US surpasses 10 million Covid-19 cases

The US recorded its 10 millionth case of the coronavirus Monday, according to a count by Johns Hopkins University, the same day that Pfizer and BioNTech announced their vaccine showed 90% effectiveness.Shortly before 1400 GMT Monday the tracker by the Baltimore-based university showed 10,018,278 cases recorded in the US since the pandemic began, and 237,742 deaths.Both are the highest tolls in absolute terms in the world.The US is now well into its third and by far biggest surge of its epidemic.But interim results provided by Pfizer and BioNTech offered hope for a game changer in the trajectory of the pandemic.According to preliminary findings, protection in patients was achieved seven days after the second of two vaccine doses, and 28 days after the first.Outgoing President Donald Trump, heavily criticised for his handling of the health crisis, described the breakthrough as “great news”, while top US pandemic expert Anthony Fauci said the result was “extraordinary”.President-elect Joe Biden meanwhile urged Americans Monday to wear masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus and not consider it a “political statement”, as he named the scientists who will lead his administration’s response to the pandemic.“We’re still facing a very dark winter,” Biden said. “The bottom line: I will spare no effort to turn this pandemic around once we’re sworn in on Jan 20.”Biden applauded the vaccine announcement, but insisted a mask still remains “the most potent weapon” against the virus, and that “today’s news does not change that urgent reality”.


Transport ministry budget makes 13-0 for PN

The budget for the transport ministry was passed through bloc vote after the debate at the committee level today, marking the 13th victory for the Perikatan Nasional government.The RM6.05 billion allocation was supported by 109 MPs while 94 voted against it and 17 were absent.Earlier today, the budget for the works ministry was also passed, by voice vote.The ministry had been allocated about RM7.3 billion in the 2021 budget.The allocations for 11 ministries were passed last week: the Prime Minister’s Department (bloc vote), finance ministry (bloc vote), national unity, foreign affairs, plantation industries and commodities (bloc vote), agriculture and food industries, rural development, energy and natural resources, international trade and industry (bloc vote), domestic trade and consumer affairs, and entrepreneur development and cooperative.The budget for 2021 – RM322.5 billion, the country’s largest ever – was passed at the policy stage on Nov 26 in what was seen as a crucial test of support for Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.It was passed by voice vote after the opposition failed to garner enough support to force a bloc vote.


Canine coronavirus detected in Sarawak pneumonia patients, study finds

When the Covid-19 pandemic struck, Professor Gregory Gray at Duke University’s Global Health Institute tasked a graduate student at his lab with developing a pan-species coronavirus test in order to help prevent the next catastrophe.The idea was to deploy the tool, once its accuracy was validated, to look back at test samples from human patients in order to search for signs of coronaviruses that might have begun to cross over from animals.Gray and his colleague’s findings, released Thursday in Clinical Infectious Diseases, showed a canine coronavirus was present in a group of mostly children patients admitted to hospital for pneumonia in Malaysia in 2017 and 2018.The team suspect the dog virus caused their illness, as opposed to merely being present in the patients’ airways – but can’t conclusively prove it.Given the genetic makeup of the virus it’s unlikely that it is currently circulating between humans.“What we’re advocating for… is more application of pan-species diagnostics to look for five different viral families we think are the most problematic in causing epidemics in humans,” Gray told AFP.Coronaviruses were understudied for many years, as they were mainly associated with common colds.That changed after the SARS and MERS outbreaks of 2002 and 2012, which originated in civets and camels, respectively.Most scientists believe the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid also has a zoonotic origin.Gray asked Lishan Xiu, a Chinese PhD student-scholar, to make a pan-species coronavirus test, which he did by finding where the genetic sequences of the various members of this family aligned.They used this tool on nasal swab tests taken from pneumonia patients from the hospital in Sarawak, and found that eight of 301 samples appeared to have a canine virus.‘We’re missing the boat’The finding was surprising, and to confirm it, they teamed up with leading virologist Anastasia Vlasova at Ohio State University, who was able to grow more of the virus and sequence its entire genome.From that, they determined the virus, which they called CCoV-HuPn-2018, was mainly canine in origin but it also had feline and swine components.It showed some mutations that were consistent with adapting to transmission among humans, but it’s not known how long this evolution might take – maybe decades, maybe never, said Gray.All of the patients recovered from their pneumonia and were sent home.“But getting admitted for pneumonia in general means you’re pretty sick, the clinician is worried about you,” added Gray.The fact that the team was able to detect canine virus in humans in what was essentially a small pilot study, together with recent similar findings from other research groups, could point to a much larger problem, he emphasised.“We are missing the boat here,” said Gray.“If we set up surveillance of pig workers, poultry workers, cattle workers, we’re going to be amazed at what their immune systems are being challenged with.“That doesn’t mean that they’re going to be the match that lights the next pandemic, but they would be a good resource to study.”


No forcing workers to take leave during WFH period, govt warns

Employers are prohibited from forcing or ordering their workers to take annual or unpaid leave following the work from home (WFH) directive which came into effect today.Human Resources Minister M Saravanan also said salary payments must be made as usual despite the directive.“However, employers can discuss with their workers about any action or decision taken in the interest of both parties,” he added in a statement.On Tuesday, Senior Minister for Security Ismail Sabri Yaakob said public and private sector employees at management and supervisory levels in Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Selangor, Sabah and Labuan would be directed to work from home effective Oct 22 to contain the spread of Covid-19.Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya have been placed under conditional movement control order from Oct 14 to 27, Sabah from Oct 13 to 26 and Labuan from Oct 17 to 30.Employers can contact the Manpower Department, Peninsular Malaysia at 03-8886 2352 / 03-8886 2409 / 03-8888 9111 for enquiries.


Singer Siti Nurhaliza joins religious minister, scholars in being fined over SOP breach

Pop singer Siti Nurhaliza and her husband Khalid Mohamad Jiwa have been fined RM10,000 each for breaching Covid-19 SOPs at a traditional Muslim ceremony for their newborn son late last month.In a report by Malay daily Berita Harian, Selangor police chief Arjunaidi Mohamed said religious affairs minister Zulkifli Mohamad Al-Bakri and three preachers – Azhar Idrus, Don Daniyal and Iqbal – were also slapped with compounds of RM2,000 each.Celebrity couple Norman Hakim and Abby Abadi who were also present at the ceremony were fined as well.Siti is the latest in a string of high-profile individuals who have been fined for violating health SOPs.On April 27, celebrity businesswoman Noor Neelofa Mohd Noor and 20 of her family members were issued compounds totalling RM60,000 for breaching SOPs at her wedding.Neelofa herself was fined RM20,000 while her husband, Muhammad Haris Ismail, was fined RM10,000.On May 20, they claimed trial at the Seremban Magistrate’s Court to violating the SOPs. The court trip also landed Neelofa in more hot water after a police report was lodged, claiming that she had not worn the mandatory face mask beneath her niqab.Former prime minister Najib Razak was also fined for failing to check in with the MySejahtera app when visiting a chicken rice outlet in Kuala Lumpur in March.The ceremony for Siti and Khalid’s son was held on April 26.In a statement on May 3, they maintained that they had complied with the requirements under the conditional movement control order at the time.They said claims that travel restrictions had been breached were due to the presence of a preacher from another state who only agreed to attend as he happened to be in Kuala Lumpur.They also said the ceremony was divided into three sections to allow for physical distancing, with a limit on the number of people in attendance.“As law-abiding Malaysians who are sensitive to the current situation, we have never taken this lightly and as long as it is within our control, we try to comply as much as possible,” they said.


Dozens rescued from Ecuador cable car, one of world's highest

Dozens of people were rescued in the early hours of Friday after being trapped for nearly 10 hours on one of the world's highest tourist cable cars in Ecuador's capital Quito.
Seventy-five people were brought to the ground, all "safe and sound," after an operation involving firefighters and the police, the municipality of Quito said in a statement.
The visitors were trapped for "nearly 10 hours" after the system was paralysed due to an electrical problem.
The statement said 48 people stuck at the system's uppermost terminal at an altitude of some 4,000m were brought to safety.
Seventeen were then rescued from gondolas stuck on the line while another 10 came to the ground after the system restarted.
The cable car travels a distance of 2.5km between two terminals, the lowest at an altitude of 3,100m above sea level.
Video footage on the municipality's Twitter account shows people being abseiled to safety from a gondola. Others, including children, were seen emerging, wrapped in emergency blankets, after their cabins made it back safely to the ground.


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Gambia tightens rules for Indian drugs after cough syrup deaths, letter shows

Gambia will make it mandatory for all pharmaceutical products from India to be inspected and tested prior to shipment from July 1, according to Gambian government documents reviewed by Reuters, the first known restrictions on national exports following the deaths of dozens of children linked to Indian-made cough syrups.
The new rule highlights how governments are reassessing their reliance on India's US$42 billion (about RM195.3 billion) pharmaceutical industry since the contamination came to light last year. India's industry supplies nearly half of the pharmaceuticals used in Africa. In April, India’s government said its officials had held meetings in Africa to ensure its drug exports did not suffer after at least 70 children died in Gambia after ingesting the cough syrup last year.
Gambia's latest move is to "address issues related to substandard and falsified (counterfeit) medicines entering the country", the executive director of its Medicines Control Agency (MCA), Markieu Janneh Kaira, wrote in a letter to India's drug controller general, Rajeev Singh Raghuvanshi, dated June 15.
The letter said that the MCA had appointed Quntrol Laboratories, an independent inspection and testing company for pharmaceuticals based in Mumbai, to issue a so-called Clean Report of Inspection and Analysis (CRIA) for all shipments from India.
"Quntrol shall conduct document verification, physical inspection of the consignment and sampling, for laboratory testing for each shipment," the letter said."If conformity is established at all levels, Quntrol shall issue the mandatory CRIA document. If conformity is not established with regards to the quality of the product, the shipment will be quarantined or seized by the MCA and the necessary regulatory actions shall be taken."
Janneh Kaira told Reuters the rule "applies to India for now only". Since June 1, India has made tests mandatory for all cough syrups before they are exported.
Raghuvanshi did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. In a letter to Indian state regulators, he asked them to take note of the new Gambia guidelines.
"This is for your information and immediate action," Raghuvanshi said in the letter posted to the website of the country's Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation on Wednesday.
With 2.5 million people, Gambia is one of Africa’s smallest and poorest countries. The World Bank is funding a testing laboratory in Gambia but it is not yet finished.
The letter said Quntrol would send samples for testing to "one of the analytical laboratories approved by MCA". It did not say if the laboratory would be based in India or elsewhere.
At least 70 children, most of them under the age of 5, died in Gambia last year due to acute kidney injury that doctors have linked to adulterated cough syrups from India.
The World Health Organization said last year that the India-made cough syrups contained lethal toxins ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol – commonly used in car brake fluid and other products not fit for human consumption.
These ingredients can be used by unscrupulous actors as a substitute for propylene glycol, which is a key base of syrupy medicines – because they can cost less than half the price – manufacturing experts say.


