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BENARNEWS- Malaysia says it will deport a Kosovar man to the United States, where he is wanted on charges of computer hacking, stealing personal information of more than 1,300 U.S. servicemen and federal employees, then passing it on to the Islamic State (IS) extremist group.
The 20-year-old suspect arrived in Malaysia in August to pursue computer science and computer forensics studies at a private university, Malaysian Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said, as reported by the state-run Bernama news service. Local authorities arrested the man on Sept. 15, according to other media outlets.
"From our investigations, it was found that the suspect had communicated with one of the senior leaders of the IS militant group in Syria with the aim of hacking several computers, which contain information on the American security forces, before passing it on to the operations unit of the group for further action," Bernama quoted a statement from Khalid as saying Thursday.
First of its kind
U.S. law enforcement officials have identified the suspect as Ardit Ferizi, a 20-year-old citizen of Kosovo. A criminal complaint against him was unsealed on Thursday, and American justice officials are seeking Ferizi's extradition to Virginia to stand trial on the charges. He is being held in Malaysia under an American arrest warrant.
Ferizi is charged with providing material support to IS, computer hacking, and identity theft, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
"As alleged, Ardit Ferizi is a terrorist hacker who provided material support to ISIL by stealing the personally identifiable information of U.S. service members and federal employees and providing it to ISIL for use against those employees," Assistant U.S. Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin said in a prepared statement, using another acronym for IS.
"This case is a first of its kind and, with these charges, we seek to hold Ferizi accountable for his theft of this information and his role in ISIL's targeting of U.S. government employees," Carlin added.
Ferizi is believed to be the leader of a Kosovar internet hacking group known as Kosova Hacker's Security (KHS), who goes by the moniker "Th3Dir3ctorY," according to U.S. officials.
Ferizi hacked into the computer system of a company in the United States and stole the information of thousands of individuals, the statement said.
Then, between June and August of this year, he passed on such stolen information to IS member Junaid Hussain (alias Abu Hussain al-Britani), the Justice Department said.
'We are in your emails'
On Aug. 11, in the name of IS's hacking division, Junaid posted a message on Twitter that contained a hyperlink to a 30-page document.
"We are in your emails and computer systems, watching and recording your every move, we have your names and addresses, we are in your emails and social media accounts, we are extracting confidential data and passing on your personal information to the soldiers of the khilafah, who soon with the permission of Allah will strike at your necks in your own lands!" the release quoted a passage from the document as saying.
The document also listed names, contact information and locations for 1,351 American military personnel and federal workers, the department said.
"Ferizi is charged with obtaining the personal identifying information of U.S. military and government personnel and providing it to ISIL," said Dana J. Boente, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. "We will investigate and prosecute these cyber-attacks to fullest extent of the law."
If convicted, Ferizi faces as many as 35 years in prison.
The news of the arrest came a week after Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry signed a deal in Washington D.C., by which both countries agreed to cooperate more closely in combatting foreign terrorist threats.
The U.S. is also going to assist Malaysia in establishing a digital messaging center aimed at countering online recruitment propaganda by IS targeting Southeast Asian audiences, Zahid told reporters.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's government has sent mixed messages on the national security threat posed by the Islamic State (IS), some parliamentarians say, despite a recent meeting admonishing them to take it seriously.
"The government did not give us a clear explanation on the issue of IS threat," Chua Tiang Chang, an MP with the opposition People's Justice Party (PKR), told BenarNews, referring to a meeting called by Police Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar on Oct 15. to brief lawmakers about IS.
"During the briefing, they told us that the threat is very serious as IS militants were planning to attack houses of worship, the prime minister's residence, and that so many of our people are being lured to join jihad movement," he said.
"They said IS militants are everywhere and they mixed all the [militant] groups together. However, police did not even try to make things clearer to us about who the terrorist s actually are," Chua added.
The following Monday, Chua said, Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi gave a different message during a parliamentary session.
The home minister "told the House that we are very safe, and Malaysia is one of the few countries in the world [where] the threat of IS is minimal," Chua said.
"So, how can you expect people to reconcile [the facts] when you are giving contradicting signals from one person to another and to different people? So we are quite confused here," he said.
'A government drama'
At the Oct. 15 meeting at the Royal Malaysia Police academy in Kuala Lumpur, Khalid tried to convince lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition blocs that the government wasn't exaggerating its warnings about the level of the domestic threat posed by IS.
"Actually there are many people among us, including the elected representatives, who don't believe in the ISIS threat," The Malaysian Insider quoted Khalid as telling reporters after the briefing, referring to IS by another acronym.
"[They think] the ISIS threat is part of a government drama and a farce. That's why we have called them so that we can give an explanation," he added.
For months, government officials have warned that IS, via social media, threatens the country by aggressively recruiting young Malaysians for duty in Syria or Iraq, and that jihadists returning from combat tours abroad could plot terrorist attacks back home.
For his part, Zahid told parliament that the Malaysian police had arrested 132 people suspected of "associating with elements of terrorism including IS militants," Bernama reported.
"The country's security levels are at optimum levels and the threat of terrorism from inside and outside the country is under control," Astro Awani quoted Zahid as telling parliamentarians on Monday.
The next day, a Malaysian soldier was sentenced to seven months in jail for having a phone with an IS image. On Thursday, an Indonesian oil worker was charged in Kuala Lumpur for possessing publications related to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
On Friday, a 55-year-old Malaysian woman was sentenced to 60 months in jail for uploading to Facebook posts and photographs about her son, a jihadist killed in Syria, Bernama reported.
Put politics aside: UMNO MP
Mahfuz Omar, an MP with the opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), said he did not deny the existence of an IS threat and urged authorities to give it priority.
"However, what we are concerned with is the contradicting statements by IGP Khalid Abu Bakar and the home minister," Mahfuz told BenarNews.
"Last week, the police were adamant that the threat of militant group is for real and serious, not a ploy. But when the home minister responded to my supplementary question at the Dewan Rakyat, he said the situation is under control and Malaysia is one of the safest countries," the PAS lawmaker added.
"Such inconsistent statements send contradicting signals, and we are not sure which one is the most accurate."
Zahidi Zainul Abidin, an MP with the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the party that heads the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, defended the government's messaging on the issue.
"Politicizing the matter will not bring any good," Zaihidi told BenarNews. "All quarters should understand that the issue of the IS threat is beyond politics but it is saddening that some of the opposition parties are not keen to help the government in anything."


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BENARNEWS- Formerly incarcerated members of Southeast Asian and Malaysian Islamist groups, including al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), are helping Malaysians travel to the Middle East to join the Islamic State (IS) and other jihadist groups, a senior government official said Friday.
Newly formed militants cells have "established links with former JI and Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia (KMM) detainees who provide assistance in securing the route to the battle grounds in Syria," according to the state-run Bernama news agency's account of a speech given by Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed in Beijing.
"He said these groups were also responsible to initiate links between the new Malaysian arrivals with IS and other militant organizations based in Syria, namely Jabhat Al Nusrah (JAN) and Ajnad Al Sham (AAS)," Bernama reported on Nur Jazlan's speech at the China-ASEAN Ministerial Dialogue on Law Enforcement and Security Cooperation meeting.
However, the news report did not make clear whether the new cells were located inside Malaysia.
In his speech, Nur Jazlan Mohamed said 128 people "linked to 'Jihad' activities in Iraq and Syria" had been arrested in Malaysia, and 69 Malaysians had reportedly gone to the Middle East to join IS.
Jemaah Islamiyah, a militant group in Southeast Asia, was responsible for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, the 2003 car bombing of the Marriott hotel in Jakarta that killed 12, and 2005 suicide bombings in Bali that killed 22. Many JI operatives were arrested and jailed in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.
According to P. Sundramoorthy, a criminologist and associate professor at the University of Science, Malaysia (USM) in Penang, al-Qaeda implanted itself in Malaysian through JI long ago, but now IS has emerged as a new threat to national security.
"Similar to al-Qaeda, the Islamic State (IS) ideology is also posing a grave threat to the country's security, although many of us have yet to understand how serious the threat is," Sundramoorthy told BenarNews.


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BENARNEWS- Free speech and public debate are "rapidly narrowing" in Malaysia as the government adopts criminal laws to stifle dissent and criticism of its policies, U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) argues in a report that it will unveil Tuesday in Kuala Lumpur.
The report, "Creating a Culture of Fear: The Criminalization of Peaceful Expression in Malaysia," examines a host of laws relating to free speech, debate and assembly in Malaysia that have been toughened, introduced or revived since Prime Minister Najib Razak took office in 2009 – particularly the Sedition Act, which he had vowed to rescind, HRW said.
The report also highlights a trend of abuses of the legal process, such as unjustifiable remands, and a pattern of selective prosecution, according to HRW.
"Freedom of expression and assembly in Malaysia are currently under attack, aided by the existence of broad and vaguely worded laws that the government can wield to arrest, investigate, and imprison its critics. The recent increase in use of laws that criminalize peaceful expression is a step backward for a country that had seemed to be making progress on the protection of rights," according to an advance copy of the report released to BenarNews.
HRW is to launch the report during a Tuesday morning news conference at the Park Royal Hotel in Kuala Lumpur.
"Prime Minister Najib Razak and the Malaysian government have repeatedly broken promises to revise laws that criminalize peaceful expression. Instead, Malaysia has gone on a binge of prosecutions of critics," Brad Adams, HRW's Asia director, said in a statement ahead of the release.
"The government is making a mockery of its claims to democracy and fundamental rights by treating criticism as a crime," he added.
Clamping down on dissent
The crackdown on free speech followed the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition's loss in the popular vote in the 2013 general election.
It has intensified within the past year amid public criticism over the jailing of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on sodomy charges, a public backlash over a new goods and services tax, and a corruption scandal around the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) state fund, which has led to calls for Najib's resignation, HRW said.
In April, as many as 114 people were jailed for alleged sedition for criticizing the government, in what proved to be the biggest nationwide crackdown on dissent since 1987. Opposition leaders, civil society activists and journalists were among those arrested for sedition.
These included Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque, a cartoonist popularly known as Zunar, who now faces a potential 43-year jail sentence on nine counts of sedition, if convicted. A cartoon by Zunar, which was commissioned by Human Rights Watch, illustrates the report's cover.
Later in April, the Malaysian parliament amended the Sedition Act to include tougher penalties for speech deemed seditious, and speech that could be interpreted as offensive to religion.
Under the amended act, violators can now be jailed for up to 20 years, compared with a maximum of three years stipulated under the act's older version.


