Blaming Muhyiddin-led council off the mark, PM told

Political analysts say Ismail Sabri Yaakob cannot lay the blame on the National Recovery Council (MPN) for the government's failure to manage the economy, following a tit for tat between the prime minister and MPN chairman Muhyiddin Yassin.
Speaking to MalaysiaNow, they said the council's job was only to advise the government, and that it had no authority to make any decisions on its own.  Ahmad Atory Hussain of Universiti Sains Malaysia said it was up to the government whether to implement the council's suggestions or not.
Likewise, MPN has no power to direct any party to carry out proposals, policies or projects, he said.
"It is not fair to blame MPN as the council is only responsible for coming up with recommendations.
"The problem would be if these proposals look good but cannot be carried out, resulting in failure, or if the minister in question does not agree with the suggestions and decides in secret not to carry them out."
Muhyiddin, who is Perikatan Nasional chairman, had questioned Ismail's management of the country, suggesting that it might be better to hold the widely expected election to allow the people to choose a new government.
Citing the economic challenges and the ringgit fall, he said Ismail did not appear to be taking such matters seriously despite the suggestions raised by the MPN.
"I have not yet reached the level of wanting to urge the prime minister to dissolve Parliament," he said.
"But I, too, am thinking – if the prime minister continues to fail to manage the economy and the country well, it would be good to hold an election so that a new government that is more efficient, caring and free from corruption can be elected by the people."
Ismail responded by describing the situation as a shared responsibility.
"In terms of the economy, I have Mustapa (Mohamed) with me to manage it, and we also have the National Recovery Council chaired by Muhyiddin himself. So, this is a shared responsibility... if it fails, it means that we all failed, even MPN," he said.
Oh Ei Sun from Singapore's Institute of International Affairs said Muhyiddin should have laid out his criticism in detail so that the government's true weaknesses could be accurately shown.
He said Muhyiddin, a former prime minister himself, should also show which MPN proposals had been rejected by the government.
"That way, he could, at the same time, raise his political position to one higher than that of Ismail," he added.
Oh said Muhyiddin's comments would add to the pressure on Ismail to speed up the holding of GE15.
Nevertheless, he said Muhyiddin had no concrete reason to push Ismail in this regard, as is being done by Umno leaders.
Atory meanwhile said that Muhyiddin had not actually brought up the issue of the GE15 date.
"It is up to the prime minister whether to call an election, but Ismail also needs to refer to PN given that this is a mixed government," he said.


China exported more than 220 billion masks in 2020

China exported more than 220 billion face masks last year, the commerce ministry said Friday, the equivalent of nearly 40 per person outside China as demand for protective gear skyrocketed during the coronavirus pandemic.Shifting billions of dollars’ worth of the coverings has become an important driver of China’s exports after Covid-19 virtually halted economic activity in the earlier part of 2020 and ravaged growth.On Friday, vice-minister for commerce Qian Keming told reporters that in addition to masks, China exported 2.3 billion pieces of protective gear and one billion test kits last year, “making an important contribution to the global fight against the epidemic”.The mask shipments alone were worth US$52.6 billion, a customs official said earlier this month.“(The volume) is equivalent to providing nearly 40 masks to each person in the world outside China,” said customs spokesman Li Kuiwen.China, where Covid-19 first emerged in late 2019, was also the first country to bounce back after imposing strict lockdowns and virus control measures.It is expected to be the only major world economy to clock positive 2020 growth.But on Friday, commerce ministry official Chu Shijia added that China still faced a “severe and complex” environment in foreign trade and investment this year.


Croatia seizes US$21 million worth of cocaine

Croatian police said on Wednesday they had seized 745kg of cocaine concealed in containers in the northern Adriatic port of Rijeka over the past month and a half, their biggest ever drug haul.
The seized cocaine is estimated to worth more than US$21.4 million (about RM98 million).
The drugs came from South America, with Colombia, Bolivia and Peru being the major producers, officials said.
"It is high-purity cocaine," said Hari Brnad, head of the Primorsko-Goranska cantonal police administration. "Depending on the shipment, the purity is between 80% and 90%."
Brnad said that nearly 900kg of cocaine had been seized in Rijeka containers over the past year, and that regional police has been closely cooperating with European agencies Frontex and Europol.


Try, try again: AirAsia passengers spam their way to ticket refunds

It took months of waiting and a great deal of typing, but Indian national Sanjay Banerjee hit upon a novel way to get his money back from AirAsia for tickets to Bali on flights that never took off: by spamming the LinkedIn account of the low-cost airline.Sanjay, from Kolkata, booked three tickets in 2020 for flights on April 15, 19 and 22 – flights which, like hundreds of thousands across the world, were cancelled in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.As compensation for the cancellations, he received payment in the form of credit to be used within two years. Unhappy with this arrangement, though, he demanded that AirAsia pay him back in cash.“I also lodged a complaint about the matter, asking why there was an expiry date for the credit and what would happen if, during the two-year period, I was unable to travel,” he said in an interview with MalaysiaNow.At first, he emailed the airline and left comments on Facebook and Twitter. Still, it wasn’t until January 2021 that he received a response from AirAsia, informing him that his refund would be given within six weeks.Sanjay was relieved – but the weeks turned into months, and after a year of waiting, his money had still not arrived despite an email in August requesting his account details.The email also informed him that he would need to respond within seven days, failing which his case would be closed.He did so, but January 2022 came and went, and nothing happened.Seeing no other options before him, Sanjay began spamming AirAsia’s LinkedIn, asking question after question about his repayment status in the comment section of Capital A Bhd CEO Tony Fernandes’ account.After two weeks of this, he was blocked from making further comments.Undaunted, he looked for the LinkedIn accounts of AirAsia staff and continued doing the same thing until finally, someone from the airline’s communications department responded.“He told me that someone from AirAsia would email me,” Sanjay said.When the email came, it said that the refund process would take up to three weeks.This time, though, the money came through and Sanjay finally received his refund for the three tickets from Kolkota to Bali via Kuala Lumpur.But while he was happy to get his money back, Sanjay was severely disappointed in AirAsia’s customer service and the lengths to which he was forced to go.Another passenger, Rose Marie Jane Rementina from the Philippines, also managed to get back the money she spent on flight tickets in March 2020.Speaking to MalaysiaNow, she said the refund process had been difficult but that she had persevered for two years.Rose was initially told that the refund had been given although the amount was not reflected in her bank account.“What did I do next? I gathered together all of the communication I had had with their customer service department since 2020 on Twitter,” she said.“I then emailed the Civil Aeronautics Board, the Malaysian Aviation Commission, and several other parties.”Rose, who had to repeat the process a number of times, said it might have helped that she shared one of MalaysiaNow’s articles on international travellers uniting to demand their money back from AirAsia.“I did it to show how serious the case was,” she added.She also asked AirAsia if spamming their social media accounts would be enough to get their attention.“Maybe this made them panic,” she said.Adding that the entire experience had been a tiring ordeal, she said she would think long and hard before deciding to use the airline again in the future.MalaysiaNow has attempted to contact AirAsia for a reponse.


Anwar confident coalition govt will serve full term

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim yesterday said he was confident that the coalition government under his leadership would serve its full term.
Addressing over 100 diplomatic officers in Putrajaya, he appeared unperturbed by PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang's remarks on toppling the current government.
"Whatever is being said by the PAS president, I'm confident that this coalition will survive until the end of its term," he said.
Hadi reportedly said that no party would be able to stop Perikatan Nasional's (PN) plans to topple the government, and that politics was dynamic with such practices considered normal in a democratic country.
At the session, Anwar said that in order for the country to regain its past glory, Malaysians including government officers must not only uphold good governance but be ready to make changes.
"I'm sending a strong message to Malaysia that we have to chart a different course. We must do this and effect this change, which is necessary to save this country from the mess that we have been in.
"It is not a matter of choice, it is imperative and morally imperative," he said.
Anwar also called on the heads of diplomatic missions to do better for the country, saying it was vital for Malaysian officers and diplomats overseas to set an example of what it meant to be a good competent leader.
"Why do you serve and observe the principles of good governance where ethics and values are pertinent?
"It is setting the priority to serve the nation, which means you have a duty to encourage people to come as tourists and investors in order to bring light and hope to Malaysians," he said.


Helicopter crash in Taman Melawati after mid-air collision

Two helicopters collided in mid-air before one of them crashed in a field near a school in Taman Melawati, Selangor at noon today.A video of the incident recorded by a nearby resident showed the helicopter crashing to the ground. The other was able to safely land.A spokesman from the Selangor Fire and Rescue Department confirmed the incident to MalaysiaNow.The helicopter that landed safely after the mid-air collision today.The helicopters, 9M-HCA and 9M-HCB, are understood to have been en route from Subang to Genting Sempah when the collision occurred.Four victims were involved: Mohamed Sabri Baharom and Mohd Irfan Rawi on 9M-HCB, both of whom died, and former Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya and Tan Chai Elan on 9M-HCA.


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PKR, DAP fork out RM80,000 donation to Malaysiakini

PKR and DAP today gave a combined RM80,000 to Malaysiakini as part of efforts to cover its RM500,000 fine for contempt over comments posted by readers, as the news portal announced that it had exceeded its target by RM5,000.“As a sign of solidarity, PKR will contribute RM20,000 to the fund raising effort,” the party said in a statement issued by its treasurer general Lee Chean Chung.DAP meanwhile said 50 of its MPs and assemblymen would donate RM1,000 each, with another RM10,000 to come from the party itself.Earlier today, the Federal Court ruled that Malaysiakini was guilty of contempt over comments posted by readers seen as offensive to the judiciary.The attorney-general had said that five comments posted by readers on a June 7 report titled “CJ orders all courts to be fully operational from July 1” contained words offensive towards the judiciary in general and the chief justice in particular.The attorney-general also claimed that the comments undermined public confidence in the judiciary and were an insult to its integrity.Malaysiakini’s editor-in-chief Steven Gan, who was also named in the lawsuit, was found not guilty.Malaysiakini was fined RM500,000 despite pleas by its legal team for a maximum fine of RM30,000, and the proposal by the Attorney-General’s Chambers that the portal be fined RM200,000.Its fund raising campaign, dubbed the Media Defence Fund, had succeeded in collecting RM505,000 as of 4pm.“Details on what we will do with the extra funds will be forthcoming,” the portal said in a Twitter post thanking those who had donated.


