DAP’s Yeo warns nationwide Waze ban could disrupt logistics and gig economy

DAP national publicity secretary Yeo Bee Yin has urged the Malaysian government to reconsider imposing a nationwide ban on the Waze navigation app, emphasizing the disruption it could cause to over six million Malaysian motorists who rely on it for daily commutes and livelihoods.

She expressed concerns over Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's comments about the potential ban for security reasons and questioned the technical and geopolitical rationale behind such a move.

Yeo recommended engaging in high-level discussions with Waze's parent company to explore data sovereignty strategies and highlighted the challenges faced by a government-led alternative in matching the capabilities of established global tech firms.

She called for the National Security Council to involve industry experts and stakeholders in discussions before reaching a decision.

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.”

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民主行动党全国宣传秘书杨美盈敦促马来西亚政府重新考虑在全国范围内禁止使用Waze导航应用程序，并强调此举可能会对超过600万依赖该应用程序进行日常通勤和谋生的马来西亚驾车者造成干扰。

她对总理安瓦尔·易卜拉欣关于出于安全原因可能实施禁令的言论表示担忧，并质疑此举背后的技术和地缘政治合理性。

Yeo建议与Waze的母公司进行高层讨论，探讨数据主权战略，并强调了政府主导的替代方案在与成熟的全球科技公司的能力相匹配方面所面临的挑战。

她呼吁国家安全委员会在做出决定前，让行业专家和利益相关者参与讨论。

吉隆坡，10 月 24 日讯——民主行动党全国宣传秘书杨美盈警告联邦政府不要仓促在全国范围内全面禁止 Waze 导航应用程序，并警告说，突然禁止该应用程序将扰乱超过 600 万马来西亚活跃驾车者的日常通勤、物流和零工经济生计。

蒲种国会议员对首相拿督斯里安华·易卜拉欣的言论表示严重关切。安华昨天宣布，一旦国内出现可行的替代品，布城不排除全面禁止的可能性。

她在声明中表示：“如此重大的政策决定绝不能仓促做出或轻率对待。它直接影响到超过600万马来西亚活跃道路使用者，他们每天依靠实时导航来维持生计、通勤和处理各种事务。”

总理发表上述评论之前，以色列政府周三发布通告，禁止所有公务员使用Waze导航软件，理由是担心官方物流和个人出行数据可能被以色列政权收集。Waze否认了数据安全方面的指控，称其“完全是捏造的”，并坚称其全球运营严格遵守国际隐私标准。

安华昨日在脸书上就给公众带来的不便表示歉意，但他同时强调国家安全不容妥协。他还敦促驾车人士对政府自主研发的替代道路“Tuju”保持耐心，马来西亚高速公路管理局（LLM）及其私人开发商目前正在对其进行完善。

今天，杨认为，在考虑全国范围内的停电之前，布城必须解决关键的技术和地缘政治矛盾。

关于地区安全问题，她质疑海湾合作委员会成员国（包括沙特阿拉伯、阿拉伯联合酋长国、巴林、卡塔尔和科威特）为何在毗邻冲突地区并实施严格的国家安全法律的情况下，仍然允许 Waze 继续运营。

针对数据主权问题，杨洁篪询问政府是否已与Waze的美国母公司Alphabet进行过直接的高级别磋商，探讨过技术隔离的可能性。她指出，布城可以协商强制要求数据本地存储，确保马来西亚的遥测和位置记录安全地存储在主权国内服务器上。

Yeo还质疑像LLM这样的法定监管机构是否有能力构建和维护一个能够与全球科技公司相媲美的众包导航引擎。她指出，实时动态路线规划和低延迟道路危险信息更新需要庞大的计算规模、持续的算法改进和专业的软件工程。

她指出韩国是一个值得警惕的先例。尽管首尔通过《地理空间信息管理法》限制外国地图平台，但其国内领先的导航平台Naver Map和Kakao Map却是由数十亿美元的私营科技公司而非政府机构创建和发展壮大的。

“总而言之，这种反应过度的禁令可能会造成不必要的公共混乱、零工经济的经济摩擦，并损害马来西亚数字领域的声誉，”她说道。

“我们敦促国家安全委员会（MKN）在决定前进方向之前，咨询行业专家和导航技术专家，并与相关利益攸关方进行透明的沟通。”

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