PN and Wee Ka Siong’s decision to not reinstate PH’s cabotage exemption policy has caused technology giants to shun Malaysia!

DAP Secretary-General, Lim Guan Eng yesterday warned the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government that foreign technology investors in the digital sector will continue to shun Malaysia when there is no Cabinet unity. This was after Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong pointed the blame on his fellow Cabinet Member, Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan bin Md Yusof for the recent decision by tech giants Facebook and Google to exclude Malaysia for their undersea internet cable project.

In a statement released yesterday (5 April 2021), Lim said that Wee is being dishonest when he said that the reason why Malaysia was left out was because the tech giants chose Singapore due to Facebook having built a data centre at Tanjung Kling Data Centre Park in the island city-state. However, that would not make any sense considering Indonesia was also chosen by the tech giants for the project over Malaysia.

Lim, who is also the MP for Bagan asserted,

“Wee is not only deceiving himself but also the public.”

Furthermore, Wee Ka Siong has also denied responsibility for his decision to not reinstate cabotage exemption as the reason behind Facebook and Google’s decision to skip Malaysia for the undersea internet cable project. His clarification on the matter even prompted professional bodies such as the Malaysia Internet Exchange (MyIX) to openly criticise PN’s incompetence that have now resulted in huge loss for our country.

Last year, MyIX joined the call from the world’s tech giants in appealing to Wee Ka Siong and the PN government to reinstate Pakatan Harapan’s cabotage exemption policy. Facebook, Google and Microsoft all stressed that ensuring speedy recovery for undersea cables is a necessity in order to minimise internet downtime.

Referring to the appeal from the tech giants, Lim sarcastically remarked to Wee Ka Siong,

“Is Wee saying that Facebook, Google, Microsoft and MyIX were all lying?”

Worse, in an attempt to mask his incompetence on the matter, Wee even blamed his own Ministerial colleague Mohd Redzuan bin Md Yusof by saying that the latter wasted time and money on outdated ideas in to develop flying cars instead of building data centres in 2018 and 2019, causing Malaysia to be overlooked by international tech giants. Referring to Wee’s actions, Lim bemoans the non-existent unity and collective responsibility within the PN Cabinet.

Furthermore, Lim also questions whether Wee is also pinning the blame on either the Ministry of International Trade and Industry or the Multimedia and Communications Ministry. The DAP Secretary-General thus posed the question,

“In that case, both Azmin Ali and Saifudin Abdullah will have to explain to the public why Malaysia lost out to both Indonesia and Singapore.”

Thanks to Wee Ka Siong’s incompetence and dishonest attitude, tech giants will continue to overlook us for our neighbouring countries. Thus, the rakyat will end up being the one to pay the heaviest price. – The Rocket.