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BENARNEWS- Ahmad Hussin says he hardly knows his son-in-law, the self-proclaimed Malaysian jihadist Muhammad Wanndy Mohamad Jedi, who took his daughter to Syria nearly nine months ago to join the Islamic State extremist group.

A cobbler from Kedah state in northern Malaysia, Ahmad told BenarNews he last saw daughter Nor Mahmudah a year ago. And he lost touch with her after Mahmudah and her new husband – both in their twenties – left the country in late January.
Asked whether he knew that Mahmudah had given birth to a baby girl in Syria, Ahmad shook his head. Then he grew silent and stared at a pile of shoes before him.

"I pray that she and her child are safe there," Ahmad said feebly.

'Staring at death'

Ahmad told BenarNews he wasn't aware that his son-in-law was a radical, so the news that Mahmudah had gone to the Middle East with Wanndy jolted him as "the shock of his life."

Ahmad says he prays for the safe return of his daughter. But he's mindful that he may never again see Mahmudah, the third of his four children.

"Over there, they are staring at death day in and day out. As a father, of course, I am deeply concerned for her safety," Ahmad told BenarNews during an interview at his shoe repair stall near a taxi stand in the border town of Baling, where he has worked for the past 30 years.

"But if they return home, they are facing the imminent risk of being punished under our law and even getting sentenced to jail," said Ahmad, who uses a wheelchair after a stroke a decade ago paralyzed him from the waist down.

Mahmudah's father described his daughter as a person with a good heart, but he was struggling with the realization that she had fallen in love with a jihadist. 

"She is married and now under the care of her husband. I have done my responsibility as a father to raise her, and now she is someone's wife. There is nothing I could do to stop her husband's decision," said Ahmad.

Wanted

Malaysian authorities are looking for Wanndy as part of a crackdown on IS militants. They hope to prevent people like him from recruiting other youths via social media, or mounting terrorist attacks on home soil after returning from Mid-East combat tours. 

Wanndy, who hails from the small town of Durian Tunggal in Malacca state, reportedly belongs to an IS unit, Majmu'ah al Arkhabiliy (previously known as Katibah Nusantara), which is made up of Malay-speaking combatants from Indonesia and Malaysia.

In late February, Wanndy made headlines back home when he and another young Malaysian, Mohd Faris Anuar, were reported to be part of an IS video crew that filmed the execution of a Syrian prisoner. A still image taken from the video showed Wanndy smiling and crouching over the headless man's body. 

"I must say that I do harbor the hope of returning to Malaysia, but it is not my priority, as my focus now is to stay here and fight, to achieve my dream of defending the IS," Wanndy told BenarNews in an interview conducted via Facebook last month.

Couple met in Penang

A close family friend described Mahmudah as not the type of person who espoused extremist views. 

Growing up, she had attended a state school – not a religious school – said the friend, an elder in Mahmudah's home village who requested anonymity. The village is located in a rural and religiously conservative part of Malaysia.

He said he suspected that Wanndy had "brainwashed" his bride into agreeing to move with him to Syria.

Mahmudah met Wanndy when she worked at an electronics factory in Penang state, the friend said, and the two married not long after Mahmudah divorced her first husband.

"Just months after the divorce, Mahmudah asked the family for a blessing to marry Wanndy," the friend told BenarNews.

"At first, her family was a bit reluctant as they did not know his background, but finally agreed as she was persistent."

Buy your own ticket

Royal Malaysia Police's Special Branch in Bukit Aman has identified Wanndy as one of 69 Malaysians who have joined the IS ranks in Syria or Iraq. But the number could be closer to 100, including children, according to Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, assistant director of the counter-terrorism unit in the Special Branch division. 

Back home, the authorities have arrested at least 111 people within the past year suspected of links to Islamic State.

Although they face the prospect of being taken into custody under Malaysia's new Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) – which allows suspects to be held without trial for renewable two-year periods – some jihadists have even asked authorities to help them come home, Ayob said.

"If they wish to return, they will have to make their own arrangements since they had entered Syria illegally. So how are we supposed to help them?" Ayob told BenarNews.

"There are some of them who sought our help to bring them home, but it is hard for us because they are in Syria and there is no proper government there at the moment. Even if we decide to help bring them home, the government will have to request a help from a third country," he added.

Hata Wahari contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia on Friday announced the deportation of five people, including a Maldivian diplomat, as suspects in an alleged plot to assassinate the president of the Maldives last month.

The five Maldivian citizens were taken into custody during a raid in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday by the Royal Malaysia Police's counter-terrorism branch, and were sent home two days later "for further investigation" by authorities in the Maldives, Malaysian Police Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar said in a news release issued Friday.

One of the suspects, a 47-year-old man, worked as an 'investment ambassador' at the Maldivian embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Khalid said.

"He was arrested at an apartment in Kuala Lumpur with four other Maldivians – two men and two women aged between 28 and 38 years old," according to the police chief's statement.

"The success of this operation is the result of close cooperation between Royal Malaysia Police and Maldives authorities," he added.

However, it was unclear whether the Malaysian authorities were responding to a request from the Maldives for the extradition of the five suspects, or whether the Malaysian police had gathered any evidence of their involvement in the alleged plot.

Officials with the counter-terrorism special branch could not be reached on Friday to clarify this point.

Meanwhile, the foreign ministry of the Maldives confirmed that the diplomat was arrested in connection with a probe into an explosion aboard a boat carrying the country's president on Sept. 28, and it named the suspect as Hamid Ismail, according to a report by Reuters.

On that day in late September, an explosion rocked the presidential boat as it sailed into Male, the capital of the island-chain nation in the Indian Ocean. President Abdulla Yameen emerged from the blast unhurt, but his wife and two assistants were injured by it, Reuters reported.

On Saturday, Ahmed Adheeb, the vice-president of the Maldives, was arrested in connection with the explosion, which police have described as "an assassination bid," AFP reported.

Yet as of Tuesday, Maldivian authorities were still searching for explosives following the blast on the presidential boat, Agence France-Presse quoted Maldivian Foreign Minister Dunya Maumoon as saying.

In March, Yameen's government sentenced Mohamed Nasheed, the former president of the Maldives, to 13 years in prison on terrorism-related charges, according to news reports.

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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's deputy home minister on Monday rebuffed a U.N. panel's report that called for jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's immediate release and said he may have been mistreated in prison.
"The group had no right to question the decisions of the Malaysian legal system," Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed told parliament.
"Respect the decisions of the courts. The government has been doing whatever is needed to make sure Anwar is always healthy and he also gets the proper treatment, '' he added.
At a news conference in Kuala Lumpur on Monday morning, Anwar's international legal team released an opinion by the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which ruled that Anwar's "deprivation of liberty" was "arbitrary."
"Taking into account all the circumstances of the case, the Working Group considers that the adequate remedy would be to release Mr. Ibrahim immediately, and ensure that his political rights that were removed based on his arbitrary detention be reinstated," it said.
The five-member working group under the U.N. Human Rights Council consists of experts from Australia, Benin, Mexico, South Korea, and Ukraine.
Based on evidence at its disposal, the panel concluded that Anwar did not receive a fair trial, and that the sodomy charges against him were "politically motivated."
"Taken together, these factors provide a persuasive body of evidence, which was not contested by the Government, that Mr. Ibrahim has been specifically targeted by the Malaysian authorities," the panel's opinion said.
Anwar's legal team said Malaysia must abide by the findings of the group, whose mandate is to consider and render opinions about alleged cases of arbitrary detention.
"The Government of Malaysia held a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council from 2006-2009, and 2010-2013. It must abide by this opinion and its recommendations."
Government has no power over courts: officials
Later, the prime minister's office issued a statement in which it called on "all parties, including those overseas, to respect [the] legal process, the judgment of Malaysia's courts and the rights of the victim to seek justice."
"The final verdict in this case was reached by the courts after exhaustive and comprehensive legal process had been followed over many years. The Federal Court judges will have upheld the Court of Appeal's guilty verdict only after considering all the evidence," the PM's office said.
"Malaysia has an independent judiciary – with many rulings going against senior government figures – and the government does not have the power or authority to overrule the decisions of the courts," it said.
Anwar, the former leader of the opposition Pakatan Rakyat coalition, is eight months into a five-year prison sentence for sodomy. Many rights groups assert that his prosecution was politically motivated and aimed at removing a political threat to Prime Minister Najib Razak's government.
The U.N. Human Rights office, the United States and several other countries had earlier expressed disappointment over his jailing.
Mistreated?
The U.N. opinion released Monday also voiced concern over allegations that Anwar was still being held in solitary confinement.
"The Working Group considers it appropriate to refer the allegations regarding the treatment of Mr. Ibrahim during his term of imprisonment to the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment for appropriate action," the opinion said.
A statement released by Anwar's legal team quoted his daughter, MP Nurul Izzah Anwar, as expressing gratitude to the U.N. panel for calling for his release.
"Its strong stance in solidarity with my father sends a clear and unequivocal message to Prime Minister Najib Razak, and ensures that the sharp decline in human rights under his administration will not go unnoticed," she said.
Anwar was deputy prime minister of Malaysia from 1993-98, and a founder of the People's Justice Party (PKR), one of three parties in the Pakatan Rakyat coalition.
The sodomy case dates to 2008 when a political aide to Anwar alleged that the two had had consensual sex. Anwar was acquitted in 2012 due to what the court said was a lack of evidence, but a government Court of Appeal overturned the acquittal, and Anwar lost his final appeal in February 2015.
The current incarceration is the second for Anwar, who was imprisoned from 1998 to 2004 on a separate sodomy charge. That conviction was overturned, and Anwar returned to politics, leading the Pakatan Rakyat coalition to win 52 percent of the popular vote in Malaysia's 2013 general election.


