How Rafizi's move to checkmate his rivals breaks into pieces

PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli set a record by becoming the first Pakatan Harapan (PH) candidate in the 15th general election (GE) to declare his assets publicly.
After declaring his assets, Rafizi went on to challenge the other two major coalitions, Barisan Nasional (BN) and Perikatan Nasional (PN), to do the same for all of their candidates.
But this is a pointless challenge as declaring assets is not compulsory under the law for election candidates.
It is only compulsory under the law for elected MPs and appointed senators upon their appointment as Cabinet ministers.
You can’t say your rival candidates are lousy for not doing something which is not compulsory. It is as simple as that.
And when a reporter who was at a press conference that Rafizi organised on Nov 9 grilled him on certain aspect of his asset declaration, he became feisty and accused the reporter’s employer, MalaysiaNow, of being a mouthpiece of Mohamed Azmin Ali, a Bersatu Supreme Council member, among others.
According to a MalaysiaNow report, Rafizi then repeatedly belittled the reporter, suggesting that he was not well versed in finance.
"That's why I said go back and try to understand finance, because I just explained it just now about share capital. You don't get it, do you? I have already answered your third question. Did you get it?” Rafizi said, somewhat peeved at the reporter.
To make matter worse, Rafizi concluded that most people (reporters) present at the press conference would "not understand any of these things".
In my days as a young reporter in Singapore, I experienced an eerily similar situation when the host (the organiser of the press conference) was totally rude and uncouth towards me because I was the only reporter who had grilled him with tough questions.
Like Rafizi, the host began to belittle me as a reporter who knew nuts about the issue concerned.
My response then was to say that in an earlier article about his organisation on the same issue, which happened to be the page one lead story in the newspaper I was working with, he had called me to say his thanks for the excellent piece!
But unlike Rafizi, this host was totally out of his mind and told me to get out of his office. I straight away walked out from the press conference.
Back at the office, when I debriefed my chief reporter, I was asked to make an incident report.
As a result of the report, the host and his organisation were "blacklisted" by my news organisation – we boycotted publishing any of his statements or accepting invitations to his press conferences for a few months.
When Rafizi declared his assets, initially I thought it was a brilliant strategy to "force" both BN and PN to do the same because at that time, I was unsure about the legal status of asset declarations by election candidates.
I was also aware that making asset declarations for election candidates who contested for the first time and then lost would be an embarrassment for them because their financial records would be known publicly for the rest of their lives when they are just a nobody.
Later, when I realised it was not legally compulsory to publicly declare assets and that Rafizi was not the first to do so as Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) had done so during GE14, I still thought it was a brilliant strategy because it is politically incorrect to reject asset declarations even though they are not compulsory.
This is analogous to criticising an election candidate for his spouse or children’s participation as candidates because there is no legal impediment to prevent their participation, despite any reservations one may have on the matter.
Just look at former Johor Bakri MP, Yeo Bee Yin, who was criticised by an NGO because her in-laws possess "vast business interests" in Puchong – the constituency in Selangor that DAP has moved her to for GE15.
The NGO criticised her for an alleged conflict of interest of "major proportions" because she is the spouse of one of the country’s key business leaders, despite the fact that her spouse is not a candidate for GE15.
Coming back to Rafizi, although his idea of asking BN and PN to make their candidates declare their assets is good, he lost his cool when his political rivals in Bersatu started to grill him on his assets a few days before the said press conference took place.
And when the same reporter mentioned above asked for his comment on what his political rivals said on the issue, he lost his cool again by describing one of his rivals as stupid and corrupt, and saying that they know nuts about business and finance.
Even if this lost-his-cool incident had not happened, his so-called brilliant idea of throwing a gauntlet to his opponent on the issue breaks into pieces as two PH component parties – DAP and Amanah – have different ideas on the issue of candidates’ declaration of assets, as reported by Malaysiakini.
Amanah vice-president Mujahid Yusof Rawa said the party leaves it to its candidates to decide on this, stressing that all of its candidates have declared their assets to the party, which is not a public declaration.
Meanwhile, DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke said DAP candidates only have to make public asset declarations if they win in the polls.
As for his rival coalitions, PAS said the move is unnecessary as it could lead to negative implications.
The party’s vice-president, Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah, quipped that the party’s leaders are not wealthy and are thus embarrassed to declare what little they have.
Its PN partner, Bersatu, shares the same stand. Azmin dismissed asset declarations for candidates as “sandiwara“ (drama).
BN’s Sungai Buloh candidate Khairy Jamaluddin also said it is unnecessary for candidates to declare assets publicly, and that this only needs to be done if one is appointed to public office.
MIC, Gerakan, Warisan, PBM, Pejuang and other Gerakan Tanah Air partners, PRM, and Sarawak parties have thus far held their tongues on the matter, perhaps fearing a backlash for saying something that may be politically incorrect.
It is very clear that Rafizi’s motive in bringing up the issue is to score points in order to put his political opponents on the defensive which could result in them losing the election.
But he forgot to put his house (Pakatan Harapan) in order before issuing this gauntlet to his political opponents. So PH could end up losing the election instead, due to his action.
If he was sincere and saw this as a matter of principle, he would have been pursuing this issue a long time ago before a general election was even held, or at the very least when he made a political comeback some months ago.
But he was never seen as a person who struggled for the cause of election candidates’ declaration of assets, neither was he the first to come up with such idea like PSM president, Michael Jeyakumar.
If someone wants to make the declaration of assets by election candidates compulsory, he or she must have a game plan that takes into account the current legal aspects of the issue, and then proceed with a plan of action on how to get the buy-in for it among all political parties that will finally lead to its promulgation into law.
Rafizi does not have such a plan.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of MalaysiaNow.


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Resign, PN MP says after deputy minister draws blank in Dewan

An MP from Perikatan Nasional today urged Deputy Education Minister Lim Hui Ying to resign for failing to prepare an answer during the oral question-and-answer session in the Dewan Rakyat.
Pengkalan Chepa MP Ahmad Marzuk Shaary said such a thing had never happened in the history of the House, adding that it reflected badly on the government.
He said Lim's inability to answer also made it appear as if she had never set foot in her office or joined ministry meetings.
Marzuk said that answers by ministers or deputy ministers should be prepared at least two weeks in advance.
"A deputy minister should come prepared, not just fill a seat in the government bloc," he said in a press conference at the Parliament building.
"He or she should be able to answer additional questions, otherwise I think it is a waste for the government to pay them for not doing their duty."
Lim, the sister of DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng, had replaced Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek who was not present in the Dewan Rakyat today.
She was asked by Marzuk about allocations for the special programme and food monitoring mechanism to provide nutritious meals for students.
However, the Tanjong MP told the Dewan Rakyat that she had not prepared an answer, and asked to submit a written reply.
She was reprimanded by deputy speaker Ramli Mohd Nor, who told the government bloc not to allow a repeat of the matter.
"As a deputy minister, this should not have happened," he said.
"I hope that the government bloc takes note of this. It gives rise to a negative scenario for the government."
Lim then apologised and promised that the matter would not happen again.


Japan braces for torrential rain as typhoon nears

Japan braced for torrential rains on Friday as Typhoon Mawar neared, bringing wind and heavy rain to a wide swathe of the main islands.
Mawar, which wreaked havoc on Guam earlier this week, has weakened to tropical storm strength from its earlier super typhoon status, and the main body of the storm was expected to pass south of the main island of Honshu as it moved into the Pacific.
But forecasters warned there was the danger that humid air from the typhoon could feed into a seasonal rain front, touching off heavy localised rains.
Similar weather patterns have caused flooding and landslides in the past, most notably in the summer of 2018, when more than 200 people were killed in western Japan.
The Japan Meteorological Agency issued flood warnings for the Okinawa island chain and parts of Shikoku and Honshu islands, with forecasts of 350mm (13.8 inches) of rain in parts of western Honshu in the 24 hours up to Saturday morning.
Though a number of flights to the Okinawa area were cancelled, there were no other reports of major disruptions or evacuation orders as of Friday morning.