Anwar’s Bukit Segambut bungalow selling for RM12 million

PKR president Anwar Ibrahim has put his bungalow home in Bukit Segambut, Kampung Segambut Dalam in Kuala Lumpur up for sale at an asking price of RM12 million.It is understood that the original selling price for the house was RM15 million. However, this was reduced to RM12 million on Mudah.my today.Sources told MalaysiaNow that the house was put up for sale after the Port Dickson MP moved to his new home in Sungai Long, Kajang, Selangor, about a year ago.The house was evaluated during the Sabah state election last year.Anwar’s home in Bukit Segambut has changed hands several times already from its first owner, one Fauziah, on Oct 11, 1979 to the second, Tan Chong, on Nov 6, 1997.On Aug 5, 2005, it was transferred to Anwar’s name, not long after he was freed from prison in 2004.Before moving to Bukit Segambut, Anwar had stayed in Bukit Damansara, Kuala Lumpur.On March 7, 2019, the opposition leader declared his total asset worth at RM10.74 million.The declaration of assets was submitted to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission as requested by the government for all Pakatan Harapan MPs and representatives.The property worth included the estimated current value of his home in Bukit Segambut of RM9.5 million. It was originally bought for RM4.5 million from the proceeds of the sale of his Bukit Damansara home.Anwar also declared a plot of land in Permatang Habib, Mukim Penor, Kuantan, Pahang, bought in 1974 for RM7,000.


UK PM Johnson survives Tory MPs’ no-confidence vote

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday survived a vote of no confidence from his own Conservative MPs but with his position weakened after a sizeable number refused to back him.The Brexit figurehead called the 211-148 split a “convincing result, a decisive result”. “As a government we can move on and focus on the stuff that really matters,” he told reporters.The vote – just over two years after he won a landslide general election victory – was brought after a string of scandals that have left the Tory party’s standing in tatters.Chief among them was the “Partygate” controversy over lockdown-breaking events at Downing Street, which caused public outrage and saw him become the first serving UK prime minister to have broken the law.Johnson, 57, needed the backing of 180 MPs to survive the vote – a majority of one out of the 359 sitting Conservatives in parliament.Defeat would have meant an end to his time as party leader and prime minister until a replacement was found in an internal leadership contest.Speculation will now turn to whether Johnson can survive having lost the confidence of so many of his own MPs – and whether senior ministers will now resign.In previous Tory ballots, predecessors Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May both ultimately resigned despite narrowly winning their own votes, deciding that their premierships were terminally damaged.“The Conservative government now believes that breaking the law is no impediment to making the law,” the main opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer said.“The Conservative party now believes the British public have no right to expect honest politicians.”Rebuild trustJohnson has steadfastly refused to resign over “Partygate”.He earlier defended his record on delivering Brexit, fighting the Covid pandemic and Britain’s hawkish support for Ukraine against Russia.“This is not the moment for a leisurely and entirely unforced domestic political drama and months and months of vacillation from the UK,” he told Tory MPs, according to a senior party source.“We have been through bumpy times before and I can rebuild trust,” the prime minister told his parliamentary rank and file, according to the source, adding: “The best is yet to come.”Supporters cheered and thumped their tables in approval.The source said Johnson had indicated tax cuts could be in the offing as Britain contends with its worst inflation crisis in generations.But the scale of Tory disunity was exposed in a blistering resignation letter from Johnson’s “anti-corruption champion” John Penrose and another letter of protest from long-time ally Jesse Norman.The prime minister’s rebuttals over “Partygate” were “grotesque”, Norman wrote, warning that the Tories risked losing the next general election, which is due by 2024.Ex-cabinet member Jeremy Hunt, who lost to Johnson in the last leadership contest in 2019 and is expected to run again if Johnson is deposed, confirmed he would vote against him.“Conservative MPs know in our hearts we are not giving the British people the leadership they deserve,” Hunt tweeted.Jubilee booingAfter a dismal showing in May local elections, the party is expected to lose two by-elections this month, one of them in a previously rock-solid Conservative seat.That is focusing the minds of Tory lawmakers, who fear their own seats could be at risk if Johnson leads them into the next election.In a snap poll by Opinium Monday of 2,032 people, 59% of respondents said the Tories should ditch him as leader.Among Conservative members, 42 percent want MPs to fire Johnson, according to another poll by YouGov.Johnson was booed Friday by sections of an ardently patriotic crowd gathered outside St Paul’s Cathedral, ahead of a religious service for Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee.For wavering Tories, the barracking at a televised national occasion reportedly marked a turning point. Some said they had held back on public criticism of Johnson until after the jubilee.But cabinet ally Jacob Rees-Mogg dismissed the booing as “muted noise” and insisted that Johnson could survive with the slenderest of majorities.“He has shown himself to be a good, strong leader who gets the big decisions right, and he has a mandate from the British people,” Rees-Mogg told reporters.SquabblingGraham Brady, who heads the backbench committee of Conservatives which oversees party challenges, told Johnson the threshold to trigger a vote had been reached early on Sunday, as four days of jubilee celebrations ended.In a message of thanks for the celebrations of her record-breaking 70-year reign, the queen had expressed hope that “this renewed sense of togetherness will be felt for many years to come”.Conservative MPs had other ideas, as they openly squabbled on Twitter in often-scathing terms following Brady’s announcement.Dozens have broken ranks and criticised Johnson after an internal probe into “Partygate” said he had presided over a culture of Covid lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street.Some ran late into the night, and one featured a drunken fight among staff, at a time when the government’s pandemic rules forbade ordinary Britons from bidding farewell in person to dying loved ones.


Early GE won't necessarily benefit Umno, say analysts

While calls have arisen from within Umno for the prime minister to dissolve Parliament and pave the way for an early election, analysts warn that such a move might in fact backfire on the party which appears to be splitting apart.
Speaking to MalaysiaNow, they said Umno should instead focus on resolving its leadership issues, to prevent conflicts from arising in its quest to obtain a two-thirds majority at the 15th general election (GE15).
Pressure for an election to be called ahead of the expiry of the current Parliament term could be seen as recently as Aug 27, when Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi reiterated at a special party briefing that GE15 should be held as soon as possible.
His remarks were in line with the stand of the Umno Supreme Council, the party's highest decision-making body.
At the briefing, Umno members also expressed their dissatisfaction with the jailing of former prime minister Najib Razak, who began serving a 12-year prison sentence several days earlier, after the Federal Court upheld his conviction for the misappropriation of millions in SRC International funds.
Ahmad Atory Hussain of Universiti Sains Malaysia said Umno was not yet strong enough to face GE15 as it still had to reckon with the court cluster comprising former government leaders, including Zahid, who are facing criminal charges.
He said the situation would continue to tarnish the party's name and could see Malay voters currently on the fence turning to alternative parties like PAS, Bersatu, Pejuang and Gerakan Tanah Air.
"Umno itself is breaking apart and the party's direction is unclear," he said.
"Umno needs to be strong enough to purge its leadership of the court cluster. Only then will it benefit if GE15 is held."
If Umno succeeds in freeing itself from the grip of the court cluster, he said, it could re-establish ties with PAS and Bersatu under Muafakat Nasional, to win the overall support of Malay voters.
Mujibu Abd Muis of Universiti Teknologi Mara meanwhile said that Umno would not gain if GE15 is delayed, either, as this would allow the opposition more time to rally for an attack.
"Just recently, there was the issue of the littoral combat ship (LCS) project, and other issues that involve senior Umno leaders," Mujibu said.
Referring to Najib's recent jailing and the court's decision for Kinabatangan MP Bung Moktar Radin and his wife to enter their defence against charges of graft, he said all of this would give the opposition more ammunition to show Umno as beset with problems of corruption.
He said Umno still had strong support among the voters, anchored by hardcore supporters from the party's grassroots.
Nevertheless, he said, current sentiments could still influence voters to the extent of causing a repeat of Umno's historic loss at the 2018 general election.
"The perception of Umno as a corrupt party remains strong, especially with the ongoing court cases," he said.
"Strong parties like Perikatan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan have a chance of winning over those on the fence."
Both Mujibu and Atory believe that Ismail Sabri Yaakob's chances of retaining the position of prime minister are slim, even if Umno succeeds in obtaining a two-thirds majority.
Atory said Najib's imprisonment would affect Ismail's support among Umno members, especially those in the court cluster, as he was seen as refusing to comply with the party's calls for an early election.
Nevertheless, he said, the decision was not Ismail's alone as the present government comprises a number of parties, all of whom would need to support the dissolution of Parliament.
"This is what Umno fails to understand," he said. "It's not that Ismail doesn't want to. He actually can't because he needs the permission of his 'stepbrothers' in the government.
"Umno needs to understand the concept of sharing power," he added. "They can only decide when to call an election if they win two third's support."
But Mujibu said Umno would not have the courage to sack Ismail as this could open the floodgates to war within the party.
"If they sack Ismail, they are the ones who will lose out," he said.
"But if Umno wins big, I don't know how Ismail can remain as prime minister."


