GLC chairmen should act in line with ruling government

THE august Dewan Rakyat saw a heated debate on Sept 20 after Transport Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong (BN-Ayer Hitam) threw down the gauntlet to Lim Guan Eng (PH-Bagan) to have an open debate over the present national cabotage policy.

It is strange that this challenge received the quick attention of Multimedia Development Corporation (MDEC) chairman Datuk Dr Rais Hussin Mohamed Ariff.

He even issued a statement immediately expecting that Lim would defeat Dr Wee if the debate was carried out.

Does Rais' action indirectly prove that he is willing to be a mouthpiece for the Opposition?

His comment fails to make sense as despite MDEC being a government agency under the Communications and Multimedia Ministry, the heart of its chairman seems to favour the Opposition.

My position is clear - all Federal Government employees, especially leaders of government agencies, should act in line with the ministries because they serve the ruling government or the "government of the day".

As MDEC chairman, Rais was supposed to share correct information with the public but he headed in the opposite direction.

For example, Rais often blamed the cabotage policy as the main reason why technology giants like Google and Facebook skipped Malaysia in the planning of subsea cable projects.

This view runs parallel with the Opposition’s, which deliberately distorts facts in order to confuse the people and deliberately find fault with their political opponents.

Domestic shipping licence

Although foreign-flagged vessels were exempted from applying for a Domestic Shipping License (DSL), the exemption touted by Anthony Loke, the former transport minister in the Pakatan Harapan administration, was unable to attract foreign investments from technology giants to choose Malaysia over Singapore.

It should be clarified that the exemption granted to foreign-flagged vessels during Pakatan‘s era merely referred to the process of verifying the absence of local vessels that must be obtained by all foreign-flagged vessels prior to application of DSL.

In other words, a valid DSL was still required before foreign-flagged vessels could carry out their work in our exclusive economic zone. The main issue that arose during the Pakatan era was the delay in processing DSL applications.

Speeding up approvals

Dr Wee, who has long been recognised as an expert in the field of transportation planning, has taken effective measures to expedite the DSL applications, from 30 days during the Pakatan era to only five days after the introduction of the electronic DSL (eDSL) system by the Transport Ministry.

The effectiveness of the ministry under the leadership of Dr Wee is so significant (that despite withdrawal of the exemption) there was an excellent record of approval efficiency for 10 DSLs (nine applications within five working days) to two foreign-flagged vessels - Asean Explorer and Asean Restorer - between December 2020 and August 2021.

This is certainly way better than the long waiting period during the Pakatan era.

Lack of data centres

The planning of the two cable projects - ECHO and BIFROST - began as early as 2015 where Singapore was selected following plans to build a Facebook data centre at Tanjong Keling Data Centre Park, Singapore, in 2019. The Japan South-East Asia consortium subsea cable project 2 (SJC2) in 2018 also skipped Malaysia.

It is clear that the ECHO, BIFROST & SJC2 subsea cable projects that bypassed Malaysia have nothing to do with the cabotage policy after the fall of the Pakatab government.

The main reason Malaysia was not selected was due to the lack of advanced data centres at that time.

Rais should have admitted this fact and put forward a plan to upgrade Malaysia's data centres but I am disappointed upon discovering he allegedly ignored this and continued to blame the cabotage policy that allegedly led to the failure of foreign direct investment (FDI).

It is thus apparent that Rais appears to deliberately pin the blame on Dr Wee.

The former’s allegation that the cabotage policy supported by the Transport Ministry was the culprit behind the fall of FDI is completely baseless and nonsensical!

As MDEC Chairman, Rais should use common sense to think wisely and talk facts instead of criticising the Transport Ministry blindly.

This is certainly a disservice to all ministry staff working and striving hard to improve our public transport system!

A simple question for Rais: What effective efforts did MDEC implement to increase the competitiveness of digital technology when Pakatan Harapan ruled the country from 2018 to 2020?

Foreign investors make their most profitable decisions by looking at various aspects, especially infrastructure as well as human resource expertise after years of research and careful planning.

The decision to exclude Malaysia in the undersea cable project of these tech giants was not made within a day or two.

US-China trade war

Industry players are aware that one of the main reasons American tech giants avoid laying undersea cables in the South China Sea is due to rising tensions between the two world superpowers namely China and the United States.

American companies avoid laying cables in the South China Sea, are concerned that communications traffic may be vulnerable to surveillance by Beijing.

That is why they prefer the Pacific Ocean as an alternate route to the South China Sea.

It would be a bit surprising if Rais is not aware of the current international relations known to the industry. Rais should be sensitive to this issue.

This is not the first time Rais disagreed with the Transport Ministry on the issue of the cabotage policy after the fall of the Pakatan government.

It is simply unacceptable for an MDEC chairman to openly support the opposition.

DR GAN KANG KAI

MCA Youth Central Committee Member