Time for Mavcom to have its own enforcement unit?

The time has come for the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) to consider establishing an enforcement unit that can take direct action against airlines, former Mavcom Aviation Development director Germal Singh Khera says.
In an interview with MalaysiaNow, Germal said such a unit would be highly relevant considering the global trend of issues related to refunds and flight cancellations as airlines across the world struggle to regain their footing after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Lacking an enforcement unit, he said, Mavcom had only the authority to investigate and would have to go through the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) if it wished to take action over an airline's misconduct.
"When Mavcom was officially established in March 2016, discussions were held on whether the agency would need an enforcement unit," he said.
"It can be done, but there are many issues to be studied beforehand to prevent conflict with the enforcement by other authorities."
MalaysiaNow previously reported a series of complaints submitted by passengers whose flights were delayed or cancelled by airlines despite the reopening of borders and easing of pandemic restrictions.
In the US, several lawmakers had suggested that airlines be barred from offering flights if they do not have enough staff or cancel flights shortly before departure time.
In Malaysia, Tuaran MP Wilfred Madius Tangau said the issue should be brought to Parliament, to be answered by Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong.
MalaysiaNow has also received a flood of complaints about refunds from AirAsia and AirAsia X passengers, some of whom have been trying for more than two years to get back their money.
For many, their dissatisfaction is compounded by the fact that they can only communicate with the airline through its AVA chatline.
'Toothless'
But Germal, who was once senior vice-president of international affairs for Malaysia Airlines and head of regulatory and airport relations for AirAsia, disagrees with those who describe Mavcom as "toothless".
For him, the issue must be viewed comprehensively.
He said complaints about refunds and flight delays were not unique to Malaysia but were happening throughout the world.
He is also confident that Mavcom is even now discussing the same problems.
"As a regulatory agency, Mavcom cannot act solely on passenger complaints," he said.
"It has to get a response from the airlines before coming to a fair conclusion."
He also recalled how Mavcom, in 2016 and 2017, had acted against several airlines found to have committed offences.
On June 13, 2016, it revoked the air service licence of Rayani Air after finding that the airline had violated the terms of the licence and lacked the financial and managerial capacity to continue its operations as such.
On Dec 20 of that year, it also cancelled the air service permit (ASP) of Eagleexpress Air Charter Sdn Bhd for failing to comply with the stipulated conditions.
On Jan 9, 2017, meanwhile, Suasa Airlines Sdn Bhd was fined RM380,000 after pleading guilty at the Sepang Sessions Court to operating without an ASP.
Commenting on the refunds sought by AirAsia and AirAsia X passengers, however, Germal said the airline's actions were "unethical".
He said every airline should have a unit to manage passenger complaints in detail instead of giving blanket solutions such as offering refunds in the form of credit or vouchers when passengers had paid in cash.
"Forcing passengers to accept vouchers even though they paid in cash is unethical," he said.
"But they have gone through a debt restructuring process and obtained permission from the court, so everyone including Mavcom can only agree."
On passenger rights, Germal said these had been clearly laid out by Mavcom and were mandatory for all airlines operating in the country.
"It's not just a guideline," he said. "It must be followed."
Nevertheless, he acknowledged weaknesses in that Mavcom, at the time of its establishment, lacked the strength to strictly enforce the rules due to a number of factors.
Because of this, he said, airlines might take advantage to do away with compliance.
"Before Mavcom came about, airlines had their own policies on refunds, flight delays and cancellations," he said.
"All that changed when Mavcom set out the definitions for each of these issues.
"The question is how Mavcom will ensure that airlines adhere to these rules, to protect the rights of passengers."
When Mavcom began its role as a regulatory body, he said, it did not want to exert too much control over airlines.
He said it would gradually scrutinise the conditions and regulations introduced and see how they would be put into practice by airlines operating in the country.
"It's been seven years since it was established," he said. "Now it has more experience.
"Perhaps the time has come to relook the suggestion for an enforcement unit."
But he cautioned that such a unit would not mean that Mavcom could do as it pleased.
"It would depend on the scope of the offence," he said.
"If the case is too big, it will need to go through the AGC."


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Penang scraps plan to buy vaccine after Putrajaya assures of supply

Penang has abandoned its plans to procure its own Covid-19 vaccines as supply is no longer an issue, with the state government aiming to ramp up the daily vaccination rate to between 25,000 and 30,000 by July.Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said the federal government had made it clear that supply is not an issue anymore and had allocated an additional half a million doses of vaccine for the state.“Therefore, the next task for the state is to ensure that we have enough manpower as well as to add more vaccine delivery centres (PPVs) to achieve the goal. We need to sort out these two factors and manage the resources well.“The best case scenario is finishing this by August or September this year, but the worst case is by October,” he said at a press conference after visiting the Spice Arena PPV for AstraZeneca vaccine today.He said in Penang, there are six private hospital vaccination centres which aim to administer 50 to 200 doses each daily and 13 general practitioner vaccination centres which can administer up to 90 doses each weekly.On the Spice Arena PPV operations, which run from today until July 27, Chow said 112,350 Penangites had registered for the opt-in AstraZeneca vaccine, with 31,928 aged above 60 and the remaining 80,422 aged 18 to 59.Spice Arena PPV, which will operate from 8am to 9pm on Mondays to Fridays and 8am to 5pm on Saturdays and Sundays, will administer 1,000 shots a day for the first three days and increase this to 3,000 a day on weekdays and 2,000 on weekends.


Central European countries condemn Russian attack on Ukraine, prepare for refugees

Central European countries condemned Russia’s attack on Ukraine on Thursday with Poland calling for the “fiercest possible sanctions” against Russia and the Czech foreign minister calling it a “barbaric act of aggression”.The countries on the European Union’s eastern flank, all Nato allies sharing borders with Ukraine except for the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, have also started preparations to receive potentially hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Ukraine.“We must immediately respond to Russia’s criminal aggression on Ukraine. Europe and the free world has to stop Putin. Today’s European Council should approve fiercest possible sanctions,” Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki said.The Polish government said it expects a decision on reinforcing Nato’s eastern flank after Russian forces invaded Ukraine, a government spokesman added.Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on Twitter that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was an “absolutely unjustifiable act of aggression toward and independent country, which cannot remain without reaction from EU and Nato.”Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky added, also on Twitter: “Together with Allies, we will respond to this barbaric act of aggression.”European Union leaders will discuss a further sanctions package on Russia at an emergency meeting later on Thursday, the EU said in a statement.By early Thursday, Hungary had not yet explicitly condemned the attack, but its foreign minister said war was “the worst-case scenario.” He reiterated that Hungary fully supported Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.“The task now… is to guarantee the security of Hungarian people,” Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on his official Facebook page. “Our embassy in Kyiv is operating, and ready to help Hungarians who are in the Ukraine right now.”Romanian President Klaus Iohannis also condemned the Russia attack calling it a “very grave breach of international law, of Ukraine’s sovereignty and integrity.”“I strongly condemn Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine. This act undermines the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine and constitutes a grave breach of international law,” Bulgarian Foreign Minister Teodora Genchovska said on Twitter.


Zahid can take oath but I told the truth, says Muhyiddin

Former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin today maintained that he had spoken the truth about Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi approaching him in a bid to have his corruption charges dropped, following the latter’s assertion that he had never done so and was ready to swear on the matter.Speaking to reporters after a press conference, he said it was up to Zahid to take an oath or not.“For me, what I said was the truth,” he said. “If he wants to swear on it, however many oaths he wishes to take, let him take.“I will not take any oath because I have never lied about it. What I said was the truth.”Zahid previously denied approaching Muhyiddin in a meeting first reported by MalaysiaNow in March last year.MalaysiaNow reported that the former deputy prime minister had met with Muhyiddin just days after the latter’s appointment to the top office in 2020, hoping to convince him to intervene in order to have the charges against him dropped.Muhyiddin himself disclosed details in January backing his claim of attempts convince him to interfere in the judicial process in order to help Umno politicians facing corruption charges.But Zahid claimed that he had never asked Muhyiddin for help, saying he was ready to take an oath or “sumpah laknat” on the matter.Speaking today, Muhyiddin said he had proof and witnesses to back his claim.“What I said was the truth, not something that was concocted to be politicised or to force an election,” he said.“Whatever the situation is, we will speak the truth and hope that the people understand what I explained.”


Ex-minister pardoned for 1982 murder dies

Mokhtar Hashim, a former minister who was famously sentenced to death for murder in 1983 before getting a royal pardon, died early this morning at the age of 78.Mokhtar, who was the culture, youth and sports minister in Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s Cabinet, was convicted of the murder of Mohamad Taha, the then-speaker of Negeri Sembilan.Taha was gunned down on April 14, 1982, in Gemencheh, Negeri Sembilan, just a week before the general election.Mokhtar was at that time the incumbent MP for Tampin, and retained the seat in the polls. Less than three months later, he was arrested. He was replaced as the culture, youth and sports minister by Anwar Ibrahim.Taha’s murder was said to be linked to internal political rivalry in Umno between him and Mokhtar.Mokhtar’s death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and in 1991, he was released from prison following a royal pardon by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.A 1983 newspaper report on the trial of Mokhtar Hashim.