Vaccines running out in poorer nations, WHO says

Many poor countries relying on receiving Covid-19 vaccines through the Covax global sharing scheme do not have enough doses to continue their programmes, the World Health Organization (WHO) is saying.Uganda, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, and Trinidad and Tobago are just some of the countries that have reported running out of vaccines in recent days.Covax was created last year to ensure Covid-19 vaccines are made available around the world, with richer countries subsidising costs for poorer nations.WHO senior adviser Dr Bruce Aylward said Covax has delivered 90 million doses to 131 countries, but this is nowhere near enough to protect populations from a virus still on the rise worldwide.Some African countries are entering a third wave of infections, reports the BBC.On Monday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called for an end to vaccine hoarding by wealthier countries as his government struggles to curb a steep rise in cases.He said the whole African continent has been able to administer only 40 million doses so far – less than 2% of the population.His government is working with Covax to create a regional hub to produce more vaccines in South Africa.Led by WHO and other international organisations, Covax initially set a target of providing two billion doses to poorer countries worldwide by the end of 2021.However, distribution has been hampered by manufacturing delays and supply disruptions, leading to shortages in countries wholly reliant on Covax.At a WHO briefing in Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday, Aylward acknowledged the extent of those shortages.“Of the 80 low-income countries involved in Covax, at least half of them do not have sufficient vaccines to be able to sustain their programmes right now”, he said. “But in reality, it’s probably much higher.”He added some countries are trying to make alternative arrangements to end shortages by paying above market value for vaccines.On Monday, the administration of US President Joe Biden announced it plans to donate 55 million vaccine doses to countries in need. 41 million will be distributed through Covax, with the remaining 14 million shared with countries deemed to be priorities.These vaccines are not included in the 500 million doses Biden previously pledged the US would donate via Covax. Biden made that pledge earlier this month at the G7 summit of major economic powers, who together committed to donating one billion vaccines to poorer countries this year.Campaigners have criticised the pledge as being far too slow and showing Western leaders are not serious about tackling the pandemic worldwide. Many believe it could be months – if not years – before enough people are vaccinated globally to realistically declare an end to the pandemic.When asked about the global need for vaccines on Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said: “What we have found to be the biggest challenge is not the supply, we have plenty of doses to share with the world, but this is a Herculean logistical challenge.”


Nearly 224,000 calls to support line for emotional relief and counselling

A total of 223,990 calls to the Psychosocial Support Line were received as of Sept 19 with 80.8% of callers in need of emotional support and counselling, the Dewan Negara was told today.Deputy Health Minister Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali said the issues included those related to job loss, no source of income, family conflicts and interpersonal relationship problems.“Other issues included the stigma of being infected of Covid-19, isolation and lack of access to aid and assistance during the movement control order (MCO),” he said during the question-and-answer session at the Dewan Negara.Noor Azmi was replying to Wan Martina Wan Yusoff who wanted to know what the government was doing to address the mental health issues of the people during the pandemic.He said the Psychosocial Support Help Line was one of the government’s initiatives to improve the existing mental health management system.“Last October, we also appointed and deployed an additional 200 psychology officers on a contract basis to provide mental health services and psychosocial support at 1,191 health clinics nationwide.“The ministry is also intensifying its promotional and mental health prevention programmes at the primer stage that includes screening, intervention and treatment to improve the early detection of individuals with mental health issues,” he said.


Marriages drop 9.4% in 2020

A total of 184,589 marriages were recorded in 2020, a drop of 9.4% compared to 203,661 in 2019, according to the Marriage and Divorce Statistics, Malaysia, 2021 released today.Chief statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin said in a statement following the release of the report that the decrease in the number of marriages in 2020 was due in part to a 1.8% decline in the number of Muslim marriages, which was 145,202 compared to 147,847 in 2019.The number of non-Muslim marriages also declined from 55,814 in 2019 to 39,387 in 2020, he added.He said the median age for brides decreased from 27.0 years in 2019 to 26.0 years in 2020, while the median age of grooms remained at 28.0 years.Uzir said the Covid-19 pandemic and the implementation of the movement control order (MCO) had had an impact on marriage statistics in Malaysia.Statistics showed that during the implementation of the MCO, the number of marriages dropped significantly by 88% in April 2020 from 14,056 in 2019 to 1,694 in April 2020.Uzir said the number of divorces in 2020 was 45,754, which showed a declining trend compared to 56,624 in 2019.“The highest number of divorces falls under the age group of 30-34 years for both grooms and brides,” he said.In tandem with the decline in the number of divorces, the general divorce rate for males decreased from 7.2 to 5.8 per 1,000 population of married males aged 18 years and over.A similar trend was also reported for females, from 7.7 to 6.1 per 1,000 population of married females aged 16 years and over.


How Covid-19 shaped the buzzwords of 2020

A year ago, Cik Kiah who runs a stall in Klang selling drinks and keropok lekor never thought she would have to take her business online in order to survive.But the dawn of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country changed everything for her and countless other food stall owners, SMEs and even big businesses as movement restrictions, SOPs and border closures took their toll on the economy.This brought about a push towards digitalisation and online platforms, with MalaysiaNow previously reporting that the stress of pandemic job-losses had hastened a process which experts predicted would take five years.Along with the shift online came a host of other changes which shaped the buzzwords of 2020.Here’s a look at some of the words on the tongue of nearly every Malaysian this year.1. DigitalisationWhen the initial movement control order (MCO) was imposed in March, businesses with the exception of essential services were forced to close down. In order to survive, many turned to the internet, setting up shop on online platforms instead.Economist Yeah Kim Leng, who lectures at Sunway University Business School, expects the job market to eventually split into two groups, where mid-level jobs are performed by machines and AI and low-wage workers carry out jobs on the lower end of the spectrum.This would see technologically proficient, high-wage earners, entrepreneurs and innovaters continuing to dominate the top end.Fellow economist Barjoyai Bardai meanwhile warns against holding out for a return to the “old way” of doing things, saying the old economy is unlikely to recover.Digitalisation will continue penetrating the market, and those who fail to adapt to IR 4.0 run the risk of losing out once the economy regains its footing, he said.2. LockdownThe MCO, imposed in March to curb the spread of Covid-19, was initially meant to last two weeks. It was extended several times before morphing into new stages including the conditional MCO and the recovery MCO. Meanwhile areas where the spread of infection was particularly bad were placed under enhanced MCO.Although the government sought to discourage use of the term “lockdown”, it along with the various iterations of the MCO have become a regular part of conversation for many.3. QuarantineThe mandatory 14-day quarantine for those entering the country or, in some cases, crossing state borders, became the topic of especially heated debate following news in July that a restaurant owner who broke home quarantine rules was the index case of the Sivagangga cluster in Kedah.Throughout the year, public outcry has been swift over those caught violating the health ministry’s isolation orders. In August, a 72-year-old who broke home quarantine to eat at a cafe was reported to the authorities for threatening public safety.Nur Emah Mohamad Hashim, who became known as “Makcik Gelang Pink”, a reference to the pink wristband worn by those under quarantine, was jailed one day and fined RM8,000.4. SOPsSOPs or standard operating procedures have been a big part of life for Malaysians this year. Typical SOPs include the use of face masks in public areas, frequent hand washing, limits on the number of people allowed in a particular spot and the use of the MySejahtera app or an equivalent means of recording public movement.Failure to comply with health SOPs could see offenders fined RM1,000 while Senior Minister for Security Ismail Sabri Yaakob said in August that those who deliberately violate the SOPs would be subject to legal action.5. Social distancingBy now, Malaysians are familiar with the directive to maintain a one-meter distance from the next person to reduce the risk of Covid-19 transmission.The virus, which spreads when an infected person coughs, sneezes or talks, releasing droplets from their mouth or nose, has been found to survive for hours on a surface depending on external factors such as temperature and humidity.The government has regularly reminded people to keep a safe distance between one another, with signs encouraging social or physical distancing put up at shopping malls and other public spaces.


Sri Lanka to tax car crashes in drastic budget

Sri Lanka slapped a tax on road accidents in a drastic austerity budget unveiled Friday as the country faces a major foreign exchange crisis.Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa said vehicle accidents will be taxed under new revenue proposals to keep the budget deficit at 8.8% of GDP in 2022, down from 11.1% this year.“It is proposed to impose a fee on vehicles meeting with accidents,” Rajapaksa told parliament. “Through this initiative, it is expected to reduce the number of motor vehicle accidents.”He did not give details of the crash tax.Sri Lanka’s roads are among the most dangerous in the world with over 3,000 traffic fatalities and some 25,000 seriously injured every year.Rajapaksa admitted that the country was facing a serious crisis with foreign reserves at US$2.3 billion, down from US$7.5 billion when his brother Gotabaya took over as president two years ago.“We have to accept that the increase in prices is due to a shortage of goods, the imposition of import restrictions, the overreliance on imports, the depreciation of the rupee together with the failure to adequately encourage manufacturers,” he said.There were no measures to ease the import ban on a host of goods, including vehicles, spares, tiles and even some essential food imports, imposed in March last year.However, Rajapaksa increased taxes on cigarettes, liquor and slapped a one-off tax on companies earning profits of over 2,000 million rupees (US$10 million) and raised the VAT on financial services from 15 to 18%.He also announced raising the retirement age of public servants from 60 to 65 years, a move that will delay the payment of terminal benefits to thousands of employees and thereby reduce government spending for the next five years.The budget deficit of 1,628 billion rupees (US$8.14 billion) will be bridged with borrowings, including US$5.08 billion in foreign borrowings, according to official figures.Central Bank officials have said the country is facing its worst foreign exchange crisis since the advent of a free economy in 1978.Ratings agency Moody’s downgraded Sri Lanka’s foreign debt rating last month.The decision was fuelled by the absence of “comprehensive financing” to make looming debt repayments, according to Moody’s.Sri Lanka’s economy shrank a record 3.6% last year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.The central bank expects growth of 4-5% this year with the gradual reopening of the economy and the rollout of a vaccine programme.