Erdogan accused of using ‘band-aid measures’ in fight against Turkey’s new surge

Covid-19 deaths in Turkey rose to a record for the seventh day on Sunday, when over 29,000 new cases were reported.That number comes behind only the US, India and Brazil – all countries with far larger populations than Turkey.The number of new cases is staying high despite efforts by President Tayyip Erdogan’s government to contain the second wave of infections, reports Reuters.The government introduced tighter measures a week ago, including nightly curfews at weekends, restrictions on movements of people of non-working age, a move to online schooling and limiting restaurants and cafes to takeaway services.However, the moves have done little to halt the rise in infections and deaths, with Sunday’s toll of 185 dead more than the peak of the first wave in April.Doctors and opposition politicians have called for stricter measures, but the government is anxious to avoid further economic pain.Speaking after midday prayers on Friday, Erdogan blamed the resurgent pandemic on people flouting regulations.“Masks and social distance are very important, and hygiene is very important. As long as these are not heeded, especially in big cities, the increasing continuation becomes inevitable,” he told reporters.Opponents say the government is not being tough enough.“The lives lost are our lives. But we see that the government is still trying to manage the situation with band-aid measures,” Meral Aksener, leader of the opposition IYI Party, said in Parliament last week. “I am calling out to Erdogan once again: impose a quarantine of at least 14 days.”Turkey is expected to report this week that its economy bounced back from a coronavirus-induced slump earlier this year. But that recovery, key to Erdogan’s sustained political support, could be threatened by the new outbreak.


Indian capital’s dangerous air ruins return to school as pandemic curbs eased

A toxic smog shrouding New Delhi persuaded many students to stay home rather return to schools that reopened on Monday as authorities eased restrictions imposed when the Covid-19 pandemic first struck India in March last year.“The pollution in Delhi is hazardous. We as parents are afraid of sending our children to school,” Kamlesh Sharma, one of the parents wrote on Twitter.New Delhi has the worst air quality of any capital city, but even by its standards the past few days have been extraordinarily bad.For air to be deemed safe, the Air Quality Index (AQI), which has a scale of 500, should be below 50. In New Delhi on Monday it was 385, well into hazardous territory. That was a marginal improvement on the 451 registered last week as moderate winds helped disperse some of the pollution.While some schools had resumed classes for higher grades, pupils aged 14 and below were allowed back for the first time on Monday as part of a staggered re-opening. But many schools reported poor attendance on the first day back due to parents fears over the hazardous air and the coronavirus risks.“After Covid, pollution has emerged a major threat for public health particularly for children and senior citizens,” Ashok Agarwal, national president, All India Parents Association, said, expressing frustration with the lack of enforcement, and political will to improve Delhi’s air.Airborne particles of pollution can cause cardiovascular and respiratory diseases such as lung cancer. And, in India, toxic air kills more than a million people annually.The severe deterioration in air quality during the past week was caused by farmers violating a ban on stubble burning in agricultural states surrounding the capital and people ignoring a ban on fireworks to celebrate Deepavali, the Hindu festival of lights.Nearly 80% of families in Delhi region, with a population of about 20 million, reported ailments like headaches, problems in breathing, and runny noses due to the air pollution, according a survey of 34,000 respondents by a private agency, Local Circles.“With in-person schools finally opening after a long period of online classes, many parents seem reluctant to send children to school in the coming weeks due to the dual risk of Covid and pollution,” said Sachin Taparia, head of Local Circles.


Economic challenges, flood preparations in focus as Parliament reconvenes

Economic challenges and preparations for floods will be among the key areas of focus on the first day of the third meeting of the fifth session of the 14th Parliament today.
According to the order paper on the Parliament’s website, Tajuddin Abdul Rahman (BN-Pasir Salak) is set to ask the prime minister about the government’s course of action to deal with such challenges.
This will be followed by Anwar Ibrahim (PH-Port Dickson) who will ask the prime minister for the latest statistics on household income category details according to B40, M40 and T20 groups from 2019 to 2022.
Also listed is a question to the prime minister from Rubiah Wang (GPS-Kota Samarahan) regarding the status of district disaster management committees nationwide ahead of the possibility of floods at the end of the year.
Meanwhile, Fong Kui Lun (PH-Bukit Bintang) will ask the federal territories minister about its preparedness to deal with the flood disaster expected to hit Kuala Lumpur by the end of the year.
The meeting will witness the tabling for first reading of the Road Transport (Amendment) Bill 2022, the Land Public Transport Bill 2022, the Commercial Vehicles Licensing Board (Amendment) Bill 2022 and the Environmental Quality (Amendment) Bill 2022.
In addition to a motion to elect a deputy speaker, the meeting is also expected to focus on the tabling of a statement of the Special Select Committee to Consider Bills relating to the Tobacco and Smoking Products Control Bill 2022.
A statement containing proposed improvements to the bill is expected to be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat no later than Oct 6 if the health ministry's to extend the date of presentation of the statement is approved.
On Aug 2, the Special Select Committee chaired by Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin comprising 13 members of Parliament from the government and opposition said that the statement must be presented no later than the date of the first day of the third meeting of the fifth term of the 14th Parliament sitting.
Another focus of the conference will be the tabling of the Supply (Budget) Bill 2023, which is scheduled to be done by Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz at 4pm this Friday.
The bill is scheduled be debated at the policy level for eight days and will be answered by ministers for four days before being debated at the committee level for 12 days.
The Dewan Rakyat sitting will run for 32 days, until Nov 29.


Poverty among main causes of school dropouts, says deputy minister

Poverty is one of the main factors behind school dropouts, especially among secondary school students, says Deputy Education Minister Lim Hui Ying.
She said the education ministry had found that there were students who did not attend school as they had to work to support their families.
"This is a social problem that we need to find ways to address," she said during the question-and-answer session at the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.
She was responding to a supplementary question from Muhammad Ismi Mat Taib (PN-Parit) on whether poverty was the cause of school dropouts and the education ministry's steps to address it.
Lim said one of the steps was to make it compulsory for all students to complete 11 years of schooling, from Standard One in primary school up to Form Five in secondary school.
Responding to the original question from Ismi on the ministry's initiatives to help students who drop out due to poverty, Lim said it had expanded the implementation of the Comprehensive Special Model School Year 9 (K9) from the existing 12 to 17 schools.
"The main goal of the K9 school is to deal with the dropout issue in rural areas, especially for students who face difficulties continuing their education to the secondary level due to the location of the school being far away, the challenging terrain and the family's socio-economics," she said.
She said the concept had also been expanded into the Comprehensive Special Model School Year 11 (K11) to provide access to a more comprehensive education for students from Standard One to Form Five.
"The K11 concept is also expected to be able to reduce the dropout rate of students transitioning from lower secondary to upper secondary school," she said.
She added that the ministry provides 18 types of school assistance for students from low-income families, including federal scholarships, supplementary food programmes and early schooling assistance.
"Various forms of assistance including textbook loans and counselling services are also provided to boost students’ interest in continuing their schooling," she said.


Najib’s bid to disqualify Sri Ram to resume tomorrow

Najib’s bid to disqualify Gopal Sri Ram as prosecutor in the 1MDB audit report tampering case trial will be heard tomorrow at the High Court as scheduled.On Jan 12, the Federal Court Chief Registrar’s Office in a statement said that all hearings of criminal cases in open court initially scheduled for Jan 13 until Jan 26 were postponed following the re-implementation of the movement control order (MCO) to curb the spread of Covid-19.This resulted in high-profile trials including that of Najib and his former deputy, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, being postponed as their previously scheduled trial dates fell within the MCO period.On Jan 20, Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat issued a directive that despite the current enforcement of the MCO, all criminal case proceedings including public interest cases such as corruption and commercial crime would continue to be conducted in open court effective Jan 27.Based on the court website, Najib’s 1MDB audit tampering case hearing before justice Mohamed Zaini Mazlan is set for tomorrow at 9.30am.Deputy public prosecutor (DPP) Mohamad Mustaffa P Kunyalam, when contacted, confirmed the matter.“This Wednesday, the court will be hearing Najib’s application to disqualify senior DPP Gopal Sri Ram as prosecutor in the trial. DPP Ahmad Akram Gharib will be leading the prosecution team,” he said.On June 12 last year, Najib filed an application to recuse Sri Ram, supported by two affidavits, one filed by Najib and the other by former attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali.Najib, 67, and former 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy, 45, are on trial over 1MDB audit tampering charges.The Pekan MP is charged with using his position to order amendments to the 1MDB final audit report before it was presented to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to avoid any action against him, while Arul Kanda is charged with abetting Najib in making the amendments to the report to protect Najib from being subjected to action.But Zahid’s trial, scheduled to continue on the same day before High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah, has been vacated as he is currently observing self-quarantine after undergoing a swab test on Jan 20.DPP Raja Rozela Raja Toran confirmed the postponement and said they had received the instruction from the court.Zahid’s lawyer Hamidi Mohd Noh said the trial was postponed as he (Hamidi) too was undergoing mandatory self-quarantine.Zahid, 68, who is also Umno president, is facing 47 charges, 12 of them involving criminal breach of trust, eight for corruption and 27 for money laundering involving tens of millions of ringgit in funds belonging to Yayasan Akalbudi.For Najib’s case tomorrow, a court officer said in order to adhere to the SOPs issued by the Federal Court Chief Registrar’s Office, pressmen will not be allowed in open court but will be placed in a separate video link room which streams live feeds from the court.“Only 20 media personnel will be allowed in the video link room for cases involving public interest, and they will need to register in order to get the access pass through the security,” she said.