Poland says missile that hit was Ukrainian stray, easing concern of escalation

A missile that hit Poland was probably a stray fired by Ukraine's air defences and not a Russian strike, Poland and Nato said on Wednesday, easing global concern that the war in Ukraine could spill across the border.
Nevertheless, Nato's chief said that Moscow, not Kyiv was ultimately to blame, for starting the war in the first place and launching the attack that triggered Ukraine's defences.
"This is not Ukraine's fault. Russia bears ultimate responsibility as it continues its illegal war against Ukraine," Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels.
Nato ambassadors were holding emergency talks to respond to the blast on Tuesday that killed two people at a grain facility in Poland near the Ukrainian border, the war's first deadly spillover onto the territory of the Western military alliance.
"From the information that we and our allies have, it was an S-300 rocket made in the Soviet Union, an old rocket and there is no evidence that it was launched by the Russian side," Polish President Andrzej Duda said. "It is highly probable that it was fired by Ukrainian anti-aircraft defence."
Stoltenberg also said it was likely a Ukrainian air defence missile.
Polish Prime Minister Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Warsaw might not need to activate Article 4 of Nato's treaty, which calls for consultations when a member country considers its security under threat.
Earlier, US President Joe Biden said the missile was unlikely to have been fired from Russia.
The incident occurred while Russia was firing scores of missiles at cities across Ukraine, in what Ukraine says was the biggest volley of such strikes of the nine-month war.
Kyiv says it shot down most of the incoming Russian missiles with its own air defence missiles. Ukraine's Volyn region, just across the border from Poland, was one of the many Ukraine says was targeted by Russia's countrywide attacks.
The Russian Defence Ministry said none of its missiles had struck closer than 35km (20 miles) from the Polish border, and that photos of the wreckage in Poland showed elements of a Ukrainian S-300 air defence missile.
Asked whether it was too early to say if the missile was fired from Russia, Biden said: "There is preliminary information that contests that. I don't want to say that until we completely investigate it, but it is unlikely in the lines of the trajectory that it was fired from Russia, but we’ll see."
The US and Nato countries would fully investigate before acting, Biden said in Indonesia after meeting other Western leaders on the sidelines of a summit of the G20 big economies.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that some countries had made "baseless statements" about the incident, but that Washington had been comparatively restrained. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russia had nothing to do with the incident, which he said had been caused by an S-300 air defence system.
In a tweet issued hours after the incident, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky blamed it on "Russian missile terror". There was no immediate Ukrainian response on Wednesday to the suggestions that it was a Ukrainian stray.
The missile fell on Przewodow, a village about 6km (4 miles) from the Ukrainian border. A resident who declined to be identified said the two victims were men who were near the weighing area of a grain facility.
Some Western leaders suggested that whoever fired the missile, Russia and President Vladimir Putin would ultimately be held responsible for an incident arising from its invasion.
"They stressed that, whatever the outcome of that investigation, Putin's invasion of Ukraine is squarely to blame for the ongoing violence," British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's office said after a meeting between Sunak and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the summit sidelines.
Leaders at the G20 summit issued a declaration saying "most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine", although it acknowledged that "there were other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions".
Russia is a member of the G20 and Ukraine isn't, but Zelenskiy addressed the summit by video link, while Putin stayed home.
Moscow launched Tuesday's wave of missile attacks just days after abandoning the southern city of Kherson, the only regional capital it had captured since the invasion.


Introducing Tapai, the fermentation of human desire

Sometime in the 80s, the word “foodie” appeared. I cannot remember where I first stumbled on it. It could have been The Guardian’s food and wine section.Well, I thought a foodie was a kind of Irish stew. No, I was wrong. After a glass of red wine… oops, wrong, after a carafe… wrong again… after a bottle of Bordeaux, I had an epiphany. Foodie had nothing to do with Irish stew, nor with the Hoodie Black youth in Brixton. Foodie and hoodie were two entirely different continents.A foodie is a manifestation of globalisation. A hoodie is what one wears to hide one’s identity during a manifestation.Globalisation brought with it new cross-cultural experiences. I must put it on record here that before Tony Fernandes, there was Freddie Laker. Laker offered the first no-frills transatlantic services on Lakers Airways. He operated the Sky Train from London to New York in the late 70s. The well-occupied AirAsia which came later in the 90s was the creation of Fernandes. Laker is a Mat Salleh while Fernandes is a budak Melaka.When travelling becomes cheap, the concept of a dirty weekend takes on a whole new meaning. Golok and Padang become so yesterday. Now, Bali and Hanoi are just around the corner.Once upon a time, travelling was reserved for lords and dukes, the rich and the wealthy. Cheap airlines changed all this. Cheap air tickets have democratised travelling. Thelma and Louise, Dollah and Sami, are now hitting the road.Travelling to distant lands, finding new experiences – drinking, smoking, snorting and eating new “dishes” – became en vogue. The English dirty weekend in Gai Paris is no longer associated with the exchange of bodily fluid.Now, travelling is about Tapai. The fermentation of human desire. Amen.Hishamuddin Rais’ Tapai, on food, travel and everything in between, appears once a month on MalaysiaNow.


Foreign investors stayed net buyers last week with RM1.18 billion inflow

Foreign investors were the only net buyers on Bursa Malaysia last week with the net inflow amounting to RM1.18 billion, on the back of bargain-hunting activities, MIDF Research said.In its equity strategy report today, the investment bank said international funds had been net buyers on Bursa Malaysia for nine out of the first eleven weeks of 2022.“We noted that last week, the net buying by foreign investors was the highest for the year so far, totalling RM1.18 billion. The previous highest net buying by foreigners was on the week ended March 4 at RM1.08 billion,” it added.MIDF Research said as the market reopened on Monday last week, foreign investors and local retailers bought RM219.24 million and RM35.27 million net of local equities, respectively, while local institutions started the week as net sellers of -RM254.50 million.It noted that foreigners had continued to be net buyers every day of the week since Feb 7, with the largest foreign net inflow for last week on Wednesday at RM396.27 million and the smallest on Friday at only RM31.81 million.As for the retailers, they had been net sellers every day of the week except Monday at RM35.27 million and Tuesday at RM9.28 million.MIDF Research said the largest net selling was recorded on Thursday at -RM145.89 million while the smallest net selling was on Friday at -RM8.67 million.It said overall, for the eleventh week of 2022, foreign investors finished strong as net buyers at RM1.2 billion, while the local institutions were strong net sellers at -RM1.0 billion followed by retailers net selling at -RM175.88 million.“In terms of participation, foreign investors, local institutions and retail investors recorded a weekly movement of +64.50%, -19.68% and -23.96%, respectively, in average daily trade value.“On a year-to-date basis, we have observed RM1.3 billion in net inflows from foreign investors and RM0.5 billion in net inflows from retailers. Meanwhile, local institutions were the only net sellers of -RM6.1 billion,” it said.Last week, Public Bank registered the highest net money inflow of RM15.0 million. Its share price was +6.59% higher for the week, outperforming the local bourse which had a +1.47% weekly increase.Meanwhile, UTD Plantations saw the largest net money outflow of -RM2.73 million last week. Its stock price was -3.72% lower for the week, underperforming the FBM KLCI which was +1.47% higher during the week under review.


2 million doses of vaccine to be distributed in Klang Valley, Negeri Sembilan

Two million doses of Covid-19 vaccine expected to arrive at the end of this month will be distributed in the Klang Valley and Negeri Sembilan for use starting early August, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said today.He said this was in order to expedite the vaccination process and curb the spread of Covid-19 in high-risk areas.He said for the same purpose, all Covid-19 assessment centres (CACs) will operate daily with the hiring of additional staff.“Taking into account the presence of patients with breathing difficulties, the CACs will also be equipped with oxygen supply for these patients while they wait to be referred to either the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park (MAEPS) Covid-19 quarantine and low-risk treatment centre or hospital,” he told reporters after visiting the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital in Klang.Muhyiddin said based on data available on July 11, the cumulative total of Covid-19 cases in Selangor was 286,352, and in Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, 88,958.“They make up 45% of the cumulative total of Covid-19 cases in the country,” he said.He added that for deaths due to Covid-19, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya had recorded 2,700 deaths so far or 44% of the nationwide death toll.


Health ministry proposes 2-week suspension of special sitting

The health ministry has proposed that the special Dewan Rakyat sitting postponed last week after the detection of Covid-19 cases on the Parliament premises be put off for two weeks from July 29.Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the ministry suggested that all meetings including those of the parliamentary select committee and discussions involving individuals in Parliament from July 26 to 29 be suspended for this duration.“All individuals who were in Parliament from July 26 to 29 are advised to monitor their health status through use of the MySejahtera application.“If any symptoms occur, please undergo checks and seek treatment at the nearest health facility,” he said in a statement today.Earlier today, Pakatan Harapan leaders warned Noor Hisham against allowing himself to be manipulated in order to close Parliament and prevent the special sitting which began last week.PKR chief Anwar Ibrahim, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng and Amanah president Mohamad Sabu also questioned Noor Hisham’s directive which had led to the adjournment of the current Dewan Rakyat sitting.In his statement today, Noor Hisham said risk assessments for Covid-19 infection in Parliament would be conducted from time to time.He also urged all parties to work together to ensure that the health SOPs are strictly followed in order to curb any further spread of the virus.On July 28, 56 positive cases were detected from screenings held from July 21 to 25 ahead of the Dewan Rakyat sitting.Noor Hisham said two cases involved MPs, six cases involved their aides and the other 48 involved officers from government agencies.


Churchill mosque painting sold by Angelina Jolie smashes record

A Moroccan landscape painted by Winston Churchill and owned by Angelina Jolie sold at auction on Monday, smashing the previous record for a painting by Britain’s legendary World War II leader.“Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque” sold at Christie’s fine art auctioneers in London for US$11.5 million, beating the pre-sale estimate of US$2 million to US$3.5 million. The previous record price for a Churchill painting was just under US$2.5 million.The image of the 12th-century mosque in Marrakech at sunset, with the Atlas Mountains in the background, is a piece of both political and Hollywood history.The only painting that Britain’s wartime prime minister completed during the 1939-45 war years, the canvas was completed after the January 1943 Casablanca Conference, where Churchill and US President Franklin D Roosevelt planned the defeat of Nazi Germany and Japan.After the conference, the two leaders demanded “unconditional surrender” from Germany, Italy and Japan, a historic declaration that had a far-reaching impact on the war.The two leaders visited Marrakech after the conference so that Churchill could show Roosevelt the city’s beauty. Churchill gave the painting to Roosevelt as a souvenir of the trip.“Churchill first visited Morocco in 1935 where he fell in love with the quality of light there,” said Nick Orchard, head of modern British art at Christie’s in London. “He felt that his paintings of the country were among his best.”The painting was sold by Roosevelt’s son after the president’s death in 1945 and had several owners before actor Brad Pitt bought it as a gift to Jolie in 2011.The couple separated in 2016 and have spent the ensuing years tangled in divorce proceedings, amid speculation about the division of their extensive art collection.They were declared divorced in 2019 after their lawyers asked for a bifurcated judgment, meaning that two married people can be declared single again while other issues, including child custody and finances remain.The painting was sold by the Jolie Family Collection.The buyer wasn’t immediately identified.