Living on a prayer after pandemic-related ban on religious activities

An inconspicuous group, among the worst financially affected by the Covid-19 crisis, has been men of religion.The movement control order (MCO) to contain the spread of the virus saw houses of worship closed, with heavy restrictions on religious activities and events since the first lockdown was declared in March.Mosques, churches and temples nationwide were prohibited from holding weekly services, and limits were placed on the number of devotees allowed for important ceremonies.But religious activities outside of places of worship have also been affected.For imams, religious lectures, private prayer gatherings and invitations were once lucrative sources of income.This has not been the case since March. Many variants of the MCO have come and gone, including the latest reinstatement of the conditional MCO which has put paid to the large gatherings characteristic of religious events.Hasbullah, 37, an imam or prayer leader at a mosque in Dengkil, a semi-rural part of the Klang Valley just outside Putrajaya, can relate to this.The empty mosque also means an empty donation box.Worshippers used to throng his mosque every week, but the Covid-19 restrictions have affected not only its coffers but also any extra revenue it would normally have seen.Hasbullah told MalaysiaNow that he and others in his line of work no longer receive invitations to grace weddings or kenduris (prayer gatherings), or to deliver religious talks, all of which have been banned under the MCO.His involvement in these events used to give him an additional RM2,000 to RM5,000 every month.Not anymore.The empty mosque also means an empty donation box, which used to be filled every Friday as well as during the five daily prayers.“I’m one of the luckier ones as I have other sources of income. But many of my fellow imams who are older than I am have been depending on these social activities for their income,” said Hasbullah.He said imams usually leave it to the hosts to decide on the amount they are paid for their services.He added that many of them are from the small villages dotting the peripheries of the Klang Valley, including in Morib and Sepang.Imams receive fixed salaries from the state religious authorities but the amount is usually barely enough for them to make ends meet.Their extra income usually comes from other religious and social activities which are a norm in closed rural communities.If they are in high demand, they can make a few thousand ringgit from their religious lecture rounds, usually held after congregatory prayers in mosques.A well-known celebrity who used to criss-cross the country on lecture tours said he had lost a big chunk of his monthly earnings thanks to the restrictions on interstate travel.The thirty-something ustaz said before the pandemic, he could earn up to RM10,000 for a two-hour special event held in mosques, which would include him leading congregatory prayers and delivering a special discourse.“Now, everything is interrupted.”He told MalaysiaNow that he was usually fully booked for whole months, attending between 10 and 20 events.He said Islamic radio and television programmes were also a good way of earning money as the rate for a celebrity ustaz is anywhere from RM10,000 to RM24,000 depending on the theme, duration and nature of the discourse.Teaching others to recite the Qur’an, for example, would mean extra charges.Such events are also sometimes sponsored by corporate entities.“Don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining. Everyone is going through a hard time,” the celebrity ustaz told MalaysiaNow.“But this is our job. We used to travel the length and breadth of the country, and it is costly. Now, everything is interrupted,” he said, adding that he is struggling to pay the support staff who used to manage his lecture tours.Mohamad Shairuddin Ishak considers himself one of the more fortunate ones, at least for now, as his area is still classified as a green zone with fewer restrictions in place for religious events.Shairuddin, 53, an imam at Masjid Kampung Istana, Batu Pahat, said he is still earning for his services at wedding feasts.“I get invitations to say the doa (invocation). And there are also special occasions such as for a newborn.”


Is going to court the only way to settle ‘Allah’ issue?

Controversy over the use of the term “Allah” in the Malay version of the Bible has cropped up again. This 13-year-old court battle seems not to have ended yet since the Malaysian government has filed an appeal against the court ruling allowing the use of the term “Allah” by Christians in their publications.Nevertheless, shouldn’t we look at avenues other than the court to find an amicable solution to this “deadlock”? We have not seen much dialogue between the two faiths in order to find a cordial solution to this controversy involving two major faiths. In fact, were there any dialogues made between the two Abrahamic faiths to resolve this issue? Looking to the past, during the times of the Prophet Muhammad and also the caliphs after him, inter-religious dialogues were not unusual.The Prophet had frequent dialogues and debates with people from other faiths during his time. On one occasion, he entertained a group of Christians from the tribe of Najran and even allowed them to use the mosque while the Christians were in Medina. This showed how hospitable and tolerant the Prophet was to people from other faiths.Later on, during the Abbasid caliphate, it was not uncommon for the caliphs themselves to organise religious debates. The debates comprised scholars from within Islam and also outside the Islamic faith, be it Christians, Jews, atheists or adherents of other faiths. It was during Harun al-Rashid, the Abbasid caliph’s rule, that knowledge and science flourished.Now, in the 21st century where mankind has advanced greatly in terms of knowledge and civilisation, shouldn’t we also allow religious dialogues or debates be held?Let religious scholars from both the Muslims and Christians meet eye to eye to iron out their disagreements. Being religious people, surely both sides would want to find an amicable solution to this “deadlock”. Rather than let the legal system be the judge, in which any verdict would not be well received by either party, wouldn’t it be better if both parties involved put forth their arguments to find a win-win situation to this issue?In fact, even if the court rules that Christians cannot use the word “Allah” in their Bibles and other publications, how can the government be sure that they do not use the word in their houses, churches and other assemblies, for that matter? Also, in the age of the internet, how can the government stop Christians from using online versions of the Malay Bible from or soft copy versions which are sent via email or other methods? It is very difficult to curb that and even Amar Leo Moggie, once a minister in the Malaysian government, mentioned that he has been using the word “Allah” ever since he was a child.It is high time that Malaysia gives room for this kind of dialogue to be conducted. Let’s emulate what was done in the past. Islamic history has proven that religious dialogue was alive in the past. There is no reason for us to not allow it to flourish now.The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of MalaysiaNow.


PAC launches probe into 3 BN-era projects

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will begin proceedings on more than two decades of land swap deals involving the defence ministry, among three other issues the bipartisan parliamentary body is looking into.PAC chairman Wong Kah Woh said it will summon the defence ministry’s secretary-general on Nov 30, the first day of the proceedings.Wong also announced investigations into two other projects under the Barisan Nasional government which were cancelled following the coalition’s fall from power in 2018.They are the Automated Enforcement System (AES), a camera surveillance system implemented in 2012 to catch traffic violators, and 1BestariNet, an internet for schools project by the education ministry in collaboration with YTL Communications.Wong said former auditor-general Ambrin Buang briefed PAC this week on the three issues.Ambrin was appointed by the Pakatan Harapan government to head the Governance, Procurement and Finance Investigating Committee to investigate dubious government contracts and deals.Last year, the committee was said to have concluded its investigation into 16 deals involving 1,183ha of land belonging to the defence ministry.On the AES, the committee investigated the Armed Forces Fund’s takeover of the project at a cost of RM555 million, 14 times more than its original cost of RM40 million.The AES contract was awarded to two private companies, ATES Sdn Bhd and Beta Tegap Sdn Bhd.Ambrin’s committee also reported weaknesses in the RM2.7 billion 1BestariNet programme to equip some 10,000 schools with 4G internet.


Terengganu’s Crystal Mosque struggles to regain its shine

The Crystal Mosque in Terengganu was once named the third most beautiful mosque in the world.Given its unique design, it had drawn visitors from far and wide since it began operating in 2008.Able to fit 1,500 congregants at any one time, the Crystal Mosque cost a whopping RM22 million to build.Today, though, it stands in sad condition with water leaking through the roof and cracks in the once-spotless dome mirrors.Recent checks by MalaysiaNow found repair work underway at the mosque, the prayer hall of which had been closed to visitors. The only other place to pray was in another building outside the mosque itself.Repair work began in 2019 but was derailed by the Covid-19 pandemic. The goal now is to complete the repairs by April so that the moque can open once again during the coming Ramadan season.Unable to enter the mosque, a new graduate poses for a picture in her convocation robes outside the building instead.Muhd Khairul Nizam, a visitor from the Klang Valley, said he and his family had come to see the beauty of the Crystal Mosque after visiting the nearby Islamic Civilisation Park. However, they were only able to view it from the outside.“We were a little disappointed but we understand if they wish to keep it closed, to prevent visitors from coming to any harm,” he said.A worker at a souvenir shop meanwhile said that most visitors are more focused on the Islamic Civilisation Park.“Many of them come to the mosque to pray, but are forced to content themselves with taking pictures outside the mosque itself,” he said.“The maintenance notice has been up for a long time but not many realise it.”Contractors carry equipment for repair work into the mosque compound.Tourism, culture and digital technology exco Ariffin Deraman said in mid-January that Terengganu was targeting five million tourists this year, a drop of two million from the 5.5 million targeted last year.Ariffin said the number would be revised according to Covid-19 developments.But even closed, the mosque still draws a number of people including university graduates who wish to take photographs there. Others meanwhile come for the nearby river cruise.Even so, and despite the easing of many Covid-19 restrictions including the ban on interstate travel, the Crystal Mosque is still struggling to regain its shine.“Many people are still afraid to go out,” said a food stall owner whose shop is located near the mosque.“Some shops here were forced to shut down, and their stalls were given to other people.”Even during weekends, he said, the number of visitors pales in comparison to what it was before the pandemic.For now, though, businesses and tourists alike can only wait and hope for the day the pandemic subsides and life goes back to how it used to be.


Court allows legal action by 122 house buyers against developer

The Kuala Lumpur High Court today allowed the legal action taken by 122 house buyers at a development in Cyberjaya against the construction company, Wawasan Rajawali Sdn Bhd.
Lawyer V Rajadevan, representing the buyers, said judge Akhtar Tahir allowed the suit after agreeing with their contention that Wawasan Rajawali as the defendant had misrepresented the project in its brochures as a mixed development comprising residences, a hotel, shopping mall and central park, described as "Your World In One Place" as it was not delivered to the buyers. The lawyer said Wawasan Rajawali, a wholly-owned subsidiary of OSK Property Holdings Sdn Bhd, was ordered to pay RM50,000 to each house buyer for the misrepresentation.
"The judge also ordered damages for late delivery amounting to RM1,351,797 for the affected house buyers. Aggravated damages of RM2 million were also awarded to the house buyers.
"Wawasan Rajawali was also ordered to rectify the defects in the affected properties within three months from today," Rajadevan said when contacted.
Today's decisions were delivered during online proceedings after a full trial which saw the testimony of four plaintiff witnesses and four defence witnesses. The 122 individuals, as the plaintiffs, filed the suit in May 2019, claiming Wawasan Rajawali had offered a mixed development project that included serviced apartments/condominiums in Cyberjaya through brochures distributed to them.
They said there were no hotels or commercial developments as claimed in the brochures upon the completion of their units and the handing over of their keys.
In their claim, they said the developer had not fulfilled the promises made in the brochures given to them before they bought the units.