Businessman in Guan Eng trial says RM19 million paid to middleman due to threats

A key witness in the trial of Lim Guan Eng said at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court today that he paid a middleman named G Gnanaraja RM19 million because he was threatened with charges under the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) over his involvement in the Penang undersea tunnel project, among other reasons.
Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd (CZCSB) director Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli, 52, said he received the threat from Gnanaraja through a WhatsApp message which also contained Zarul’s name and identification number.
During cross-examination by Lim’s counsel Gobind Singh Deo, the 23rd prosecution witness said he lodged a complaint with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) over the threat when he was detained by the commission for 11 days in January 2018.
"The investigation against Gnanaraja began after I was released from MACC’s detention. I was immediately questioned by the anti-graft body about the report I made against him.
"However, I was not shown the printed WhatsApp messages from the conversation during the investigation. They (MACC) only showed me the (WhatsApp) messages directly from Gnanaraja’s phone," he said. Zarul also agreed with Gobind’s suggestion that CZCSB would be impacted if the AMLA proceeding against him had continued.
This followed an argument between Gobind and deputy public prosecutor Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin over the copy of Gnanaraja’s statement recorded by MACC during the investigation.
Gobind had asked the prosecution to confirm whether the WhatsApp messages between Zarul and Gnanaraja were reduced to a statement, to which Wan Shaharuddin replied that it was not the prosecution's responsibility to assist the defence in such matters.
The lawyer also said the prosecution had yet to respond to the request for the copies of Gnanaraja’s WhatsApp messages for which his team had applied last week.
Wan Shaharuddin said he was still trying to obtain them from another investigation officer and would confirm the matter tomorrow. Lim, 61, is charged with using his position as the then Penang chief minister to solicit RM3.3 million in bribes as an inducement to assist Consortium Zenith BUCG Sdn Bhd (CZBUCG) owner Zarul to secure the project worth RM6,341,383,702.
Lim was accused of committing the offence at the Penang Chief Minister’s Office, Level 28, Komtar, George Town, between January 2011 and August 2017.
He is also accused of soliciting a bribe of 10% of the profit from the company as gratification for securing the project in March 2011.
Lim, the former DAP secretary-general, also faces two other charges of causing two plots of land worth RM208.8 million belonging to the Penang government to be disposed of to two companies linked to the state’s undersea tunnel project.
The trial before judge Azura Alwi continues tomorrow.


Nearly a third of domestic workers in Malaysia in forced labour conditions, says UN agency

Nearly a third of migrant workers employed in domestic households in Malaysia are working under forced labour conditions, according to a survey released by the United Nations' labour agency on Thursday.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) identified conditions such as excessive working hours, unpaid overtime, low wages, restricted movement, and being unable to quit among its indicators of forced labour.
The survey, based on interviews with 1,201 domestic workers in Southeast Asia, found 29% of those in Malaysia faced such conditions, compared to 7% and 4% in its neighbours Singapore and Thailand, respectively.
Malaysia and Singapore did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the survey findings.
Wannarat Srisuksai, a spokesman for Thailand's labour ministry, told Reuters the treatment of domestic workers in the country has improved following laws introduced in 2012 to protect the group.
In all three countries, the domestic workers surveyed on average worked hours "well in excess" of those legislated for other workers, and none earned the minimum wage, the ILO said.
"Domestic work is one of the most important tasks in our society, and yet provided with the least protection. This can no longer be accepted," said Anna Engblom, chief technical adviser at the ILO programme, which conducted the study.
The ILO urged Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand to ratify UN conventions on domestic workers and forced labour, to recognise the skilled nature of domestic work, and ensure migration pathways that did not tie the workers to their employers.
Households in Asia often employ domestic workers – usually women from developing nations such as Indonesia, Myanmar, and the Philippines – to carry out housekeeping tasks including cooking, cleaning, childcare, and gardening.
Malaysia has faced criticism in recent years following multiple incidents of Indonesian domestic workers being abused in Malaysian households, while several of its companies have been accused of exploiting migrant labourers.
Indonesians make up about 80% of domestic workers in Malaysia, according to the ILO. Last year, Malaysia and Indonesia signed an agreement to improve protections for domestic workers.


Australia to buy US nuclear subs in ambitious new pact

Australia announced Monday it will buy as many as five US nuclear-powered submarines, then build a new model with US and British technology under an ambitious plan to bulk up Western muscle across the Asia-Pacific in the face of a rising China.
The announcement came at an event at a San Diego, California, naval base where President Joe Biden hosted Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
With a US Virginia-class nuclear submarine moored behind the trio's podium, Biden said the US had "safeguarded stability in the Indo-Pacific for decades" and that the submarine alliance would bolster "the prospect of peace for decades to come."
As Biden stressed, Australia, which joined a newly formed alliance known as Aukus with Washington and London 18 months ago, will not be getting nuclear weapons.
However, acquiring submarines powered by nuclear reactors puts Australia in an elite club and at the forefront of US-led efforts to push back against China's own military expansion.
Albanese said the deal represents the biggest single investment in Australia's defense capability "in all of our history." He predicted that the wider economic impact at home would be akin to the introduction of the automobile industry in the country after World War II.
Albanese underlined that Australia was now only the second country, after Britain, to be granted access to US naval nuclear secrets. "We are bound, above all, by a world... where peace and stability and security ensure greater prosperity," he said.
Three conventionally armed, nuclear-powered Virginia class vessels will be sold "over the course of the 2030s," with the "possibility of going up to five if that is needed," Biden's national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, said.
Britain and Australia will then embark on building a new model, also nuclear-powered and carrying conventional weapons, dubbed the SSN-Aukus. This will be a British design, with US technology, and "significant investments in all three industrial bases," Sullivan said.
Defence spending on the rise
While Australia has ruled out deploying atomic weapons, its submarine plan marks a significant new stage in the confrontation with China, which has built a sophisticated naval fleet and turned artificial islands into offshore bases in the Pacific.
In the face of the Chinese challenge – and Russia's invasion of pro-Western Ukraine – Britain is also moving to beef up its military capabilities, Sunak's office said Monday.
More than US$6 billion (RM26.98 billion) in additional funding over the next two years will "replenish and bolster vital ammunition stocks, modernise the UK's nuclear enterprise and fund the next phase of the Aukus submarine programme," Downing Street said.
Australia had previously been on track to replace its aging fleet of diesel-powered submarines with a US$66 billion package of French vessels, also conventionally powered.
The abrupt announcement by Canberra that it was backing out of that deal and entering the Aukus project sparked a brief but unusually furious row between all three countries and their close ally France.
Compared to the Collins-class submarines due to be retired by Australia, the Virginia-class is almost twice as long and carries 132 crew members, not 48.
However, the longer-term upgrade will require a long wait.
A senior US official said that the British navy should get its "state of the art" SSN-Aukus vessels in the late 2030s and Australia only in the early 2040s.
In the meantime, Australian sailors, engineers and other personnel will be training with their US and British partners to acquire expertise, while British and US submarines make regular visits to Australian ports.
China warned that Aukus risks setting off an arms race and accused the three countries of setting back nuclear nonproliferation efforts.
"We urge the US, the UK and Australia to abandon the Cold War mentality and zero-sum games, honour international obligations in good faith and do more things that are conducive to regional peace and stability," Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters in Beijing.
The communist country's leader Xi Jinping made a fiery statement last week accusing the US of leading a Western effort at "all-round containment, encirclement and suppression of China."
But Washington says Beijing is alarming countries across the Asia-Pacific with its threats to invade the self-governing democracy of Taiwan, as well as highlighting the threat from nuclear-armed North Korea.
"What we've seen is a series of provocative steps that China has undertaken under the leadership of Xi Jinping over the last five to 10 years," the senior US official said. "This is an attempt to defend and secure the operating system of the Indo-Pacific."


Appeals court postpones hearing on LHDN’s bid to recover RM10.3 million from Najib’s daughter

The Court of Appeal today postponed the hearing of an application by the government to challenge the High Court’s dismissal last year of its bid for a summary judgment against the daughter of former prime minister Najib Razak over more than RM10 million in tax arrears.The hearing of the appeal by the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN) was initially scheduled to take place today but was postponed to Dec 15, according to the lawyer for Nooryana Najwa as quoted by The Edge.According to the report, no reason was given for the delay.Nooryana, Najib’s second child from his marriage to Rosmah Mansor, was named as a defendant in the suit filed by LHDN in July 2019, after she failed to submit individual income tax return forms for the assessment years of 2011 to 2017.LHDN had sought RM10,335,292.36, interest on the sum at a rate of 5% per annum from the date of judgment to the date of realisation, costs, and other relief deemed appropriate by the court.The High Court in Shah Alam on Aug 26 last year dismissed LHDN’s application for a summary judgment.A summary judgment is where a court decides a case without hearing the testimony of witnesses.The court also found that the certificate exhibited by the government as proof of the amount of tax due and payable was not signed by the LHDN director-general as required under Section 142 of the Income Tax Act 1967.


