PETALING JAYA: Former minister Yeo Bee Yin has urged the government to consult industry experts and navigation technology specialists before moving to ban the use of popular navigation app Waze.
The DAP publicity secretary said such a policy decision must not be made in haste as it would affect six million Malaysian road users who depend on Waze, whether for their livelihoods, daily commutes or logistics.
Acknowledging concerns over the app's Israeli origins, Yeo questioned why nations under the Gulf Cooperation Council have yet to implement similar bans.
"Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, Kuwait, and Qatar have not banned Waze. Yet these nations are located in immediate geographic proximity to the conflict and maintain strict national security protocols.
"A reactionary ban risks unnecessary public disruption, economic friction for the gig economy, and reputational damage to Malaysia’s digital landscape.
"We urge the National Security Council (MKN) to consult industry experts, navigation technology specialists and the relevant stakeholders transparently before deciding on the way forward," she said in a statement.
Yeo also asked if Putrajaya has engaged Waze's US-based parent company, Alphabet, to explore hosting Malaysian data on local servers instead of banning the app outright.
While acknowledging the availability of alternatives like Google Maps, the Puchong MP said commuters commonly reference multiple apps to optimally plan their journeys.
Yeo also scoffed at using TuJu as a Waze replacement, questioning whether the government was being realistic.
"Does the government realistically expect a statutory body like the Malaysian Highway Authority to build, optimise, and maintain a crowd-sourced navigation platform capable of matching global tech giants?
"Developing dynamic routing algorithms and maintaining low-latency map data require a massive scale, continuous machine-learning optimisation, and dedicated engineering capacity.
"Even in South Korea — where the Geospatial Information Management Act restricts full offshore hosting for Google Maps and Waze — viable local alternatives like Naver Map and KakaoMap were built and scaled by multibillion-dollar domestic tech conglomerates, not government agencies," she added.
The government has banned the use of Waze by civil servants and is considering imposing a complete ban.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim had said this was to prevent Israel from misusing government information and users’ personal data, urging the public to switch to local alternatives such as TuJu.
TuJu has however come under criticism from users while tech experts said the locally developed app still raises privacy concerns.