangor-specific workflows into MyGov. Resources should be redirected towards digital literacy, API governance and citizen feedback loops, rather than parallel platforms,” he said.
“Building a second super app isn’t innovation; it’s institutional inefficiency disguised as progress.”