BN MPs shoot down Najib’s proposal to work with Anwar, DAP

A meeting of MPs from Barisan Nasional (BN) today saw a heated debate over a proposal by its adviser Najib Razak that the coalition work with PKR’s Anwar Ibrahim and DAP.MalaysiaNow can confirm, based on information from a high-level source in Umno, that the former prime minister’s proposal triggered a round of criticism from MPs.“There was however at least one Umno MP who stood by Najib despite the protests from those present,” the source said.The meeting was held at the Umno headquarters in Kuala Lumpur ahead of a follow-up meeting to be convened by the Umno Supreme Council tonight, where the party is expected to state its stand on whether to remain in the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government.The discussion by BN MPs today centred around their support for the PN government headed by Muhyiddin Yassin, a day after the Agong decided there was no need for a state of emergency as proposed by the prime minister.Muhyiddin had made the proposal in the hope of preventing snap polls during the Covid-19 pandemic, following appeals from senior health officials to prevent a general election infection cluster.Even stronger protests were raised after Najib called for Muhyiddin to vacate the top seat based on “moral and legal” grounds.There have been fears that any move by a group of MPs to reject the budget bill next month could see the collapse of Muhyiddin’s government and trigger an election.The Agong’s decision yesterday is seen by Muhyiddin’s detractors as a setback, with calls from the opposition Pakatan Harapan as well as a small faction within Umno for him to step down.Among those in the anti-Muhyiddin faction in Umno is Najib, who together with Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, had expressed support for Anwar to become the prime minister.On Oct 16, MalaysiaNow revealed that the duo had written a letter to the Agong, just before the PKR leader’s royal audience on Oct 13.Najib’s moral argumentBut Najib’s proposal at the BN meeting today that the bloc work together with Anwar to replace Muhyiddin drew strong protests.“Among those vocal in protesting Najib’s proposal was Noh Omar,” the same source told MalaysiaNow, referring to the Tanjong Karang MP.“He also questioned Najib for turning back on Umno’s principle of not working with DAP,” it added.Even stronger protests were raised after Najib called for Muhyiddin to vacate the top seat based on “moral and legal” grounds.Najib had cited, among others, his failure to gain the rulers’ consent to declare a state of emergency.“A senior minister then threw back the moral argument, saying Anwar too has issues following his failure to show proof of his claim to having majority support.”Following the BN meeting today, Najib told reporters that any decision by Umno tonight would only be made en bloc.Editor’s note: In an earlier version of our report, our source mistakenly stated that Padang Rengas MP Nazri Aziz was present at the BN meeting. We have since verified that he was not. The mistake is regretted, and we apologise. However, we stand by the rest of our report.


Najib’s bid to stay US$8 billion suit by 1MDB to be heard next year

Najib Razak’s application for a stay of proceedings in the US$8 billion civil suit filed by 1MDB against him and several others will be heard on Feb 11 next year.1MDB’s lawyer Siva Kumar Kanagasabai said the former prime minister applied for a stay of proceedings at the Kuala Lumpur High Court yesterday.He said this to Bernama after the online case management before judicial commissioner Atan Mustaffa Yussof AhmadIn today’s proceedings, the court also granted 1MDB’s application to serve papers on Terrence Geh Choh Heng (former finance director of 1MDB), Jasmine Loo Ai Swan (former general counsel of 1MDB), Casey Tang Keng Chee (1MDB’s former executive director) and Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil (former CEO of SRC International Sdn Bhd) by way of substituted service in the US$8 billion suit.Substituted service is a court-sanctioned alternative way of service after attempts at personal service are unsuccessful.The counsel said 1MDB’s former director of investments and chief investment officer Vincent Beng Huat Koh had also filed his statement of defence and informed the court that he would file an application for striking out the suit.“He was given three weeks to do so. 1MDB has one month to file a reply to his defence,” he said, adding that the court had set Dec 1 for further case management.The US$8 billion suit is one of 22 civil suits filed to claim over US$23 billion on behalf of 1MDB and its former subsidiary SRC International against several individuals allegedly involved in the financial scandal.Named as defendants in this suit are Najib, Terence Geh, Jasmine Loo, Casey Tang, Vincent Beng, and subsequently chief operating officer Radhi Mohamad, former director of investments Kelvin Tan Kay Jim and Nik Faisal.


Factionalism splits Suhakam as campaign to oust chairman gains pace

Internal bickering is threatening to split the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam), as a faction within the rights body steps up its campaign to oust the chairman, close to a year after his appointment by the previous administration of Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
MalaysiaNow understands that Rahmat Mohamad is fighting allegations after disappointment by several Suhakam members opposed to him that their candidate of choice was not selected for the post of managing a project backed by a lucrative European Union grant.
The development came days after a DAP MP criticised Suhakam for being "more quiet" than it used to be.
"In the past, we always saw commissioners going to the field for various activities, such as to monitor the Bersih rallies, holding open hearings for victims who complained of power abuse by enforcement officers and so on.
"But today, we rarely read Suhakam's statements and activities, and most of us do not know Suhakam's commissioners," Seputeh MP Teresa Kok told the Dewan Rakyat this week when debating Suhakam's annual report.
MalaysiaNow also understands that just last month, a petition carrying 20 names was sent to Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Azalina Said Othman, calling for Rahmat to be replaced.
"There is clearly a campaign to oust Rahmat, and it has been gathering steam after the change of government," a source familiar with the issue told MalaysiaNow.
Appointment of female officer for EU project
The issue centres on the appointment of a female officer to oversee a project that had received a RM2.5 million grant from the EU.
It is understood that the ethnic Malay woman previously served as an assistant secretary in the commission, but resigned last year citing instances of bullying and harassment from a senior Suhakam officer.
"When the vacancy to handle the EU project was advertised, she was among those who applied for the job," the source said.
A four-member interview panel shortlisted her and another candidate, an ethnic Indian man, for the job.
"But the panel was equally split, with two of them favouring the man and the other two favouring the woman. As such, a meeting attended by Suhakam officers and commissioners proposed that Rahmat, being the chairman, make the call and break the impasse," the source added.
It was said that Rahmat was more keen on the female candidate for the job, although there was no official appointment.
This was because one of those who attended the meeting, who is also part of the interview panel, opposed the idea of allowing Rahmat to make the call, insisting that the other candidate be given the job.
A complaint was subsequently made against Rahmat, with Suhakam's internal Complaint and Monitoring Group accusing him of power abuse and racial bias, among others.
In a bid to clear his name, Rahmat filed a defamation suit against Suhakam deputy secretary Shahizad Sulaiman, whom he said was behind the allegations.
Shahizad is represented by former Bersih chairman Ambiga Sreenevasan.
Rahmat came under attack by a faction in Suhakam from the start of his appointment to chair the commission in March last year.
His critics often cited his role in opposing Malaysia's ratification of the Rome Statute, a treaty that established the Netherlands-based International Criminal Court (ICC).
In 2019, Putrajaya under the then Pakatan Harapan government led by Dr Mahathir Mohamad was forced to withdraw Malaysia's ratification of the treaty following protest from the Malay rulers, who voiced concern over the jurisdiction of ICC over Malaysia's sovereignty including constitutional provisions on Malay privileges and Malay rulers.
Rahmat was involved in drafting a paper to advise the Malay rulers on the problems with Malaysia being part of the statute, whose signatories do not include countries like China, India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, while others such as the US, Egypt, Iran and Russia signed the treaty without ratifying it.


Not our role to be happy over someone's grief, says Sri Ram on Rosmah's conviction

The lead prosecutor in Rosmah Mansor's corruption case today credited his team of deputy public prosecutors for acting professionally throughout the trial which lasted nearly four years, adding that the question of whether they were elated over her guilty verdict did not arise.
"We are not happy or unhappy about anything. We just do our job and we get on to the next case," Gopal Sri Ram told reporters shortly after the High Court sentenced Rosmah to 10 years in jail after finding her guilty of three counts of corruption involving a solar hybrid project.
"It is not our role to be happy about someone else's grief," said Sri Ram, who was also appointed to lead the prosecution of Rosmah's husband, former prime minister Najib Razak.
He said the judge had exercised balance in sentencing Rosmah to 10 years' imprisonment and fining her RM970 million.
"Sentencing is never easy. As a former judge, I can tell you that sentencing is never easy. It is one of the most difficult parts of judicial life. One has to throw so many things into the balance.
"The judge probably thought 10 years was fair, and we do not propose to appeal against any inadequacy of sentence unless the attorney-general thinks otherwise," added Sri Ram, a former Federal Court judge with more than 800 judgments that became Commonwealth legal references.
Rosmah, 70, whose husband Najib started serving a 12-year jail sentence last month, was charged with soliciting RM187.5 million as well as receiving bribes totalling RM6.5 million from Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd in return for helping the company secure a RM1.25 billion project in rural Sarawak.
The bribes were allegedly received through her former aide, Rizal Mansor.
Speaking today, Sri Ram also responded to the decision to turn Rizal into a prosecution witness, saying such discretion for prosecutors was normal to ensure a conviction.
"Sometimes it is necessary for the public prosecutor to weigh in a balance, who has committed the crime and whose evidence is necessary to bring home the charge.
"If you have, for example, a gang of robbers, and three robbers are being charged but the fourth is giving evidence against them, there's nothing unusual about it."
Sri Ram said the team of prosecutors and investigators involved in the case had acted professionally.
"I couldn't have done my job if I had not received the strong support that they provided me.
"The victors of today are my DPPs and my investigating officers.
"My DPPs performed 100%. I might have been slacking, but not them," he added.


