Cabotage Policy Wee Vs Lim Debate Starts

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WATCH LIVE : https://www.astroawani.com/video-terkini
The long-running spat between Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong from MCA and DAP's Lim Guan Eng over the cabotage policy on foreign ships that repair submarine cables in Malaysia reaches its peak tonight.
The two rival politicians are set for a one-hour debate session that started at 9.30pm. It is aired on Astro Awani and TV8, as well as on TV3’s social media pages.
Wee and Lim had been challenging each other to debate on the cabotage policy since the minister revoked a cabotage exemption on foreign ships in the repair of undersea internet cables.
The exemption was a policy introduced by Pakatan Harapan when it was in the federal government but Wee revoked it last year after Perikatan Nasional took over Putrajaya.
This then led Lim and several other Harapan leaders to criticise Wee, saying that his decision caused tech giants to shy away from Malaysia.
Following the revocation, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and MyIX had also appealed to then prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin to restore the exemption, stressing that they were necessary to ensure speedy repairs of undersea cables for minimal internet downtime.
They said only one local company was capable of doing repairs and the cabotage policy would lead to a monopoly.
However, Wee has remained firm on reinstating the cabotage policy. He insisted that the policy won’t impact tech investments and stressed that it was necessary to protect the local shipping industry.
The minister also claimed that Facebook and Google’s decision to skip Malaysia for their undersea internet cable had nothing to do with the cabotage policy.

Instead, Wee said the reason Singapore was chosen was that Facebook had built a data centre at Tanjung Kling Data Centre Park on the island state.
The argument between Wee and Lim, which largely took place over news reports and social media posts, was later taken into the Dewan Rakyat, where they challenged each other to debate the matter.
Speaker Azhar Azizan Harun had then volunteered to follow up with Wee on his invitation to debate Lim.
The spat also saw Lim accusing Wee of misleading Parliament.
This comes after Wee’s statement in the Dewan Rakyat which seemed to be in conflict with that of Communications and Multimedia Minister Annuar Musa.
Annuar said Facebook and Google “bypassed” Malaysia for the landing of the Apricot project “in view of the unresolved issue concerning the exemption for the cabotage policy”.
The incident then led to Azhar ordering Wee to provide an explanation, after Lim filed a motion requesting Wee to be referred to the Rights and Privileges Committee. - Mkini

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