India sends thousands more troops to restive Kashmir

India has sent thousands more paramilitary troops into its section of Kashmir, already one of the world’s most militarised zones, after a string of targeted killings by suspected rebels in recent weeks, officials said Wednesday.New Delhi has for decades stationed at least 500,000 soldiers in the divided Himalayan territory, which is also claimed and partially controlled by arch-rival Pakistan.“Around 2,500 troops have arrived and they were deployed all over Kashmir valley,” Abhiram Pankaj, a spokesman for the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), told AFP.More were on their way to the restive territory, he added.Around 5,000 extra paramilitaries in all were being deployed from this week, including from India’s Border Security Force (BSF), according to a police officer speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity.Some of the troops are housed in civilian community halls that have been fortified with new sandbag bunkers, reminiscent of the early 1990s when an armed insurgency against Indian rule was at its peak.That rebellion has significantly waned in the years since tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, were killed in the conflict.A dozen people have been gunned down since last month in what appeared to be targeted assassinations, including police, migrant workers from northern Indian states and local members of the Sikh and Hindu communities.Rebel groups, who have since 1989 fought for Kashmir’s independence or merger with Pakistan, are believed to be responsible for the attacks.Some of those killed were accused by the Resistance Front, a local rebel group, of being in the employ of security forces.Police and paramilitary troops in bulletproof gear and wielding automatic rifles have intensified frisk searches of residents, including children, on the streets.Newly deployed troops are now visible around many new checkpoints set up in recent weeks across the main city of Srinagar.Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947.Anger has simmered in the region since August 2019 when New Delhi revoked its partial autonomy and brought its section of Kashmir under direct rule.


Najib ordered sensitive issues involving Jho Low to be left out from 1MDB audit report, ex-aide tells court

Najib Razak’s former principal private secretary Shukry Salleh told the High Court in Kuala Lumpur today that the former prime minister had instructed him not to include sensitive issues involving fugitive businessmen Low Taek Jho or Jho Low in the 1MDB audit report.Shukry, 67, said Najib gave him the instruction two days after a meeting on the audit report at the office of then chief secretary to the government (KSN) Ali Hamsa, on Feb 24, 2016.“On Feb 26, 2016, I met Najib in his office and Najib instructed me more or less like this, ‘Shukry, you tell the audit that sensitive and irrelevant issues, including on Jho Low (involvement). If the opposition finds out, it will be an issue’.”Shukry said this when reading out from his witness statement at the trial of Najib and former 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy for allegedly tampering with the final audit report.According to the 11th prosecution witness, after that, he contacted Saadatul Nafisah Bashir Ahmad, who was then a director at the National Audit Department (NAD), and conveyed Najib’s instructions.Shukry said that on Feb 23, 2016, he and Ambrin Buang, who was the auditor-general at the time, met Ali at his office, and were told that a meeting would be held the next day (Feb 24, 2016) and that representatives from NAD, 1MDB, the Treasury and the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) had been invited to attend.“During the meeting, I informed Ali and Ambrin that the 1MDB issue had become a crisis that needed to be addressed immediately. What I meant by ‘crisis that needs to be addressed immediately’ was that the 1MDB issue had become the focus of all parties, at home and abroad.“Before meeting Ambrin, Ali and I had met with Arul Kanda separately where Arul Kanda explained to Ali about 1MDB’s financial issues,” he said during examination-in-chief by deputy public prosecutor Nadia Zulkefli.Shukry, whose contract as Najib’s principal private secretary ended on Sept 30, 2016, said he had attended a meeting chaired by Ali in his office on Feb 24, 2016 and his attendance at the meeting was approved by Najib.“The meeting was also attended by Arul Kanda; NAD representatives Ambrin and Saadatul Nafisah; representatives from the Treasury Mohmad Isa Hussain and Asri [email protected] Hamidon, Dzulkifli Ahmad from the AGC; and senior private secretary to Ali, Norazman Ayob.“At the meeting, the KSN (Ali) explained that the purpose of the meeting was to coordinate some matters that Najib was not satisfied with in the 1MDB audit report,” he said, adding that the meeting also discussed the two versions of the 1MDB’s financial statements for 2014.Shukry said he told the meeting that it would affect outsiders’ confidence if a company like 1MDB could be manipulated, and spoke of its implications on investments.“During the meeting, KSN instructed Isa to lodge a police report on the two versions of 1MDB’s financial statements for 2014 so that an investigation could be carried out and from the outcome of the meeting, Ambrin agreed to remove the matter from the 1MDB audit report,” he said, adding that the meeting had agreed to drop the matter after getting the opinion of the AGC’s representative.According to Shukry, he also raised the issue on the postponement of the issuance of the Islamic Medium Term Notes (IMTN) and on Najib not informing the Cabinet of the matter.IMTN involves the Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA), which was renamed 1MDB in 2009.Meanwhile, when questioned by senior public prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram about whether he knew of the connection between Najib and 1MDB, Shukry replied: “I only knew that he was the chairman.”After Shukry finished reading his witness statement, an audio recording of the meeting on the 1MDB audit report on Feb 24, 2016, lasting two hours and 45 minutes, was played again in court and Shukry confirmed having attended the meeting.Najib, 68, is charged with using his position to order amendments to the final 1MDB audit report before it was presented to the Public Accounts Committee to avoid any action being taken against him, while Arul Kanda, 45, is charged with abetting Najib in making the amendments to the report to protect Najib from being subjected to action.They were both charged under Section 23 (1) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009, which provides for a jail term of up to 20 years and a fine of not less than five times the amount of gratification or RM10,000, whichever is higher, upon conviction.The trial before judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan continues on Oct 20.


88.4% of adults, 63.8% of population fully jabbed

A total of 20,819,254 people or 88.4% of the adult population had been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as of yesterday.Meanwhile 24,085,144 or 94.5% had received at least one jab, including of the single-dose CanSino vaccine.In terms of total population, 63.8% are now fully vaccinated while 73.8% have received at least one dose.A total of 224,034 doses of vaccine were administered yesterday, taking the cumulative number of jabs given under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme to 44,797,925.


Govt slaps entry ban on 23 countries due to Covid-19

Long-term pass holders from 23 countries recording more than 150,000 Covid-19 cases have been barred from entering Malaysia effective today.According to a list issued by the immigration department on its official Facebook page, the countries include the US, Brazil, India, Russia, Peru, Colombia, South Africa, Mexico, Spain, Argentina and Chile.Also on the list are Iran, the UK, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, France, Turkey, Italy, Germany, Iraq, the Philippines and Indonesia.On Sept 1, Senior Minister for Security Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced an entry ban on long-term visit pass holders from India, Indonesia and the Philippines due to a spike in Covid-19 cases there.The ban covered six categories of pass holders, namely those with permanent resident status, Malaysia My Second Home programme participants, expatriates including professional visit pass holders and resident pass holders.Also barred were spouses of Malaysian citizens and their children as well as students from the three countries wishing to return to Malaysia.Two days later, Ismail announced the government’s decision to impose an entry ban on citizens from countries recording more than 150,000 cases of Covid-19.He said exemptions would be given for emergency cases or matters pertaining to bilateral relations although these would require permission from the immigration department.


Reused nose swab scam blown in Indonesian airport

Several employees of a pharmaceutical company have been arrested in Indonesia for allegedly washing and reselling used Covid nasal swab test kits, reports the BBC.Up to 9,000 passengers at an airport in Medan may have been tested with the reused swab sticks, say police.Police believe the scam had been going on since last December at Kualanamu International Airport (KNO) in Medan, North Sumatra.Covid nasal swab testing has become routine in many countries in the global pandemic.Passengers are required to have a negative test before they fly, and KNO offers the option of getting the swabs done on site. Airport authorities had used antigen rapid test kits supplied by Kimia Farma.Following complaints from passengers that they had received false positive test results, police sent an undercover officer to pose as a passenger last week, reported local news outlet Detik.When he was swabbed and received a positive test result, other officers swooped in and raided the test site, where they found a used test kit that had been recycled.State-owned company Kimia Farma is now reportedly facing a lawsuit launched on behalf of affected travellers.Last week, five Kimia Farma employees, including the company’s Medan manager, were arrested. The suspects are accused of breaking health and consumer laws by washing nasal swab sticks and repackaging them for sale.Local media said authorities have compiled reports from 23 witnesses, and are investigating whether profits from the scam – estimated to be around 1.8 billion rupiah (US$125,000) – were used to fund the construction of a luxury house for one of the suspects.Kimia Farma, which is headquartered in the capital Jakarta, has since fired the staff allegedly involved and promised to tighten internal controls.This week, two lawyers who frequently flew via Kualanamu airport in recent months, said they were planning to sue Kimia Farma, the South China Morning Post reports.In a collective lawsuit, they hope to get one billion rupiah for each passenger who has been affected by the scheme.Earlier this week, Indonesian authorities said they had identified two cases of the new Covid variant first seen in India.Last month, Jakarta stopped issuing visas for foreigners who had been in India in the previous 14 days.The Muslim-majority nation has also banned domestic travel at the end of Ramadan, and introduced heightened restrictions for other dates.Indonesia has seen one of the worst Covid outbreaks in Asia, and overall has recorded getting on for two million positive cases and more than 46,000 deaths.


Kedah MB settles RM1,500 fine for SOP breach

Kedah Menteri Besar Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor was served a compound fine of RM1,500 for violating Covid-19 prevention SOPs in a test drive case at a vehicle sales and exhibition centre at Juru Auto City, Penang, on June 5.The compound issued by the police was handed over yesterday and paid for by an aide to Sanusi at the Kota Setar district health office at around noon yesterday.“Yes, the compound was handed over (to Sanusi) yesterday. The fine was RM1,500 and was paid at the Kota Setar district health office,” the menteri besar’s special media officer Mohamad Helmi Mohamad Khalid said when contacted today.Photos and videos had gone viral on social media showing an individual believed to be Sanusi test driving a car at a time when the country was under a full lockdown and vehicle sales centres were not allowed to operate.The police subsequently conducted an investigation in accordance with Section 269 of the Penal Code and Regulation 17 (1) of the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases (Measures in Local Areas of Infection) Regulations 2021.