Pakistan's embattled Imran Khan faces blackout on local media

Coverage of Pakistan's former prime minister Imran Khan has disappeared from all mainstream news channels in the country after the media regulator asked networks to block out people involved in rioting last month, a Reuters survey showed on Monday.
A directive, seen by Reuters, was put out by the regulator last week referring to violent protests in Pakistan last month following Khan's brief arrest that saw military installations ransacked, allegedly by the former prime minister's supporters.
The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) asked television licensees to ensure that "hate mongers, rioters, their facilitators and perpetrators" are "completely screened out from media". It did not refer directly to Khan.
However, coverage of the former prime minister - Pakistan's most popular leader according to polls - has disappeared to the extent that his name and image are not being aired. His mention has also disappeared from news websites.
PEMRA officials did not respond to multiple requests for comment and queries on whether the directives pertained to Khan, and if the directive was meant to be an all-encompassing ban.
Khan has long been the most televised politician in Pakistan, with his speeches and gatherings getting wall-to-wall coverage and widespread viewership.
'Blanket ban'
The ban comes amidst a wider crackdown on Khan and his party that has seen dozens of his party members and thousands of his supporters arrested, which, he says, is being done by the country's powerful military.
The military has not responded to a request for comment on that allegation by Khan. It has previously denied orchestrating his removal his removal from power in a parliamentary vote last year.
Khan himself was arrested on charges of graft but released two days later after courts deemed the manner of his detention illegal. He remains out on bail, but faces dozens of cases.
In an interview, Khan said that the incidents of violence was used as a "pretext" to for a "blanket ban" on him and his party.
"We cannot be mentioned on television," said Khan, who now regularly speaks through his party's YouTube channel.
Senior officials of four major news channels did not respond to request for comment.
Even ARY News, considered a pro-Khan channel by the former prime minister's political opponents, had no mention of Khan on Monday, despite his standoff with the military dominating headlines globally for weeks.
"The reports of blocking all news related to Imran Khan is the latest in a series of disturbing steps that authorities have taken to crack down on the opposition," Dinushika Dissanayake, Deputy Director South Asia at Amnesty International, said in a statement.


Western social media giants increasingly forced to censor Vietnam posts, says Amnesty report

Facebook and Google are obeying the Vietnamese government in censoring criticism and repressing dissent, says human rights group Amnesty International.Vietnamese authorities have a reputation for restricting freedom of speech and in recent years several bloggers have been jailed for publishing articles critical of the Communist state.“In the last decade, freedom of expression flourished on Facebook and YouTube in Vietnam. More recently, however, authorities began focusing on peaceful online expression as an existential threat to the regime,” said Ming Yu Hah, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for campaigns.“Today these platforms have become hunting grounds for censors, military cyber-troops and state-sponsored trolls harassing human rights activists. The platforms themselves are increasingly complicit.”Amnesty’s report is based on interviews with human rights activists, including former prisoners of conscience and their lawyers. The activists claim that their content posted on Facebook and YouTube is being increasingly blocked in Vietnam.Journalist Truong Chau Huu Danh posted on Facebook about an alleged corruption scandal in Vietnam, but was later notified by the platform that his posts had been restricted in Vietnam due to “local legal restrictions”. He was not given any way to contest this, he said.Facebook announced in April it would “significantly increase” compliance with Vietnamese government requests to take down content. Since then, the number of times the social media platform has restricted content in Vietnam has increased by nearly 1,000%.Google, which owns YouTube, removed over 3,000 YouTube videos critical of the government in response to requests from authorities.In 2018, Facebook’s revenue from Vietnam was nearly $1bn, almost one third of its total Southeast Asian revenue, says Amnesty. Google is said to have earned nearly half a billion dollars during the same period, primarily from YouTube advertising.Vietnam has never banned social media companies, but in April this year, two sources at Facebook told Reuters that their local servers were taken offline until they agreed to significantly increase censorship of “anti-state” posts by local users.A Facebook spokesperson told the BBC, “Over the past few months, we’ve faced additional pressure from the government of Vietnam to restrict more content, however, we will do everything we can to ensure that our services remain available so people can continue to express themselves.”Google said in a statement to Amnesty that it took the “least restrictive approach to removal by blocking content in the relevant jurisdiction, while still making it available in other jurisdictions globally”.


New infections pass 1,800 as 3 more deaths logged

Another 1,887 Covid-19 cases were recorded yesterday, taking total confirmed infections in the country to 4,520,852.There were 1,399 recoveries, taking total recoveries to 4,463,070.There are now 22,074 active cases, of which 21,074 or 95.5% are undergoing home quarantine.Meanwhile, 21 (0.1%) are at quarantine centres while 954 (4.3%) have been hospitalised.A total of 25 are in ICU with 17 in need of respiratory assistance. ICU utilisation throughout the country stands at 59.3%, with Covid ICU utilisation at 5.5%.Another three deaths were reported, including two who were brought in dead. Total deaths now stand at 35,708.


Dangerous to generalise, analyst says on voters' education, income level remarks

An analyst has described recent remarks by Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail on the income and education level of opposition voters as a foolish move, although they might not have an impact on the crucial elections to be held in six states this year.
Saifuddin, the chief secretary of Pakatan Harapan (PH), had said that the youth who voted for Perikatan Nasional (PN) at last year's general election lacked higher education and a steady income.
Citing a study conducted by PH after the Nov 19, 2022 polls, he also said that those with higher education and income levels were more likely to vote for the coalition.
Jeniri Amir, a senior fellow at the National Professors Council, said Malaysia practises a democratic system in which each voter has the right to support the party of his or her choice.
He also described Saifuddin's comments as a generalisation.
"Does this mean that only clever, smart or sane people support a particular party?" he said.
Jeniri added that the same principle applied even if Saifuddin had been referring to voters in rural areas.
Speaking to MalaysiaNow, he said it was not necessarily the case that those who live in rural areas are more ignorant than those who live in urban centres.
"That would be akin to an insult," he added.
The 15th general election saw an unexpected surge of support for PN, which won a total of 74 seats, the lion's share of which went to PAS.
It made a clean sweep in Kelantan, Terengganu and Perlis, and obtained the most seats in Kedah and Pahang which were previously seen as Barisan Nasional strongholds.
Jeniri said Saifuddin's remarks might receive a backlash from some, but that voters would take into account a wide range of factors before deciding who to support.
"Such statements might not be enough to affect their decisions," he said.
"We cannot necessarily say that these remarks will affect the voting pattern at the polls."


2 injured, 2 missing in rockfall at Simpang Pulai quarry

Two men were injured and another two reported missing in a quarry rockfall incident in the Tambun area, Simpang Pulai, this morning.The Perak Fire and Rescue Department (JBPM) in a statement said they received a distress call at about 9.40am and that a team from the Simpang Pulai JBPM was deployed to the scene.“When the team arrived at the location, the quarry manager said four people including two Orang Asli were involved in the rockfall.“According to an early report by the operations commander, two victims managed to escape (with injuries). However, another two victims are suspected to be buried in the rumble,” it said.It said the Special Tactical Operation and Rescue Team of Malaysia has been asked to assist in the search for the missing victims, while the rescue operation is ongoing.The Department of Mineral and Geoscience Malaysia meanwhile is conducting a risk assessment at the site.


Govt to ensure zero repeat of incidents like LRT crash, says PM

The government will be responsible for ensuring that incidents such as the LRT train collision do not happen again, says Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.Speaking to Bernama, he said the government took a serious view of the incident involving two LRT trains which collided on Monday and would ensure that a thorough investigation is carried out to uncover the cause of the accident.“The issue of the collision has already reached the level of the special task force that was formed to investigate the cause and effect of how it could have happened.“For more than 20 years, we never heard of an LRT collision, but because it has happened we feel sad and we want to investigate. In a short time, we should know what happened,” he said after visiting the accident victims and their families at Hospital Kuala Lumpur today.In the 8.45pm incident, 47 passengers were seriously injured while 166 suffered minor injuries when a train carrying passengers and a faulty train that was being test-driven collided in a tunnel between the Kampung Baru and KLCC stations.Muhyiddin said he had directed Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong to immediately restore LRT services, especially at the accident area, and to ride on the LRT himself to ensure its safety.“If everything is settled and there is no more danger, he (Wee) said that in the next few days it (the LRT services) will be back in operation,” he said, urging the public to be patient if they face difficulties using the LRT services in the wake of the accident.The prime minister said three victims are still being treated in the ICU while two more are being monitored in a normal ward.He said the doctors’ reports showed that all victims were stable, with those in the normal ward set to be discharged soon.“Those in the ICU will take a little more time to recover and to be discharged. I pray that all of them will recover soon and return to their families as well as be able to continue with their duties and responsibilities,” he said.Earlier, he visited the crash victims before meeting the family members of the two victims in the ICU. He also received a briefing from Hospital Kuala Lumpur director Dr Heric Corray and Health Minister Dr Adham Baba.Muhyiddin, who spent about six minutes speaking to the families of the victims, expressed his sadness and gave them words of encouragement.“The doctors are always there and will take care (of them) 24 hours… (I) pray that they will recover soon and be healthy again,” he said.


Ex-IGP’s claim of cartel within police force ‘unverifiable’, says commission

Claims that a cartel exists within the Royal Malaysian Police as put forth by former inspector-general of police Abdul Hamid Bador are unverifiable, the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) said today.EAIC chairman Mohd Sidek Hassan said the conclusion was based on the findings of the commission’s investigation of witness testimonies and documents obtained.The investigation’s findings and EAIC’s conclusion have been forwarded to the chief secretary of the government, he said, adding that the investigation into the claims was complete.He said the investigation revealed basis that police officers were involved in criminal syndicate activities, and that investigations into the officers involved are being conducted by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and the police.“However, Hamid’s claim that officers were involved in arranging positions in the police force to control the team for personal gain could not be verified,” he said in a statement today.He said testimonies obtained by the EAIC showed that the appointment, promotion and transfer mechanisms practised by the police force and the Police Force Commission (PFC) involved a detailed process with several layers that were hard to breach or be manipulated by outside parties.In addition, Sidek said the inspector-general of police is a permanent member of the PFC and any suggestions regarding the appointment, promotion or transfer of senior police officers require his approval.“Hamid’s position as inspector-general of police was also not jeopardised as his appointment was based on the consent of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong upon the advice of the prime minister,” he said.On March 18 and 22 last year, Hamid alleged that there was a group of police officers out to topple him who were conspiring with outside parties to form a cartel to dominate the police force for their own agenda.