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BENARNEWS- Two Malaysian men arrested on terrorism charges in Lebanon three years ago have been brought home and taken into custody, Malaysian police announced Monday.
"Two suspects aged 24 and 33, suspected as members of the Tandzim Al Qaeda Malaysia, were detained in Lebanon on 18 October 2012 because they tried to enter Syria to join a terrorist group," Malaysian Police Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar said in a statement.
"They were escorted home by special counterterrorism forces on October 30 and arrested upon arrival at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang, Selangor," he said.
The 24-year-old is a native of Selangor and former civil servant, while the older man is an electrician from Kuala Lumpur, the statement said.
Four other people arrested in Selangor and Johor on Friday were members of the same group who were "still in hiding after the operation to arrest senior leaders of that group in February 2013," according to the police statement.
It further announced the arrests, also on Friday, of two 28-year-old civil servants accused of spreading Islamic State (IS) propaganda among their co-workers.
All eight were detained under Act 574 of the Malaysian Penal Code and will be investigated under the Security Offenses (Special Measures) Act 2012, the statement said.
First arrested in Beirut
On Oct. 28, 2012, Malaysian media reported that Lebanese authorities had arrested two Malaysians on suspicion that they were suicide bombers linked to al-Qaeda.
The two were nabbed at Beirut International Airport 10 days earlier, according to reports.
Investigations revealed that they were recruited into al-Qaeda in Malaysia in 2007, according to a local Lebanese newspaper, the Al-Joumhouria.
It said the two Malaysians had tried to enter Syria via Turkey on a jihadist mission to carry out suicide attacks.
When the two Malaysians failed to enter Syria, they decided to head to Lebanon to carry out terrorist attacks but their activities caught the eye of army intelligence, the paper said.
At the time, then-Malaysian Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein identified the men as Rafik Mohammed Aaref and Mohammed Razin Shaaban. He said they had no direct link with militant groups in Southeast Asia such as Jemaah Islamiyah and Darul Islam.
The two suspects were brought to a Military Court in Beirut on Oct. 25, 2012, where the charges were read to them, then Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said.
"The Malaysian Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon is taking action to meet the two Malaysian nationals and provide consular advice. The families of the two suspects have also been informed of their arrest," he said in a statement at that time.


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BENARNEWS- Defense ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) could not reach an agreement Wednesday on a joint statement on the South China Sea, following disagreements between the United States and China.
ASEAN's 10 members invited defense leaders from eight countries, including the two superpowers, Australia, Japan and India to the Third ASEAN Defense Ministers – Plus two-day meeting in Kuala Lumpur.
U.S. officials pressed for a joint statement to include mention of the South China Sea disputes while China lobbied members to avoid any references, Reuters reported.
The lack of agreement comes just days after China expressed concern about the USS Lassen, a guided-missile destroyer, sailing near one of China's manmade archipelago in the Spratly Islands. A planned signing ceremony had to be canceled.
"The decision was made by ASEAN because there is no consensus, so no joint declaration is signed," Malaysian Defense Minister Hishamuddin Hussein told reporters, according to Malay Mail Online.
ASEAN members Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines have raised concerns over China's continuing efforts to create new land masses, including airfields, in the island chain, arguing that China is trying to claim shipping lanes, mineral and fishing rights in the sea.
The Philippines has been especially vocal in its complaints about China's growing foothold in the South China Sea, arguing that China's nine-dash line claim to nearly all of the South China Sea violates the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The United Nations Permanent Court of Arbitration on Oct. 29 determined that it would hear the Philippines' case against China.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the lack of a statement reflected concern about China's activity.
"Obviously, they weren't able to reach consensus and that reflects I think the level of concern that was reflected in the conversation about activities in the South China Sea," Carter said, according to news reports.
Chinese Defense Minister Chang Wanquan said his country was willing to join hands with ASEAN to build a closer community, deepen pragmatic cooperation and to interact with other countries in the region, China's official news agency Xinhua reported.
Malay Mail Online reported on a copy of remarks by Hishammuddin, which were released to the media, and later retracted a reference that ASEAN sought a peaceful resolution and that collisions in open seas and skies had to be avoided at all costs.
Hishammuddin and Carter are scheduled to cruise on the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt on Thursday. The ship has been on patrol in the South China Sea.


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BENARNEWS- Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said little during a 45-minute police interview in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, after authorities opened a criminal defamation probe against him for criticizing the current prime minister and other ruling party officials at a rally.
"They asked questions. I said I will not answer them," Mahathir told reporters following the interview in his office at the Albukhary Foundation, the Malay Mail reported.
He said he did not know if he would be arrested, and that the decision was up to the police.
The nation's police chief later confirmed to BenarNews that several police officers visited the 90-year-old former prime minister at his office on Friday and took a statement from him.
Last month, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said authorities were investigating Mahathir for alleged defamation under Section 500 of the country's Penal Code. A defamation charge carries a potential two-year prison sentence or a fine –or both – according to The Malaysian Insider (TMI).
"He currently is being investigated under Section 500 of the Penal Code," Police Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar told BenarNews on Friday.
In Late October, Khalid told the Insider that Mahathir was being investigated for comments he made during Bersih 4.0, a massive rally that took place in Kuala Lumpur on Aug. 29-30. At the demonstration, Mahathir and others speakers called for Prime Minister Najib Razak to resign over a corruption scandal tied to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a state fund.
Mahathir also then publicly criticized division heads from the ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party of taking bribes, TMI reported.
"The only way to return rule of law is to remove this prime minister, and to remove him, the people must show people's power," the Malay Mail quoted Mahathir as saying during the rally. "We should move a motion of no confidence in Parliament."
'Political donations'
Mahathir, who served as prime minister from 1981 to 2003, has regularly criticized Najib. But he started to call for his resignation after allegations of corruption against Najib emerged following news reports in July that nearly U.S. $700 million (2.6 billion ringgit) of money from the 1MDB fund were deposited into the prime minister's personal bank accounts. The deposits were made in 2013, during the run-up to the country's last general election, according to news reports.
Officials close to Najib say the money transfers were legitimate "political donations" from unidentified Middle Eastern sources but have given no details. The accounts have been closed, but it is unclear where the money went.
Keeping it simple
On Friday, Haniff Khatri Abdulla, a lawyer representing Mahathir, said his team advised their client not to answer some questions and that the former PM "kept it simple."
Mahathir, "was very clear with what was happening and his answers were given with full clarity," Haniff told reporters.
The attorney said there should be no need for additional questioning as Mahathir had already told police what needed to be said.
"If there's evidence [of wrongdoing], just arrest and charge [Mahathir]," Haniff added.


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BENARNEWS- As Kuala Lumpur prepares to host the 27th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit, which starts Wednesday, member nations including Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand are pledging to share intelligence and combat terrorism.

Following deadly terrorist attacks in Paris and Beirut last week claimed by the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, ASEAN host-country Malaysia is taking steps to ensure the safety of dignitaries attending the summit, which will go through Sunday.
The Royal Malaysia Police's counter-terrorism branch has assigned special action teams from its elite Special Action Unit (UTK) as backup for the security details protecting delegations from the various ASEAN member-states, as well as the United States, China, Japan, India and Russia, The Star newspaper reported Monday. It quoted Senior Assistant UTK Commander Hazani Ghazali as saying that 300 personnel would be on duty during the summit.
Strong collaboration among ASEAN nations would go a long way toward curbing terror threats, said P. Sundramoorthy, an associate professor of criminology at University Science of Malaysia.

"These individual cells realized that it is difficult now for them to join the IS militants in Syria and Iraq, so it is possible that they are mulling to mobilize to establish an Islamic State in the other parts of the world, including their own countries," Sundramoorthy told BenarNews.
"For me, the threat from a terror faction in this region is not immediate, but I must stress that we must not underestimate what they are trying to do."
He was commenting after the Straits Times of Singapore reported on Saturday that a group of wanted Malaysian militants was looking to start a Southeast Asian chapter of IS, by merging terrorist groups in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, such as Jemaah Islamiyah and Abu Sayaf.
The next day, The Star newspaper quoted Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Tun Hussein as saying that IS had put him and other officials on a hit list.
Bangladesh tightens security
Meanwhile in Bangladesh, the government on Sunday upgraded security by deploying an armed battalion of police at parliament.
"The attacks in Paris and Lebanon and the series of machete attacks over the last month have really made us worried about the [Jatiyo] Sangsad [parliament] security. [The militants] may target our highest seat of democracy," Deputy Parliamentary Speaker Fazle Rabbi Miah told BenarNews, referring to recent attacks on bloggers and publishers.
Hours after the Paris attacks, Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury authorized Miah to hold an emergency meeting with Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and security agencies.
"We are bound to root out terrorism. Terrorism has no place in democracy. We are capable of curbing terrorism," Chaudhury told BenarNews.
Bangladesh has been on a heightened security alert following a series of attacks including the Sept. 28 killing of Italian aid worker Cesare Tavella and the Oct. 3 killing of Japanese researcher Kunio Hoshi.
IS has claimed responsibility for those killings and the bombing of a Shiite religious procession on Oct. 24. Khan has rejected IS claims that it has a foothold in his country, linking those incidents and others to domestic militant groups.
Indonesia, Thailand officials act in wake of attacks
Elsewhere, Jakarta Regional Police spokesman Muhammad Iqbal told BenarNews that Indonesia was imposing strict security at foreign embassies, prioritizing European nations, Australia and the United States.
"President Jokowi has stressed the importance of international cooperation in combating terrorism," Indonesia Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said. "No country is safe from terrorism, so the way to tackle it is by working together."
In Thailand, Deputy Prime Minister Gen. Prawit Wongsuwan called a meeting of police, military and security officials, specifically focusing on IS members.
We have tightened security measures along the checkpoints and borders, especially at the Malaysia-Thai borders. IS was previously found moving into Malaysia. We also track any cyber movement," he said.
Kamran Reza Chowdhury, Pimuk Rakkanam, Arie Firdhaus and S. Adie Zul contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak took to Facebook on Wednesday to condemn the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf Group for executing countryman Bernard Then in the southern Philippines.
"We call upon authorities to take action against those who have perpetrated this savage and barbaric act and ensure that they are brought to justice," Najib said in a message posted on his Facebook page.
"We will also extend our full cooperation to relevant agencies and authorities in charge of the investigation into this incident."
Then, 39, was abducted in May from a seaside restaurant in Malaysia's Sabah state, along with a Malaysian woman, Thien Nyuk Fun, AFP reported. They were taken by boat to the southern Philippine island of Jolo.
The woman was released last week after reports that a ransom had been paid. Then was beheaded after ransom talks failed, Philippine police reported.
On Wednesday, the Malaysian parliament offered condolences to Then's family, the Straits Times of Singapore reported.
MP Stephen Wong requested that his fellow parliamentarians observe a minute of silence, but Deputy Speaker Ronald Kiandee responded that such gestures usually were reserved for heads of states or lawmakers.
"However, the Dewan Rakyat would like to record its sympathies to the family of Then that is facing a trying time," Kiandee said, according to the Straits Times.
Najib was in Manila for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. The Malaysian leader denied that Then's  killing was linked to the summit, which has drawn leaders from 21 countries on the Pacific Rim.
The Philippine government, meanwhile, has blamed the Abu Sayyaf Group for bombings, kidnappings and other terrorist acts.
Last year, the group pledged its allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) extremist group. But many analysts believe that the two groups have little in common, and that Abu Sayyaf may have been looking to associate itself with the radical movement based in Syria and Iraq, AFP reported.
The Abu Sayyaf Group usually prefers to hold foreign captives for lengthy periods – sometimes years – in exchange for ransoms.


