TuJu debacle signals serious governance lapse
Standfirst: Never in Malaysian policy history has a major decision been rushed with such reckless haste — and backfired so spectacularly. It beat all speed limits!
Parkaran Kutty
While Malaysians were choking through the haze, Waze — the Israeli-founded navigation app — suddenly grabbed the spotlight. Out of nowhere, we learned civil servants were banned from using it over data security fears.
The shock was palpable. For millions, checking Waze before leaving home is as routine as breathing. Now we're told our personal data was at risk with an Israeli-linked company.
What actually went wrong?
Sound governance demands a roadmap before any major policy shift. But the breakneck speed of the Waze ban — and the chaos that followed — exposed a glaring fault line in decision-making.
The uproar after Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's announcement was inevitable. Most Malaysians had never heard of TuJu, the Malaysian Highway Authority's homegrown navigation app.
Then came the crash.
Nearly 800,000 users flooded TuJu's system — which was apparently built to handle much fewer users at any one time. That's the capacity the Prosignal Consortium Sdn Bhd, the private firm behind TuJu, apparently paid Google for.
Forget finger-pointing about which administration signed the original deal. That solves nothing. The real question: Why rush a major policy with no proper plan?
This is governance failure, pure and simple. Even if the private contractor gave faulty projections to the Prime Minister's Department, Malaysia's own digital agencies should have been consulted.
There are the national digital department, national security council, Malaysian communications and multimedia commission and other agencies under the digital ministry.
Were they? Almost certainly not. They all reportedly entered the picture only after the debacle, with frantic meetings scrambling to contain the damage.
Those technocratic consultations should have happened before the decision — not after. IT experts should have scrutinised the deal's viability from the start.
Highly placed sources said the Cabinet took a serious view of the lapses involved which it ordered to be rectified ias soon as possible.
But the politicians behind this move, who may have calculated it would shore up Muslim support through an anti-Israel stance, must also answer for it.
Anwar acted on the National Cyber Security Committee's (JKSN) advice, which cited national cyber sovereignty, sensitive data security, and geopolitical exposure as grounds for the ban.
JKSN was right to flag the risks. But the response should have been with more speed, less haste. A proper roadmap would have included a timeline to stress-test TuJu first and identify its weaknesses.
The digital and security departments and agencies should have been directed to meet Prosignal. The deal with Malaysian Highway Authority (LLM) was signed in May 2022 — six months before the last general election.
According to Malaysiakini, Prosignal's website lists Selat Klang assemblyman Abdul Rashid Asari — a former Bersatu member — as executive director. Rashid, who left Bersatu rto become an independent assemblyman, once chaired the LLM.
Current LLM chairman Hasni Mohammad, the Simpang Renggam MP from Umno, said the collaboration with Prosignal stemmed from a proposal presented by his predecessor Rashid during his tenure.
Hasni said LLM’s award without tender to Prosignal was justified as TuJu’s development was financed by investors rather than government funds, adding that, LLM has always complied with financial regulations.
Fine, but Prosignal should answer if it had misled the government on its capacity to handle an app which can have multi-million users at a time.
Then comes a question some are asking – should heads roll? That’s for the government to answer. Any cover-up will only lead to more embarrassing situations for the government.
The questions write themselves. The answers, however, remain conspicuously absent.
The TuJu debacle must not go to waste. It must be a lesson that the civil service must learn not to repeat.
Parkaran Kutty (parkarank@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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