Namewee’s ‘Babi’ may be a load of hogwash, says report

Questions have been asked about whether a highly publicised movie produced by Namewee really exists despite claims by the controversial Malaysian producer that it has received several nominations at film festivals abroad.A Jakarta-based German journalist said the film “Babi”, which was the subject of a police report lodged by the youth wing of Perikatan Nasional last month due to its racially-charged poster, “does not exist at all”.“What we have is a trailer and a music video. The youth organisation of the governing party of Malaysia nevertheless did Namewee the favour to file a complaint,” Marco Stahlhut wrote in Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.MalaysiaNow has contacted Namewee, whose real name is Wee Meng Chee, for a response.He earlier claimed that the film “Babi” had been shortlisted by film festivals in Berlin, Toronto, Bangkok and Taiwan.The film revolves around a racial riot at a school in a small Malaysian town in 2000, when the country was “still under the authoritarian rule of one dominant party”, Namewee wrote on Facebook in August.“What we have is a trailer and a music video.”He further claimed that the riot never made the news due to “media and news being stingently controlled and filtered”.“I believed after hearing the film title, everyone would be scared off… Yet in the end, I’m still managed (sic) to finish this film with a very very very tight budget,” he wrote.But Stahlhut questioned Namewee’s claim on the film’s nominations, saying the festivals in Berlin and Toronto are motivated by “financial rather than aesthetic issues” in deciding nominations and awards.He said Namewee’s claim that his film had been recognised at the International Thai Film Festival in Bangkok was also doubtful.He said the festival had only been in existence since 2018, and that this year organisers had only streamed trailers online.“I know that sounds like a conspiracy theory, but I’m not even sure the movie ‘Babi’ exists.”He said the Taiwan-based distributor of the film, Sky Films, also could not provide him with a preview of the movie, adding that the company told him to form an opinion on the film through press releases, trailers and music videos.Contacted by MalaysiaNow, Stahlhut said he had not found “a single person that has watched the movie”.“The actual movie – not the trailer, not the music video, but the movie. I know that sounds like a conspiracy theory, but I’m not even sure the movie ‘Babi’ exists,” he added.He also took to task writings by some media outlets in Malaysia which had praised Namewee’s movie.“None of the authors watched the work,” he said.


Cops begin probe into ex-AG’s book

Police have started an investigation centred on Tommy Thomas’ recently published memoir, following a series of police reports lodged against the former attorney-general.Publisher Chong Ton Sin, who owns GB Gerakbudaya, the company which released the book “My Story: Justice in the Wilderness”, was interviewed by police on the contents of the book.“They just asked me simple questions. They were not investigating me, but the book,” Chong told MalaysiaNow, adding that the session had been brief.Thomas attracted criticism and condemnation after several prominent individuals he mentioned in the book disputed his version of events that transpired during his stint at the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC).Among others, Thomas is accused of insulting his own staff by suggesting that no one at the AGC could handle high-profile cases such as the 1MDB scandal involving former prime minister Najib Razak.Earlier, Chong, whose company concentrates on leftist titles and Malaysian politics, said he was unperturbed by the bad publicity generated by the book.He said some 7,000 copies have been printed so far.


Warisan to contest Johor polls

Warisan president Shafie Apdal has confirmed that his party will contest the Johor state election on March 12.However, he said it had yet to decide on the number of seats to be contested.“This (number of seats) will be announced at the right time,” he told reporters after officiating the launch of Johor Warisan in Johor Bahru last night.Asked whether Warisan would cooperate with other parties or go solo in the polls, the Semporna MP said the focus now was on the party reaching out to the people.“This (going solo or forming an alliance) will depend on the situation… we want to reach out to those who will decide not only who rules in Johor but also Malaysia,” he said.On rumours that former Johor Bersatu chairman Mazlan Bujang had joined Warisan, Shafie said that Mazlan had so far only indicated his interest in helping the party.Last month, Mazlan, the incumbent Puteri Wangsa assemblyman, quit Bersatu, and said he would throw his support behind Barisan Nasional.The Election Commission has fixed March 12 as polling day for the state election, with nomination on Feb 26 and early voting on March 8.


First group of Indonesian workers already in the country, says minister

Indonesian workers have started to progressively enter Malaysia following the decision by the neighbouring country to lift the restrictions on its workforce effective Aug 1.
Human Resources Minister M Saravanan said the first batch of Indonesian workers was already in Malaysia and that papers for another 23,000 workers were being processed.
"The workers have already started coming in. The first batch is in," he said at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur.
On July 13, Indonesia announced its decision to temporarily freeze the entry of all workers into Malaysia for not using the single system as previously agreed.
Both countries have since agreed to integrate the existing systems for the intake of domestic workers between the Malaysian Immigration Department and the Indonesian embassy.
On Malaysia’s workforce, Saravanan said the issue was not unemployment but mismatched job placements.
"Even though we get them (graduates) the job, they are not given a job in their field of study," he said.


Singapore admits police can access contact-tracing data

Singapore has admitted data collected for contact-tracing can be accessed by police despite earlier assurances it would only be used to fight the coronavirus, sparking privacy concerns Tuesday about the scheme.The city-state has a programme called “TraceTogether” for tracking close contacts of Covid-19 patients, that works via both a phone app and a dongle.Take-up was initially slow due to privacy worries but rose to almost 80% of residents after government assurances and a decision to make its use mandatory for accessing some public places like malls.However, a senior official admitted in parliament that police could “obtain any data” – including information gathered through the contact-tracing programme – in the course of a criminal investigation.Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishan said later that, to his knowledge, police had so far only accessed contact-tracing data on one occasion, during a murder probe.Human Rights Watch accused the government, which is regularly criticised for curtailing civil liberties, of “undermining the right to privacy”.The admission “exposes how the government has been covertly exploiting the pandemic to deepen its surveillance and control over the population”, Phil Robertson, the group’s Asia deputy director, told AFP.Singaporean freelance journalist and activist Kirsten Han said she was disappointed but not surprised.“Looking at the government’s record, I felt that it would be quite predictable that if they can do it, they will,” said Han.“It’s unfair and shows how little protection we have for our privacy against the government.”Speaking in parliament Tuesday, Balakrishan said the government was just being open when it made the admission.“We want to be completely above board and transparent,” he said.But there was much anger online, with some Singaporeans saying they felt betrayed. The city-state has only suffered a mild outbreak, with about 58,000 cases and 29 deaths.Many countries have rolled out contact-tracing programmes that work via a smartphone app, but take-up has been low in some due to privacy concerns.


BioNTech-Pfizer pledges up to 75 million more jabs to EU

BioNTech and Pfizer said Monday they will ramp up their coronavirus vaccine deliveries to the European Union, pledging to send up to 75 million extra doses to the bloc in the spring.“Pfizer and BioNTech continue to work toward increased deliveries beginning the week of Feb 15, ensuring we will supply the full quantity of vaccine doses in the first quarter we contractually committed to and up to an additional 75 million doses to the European Union in the second quarter,” they said in a statement.The EU has ordered a total of 600 million doses of their Comirnaty vaccine.The statement came hours ahead of a national conference called by Chancellor Angela Merkel with vaccine manufacturers amid growing anger over the bloc’s sluggish inoculation campaign.BioNTech and Pfizer, which will take part in the meeting, said that improvements in their production capabilities would allow them to speed up supplies.These included the completion of modifications at Pfizer’s plant in Puurs, Belgium. “Now, we are back to the original schedule of vaccine dose deliveries,” they said.BioNTech’s manufacturing site in the German city of Marburg has meanwhile received a licence to start production this month, as the companies have expanded their network of European supply partners to 13.“We’re further strengthening this network, and are now in discussions with additional qualified partners on potential new agreements,” they said.Their announcement in mid-January that they would delay shipments of the jabs due to the necessary modifications at the Puurs factory sparked ire across the bloc.Germany at the time urged the European Commission – which undertook joint procurement for the bloc – to “seek clarity and certainty” for upcoming shipments.And six northern EU nations warned in a letter to the commission that the “unacceptable” situation “decreases the credibility of the vaccination process”.The news was followed last week by an announcement from British-Swedish company AstraZeneca that it could deliver only a quarter of the doses originally promised to the bloc this winter because of problems at one of its European factories.In the face of a political firestorm, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said Sunday that AstraZeneca had now agreed to increase its coronavirus vaccine deliveries to the EU by 30%.An EU source said the first deliveries would start in the second week of February.


South Pakistan braces for surge of flood water flowing from north

Southern Pakistan braced for more flooding on Thursday as a surge of water flowed down the Indus river, compounding the devastation in a country a third of which is already inundated by a disaster blamed on climate change.
Record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in northern mountains have triggered floods that have killed at least 1,191 people, including 399 children.
The United Nations has appealed for US$160 million to help with what it has called an "unprecedented climate catastrophe".
"We're on a high alert as water arriving downstream from northern flooding is expected to enter the province over the next few days," the spokesman of the Sindh provincial government, Murtaza Wahab, told Reuters.
Wahab said a flow of some 600,000 cubic feet per second was expected to swell the Indus, testing its flood defences.
Pakistan has received nearly 190% more rain than the 30-year average in the quarter from June to August, totalling 390.7mm (15.38 inches).
Sindh, with a population of 50 million, has been hardest hit, getting 466% more rain than the 30-year average.
Some parts of the province look like an inland sea with only occasional patches of trees or raised roads breaking the surface of the murky flood waters.
Hundreds of families have taken refugee on roads, the only dry land in sight for many of them.
Villagers rushed to meet a Reuters news team passing along one road near the town of Dadu on Thursday, begging for food or other help.
'No help'
Many headed for urban centres, like the port city of Karachi, which has for now escaped the flooding.
"We lost our house to the rain and floods, we're going to Karachi to our relatives, no one has came to help us," said Allah Bakash, 50, leaving with his family and belongings loaded on a truck.
The floods have swept away homes, businesses, infrastructure and roads. Standing and stored crops have been destroyed and some two million acres (809,371 hectares) of farm land inundated.
The government says 33 million people, or 15% of the 220 million population, have been affected.
The National Disaster Management Authority said some 480,030 people have been displaced and are being looked after in camps but even those not forced from their homes face peril.
" More than three million children are in need of humanitarian assistance and at increased risk of waterborne diseases, drowning and malnutrition due to the most severe flooding in Pakistan's recent history," the UN children's agency warned.
The World Health Organization said that more than 6.4 million people were in dire need of humanitarian aid.
Aid has started to arrive on planes loaded with food, tents and medicines, mostly from China, Turkey and United Arab Emirates.
Aid agencies have asked the government to allow food imports from neighbouring India, across a largely closed border that has for decades been a front line of confrontation between the nuclear armed rivals.
The government has not indicated it is willing to open the border to Indian food imports.


