At the edge of one of the world's most consequential waterways, Malaysia has raised a question that maritime nations have long preferred to leave unasked: who truly bears the cost of keeping a global commons open? Port Klang Authority's general manager proposed a levy-financed fund to sustain the Strait of Malacca, only to find that international law and the interests of neighboring states form a wall around the very idea. The episode reveals a tension as old as shared infrastructure itself — that those who maintain a passage and those who profit from it are rarely the same.