Omicron surge was more deadly in Japan after booster delay, critics say

A Japanese government delay in rolling out Covid-19 booster shots left it more vulnerable than other rich countries when the Omicron variant brought a surge of deaths, say experts, local governments and a former vaccine czar.The issue could mean political trouble for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida as nearly 30% of the population is aged 65 or older, and so at greater risk from the coronavirus without the protection of the booster.Kishida’s predecessor stepped down after widespread criticism of his handling of the pandemic and the prime minister’s ruling party faces an important test with an upper house election this year.On Tuesday, Japan saw 236 new fatalities, its worst ever one-day toll from Covid.Although Japan was comparatively slow to launch its initial vaccination campaign, it ramped it up quickly and by November had the highest vaccination rate within the Group of Seven rich countries.But then the health ministry stuck to a protocol for an eight-month wait between the first vaccination course and the booster, even as other countries cut the waiting times and local governments, including Tokyo, urged a faster roll-out.The minimum wait was eventually shortened to six months – still longer than South Korea’s three months and Singapore’s five. Just 10% of Japan’s population has had a third shot, compared with more than 50% in South Korea and Singapore.Hidekiyo Tachiya, mayor of Soma City in northern Japan and chairman of a national association of municipal leaders, met Kishida in October to press for an early start to boosters.But none were given out until December, and then only to a trickle to doctors and healthcare workers.“If they had told us in November, that six months was enough, then in Soma we could have gotten the shots out from December, and for that I feel resentment,” Tachiya, who is a physician, told Reuters.“If it had been faster, there wouldn’t have been so much suffering and so many people wouldn’t have died.”Authorities in Tokyo also pushed for faster boosters but to no avail.“We requested this next shot as soon as possible but the government didn’t quite agree,” Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike told reporters recently.A health ministry spokesman said the eight-month lag between shots was decided by a health sciences council and the system was modified in December and January to respond to the Omicron threat.The vaccine chief under the previous administration, Taro Kono, said the problem was a slow-moving civil service.“The failure was the health ministry,” Kono, who remains a senior official in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, told Reuters in an interview.“I’ve been telling the Prime Minister’s Office, you have to be careful because the health ministry is not going to help you out,” he said.“You really have to whip them to get things moving.”Kono, who has been praised by the public and health experts for his role in the vaccination drive, said intervention was key to getting things done quickly.He recalled wooing Pfizer Inc executives to ensure faster vaccine deliveries, on one occasion, letting one feed the prime minister’s koi fish after a breakfast meeting at the premier’s residence, in the hope the gesture would help speed up supplies.Adding to the booster delay, the Moderna Inc vaccine wasn’t approved as a booster until more than a month after the Pfizer shot was approved. There weren’t enough supplies of both to distribute evenly and to ensure that people got the same booster as their vaccine, although authorities later recommended people get whichever booster was available.Regulatory approval for the boosters was done according to the law, the ministry said.“In a sense, the current situation in Japan is business as usual and the previous administration and minister were exceptional in a positive sense,” said Haruka Sakamoto, a physician and public health researcher at Keio University.With signs the Omicron wave is peaking, the booster programme, which Kishida has pledged to spearhead, is finally gaining steam. The health ministry said this week it would buy and import another 10 million Pfizer doses by March.While new infections are trending down, fatalities are a lagging indicator, and still climbing. Nearly 2,000 people have died of the coronavirus in Japan in February.The delay could become a problem for Kishida, said political commentator Atsuo Ito.“We’re the farthest behind the advanced nations,” Ito said.“Korea, right next door, is already starting their fourth shots.”


Tun Razak’s widow, Najib’s mother dies

Rahah Mohamed Noah, the widow of Malaysia’s second prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein, died today at the age of 87.Her son, former prime minister Najib Razak, said family members were with her during her final moments at the Prince Court Medical Centre in Kuala Lumpur.“My mother is no longer with us,” he posted on Facebook.“No words can describe this loss.”Johor-born Rahah was the daughter of Mohamad Noah Omar, who served as the first speaker of the Dewan Rakyat following independence.She was also president of the Girl Guides Association, patron of the Muslim Women’s Action Organisation or Pertiwi, and chancellor of Universiti Tun Abdul Razak.Razak married Rahah when she was 19. They had five sons, including Nazir Razak, the chairman of CIMB Group.In a tribute on Mothers’ Day in 2014, Nazir shared how his mother had wanted a daughter.“Her biggest lifetime disappointment is that she only had sons. In fact, she was so sure that her fifth (me) would finally be a daughter that I only had girls clothes to wear for the first few months of my life!” he said.“It is to her credit that we remain a close-knit band of brothers. Maybe we all just feel we owe her so much that in the end we always want to please her, and her number one priority is that we remain close. Or maybe she has just subtly instilled a strong bond between her sons,” wrote Nazir.


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Measat-3d satellite to boost Malaysia’s internet services

The Measat-3d satellite, to be launched on June 23, is expected to significantly improve the country’s internet services and speeds, especially in rural areas.Measat Satellite Systems Sdn Bhd chief operating officer Yau Chyong Lim said the launch would enable his company to help create an inclusive digital society and support high-speed broadband applications such as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Internet of Things and telemedicine.“Through Measat-3d and the CONNECTme NOW services, we aim to fill the broadband gap in locations that do not have mobile 4G, 5G or fibre network coverage in Malaysia, to provide internet access to marginalised populations,” he told Bernama.Yau said Measat-3d would be launched from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, with the Malaysian government represented by communications and multimedia ministry secretary-general Mohammad Mentek.In the capital, a special event will be organised to enable guests to watch the launch live. It is expected to be attended by guests of honour including Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob and Communications and Multimedia Minister Annuar Musa.Yau said the launch of Measat-3d was made possible with the support of the communications and multimedia ministry, as well as the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission.According to him, Measat fully supports the government’s aspirations to achieve the target of 100% internet access by 2025 through the Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint and the National Digital Network initiative for connecting and digitalising the nation.“In the long run, it promises to improve the quality of life of all Malaysians, including those living in the most remote areas of the country,” he said.Yau also said that Measat-3d would ensure continued growth and continuity of service for the world’s leading broadcasters, as well as direct-to-home (DTH) satellite television to over 20 million households across Malaysia, Indonesia and India.He said the satellite is owned by Measat, a local company wholly owned by Malaysians, but Measat-3d’s service capabilities are vast, covering Southeast Asia, Asia Pacific, Africa and Southern Europe.Yau said that Measat-3d, which is Measat’s newest and most advanced satellite, is estimated to cost RM1.2 billion.“Measat-3d will complement Measat-3a and Measat-3b at 91.5 ° E hotslot, which provides increased and excess capacity for Astro’s DTH services, as well as broadcasting, telecommunications, and broadband internet services. The Measat-3d satellite has a lifespan of 18 years,” he said.Measat-3d uses the Eurostar E3000 geostationary satellite model, built by Airbus Defence and Space. Airbus is a global pioneer in the aerospace industry, operating in the commercial aircraft, helicopters, defence and space sectors.Yau said by using high throughput satellite capacity on Measat-3d, Measat would be able to increase broadband processing capacity 10-fold to 30 gigabits per second, thus enabling access to high-speed broadband even in limited areas or with no land connection.“High-speed internet will be improved from the current download speed of 30 megabits per second (Mbps) to 100 Mbps, allowing users to stream heavy-data content such as 4K or 8K videos.“Measat-3d will be able to bridge the digital divide in areas not covered by 4G or 5G or fibre technology in Malaysia,” he said.He added that Measat-3d could be leveraged to offer data, voice, and video services to the 3% to 5% of the population (about two million people) who still do not have fibre or wireless broadband connection.


Hong Kong to require 2-week hotel quarantine for arriving flight crew

From next week, Hong Kong will require flight crew entering the Asian financial centre for more than two hours to quarantine in a hotel for two weeks, the South China Morning Post reported on Thursday.The rule will include all crew on passenger and cargo flights, sources told the newspaper, as the Chinese territory looks to limit the spread of Covid-19.Many foreign airlines are already double-crewing their flights into Hong Kong so they can turn around quickly enough to avoid testing and quarantine requirements.That means local staff at Cathay Pacific Airways are likely to be hit hardest by the new rule, SCMP said. Cathay Pacific declined to comment.Hong Kong’s Transport and Housing Bureau told Reuters: “In light of the evolving pandemic situation locally and internationally, the government will keep reviewing and refining the arrangements applicable to different categories of exempted persons, including air crew.”Locally based crew members are currently required to be tested on arrival in Hong Kong and to stay in a hotel for 24 hours awaiting results before they can go home. When they arrive at overseas destinations they are confined in hotels until they leave.Other countries have also put in place strict requirements for international flight crews.Australia requires foreign crews to be tested on landing and then isolate in designated quarantine hotels until their next flight out of the country. Australia-based crews must be tested and self-isolate at home until their next flight or for 14 days if they have no flight during that period.Dubai-based Emirates, which had temporarily grounded flights to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane due to Australia’s strict testing rules, said on Thursday it would resume those flights later this month. The airline said crew would now self-quarantine at their homes in Dubai for testing 48 hours before flying to Australia.


