www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2017/05/15/malaysias-mapping-communities-switch-gears/
An article regarding the malsingmaps/malfreemap gang recently published in Star. As far as I know, there was never a collaboration between them and OSM. 
Correct me if I’m wrong, I think probably the base (barebones) map originally comes from Garmin. Also, their map database is not for commercial use. Maybe that might be the reason why: license incompatibility.
In addition, the quality of OSM data is still spotty (although we are striving to close the gap), compared to MfM for example.
That potentially might discourage them to contribute to OSM. In fact, for example four years ago, Alor Setar is disappointingly almost empty. There’s a few major roads that were mapped. Also, no good imagery layers to trace as well.
Edit: clarifications
There is a simple reason behind the license incompatibility: both OSM and Malsingmaps/malfreemaps asked Google if their imagery may be used for tracing. Google did not reply. Malsingmaps/malfreemaps traces from Google, and OSM says that we must not do so (in Western legal systems, a license is required, and cannot be obtained by the other party not responding to your question). Consequently, we cannot simply co-operate…
I contributed some GPS traces and POIs to MalFreeMaps, but their update process is terribly complicated. I am not sure if they meanwhile (i.e. after a few years) coped with integrating the data.
As for their map quality, it is quite good when it comes to POIs. Travelling on bike thru Malaysia, I found many hotels which were not shown on the OSM map. I can recommend it.
Just hope they will become a OSM contributer one day. haha
Late 2000 I think, they were the first to populate OSM (mostly Klang Valley) with data, lots of data. Checked out retired MfM users, and they were about 5 users and probably more.
So, my suspicions turned out to be correct (because MxM said that it’s strictly for personal use only).
I agree. On top of that, at least MfM has (not all, BTW) road geometries that are surveyed and corrected manually. Waze has this kind of problem where imaginary roads (dirt road) are traced, when in fact, it’s not in reality.