Bersatu slams 'double standards' in Zahid prison visit to Najib

A Bersatu leader today slammed the "special permission" granted to Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to visit Najib Razak in jail, describing it as a clear and blatant example of bias and double standards on the part of the Prisons Department, home ministry and government as a whole.
Sasha Lyna Abdul Latif, the deputy chairman of Bersatu's legal and constitution bureau, said other prisoners had to fight for basic medical access and permission to attend the funerals of immediate family members.
"If this is the treatment that is being given to one or two special people, it should be extended to all prisoners," she said.
Zahid, who is also deputy prime minister, recently said he had spent almost two hours with Najib at Kajang Prison along with members of the Umno Supreme Council.
He also said that he had brought along some of Najib's favourite food and enjoyed it together with the former prime minister.
"We were able to eat together. After meeting for half an hour, it was only the both of us for an hour and a half," he said when wrapping up the 2023 Umno general assembly last weekend.
Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail later said that Zahid was allowed to visit and eat with Najib with special permission from the prison authorities.
Sasha said that prisoners are generally allowed visits from immediate family members only, once a month, as well as visits from their lawyers.
"No other types of visitors are allowed. Family members who do prison visits would know and experience that, there would be a glass barrier between them and their incarcerated family member, and any food brought by the family members will be checked thoroughly and only be given after the session.
"There is no such thing as having a meal together."
In a statement, she said Zahid's visit was a breach of Article 8 of the Federal Constitution which states that all citizens are equal.
"It is general practice that all other prisoners apart from Najib are not allowed to meet any of their friends from the time they start their imprisonment period until they are released, or in the event that they are facing life imprisonment, for the rest of their lives. "If this is the stance taken by the Prisons Department, and it has the capacity to grant 'special permission' to certain types of persons, it is therefore only fair for other prisoners to be able to enjoy this special permission. "Other prisoners should also be allowed to have visitors other than their immediate family members, and the use of the barrier glass should be stopped. "Prisoners should also be given the chance and opportunity to have meals with their visitors, just like Najib and Zahid were able to share a meal together on prison grounds."


Faith and belonging for sexual minorities

Amid the heaviness surrounding the sexual minorities community, I am reminded of Mak Muna, an aging transwoman, and her story of contemplating faith and belonging in a mosque and its congregation.Mak Muna’s favourite chapter in the Quran is a simple one: Al-Fatihah. She is unfamiliar with the other chapters and she is not too shy to say so.When she prays in the mosque, the recitation of Al-Fatihah brings out the child in her. Her excitement bubbles up with each passing line. As the imam verbalises the last verse of the chapter, congregants answer with a loud and long “Amin”, and Mak Muna is once again secured in the calming presence of faith within herself. She awaits this moment in each prayer, and each time, she is not disappointed.That “Amin” tears away her doubt over her position and reminds her that she belongs in the congregation.Mak Muna is 53 now and she would be pleased to correct anyone who guessed her age any younger. Her faint smile shone under the single bulb of her burger stall in Maluri, and her lisp as she shyly answered was constant company throughout our conversation.She was not keen on being called “kak”, saying, “Mak sedar diri mak tua.”Her kain pelekat was still around her waist when I met her, just as she arrived at the mosque for the isya prayer. Her femininity was the first thing I noticed as I began interacting with her, even though her hair was cut short and she wore a kopiah on her head.She left the ritual of prayer when she was 10. Starting at the age of 16, she climbed the hierarchy of the sex workers. She can name famous places where she found clients and rubbed shoulders with famous individuals. She owned places to rent and even earned respect through the endearing title of “Mak” from other young sex workers.Quitting her life of sex work came naturally with age. Five years ago, she decided that it was no longer a fitting life for her. She then began opening up to the teaching which she had abandoned decades ago.It was the fasting month when she first stepped back into a mosque. Prior to that, she had woken up one day with tears in her eyes. She felt an emptiness where her contentment should be. She had built a legacy, a family, and a means of survival. What else could she ask for?She thirsted for a spiritual belonging and she slowly worked towards piecing back together the faith she had neglected. Her journey of reclaiming herself was shared among her friends. Although some were initially sceptical, they eventually accepted Mak Muna as a new person.The first time she placed herself among the congregation, she could not stop herself from crying. Listening to the imam’s recitation of Al-Fatihah and the eventual “amin” was something she had not been able to do for so long. She had not felt such belonging before, and in that moment, she knew she was one of these faithful individuals.It has been deeply embedded within the lives of sexual minorities to have a heart-breaking outlook on the world and themselves. They are made to believe that they will never belong anywhere except among themselves.When they do not feel a sense of belonging with the community at large, their belonging lies in their faith. To see their faith questioned and taken away from them is heinous.Preachers with big names and big arguments against their community would never pray alongside Mak Muna. They would never try to understand the sexual minorities community but would simplify the complexity of their faith into a mere antithesis of their own stand.They would never be a part of the congregation that took Mak Muna under its wing. They would not be among the imams who calmed Mak Muna’s insecurity over her position in the mosque. And they would never see that beneath the projection of sexual and gender identities lies an identity of faith.They will continue to deny the belonging of these faithful individuals because they simply cannot see beyond the differences and the perceived misplacement of femininity and masculinity in the wrong body.When I go to the SEED Foundation in Chow Kit, I sometimes see trans individuals praying. Some transwomen and transmen cover themselves with telekung, while others let their hair hang down their back or don a kopiah. But they pray, nonetheless. To the same god as Ahmad Marzuk Shaary, Rafidah Hanim Mokhtar, as you and I.


Time to move, experts tell duty-free shops

Duty-free shops, a staple at most holiday destinations across the country, have traditionally depended on tourists and visitors to rake in the profits.From Langkawi in Kedah to the Berjaya Waterfront Complex in Johor, they are a tourist magnet for locals and international visitors alike who flock to their outlets to find bargains on luxury goods, perfume, cosmetics, alcohol and cigarettes.But with international borders closed and travel restricted for many countries in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, hordes of businesses have been forced to establish an online presence and duty-free businesses are no exception.Economists who spoke to MalaysiaNow said it is time for these tax-free havens to make the move online, too.“There is a need to create a new concept of duty-free shopping by finding a principle for virtual duty-free because the future is about promoting online businesses,” Barjoyai Bardai from Universiti Tun Abdul Razak said.And with sales collapsing by two-thirds last year, this need is becoming more pressing by the day.But making the shift could be tricky for duty-free shops as being online would mean nearly universal access.“The future is about promoting online businesses.”“So what will be the new qualifications to be eligible for duty-free privileges?” Barjoyai said.For years, duty-free shops have catered to tourists looking to enjoy low prices from tax exemptions or seeking goods that are unavailable in their home countries.But Covid-19 is threatening their traditional brick-and-mortar presence, pushing them towards digitalisation and online business platforms – go online or go home is the message accompanying the pandemic.According to Swedish consultancy firm Generation Research, global duty-free and travel retail sales peaked at RM353 billion in 2019. By 2020, that amount had collapse by more than half, down to about RM118 million.But while going digital may be the only lifeline at present for duty-free businesses, the move brings with it its own challenges.For example, the advantages of duty-free shopping are on the wane as import duties are lowered and products become increasingly available online. This makes it hard for duty-free businesses to compete with other online shopping platforms.Economist Yeah Kim Leng however says they may have no choice as they can no longer rely on a brick-and-mortar presence.“Duty-free business owners will need to have staying power for two to three years if they are fully dependent on airport traffic.”His advice for owners and operators is to invest in online marketing channels and to keep overheads low enough to make up for the lower level of duty-free shopping due to subdued international tourism.“They can capitalise on their in-shop customer database by offering similar online access and niche or specialty product offerings,” he added.Yeah, who lectures at the Sunway University Business School, said duty-free businesses might see some light at the end of the tunnel when Malaysia reopens its borders for business and tourist travel.Noting the vaccination programme currently underway across the country, he said 2021 would likely be taken up to achieve herd immunity. This means that international travel and tourism will only pick up momentum and normalise the following year.“Duty-free business owners will need to have staying power for two to three years if they are fully dependent on airport traffic,” he told MalaysiaNow.Barjoyai however questioned the extent to which business travel would remain a lifestyle in the days to come, saying most business meetings and transactions can be done online.If tourism is the only major form of travel hereafter, he said, it would affect the overall sale of items in physical duty-free shops.But both he and Yeah agreed that airports would remain a popular destination for duty-free shopping.“International tourists and business travellers are largely in the middle and upper-income categories. So, airports will continue to be the place for businesses to target well-off shoppers and consumers,” Yeah said.Barjoyai meanwhile said airports might be able to sustain duty-free businesses if they set up new attractions to lure travellers since travel itself is difficult these days.He said hotel complexes can also be used as delivery centres for online duty-free shopping as many are unoccupied at the moment.


No more change in MySejahtera status for casual contacts

Covid-19 casual contacts will not see any change in their status on MySejahtera although they will be notified via the application, says Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.In a post on Twitter today, he said those who are found to have been in contact with Covid-19 cases will only receive a notification informing them that they are casual contacts.“Prior to this, when the MySJ trace/check-in detects anyone as a casual contact of a positive case, the status on their MySJ will change to yellow (for casual contact).“Now there is no change in the colour (to yellow) anymore, but the person will receive a notification. For those who have symptoms, isolate yourself and self-test,” he said.His post was accompanied by a poster on measures to improve Covid-19 self-assessment through the Test, Report, Isolate, Inform and Seek strategy, and advice for the public to seek immediate treatment at health centres or Covid-19 assessment centres should they experience symptoms like difficulty breathing and fever.


