For most of us, it all began on the evening of 17 March, the day before the Movement Control Order (MCO was issued). All was calm, and everyone was prepared to stay home and stay safe.

And then the police made an announcement. No one could travel between states from midnight onwards. Everyone panicked.

On the one hand, we know that the country is going to be on MCO for two weeks. Most of us are going to have to work from home. We will have to stay in.

On the other hand, we have loved ones back in our hometowns that may be a state or two away. A lot of folks work in the big city but leave their family back in their hometowns where life is more affordable and less hectic. They only go back on weekends or holidays.

Others may have elderly parents or relatives back in their hometowns that they need to care for.

Before midnight, the exodus began.

The government refers to it as people taking advantage of the situation to “balik kampung”, to go back and have a break at their hometown.

Whatever the reason is, the result is a lot of city folks being stuck and unable to come back to the city.

Now in the fourth phase of the MCO (8 weeks), we can see that the government is formulating an exit plan out of the MCO. A “soft landing” as the Director-General of the Health Ministry put it. But, for that to work, the government needs to bring the city folks back to the cities where they work. And that is like herding cats.

To make things easier and systematic, the government launched the Gerak Malaysia App. While MySejahtera is a contact tracing app, Gerak Malaysia is a movement tracking app and travel permission generator.

The primary function of this app is to generate a QR code that functions as a travel pass. A registered user can create a pass that the authorities can scan to get the user’s details and reason for travel, like shopping for essentials, or a medical emergency.

The app can also be used to request an interstate travel pass. One which folks stuck in their hometowns can use to travel back to the city.

Contact tracing and tracking is the best weapon we have during this pandemic, and it is working. And these apps help. However, I wished the whole thing was one central app that can be upgraded with added features as needed.

It is difficult enough to make people install one app out of the goodness of their hearts to help the country and jump through hoops to register. It’s tougher to make people install two.

If the features of the Gerak Malaysia app (which is a need for some) were in the MySejahrata (data collection) app, imagine the increase in the number of users. That alone would make the app more effective. Now the data may be all over the place.