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BENARNEWS- Leaders of Asian and Pacific Rim countries took a two-pronged approach during meetings in Manila and Kuala Lumpur on Thursday toward battling terrorism following deadly terror attacks in Paris.
In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia responded to unconfirmed terrorist threats by boosting security at the 27th summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
In the Philippine capital, member-states of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum closed their summit by condemning recent attacks claimed by the Islamic State (IS) extremist group.
Malaysia's police chief announced enhanced security – including at all national entry and exit points – following reports of imminent threats directed at the ASEAN summit that ends Sunday. Military personnel were working with police to ensure security for the Malaysian people and foreign guests, he said.
"Terrorism and violent extremism have no place in Malaysia, and we will not cease to hunt down and deal with anyone who seeks to undermine the peace and stability of our country," Malaysian Police Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar said.
Those attending the meeting in Kuala Lumpur also focused on combatting terrorism, and the host country signed an agreement with the United States to cooperate in stopping serious crime. The deal builds on an agreement allowing the two countries to exchange biographic data of known and suspected terrorists, by focusing on cooperation in the detection, prevention and investigation of felonies.
As part of the agreement, the Malaysian government would have access to a database containing biometric information on 1.2 million people suspected of terrorist and other criminal links.
"From the intelligence information gathered, some groups may be motivated by what happened in Paris and may try to repeat it here," Channel News Asa quoted Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as saying.
"I am confident our authorities are on top of the situation to ensure similar attacks will not happen here."
He was referring to Friday's attacks by IS in the French capital, which killed at least 128 and injured dozens more.
APEC: Prosperity a weapon against radicalism
In Manila, leaders from 21 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries attendees came out strongly against terrorists in their closing declaration on Thursday, pointing to that attacks as well as a deadly attack in Beirut and the bombing of a Russian airliner over the Sinai, which were also claimed by IS.
"We will not allow terrorism to threaten the fundamental values that underpin our free and open economies. Economic growth, prosperity, and opportunity are among the most powerful tools to address the root causes of terrorism and radicalization," the declaration stated. "We stress the urgent need for increased international cooperation and solidarity in the fight against terrorism."
The declaration welcomed APEC members' efforts to counter terrorism, including through initiatives to combat terrorist financing and prevent foreign terrorists from crossing international boundaries through analysis of passenger data and other measures.
The declaration went on to encourage trade strategy along with collective and individual efforts to secure infrastructure, travel, supply chains and financial systems.
Officials in Southeast Asia, the venue for both summits, say they are contending with an emerging threat from efforts by IS to recruit young people from across the region, for its jihadist cause in the Middle East.
Authorities in the two ASEAN countries with the largest Muslim populations, Indonesia and Malaysia, have also warned that local recruits returning from combat duty in Syria or Iraq could plot terrorist attacks on home soil.
About 514 Indonesians and up to 100 Malaysians have traveled to the Middle East to join IS, according to counter-terrorism officials in both countries. At least 14 Malaysians and around 50 Indonesians, respectively, have died fighting for IS in the Mid-East, officials told BenarNews.


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BENARNEWS- U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday discussed corruption and transparency in government with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, while praising Malaysia's participation in global efforts to rein in violent extremism.
Earlier in the day, Obama told a town hall-style meeting in Kuala Lumpur, attended by 500 young people from across Southeast Asia, that he planned to raise these issues with Najib during his second visit to Malaysia. Friday marked the first day of his second trip to Malaysia, where he is attending the 27th summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
"Now, I admit that I was going to do it anyway, but not that I hear it from you, I'm definitely going to do it," Obama told a young Malaysian who asked the president for his help in raising the issue of corruption, democracy and transparency with the prime minister.
Since early July, Najib has been mired in allegations that more than U.S. $700 million in money from the debt-ridden 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a state development fund, wound up in his private bank accounts. His government has been clamping down on media organizations that have reported on the scandal, in which people have called for his resignation.
After his meeting with Najib on Friday night, Obama told reporters during a joint appearance with Najib that "we talked about the importance of civil society."
According to a U.S. official, Obama privately raised issues of human rights, corruption and freedom of expression with Najib, Reuters reported.
"[W]e take into account some of his views and concerns. But Malaysia is committed to reforms, and we are committed to reassuring at the same time there's peace and stability," Najib told reporters for his part.
Najib, Obama focus on countering terrorists
The two leaders also talked how their countries were cooperating in countering terrorism. The issue was highlighted by the host government increasing security around the summit, based on unconfirmed terrorist threats following last week's Islamic State-claimed attacks in Paris and Beirut and Friday's attack in Mali.
"The Malaysian government is very clear unequivocally that we are up against IS, against its ideology," Najib said.
"It is evil. It is against Islam. It's a perverted Islam and they do not represent us. So we will work very closely together with the United States and other like-minded countries to make this region safer and to combat any form of violent extremism," he said.
Najib also spoke about plans announced in October for Kuala Lumpur to host a regional counter-messaging center to fight the Islamic State (IS) group's extremist propaganda online. The center is expected to be similar to one in the United Arab Emirates that is increasing online efforts to undermine IS efforts to attract potential members.
"Because in fighting violent extremism, it's not only a military solution that's required, but it's winning the hearts and minds of its people," Najib said. "And that's why it is important for us to present the authentic Islam, the true Islam, so that people realize what IS represents, or tries to represent, is the total perversion of Islam."
Obama praised Malaysia, pointing out that like Indonesia, it is a majority-Muslim country that represents tolerance and peace. "[A]s a consequence, its voice is critical in the debate that is taking place internationally around terrorism."
He went on to praise Malaysia for its willingness to host the counter-messaging center.
Najib stresses tolerance is best defense against terrorism
In his opening remarks on Friday at the 2015 ASEAN business and investment summit, held in conjunction with the larger ASEAN summit, Najib pointed out that the bloc's member nations, home to 600 million people, must remain an oasis of peace and tolerance, the state-run Bernama news agency reported.
"The power of our example of remaining peaceful, tolerant, harmonious and inclusive societies is our best defense and guarantee against violent terrorism, against terrorist groups, against those people who seek to destroy our way of life," Najib said, according to Bernama.
S. Adie Zul contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Laughter can be a form of protest, according to Malaysian cartoonist Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque – better known as Zunar – whose visual critiques of government excess have led to multiple bans on his work.
"If you don't like them, laugh at them. The government can't make a law to ban laughter," Zunar told BenarNews in an interview in Washington DC.
The 53-year-old cartoonist will receive an International Press Freedom Award this week from the Committee to Protect Journalists, an international nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom. The awards recognize the bravery of journalists in the face of threats, according to CPJ.
Zunar is facing nine charges of sedition and a potential 43-year jail term for tweets sent in February criticizing the jailing of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on sodomy charges. Many viewed the trial as ploy to remove a potent political rival to the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, in power since 1957.
But his sedition trial is currently on hold. That's because Zunar's legal team has challenged Malaysia's Sedition Act on grounds that it contradicts the country's constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression. A court hearing on that challenge is scheduled for December 15.
Zunar – who has a daily cartoon in the online news portal Malaysiakini – views the nine sedition charges as an attempt to silence him "forever" after a years-long campaign against him.
Since 2008, he has twice been arrested and temporarily detained. His books have been banned. Printing presses and book stalls have been warned not to work with him. And, according to Zunar, the webmaster who manages online sales of his work has been investigated for sedition.
In an interview, Zunar explains why he will return to Malaysia to wage a battle in court, despite the risks.
BN: Has freedom of speech become much more restricted in Malaysia since 2008?
Zunar: I think that the space for freedom of speech is getting narrower by the day in Malaysia. This is linked to a decline in support for the government ... the more people are discontented with the government, the narrower the space. The government is taking steps to ensure it is still in power.
In the last general election, in 2013, the current governing party, Barisan Nasional, got only 47 percent of the popular vote, and the opposition got 52. That means the government is now in the minority, although in terms of seats, in legal terms, they are still in power, but in terms of the popular vote, they are a minority. So, we see that 50 percent of people are not satisfied.
People will use whatever method they can if they are pressured, if they cannot express themselves in the mainstream media, or in other places. People are creative. They make satirical videos, for example, they make posters, cartoons, jokes, and so on, on the internet, above all. And because of this the government is forced to take steps to make sure it doesn't happen.
BN: What is the special power or role of the cartoon?
Zunar: A cartoon is a very effective medium of communication. First, it's funny, it has humor. Second, it summarizes a complicated problem in a very simple drawing that gets its message across quickly. Also, it's universal. It can be understood anywhere. And fourth, it has what's called a pictorial image, an image that sticks in your thoughts, better than something you read.
And other than that, it can cut across social barriers. For example, a person who can't read can still understand a cartoon.
I want my messages to have a wide reach. So I have introduced what I call cartoons for the people. These are not political cartoons. These are cartoons for people. I don't draw about politicians here ... but about political issues that have an effect on people. Corruption is the country's problem, not a political problem, because citizens are the ones who pay for it...
Second, in my cartoons for people, I have removed the copyright. Whoever wants to use it, please go ahead. You don't need to ask for permission. It's because I feel this talent that I have is not a gift, but a responsibility. Talent is not something to be used for my sake, but for everyone's sake...
I know a lot of Malaysians are not satisfied, many want to express themselves, but maybe they don't dare go to a demonstration. Some of them work, some don't dare confront the police. I understand that. So I am offering protest through laughter ... Just laugh at them. If you don't like them, laugh at them...The government can't make a law to ban laughter.
BN: Do you write about religion, and the role of religion in politics?
Zunar: Offending religion is not my agenda....I don't criticize Islam. And I don't criticize Christianity, or any religion. Because I respect religion. But followers of religion, yes, I criticize them... I've done cartoons that criticize followers of religion for exploiting religion. As an example, recently I did a cartoon about the differences between haram. In Malaysia, there is haram food. It's a big issue. Pork is haram. But 2.6 b [billion] is halal. [Prime Minister Najib Razak has been implicated in a corruption scandal involving 2.6 billion ringgit.] So that's what I mean by criticizing not religion, but followers of religion. I'm not going to offend religion in my cartoons, because in my opinion, the first enemy of man is not religion, but corrupt and repressive regimes.
[https://www]
 