Iran executes protester for injuring guard with knife

Iran executed a protester on Thursday who was convicted of injuring a security guard with a knife and closing off a street in the capital, Tehran, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, part of a clampdown on nationwide unrest.
Nationwide protests that erupted after the death of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini on Sept 16 represent one of the biggest challenges to the Islamic republic since its establishment in 1979.
The Tasnim news agency identified the person who was executed as Mohsen Shekari but gave no more details.
Authorities have been cracking down on the protests and on Monday, the Revolutionary Guards praised the judiciary for its tough stand and encouraged it to swiftly and decisively issue judgements for defendants accused of "crimes against the security of the nation and Islam".
Judiciary spokesman Masoud Setayeshi announced on Tuesday that five people indicted in the killing of a Basij militia member, Rouhollah Ajamian, were sentenced to death in a verdict which they can appeal.
Amnesty International has said the Iranian authorities are seeking the death penalty for at least 21 people in what it called "sham trials designed to intimidate those participating in the popular uprising that has rocked Iran".
“The Iranian authorities must immediately quash all death sentences, refrain from seeking the imposition of the death penalty and drop all charges against those arrested in connection with their peaceful participation in protests," it said.
Iran has blamed the unrest on its foreign foes including the US.


40% of adults given booster jab

A total of 9,364,326 individuals or 40% of the adult population had received a Covid-19 booster shot as of yesterday.According to the CovidNow portal, 145,922 booster shots were administered yesterday.A total of 22,903,466 individuals or 97.8% of adults are fully vaccinated while 23,183,820 individuals or 99% have received at least one dose of vaccine.In terms of adolescents, 2,773,734 or 88.1% have been fully vaccinated while 2,861,589 or 90.9% have received at least one jab.A total of 147,655 vaccine doses were administered yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of vaccine jabs administered under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme to 60,884,363.Meanwhile, according to the ministry’s Github portal, 12 deaths were recorded yesterday.


Umno veep hopeful Wan Rosdy dismisses claims of factions in race for post

Pahang Menteri Besar Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail has brushed off claims of factions among the candidates vying for the positions of vice-president at the upcoming Umno election, describing these as assumptions.
Wan Rosdy, who is one of the seven candidates in the running for the three vice-president posts, said the claims of pro-presidential, anti-presidential and independent camps in the contest were "just the views of two or three figures".
"I myself do not know (that there are different camps)... this (vice-president contest) is open to all, and we are all offering ourselves to serve the party if given the opportunity and trust.
"I hope campaigning and the competition will be healthy," he told reporters in Kuantan yesterday.
Also in the running for the vice-president posts are incumbents Mohamed Khaled Nordin (Kota Tinggi MP) and Mahdzir Khalid (Padang Terap Umno division head).
The others in the fray are Titiwangsa MP Johari Abdul Ghani, Simpang Renggam MP Hasni Mohamad, Pengerang MP Azalina Othman Said and Umno Supreme Council member Reezal Merican Naina Merican.


Cost-saving measures won't affect national security, PM assures

Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob today assured that the government's cost-saving measures will not jeopardise national security.
He said security aspects remained a national priority and that projects such as the construction of camps or those related to border controls would not be affected.
"Security (aspects) will not be affected (by the cost-saving measures). Security will remain a priority," he told reporters after officiating the launch of the 2022 National Security Conference and the National Security Month Celebration in Putrajaya.
On Saturday, it was reported that the government would embark on cost-cutting measures with the aim of slashing 5% of its operating expenses to be spent on additional expenditures related to subsidies for the welfare of the people.
The finance ministry will finalise the matter and issue a restriction warrant to state the amount of the reduced allocation.
In its Malaysian Treasury Circular — Guidelines on Public Expenditure Savings, the finance ministry said that global economic uncertainty, international geopolitical tensions as well as the sharp rise in global commodity and food prices had resulted in high inflationary pressure.
Ismail said further details on the cost-saving measures would be announced by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Economy) Mustapa Mohamed.


Trump can be prosecuted for role in US Capitol riot, judge rules

Donald Trump can be prosecuted for his role in the attack on the US Capitol by his supporters, a judge decided Friday, ruling that the Republican does not enjoy presidential immunity in this case.The former president is the target of several lawsuits by elected officials and police who accuse him of being directly responsible for the violence perpetrated by his supports when they stormed the Capitol on Jan 6, 2021.A judge in Washington, DC, ruled that these complaints were admissible on the grounds that Trump’s actions that day were “unofficial acts” that “entirely concern his efforts to remain in office for a second term,” which the judge said does not fall within the scope of presidential immunity.“To deny a president immunity from civil damages is no small step,” judge Amit Mehta wrote in findings that ran to 112 pages. “The court well understands the gravity of its decision.”The judge also said Trump’s speech to thousands of supporters gathered in Washington before the assault could “reasonably” be perceived as a “call for collective action.”Shortly after Trump addressed his supporters, a crowd waving “TRUMP 2020” flags marched down the Mall to the seat of the US Congress, with hundreds forcing their way into the Capitol building.At the same time, Trump took to Twitter to criticise his vice-president Mike Pence for not blocking certification of Joe Biden’s election victory, an act the judge said constituted “tacit agreement” with those who stormed the Capitol.The former president is the subject of three lawsuits accusing him of responsibility in the Capitol riot.His role on that day is also being examined by a House of Representatives select committee, which has in its possession hundreds of pages of documents, text messages and testimonies, some of which the head of the probe said Trump had sought to keep hidden.The billionaire former president has slammed the investigation as a “witch hunt.”


Decline of varsities, rush for rankings traced back to ‘academic imperialism’

An obsession with world rankings as well as the absence of efforts to eradicate academic fraud have been cited as the reasons behind the deterioration of Malaysia’s higher education standards, says a prominent social critic in the wake of a new finding seen as damaging to Malaysian universities.Chandra Muzaffar, a former academic who made headlines in the late 1990s when he was sacked as a professor by Universiti Malaya, said no serious attention had been paid to addressing the deterioration of Malaysia’s higher education standards, which he said could be traced back to the 80s.“There is a mix-up in priorities where we are more concerned about rankings. If you look at universities abroad, when they were developing they were not crazy about rankings,” he told MalaysiaNow.On Sunday, MalaysiaNow cited the findings of two professors from the Czech Republic, which among others placed Malaysian academics alongside other top authors whose works were published in more than 300 “predatory journals”, or publications with questionable content and editorial standards which often accept articles for a fee.A total of 324 such journals published from across the world were found to have infiltrated Scopus, a Netherlands-based global citation database used as a benchmark by global university ranking agencies in evaluating universities worldwide.Ranking crazeChandra said the fixation of local universities on getting better rankings was a recent development, which had led to a rush to publish research works and to get cited in academic databases.Chandra Muzaffar“This craziness about rankings is a very recent thing.“I see this as part of a larger imperial game to depict certain universities as subordinates. This is actually to perpetuate the dominance of certain mainly Western universities,” he said.“Portraying these universities as the acme of excellence is aimed at ensuring that the ideas, individuals and courses associated with them remain as the standard bearers of knowledge.”Every year, at least two organisations publish their lists of universities from around the world, ranking them according to scores using indicators.Last year, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings listed universities in Britain, the US and other European countries in the top 20 spots among more than 1,500 universities in 93 countries.Western universities also dominated the top spots in a list compiled by QS University Rankings, another global index published from the UK.Chandra said universities should not waste time getting into global rankings but concentrate instead on improving their quality of research.“The basic mission of the university is to impart knowledge.”Old problemChandra said he did not think there had been any serious attempt to arrest the slide in the country’s quality of tertiary education.Giving an example, he said academic fraud such as plagiarism had continued in Malaysian universities.“That is why plagiarism which is a mortal sin in the academia has gone unchecked, and also why people pursue their careers by getting cited in questionable journals.“The same is the case with an academic who plagiarises a thesis or work which is actually the product and labour of a student, and published as a joint effort carrying both names.”He said the problem is not new, and goes back to the 80s when universities were used to nurture political support for certain leaders in the government at that time.He said the pursuit of academic ranks was symptomatic of a larger problem in society such as the emphasis on status.“It is an indisputable fact that Malaysia is a deeply status conscious society where status linked to position or title often determines the worth and value of an individual.”Chandra said reforming the country’s higher education system did not stop at amending restrictive laws under the Universities and University Colleges Act.“Attitudes, values and priorities will have to be transformed. This is a Herculean task which no government has undertaken.”


