Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong should not use the 2022 Budget as an excuse but admit that his England trip is the real reason why he rejected 23 October and proposed instead 2 November for his debate challenge on his cabotage policy that caused Apricot’s 12,000 km submarine cables to bypass Malaysia and risk RM12-15 billion in high-tech investments. There is no point for me to insist on 23 October for the debate when Wee was in England this past week and has to undergo COVID-19 quarantine on his return to Malaysia.
I can only agree to Wee’s proposed date of 2 November and both DAP Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching and Bangi MP Dr Ong Kian Ming have contacted Wee and his office 2 days ago and are awaiting his response. Unfortunately, Wee continues to hurl baseless personal attacks against me, including displaying his ignorance of what is a meme that was posted in my facebook as a short chronology of the events leading to his debate challenge.
Wee has also got assistance from a political heavyweight in former Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to make baseless personal attacks against me. Najib tries to mock me by predicting that I would not dare to debate Wee. I am certain that Wee would not disappoint Najib by either he or his office meeting both Dr Ong and Teo to work out the logistics and details of the debate.
Malaysian cabotage law covers submarine cable deployment and repair, which means when the best ship available for a cable repair is a foreign ship, a Domestic Shipping Licence Exemption (DSLE) is required. Before this can be issued, local ship owners are asked for their consent through the Malaysia Ship Owners Association (Masa). In fact, shipowners who think they can handle the repair job can block the issuance of the DSLE. This is the main contention by tech giants and industry players that the foreign repair vessels require consent from their local competitors for up to 3 days to get a DSLE.
Will this requirement where local ship owners are asked for their consent through MASA and blocking the issuance of the DSLE to foreign repair ships be modified, changed or dropped altogether?
On 1st September 2021, tech giants Amazon Web Services(AWS), Facebook, Google and Microsoft together with Malaysia Internet Exchange(MyIX) which is under Multimedia and Communications Ministry(KKMM), had written to the Prime Minister to reverse Wee’s wrong policy and seek a cabotage exemption for submarine cable repairs. Wee had denied that the Apricot decision to bypass Malaysia was due to Wee’s refusal to grant a cabotage exemption for foreign ships carrying out submarine cable repairs.
On 5 October Wee posted on his facebook that the Cabinet will finalise the cabotage policy by early October, indicating a review of existing policy on repairs of submarine cables. This is already the end of October, what is the outcome of the Cabinet decision?