The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Right after the general round of election, people started downloading Suung Joan App that was pledged by Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DNT). A link to the Suung Joen App was shared on the social media that went viral.
However, DNT said that the party is busy with works to form the government and therefore, has had no time to launch any app.
General Secretary, DNT, Phurba, said that the pledges are yet to be implemented. He said that the Suung Joen App being installed by the people these days is a fake one.
He said, “We did not start our work on this because first, we have to take over the government, discuss the pledges in the Parliament and then implement them, if approved by both the Houses. Moreover, for now, time to appeal is still on.”
He also said the people are being duped. “We have no right to tell them not to install the existing app but we must make a correction that, that is not DNT’s said App,” he said.
He pointed out that people can crosscheck to see if such apps are fake or not. “There are people who do it for fun, some for hatred and some to create a mess,” he added.
DNT plans to launch the Suung Joen App officially, providing detailed information about the app, its usage and its advantage, he said, adding, “Whatever we do, we will do through a proper protocol, and we will make sure to let the people know officially.”
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister Elect, Dr Lotay Tshering, in an earlier interview with the paper, said that DNT held consultations with the people on the need of such a social messaging app, and then came up with the party pledge on Suung Joen App.
Phurba said DNT is committed to fulfilling its pledges regardless of which member initiated the pledges. The idea of Suung Joen App was contributed by all the party members, however, Karma Dorji, a candidate from Nanglam who is an ICT expert, took the initiative forward. “Since he (Karma Dorji) lost to his opponent from his constituency, it is not that he is no more a part of DNT. He will remain as a party member because he is one of the members who formed DNT,” Phurba added.
He also said people should be careful when downloading fake apps as it can be dangerous when opening such links can cause the phone device to crash.
Tshering Zangmo Tobgay, 36, who works in the private sector, had downloaded the Suung Joen App from a group chat in WeChat.
However, she said, “After installing the app, I tried with a message but that message directly gets linked with other apps like Instagram and Telegram.” Therefore, thinking that it is not safe she uninstalled the app.
Suung Joen App is designed to be similar with the popular WeChat, WhatsApp and Telegram. The only difference is that Suung Joen will be an entirely local app but all its functions will be same like other international apps.
