KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 24 — DAP national publicity secretary Yeo Bee Yin has cautioned the federal government against rushing into a blanket nationwide ban on the Waze navigation application, warning that a sudden prohibition would disrupt daily commutes, logistics, and gig-economy livelihoods for more than six million active Malaysian motorists.
The Puchong MP expressed serious concern over remarks by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who announced yesterday that Putrajaya has not ruled out a total ban once viable domestic alternatives mature.
“A policy decision of this scale must not be made in haste or taken lightly. It directly impacts over six million active Malaysian road users who depend on real-time navigation daily for their livelihoods, commutes, and logistics,” she said in a statement.
The prime minister's comments followed a circular issued on Wednesday barring all civil servants from using Waze over fears that official logistics and personal movement data could be harvested by the Israeli regime. Waze has dismissed the data security allegations as "completely false", asserting that its global operations adhere to strict international privacy standards.
While Anwar took to Facebook yesterday to apologise for public inconvenience, he maintained that national security cannot be compromised. He also urged motorists to exercise patience with the government's homegrown alternative, Tuju, which the Malaysian Highway Authority (LLM) and its private developer are currently refining.
Today, Yeo argued that before contemplating a nationwide blackout, Putrajaya must address critical technical and geopolitical inconsistencies.
On regional security, she questioned why Gulf Cooperation Council states, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, and Kuwait, continue to permit Waze despite being situated adjacent to the conflict zone while enforcing stringent national security laws.
Addressing data sovereignty, Yeo asked whether the government had explored technical ring-fencing through direct, high-level discussions with Waze's US parent company, Alphabet. She noted that Putrajaya could negotiate to mandate local data residency, ensuring Malaysian telemetry and location records are hosted securely on sovereign domestic servers.
Yeo also cast doubt on whether a statutory regulator like LLM can build and maintain a crowd-sourced navigation engine capable of matching global technology firms. Real-time dynamic routing and low-latency road hazard updates, she said, require immense computing scale, continuous algorithmic refinement, and specialized software engineering.
She pointed to South Korea as a cautionary precedent. While Seoul restricts foreign mapping platforms under its Geospatial Information Management Act, its domestic navigation leaders, Naver Map and KakaoMap, were built and scaled by multi-billion-dollar private tech corporations rather than government agencies.
“All in all, a reactionary ban risks unnecessary public disruption, economic friction for the gig economy, and reputational damage to Malaysia’s digital landscape,” she said.
“We urge the National Security Council (MKN) to consult industry experts and navigation technology specialists as well as engage relevant stakeholders transparently before deciding on the way forward.”