At least 44 dead in Israel pilgrimage stampede

A massive stampede at a densely packed Jewish pilgrimage site killed at least 44 people in northern Israel on Friday, with rescue workers facing chaotic crowds while trying to evacuate the injured.The disaster occurred in Meron at the site of the reputed tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, a second-century Talmudic sage, where mainly ultra-Orthodox Jews flock to mark the Lag BaOmer holiday.Closed last year due to coronavirus restrictions, this year’s pilgrimage was expected to be a celebratory event in a nation that has largely re-opened thanks to a successful vaccination effort.The pilgrimage was largest public gathering since the pandemic began, with reports that there were three times more people there than authorised.Initial reports indicated that the carnage began when a section of stadium seating collapsed but rescue workers later linked the casualties to a stampede.A spokesman for the Magen David Adom, Israel’s rescue service, told AFP “there were 38 dead at the scene but there were more at the hospital”.A source at the northern Ziv hospital, one of several receiving casualties, told AFP it had recorded at least six deaths.Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a “heavy disaster” and said he was “praying for the injured”.The army and emergency services deployed helicopters to evacuate the wounded.Scenes from Meron hours after the accident showed an ultra-Orthodox Jewish crowd in distress, with debris scattered across the ground.Some survivors had lit candles for the victims while other prayed at a nearby wall.Israeli media have published an image of a row of bodies covered in plastic bags on the ground.‘Terrible disaster’“This is one of the worst tragedies that I have ever experienced,” said Lazar Hyman of the United Hatzalah volunteer rescue service, who was at the scene.“I have not seen anything like this since I entered into the field of emergency medicine,” he added.Yehuda Gottleib, one of the first responders from United Hatzalah, said he saw “dozens of people fall on top of one another during the collapse”.“A large number of them were crushed and lost consciousness.”Opposition leader Yair Lapid lamented the “terrible disaster”, and described it as a “sad” night for the country.Israel has fully vaccinated more than half of its 9.3 million population against the coronavirus, but restrictions on massive public gatherings remain in place to stem the spread of the virus.Authorities had authorised 10,000 people to gather at the site of the tomb but organisers said more than 650 buses had been chartered from across the country, bringing 30,000 pilgrims to Meron.Ultra-Orthodox Jews, known in Israel as haredim, have throughout the pandemic shown resistance towards health and safety measures mandated by the government.Around 5,000 police had been deployed to secure the event.After the stampede, police closed access to the area to prevent a crowd from building further, while rescue workers and security forces worked to clear the area and identify the victims.Some of the injured have been transported by military helicopter to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, rescue workers said.


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Pakistani Taliban declare indefinite ceasefire as peace talks ‘progress’

The Pakistani Taliban on Thursday declared an indefinite ceasefire with Islamabad, saying “substantial progress” had been made in peace talks in the Afghan capital.Since the Afghan Taliban returned to power last year, Islamabad has increasingly complained of attacks by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), especially along the mountainous border with Afghanistan.The TTP is a home-grown movement but shares roots with the new rulers in Afghanistan, who Pakistan has claimed lets its fighters stage assaults from Afghan soil.In recent weeks peace talks have been brokered by the Afghan Taliban in Kabul, bringing together Islamabad and the TTP, which has battled Pakistani forces for over a decade.The talks received a boost after a new delegation of tribal elders from Pakistan arrived in Kabul on Tuesday for a fresh round of negotiations with the TTP.“In the two days of meeting substantial progress has been made and as a result of that the leadership of the TTP has extended the ceasefire until further notice,” the militant group’s spokesman Muhammad Khurasani said in a statement issued in Kabul.A truce previously agreed until May 30 for the Islamic festival of Eid had held until now.“For taking the negotiations forward further meetings will be held in few days,” Khurasani said.A Pakistani government official who did not want to be named told AFP that the talks held in Kabul were moving in a “positive direction”.The official discussions may be an indication the Afghan Taliban are trying to smooth over rocky relations with Pakistan.The mountainous region between Afghanistan and Pakistan has long been a hive of militant activity, with the border becoming a source of friction since the Afghan Taliban reclaimed power in August.Islamabad has made repeated claims its forces have been targeted by fighters across the international boundary.Last month, Afghan officials said a Pakistani air strike in eastern Afghanistan killed 47 people.Pakistan did not comment on the strike but urged Kabul to secure its border to prevent militant operations.The Afghan Taliban called the assault a “cruelty” that “is paving the way for enmity between Afghanistan and Pakistan”.Last year Pakistan conducted peace negotiations with the TTP during a month-long ceasefire, but that truce eventually collapsed.


Killer US Marine pardoned in Philippines after 6 years inside

A US Marine convicted of killing a Filipina transgender woman has been deported from the Philippines following a presidential pardon which cut short his imprisonment after nearly six years.Joseph Pemberton said that he was “extremely grateful” to President Rodrigo Duterte for pardoning him, USA Today reports.He expressed his “most sincere sympathy” to the family of Jennifer Laude, who he killed in 2014 in a motel northwest of Manila after finding out that she was transgender.On Monday, Duterte granted an “absolute and unconditional pardon” to Pemberton, surprising many. The Philippine leader has long been a vocal critic of US policies while reaching out to China and Russia.The pardon was condemned by left-wing and LGBTQ+ groups.Pemberton, an anti-tank missile operator, was one of thousands of American and local military personnel who took part in joint exercises in the Philippines in 2014.He and other Marines were on leave after the exercises and met Laude and her friends at a bar in Olongapo, a city known for its nightlife outside Subic Bay, a former US Navy base.Laude was later found dead, her head rammed into a toilet bowl in a motel room, where witnesses said she and Pemberton had checked in.Investigators said that Pemberton admitted he choked Laude after discovering she was not a “real” woman.Prosecutors sought a murder conviction but in 2015, a judge convicted Pemberton of the lesser crime of homicide.The case renewed outrage over agreements governing US military relations with the Philippines.


Mysterious ‘obelisk’ in US desert draws wild theories

A mysterious metal “obelisk” found buried in the remote western US desert has inflamed the imaginations of UFO spotters, conspiracy theorists and Stanley Kubrick fans around the world.The shiny, triangular pillar – which protrudes approximately 12 feet from the red rocks of southern Utah – was spotted last Wednesday by baffled local officials counting bighorn sheep from the air.Landing to investigate, Utah Department of Public Safety crew members found “a metal monolith installed in the ground” but “no obvious indication of who might have put the monolith there”.“It is illegal to install structures or art without authorisation on federally managed public lands, no matter what planet you’re from,” warned the agency in a tongue-in-cheek press release Monday.News of the discovery quickly went viral online, with many noting the object’s similarity with strange alien monoliths that trigger huge leaps in human progress in Kubrick’s classic sci-fi “2001: A Space Odyssey”.Others remarked on its discovery during a turbulent year that has seen the world gripped by the Covid-19 pandemic, and optimistically speculated it could have a different function entirely.“This is the ‘reset’ button for 2020. Can someone please press it quickly?” joked one Instagram user.“Up close it reads: ‘Covid vaccine inside'” wrote another.With officials refusing to disclose the object’s location out of fear that hordes of curious sightseers would flock to the remote wilderness, a race has also begun online to geo-locate the “obelisk” using surrounding rock formations.Bret Hutchings, the pilot who happened to fly over the obelisk, speculated that the obelisk had been planted by “some new wave artist”.Some observers pointed out the object’s resemblance to the avant-garde work of John McCracken, a US artist who lived for a time in nearby New Mexico, and died in 2011.“While this is not a work by the late American artist John McCracken, we suspect it is a work by a fellow artist paying homage to McCracken,” a spokeswoman for his representative David Zwirner told AFP.Either way, Hutchings admitted it was “about the strangest thing I’ve come across out there, in all my years of flying”.“We were kind of joking around that if one of us suddenly disappears, then the rest of us make a run for it,” he told local news channel KSLTV.


Life will be difficult for anti-vaxxers, Khairy warns

The government will take a vigorous approach towards those who refuse to be vaccinated by “continuing to make their life difficult”, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said today.However, he said those who cannot be vaccinated due to health reasons will be fine as they will be provided with digital exemption on MySejahtera.“Sorry to say, if you are not vaccinated because you choose not to be vaccinated, then we will make life very difficult for you and continue to make life difficult for you.“Cannot dine in at restaurants, cannot go into shopping centres, and we will be releasing a National Testing Strategy next week… then we will probably ask you to do regular tests that you have to pay for. The message is to get yourself vaccinated,” he said at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.Meanwhile, Khairy said individuals required to take a booster dose for umrah or to meet the conditions of other countries can apply to the health ministry, with the shots expected to be given from this month.However, he said the health ministry was making efforts and discussing with the countries concerned not to practise discrimination pertaining to vaccines as the UK only allows Malaysians who have received the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines to enter the country without need for quarantine.“Rather than having to revaccinate Malaysians who want to go to the UK without quarantine… treat all the vaccines, at least those which have been listed for emergency use under the World Health Organization, as the same.“Like the UK, they are considering our request, hopefully they will agree and the same with Saudi Arabia… in any case we will give the booster dose but the easier and better solution is no discrimination as far as the vaccine is concerned,” he said.Khairy also said he will be pushing for the compulsory outfitting of certain buildings with automated external defibrillator (AED) units.He said he would discuss this with the relevant ministries as well as state governments and local authorities as it would involve amendments to building by-laws and that he would bring the matter to the Cabinet soon.Without mentioning the targeted timeline for this, he said it would start with government buildings followed by other buildings.“It (AED) must be displayed and we need to train as many people (as possible) to be first responders because there have been so many cases where people have gotten heart attacks but cannot get to hospital on time,” he said.