Terengganu logs 31 turtle deaths in 3 months

The Terengganu Fisheries Department recorded 31 turtle deaths from January to March this year.Its director Ruzaidi Mamat said the relatively high number of deaths was due to strong waves during the monsoon season which made it difficult for the turtles to rise to the surface of the water to get air.“The second factor is trawling activities which do not meet the stipulated conditions, namely on the turtle excluder device (TED),” he said.“The installation of TED is very important to make it easier for turtles trapped in the nets to get out.“Fishing using stingray nets or fishing nets with a mesh size of 10 inches and above is also a contributing cause. The use of such nets has been banned under the Fisheries Act 1985,” he said when met by reporters after the launch of the Terengganu Turtle Awareness Month at the Turtle Conservation and Information Centre in Dungun.He added that the public dumping of rubbish in the river and sea also posed a threat to the turtles as they would eat the plastic waste.He said various measures had been taken to address the issue, including the “Ops Penyu” operation where action was taken against three boats with monsoon season trawl net licences which were not equipped with TED.The department also seized 37 stingray nets in the operation which was conducted along the coast of Terengganu early last month.Ruzaidi said the federal government had allocated RM170,000 for turtle management and the repair of turtle hatcheries in the state this year.


Bersatu treads carefully as it eyes ‘one or two seats’ in Sarawak without hurting GPS

While it is keen to represent seats in Sarawak, Bersatu says it understands and respects any stand by GPS if the ruling coalition decides not to make way for friendly parties from the peninsula.“We acknowledge that we are not big. We understand their stand and we respect that, and we want to make sure that our relationship is harmonious because we are in the same boat,” Sarawak Bersatu chairman, Jaziri Alkaf A Suffian, who doubles as the state’s Perikatan Nasional (PN) chief, told MalaysiaNow.PN recently extended its full cooperation to GPS, pledging to mobilise its resources to help its Sarawak ally win in the impending state election, as well as the future general election.This followed PN chairman and Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s first official visit to Sarawak since coming to power, seen as boosting ties between Putrajaya and the state government despite a campaign by Umno leaders to abandon the federal ruling bloc.Muhyiddin during his visit refused to comment on whether his party would contest in Sarawak, saying it was subject to agreement from GPS.GPS, with PBB as its lynchpin, emerged following the exit of Sarawak’s Barisan Nasional parties from the former ruling powerhouse after the 2018 general election.GPS member parties represent Sarawak’s diverse and often complicated demographics. PBB is seen as representing the Melanau and Malay communities and SUPP the Chinese, while PDP and PRS are tied to the non-Muslim indigenous communities.James Chin, an analyst of Sarawak politics sympathetic to Pakatan Harapan, does not think that PN’s offer to campaign for GPS will help the coalition.He told MalaysiaNow that GPS may be wary of involvement by PAS, a key component of PN, in any election campaign.The Islamist party, which set up camp in Sarawak some two decades ago, has never won a seat in the state.“They will not be able to make any impact and even if they are allowed to contest, it will be a complete failure,” said Chin.He also does not see GPS needing the help of Bersatu and other peninsular parties, saying it would undermine the coalition’s efforts to brand itself as a local party after years of being part of BN before the 2018 polls.“The upcoming state election will be their first appearance under GPS, so they cannot allow them (PN) to come because this is the time for GPS to convince the people that they have rebranded themselves,” Chin added.Neither does he foresee GPS giving way to PN despite the boost in their political alliance.He said in any case, parties such as Bersatu and PAS can hope to win only in the state’s urban areas.“The only issue now is the Krian seat held by Ali Biju, which is still under discussion,” he said, referring to the assemblyman who switched camps from PKR to Bersatu.Ali Biju had twice defeated BN in Krian, a predominantly Iban state constituency.Meanwhile, Bersatu leaders such as Jaziri are seen as being careful with their words, cautious of disrupting the close ties achieved during Muhyiddin’s recent visit.He maintains that his party’s main focus now is not on seats.“We respect GPS’ stand to contest all 82 state seats in the upcoming state election,” he said, adding that he hoped Ali Biju would be allowed to contest.“But personally, let’s hear what the people on the ground want. Maybe one, two or more seats,” he added.Jaziri is confident that with 45,000 members in Sarawak, Bersatu is well placed to mobilise support for the ruling bloc.“So, what if we are able to contribute one or two seats which can strengthen the state government in Sarawak? If we can do that, wouldn’t it be better for GPS?”He admitted that Bersatu is “not big” in Sarawak, saying it should not be viewed as a threat by GPS, something he said he had told Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg.“I personally told Abang Johari, we are here to assist, and not to worry. Although we are not big, we do have people on the ground to help them.“Our Sarawak committee and members in the state are all Sarawakians comprising various ethnicities,” he added.


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Put aside differences to ensure victory for BN candidates, says Ismail

Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders and members, especially those from Umno, should set aside their differences and unsolved issues relating to the selection of candidates to represent the coalition in the 15th general election (GE15), Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said today.
He said every decision made was in the interest of the party, so it was only right for all members to return the favour and give their support to ensure victory for BN in the election.
"Be it in a general election, state election or by-election, there will be issues regarding the selection of candidates... that’s normal. Not every name proposed will (be selected as a candidate to) contest.
"Even though everyone is qualified, only one candidate will be selected. What’s important is that he is representing BN and our job is to support him to ensure victory for the party," Ismail, who is also Umno vice-president, said after checking the preparations of BN's machinery at the Bera operations room.
It was reported that certain Umno leaders and BN component parties were dissatisfied with the list of BN candidates for GE15, with a certain incumbent also reported to have decided to contest on another party’s ticket.


Travel ban keeps Sarawak tourism in limbo despite relaxed restrictions

With much of the country now under the conditional if not the recovery phase of the movement control order (MCO), hope is rising for some semblance of economic recovery as daily infection numbers continue hovering below 2,000, a far cry from the nearly 6,000 recorded a little over a month ago.But tourism players remain pessimistic about their chances of bouncing back any time soon, especially with the ban on interstate travel still firmly in place.This, for them, is one of the biggest hurdles to recovery.In Sarawak, the problem is compounded by the ban on inter-district travel which the state government chose to maintain despite the easing of similar restrictions in the peninsula.Stall hawkers like Khairul Mohd Ali say there will be no hope of recovery until such bans are lifted.“Honestly, I’m not sure if my business will be able to recover by the end of the year,” Ali, who sells snacks by the roadside at the Kuching Waterfront near the city centre, told MalaysiaNow.“Before Covid-19, this place was filled with locals and their families who would come here to eat.”“Honestly, I’m not sure if my business will be able to recover by the end of the year.”Now, though, the area is largely deserted.Irene Ak Tila, an assistant at a shop selling Sarawak handicraft, agreed. She said the surge in Covid-19 cases in Sibu had shaken up many businesses like hers as the bulk of their walk-in customers were tourists.Early this month, the government announced that the four states previously under MCO – Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Johor and Penang – would join Kedah, Kelantan, Negeri Sembilan, Sarawak and Perak under CMCO.Melaka, Pahang, Terengganu, Sabah, Putrajaya and Labuan meanwhile would join Perlis under RMCO.Shop assistant Irene Ak Tila says the surge in Covid-19 cases in Sibu, Sarawak, has taken a toll on businesses like hers which depend on tourists to survive.Senior Minister for Security Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who made the announcement, also said inter-district travel would be allowed in all states with the exception of Sabah although the ban on interstate travel would remain.State Deputy Chief Minister Amar Douglas Uggah later said that Sarawak, too, would maintain its ban on inter-district travel with police permission required for any movement between zones.Sarawak has also limited the frequency of inbound flights from Sabah and the peninsula as part of its effort to contain the spread of infection in the state.Those travelling to Sarawak must apply for entry ahead of time and undergo an RT–PCR Covid-19 test three days before flying. Negative test results are only valid for three days.Norliza Muhamed from Kelantan acknowledged that such precautions are needed to save lives as the pandemic lingers on.However, she said they would also dampen domestic tourism in Sarawak.She said the measures had caused an increase in airfare, citing a recent flight in which she had to fork out close to RM1,000 for a one-way ticket from Kuching to Kuala Lumpur.“Domestic flights for travel between Sarawak and the peninsula are very expensive,” she told MalaysiaNow. “Many flights have been cancelled.”Before Covid-19 hit, she would book flights back to Kota Bharu. “But now, we have to fly to Kuala Lumpur because of the limitations.”Taxi driver Chang Poh Chak said he had been struggling to make ends meet due to the lack of tourists entering the state.Taxi driver Chang Poh Chak waits for passengers at the Kuching airport. Chang has seen a drastic drop in income since the ban on inter-district and interstate travel was imposed.Chang, 74, said his daily earnings plunged over the past year to the point where he is now making only RM20 per day.“I consider myself lucky if I can earn more than RM20 a day,” he said.As for travel by bus, sales assistant Marina Abdul Kadir said ticket prices were likely to rise as well, as buses can only take half the usual number of passengers.“This is expected due to the interzone travel restrictions as people now need to obtain travel permits from the police before they can travel to Kuching and vice-versa,” she said.