A tribute to the incorruptible Salleh Abas

I got to know Salleh Abas when I joined the Attorney-General’s Chambers in 1977 as a deputy public prosecutor (DPP). I was given a room in the same wing as the rest of the DPPs and senior federal counsels.We were then housed in the Sultan Abdul Samad building, where the clock tower is, opposite the Selangor Club.Tun Salleh was the solicitor-general then. I would see him literally daily as his office was at the perimeter of the law library of the AGC.Tun would do his own research and often he would take notice of the research I was doing. He was perhaps intrigued to notice the youngest and most junior DPP working till late in the library just outside his door.Most often Tun was ably assisted by the chief librarian Sivaswami.I got to know Tun better as I stayed in the library, often beyond midnight. Tun and Siva would be there late especially on big cases. Siva was kind and most helpful to me.Tun was hardworking, very clever but conservative and strict. I was the only junior officer who could see Tun to consult. Tun would be all ears and heart to discuss the legal issues. I was free to see even the AG then, Hamzah Abu Samah.Tun would not easily see anybody. Although he entertained to meet up with his legal officers, he was not approachable to outsiders, certainly not informally.I can say with conviction that Tun was incorruptible, the most honest man I have ever dealt with in my entire life. He trained many to have moral courage and dignity.Once I approached Tun for permission to do chambering so that I could be called to the Bar as well. I remember this was about the time of the appeal in relation to the Kerling temple homicide case.He told me in a stern fashion not to do that as I might be subject to the control of two disciplinary bodies, the service as well as the Bar. He was a deep thinker and had unusual foresight.I was relieved when he became the lord president as I thought the country’s system of justice was in good hands.Tun was religious, yet moderate, very English in his legal upbringing and methodical in his work and thinking. He presided over the John Berthelsen, Raphael Pura and Wall Street Journal appeal in the Supreme Court. [Editor’s note: Berthelsen and Pura were correspondents for the Wall Street Journal who were expelled in 1986 by then-prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad who was also the home minister. The Supreme Court later ruled that Mahathir’s action was illegal.]I represented these three although I was just a year in private practice. My preparation for the appeal was purposely hampered by the AGC and the police raiding my law office a day before the appeal on frivolous reason purportedly for OSA offences, total poppycock!The truth was the AGC was not happy with my representing WSJ and the journalists and the fact that I was doing well and kicking asses.The AG sent a DPP with a team of police officers from D9 to raid my office. They found nothing but arrested me as I resisted search and arrest as their search warrant was severely defective and on the face of it, mala fide.I appeared the next day in the Supreme Court to argue this landmark appeal. Although fully prepared in my head, my papers were not arranged perfectly due to the harassment and the illegal raid of the police the day before.Tun was chairing the quorum as the lord president, flanked by Mohammad Azmi and Eusoffe Abdoolcader. The well-known QC Geoffrey Robertson was helping me out. He was in the audience.Tun and Eusoffe heard me for a brief while but turned their attention to how the AGC was going to answer. Surprisingly, the AG himself did not turn up but sent counsels Zaleha Zahari and Selvintheran Nathan do his battle.The judges headed by Tun and Eusoffe went for the jugular and finally decided that the government was wrong to cancel the work permit of the journalists without due process.Tun was so livid to learn of the harassment I went through the day before at the hands of the AGC and the police. He suggested in open court that I should consider suing the AGC and the government, which I subsequently did and obtained compensation out of court.The Berthelsen decision was the beginning of Mahathir’s nightmare and the start of Tun’s trouble that led to his impeachment.In truth, Tun committed no wrong whatsoever. His moral strength and credibility which could not be compromised was Mahathir’s dilemma.Tun Salleh was a small size man, but he was a giant in law and justice.Nobody that matters can disagree that he was not only incorruptible in fact, but was also perceived as such and much more.Rest peacefully, Tun. Al-Fathihah.Muhammad Shafee Abdullah is a lawyer with more than four decades’ experience.The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of MalaysiaNow.


Flanked by missiles, North Korea’s Kim says US and South Korea threaten peace

Standing beside North Korea’s largest missiles, leader Kim Jong Un said his country’s weapons development is necessary in the face of hostile policies from the US and a military buildup in South Korea, state media said on Tuesday.Pyongyang was only increasing its military in self-defence and not to start a war, Kim told a defence exhibition on Monday, North Korea’s official KCNA news agency reported.Kim made his remarks standing next to a variety of weapons, including the country’s intercontinental ballistic missiles, the ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun showed. Among them was the Hwasong-16, North Korea’s largest ICBM, unveiled at a military parade in October 2020 but not yet test-fired.“We are not discussing war with anyone, but rather to prevent war itself and to literally increase war deterrence for the protection of national sovereignty,” Kim said.State television footage showed a smiling Kim clapping as shirtless soldiers used their hands to smash bricks placed on colleagues’ chests and others broke chains wrapped around their bodies in shows of strength.Kim also saluted jets leaving coloured trails during an air show, while strolling through missiles on display.South Korea’s defence ministry said South Korean and US intelligence agencies were analysing the equipment displayed.A spokesperson for the US State Department reiterated that the US goal was the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, but that Washington “harbours no hostile intent” towards North Korea and is prepared to meet with it without preconditions for “serious and sustained diplomacy”.“The US has a vital interest in deterring the DPRK, defending against its provocations or uses of force, and in limiting the reach of its most dangerous weapons programmes, and above all keeping the American people and our allies safe,” the spokesperson added, using the initials for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.Pyongyang has said it is not interested in talks as long as Washington maintains policies such as sanctions and military activities in South Korea.Washington’s assertions that it holds no hostile feelings toward North Korea were hard to believe in the face of its continued “wrong judgements and actions”, Kim said.The two Koreas have been in an accelerating arms race, with both sides testing increasingly advanced short-range ballistic missiles and other hardware.South Korea recently test fired its first submarine-launched ballistic missile, plans to build aircraft carriers and has bought American-made F-35 stealth fighters.North Korea has pushed ahead with its missile programme, and analysts say it has begun a major expansion of its main nuclear reactor, used to produce fuel for nuclear bombs.South Korea’s national security adviser, Suh Hoon, met his American counterpart, Jake Sullivan, in Washington on Tuesday to discuss North Korea.Suh told reporters on Monday he planned to discuss South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s proposal for a formal end to the 1950-1953 Korean War and for possible easing of sanctions on North Korea, Yonhap news agency reported.A White House statement on the meeting said Sullivan stressed the need for North Korea “to refrain from escalatory actions” and reaffirmed support for inter-Korean dialogue and cooperation.A senior official of the US administration said Washington had made specific proposals for discussions to North Korea but had not received a response from Pyongyang. “We remain prepared to meet to discuss the full range of issues,” he said.Last week the two Koreas restored their hotlines that North Korea severed months ago, with Pyongyang urging Seoul to step up efforts to improve relations after criticising what it called double standards over weapons development.Kim said Seoul’s “unrestricted and dangerous” efforts to strengthen its military were “destroying the military balance in the Korean peninsula and increasing military instability and danger”.“Under the absurd pretext of suppressing our threats, South Korea has openly expressed its desire to gain an edge over us in military power on various occasions,” he added.


Mass Covid testing announced for Beijing’s Chaoyang district amid ‘ferocious’ outbreak

Beijing’s most populous district Chaoyang announced three rounds of mass testing to quell a “ferocious” Covid-19 outbreak that emerged at a bar in a nightlife and shopping area last week, shortly after the city relaxed curbs imposed during an outbreak in April.City health officials said that so far there have been 166 confirmed cases linked to the outbreak that began at the Heaven Supermarket bar in the Sanlitun area on Thursday, 145 of them bar patrons.Mass testing would take place between Monday and Wednesday in Chaoyang district, where the bar is located, officials told a press briefing.The overall numbers of cases and deaths from the pandemic remain extremely low in China compared with many countries around the world.But even as much of the world has relaxed curbs, Chinese authorities maintain their zero-Covid policy, trying to stamp out outbreaks early with measures including heavy restrictions on movement and mass testing.Xu Hejian, Beijing city government spokesman, told Sunday’s briefing that the current outbreak in the capital is “ferocious”.“At present, the risk of a further spread still exists. The most urgent task at the moment is to trace the source of the cluster and also manage and control the risks,” he said, adding Beijing must prevent the emergence of “epidemic amplifiers”.Two buildings housing hundreds of residents in one Chaoyang compound were put under strict lockdown on Sunday after a single positive case, a residential committee worker told Reuters.Large metal barricades were installed around the compound. Staff in hazmat suits carrying disinfectant entered the building and extra security and police were brought in at the exits.Several businesses nearby including the “Paradise Massage & Spa” were also put under temporary lockdown with police tape and security personnel brought in to block the exits.A handful of customers and staff at the parlour would be locked in for at least two days whilst checks were carried out, a government worker told Reuters.Some Beijing residents reported that on Sunday they received multiple texts telling them to report to their neighbourhood organisations if they had visited Sanlitun’s bars recently.It is only a week since state media reported that Beijing would further relax Covid curbs by allowing indoor dining.More testing in ShanghaiIn Shanghai, subject to two months of lockdown up until the start of June, authorities announced on Saturday a round of testing for most of its 25 million residents.Shanghai officials told reporters said they found one symptomatic and four asymptomatic cases as of Sunday afternoon, after finding 10 new local symptomatic cases and 19 local asymptomatic cases a day earlier.Dine-in services will be allowed to resume in a number of restaurants and eateries in three suburban districts, Shanghai officials said.China reported 275 new coronavirus cases for June 11, of which 134 were symptomatic and 141 were asymptomatic, the National Health Commission said on Sunday.There were no new deaths, leaving the total tally in the pandemic at 5,226. As of Saturday, mainland China had confirmed 224,781 cases with symptoms.


Govt won’t simply open borders, says PM

The government will not arbitrarily open the country’s borders to foreign travellers as permission for entry will depend on the Covid-19 situation in their countries of origin, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said today.He said at the moment, the government only allows those who are fully vaccinated to enter the country while the borders remain closed to tourists.“If we are to open the country’s borders to foreign travellers, every development (related to Covid-19) in their countries of origin will be taken into consideration.“In every decision, we (the government) will seek advice and recommendations from the health ministry based on its risk assessments. We will not arbitrarily open the borders,” he said during question time at the Dewan Negara sitting.He was replying to senator Razali Idris on whether the government had a backup crisis management plan if the number of Covid-19 cases spikes again following the spread of new variants if the borders are opened.Ismail said there were six factors to be considered before foreign travellers are granted entry to Malaysia, namely the number of Covid-19 cases recorded by their countries in the past 14 days, the incidence rate per million population, the mortality rate per million population, cumulative mortality rate, recovery index, and cumulative total of cases in their respective countries.“If the numbers are spiking in their countries, we will probably change our policy from allowing (entry) to not allowing entry. We are flexible in this regard,” he said.However, he said permission for entry would be subject to SOPs and other terms and conditions, including mandatory quarantine at designated locations to curb the spread of Covid-19.He said the government was constantly improving the SOPs and that beginning Aug 12, had allowed fully vaccinated citizen and non-citizen travellers to apply for mandatory quarantine at home.“Overall, the government has made various preparations and the decision on SOP relaxation was done cautiously by taking into account global developments with the priority on reviving the economy,” he said.To senator Muhammad Zahid Md Arip on certain countries allowing entry only to recipients of particular vaccines, Ismail said the government would try to negotiate with them to allow entry to Malaysians.“We cannot control their policies, it’s their right. What’s important is to negotiate to enable Malaysians who receive vaccines other than those allowed in the countries to be granted entry,” he said.