30.2% of children fully jabbed, 46.5% given first dose

A total of 1,073,551 children or 30.2% of those aged five to 11 had completed their vaccination under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme for Children (PICKids) as of yesterday.According to the CovidNow portal, a total of 1,650,581 children or 46.5% have received at least one dose of vaccine.In terms of adolescents aged 12 to 17, a total of 2,906,035 or 93.4% have completed their vaccination while 3,003,483 or 96.5% have received at least one dose.Meanwhile, a total of 16,069,133 or 68.3% of the adult population have received a booster dose while 22,971,604 or 97.6% have completed two doses.A total of 23,247,523 or 98.8% have received at least one dose of vaccine.Yesterday, a total of 14,253 vaccine doses were dispensed with 3,300 as first doses, 8,348 as second shots and 2,605 as booster jabs.This brings the cumulative number of vaccine doses administered under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) to 70,708,376.


Congress report blames Boeing, FAA for 737-MAX crashes

A new congressional report has blamed two deadly Boeing 737-MAX crashes on “repeated and serious failures” by Boeing and air safety regulators.The 18-month probe by congressional investigators for the House Transportation Committee examined the crashes of Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines MAX aircraft that claimed a total of 346 lives.Both Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had been accused of serious lapses which contributed to the crashes.“Our report lays out disturbing revelations about how Boeing – under pressure to compete with Airbus and deliver profits for Wall Street – escaped scrutiny from the FAA, withheld critical information from pilots and ultimately put planes into service that killed 346 innocent people,” said committee chairman Peter DeFazio.The report said Boeing made “faulty design and performance assumptions”, especially surrounding a key computer safety system called MCAS, which was linked to both the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes.The report criticised Boeing for withholding crucial information from the FAA and the airlines and pilots that flew the planes unaware of flaws which turned out to be fatal.It has become apparent that many pilots were not even aware the planes they were flying had MCAS system software and had never received training in its use.In a statement, Boeing said it has “learned many hard lessons from the accidents and from the mistakes we have made”.The report said the FAA was also at fault in that it “failed to ensure the safety of the travelling public”.“This is a tragedy that never should have happened,” DeFazio told reporters. “We’re going to take steps in our legislation to see that it never happens again.”The big question remains though: Will flyers put their lives in the hands of Boeing and the FAA again if the 737-MAX returns to the skies?


10 charged so far with falsifying vaccine certs

Ten people have been charged in court for falsifying vaccination certificates, says Deputy Home Minister Ismail Mohamed Said.He said the individuals comprised four in Sarawak, two each in Sabah and Melaka and one each in Kelantan and Perak.“One person has been convicted in Sarawak and sentenced to jail,” he said during the oral question-and-answer session at the Dewan Rakyat today.He was responding to a supplementary question from Shaharizukirnain Abd Kadir (PAS-Setiu) on the number of people taken to task for falsifying vaccination certificates in the country.Ismail said action was taken against them under Section 22 (d) of the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 (Act 342).Ismail said for giving false information, investigations would be conducted under Section 24 of Act 342 (Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988) or the Penal Code.Section 24 of Act 342 provides a fine not exceeding RM100,000, imprisonment not exceeding seven years or both upon conviction. Under Section 25 of the same law, a compound not exceeding RM10,000 for individuals and RM50,000 for corporations could be issued, he added.Ismail said the home ministry is committed to taking strict action against those who violate the SOPs enforced under the movement control order and the National Recovery Plan to curb the spread of Covid-19.He also said the ministry took an approach to balance the aspects of health as well as security and national sovereignty in the issue of vaccination for undocumented migrants.He was responding to a question from M Kulasegaran (PH-Ipoh Barat) on whether the government could give flexibility to undocumented migrants for them to be given vaccinations instead of being detained for deportation to their country of origin.


Daily caseload crosses 4,200 as death toll up by 8

Another 4,204 Covid-19 cases were recorded yesterday, taking total confirmed infections in the country to 4,687,470.
There were 4,582 recoveries, taking total recoveries to 4,607,207.
There are now 44,278 active cases, of which 42,661 or 96.3% are undergoing home quarantine.
Meanwhile, 24 (0.1%) are at quarantine centres while 1,537 (3.5%) have been hospitalised.
A total of 56 are in ICU with 36 in need of respiratory assistance. ICU utilisation throughout the country stands at 63.5%, with Covid ICU utilisation at 14.9%.
Another eight deaths were reported, including two who were brought in dead. Total deaths now stand at 35,985.


Schools to close until next year

The government today announced that schools across the country will be closed until next year, including those in states not under conditional movement control order (CMCO).Education Minister Radzi Jidin said the decision would take effect tomorrow, with schools reopening only on Jan 20, 2021.Vocational colleges in CMCO states under the purview of the education ministry will also close from tomorrow until Dec 17 for states in Group A and Dec 18 for those in Group B.“These closures will affect 74% of schools under the education ministry,” Radzi said in a press conference today, adding that the decision was made to help the government in its efforts to contain the spread of Covid-19.During this time, lessons are to continue through home-based learning, while teachers must remain at their respective stations, he added.Primary school students, students in Form One, Four, Five, and Six, and those at vocational colleges will resume school sessions on Jan 20.Students in Form Two and Three will resume lessons as well but through home-based learning. They will only return to school for face-to-face classes on March 8.Examination dates for SPM, STPM, Sijil Vokasional Malaysia (SVM) and Sijil Tinggi Agama Malaysia (STAM) meanwhile have been postponed to next year.SPM, SVM and STAM exams will begin on Feb 22 while STPM will begin on March 8.Radzi said further details will be announced soon.


Israel's Netanyahu secures parliament majority, closer to forming govt

Israel's incoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secured a parliamentary majority on Thursday after his Likud party said it had reached an agreement with the Jewish ultra-Orthodox Shas party.
Netanyahu's right-wing alliance won a comfortable victory in a Nov 1 election, Israel's fifth in less than four years. His partnership with far-right parties has stirred concern at home and abroad.
"We have completed another step towards the formation of a right-wing government that will act to serve all of Israel's citizens," Netanyahu said in the statement.
The agreement with Shas gives Netanyahu control over 64 of the Knesset's 120 seats, though a final coalition deal has yet to be signed.
According to the agreement, Shas leader Aryeh Deri will head the interior and health ministries during the first half of the government's term, then take up the finance ministry in the second half. Deri will also serve as deputy prime minister throughout Netanyahu's tenure.
Deri, a veteran politician, was convicted of tax fraud last year but spared jail under a plea deal. The Knesset will have to pass legislation that would enable his return to the cabinet.


Trump lawyer said classified material had been returned, report says

A lawyer for former US president Donald Trump signed a statement in June that said all classified material held in boxes at Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence had been returned to the government, the New York Times reported on Saturday.
The statement was signed after Jay Bratt, a top national security official in the US Department of Justice, visited Trump's South Florida beach club on June 3, the New York Times reported. Bratt met with two Trump lawyers to discuss the handling of classified information during the visit, the newspaper said.
Trump is under federal investigation for possible violations of the Espionage Act, which makes it unlawful to spy for another country or mishandle US defence information, including sharing it with people not authorised to receive it, a search warrant made public on Friday showed.
FBI agents searched Mar-a-Lago this week and removed 11 sets of classified documents including some marked as top secret, according to the Justice Department.
The existence of the Trump attorney statement suggests that Trump and his team may not have fully disclosed information about classified documents in the former president's residence, the Times reported.
Reuters was not able to independently confirm the report. The Justice Department declined to comment.
Taylor Budowich, a Trump spokesman, criticised the FBI search in a statement as an "unprecedented and unnecessary raid" that was part of another "Democrat-fabricated witch hunt."
Budowich did not confirm or deny the New York Times report.
The chairs of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee and the Committee on Oversight and Reform on Saturday asked the director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, to review what damage may have been done to national security by Trump's having the highly classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
"Former president Trump's conduct has potentially put our national security at grave risk. This issue demands a full review, in addition to the ongoing law enforcement inquiry," the two committee chairs, both Democrats, said in a three-page letter, which they publicly released.
Representative Carolyn Maloney is chair of the Oversight Committee, and Representative Adam Schiff is chair of the Intelligence Committee.


Hong Kong maps terms of Covid vaccine pass, with some exemptions

Hong Kong confirmed on Monday that its vaccine bubble will be expanded to include shopping malls and supermarkets, but said exemptions and random inspections would happen at some sites, as authorities battles a surge in Covid-19 infections.The government will launch a controversial “vaccine passport” on Thursday that allows only inoculated people to enter places such as supermarkets and clubhouses, a move some critics say raises privacy concerns in the Asian financial hub.The plan requires those aged 12 and above, except for those with medical exemptions, to have taken at least one dose of a vaccine in order to enter the specified premises.The final stage of the scheme, by the end of June, will see those older than 18 required to have had three vaccine doses, authorities said.Amid concerns over how the system will be policed and implemented, authorities said certain exemptions would be granted those who must pass through shopping malls during commutes and also for those ordering takeaway food.Random inspections will also be performed at some venues, amid limited resources.“We know that, for some premises, there are really operational difficulties to ensure each and every person has passed through this kind of active checking,” said Kevin Choi, deputy secretary for food and health.As a result, in places such as malls, supermarkets, and department stores, authorities have performed passive checking, he added.“Bringing your vaccine pass is the natural thing to do.”Details of the vaccine pass come as the government prepared to report a record daily high of 7,533 infections, broadcaster TVB said.The city’s public hospitals have been severely stretched, with occupancy at more than 95%, as they struggle to cope with an influx of patients, including the elderly, many of whom have resisted vaccinations.


New infections at 175 as one death logged

Another 175 Covid-19 cases were recorded yesterday, taking total confirmed infections in the country to 5,038,170.
There were 196 recoveries, taking total recoveries to 4,991,173.
There are now 10,053 active cases, of which 9,659 or 96.1% are undergoing home quarantine.
Meanwhile, 0 (0%) are at quarantine centres while 388 (3.9%) have been hospitalised.
A total of six are in ICU with five in need of respiratory assistance.
One more death was reported, taking total deaths to 36,944.