Apandi says Dr M’s ‘negative’ view of him led to his sacking as AG

Mohamed Apandi Ali today claimed that former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had formed a venomous and negative view of him which led to his removal as attorney-general (AG).“The plaintiff (Apandi) avers and will contend and will lead evidence that the first defendant (Mahathir) had formed a venomous and thus negative view against the plaintiff and was driven to remove the plaintiff in any event from the position as the AG and, that imbued with that determination the plaintiff was unconstitutionally and unlawfully terminated,” he said in his reply to the statement of defence by Mahathir and the government.Apandi also said he would bring evidence to establish that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s role, satisfaction and pleasure were not taken into account or were brushed aside by Mahathir in his termination.“Hence, there was a constitutional failure in the process of termination of the plaintiff’s position as the attorney-general,” he said.Apandi also argued that the position of Mahathir and the government in their statement of defence was untenable in law and suffered from a cloistered reading of the provisions in the Federal Constitution.He asked for his claim to be allowed with costs.Lawyer Baljit Singh Sidhu, representing Apandi, told reporters that the High Court had set Dec 11 for case management.“It is for us to file a discovery application for the purposes of certain documents,” he added.In their statements of defence filed on Nov 12, the defendants insisted that their act of terminating Apandi’s contract as AG in 2018 was valid and in accordance with the provisions of the law.Mahathir also denied that he had abused his power in the matter.He and the federal government filed their statement of defence in response to a RM2.2 million suit brought against them by Apandi.In his suit filed on Oct 13, Apandi named Mahathir and the government as the first and second respondents and sought, among others, a declaration that his termination as AG two years ago was unlawful.In his statement of claim, Apandi, who was a Federal Court judge before his appointment as AG in 2015, also sought a declaration that Mahathir had committed misfeasance and misconduct in public office, as well as a declaration that Mahathir had induced a breach of contract between him and the government.He likewise sought a declaration that there had been a failure in compliance with Article 145 of the Federal Constitution, and a declaration that his termination was not in accordance with the law.Apandi is seeking special damages of RM2,233,599.36, general damages, exemplary and/or punitive damages, costs and other reliefs deemed fit by the court.Apandi also claimed that Mahathir had made biased statements against him personally as well as the office of the Attorney-General, proposed the replacement of the plaintiff before the proper termination by the lawful authority who is the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong, refused, failed and neglected to receive advice from the AGC and requested or caused to be used by third parties, including his own personal lawyer, to pressure the plaintiff to immediately resign from office.


Myanmar military declares one-year state of emergency

Myanmar’s military declared a one-year state of emergency on Monday and appointed a general as acting president, after arresting civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other senior officials.An announcement on military-owned Myawaddy TV said the move was needed to preserve the “stability” of the state, accusing the country’s election commission of failing to address “huge irregularities” in the November election.Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto leader, was detained in the early hours along with the president and other top politicians after weeks of tensions with the military over the allegations of vote-rigging.“The UEC (election commission) failed to solve huge voter lists irregularities in the multiparty general election which was held on November 8th 2020,” said the statement signed by the new acting president Myint Swe, a former general who had been vice-president.The statement accused “other party organisations” of “harming the stability of the state”.“As the situation must be resolved according to the law, a state of emergency is declared.”The statement said responsibility for “legislation, administration and judiciary” had been handed over to military commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing.


J&J says its Covid-19 jab effective against Delta variant

Johnson and Johnson’s single-shot Covid-19 vaccine is effective against the highly contagious Delta variant, with an immune response lasting at least eight months, the company said Thursday.The antibodies and immune system cells in the blood of eight people vaccinated with the Johnson and Johnson jab effectively neutralised the Delta strain, which was first identified in India, researchers found.A second study with 20 vaccinated patients at Boston’s Beth Israel Medical Center had similar results.The data was sent to bioRxiv, a free online site for unpublished scientific preprints where authors “are able to make their findings immediately available to the scientific community and receive feedback on draft manuscripts before they are submitted to journals”, according to the site.“We believe that our vaccine offers durable protection against Covid-19 and elicits neutralising activity against the Delta variant,” said Paul Stoffels, Johnson and Johnson’s chief scientific officer, in a company statement.Mathai Mammen, head of Janssen Research & Development at Johnson & Johnson, said that data “for the eight months studied so far” shows that Johnson and Johnson’s single-shot vaccine “generates a strong neutralising antibody response that does not wane; rather, we observe an improvement over time”.The Delta variant tore through in India in April and May and has since spread around the world. A report by the European Union’s disease control agency ECDC estimated the more contagious strain could account for 90% of new cases in the EU by the end of August.


Facebook CEO Zuckerberg hails VR teleporting over commuting

Media sources report that in a recent discussion on the popular invite-only Clubhouse app, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg chatted about his company’s progress in the world of virtual reality (VR), saying: “We should be teleporting, not transporting.”Chatting under the name Zuck23, he discussed the social media giant’s progress in the world of virtual reality and augmented reality (AR).He believes that VR will allow workers to meet virtually rather than travel to offices and hinted that research to achieve this goal is going on at Facebook’s Reality Labs.Facebook is the owner of the popular Oculus VR company which has been a pioneer in the mainstream VR device world and develops its VR and AR tech under its Reality Labs division.Zuckerberg believes that VR is the way forward to allow people to experience new places and things without leaving their homes.“One of the things that VR will unlock is the ability to live anywhere you want and be present in another place and really feel like you are there,” he said.He added that people are discovering a new level of workplace interaction as more workers previously tied to offices are working from home amidst the coronavirus pandemic.“VR is going to unlock a lot of economic opportunity because people will be able to increasingly work where they want and kind of teleport into place,” he said. “I am also pretty optimistic about the impact on climate, in reducing the amount of commuting that people have to do.”The Covid-19 lockdowns have confirmed his belief that there is no need for physical offices.He said Facebook is planning to allow 50% of its staff to work remotely by the end of this decade with the help of VR technology.


Australian senator claims sexual assault in Parliament

An Australian lawmaker on Thursday alleged she was sexually "assaulted" by a fellow senator in Parliament House, stating the building was "not a safe place" for women to work.
In a tearful Senate address, independent Lidia Thorpe said she had been subjected to "sexual comments", cornered in a stairwell, "inappropriately touched" and "propositioned" by "powerful men".
Parliament, she said, "is not a safe place for women".
Thorpe on Wednesday accused a fellow senator of "sexually assaulting" her, before being forced to withdraw the remark under threat of parliamentary sanction.
But on Thursday, Thorpe restated the core of her allegations against conservative David Van, who has strenuously denied the claims.
A visibly emotional Van responded in Parliament, describing the allegations as "scandalous" and "concocted" before calling for an investigation.
With hands trembling as he read from a printed statement, Van accused Thorpe of "bringing the Senate into disrepute" and "cowering under the umbrella of parliamentary privilege".
Van's Liberal Party suspended him on Thursday over the claims, which have upended Canberra politics and rekindled accusations that Australia's crucible of democracy is also a bastion of sexism and misogyny.
In an address to the Senate, Thorpe acknowledged that "sexual assault" meant different things to different people, and went on to describe her experiences in the corridors of power.
"What I experienced was being followed, aggressively propositioned and inappropriately touched," she said.
In 2021, Van was forced to move his parliamentary office away from Thorpe's after an unspecified complaint, both senators have acknowledged.
Thorpe told fellow lawmakers she "was afraid to walk out of the office door. I would open the door slightly and check the coast was clear before stepping out".
"It was to the degree that I had to be accompanied by someone whenever I walked inside this building," she added.
"I know there are others that have experienced similar things and have not come forward in the interests of their careers."
While the allegations were protected from Australia's severe defamation laws, Thorpe said that Van had engaged lawyers in the matter.
Widespread sexual harassment
Since 2021, Australian politics has been roiled by high-profile allegations of assault and harassment inside parliament.
Former political aide Brittany Higgins alleged that a fellow conservative staffer raped her on a couch in a Cabinet minister's parliamentary office following a night of heavy drinking in March 2019.
Five separate investigations followed, collectively delivering a scathing indictment on the frequently sexist nature of Australian politics.
One government-backed inquiry found that sexual harassment and bullying were widespread in parliament, affecting both lawmakers and staff.
One in three people working in Parliament at the time said they "have experienced some form of sexual harassment while working there".
That included 63% of the country's female parliamentarians.
The Higgins case sparked national protests and a high-profile court case that ended in a mistrial.
It was not retried because prosecutors feared the strain it would put on Higgins's mental health.
The man in question has sued multiple journalists for reporting on the allegations and threatened to sue his accuser.
He has denied the allegations, and in court pleaded not guilty to one charge of sexual intercourse without consent.
The controversy has reignited in recent weeks, after opposition conservatives leapt on a series of leaked text messages to accuse the now centre-left government of politicising the issue.


China virus success under threat as Delta variant spreads

A coronavirus cluster that emerged in the Chinese city of Nanjing has now reached five provinces and Beijing, forcing lockdowns on hundreds of thousands of people as authorities scramble to stamp out the worst outbreak in months.China has previously boasted of its success in snuffing out the pandemic within its borders after imposing the world’s first virus lockdown in early 2020 as Covid-19 seeped out of Wuhan in the centre of the country.But an outbreak this month driven by the fast-spreading Delta variant has thrown that record into jeopardy since it broke out at Nanjing airport in eastern Jiangsu province.The city reported a total of 184 local coronavirus cases Friday, after nine cleaners at Nanjing Lukou International Airport tested positive on July 20.At least 206 infections nationwide have been linked to the Nanjing cluster, which officials have confirmed as the highly transmissible Delta variant.“It was discovered that these cleaners took part in cleaning the cabin of flight CA910” from Russia on July 10, said Nanjing health official Ding Jie.Hundreds of thousands have been locked down in Jiangsu province, of which Nanjing is the capital, while the city has tested all 9.2 million residents twice.In Beijing’s Changping district, where two locally transmitted cases have been found, 41,000 people in nine housing communities were placed under lockdown Thursday, according to city officials.The infections are the first local cases reported in the capital in six months.The outbreak is geographically the largest in several months, challenging China’s aggressive containment efforts which have relied on mass testing, lockdowns and swift contact tracing.China’s top disciplinary watchdog has blamed Nanjing airport officials for “poor supervision and unprofessional management” including not separating cleaning staff who worked on international flights from those on domestic flights.Most of the early Nanjing patients had been vaccinated, a senior doctor in the city was quoted as saying by local media last week, leading online users to question the efficacy of domestic vaccines.“If the goal is to slow down the spread and reduce the fatality rate, [Chinese vaccines] can afford a certain degree of protection,” top Shanghai infectious disease expert Zhang Wenhong said in a social media post Thursday.“But as for the goal of eradicating the virus, it may be something that the current vaccine cannot achieve.”The tourist city of Zhangjiajie in Hunan province has become another focal point of the latest outbreak after at least 18 cases were traced to the city, including infections picked up at a theatre, reported the state tabloid Global Times.