Iran hopes for solution as lack of direct flight to KL affects tourism, business

Iran has expressed concern over the impact of a decision last month to stop the only direct flight connecting the country to Malaysia, describing it as a blow to its once vibrant tourism industry as well as to business involving both nations.
Last month, Iranian airline Mahan Air was forced to cease its direct Tehran-Kuala Lumpur flight, which had been in service for more than three decades.
Iran's ambassador to Malaysia, Ali Asghar Mohammadi, said he hoped the issue would be resolved soon.
"I hope that this issue can be resolved soon and that Mahan Air will be able to continue its operations at KLIA with direct flights between both capitals like before, to improve the tourism and trade relationship between Malaysia and Iran in the post-pandemic era," Mohammadi told MalaysiaNow.
The matter was also raised during a recent telephone conversation between Iran's President Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi and Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
A report last month said fuelling companies at Malaysian airports had been threatened with punitive measures if they continued fuelling planes from Iran, which has come under sanctions by the US.
The absence of a direct route between Iran and Malaysia is already being felt by thousands of students, expatriates and business operators who relied heavily on Mahan Air’s flight and freight services.
In 2019, Mahan Air carried more than 100,000 passengers between Iran and Malaysia. It had planned to increase its flight frequency in the post-pandemic era in tandem with Tourism Malaysia’s promotional activities and roadshows in Iran in May, to jumpstart the tourism sector.
Last year, Iran was Malaysia's seventh largest trading partner in the Middle East, with total bilateral trade valued at RM2.6 billion – a jump of almost 70% compared to the previous year.


Maszlee denies being Johor MB candidate

PKR’s candidate for the Layang-Layang state seat, Maszlee Malik, has denied rumours that he will be the Johor menteri besar candidate should the party and Pakatan Harapan (PH) win the mandate in the coming state election.“That’s far from the truth. Anwar Ibrahim (PKR president) never touched on the issue of menteri besar.“He only asked for my vote and support for PKR and PH to take Johor to a higher level,” he told reporters after holding a ceramah at the Layang-Layang state legislative assembly PKR operations room in Kluang yesterday.Maszlee, who joined PKR last November, said this when commenting on Anwar’s previous ceramah which stated that there was a reason PKR was fielding the Simpang Renggam MP as a candidate in the Johor polls.This gave the impression that Maszlee was the coalition’s candidate for the menteri besar post.Maszlee also apologised to Simpang Renggam voters for not being able to fulfil all of PH’s promises made during the 14th general election, saying it could only govern the country for 22 months.The former Bersatu member denied jumping parties, saying Bersatu had betrayed him by “casting him out” because he did not agree with the party leaving PH and forming a new alliance with Perikatan Nasional (PN).Maszlee will be involved in a four-cornered fight with K Alagathiran of PN, Abdul Mutalib Abd Rahim of Barisan Nasional and Ahmad Shafiq Othaman of Pejuang for the Layang-Layang state seat.


Doctors welcome Putrajaya’s ‘comprehensive’ Covid-19 vaccination plan

The country’s main association of medical doctors has welcomed the government’s plan to achieve herd immunity among 80% of the population against Covid-19 by the end of this year, saying the move is “strategic and comprehensive”.The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) also said some 7,000 doctors in private clinics would be able to be participate in the programme, adding that these clinics could play a greater role in densely populated areas which carry higher risk of Covid-19 transmissions.“Many of the private GP clinics are located in these areas, therefore access will be quicker and more convenient for the population,” said MMA president Dr Subramaniam Muniandy.He said the involvement of the private health sector in the mass testing for the virus had made them more prepared for coordinating a vaccination drive of a scale such as this.Malaysia is among the countries still awaiting the arrival of their first batch of vaccines, as it battles a fierce spike that saw daily infections passing the 4,000 mark several times this month.Health authorities will soon open registration for the voluntary immunisation drive, targeting 70% herd immunity involving 23 million Malaysians.Malaysia has ordered 25 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, half of which will arrive in late February.MMA said it hoped the government would ensure transparency and prevent “non-healthcare middlemen or agents” from getting involved in the administration of the vaccines, adding that it should only be carried out by “qualified, trained medical personnel”.It said a national vaccination programme of the scale needed for Covid-19 was unprecedented, adding that more information campaigns should be carried out to convince the public to take the jabs.Yesterday, Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, whose ministry is tasked with securing several Covid-19 vaccines from a number of pharmaceutical firms, said Putrajaya would kick-start the vaccination programme by immunising 75,000 people a day at 600 vaccination sites nationwide from March.The sites include government clinics and hospitals, university and armed forces medical facilities as well as private clinics.


The rising danger of cyber-paedophilia in Malaysia

The ICT Use and Access by Households Survey Report 2021 released by the Department of Statistics (DOSM) reports that internet usage in Malaysia last year increased by up to 95.5% compared to 91.7% in 2020.
However, as internet access has become more widely available, room has been made for paedophiles to sexually abuse children through virtual means such as grooming and accessing child pornography.
As reported by the police's Sexual, Women and Children Crime Investigation Division (D11) principal assistant director Siti Kamsiah Hassan, data shared by Interpol, the FBI, and the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children shows that from 2017, there were only 46 IP addresses identified.
By the year after, ie, 2018, however, the number had spiked to 2,660 IP addresses. This continued to increase dramatically, escalating to 48,752 IP addresses in 2021.
In total, there were 93,368 IP addresses detected engaging in cyber-paedophilia activities from 2017 until the first quarter of 2022.

But it is not surprising that the number of IP addresses accessing child sexual content online could continue to rise.
This alone should encourage us to think about how we could do more to suppress cyber-paedophilia, which represents a present and continuing danger to children not only outside the country but in Malaysia also.
The discovery of two notorious paedophiles, Richard Huckle and Blake Johnston, finally led to the introduction of the Sexual Offences against Children Act (Soca) in 2017.
However, even after the act was passed, it was discovered in 2018 that Malaysia had the largest concentration of IP addresses used to upload and download child pornographic content in Southeast Asia.
Why is the number of Malaysian IPs addresses still high?
Firstly, the current legislative provisions in Malaysia pertaining to online child sexual exploitation have some limitations.
Soca (2017) is a comprehensive legislation that seeks to safeguard children from both online and offline sexual abuse compared to the older Child Act (2001) that does not criminalise child pornography.
In spite of that, Ecpat International, a global network of civil society organisations that works to end the sexual exploitation of children, has scored Malaysia 0/100 in the Out of the Shadows indicator for internet protection for children.
This is because ISPs (internet service providers) in Malaysia are not obligated to block, delete or report inappropriate information concerning child sexual abuse.
Moreover, directives by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission can only go so far since any blocking of access is limited to the domain name system or IP address which can be easily circumvented.
Secondly, the police force is under-staffed and not well equipped to effectively combat and deter child pornography online.
Siti Kamsiah said the reason why the number of arrests is very low is due to a shortage of manpower and staff trained in digital forensics, including to filter and track IP addresses, despite the police force having the technical apparatus to do so.
In reality, the police rely heavily on information and data shared by its international counterparts and partners.
In early 2022, only 103 out of 14,385 IP addresses were tracked, leading to the arrests of 50 individuals.
These IP addresses come under the purview and review of the police's Malaysian Internet Crime Against Children (MICAC) D11 investigation unit which at the moment only comprises three investigating officers (IOs) who are all ranked as inspectors.
Additionally, despite having the technical apparatus, the police say that the Data Protection Act (2010) has made it more difficult for them to gain full access to the activities from IP addresses. For example, while the police can track the IP addresses, at present they are unable to determine whether any sharing or exchange of images and videos has taken place.
According to the police, this is because private activities carried out within the (public) internet domain are protected under the 2010 Act, which hampers the effectiveness of the ICACCOPS, ie the technical apparatus or software deployed to detect the IP addresses.
ICACCOPS stands for Internet Crime Against Children: Child Online Protective Services.
Thirdly, the social stigma built around the topic of sex has led to under-reporting.
The taboo and shame surrounding sexual abuse topics/issues contribute to a lack of awareness among some minors which in turn increases their susceptibility/vulnerability to sexual exploitation.
There is also a sub-culture whereby the perverted fascination with child and pre-pubescent sexuality is considered a trivial and minor issue.
Ensuring a proactive role for ISPs
As it is, Southeast Asia is notorious for being a sex tourism hotspot for paedophiles.
This includes the sexual, physical and mental abuse of children as subjects for pornographic content.
However, the Philippines is the only country in the region that has mandated ISPs to report and block child porn.
Malaysia, which is among the countries with the highest rate of internet penetration in the region, must take the critical step to ensure a safer internet environment.
Furthermore, due to the technical capacity of the ISPs, they are well-poised and better positioned than the law enforcement authorities to serve as the frontline investigators and co-regulatory agents when it comes to the identification and blocking of child pornography sites which are typically hosted on the dark web.
This is why we need to ensure that the ISPs play a more active role in monitoring, penetrating, accessing and regulating the dark web on behalf of law enforcement authorities.
However, even ISPs are said to be lacking in sufficient technical capacity (in their own right) to penetrate the dark web.
Perhaps the police should engage the consultancy and technical services of private dark web intelligence firms and contract an expert/specialist to be “seconded” to Malaysia for a period. The contractor would also be responsible for capacity-building and the training and development (T&D) of MICAC personnel.
And if the 2010 Act presents one obstacle to the police's efforts to investigate and suppress cyber-paedophilia, it is vital for the legislation to be amended with specific reference to Section 40 (1) – wherein the reference is made – which prohibits the accessing and processing of “any sensitive personal data”. Sensitive personal data “includes information on physical health or any other information the relevant minister deems to be personal, including an individual’s private communications data”.
A clause should be inserted which provides for an additional exception or derogation, ie with respect to the right and authority of law enforcement agencies to access and investigate personal data for child pornography purposes.
If need be, we should further empower our law enforcement authorities with the necessary legal backstop.
Enhancing regional cooperation with technology and reinforced policing
The challenge in combating this evil is compounded by the difficulty in tracking down the practice of illegal/illicit transactions that are made in cryptocurrency for child pornography content.
Child pornography also includes the live-streaming of children being abused via webcams. This activity has been on the rise in the Southeast Asian region.
One way to break down child pornography activities is through the cryptocurrency trail which leads right back to the users.
In 2017, a company known as Chainalysis became the world’s first tech firm to focus solely on tracing cryptocurrency transactions.
The firm has been collaborating with government agencies, and its successes include busting of one of the biggest websites for child pornography.
We can build on these successes in the fight against cyber-paedophilia through strengthened regional and international cooperation, not only by exchanging information but also by actively working together to suppress the dramatically increasing numbers of IP addresses suspected of accessing child porn with advanced technologies.
Again, procuring the technical expertise of foreign-based firms such as Chainalysis for use in the Southeast Asia region is one example, especially in the context of Aseanapol as the embodiment of regional and cross-border cooperation on policing.
Aseanapol should establish a regional cybercrime centre with the specific purpose of combating the evil of child pornography.
The shortage of manpower and technical capacity meanwhile could be partly alleviated by the pooling and sharing of resources (including financial).
In addition to technical and technological sophistication to “outwit” cyber-paedophiles, law enforcement authorities also need to step up the utilisation of other methods at their disposal including entrapment and dragnet and intelligence operations.
As part of the reinforced policing of cyber-paedophilia and, by inclusion, the wider field of paedophilic activities, there is also a critical need to penetrate the domestic paedophile community by informants to become more familiar with the tactics and methods employed to evade detection.
The rising danger of cyber-paedophilia, which represents a menacing threat to society in general as well, has made it all the more imperative for the police and the government to intensify efforts and measures to achieve greater success in the suppression of this evil.
Jason Loh and Nik Nurdiana Zulkifli are part of the research team of independent think tank Emir Research.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of MalaysiaNow.