Johor, far from a ‘landslide’ victory for BN

While on the surface it appears that voters in Johor have shifted their preferences back to Barisan Nasional (BN), a closer look at the results will prove otherwise.Firstly, it would be unfair to say that BN won over the majority of Johor voters as in reality, they only managed 43%.Yes, a win is a win, but one cannot say his horse came out second when only two horses took part.In reality, it is not that BN has regained favour among voters, but rather that the opposition lost support from among all communities.The support for Pakatan Harapan (PH) was a far cry from the heyday of Reformasi.Numbers don’t lie, and as far as the Johor state polls are concerned, the only party that held on to its support was Perikatan Nasional (PN).PN not only held on to its support, but in fact achieved gains across Malay, Chinese and Indian voters.Overall, Umno gained 3.6% in its share of votes, while MCA gained 1.6% and MIC a marginal 0.4%.This is hardly a landslide victory, considering that Bersatu and PAS actually held on to their vote shares from 2018.PAS only lost a marginal 0.9% while Gerakan successfully gained 1.9% of the votes.PN made plenty of inroads in PH’s support bases, while in 35 out of 56 seats, the votes for PN and PH were much more than for BN.BN only benefitted because there was a split in votes, nothing else.On the other hand, PN achieved gains across all ethnic communities and more than doubled its support among the Malays.PN captured an estimated 33% of the community in Johor.Another factor that attributed to BN so-called “landslide” victory was the poor voter turnout from 84.5% in 2018 to a mere 54.9%.This could be due to the fears arising from the Covid-19 pandemic and also the restrictions imposed on campaigning.So, in conclusion, for voters like us, it would be unfair to assume that we have “returned” to BN.Voters are neither dumb nor blind. The likes of Najib Razak and his bandwagon of cronies may be able to fool a few, but overall, the electorate still knows the truth behind the so-called “Bossku”.The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of MalaysiaNow.


Fiji says Covid-19 now widespread as cases spike

Fiji health chiefs have admitted for the first time that Covid-19 transmission is widespread in the community after the Pacific nation recorded more than 300 new daily cases.But authorities continue to reject calls for a nationwide lockdown, saying the 930,000-strong population’s failure to obey health rules designed to contain the virus would render it ineffective.Permanent Secretary for Health James Fong announced late Thursday that Fiji had recorded 308 new daily virus cases, taking the total number in a second wave of infections that began in April to almost 2,800.Fong acknowledged calls for a lockdown but said Fiji’s public compliance was low and authorities had no ability to enforce it, particularly in the densely populated shantytown settlements that were at most risk.“The tragic reality is that Fijians living in communities most vulnerable to the virus – including those in informal settlements – are also those most vulnerable to the socioeconomic catastrophe that a 24-hour lockdown for 28 days would bring about,” he said.“Even under such a strict lockdown, we believe the virus would continue to circulate within many of these communities.”Fiji went a full year without recording any community cases up until April, when it was hit by a second wave of the quick-spreading Delta variant first identified in India.As numbers continue to spike, doubling every nine days, the government’s head of health protection, Aalisha Sahukhan, said “all the evidence is that there is widespread community transmission”.“With increasing cases, we expect increasing severe disease and deaths,” she said.“While our hospitals right now are not overwhelmed with severe cases, from what we have seen in other countries with widespread community transmission during this pandemic, this is a very real possibility that we are preparing for.”Fiji’s two largest hospitals have already been converted into dedicated Covid-19 facilities, with field hospitals set up to care for non-coronavirus patients.The government’s strategy is to use localised lockdowns to limit the virus while vaccinating the general population.Only about 1% of Fijians have been fully vaccinated, with the Red Cross blaming misinformation spread online for the slow rollout.President Joiji Konrote has urged his compatriots to get their jabs.“Please think of our beloved nation and our people, take the vaccination,” he said in an address posted online Friday.“It is one of our main hopes of controlling the spread of the virus.”


Dozens of babies die in orphanage as Sudan war takes grim toll on Khartoum

In the days after war erupted in Khartoum, Dr Abeer Abdullah rushed between rooms at Sudan’s largest orphanage, trying to care for hundreds of babies and toddlers as the fighting kept all but a handful of staff away. Children’s cries rang through the sprawling building as heavy gunfire rocked the surroundings, she said.
Then came waves of deaths. There were the infants housed on the upper floors of the state-run orphanage, known as Mygoma. Without enough staff to care for them, they succumbed to severe malnutrition and dehydration, the doctor said. And there were the already-fragile newborns in her medical clinic on the ground floor, some of whom died after developing high fever, she said.
“They needed to be fed every three hours. There was no one there,” said Abdullah, speaking by phone from the orphanage, the cries of wailing babies audible in the background. “We tried to give intravenous therapy but most of the time we couldn’t rescue the children.”
The daily deaths ticked up to two, three, four and higher, Abdullah said. At least 50 children - at least two dozen of them babies - have died at the orphanage in the six weeks since the war broke out in mid-April, according to Abdullah. That includes at least 13 babies who died on Friday, May 26, she said.
A senior orphanage official confirmed those figures and a surgeon who has volunteered at the facility during the war said there had been at least several dozen deaths of orphans. Both said the deaths were mostly of newborns and others under a year old. All three cited malnourishment, dehydration and infections as the main causes.
There were further deaths over this past weekend. Reuters reviewed seven death certificates dated Saturday or Sunday that were shared by Heba Abdullah, an orphan-turned-carer. All cited circulatory failure as the cause of death, and all but one also listed fever, malnutrition, or sepsis as contributing causes.
The scenes of babies lying dead in their cribs have been “terrifying,” Abdullah said. “It is very painful.”
Reuters spoke to eight other people who have either visited the orphanage since the war began or have been in touch with other visitors. All said conditions have deteriorated badly and deaths have spiked.
Among them is Siddig Frini, general manager of Khartoum state’s ministry of social development, which oversees care centres, including budget, staffing and supplies. He acknowledged a rise in deaths at Mygoma, attributing it mainly to staff shortages and recurrent power outages caused by the fighting. Without working ceiling fans and air conditioning, rooms turn stiflingly hot in Khartoum’s baking May weather, and the lack of power makes sterilising equipment difficult.
Frini and the director of the orphanage, Zeinab Jouda, referred questions about the total death toll to Abdullah, Mygoma’s medical chief. Jouda said she was aware of more than 40 deaths, telling Reuters the fighting kept the carers - known as nannies - and other staff away in the early days of the war. As of Friday, May 26, she said that there are ongoing discussions about evacuating orphans out of Khartoum.
Mohammed Abdel Rahman, director of emergency operations at Sudan’s health ministry, said a team is investigating what is happening at Mygoma and will release the results once done.
The area remains dangerous. Late last week, airstrikes and artillery slammed the district where Mygoma is located, according to Abdullah the doctor and two others. Following an explosion at a neighbouring building, babies had to be evacuated from one of the orphanage's rooms, said carer Heba Abdullah.
Invisible victims of a larger war
Mygoma’s dead babies are among the invisible victims of the war in Sudan, Africa’s third-largest country by area. The fighting has killed more than 700 people, injured thousands of others and displaced at least 1.3 million people within Sudan or neighbouring countries, according to the United Nations.
The real death toll is likely to be higher. Many of the health and government offices that would track fatalities in Khartoum, where fighting has been heaviest, have ceased to function. Sudan's health ministry has separately recorded hundreds of deaths in the city of El Geneina in Darfur region, where violence also has flared.
War erupted in Khartoum on April 15 between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti. The two had been preparing to sign on to a new political transition to elections under a civilian government. Together they had toppled a civilian government in an October 2021 coup.
On May 20, the two sides signed a seven-day ceasefire agreement to allow the delivery of humanitarian relief. The accord brought some respite from heavy fighting in the Sudanese capital but little increase in aid.
Representatives for the army and RSF didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Sudan, with a population of about 49 million, is among the poorest countries in the world. The fighting has hammered its already stretched healthcare and other infrastructure, including hospitals and airports. Nearly 16 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance before the war began. That figure has now jumped to 25 million, according to the United Nations. More than two-thirds of hospitals in combat areas are out of service, according to the World Health Organization.
Emad Abdel Moneim, general manager of al-Dayat, Sudan’s largest maternity hospital, said hospital staff had to relocate in late April because of the war. He said staff moved a large number of patients but had to leave some behind: those on ventilators and in incubators. Evacuating them would have required well-equipped ambulances, which were unavailable. He said around nine babies died, in addition to an unspecified number of adults in the intensive care unit. Two other sources confirmed some patients were left behind, but said they had no information about deaths.
When asked about the deaths at the maternity hospital, Abdel Rahman, the national health ministry official, said he was unaware of any, and that he doubted patients were left behind and declined to elaborate further.
Underscoring the health fallout on Sudanese of all ages, there have also been deaths at a care centre for the elderly in Khartoum, according to care worker Radwan Ali Nouri. He said five of the elderly residents of the al-Daw Hajoj centre have died due to hunger and lack of care. Nouri shared one photograph of what he said was the covered body of a resident who had died that morning.
Frini, the Khartoum state social development official, said the deaths reported at the elder care centre are within the “normal rate” and denied that any residents have died of hunger.
The number of people dying in the violence is a fraction of those succumbing to illnesses, said Attia Abdullah, secretary general of the Sudanese Doctors’ Syndicate, a doctors’ union. “The health situation is deteriorating every day,” he said.
Abandoned children
Officially called The Orphan's Care Centre, Mygoma, the orphanage is housed in a three-storey building in central Khartoum. It is close to the fighting. Bullets have rained down on the building, staff and volunteers say. Babies in the first days slept on the floors away from the windows, one doctor said.
Established in 1961, Mygoma typically receives hundreds of babies a year, according to the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, which has provided support. Having a child outside of marriage bears a stigma in predominantly Muslim Sudan.
Even before the conflict, Mygoma struggled. It was home to around 400 children under the age of five, many of them babies. The orphans live in cramped quarters: There are an average of about 25 children per room, and babies often lie two or three to a crib, according to the orphanage official and MSF nurses who worked at Mygoma last year. Children often arrive in poor health, they said.
The orphanage has experienced spikes in deaths over the years. It has been haunted by hygiene problems, underpaid workers, staffing shortages, and a lack of funding for hospital treatment, according to the MSF.
Mygoma’s mortality rate reached about 75% in 2003, according to MSF, which stepped in to help the orphanage that year. In 2007, authorities told Reuters that 77 children died at Mygoma that September, which a charity working with the orphanage at the time attributed to a large intake of babies in a weakened state.
MSF says it intervened to assist again from 2021 through 2022, after the average death toll reached about 12 a month, providing extra financial support to pay caregivers and to refer sick children to hospitals. The toll fell by about half during that time, according to MSF.
When the war broke out, most orphanage workers stayed home. Mygoma was so understaffed that there were only about 20 nannies for the roughly 400 children, according to Doaa Ibrahim, a doctor at the orphanage. That’s a ratio of one to 20. Normally, the ratio is about one to five, she and others said.
“I worked as a nanny, nurse, and a doctor, feeding one baby, giving antibiotics to some, changing diapers for others,” Dr Ibrahim said. She said when she was able to take a rest, she didn’t know “how many I would find dead when I woke up.”
Ibrahim said she soon collapsed of exhaustion and fever and had to leave Mygoma four days into the war. She added: “God forgive us if we didn’t do our best.”
‘Losing babies daily’
Adding to the strain, the orphanage took on more children. In the first week of the war, two care centres sent dozens of older girls and boys to Mygoma, and hospitals returned about 10 babies who had been sent out for treatment by the orphanage’s medical staff, according to Dr Abdullah.
Abdullah Adam, a surgeon, volunteered at the orphanage during the first five weeks of the war. In the first week, Dr Adam launched an online appeal for people to come help feed the babies. Some volunteers responded, but none were paediatricians, he said.
As long as the fighting continues, supplies will be short and staff will have trouble returning for fear of getting caught in crossfire, said Adam. As he spoke to Reuters on May 10, he held out the phone to capture the sound of shelling.
“All of Khartoum is a military zone and no one dares to move,” he said.
The infants remain without enough carers, in soiled diapers, leaving them susceptible to skin rashes, infections, and fever, the orphanage official and Dr Ibrahim said. Compounding the stress on the children is Khartoum’s brutal heat, which has at times reached about 43 degrees Celsius this month.
“We are losing babies daily,” reads a May 16 Facebook post by Hadhreen, a non-governmental organisation that is helping collect donations for Mygoma to pay for workers and supplies. “Between 6 and 18 months old. Same symptoms. High fever. After four hours, innocent souls go to God who is more generous than any of us.”
In a room near the orphanage’s gates, the small bodies of the dead are washed and wrapped in white cloth, said the orphanage official and Dr. Ibrahim.
Even after death, the war stalks the children. Orphans used to be buried in a cemetery to the west of Mygoma but it became too dangerous to travel there, according to Marine Alneel, who has been volunteering at Mygoma in recent weeks. Staff started using another burial place, to the northeast, according to the orphanage official.
Getting the bodies there has now also become dangerous, said Dr Abdullah, speaking by phone on Thursday. She said that a day earlier, two babies who died were instead buried in a city square close to the orphanage. So were six civilians killed in shelling nearby, the doctor added.
“It’s getting very bad here,” she said.


