DEWAN Rakyat Speaker Azhar Azizan Harun today ordered Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong to explain the cabotage policy after he was accused by Bagan MP Lim Guan Eng of misleading the House on the matter.

This came after Lim filed a motion to refer Wee to the Rights and Privileges Committee over the minister’s September 30 comment.

“The statement is seen as contradicting the written reply provided by the Ketereh MP (Annuar Musa), who is also the communications and multimedia minister, to the Bukit Mertajam MP (Steven Sim) on Oct 5,” Azhar said in a letter.

Wee, who is the Ayer Hitam lawmaker, was told to submit documents or proof to support his statement.

Lim said while filing the motion on October 11 that Wee had misled the House when he was questioned on whether there was truth to former MDEC chairman Dr Rais Hussin’s claim that the decision to revoke the cabotage policy had led to a loss of of undersea cable projects which could have brought in foreign investments worth up to RM15 biillion .

Quoting Wee, Lim said the MCA president had dismissed the claim saying that the cabotage policy only applied to repair and not installation work.

However, Annuar said in a written reply on October 5 that the cabotage policy had caused Malaysia to be passed over by Facebook and Google for the Apricot subsea cables installation project.

Cabotage is the transport of goods or passengers between two places in the same country by a transport operator from another country.

“It has been proven that YB Ayer Hitam had tried to confuse the honourable House because the communication and multimedia minister had clearly stated that the cabotage policy issue which had yet to be resolved had led to Malaysia being bypassed for the Apricot project,” Lim said.

“YB Ayer Hitam’s statement was not only irresponsible but he had also lied to the House by twisting the facts.”

The former finance minister said Wee’s mistake had led the government to lose out on high quality technology investment worth billions of ringgit.

Lim had previously invited Wee to debate the cabotage policy. – October 14, 2021.