Philippine central bank raises interest rates to curb inflation

The Philippine central bank raised interest rates Thursday for the first time in more than three years, in a bid to curb inflation as rising fuel prices and food shortages push up living costs.Robust economic growth and jobs in the first quarter gave the monetary authority room to continue “rolling back its pandemic-induced interventions”, said Benjamin Diokno, governor of the bank.Reducing inflationary pressures was now the focus as rising global oil prices, the Ukraine conflict, and a domestic shortage of pork and fish strained household budgets.“Average inflation is likely to breach the upper end of the 2-4% target range in 2022 at 4.6%, while the forecast for 2023 has edged closer to the upper end of the target band at 3.9%,” Diokno said.The 25-basis-point increase comes after the central bank held rates at a historic low of 2% since November 2020. The last time it lifted rates was in November 2018.The monetary authority’s overnight reverse repurchase facility rose to 2.25% effective Friday, while overnight deposit and lending facilities were raised to 1.75% and 2.75% respectively.Diokno warned the central bank was “only starting the monetary policy tightening cycle”, suggesting more rate hikes were likely.Thursday’s increase would help head off “second-round effects”, such as higher-than-expected increases in minimum wages in some regions, he said.RCBC chief economist Michael Ricafort said stronger-than-expected economic growth of 8.3% in the first quarter and other data indicated “the economy could weather” more hikes.Economic activity was boosted in the first three months of the year by the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions and the start of the election campaign season, which ignited consumer spending.Ricafort said the supply of pork had been affected by African swine fever outbreaks while the fish shortage was caused by a ban on fishing in some waters.


Oil rig workers all at sea under weight of pandemic measures

While millions of Malaysians have spent more than a month locked down in a bid to bring down the daily number of Covid-19 cases, far out to sea, another group of people has been cut off from social contact as well.For this small group of workers, life on the ocean waves means being stuck on an oil rig 24 hours a day, surrounded by thousands of valves controlling the flow and pressure of a delicately balanced system.The smallest mistake could result in an oil spill or gas leak which in turn could spark an explosion.A safety officer who asked to be known as Sazali said the mental pressure on the workers was a serious matter, especially since they had been separated from their families for weeks since the health ministry’s Annex 9 came into effect.He said offshore workers would normally work for two weeks on a rig before being given the next two weeks off.Each day brings with it new tasks, many of them dangerous.“When Annex 9 was enforced, every worker had to be quarantined at a hotel for 14 days before starting work on the rig,” he said.“This disrupted the work schedule, and the company had to make a new schedule which put a greater burden on the workers.”Under the new schedule, workers have two weeks off, then spend two weeks undergoing mandatory quarantine and the next four weeks on the rig.“This means I have to be away from my family for six weeks. I only see them for two weeks out of two months,” Sazali told MalaysiaNow.He said some of the workers had already begun to show signs of stress such as being lost in thought, shouting at the sea, squabbling and being short-tempered, exposing other crew members to the danger of accidents.Ahmad, another worker currently under quarantine in Sabah, said he and his colleagues were under pressure due to the mandatory 14-day quarantine order.“We have no guarantee of how many weeks we will have to work after that, because some of those who return from the sea test positive for Covid-19 as well.“We have to work for two weeks straight because of disruptions to the work schedule,” he said.To make matters worse, the internet facilities on the rig are none too dependable.Ahmad said the 14-day quarantine order took away from the workers time that should have been spent with their families.Workers repair a cable on the oil rig. It is essential to make sure that everything is running as it should be.“Our wives and children are also under stress,” he said. “We have been away from them for a long time, but we have no choice as job opportunities on the ground are scarce.”A marine administrator, Harry Teh, told MalaysiaNow that the disruptions to the schedule had also resulted in some of the workers missing their vaccination appointments.“I tried to get them vaccinated through the marine department’s vaccination drive in conjunction with the International Day of the Seafarer, but we were rejected as they said we were technical crew, not marine crew.“Malaysian seafarers serving on non-Malaysian ships were also not allowed to join the programme,” he said.Teh said crews from Sarawak working in the peninsula had a worse time of it as they would be quarantined twice: one offshore quarantine period and another by the state disaster management committee.“We have workers who have not seen their families for nine months,” he said.“The life of an oil rig worker is like the life of a factory worker living in a dorm. When they return from the coast, they remain at a hotel in Kemaman until they are recalled.”A team of workers pose for a group shot at the platform of their oil rig.He suggested that PCR or RTK tests be administered to unvaccinated workers 72 hours before they depart for the rig.For those who have received at least a single dose, he said, quarantine could be trimmed to seven days.“On return, just take a swab test and quarantine them until the results are out,” he added.Sazali said it would help if the quarantine period could be carried out at home instead of in a hotel.“At least when we are on break, we can still be with our families even though we cannot go out.“Our two weeks at sea could also be considered a quarantine as we do not mix with other people,” he said.


Give retirees a bigger pension, govt told amid hike in cost of living

The government has been urged to raise the minimum pension rate for retired civil servants from RM1,000 to RM1,800, ahead of the budget for 2022 which is expected to be tabled not long from now.National trade union Cuepacs said this would help retirees from the government service keep up with the rising cost of living.“Right now, many government retirees are facing financial issues because their pension is not enough,” Cuepacs president Adnan Mat told MalaysiaNow.“They need to pay their home loans and their children’s education expenses on top of buying their daily necessities.”He said the rising house prices alone would likely result in an extension of loan period until the age of 60.“This is without taking into consideration necessary expenses like hire-purchase loans for vehicles and so on.”There are some 700,000 government retirees nationwide, with monthly pension payments estimated at about RM700 million.On Sept 30, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Special Functions) Abdul Latiff Ahmad said the Public Service Department (JPA) was considering ways to improve pension payments for retired government servants, especially those in the B40 category.Adnan said Cuepacs had been calling for a review of the pension rate for a long time now.Before 2009, he said, government retirees who had served a minimum of 25 years only received pensions of RM280 a month because of the low salary scheme for civil servants at the time.“Our calls were finally heard when the government agreed to raise the monthly pension from RM280 to RM720 beginning Jan 1, 2009.“From time to time, we continue to negotiate with the government so that pension payments are updated in line with the economic situation,” he added.On Jan 1, 2012, the government increased the pension of those who had served at least 25 years from RM720 a month to RM820.“In January 2013, the government announced an increase in pension of 2% a year for all retired civil servants before agreeing to raise the lowest pension rate to RM1,000 in 2018,” Adnan said.Responding to Latiff’s remarks, he said it was time the government reviewed and improved pensions again in light of the rising cost of living.“Right now, the lowest pension payment for retirees who served more than 25 years is RM1,000 with the 2% annual increase.“This means that the minimum increase is RM20 a year. But the cost of living will probably rise by far more than that.”


Greece sees first fully vaccinated Covid death

Greece has recorded the first death of a fully vaccinated patient from Covid-19 without underlying symptoms, an official at one of the country’s leading hospitals said Sunday.“We have the first death of a fully vaccinated patient… it was the first among (about) 13,000 deaths in Greece,” Nikos Kapravelos, director of one of the intensive care units of Thessaloniki’s Papanikolaou hospital, told Open TV.The man, described by Greek media as a 70-year-old dentist, had no underlying health symptoms, Kapravelos said.The man had followed all precautions and his wife and children had also been vaccinated, he said.Over 13,200 people have died of the virus in Greece, with an average age of 78 years.There is concern that the return of hundreds of thousands of vacationers to cities in the autumn will spark a fourth pandemic wave in the country.New Covid-19 cases have jumped this past week, hitting over 4,000 on Wednesday from around 2,800 the previous week.Some infection spikes have been noted in Greek islands. Mykonos went into curfew in July after a flurry of cases. Similar restrictions were imposed in Zakynthos and in two cities in Crete in recent days.