BN: When the attacks happened against Charlie Hebdo in Paris, did people ask for your comments? And what did you have to say?
Zunar: I was the first cartoonist to make a statement, and coincidentally a Muslim cartoonist, so it was given a lot of play. My opinion is very clear. First of all, we must respect the rights of cartoonists. That right must be respected. We can't violate that right. But Muslims also have the right, to not like that cartoon. We may not like it, but we don't have a license to kill...
If we don't like it, there are many things we can do. We can debate with them. We can make a good cartoon about the Prophet Mohammad. Muslims are engrossed in being insulted over the bad cartoons. Where are the good ones? They've never been made. So, the rights of cartoonists must be respected, but the contents are subject to debate. And the cartoonists must reply. If they insult religion, they must reply to the people they've insulted. That's their task. But there is no person in this world, including Prophet Mohammad, who has a license to kill.
BN: How do you feel about the upcoming court date?
Zunar: First of all, like anyone would be, I feel afraid. But my sense of responsibility is greater than my sense of fear. This is my responsibility, and I must face it. There are people who ask me, why don't you take political asylum, in another country, in Europe, or in America? If I do that, it's good for me but not good for the country.
If I take asylum in another country, I won't have to face the court. And the government would like that, because they won't have to explain anything.  ... I want to go to court, because after they arrested and charged me, they have a responsibility to publicly clarify why this was done.
I know my case is going to get extensive coverage in the international media. And because of that, I need to reveal the true face of the Malaysian government. At the very least, for the sake of freedom of expression and human rights. This is my opportunity. .. For that reason I'll go back, although I know the risk is very high.
BN: Are you continuing to do cartoons now?
Zunar: I am drawing more than before. After I was arrested, after I was charged, I drew more cartoons than before. Every day I draw, wherever I am. ... If we look at it from a positive point of view, it has given me motivation.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's parliament Thursday passed a bill vesting a national security council (NSC) with special powers, but opponents are criticizing the new law because it gives the prime minister too much power, they say.
After the debating the bill for six and a half hours on Thursday, the Dewan Rakyat, as parliament is known, voted 107-74 in favor of the National Security Council Bill (2015) without any amendments.
"This is worse than the ISA," Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, a leader with the opposition People's Justice Party (PKR), told reporters in the lobby of parliament, referring to Malaysia's now abolished Internal Security Act and suggesting that the NSC would now be accountable to no one.
"This is a law that should not be included in the parliament," she said.
The new law comes as the government of Prime Minister Najib Razak is embroiled in a corruption scandal around a deeply indebted state fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad, and authorities have been cracking down on his critics and dissenters by charging them under the nation's sedition law.
The NSC law vests the council with sweeping powers, according to reports. These 15 new powers include the ability to impose curfews, arrest people and conduct searches without warrants in a "security area" declared by the council in the name of protecting the country's interests, local media reported.
The council consists of the prime minister, who chairs it, the deputy prime minister, the ministers of defense, home affairs and communications and multimedia, as well as three other top officials.
The National Security Council was instituted in 1971, in the aftermath of race riots that shook Malaysia in 1969, but the council had limited powers and had to consult the Yang di-Pertuan Agong – the king – on national security questions during emergencies. The new law allows the prime minister to bypass the king in declaring a curfew, among other actions, critics say.
"Now we know what the path to Malaysian dictatorship looks like," Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch,  said in a statement issued Thursday, before parliament adopted the bill.
"[T]he Malaysian government's proposed National Security Council bill is quite clearly a tool for repression. While touted as a law to protect national security, the law provides expansive powers that could fundamentally threaten human rights and democratic rule," Robertson said.
"The law is far broader than can be justified by any real threat to Malaysia's national security, and creates a real risk of abuse in the hands of Prime Minister Najib and his embattled government," he added.
The bill's critics included Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, the former prime minister who ruled Malaysia from 1981 to 2003.
"It is as if we will have a dictatorship," Malaysiakini quoted the 90-year-old ex-PM, one of Najib's fiercest critics who was known for his authoritarian style of rule, as warning.
The government has justified the bill, saying the new law was needed to safeguard the nation from threats such as cyber-attacks, maritime terrorism and transnational crime, the state-run news agency Bernama, reported.
Rushed through?
Parliament adopted the bill on the last day of its current session, but opposition lawmakers complained that the government hurried it through by introducing it for debate only on Tuesday.
Gobind Singh, an MP with the Democratic Action Party (DAP) from Puchong, said the government had acted irresponsibly.
"Obviously, everyone should be given enough time to examine the bill before it is approved into law. It is irresponsible and unfair for the government to throw this proposal to us and beg to be debated on the last day of parliament," Singh said.
"This proposal should be carefully reviewed and must be explained clearly, and we must make sure it has no abuse of power," he told reporters on Thursday.
The bill was introduced by Shahidan Kassim, the minister at the Prime Minister's Department.
Winding up one of the rounds of debate on the bill, Shahidan said the law was not intended to declare an area as an "emergency area" but only as "a safety area."
"This bill is not in conflict with the Constitution. We referred it to the attorney general, and he told us it did not conflict with the Constitution," Shahidan said.


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BENARNEWS- Mohd Faris Anuar, a Malaysian who shocked his country earlier this year by filming an Islamic State beheading video, has been killed fighting for the group in Anbar, Iraq, BenarNews has learned.
The 20 or 21-year-old native of Kedah state is the 14th Malaysian IS member to die in the Middle East, a senior counterterrorism official confirmed to BenarNews Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"Yes, true... Mohd Faris Anuar was killed in battle in Al-Anbar, Iraq on November 23 and the death of Mohd Faris brings the total to 14 Malaysians who were killed in Syria and Iraq," the official said.
An announcement of the death was posted on a jihadist Facebook account on November 23 stating that "Abu Qudamah Al Malizi" had been martyred. Abu Qudamah Al Malizi is an alias that had been used by Faris, according to an intelligence source.
At least 128 people "linked to 'Jihad' activities in Iraq and Syria" had been arrested in Malaysia, and 69 Malaysians had reportedly gone to the Middle East to join IS, Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed said in October.
Fresh Arrests
Those numbers ticked up Saturday as Malaysian police announced the arrests of four foreign nationals and a Malaysian man suspected of terrorist activities on Malaysian soil.
The arrests took place between Nov. 17 and Dec 1, according to a statement issued by Malaysian Police Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar.
The detainees included a 44-year-old European man who worked as an English teacher on the island of Penang, according to the statement. The man, arrested in Kuala Lumpur, was suspected of having joined al-Qaeda and engaged in terror activities in Afghanistan and Bosnia, it said.
A 29-year-old citizen of "an African country" and student at a private college in Petaling Jaya was arrested in Cheras, Selangor on suspicion of unspecified terrorist activities, it said.
Both men were arrested under Malaysian immigration law and would be deported, according to the statement.
The three others were suspected members of a terrorist cell linked to IS, it said. These suspects were detained under Act 574 of the Malaysian Penal Code and would be investigated under the Security Offenses (Special Measures) Act 2012.
The leader of the cell, according to Malaysian police, was a 31-year-old Indonesian mechanic arrested in Johor who facilitated individuals wishing to join IS in Syria or other terrorist groups in the region.
A 51-year-old Malaysian tailor picked up in Kota Bahru, Kelantan recruited and assisted new members of the cell in joining terrorist activities outside the country, the statement alleged.
Finally, a 25-year-old citizen of Bangladesh who worked as a technician for a private company allegedly planned to go to Syria to fight for IS. The Bangladeshi man was arrested in Selangor.
'The scene of slaughter'
Malaysian authorities in early March identified two Malaysian members of the Islamic State who took part in the videotaped execution of a Syrian man that was posted to Facebook in late February.
The two were Muhammad Wanndy Mohamad Jedi, 25, from the town of Durian Tunggul in Malacca state, and Mohd Faris Anuar, 20, from Gurun, Kedah, The Star newspaper reported at the time.
The 30-minute video showed an "Arab man" decapitating the Syrian prisoner. Wanndy was later seen crouching over the body, while Faris' voice was heard from behind the camera.
Another militant identified as an Indonesian held up the Syrian's head and yelled "Allahuakbar," according to descriptions of the footage reported in Malaysian media at the time.
"This is the first video footage we have indicating the presence of Malaysians at the scene of slaughter," Ayub Khan Mydin Pitchay, deputy chief of the Royal Malaysian Police's counter-terrorism division, told a March 4 press conference in Kuala Lumpur.
"We are certain the video was filmed by a Malaysian IS member known as Mohd Faris Anuar, aged 20. He is from Gurun, Kedah and arrived in Syria on 23 September, 2014," myMetro portal quoted him as saying.