Cost of living, price of goods among issues to be raised in Dewan Rakyat

Measures to address the rising cost of living and ensure that the price of goods remains at affordable rates will be among those raised at the Dewan Rakyat today.
According to the Order Paper published on the Parliament website, these issues will be raised by Anwar Ibrahim (PH-Port Dickson) in a question to the prime minister during the oral question and answer session.
There will also be a question from Mohd Fasiah Mohd Fakeh (Bersatu-Sabak Bernam) to the prime minister on the number of people categorised as hardcore poor from 2020 until now, as well as the government's measures to eradicate hardcore poverty.
Fong Kui Lun (PH-Bukit Bintang) meanwhile will ask the federal territories minister about the long- and short-term plans to ensure that Kuala Lumpur is free from floods, including flash flood.
Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim (BN-Baling) will ask the prime minister about the programmes and formulas to be introduced by the government to increase the awareness of young people about their responsibility to vote. The issue of the Russia-Ukraine conflict will also be raised by Mohamad Sabu (PH-Kota Raja) in his question to the foreign minister on the follow-up measures taken by the government, as well as steps to curb the indirect effects, especially on the economy.
After the question and answer session, the sitting will see if the election of the deputy speaker of the Dewan Rakyat to replace Pengerang MP Azalina Othman Said can be implemented or if it will be postponed for the third time.
The current sitting of the Dewan Rakyat will last for 12 days until Aug 4.


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Respect ban on politicians giving talks at mosques, says PM

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim today said that the ban on politicians giving lectures or political talks at mosques and surau must be respected by all parties.
He said the ban is applicable to all parties, himself included.
Anwar, who is also the finance minister, said he would avoid accepting invitations to give talks at mosques.
"In respecting the order (by the religious authorities), I avoid giving talks when I stop at a mosque for Friday prayers," he told reporters in Putrajaya.
The prime minister was responding to PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, who said on March 4 that there was nothing wrong with politicians delivering sermons or religious lectures at mosques and suraus, and that it was instead compulsory for them to do so.
Hadi’s comments were reported to be over the Terengganu Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council banning politicians from delivering religious lectures at mosques and suraus in the state.


Australia to boost Southeast Asian aid to counter China’s Mekong influence

China’s growing influence across Southeast Asia needs to be countered by an increase in Australia’s aid budget to the region, say increasing numbers of experts.As a result, the Scott Morrison government is preparing to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into Southeast Asian countries to boost their economies in the wake of Covid-19.Canberra is still considering the package details, with the final decision on cost and scope to be made in the coming months.The package will focus on countries along the 5,000km Mekong River, including Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.Australia last year agreed with its “Quad” partners – Japan, the US and India – to work together to promote infrastructure development in the Mekong region.This year, a US government report found Chinese dams are holding back huge amounts of water in the Mekong, worsening a severe drought in downstream countries, and shrinking the width and depth of the river flowing through cities like Vientiane, capital of Laos.In recent years Beijing has been steadily expanding its influence over smaller and generally poorer countries in the region including Cambodia and Laos.Vietnam has been pushing back against China’s assertiveness, including its expansion in the South China Sea.Australian financial aid to Southeast Asia has fallen over the past five years. Many experts think this was strategically misguided.Bridi Rice, director of policy and advocacy at the Australian Council for International Development, told the Sydney Morning Herald that cuts to development and diplomacy in Southeast Asia had “undermined our friendships and influence at a time when we should have been scaling up”.“Strategically, that was short-sighted,” she said. “The Australian government has now set out an ambition to re-engage and become a partner of choice. We must move decisively to fulfil that ambition and re-establish our credentials.”According to a report by the Brookings Institution this year, China dwarfs both Australia and the US in infrastructure financing in Southeast Asia.


Quarantine exemption for Hollywood star sparks anger in Hong Kong

Hong Kong’s decision to grant Hollywood star Nicole Kidman a quarantine exemption as she films an Amazon-funded series about the lives of wealthy expats has sparked public anger.The Chinese financial hub maintains some of the strictest quarantine measures in the world, an approach that has kept virus cases low but left most residents cut off from overseas loved ones for the last 18 months.Arrivals from high-risk countries have to stay in hotel quarantine for 21 days, while lower-risk countries have seven days hotel quarantine followed by a further seven days of self-monitoring.But Kidman, 54, has been allowed to circumvent those rules.Hong Kong’s Commerce and Economic Development Bureau confirmed the Australian actress and other film crew had been granted an exemption “to carry out designated professional work”.Those exempted must take three coronavirus tests over two weeks following their arrival.The city’s tabloids have closely followed Kidman’s appearances in Hong Kong since touching down last Thursday in a private jet from Australia, including shopping two days after her arrival and later filming in the city’s Sai Wan district.Kidman has been announced as an executive producer on “Expats”, a show based on a 2016 book by Janice YK Lee about the gilded lives of three American women in the city.Social media has since filled with comments by expats and local Hong Kongers over Kidman’s quarantine exemption – and the decision to film a series about the city’s wealthy foreign elite at a time when China is purging dissent in the financial hub.“Right then, that’s it. My Mum is changing her name to ‘Nicole Kidman’ and I’ve just sent my Gulfstream G650 to pick her up,” @webbhk, an account popular with expats, wrote on Twitter.“I’m going to make a movie about her visit to HK. It’s called, imaginatively, ‘My Mum Visits Hong Kong’,” the account added.A popular support group on Facebook for people quarantining in Hong Kong also filled with angry comments about how many local and foreign residents have been unable to see relatives overseas for nearly two years because of the rules.Elizabeth Quat, a pro-Beijing lawmaker, said she had “concerns over the quarantine exemption granted by the government to actress Nicole Kidman” and that she had “received quite a number of complaints from Hong Kong residents”.Quat added that she had asked health officials to address a legislature committee on the issue on Friday.While quarantine exemptions can be made for some senior executives, they are rare.HSBC’s chairman Mark Tucker just completed the full three weeks of quarantine for arrivals from Britain.Kidman’s exemption came just days after Hong Kong tightened its quarantine rules for multiple countries, throwing the travel plans of many into disarray towards the end of the summer holidays and sparking a shortage of hotel rooms.


Philippine churchman ‘extorted sex with threats of damnation’ in US indictment

The founder of a Philippines church trafficked girls and young women and forced them to have sex with him on pain of eternal damnation, the US Justice Department charged Thursday.Cash raised for a bogus California-based charity was used to recruit victims who would be brought to the US from the Philippines to work in a church called the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name (KOJC), the department said as it indicted the founder.Some would be put to work raising more cash in order to help fund a lavish lifestyle for Apollo Carreon Quiboloy.The 71-year-old, referred to by church members as “The Appointed Son of God”, along with two co-defendants is now charged with sex-trafficking of females aged 12 to 25 years to work as personal assistants, or “pastorals,” for Quiboloy, a wide-ranging indictment says.“The victims prepared Quiboloy’s meals, cleaned his residences, gave him massages and were required to have sex with Quiboloy in what the pastorals called ‘night duty,'” the department said in a press release.“Defendant Quiboloy and other KOJC administrators coerced pastorals into performing ‘night duty’ – that is, sex – with defendant Quiboloy under the threat of physical and verbal abuse and eternal damnation.”The indictment alleges the sex trafficking scheme ran for at least 16 years to 2018.Victims who complied were rewarded with “good food, luxurious hotel rooms, trips to tourist spots, and yearly cash payments that were based on performance,” paid for with money solicited by KOJC workers in the US, according to the indictment.The indictment builds on a previous indictment to include a total of nine defendants. Three were arrested in the US on Thursday.Quiboloy, who maintained large residences in Hawaii, Las Vegas, and a swanky suburb of Los Angeles, is thought to be in Davao City, in the Philippines, along with two others named in the charge, the Justice Deparment said.


Did Johor really vote for BN?

So, what did the political parties learn from the Johor state election yesterday?From an observer’s point of view, it’s very simple. Barisan Nasional (BN) did not win over the majority of Johor voters and certainly has nothing to shout about.The fact here is that the opposition messed things up among themselves.Had the opposition remained as one front, they would have made a clean sweep.The rationale is simple. There were 2,599,797 registered voters in Johor, of which only 1,426,573 came out to vote.From this, a total of 599,753 (43.11%) supported BN while 826,820 (56.89%) rejected BN.The best part: a whopping 1,173,224 voters did not come out to cast their votes.Therefore, it is baseless to say that BN won the election. All they won was a majority of split votes.Back to the drawing board. Firstly, Anwar Ibrahim has to hand over the leadership to someone else, next all of the other parties need to be a united front.This includes new players like Parti Bangsa Malaysia and Muda.There are credible leaders here who cannot shine unless they become part of one strong force.It is ridiculous to say the Chinese have returned to MCA and the Indians to MIC. As an Indian, this is utter nonsense.No credible, honest Indian would ever support MIC. They just rode on BN’s waves and won.There is still hope for a better Malaysia, but what needs to be done now is for all the other parties to get together.Bersatu, PKR, Pakatan Harapan, Warisan, PBM, Muda, etc must all become one strong formidable force.Put all differences aside, sit down and reach common ground, right from the start.If Pejuang is part of the equation, it must be without Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Otherwise, the voters are going to reject the opposition again.Time for those like Mahathir and Anwar to take a back seat. If young, credible leaders step up and the opposition gets together, BN can easily be booted out again.And from the start, decide on a prime ministerial candidate, which could well even be a woman.The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of MalaysiaNow.