Dec 14 hearing for Rosmah’s application to recuse judge

The High Court will hear on Dec 14 an application by Rosmah Mansor to recuse High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan from hearing her case on money laundering and tax evasion.Rosmah, 69, the wife of former prime minister Najib Razak, filed the application on Nov 2.Her lawyer, Geethan Ram Vincent, said the application would be heard before Zaini.“The court ordered the applicant (Rosmah) to file a written submission on Dec 3, and the respondent (public prosecutor) to file it on Dec 10. Both parties have to file their counter submissions on Nov 19 and 26, respectively,” he told reporters after case management before High Court deputy registrar Catherine Nicholas today.Also present was deputy public prosecutor Poh Yih Thinn.The lawyer said the court also set Dec 14 for the first day of hearing of the money laundering case, to be continued next year on Jan 10 to 13 and Jan 24 to 27.Poh confirmed the matter.Rosmah filed the application on grounds that Zaini is the judge presiding over her corruption case involving a solar hybrid project in Sarawak.She claimed that statements and exhibits tendered before the court in the solar case could directly or indirectly influence Zaini if he were to preside over the money laundering case.On Feb 18, Zaini ruled that the prosecution had made out a prima facie case against Rosmah, and ordered her to enter her defence in the graft case, the proceedings of which are to resume on Dec 8.Rosmah is facing 12 money laundering charges involving RM7,097,750 and five counts of failing to declare her income to the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN).The offences were allegedly committed at Affin Bank, Bangunan Getah Asli branch, ground floor, 148 Jalan Ampang between Dec 4, 2013 and June 8, 2017, and LHDN, Kompleks Bangunan Kerajaan, Jalan Tuanku Abdul Halim between May 1, 2014 and May 1, 2018.


Kelantan Bersatu Youth chief dies

Kelantan Bersatu Youth chief Muhammad Amiin Ridhuwan Ab Aziz died from a heart attack at about 6am today. He was 36.This was confirmed by Kelantan Youth press secretary, Che Isham Sharudin Che Hamat Nordin, when contacted by Bernama.“He was said to have complained of chest pains and collapsed during sahur (the pre-dawn meal) today at his residence.“He was brought to Pasir Mas Hospital where he was pronounced dead,” Che Isham Sharudin said.He said the funeral is expected to be held after the zohor prayer today at the Benta Muslim Cemetery in Kampung Pohon Buluh.Amiin, who was also the Pasir Mas Bersatu Youth chief, is survived by two wives and eight children.


Outrage in Canada over painful death of indigenous woman insulted by nursing staff

Canada has the reputation of being the nice guy of North America but sometimes that mask slips.Last week, a video of a dying indigenous woman screaming in distress and being insulted by staff showed the “worst form of racism”, according to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the BBC reports.Joyce Echaquan, a 37-year-old Atikamekw woman, had gone to the Joliette hospital near Montreal suffering from stomach pains.The mother of seven filmed herself in her hospital bed screaming in distress and begging for help.A member of the nursing staff can be heard saying to her, in French, “You’re stupid as hell.”Another says Echaquan had made bad choices in life and asks what her children would think of her behaviour. Echaquan died soon after.Reaction to the video was swift. Quebec Premier Francois Legault told reporters, “The nurse, what she said, is totally unacceptable, it’s racist and she was fired. We must fight this racism.”Three investigations are now under way.It is the latest in a series of incidents that raise questions about the systemic racism faced by Canada’s indigenous citizens.Canadian First Nations advocate Perry Bellegarde tweeted that the incident showed that discrimination against indigenous people in Canada’s healthcare system remained prevalent.In June, health authorities in the province of British Columbia launched an investigation into claims that some hospital staff were betting on the blood alcohol level of indigenous patients.Last year a government inquiry found that indigenous women were 12 times more likely to be killed or to disappear than other women in Canada. The inquiry said the cause was deep-rooted colonialism and state inaction.


Tok Mat beginning to look like Zahid, say analysts

Mohamad Hasan's image may be in troubled waters after a recent string of events including the Umno deputy president's defence of his party's new-found ties with DAP and the motion allowing him to retain his post unchallenged when the Umno election is called.
Mohamad, popularly known as Tok Mat, was described as a hero after leading Umno to victory at a series of by-elections in 2019, when party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was on leave.
The Rembau MP was also credited with Barisan Nasional's (BN) landslide victories at the state elections in Melaka and Johor.
But analyst Kartini Aboo Talib of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia said several moves both before and after the Nov 19 polls last year had jeopardised Mohamad's image.
"Tok Mat is a politician who uses every opportunity he gets for survival," she said.
"So even cooperation with DAP is a strategic move for the party's interests."
Mohamad climbed the ranks in Umno after defeating Annuar Musa for the post of deputy president at the last party election.
He joined hands with Zahid, who replaced Najib as president after BN's historic defeat at the 2018 general election.
They retained their positions after the general assembly passed a motion for the top posts to go unchallenged.
But while Umno's decision to work with DAP had helped ensure its political survival, analyst Azizi Safar said it was seen by many Malays as a difficult pill to swallow.
"In terms of public perception, Tok Mat's image after the 2022 general assembly is not far off from Zahid's," he said.
"Both of them are seen as political individuals who prioritise their positions and office in government."
Mohamad said in his opening speech for the Umno wings that Malay-Muslim support for Umno had continued to fall despite decades of pushing an anti-DAP narrative.
"Whether or not the Malays support Umno is clearly not because of our stance against DAP," he said.
Political observer Mak Khuin Weng said Mohamad had never been a reformist.
"Tok Mat has always been cautious," he said.
"He goes with the flow. Even before this, in interviews where he was seen as criticising Zahid, he was quick to clarify what he meant."


Global property powerhouse to set up tech HQ in KL

Real estate technology powerhouse Juwai IQI will set up its research and development headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, in a boost to the government’s recently launched digital blueprint.In a statement, the company said its new centre in Kuala Lumpur will eventually be staffed by some 1,000 Malaysian employees skilled in digital development platforms.“We are excited to play a small part in the further development of Malaysia as the digital hub of the Asean region,” Juwai IQI’s group CEO Kashif Ansari said.Meanwhile, Juwai IQI chairman Georg Chmiel said the plan was to make Malaysia a launchpad before expanding to the Asean region.“Asia leads the world in mobile users, digital penetration, internet users and in the penetration of super-apps like WeChat, Gojek and Grab. From its position at the heart of Asean, Malaysia has what it takes to be the digital heart of Asia,” Chmiel said.The Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) has welcomed the announcement, saying it was in line with the MyDigital initiative.“Our agency’s emphasis on human-centred initiatives that benefit the many, not the few, as well as Juwai IQI’s creation of jobs, takes us one step closer to achieving the goals set out in the MyDigital initiative,” said MDEC chairman Rais Hussin.Juwai IQI is the result of a merger between Hong Kong’s Juwai and UAE’s IQI, with some six million property listings every year from 91 countries, serving 3.3 million monthly users mostly in Asia, with a combined value of US$4 trillion.Last year, the company announced it was absorbing Rina Group, one of Malaysia’s largest real estate agencies, into its folds.


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Protests move online amid real-life washouts

About a week ago, a group of protesters held a demonstration in front of the Sogo shopping complex in the heart of Kuala Lumpur.
The July 23 protest, dubbed "Turun", saw the participation of about 100 people who made five demands, including salary cuts for ministers and controls on the price of goods.
Another protest at the same venue earlier this year calling for action against Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission chief Azam Baki saw a turnout of about 200 people.
And a year ago in July 2021, a group of individuals drove around the city centre carrying black flags to express their dissatisfaction with the government.
While the majority of issues championed in these gatherings centred on public well-being, the turnouts were a far cry from pre-Covid demonstrations and those held before the 2018 fall of the Barisan Nasional government, where tens of thousands had massed.
Political observer Mazlan Ali said the people might be fatigued from the changes of government and prime minister over the past two years in addition to the recent string of elections at the state level.
"The people are no longer enthusiastic," Mazlan, of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, said.
"They used to be, during the Reformasi era. But now, there are no more waves like this."
Mazlan was referring to the mass gatherings in 1998, after Anwar Ibrahim was sacked as deputy prime minister under Dr Mahathir Mohamad's government, when thousands took to the streets of Kuala Lumpur.
The Bersih protests that followed likewise drew massive crowds, with the third instalment in 2012 claiming as many as 300,000 participants.
Today, though, such gatherings appear to be a distant memory.
Mazlan said most people were now focused on recovery efforts and making a living after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Although the country was transitioning towards the endemic phase of Covid-19, he said, new infections such as influenza A had begun making an appearance.
On the financial front, meanwhile, the price of goods has been on the rise, with basic food items like chicken sold for close to RM10 per kg.
Meat, fish and chicken eggs have also increased in price, amid supply chain disruptions due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Malaysia's own lack of domestic food production, in addition to the global battle against inflation.
Hisommudin Bakar of electoral think tank Ilham Centre said there was now a large majority of so-called silent voters.
Speaking to MalaysiaNow, he said this group had lost faith in politicians and political movements.
"But they demonstrate very actively in the way that they express their anger on social media platforms," he said.
"You can see this when political leaders, whether from the government or the opposition, make statements on social media.
"This silent majority becomes very vocal."
Hisommudin also said it had become more difficult to gather support for mass gatherings such as the Bersih rallies as the atmosphere and times had changed.
"The 'Turun' movement did not have widespread publicity," he added.
"Their publicity coverage was limited. Even non-state actors like civil movements were not comprehensively involved, and the opposition parties did not appear together."
Mazlan meanwhile said the people were also aware of the government's measures to rein in the price of goods.
"Take the price of chicken, for example," he said. "There are no more complaints about it, in fact there is now a surplus of stock.
"The people can see all of this."