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BENARNEWS- On the eve of his party's annual general assembly, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Monday again publically denied that he did anything wrong in a corruption scandal stemming from the deposit of nearly U.S. $700 million into his private bank accounts.
"I have not committed any offense or malpractice, this has been explained at the Parliament by the deputy prime minister [Ahmad Zahid Hamidi]," Najib said during a live interview with TV3, a privately owned Malaysian television station, according to the state-run Bernama news agency.
Najib's appearance on national TV came ahead of the annual general meeting of his United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party – which opens Tuesday – and two days after the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) reportedly interviewed the prime minister for more than two hours about the $700 million deposit.
Monday's TV appearance was the first time in weeks that Najib defended himself in public against the corruption allegations, which have dogged him since early July. After the allegations surfaced, he acknowledged that the large sum of money was deposited into his bank account via government entities linked to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), an indebted state fund, but said the money was a donation.
On Monday the commission confirmed that, as part of its probe, it had sent representatives to the Middle East to interview the person who donated the money.
"However, the MACC cannot disclose the results of the meeting as the investigation is still ongoing," Azam Baki, the MACC's investigation director, told Bernama.
Najib should take leave of absence: former deputy
Meanwhile, after being barred from addressing UMNO's general assembly, Muhyiddin Yassin, a former deputy prime minister and the party's acting deputy chairman, called Monday for Najib to take a leave of absence while the commission investigated the allegations against the PM. The party's move to prevent its deputy chairman from speaking at the meeting was unprecedented.
"I suggest that the prime minister take a rest. Let the investigation be independent, transparent and fair," Muyhiddin told an unofficial meeting of UMNO members, which was also attended by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, one of Najib's most vocal critics who has called for him to resign over the 1MDB scandal.
"If the probe says that the prime minister is not involved, then you can continue your work as the prime minister," the former deputy PM added, according to a transcript of his speech that was posted on Facebook.
In late July, Najib sacked Muhyiddin Yassin as part of a cabinet shuffle after Muhyiddin had criticized his boss about the scandal in public.
In the interview on TV3, Najib also took a shot at his former deputy, criticizing Muhyiddin for not gathering enough information about 1MDB.
"As the deputy prime minister then, he had the right to call the management of 1MDB to seek further clarification," Najib told TV3," according to Bernama.
"There is no real excuse not to get information. Everything about the 1MDB can be known," the prime minister said.


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BENARNEWS-

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BENARNEWS- Anuar Salleh paused and his eyes welled with tears when he heard that his 20-year-old son, a Malaysian member of the Islamic State (IS), had died in Iraq.
A BenarNews correspondent relayed the news to the 57-year-old retired civil servant at the start of an interview Tuesday outside his home in Kedah state.
"I accept what has happened to my son. As a father, I always prayed for the best for him, regardless of how he was perceived by others," Anuar told BenarNews, his voice shaking.
Mohd Faris Anuar (pictured), the third of Anuar's six children, was killed during fighting in Iraq's Anbar province on Nov. 23, bringing to 14 the number of Malaysians who have lost their lives fighting for IS, a senior Malaysian counterterrorism official confirmed to BenarNews on Dec. 5.
"I have nothing further to say. At least, my family has closure for his disappearance, instead of worrying about his fate every single day," the father added.
Anuar said he last saw and spoke to Faris in September 2014 when the young man told his parents that he was leaving his home village of Gurun – located in a hilly region near Kedah's border with southern Thailand – to find a job and seek religious knowledge.
'His own destiny'
[https://www]Six months passed, Anuar said, before he learned that his son had joined IS. In March, police knocked on the door of the family's white brick house.
The officers came by to inquire about Faris. He and another Malaysian youth, Muhammad Wanndy Mohamad Jedi, had made national headlines when Malaysian authorities identified the pair as having taken part in the execution of a Syrian in IS custody.
In the 30-minute video, an "Arab man" carried out the beheading and Wanndy was filmed crouching over the body. Faris' voice could be heard as he operated the camera, according to Malaysian media reports at the time.
Both Faris and Wanndy were among at least 69 Malaysians who had traveled to Syria or Iraq to join IS, as of October. At least 130 people with suspected links to the extremist group have been arrested on Malaysian soil, authorities said.
The government says it has been trying to counter an online threat from IS recruiting young Malaysians for its mission via Twitter, Facebook and other social media.
"What happened to my son was his own destiny, and I accept this ending as God's will," Anuar said. "There is nothing much that I could have possibly done to change his fate."
'Filial son'
Anuar said he was unsure how he would break the news to his wife, who suffers from high blood pressure and had spent much time crying and worrying about her son since word of his alleged involvement with IS reached the household.
"I am more worried about her health now, should she hear about this news," he said.
He refused to let BenarNews take his picture or even photograph his home, saying he feared that people might attack his house or family due to their direct association with an IS member. The house sits along the road in Gurun, about 600 km (373 miles) from Kuala Lumpur.
Children played nearby as Anuar spoke.
"Whatever it is, we cannot stop his fate and I will forever remember him as a filial son, regardless of what others thought of him," he added.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak vowed Thursday not to give in to pressure to resign over a corruption scandal, and invoked race and religion while rallying his party's faithful at its annual meeting.
"No retreat! No surrender!," Najib said during a rousing speech at the United National Malays Organization (UMNO) party general assembly in Kuala Lumpur, as he dismissed calls to step down because of the scandal.
UMNO leads Barisan Nasional, a coalition that has ruled multi-ethnic and multi-religious Malaysia since 1957, but the party is made up exclusively of members of the ethnic Malay majority who are mostly Muslim.
But the party's popularity has declined in recent years and it now finds itself vying for votes with a faith-based opposition party, the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) as well as an opposition alliance led by Anwar Ibrahim. He is now in prison after being convicted of sodomizing an aide, in a case widely regarded as politically motivated.
Support for Najib's coalition has slipped in the last two general elections. In 2013, it won the polls but lost the popular vote for the first time to Anwar's alliance.
In a speech that lasted nearly two hours, Najib also played to his party's religious and racial base by suggesting that a disaster would befall the country's Muslims if UMNO lost the next general election, which will take place in 2018.
"I mean, if and should UMNO be rejected, this country would be ruled by those who are against the Islamic struggle and rejecting the struggle to protect the Malays and Bumiputra [sons of the soil]," the prime minister said.
"[D]o we want to gamble the future of our children and Islam to others, besides the current Malay and Islamic leadership?" he added, according to an English translation of his Malay-language speech.
'Hiding behind the name of Islam'
Mahfuz Omar, a PAS parliamentarian who represents Pokok Sena in Kedah state, shot back at Najib after the speech, saying Malays were facing disaster because of UMNO's misrule.
"Since when is UMNO fighting for Islam and the Malays' interest?" Mahfuz told BenarNews on Thursday.
"Corruption, abuse of power is not the teaching in Islam and Malay personal culture. What UMNO is doing is hiding behind the name of Islam and Malays to justify all the crime they did," added Mahfuz, who also serves as information chief for PAS.
In June, PAS split from Anwar's alliance, which included the predominantly Chinese Democratic Action Party.
Foreign leader gave money: Deputy PM
Najib's speech came at the end of a tumultuous year for the prime minister, who has led the country since 2009. Calls for his resignation have besieged Najib in recent months, after allegations emerged that nearly $700 million was deposited into his private bank accounts.
The prime minister has fired back at his critics, and his government has been clamping down on free speech and threatening to lock people up on charges of sedition or fomenting trouble, especially since news of the scandal broke in early July.
Najib has acknowledged that the large sum of money was deposited into his bank via government entities linked to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), an indebted state development fund. He has repeatedly denied any wrong doing and maintained that the money was donated to him.
On Saturday, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) interviewed the prime minister about the deposit as part of its investigation into the 1MDB affair. Later, the commission confirmed it had sent MACC representatives to the Middle East, where the donation came from, to interview the donor.
On Wednesday, however, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told Agenda Daily, a website that covers Malaysian politics, that the controversial donation had come from the leader of a foreign country.
"That government leader had given a greater amount of funds to other Muslim countries, too," Zahid said in the interview, but without naming the country or explaining for what purpose the donated cash was intended.
"[T]hat county has not even asked for any contract or project from us," the deputy PM added. "We should be grateful that the country did not ask [for] anything."


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia is to set up a special court to try suspected members of the so-called Islamic State (IS) and other militant groups, in a move to speed up the hearing of such cases by specially trained judges, officials said.

Prime Minister Najib Razak announced the establishment of the court at the weekend when closing his UMNO party's annual meeting where he expressed concern at the threat posed by IS.

Chief Justice Arifin Zakaria told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday that five specially trained judges would be appointed to preside over such cases.

At least 130 people with suspected links to IS activities in Iraq and Syria have been arrested in Malaysia so far, authorities have said.

"We have dedicated judges to hear IS matters as the government thinks it is a serious threat to the country," Arifin was quoted by the national news agency Bernama as saying.
He said that there had been delay in hearing trials involving security issues because of the huge number of witnesses involved.
Meanwhile, Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said that the establishment of a special court would make the judicial process more transparent.
The threat from IS is real and is spreading throughout the country, he added.

"If we do not take proactive measures and prevention, they will be able to evade monitoring by authorities, and may become a threat to national security," he said.

"The matter has been discussed at the National Security Council, that such a court would help to curb the militant group and speed up the trial process," he explained.

56 teachings
Ayub Khan Mydin Pitchay, the assistant director of the counterterrorism division of the Royal Malaysia Police, said that the establishment of the court is timely.
"The plan proves that the government is serious and implements measures from time to time to curb extremist elements, thereby maintaining the safety and sovereignty of the country," he said, as reported by the Sinar Harian newspaper.
Meanwhile, Second Deputy Home Minister Masit Kujat said that 56 deviant religious teachings with the potential to threaten national security were being monitored by police in cooperation with religious authorities.

He said the police had no authority to determine whether a teaching is deviant or not because such judgments are under the jurisdiction of the Department of Islamic Development of Malaysia (Jakim) and religious authorities in the country.

"Police can only assess the threat level posed by groups and whether they have the potential to threaten public order or not," he said during a question and answer session at the National Assembly, as reported by Bernama.
That could happen when wrong teachings are put in practice, he said.
"For example, by attacking or destroying places of worship of other religions, calling themselves soldiers of  Allah and permitting the killing of fellow Muslims," he said.
Masit said that various agencies such as Jakim and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission must cooperate with local authorities to curb heresy before it gets worse.