Delta doubles hospital risk compared to Alpha variant

The Delta variant of the virus that causes Covid-19 doubles the risk of hospitalisation compared to the Alpha variant it has supplanted as the dominant strain worldwide, researchers reported Saturday in The Lancet.Only 1.8% of the more than 43,000 Covid cases assessed in comparing the two variants were in patients who had been fully vaccinated.Three-quarters were completely unvaccinated, and 24% had only received one jab of a two-dose vaccine.“The results from this study therefore primarily tell us about the risk of hospital admission for those who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated,” said co-lead author Anne Presanis, a senior statistician at the University of Cambridge’s MRC Biostatistics Unit.Researchers analysed healthcare data from 43,338 Covid-19 cases in England from March 29 to May 23 of this year, including vaccination status, emergency care, hospital admission and other patient information.All virus samples underwent whole genome sequencing, the surest way to confirm which variant had caused the infection.Just under 80% of the cases were identified as the Alpha variant, and the rest were Delta.Around one in 50 patients were admitted to hospital within 14 days of their first positive Covid-19 test.After accounting for factors that are known to affect susceptibility to severe illness – including age, ethnicity, and vaccination status – the researchers found the risk of being admitted to hospital was more than doubled with the Delta variant.‘Excellent protection’Since these samples were taken, Delta has surged and now accounts for over 98% of new Covid-19 cases in Britain, the authors said.Multiple studies have shown that full vaccination prevents infection with symptoms and hospitalisation, for both Alpha and Delta variants.“We already know that vaccination offers excellent protection against Delta,” said Gavin Dabrera, another lead author and a consultant epidemiologist at the National Infection Service, Public Health England.“It is vital that those who have not received two doses of vaccine do so as soon as possible.”An earlier study from Scotland also reported a doubling in hospitalisation risk with Delta over Alpha, suggesting that Delta causes more severe disease.The Delta variant was first reported in India in December 2020 and early studies found it to be up to 50% more transmissible than the Alpha variant, which was first identified in England in September last year.Nearly 4.5 million deaths worldwide have been attributed to Covid-19, though the final tally is likely to be higher once “excess deaths” are calculated over the pandemic period.In some countries – and some states in the US – hospitalisation and death rates are the highest they have been since the first cases reported at the beginning of 2020.


15.1% of population now fully vaccinated

A total of 15,517,866 doses of Covid-19 vaccine had been administered in the country as of yesterday, says Health Minister Dr Adham Baba.In a Twitter post, he said the number included 446,052 doses administered yesterday, of which 282,980 were first doses and 163,072 were second doses.“The new development brings the latest number of individuals having completed both doses of vaccine to 4,932,981, which is 15.1% of the country’s population,” he said.Labuan remained the state with the highest percentage of adults who had completed the vaccination, at 68%, followed by Sarawak (49.4%), Perlis (36.5%), the Klang Valley (22.7%) and Negeri Sembilan (21.8%).


Rescue operation for Indian boy trapped in well for four days

Indian emergency workers were scrambling Tuesday to rescue a 10-year-old boy with hearing and speech impairments who has been trapped down a narrow well for four days.Rahul Sahu fell down the 80-feet (24 metres) waterhole on Friday while playing in the backyard of his house in the central state of Chhattisgarh.Earth movers and cranes are helping dig a tunnel next to the well, which is only a couple of feet wide, with army soldiers and members of India’s disaster response agency lending their assistance.But bad weather – and venomous snakes and scorpions unearthed by the dig – have hampered rescue efforts, local officials said.Sahu was “responding well” to rescuers and a camera is monitoring his condition and movements, Janjgir district police chief Vijay Agrawal told AFP by phone from the scene.“Since the boy cannot speak or listen, we have a bigger challenge,” he added.An oxygen pipe is feeding Sahu fresh air, but a government spokesman said the tunnelling effort had been slowed down by hard stone underneath the ground.Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said he was hopeful Sahu would be brought up from the well alive and tweeted that the boy had eaten a banana sent down to him by rescuers.Uncovered wells are a common feature of Indian farming villages but are frequently implicated in fatal accidents involving young children.In 2019, a two-year-old toddler was pulled out dead from a well after a four-day rescue effort in the northern state of Punjab.The same year a one-and-a-half-year-old child was rescued in neighbouring Haryana state after being trapped for two days.


Anwar says ready to face 'corrupt leaders' as criticism grows over moves to free Najib, Zahid

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim yesterday said he was ready to bear the consequences of fighting corrupt leaders, but stopped short of making specific references to recent development surrounding his deputy Ahmad Zahid Hamid and jailed former leader Najib Razak.
Anwar said he would not compromise in the fight against leaders who plunder the nation's wealth.
"That is my pledge, for better or worse, I will face it. If you want to bring me down because I fight corruption, by all means, but I am never going to compromise when it comes to cleaning up the country and saving the people from those who rob the nation," he was quoted as saying by Bernama at a breaking of fast event at his constituency in Tambun.
This comes as criticism grows over a fresh bid by Umno leaders to seek a royal pardon for Najib, who is serving time in jail over his SRC International corruption charges involving tens of millions of ringgit.
Meanwhile, the corruption trial of Zahid, the Umno president who was instrumental in committing his party's support to Anwar's bid for the top office last year, was postponed yesterday after government lawyers told the court they had been instructed not to challenge the application by the defence.
The court was also told that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) was "further investigating" new evidence as lawyers wrote to the attorney-general asking for the 47 charges against Zahid to be dropped.
This came days after the revelation that law minister Azalina Othman Said had updated Najib's lawyers on the status of MACC's investigation into judge Mohd Nazlan Ghazali, who convicted the former leader in 2020.
In the letter, Azalina confirmed to lead counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah that MACC had found Nazlan to be in conflict of interest when presiding over the case.
News of the revelation angered civil society activists and lawyers, who also criticised the attorney-general's silence.
"... The attorney-general is himself a former Federal Court judge and must surely appreciate the devastating effect of his silence upon the judiciary and the sanctity of the administration of justice," said a joint statement by lawyers.
Others also questioned Anwar's silence as his political allies attacked the judge.
"The judiciary, a vital national institution, one of the pillars of our democracy, is under attack and the prime minister remains a mute witness," former Malaysian ambassador Dennis Ignatius wrote in a commentary.
"Is there no moral outrage from the man who has made good governance his middle name? Is the prime minister okay with this conspiracy to defame judges and undermine the judiciary?"
Yesterday, an MP from Anwar's PKR warned that any move by the prime minister to back the applications by Najib and Zahid would have disastrous consequences for his administration at the upcoming state polls.
Anwar and the attorney-general are both part of the Pardons Board that will consider the application from Najib.
Analysts say Anwar's government, which needs Umno's support to remain in power, will be affected regardless of the outcome of the appeal.


Weaving the warrior spirit into a Gawai under Covid-19

In a longhouse in Sebauh, Sarawak, a group of women from the Iban community would sit in patches of soft sunlight, chatting over biscuits and cups of sweet tea in an airy wooden pavilion space known as the ruai.Each year, the ladies of Rumah Raymond Plen would be busy weaving material known as ngepan cloth used for traditional outfits normally worn by young women during the Gawai Dayak festival.This is an important part of the highlight of the celebration: the Kumang beauty contest, where every eligible young lady dresses up in the ngepan.Sudan Anak Ruma, who has woven ngepan cloth for 40 years, said this was the most eagerly awaited event of the longhouse.“On Gawai eve, all the single young ladies will wear the ngepan and everyone is excited to watch, and to cheer for those who participate in the beauty contest,” the 61-year-old told MalaysiaNow.Sudan Anak Ruma (right) and her daughter Diana Sujata Anak Bundi display the ngepan cloth and marik empang which they make at their home in Bintulu.The origins of ngepan cloth are natural resources such as rattan, tree bark, shells, animal skins and even anteater scales.“Even the thread for the costume was originally made from raw cotton,” Sudan said.While the difficulty of finding such materials these days has brought changes to the outfit, it still plays a huge role in making the celebration meaningful.Plus, it’s a chance for the young women to let down their hair and have a bit of fun.“The ladies love to dress up and wear ornaments,” Sudan added.But celebrations this year will be very different for Sudan and her family as they will not be able to return to their longhouse.A length of ngepan cloth being woven on a simple hand loom.Covid-19 health SOPs mean no travelling for Sudan, who is staying with her daughter Diana Sujata Anak Bundi in Bintulu city, about 100km away from the longhouse.“No ngabang, no family gatherings,” Sudan said, using the Iban word for visiting. “This year, we will be having a simple and moderate Gawai.”As celebrations are not allowed, they will also tone down the preparations that normally precede the festival, buying only essential items.For weeks, Sarawak was the only state to remain under conditional movement control order (CMCO). But the continued increase in cases saw the stricter MCO reinstated on May 29.Last year, when the pandemic was first detected, most of the cases were reported in urban areas. This year, though, the virus has been spreading throughout rural areas as well.Poor compliance with SOPs has seen 714 longhouses placed under enhanced MCO this year, with 98 still under lockdown.At their longhouse in Sebauh, the village security and development committee (JKKK) of Rumah Raymond Plen has stepped up measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19 throughout Gawai. Among others, celebrations can only be held among members of the same household or longhouse “room”.Rumah Raymond Plen in the rural area of Sebauh in Bintulu, Sarawak.JKKK chief Raymend Anak Plen told MalaysiaNow the committee had cordoned off the walkway of the ruai to prevent villagers from crossing next door.He has also instructed those living in the 53-door longhouse to stay at home and not to go out unless they have to.“We are very serious about this because we don’t want this virus to spread and affect our people in the longhouse,” he said, adding that there are more than 100 people living in the longhouse.There will also be no gathering in common areas and no organising of events such as cock-fighting.Fines will be imposed on offenders according to an Iban custom known as adat geliga.“When Ibans organise functions such as Gawai, or weddings or funerals, a fine is imposed on those who breach the rules.“I would say it is a ‘movement control order’ Iban longhouse-style,” he added.These communal verandahs at longhouses in Sarawak would normally be bustling with people and activity but now lie quiet under health SOPs.Back in the city, Sudan and Diana will do their best to celebrate between themselves by decorating their home, wearing traditional clothing, and cooking traditional food – ayam pansuh, or chicken cooked in bamboo, is an especial favourite.“Even though we are not able to return to our longhouse for Gawai, we are still excited and will continue to produce the ngepan cloth and marik empang for our customers,” Sudan said, referring to a separate decorative piece fitted with colourful beads and attached to the shoulder of the outfit.“I hope those who wear our ngepan cloth will have the warrior spirit to fight against the virus,” she said. “We hope the vaccination can be rolled out as soon as possible.”