Hong Kong’s first national security law trial starts without jury

Hong Kong’s first trial under its harsh national security law began on Wednesday in a controversial trial without a jury.24-year-old Tong Ying-kit is charged with inciting secession and terrorism and faces life in jail if found guilty of flying a banner calling for the “liberation” of Hong Kong.Beijing enforced the security law in June 2020 after a series of mass pro-democracy protests in 2019, some of which turned violent.The law criminalises “subversive” acts, but critics say it is designed to silence dissent and strip Hong Kong of its autonomy.Analysts have said it violates the agreement under which Britain handed back Hong Kong to China in 1997.Beijing and Hong Kong authorities say the law – widely criticised internationally – was needed to bring stability.Tong was arrested on July 1, 2020, accused of riding his motorbike into a group of police and injuring some of them.He is also accused of carrying a flag that read “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times”.A popular slogan among the protesters at the time, it became illegal under the national security law which criminalises secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces.The defendant’s legal team has been pushing for the case to be heard by a jury, arguing it is Tong’s right given that he potentially faces a life sentence if found guilty.The national security law however does allow in some cases for trials by selected judges instead of juries.Hong Kong’s justice secretary argued that a jury trial in this case would put jurors’ safety at risk given the city’s tense political situation.The trial is expected to last 15 working days and is being seen as a landmark moment for Hong Kong’s fast-changing legal traditions.Since the law was enacted, more than 100 people have been arrested under its provisions.


Australia state says first Aukus nuclear submarines could be built overseas

The South Australia state government said Friday that the first nuclear submarines under the Aukus pact between the US, Britain and Australia may be built overseas, but that there could be more than the eight in the initial agreement.
The Australian federal government has indicated it would construct the nuclear-powered submarines in the South Australia state capital of Adelaide, but state premier Peter Malinauskas said he was unclear about the number of orders.
"My hope is we end up producing a lot more than eight nuclear submarines here in South Australia," Malinauskas told ABC Radio. "There is not an example anywhere in the world of any nuclear submarine production line starting and then stopping... so once you start producing nuclear submarines, you keep producing nuclear submarines."
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said she believed Aukus would be "enormously beneficial" to her home state of South Australia, as the pact was expected to create local jobs.
Reuters, citing four US officials, reported on Wednesday Australia was expected to buy up to five US Virginia-class nuclear submarines in the 2030s as part of Aukus.
Adelaide was chosen as the base in 2016 when France won a US$33 billion (about RM150 billion) deal to build 12 submarines for Australia before Canberra ditched that in favour of Aukus, causing fury in Paris.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, on an official trip to India, will meet US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday in San Diego, site of major US Navy operations, to chart a way forward on Aukus.
Aukus will enable Australia to receive the technology required to deploy nuclear-powered submarines amid China's military buildup in the Indo-Pacific region. China "firmly objects" to Aukus, its foreign ministry said this month.


Celine Dion reveals rare neurological disorder, cancels shows

Pop diva Celine Dion on Thursday tearfully revealed that she is suffering from Stiff-Person Syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that is affecting her singing, and said she would have to cancel or postpone a series of European shows.
In a five-minute video posted on Instagram in French and English, a clearly emotional Dion said she had been dealing with the health problems "for a long time."
"Recently I have been diagnosed with a very rare neurological disorder called Stiff-Person Syndrome which affects something like one in a million people," the Canadian hitmaker said.
It has been causing spasms that "affect every aspect of my daily life, sometimes causing difficulties when I walk and not allowing me to use my vocal cords to sing the way I'm used to," she said.
"It hurts me to tell you today this means I won't be ready to restart my tour in Europe in February."
Dion, who is 54, said she was supported by her children and a team of doctors working every day to improve her condition, but added: "I have to admit, it's been a struggle."
Titanic fame
Dion rose from small-town Quebec to worldwide fame in the 1990s with hits such as "My Heart Will Go On" – the theme to James Cameron's Oscar-winning film "Titanic" – and "The Power of Love", and has continued to sell out huge stadiums around the world.
That success was parlayed into a regular gig at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, where she had multiple long residencies.
She first mentioned the spasms when she delayed her European tour earlier this year.
Stiff-Person Syndrome (SPS) causes muscle stiffness as well as spasms, normally between the ages of 30 to 60. The symptoms can remain stable in some cases, but get progressively worse in others.
According to the US National Institutes of Health, it affects twice as many women as men.
If left untreated, SPS can potentially lead to difficulty walking and significantly impact a person's ability to perform routine daily tasks.
Although the exact cause of this syndrome is unknown, it is believed to be an autoimmune disease and sometimes occurs with other autoimmune diseases.
'All I know is singing'
"All I know is singing, it's what I've done all my life and it's what I love to do the most," said Dion, breaking into tears.
"I miss seeing all of you, being on the stage, performing for you."
Her spring dates in Europe, which were due to begin in the Czech Republic in February, have been postponed to 2024, while eight of her summer shows have been cancelled entirely.
A number of performances between late August and October have not been changed.
The "Courage World Tour" began in 2019, and Dion had completed 52 shows before the Covid-19 pandemic put the remainder on hold.
She later cancelled the North American section of the tour due to her health problems.
It was to be the Grammy winner's first global concert tour in a decade and the first without her husband-manager Rene Angelil, who died from cancer in 2016.
The showbiz community voiced support for Dion on Instagram, with fellow singer Gwen Stefani, fashion designer Donatella Versace and actress Kate Hudson among tens of thousands leaving well wishes.
Dion sounded a note of optimism at the end of her video message.
"I have hope that I'm on the road to recovery. This is my focus," she said.


Australia seizes 336kg of heroin smuggled from Malaysia

The police yesterday confirmed that Australian authorities had succeeded in confiscating 336kg of heroin brought in a container via Brisbane from Malaysia on March 13.
Police spokesman Noorsiah Mohd Saaduddin said the drugs were estimated to be worth A$268.8 million (RM789.56 million).
"Bukit Aman Narcotics CID is conducting an investigation based on information received from the Australian Federal Police (AFP) before taking further action," she said in a statement last night.
AFP, in a statement last week, announced that the Australian Border Force (ABF) had detected the drugs hidden in two concrete blocks of cement, each weighing 500kg.
According to the statement, an inspection found the consignment was declared as solar panels in the container which arrived on March 13 at Brisbane Port from Malaysia.
The statement said ABF officers inspected the container and detected hundreds of packages hidden in the cement concrete blocks. Test results on the substance in the packages confirmed it was heroin.


New cases stay below 4,000, another 17 deaths reported

Another 3,318 Covid-19 cases were recorded today, taking total confirmed infections in the country to 258,306.Selangor recorded 1,214 cases followed by Johor (742), Kuala Lumpur (374), Kedah (188), Penang (149), and Negeri Sembilan and Sabah (118 each).Perak recorded 99 cases, Sarawak 83, Kelantan 79, Terengganu 72, Melaka 45, Pahang 30, Putrajaya six and Labuan one.Active cases stand at 51,579 with 258 in the ICU and 119 in need of respiratory assistance.Another 3,505 patients were discharged, bringing total recoveries to 205,774.However, 17 more deaths were reported, pushing the virus toll to 953.


US sets new record with nearly 4,000 Covid deaths in one day

The US counted a record number of daily coronavirus deaths Thursday at nearly 4,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.The 3,998 deaths were recorded over the 24-hour period ending at 8.30pm local time (0130 GMT Friday), during which the US notched 265,246 new infections, according to the university.Sharp rises in cases around the world have led authorities to impose a slew of new lockdowns and other restrictions, even as dozens of countries roll out the first stages of the vaccination campaigns hailed as the light at the end of the tunnel.The plight of countries struggling to control the virus matters beyond their borders, said the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.“The fact is that no one is safe until we are all safe,” it said.“The nature of this virus means that the world can only be as strong as the weakest health system.”The global outbreak shows no signs of abating, with nearly 1.9 million people known to have died worldwide and 87 million confirmed cases.


Najib in bid to postpone court decision on SRC appeal

Najib Razak has applied to the appeals court to vacate the Dec 8 date for a decision on his appeal against his conviction and sentence for misappropriating RM42 million in SRC International funds.According to a document from Messrs Shafee & Co, who represent Najib, sent to the Registrar of the Court of Appeal, the application was due to the fact that Najib would be in Singapore until Dec 5.“The applicant (Najib) humbly wishes to apply for the date to be vacated and the date for the decision fixed the following week, namely from Dec 13 to Dec 17, or any other dates the court thinks suitable,” it said.According to the document, upon his return from Singapore on Dec 5, Najib would be required to undergo self-quarantine for seven days until Dec 12 and could only attend court or public gatherings from Dec 13.The document also stated that the prosecution team had been informed of the matter and that it had not raised any objections to the rescheduling.The document said that the trial for the money laundering case involving Najib’s lawyer, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, at the High Court was also set to resume on Dec 8, while Najib had the 1MDB fund trial at the High Court.According to the document, the murder trial involving Samirah Muzzaffar, who is represented by Shafee, will also resume at the Shah Alam High Court from Dec 20 until Dec 23.The Office of the Chief Registrar of the Federal Court had said a decision on Najib’s appeal against his conviction and sentence for the misappropriation of SRC International funds was set for Dec 8.Najib, 68, filed an appeal against the Kuala Lumpur High Court’s decision on July 28 last year, sentencing him to 12 years’ jail and a fine of RM210 million after finding him guilty of seven charges of criminal breach of trust, money laundering and abuse of position involving SRC International funds totalling RM42 billion.