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BENARNEWS- 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) is facing new scrutiny from The Wall Street Journal over three letters in a name and offshore transactions totaling U.S. $850 million.
1MDB is an indebted state investment fund linked to an alleged corruption scandal that has mired Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak since early July. The Journal was the newspaper that broke the story, in which it reported that U.S. $700 million from 1MDB was deposited into private bank accounts belonging to Najib.
In Thursday's report, the Journal reported that 1MDB transferred the U.S. $850 million to a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, Aabar Investments PJS Ltd., through three transactions. The Virgin Islands company incorporated in March 2012 and liquidated last June, according to the report.
Investigations in six nations include a focus on U.S. $2.4 billion in payments to a unit of Abu Dhabi's International Petroleum Investment Co. (IPIC) as part of a deal to purchase power plants in Malaysia and elsewhere, the Journal reported. IPIC's subsidiary is Aabar Investments PJS, according to the Journal. IPIC and Aabar executives concluded that they never owned or controlled the Virgin Islands company with the similar name.
1MDB is being investigated in Singapore, Switzerland, Hong Kong and the United States along with Malaysia and Abu Dhabi, the U.S.-based Journal said.
Prime Minister Najib established 1MDB in 2009 to promote economic development. In July, the Journal reported that hundreds of millions of dollars from the state fund were deposited into the prime minister's private accounts ahead of the May 2013 general election, leading to an investigation by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Since the story broke, Najib has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and maintained that the money was donated to him. He has acknowledged that the large sum of money was deposited into his bank via government entities linked to 1MDB.
Najib remains defiant, telling the annual meeting of his United National Malays Organization (UMNO) party earlier this month "No retreat! No surrender!" over calls that he step down because of the scandal.
Following Najib's most recent denial, Deputy Prime Minister Zahid Hamidi said the money came from the leader of a foreign country, but did not divulge the country or the purpose of the donation.
State fund rejects report
1MDB issued a scathing news release against the latest report, calling it based on "old and recycled allegations which were first published by an online blog, now known to be working hand-in-glove with certain political interests in Malaysia."
The news release also touted 1MDB's continuing strong business relationship with the Abu Dhabi company.
"IPIC has since reaffirmed its commitment to working with 1MDB via a public statement issued in October," 1MDB said.
1MDB is asking that others wait for the investigations to finish. Najib, who serves on 1MDB's board, has not commented on the latest report by the Journal.
"Rather than engage in mud-slinging attacks against 1MDB, we ask those elements within the media and the opposition who are seemingly intent on derailing this process to await the results of the investigations currently being conducted by various independent lawful authorities, to whom 1MDB is extending its full cooperation," 1MDB added.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian anti-corruption officials announced Thursday that they had sent the attorney-general's office reports on their investigation into a 2.6 billion ringgit- (U.S. $603 million-) deposit into Prime Minister Najib Razak's private bank accounts.
The value of the ringgit against the American dollar has plummeted in recent months, but the money deposited into his accounts in 2013 has been linked to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), an indebted state investment fund, whose advisory board is chaired by Najib, according to reports.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) issued a statement saying it had completed its questioning of witnesses in Malaysia, and had obtained evidence from those who claimed to be donors. But, the commission said, it had not completed its investigation of several international financial institutions, claiming that such documents and information could only be obtained through mutual legal assistance (MLA) with other countries involved. Apart from its statement, the commission did not release copies of the incomplete report.
Since news reports about the deposit first broke in early July, Najib has been under pressure to resign but has refused to do so. He has acknowledged that money was deposited into his accounts, but has maintained that he did nothing wrong and that the money was donated to him.
Earlier in December, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said that the donation came from the leader of a foreign country.
As part of its probe, the MACC interviewed Najib on Dec. 5 about the deposits.
In its statement, the agency said it had asked Attorney General Mohamed Apandi Ali to obtain the other documents and evidence from foreign financial institutions, as required by the MLA under international law.
The MACC statement did not name any of the financial institutions or countries involved in the investigation.
Najib addresses nation
In his New Year's message to Malaysia, Najib talked about the ongoing 1MBD probe, complaining about those who had prejudged results based on politicized smears, leaks and incomplete information.
"In doing so, they have harmed Malaysia's economy and our good name abroad," he said.
In June, Najib declared that the issue would be resolved by the end of this year.
He claimed that recent deals would see 1MDB's debt reduced by about 40.4 billion ringgit (U.S. $9.4 billion).
The most recent deal, announced Thursday, is for the sale of 60 percent of equity in Bandar Malaysia to a joint local and international consortium – composed of Iskandar Waterfront Holdings (at 60 percent) and China Railway Engineering Corp. (at 40 percent), which will result in a debt reduction of 7.1 billion ringgit (U.S. $1.65 billion).
"It is therefore clear that 1MDB's major challenges are now behind it, as I promised they would be last summer, and all that remains is for the deals it has entered into to be completed and the final steps of 1MDB's rationalization program to complete," Najib said.
"Now it is time for us to await the outcomes of the inquiries into the company; to take note of any lessons that need to be learned; and to move on together in a constructive manner."
In September, The Wall Street Journal – which first broke the story about the large amount of cash deposited into Najib's account – reported that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation had launched a money-laundering investigation into 1MDB. Other investigations have been launched in Singapore, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi.
Earlier this week, the U.S.-based Journal published a story citing a cabinet minister as saying anonymously that the large sum of money, which had been deposited into the PM's bank accounts was spent by his party, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), in campaigns and projects around the 2013 general election.
Suhana Osman contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- An umbrella group representing southern Thai insurgents in efforts to resume peace talks with Thailand will meet in Kuala Lumpur this weekend with the head of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), a member of the rebel delegation told BenarNews.
MARA Patani, as the umbrella body is known, met with OIC officials in the Malaysian capital on Friday to set up a meeting there over the weekend with OIC Secretary General Iyad Ameen Madani, according to MARA member Abu Hafiz Al-Hakim.
"We had a meeting with OIC officials here today, " Abu Hafiz said.
"Our initial meeting with OIC officials today was very positive. More than what we expected," he added without elaborating.
Madani was due to arrive in Kuala Lumpur on Friday for a three-day visit to Malaysia, during which he was to meet with Prime Minister Najib Razak, according to the state-run Bernama news agency.
On Sunday Madani was to travel on Thailand, where he would stay till Jan. 13, pay a courtesy call on Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha and take part in a symposium on "inter-faith dialogue and peaceful coexistence in multicultural societies," the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Abu Hafiz represents the Patani Islamic Liberation Front (BIPP) on MARA Patani, which has been negotiating since last year as a united front on behalf of various southern Thai rebel groups and factions in back-door talks with Thai officials.
The Malaysia-brokered talks have been aimed at resuming formal peace talks with Thailand for the first time since December 2013. Should those efforts succeed, a new round of formal talks would be the first held under Thailand's military-controlled government, which toppled a civilian-led government in May 2014.
The different rebels and factions have been waging a separatist insurgency in Thailand's predominantly Muslim and Malay-speaking Deep South region, which has claimed the lives of at least 6,000 people since 2004.
Malaysia is one of 57 member-states of the OIC, which is the second-largest inter-governmental organization next to the United Nations. Predominantly Buddhist Thailand is one of five observers to the OIC.
'Internal' matter
Meanwhile, The Nation newspaper of Thailand on Friday published an editorial in which it criticized Thailand for failing to live up to past agreements made with the organization that represents the Muslim world.
"It's not clear what Iyad Ameen Madani and his 57-member organization have in mind on this occasion, but, if its representatives' visits in 2007 and 2012 are any indication, Madani will arrive with significant proposals for resolving the conflict in the Malay Muslim-majority Deep South," the editorial said.
Elsewhere, Gen. Aksara Kerdpol, Thailand's chief negotiator in recent back-door talks with MARA Patani, chaired a meeting of religious leaders, academics and civil society groups in the Deep South on Friday, during which he updated them on the status of the talks.
"This peace process has continued and is on the level of trust building...," Aksara told the meeting.
He also touched on the upcoming visit to Thailand by the OIC secretary general.
"OIC has supported us in the peace talk process and understood that it is an internal affair in which the OIC will not intrude."


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak reacted angrily Monday to a report stating that two Malaysians recently blew themselves up in suicide missions in Syria and Iraq, killing 33.
"Shocked and appalled to hear that two Malaysians were reported to have been involved in suicide bombings in Iraq and Syria, resulting in the loss of more than 30 innocent lives," Najib wrote in a message posted on his Facebook page.
"Their actions and ideology have no place in Malaysia or Islam ... we will spare no effort to find out how and why these young men were able to commit these atrocious acts, and will take all measures necessary to prevent others from doing so in the future," he added.
He appeared to be reacting to a story from the New Straits Times, a Malaysian newspaper, which was picked up by many other news outlets in Malaysia and beyond.
It reported that two Malaysians, Mohd Amirul Ahmad Rahim, 26, and Mohamad Syazwan Mohd Salim, 31, were killed while taking part in IS missions in the war zone in late December and early January, respectively.
The newspaper cited unnamed sources, and the facts contained in the report could not be immediately confirmed.
The NST report also contained contradictory information about how the men died.
It stated that Amirul died Dec. 29, the day IS forces launched an offensive on the 44th Syrian Democratic Forces and Kurdish People's Protection Units near Raqqa, an IS stronghold in Syria.
The report said that Amirul "set off the bombs that he had on him and in the car he was in" in Raqqa during the clashes.
It also stated that "Amirul was among at least 16 fighters from IS who were killed by Arab and Kurdish forces."
Syazwan, meanwhile, was reportedly killed on Jan. 3 during an IS mission that targeted a police training center at a military base in Tikrit, Iraq.
The NST said that he was among a group of suicide bombers "who detonated their suicide vests that killed 12 policemen, including three officers."
It added that Syawzan, "along with the other bombers, were shot by their targets."
Two brothers killed?
The newspaper went on to say that Syawzan had left his hometown of Selangor with a younger brother, Muhamad Shazani Mohd Salim, to join IS in September 2014.
Shazani, 28, died in a suicide mission on Sept. 18, 2015, in northern Iraq, and both brothers belonged to an IS unit called Khatibah Nusantara, the NST said.
The unit is made up exclusively of Malay-speaking fighters from Southeast Asia.
Amirul was a native of Terengganu state who went to Syria in October 2014, the NST said.
If the report proves accurate, the deaths of two men would bring to at least 16 the number of young Malaysians who have lost their lives while allegedly fighting for IS in Syria or Iraq, according to information provided by the Royal Malaysia Police.
Mohd Faris Anuar, an IS member who shocked his country last year by filming an Islamic State beheading video, was killed in fighting in Anbar, Iraq on Nov. 23, 2015, a senior counterterrorism official confirmed to BenarNews.