Back street car mechanics just scraping by as drivers take the high road

Until recently, traditional, oily rag-type mechanics were the only option most motorists had for a quick repair of their broken-down vehicle or to fix a punctured tyre.But in these days of computerised engines, authorised service centres have become the go-to option for automobile repair services.Back street car mechanics have always been some of the hardest working people in the 3D job sector: dirty, dangerous, and difficult. They worked 12-hour days and six or seven-day weeks and made a good living.These days, however, many often face empty workshops as they rely on an ever-dwindling band of loyal customers.Ah Tick has been in the business for more than 20 years and tells MalaysiaNow he can barely eke out a living nowadays as his workshop sees fewer and fewer customers each year.“These days we only make enough to keep the business ticking over. We don’t take a monthly salary, just a day’s pay when we can.”His workshop services both cars and lorries, but the number of cars he sees has steadily declined.“We mostly repair lorries now because the owners can’t afford authorised service centres. We don’t get as many cars as before,” he says, adding that as a result income has dropped drastically from previous years.Ah Tick says that many people, both young and old alike, no longer want to use traditional workshops.“The educated ones don’t come here because they see our workshops aren’t clean, and there’s no air-con or WiFi.“They prefer a comfy environment to sit and relax in and play with their phones, so they choose to visit the authorised service centres,” he says with a shrug.For the time being, Ah Tick says, his business still runs with the help of older, regular customers who have been visiting his shop for years.Auto mechanic and business owner, David from Shah Alam specialises in servicing street racers.He tells MalaysiaNow business is quite unpredictable. Sometimes he has plenty of customers and other times the shop’s empty.Having been in the business for 11 years, David says the real problem for him is not so much to do with customer numbers but rather finding workers who are willing to stay in the job.“It’s difficult to keep staff who are willing to work hard because many young people nowadays want to work with little physical effort. We can’t criticise them much when they’re working otherwise the next day they won’t come to work,” he says.He remembers how when he was learning the trade, bosses would throw a spanner if junior mechanics made mistakes while working.David says car owners no longer visit traditional workshops as much unless they get a recommendation from a friend or a family member.“Then they come back for regular follow-ups if they are satisfied with the service we offer them,” he says.Many people tend to think that traditional workshops are chop shops or the mechanics are not so honest, if they’ve had a bad experience with one or heard stories of mechanics charging through the roof.But David dismisses the claim, saying such incidents largely depend on the person who’s repairing the vehicle and shouldn’t be applied to all mechanics.“It really depends on the person but definitely not all service centres are like that. We charge our customers reasonably.”However, he tells MalaysiaNow that people always want the best service for a cheap price, which is not always possible to get.


Malaysia must get EU green light before Pfizer vaccines can be shipped

Malaysia must get authorisation from the European Union before it can get any of the Covid-19 vaccines scheduled for delivery by end-March, the EU’s top envoy to Malaysia said today, following new export controls on vaccines produced in the bloc to address a supply shortage in member states.Michalis Rokas, ambassador of the EU delegation to Malaysia, said only vaccines purchased under the Covax scheme, which Malaysia is a part of, are exempt from the export curbs.“Only vaccines purchased outside the Covax scheme from producers in the European Union for delivery before the end of March 2021 require an export authorisation,” he said in a statement.This means the Pfizer vaccines ordered by Malaysia will need the EU’s green light before they can be delivered.Malaysia is supposed to get the Pfizer vaccines, its first batch for the government’s massive Covid-19 inoculation drive, by end of this month.“This is not an export ban, but a mechanism to have transparency over where vaccines made by companies with whom the EU has signed a contract are going,” the EU statement added.It assured transparency in the authorisation process, adding that it would be “conducted in a speedy manner to avoid unnecessary delays”.“In particular, exports to third countries, including Malaysia, under existing Advance Purchase Agreements (APAs), will be safeguarded to the largest extent feasible.“The EU is mindful of Advanced Purchase Authorisations contracted by Malaysia, and will endeavour to ensure that Malaysia’s expectations to obtain its deliveries will be met,” Rokas added.The EU’s measures will see its 27 member states prioritised for the vaccines, on the back of criticism over its slow pace of vaccination.The EU blamed this on delivery shortfalls from UK-Swedish drug-maker AstraZeneca which, in turn, blamed it on production glitches at plants in the Netherlands and Belgium.Malaysia is among 190 economies which have signed the Covax agreement, which is supported among others by The Vaccine Alliance (Gavi) and the World Health Organization (WHO).The EU previously said that the export restriction to Covax partners would not apply to 92 low and middle-income economies, a category Malaysia is not part of.Besides Pfizer, Malaysia has also ordered vaccines from AstraZeneca.The 19.2 million doses from the two vaccines are expected to cover 30% of the population.They are among five vaccine producers from which Malaysia has sourced at a total price of over RM2 billion, enough to inoculate more than 80% of the population and achieve herd immunity.Three other vaccine producers are Sinovac and CanSino (China) and Gamaleya (Russia), totalling 23.9 million doses under various regiments.


Bosses with under 5 workers exempted from minimum wage rule until year-end

Employers with fewer than five workers are exempted from implementing the Minimum Wage Order (PGM) 2022 until the end of the year, says Deputy Human Resources Minister Awang Hashim.However, he said employers involved in professional fields such as lawyers and doctors would still have to follow the stipulated minimum salary of RM1,500 for each employee, regardless of how many workers they have.“Employers in any economic sector are not exempted from the implementation of the PGM which came into effect on May 1. But for other employers (with fewer than five workers), they have been given a deferment until Dec 31 this year.“This relaxation is to give them some room to make the appropriate preparations regarding the payment of salaries that has been finalised by the government,” he told reporters after an event in Alor Setar yesterday.On April 27, the government gazetted the implementation of the minimum wage of RM1,500, which came into effect on May 1, for employers who employ five or more employees as well as employers who carry out professional activities classified under the Malaysia Standard Classification of Occupations 2020.


Singer Yasin escapes death penalty after drug trafficking charge withdrawn

Nasyid singer and composer Muhammad Yasin Sulaiman today escaped a drug trafficking charge which carries the death penalty or life imprisonment after the prosecution made a withdrawal.
Selangor prosecution director Khairul Azreem Mamat informed magistrate Muhammad Iskandar Zainol that the prosecution had applied for Yasin, 47, to be given a discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA), and that he would be slapped with two new charges.
Lawyers Ariff Azami Hussein, Mohd Yusmadi Mohd Yusoff and Azizul Syariman Mat Yusoff who represented Yasin did not object to the application.
Iskandar then granted the DNAA to the accused.
Yasin was previously charged with trafficking about 214g of cannabis at his residence at Persiaran Surian Damansara Indah Resort Home, PJU 3, Kota Damansara at 5.30pm, on March 24.
Today, he pleaded not guilty to the new charges.
He was charged with ingesting the drug "11-nor-delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid" at the narcotics office of the Petaling Jaya district headquarters at 11.05pm on March 24.
The "Mimpi Laila" singer was charged under Section 15 (1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act, punishable under Section 15 (1) of the same act, which carries a fine not exceeding RM5,000 or a maximum jail term of two years.
Before Sessions Court judge Jamaludin Mat, Yasin pleaded not guilty to another new charge of possessing cannabis weighing 193.7g.
He was charged with committing the act at his residence at 5.30pm on March 24, under Section 6 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, punishable under Section 39A (2) of the same act, which provides for life imprisonment or not less than five years, with no less than 10 strokes of the cane. Earlier in the same court, Yasin pleaded not guilty to the charge of cultivating 17 cannabis plants at his residence on the same date and time.
The charge was framed under Section 6B (1) (a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act, punishable under Section 6B (3) of the same act, which provides for life imprisonment and no less than six whippings, upon conviction.
Yasin’s bail application for the three charges will be heard on Aug 22.
When met outside the court, the singer said he was relieved after the drug trafficking charge which provided for the death penalty had been withdrawn.
"Alhamdulillah, I am following the legal process and provisions, and I am very grateful. I thank my friends and family for their support, they are my main source of strength," he said.