Elon Musk says Apple threatened to yank Twitter from App Store

Elon Musk accused Apple Inc of threatening to block Twitter Inc from its app store without saying why in a series of tweets on Monday that also said the iPhone maker had stopped advertising on the social media platform.
The billionaire CEO of Twitter and Tesla said Apple was pressuring Twitter over content moderation demands.
The action, unconfirmed by Apple, would not be unusual as the company has routinely enforced its rules and previously removed apps such as Gab and Parler.
Parler, which is popular with US conservatives, was restored by Apple in 2021 after the app updated its content and moderation practices, the companies said at the time.
"Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?," Musk, who took Twitter private for US$44 billion (about RM198.4 billion) last month, said in a tweet.
He later tagged Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook's Twitter account in another tweet, asking "what's going on here?"
Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
"It wasn't clear to me how far up the Apple food chain that idea went internally and without knowing that, it isn't clear how seriously to take any of this," said Randal Picker, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School.
The world's most valuable firm spent an estimated $131,600 on Twitter ads between Nov 10 and Nov 16, down from US$220,800 between Oct 16 and Oct 22, the week before Musk closed the Twitter deal, according to ad measurement firm Pathmatics.
In the first quarter of 2022, Apple was the top advertiser on Twitter, spending US$48 million and accounting for more than 4% of total revenue for the period, the Washington Post reported, citing an internal Twitter document.
Twitter did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the report.
'Go to war'
Among the list of grievances tweeted by Musk was the up to 30% fee Apple charges software developers for in-app purchases, with Musk posting a meme suggesting he was willing to "go to war" with Apple rather than paying the commission.
The fee has drawn criticism and lawsuits from companies such as Epic Games, the maker of 'Fortnite', while attracting the scrutiny of regulators globally.
The commission could weigh on Musk's attempts to boost subscription revenue at Twitter, in part to make up for the exodus of advertisers over content moderation concerns.
Companies from General Mills Inc to luxury automaker Audi of America have stopped or paused advertising on Twitter since the acquisition, and Musk said earlier this month that the company had seen a "massive" drop in revenue.
Ad sales account for about 90% of Twitter's revenue.
The self-described free speech absolutist, whose company has in the past few days reinstated several Twitter accounts including that of former US President Donald Trump, has blamed activist groups for pressuring advertisers.
Ben Bajarin, the head of consumer technologies at research firm Creative Strategies, said that Musk may be reading too much into a regular process Apple goes through in app review.
"App review from Apple is not perfect by any means and a consistently frustrating process for developers but from what I hear it is a two-way conversation," he said.


Breakfast at a market in Kelantan

Every Friday morning, Awe Wong makes his way to the food court at the Siti Khadijah market in Kota Bharu, Kelantan.
For years, this has been his routine.
His favourite meal consists of hot ginger tea with nasi kerabu, rice with mackerel gulai, or laksam.
"I rarely travel out of Kelantan," the 63-year-old told MalaysiaNow while eating at a table with his 11-year-old grandchild.
"It's hard to find the kind of food that I like to eat. Here, I go around the market every day deciding what I want to have. Today, I might have laksam. Tomorrow, maybe I'll have rice.
"Sometimes I just buy some kuih and go back to eat at home."  Awe, whose real name is Wong Wei Foo, lives over a shoplot in the old Kota Bharu town.
The Siti Khadijah market has been a part of his life for as long as he can remember.
His mother, a Chinese from Thailand, sold fruits at a stall in Kota Bharu even before the market was built.
And his father, a Kelantanese, was a van and lorry driver who made a living delivering fruits and other goods to markets and sundry shops around town.
Today, his nephews have become some of the market's main fruit suppliers, and Awe himself is close friends with many of the locals.
'Before 1Malaysia'
Speaking to MalaysiaNow, Awe recalled his many friendships with traders from all races and ethnic backgrounds.
He spoke of an Indian friend who sold collectibles such as rings, daggers and antique clocks.
He also recalled a Malay friend who sold fish, and any number of Thai traders who migrated to Kelantan in order to make a living.
"We were already there, before 1Malaysia came about," he said. "Not just Malaysians, either. We took care of our Thai friends as well."
The Siti Khadijah market, located in the city centre, has been a major tourist attraction since its establishment in 1985.
A four-storey building, it was previously known as Pasar Besar Buluh Kubu. There, traders rent commercial units on the upper floors and sell fresh goods on the lower levels.
It is also a symbol of women entrepreneurship, boasting a large number of female traders.
A couple looking for toys for their daughter said they had gone on many dates at the market during their days as medical students at Universiti Sains Malaysia in Kubang Kerian.
Today, years later, they still enjoy visiting the market where they say the food has not changed.
Their five-year-old daughter, meanwhile, loves the kuih akok – a traditional dessert from Kelantan.
"The most original and delicious kuih akok is here at the market," they said. "We used to enjoy it, and now our daughter does as well."
Living in Kelantan
Elsewhere in the market, Chinese families mingled in the crowd alongside the tourists, enjoying the tail end of the Chinese New Year break.
For Awe, at least, there is no better place to be. And his grandson, enjoying his breakfast beside him, appears to agree.
"My parents live in Selayang," the boy said. "But I go to school in Kelantan. It's really fun."
Awe, meanwhile, intends to continue his weekly trips to the market for as long as he can. Many of his friends have moved away while others have died, and the market has become a place for him to reminisce about the old days.
"Sometimes I buy food and take it home to eat," he said.
"Sometimes I sit here and eat with my wife, my children and my grandchildren. I've never missed a single opportunity to come here."


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UN troubled by Malaysia's deportation of Myanmar people

The United Nations said Tuesday it was "seriously concerned" by Malaysia's continued deportation of asylum-seekers from Myanmar back to their country.
UNHCR, the UN's refugee agency, said it had received "multiple disturbing reports" of refoulement – the forcible return of refugees and asylum seekers – since April.
In the last two months, hundreds of Myanmar nationals are reported to have been sent back against their will by the authorities, UNHCR said.
"UNHCR continues to call on Malaysia to immediately stop the forced returns of Myanmar nationals seeking safety from serious harm. Sending them back to Myanmar exposes them to harm and danger," spokesman Shabia Mantoo told reporters in Geneva.
"People fleeing Myanmar must be allowed access to territory to seek asylum and be protected against refoulement. Myanmar nationals already abroad should not be forced to return when seeking international protection."
Myanmar has been in turmoil since a military coup last year, with swathes of the Southeast Asian nation engulfed by fighting.
More than 2,300 people have been killed in the military's crackdown on dissent since the coup, which rights groups say includes razing villages, mass extrajudicial killings and air strikes on civilians.
The junta blames anti-coup fighters for the deaths of almost 3,900 civilians.
"The situation in Myanmar is forcing people to flee to seek safety within the country and across borders. UNHCR appeals to the Malaysian authorities to abide by their international legal obligations and ensure the full respect for the rights of people in need of international protection," said Mantoo.
"We reiterate our call on states in the region to continue offering protection to Myanmar nationals fleeing for safety. This also includes ending the practice of indefinite detention of asylum seekers and refugees from Myanmar."
Foreign ministers from the region will hold emergency talks to discuss Myanmar ahead of November's Asean leaders' summit.
Asean has spearheaded so far fruitless efforts to resolve the crisis, and the bloc is frustrated by escalating human rights atrocities.


Turkiye plans to launch homegrown vaccine in Malaysia

Turkiye yesterday said it hopes the upgrading of its ties with Malaysia to comprehensive strategic partnership will further strengthen economic and commercial cooperation, including on vaccine development.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said among the immediate plans was for the republic, which became the ninth country in the world capable of producing its own Covid-19 vaccine last year, to launch its locally produced vaccine, Turkovac, in Malaysia.
"We want to transfer vaccine technology and carry out vaccine development studies together," he said at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who was in the country on a four-day official visit.
During their meeting at the Presidential Complex in the capital, Erdogan said they had discussed cooperation in fields such as the economy, investment, trade, defence industry, technology, health and communication.
"On this occasion, we once again confirmed our determination to carry forward our cooperation, which is getting deeper with each passing day. Upon the proposal of the prime minister, we decided to upgrade the relations between our countries from a strategic partnership to a comprehensive strategic partnership," he said. Erdogan said Malaysia-Turkiye relations have reached an exceptional level, with trade volume exceeding US$3.5 billion and Malaysia becoming the republic's largest commercial stakeholder in Southeast Asia.
He said trade volume increased by 50% last year despite the Covid-19 pandemic, and that the figures for the first six months of 2022 also showed a further increase in line with their target of US$5 billion by 2024.
The president said he believed that expanding the Free Trade Agreement to include services, investments and electronic commerce would further strengthen their economic and commercial ties, as well as balance the trade of goods and services.
The two leaders also discussed the possibility of new cooperation models and investment projects, such as in food security, energy and environment.
"I would like to emphasise that we have always felt the support of Malaysia on our side," he said, adding that he and Ismail had also discussed the Rohingya and Islamophobia issues.
He said both countries would strengthen their solidarity on platforms such as the United Nations, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and D8.
"We are working to strengthen our cooperation with all our brothers in Asia with our win-win understanding with our Asia Again initiative.
"We aim to raise our cooperation with Asean, of which we are a sectoral dialogue partner, to the status of a dialogue partnership," he said.