KUALA LUMPUR, April 30 — The Perikatan Nasional (PN) government has failed the test of putting Malaysia’s digital future first by prioritising its own political future, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said.

In a statement today, Lim said he saw this as the government’s way of saving Transport Ministry Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong some face, and in turn, securing MCA’s two-MP support for PN.

"Malaysia’s digital investments of RM12 to RM15 billion are not as important as MCA’s two-MP support, (since it is) critical for the PN government which cannot afford to lose any MPs following the loss of its parliamentary majority,” Lim said.

Lim added that the Cabinet’s failure to meet its own two-week deadline to resolve Wee’s cabotage policy and rescue the nation’s digital future is symbolic of a failed government.  

Post-Cabinet meeting, on Wednesday, Lim claimed that there has yet to be an answer to a two-week deadline given by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to several ministries regarding the cabotage policy.

"Now that the two-week deadline is up, there is deafening silence on our digital future.

"Such indecisiveness on the outcome of this review is typical of a failed government,” Lim said.

On April 14, Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the Cabinet had in its meeting raised the issue of the cabotage policy exemption for submarine cable repairs.

Khairy was reported as saying that several ministers including himself had been instructed to deliberate on the impact of the cabotage policy exemption on digital investments and the local shipping industry.