Trump faces biggest legal threat as documents case opens in court

Donald Trump is due in court Tuesday to face dozens of felony counts of mishandling US government secrets, in the most serious yet of a firestorm of criminal probes threatening to derail his bid to win back the White House.
The former president plans to travel by motorcade for the 25-minute journey from his golf course in Miami to the federal courthouse, where he is expected to deny 37 counts of unlawfully retaining classified documents and obstructing efforts to get them back.
The Republican leader is running for reelection, and devoted supporters had already begun hitting the streets on the eve of the hearing – with Miami police bracing for protests of up to 50,000 and prepared for the possibility of violence.
"There's never been anything like it. A witch-hunt like this has never taken place," Trump told a local conservative Hispanic radio station after arriving in Miami from his summer home in New Jersey on Monday.
"When you look at what they've done, and when you look at the criminal acts and the horrible acts that they've committed, and then they come after me."
The pugnacious billionaire, who turns 77 on Wednesday, is accused of wilfully hoarding dozens of clearly-marked government secrets he took unlawfully to his beachfront mansion in Florida when he left office in 2021, refusing to return them and conspiring to obstruct investigators seeking to recover them.
He is also charged with sharing sensitive US secrets with people who had no security clearance, in a much more serious case than any he has previously faced, with charges that can carry decades-long prison sentences.
Appeal for calm
The runaway frontrunner in the 2024 Republican primary has vowed to stay in the race regardless of the outcome of the case – touching off a White House campaign that, for the first time in US history, pits a legal battle against an electoral one.
The 49-page indictment, dismissed by Trump as "ridiculous," included photographs showing boxes that were supposed to be in the National Archives stacked at Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach residence, in a ballroom and in a bathroom and shower.
Security was being ramped-up around Miami's Wilkie D Ferguson Jr Courthouse, with several protests planned including by a local chapter of the far-right Proud Boys group.
"We hope that tomorrow will be peaceful. We encourage people to be peaceful in demonstrating how they feel," Miami's Republican mayor Francis Suarez told reporters on Monday.
Trump is expected to fly to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, afterwards to restate his innocence in a speech before supporters.
The Republican former president's legal woes are only just beginning, as he faces multiple felony counts in a financial fraud case in New York set to go to trial next March.
Jack Smith, the special counsel leading the documents probe, is also looking into Trump's involvement in the 2021 US Capitol riot, and state and federal investigators are scrutinising his efforts to subvert the 2020 election.
'Eye for an eye'
Trump's allies in Congress and rivals for the presidential nomination have largely circled the wagons following his latest indictment, decrying the "weaponisation" of the government against conservatives.
Some Republican lawmakers have been criticised for rhetoric that could inspire violence, including Louisiana's Clay Higgins, who told supporters to "buckle up" and Arizona's Andy Biggs, who tweeted: "We have now reached a war phase. An eye for an eye."
The Southern District of Florida is known as a "rocket docket" court, legal slang for locations that push for swift justice, and authorities have not ruled out completing a trial before the 2024 election.
Much of the focus in the preliminary proceedings will be on district court judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee who was allocated the case at random and will have enormous sway over how fast things move.
Cannon issued a series of rulings favourable to Trump earlier in the case that effectively jammed up the investigation for weeks until a conservative appeals court ruled she had acted beyond her authority.
Another judge will oversee the arraignment hearing itself.


Anxiety in tourism sector as Omicron sparks lockdown memories

While much remains unknown about Omicron, the newest arrival on the Covid-19 variant scene, experts say any move to reintroduce a form of the lockdown imposed early last year and again this year to curb the spread of the virus would have a heavy impact on the tourism industry which is still struggling to recover from the effects of the previous health measures.The first movement control order (MCO), implemented in March last year, wreaked havoc on the tourism industry as international and domestic borders alike were slammed shut. Many businesses in the industry which had been one of the biggest contributors to the country’s GDP were unable to survive and eventually closed shop.Among the worst affected were airlines and hotels, with thousands of workers laid off or told to go on unpaid leave as businesses struggled to cut their losses.When the government finally allowed state borders to reopen in October on the back of a successful vaccination programme, those in the tourism industry breathed a sigh of relief as, for the first time in months, visitors began flowing in.Bit by bit, new life was breathed into the sector despite the ban on international travellers remaining by and large unchanged.Industry players remained optimistic that the government would eventually reopen the country’s borders as well, allowing the return of international tourists.But such hopes may have to be put on hold for a while longer as concerns swirl over the discovery of Omicron which has so far been detected in over 30 countries including Malaysia.The variant, which was first discovered in South Africa, appears to have spread quickly and many countries quickly reintroduced travel restrictions in a bid to stop any further expansion.Economist Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said it was possible that Malaysia would return to some form of lockdown or MCO.But the Bank Islam chief economist also cautioned that it was still too early to draw any conclusions about the newest variant as more questions than answers abound.“It’s possible that an MCO will be put in place. If this happens, it will affect Malaysia’s economic growth as we have seen before,” he told MalaysiaNow.Yap Lip Seng, the CEO of the Malaysian Association of Hotels, said the discovery of Omicron had sparked anxiety in the tourism sector that the government would indeed resort to such measures again.Yap himself is of the opinion that a lockdown is not the best approach, citing the last MCO which failed to bring down the number of cases.“Health experts still don’t know the effect and implications of this new variant,” he said. “So they advise us to continue with the same SOPs such as the wearing of face masks and the use of sanitiser and so on.“A total lockdown has already been proven to be ineffective and will only jeopardise the economy.”More prepared this timeDespite his reservations about the economic effect that another lockdown would have, Afzanizam said industry players might be more prepared this time given that Malaysia has undergone several versions of the MCO since early last year.“We are already living in the new normal – we work from home, we maintain physical distancing, and we follow the SOPs when we are in public places,” he said.“We definitely have more experience to draw on in facing this newest threat.”He added that the health ministry has already been stepping up its efforts, citing the speedy detection of the country’s first case of Omicron.But even if Omicron is found to be less dangerous than feared, he said this did not mean that people should let their guard down as the threat of Covid-19 would remain.Yap meanwhile said the tourism industry should wait for the full details of the Omicron variant and its effects on international movements.“We know this already – the tourism industry cannot rely only on domestic travellers,” he said.“We need to start receiving international tourists again.”As with the detection of earlier variants, he said, the SOPs remained unchanged.“People must continue adhering to the SOPs to minimise the risk of infection.”He added that the current SOPs and preventive measures used in the tourism industry should be enough to curb the spread of the virus especially if they are properly implemented.