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BENARNEWS- Eight Malaysian children are being trained at camps in Syria and Iraq to become fighters for the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, the head of the Royal Malaysia Police's Special Branch told local media on Tuesday.
"They were brought to the war-torn countries by both parents who joined IS," Special Branch chief Mohamad Fuzi Harun said, according to the state-run Bernama news agency.
Fuzi told a news conference that 47 Malaysian citizens are involved with IS in the group's home region, where it controls large portions of territory in Syria and Iraq as part of its self-proclaimed caliphate.
"Of the total, 12 were women while the remaining number were men, including the eight children," Bernama quote Fuzi as saying.
On Tuesday, the chief of the Special Branch, which encompasses the national police department's counter-terrorist wing, told BenarNews that he was "not at liberty to reveal how or when this information was obtained."
The information released by police comes 10 months after a group of young boys from Southeast Asia, including some who appeared to be well under 10 years old, appeared in an IS propaganda video. In it, they were filmed taking part in military training and indoctrination classes at an undisclosed site, according to the Straits Times of Singapore, which broke the story last March.
The dossiers on the 47 suspected IS members were "not exactly complete," but the figure was believed to be accurate because police had gathered this information by cross-checking intelligence reports and through assistance from law enforcement agencies abroad, Fuzi told BenarNews.
The overall number of Malaysians who have joined IS in the Middle East has gone down from the 55 previously reported, because those who had returned home to Malaysia have been arrested or charged, Fuzi said, according to local media.
According to a report in the Sun Daily, Fuzi said that Malaysian police last year arrested a total of 82 people on suspicion of being involved with IS, including nine foreigners.
Out of the total among those who went to Iraq or Syria to join or support IS's cause, 17 Malaysians were killed in IS operations, including six suicide bombers, The Star quoted him as saying.
The numbers given by Fuzi contrast with those stated by Malaysian officials last year.
In September, Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, who heads the Special Branch's counter-terrorist wing (Bukit Amin), told BenarNews that 121 Malaysians, including 23 women, had joined IS in the Middle East.
In October, Prime Minister Najib Razak, told a United Nations meeting in New York that authorities in his country had arrested more than 100 people suspected of links to IS.
Meanwhile, Malaysian Police Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar told reporters separately that authorities were trying to confirm that two suspected suicide bombers from Malaysia had been killed during IS operations in Raqqa, Syria, on Dec. 29, and in Tikrit, Iraq, on Jan. 3.
"It is believed that at least two of them are Malaysian IS members, but we are going to wait until the official reports are issued," local media quoted Khalid as saying.
"Malaysian identities have been exploited before, so we need to be very sure," he added.
On Monday, Najib posted a message on his Facebook page condemning a report alleging that the two Malaysians had been involved in attacks in Syria and Iraq that killed more than 30 people.
He appeared to be reacting to a story broken Monday by the Malaysian publication New Straits Times (NST), which said that Mohd Amirul Ahmad Rahim, 26, and Mohamad Syazwan Mohd Salim, 31, were killed while taking part in IS missions in Raqqa and Tikrit.
The NST report cited unnamed sources and contained contradictory information about how the young Malaysians were killed.
Teen arrested in Kedah
In other news related to IS, a 16-year-old boy who allegedly was influenced by IS doctrine disseminated through social media sites, was arrested for threatening a worker at a supermarket in Kedah state on Monday night, police said.
"The Form Four student from Sungai Layar enrolled at a private Islamic religious secondary school in Sungai Petani ... went into the ground floor of Billion Supermarket," State police chief Zamri Yahya told BenarNews.
"Armed with a knife and a fake gun, he confronted a 27-year-old supermarket staff [member] and asked her to contact the cops," Zamri said.
Among items confiscated from the teenaged suspect were a white face-cloth imprinted with the IS logo and documents related to the global terror group.
Bukit Aman has taken over the case and the suspect is being investigated under Malaysia's Security Offences (Special Measures) Act of 2012 (SOSMA), he said.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian police said Saturday a man they arrested the day before had confessed to planning a suicide attack in the country on orders from the Islamic State (IS) in Syria.
The arrest occurred as Malaysia beefed up security following a terror attack midday Thursday in Jakarta, the capital city of neighboring Indonesia, that left seven dead and 24 injured. Indonesian police said an Indonesian based in Syria had directed and financed the plan.
The 28-year-old Malaysian was arrested at a train station in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said in a statement.
"The suspect confessed he was planning to launch a suicide attack in Malaysia after receiving directions from a foreign member of the Islamic State in Syria," Khalid said.
Khalid gave no further details about the alleged attack plan but said the suspect was also responsible for hanging IS flags at locations in Terengganu, Perak, Selangor and Johor "to warn the government to stop arresting elements of the Islamic State in Malaysia."
Recruited
Three other suspected Malaysian IS members were arrested January 11 on arrival at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) from Turkey, Khalid announced in the same statement.
Turkish authorities had apprehended the three in Gaziantep, Turkey on November 15, 2015 as they were allegedly trying to enter Syria to join the Islamic State, he said.
The trio, including a husband and wife pair, had been recruited by Muhammad Wanndy Mohamad Jedi, a Malaysian IS member in Syria, via Facebook and the messaging application Telegram, Khalid said.
More than 120 Malaysians, including 23 women, have joined IS in the Middle East, and at least 16 have died there, including two who blew themselves up in suicide missions in late December and early January, government officials confirmed this week.
The money trail
In Indonesia, meanwhile, officials announced a total of 12 people had been arrested since Thursday's attack, including a man suspected of funding the attacks with money sent by an IS operative in Syria.
"One of the people detained had received financial transfers from ISIS to fund the operation," Reuters quoted National Police chief Badrodin Haiti as saying. ISIS is another acronym for IS.
Badrodin said IS figure Bahrun Naim sent the money from Syria via Western Union in multiple transfers of Rp. 40-70 million each (U.S. $2,880 to $5,042), according to the Indonesian media outlet Tempo.
The police chief did not name the suspect arrested in Indonesia for allegedly receiving the funds.
According to police and analysts, Bahrun Naim is an Indonesian militant based in Syria and a leader of Katibah Nusantara Lil Daulah Islamiyah, an IS unit comprised of Indonesian and Malaysian militants.
The attack in Jakarta – the first by IS in Indonesia or Malaysia – reflects the expansion of IS strategy beyond Syria and Iraq, police said.
"They have opened branches all over the world to carry out operations like those in France, Turkey and Southeast Asia," Jakarta police chief Tito Karnavian said Thursday.
On Saturday, meanwhile, Indonesia shut down at least 11 radical websites and several social media accounts whose users were expressing support for Thursday's attack, according to Reuters.
"We are monitoring many websites and public complaints about this," Ismail Cawidu, a spokesman for Indonesia's communications ministry, was quoted as saying.
The government also sent letters to social media companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Telegram requesting that radical material be immediately blocked or taken down, he said.
In December, the head of Indonesia's National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) gave two different figures for the number of Indonesians who have gone to Syria and Iraq. Intelligence data says 800, whereas police have a tally of 384, he said.
"More than 169 have already come home," Saud Usman Nasution said.
Fifty-three Indonesians have died in the Middle East, among them four suicide bombers, he said.
Officials have not given a figure for how many IS supporters or members have been arrested across the sprawling, decentralized country.


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BENARNEWS- Ministers, senior officials and counterterrorism experts from 19 countries are set for talks in Malaysia's capital beginning Monday aimed at devising a strategy to counter the extremist views of radical Islamic State (IS) militants.
The two-day conference on "Deradicalization and Countering Violent Extremism" will be held in Kuala Lumpur amid tight security following a deadly IS attack in neighboring Indonesia's capital Jakarta that has underlined the growing threat of the militant group in the region.
"The main objective of the conference is to step up cooperation among security agencies throughout the world in deradicalization programs," a statement from the Malaysian ministry of home affairs said Friday.
"The participating countries will share and analyze good practices of deradicalization programs and identify target groups which are easily exposed to extremist militant ideology, and government role in rehabilitating them back to society," it said.
A new evil
The conference is expected to be attended by ministers in charge of fighting extremist militant threats from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the 10-member grouping's strategic partners -- the United States, France, Australia, Britain, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Japan, China and Italy, the statement said.
It added that the meeting will be divided into two main sessions – one to devise a joint ministerial statement on deradicalization and the other, a plenary one, in which the ministers will explain the deradicalization programs of their respective countries.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who has branded IS a "new evil" that has blasphemed Islam, will deliver opening remarks at the conference.
Najib had ordered increased police and military presence in public and tourist areas in Kuala Lumpur after the Jakarta blasts on Jan. 14 which had left four civilians and four attackers dead.
"We want the people to feel safe and reassured," he said. "We want the people to continue their business as normal and not to be overly concerned as the authorities have the situation under control," he was quoted saying by local media.
Muslim-majority Malaysia has arrested more than 100 people for involvement in IS. Fifty-five Malaysians have been involved in IS in Iraq and Syria, of whom 17 had been killed, the local media quoted intelligence reports as saying.
Malaysia is on the radar screens of IS, Akhbar Satar, director and senior fellow of the Centre for Fraud Management & Institute of Crime and Criminology at HELP University, told BenarNews, citing recent reports about the country in IS's online propaganda magazine Dabiq.
He said IS's ideology is based on gaining sympathy from Muslims over violence occurring in Palestine, Syria, Iraq and other Islamic states.
Atory Hussain, a senior lecturer at Universiti Sains Malaysia, cautioned that Malaysian students furthering their studies in the Middle East are being exposed to IS influence, calling for prompt action by the authorities.
A standard template
Malaysia began laying framework for the conference as early as October last year.
Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is also home minister, said then that the talks were aimed at drawing up standard operating procedures to address radicalization moves by IS and other militant groups.
"The deradicalization program is important so that a standard template can be used as the international level," he was quoted saying by the Bernama news agency.
"Malaysia has a long experience in deradicalization," he said, citing as an example the country's long but successful campaign against a communist insurgency which began in the aftermath of World War II when it was under British rule, with rebels attacking rubber plantations, tin mines and towns.
Malaysia's National Security Council this week discussed the setting up of a center to fight IS's extremist propaganda online.
The regional, digital counter-messaging center would be set up soon, though its location had yet to be decided, Najib said, according to local media.


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BENARNEWS- One day before counterterror officials from 19 states meet in Kuala Lumpur to devise a strategy to counter the Islamic State (IS), Royal Malaysia Police said they arrested seven militants who were plotting attacks.
Police did not release the names of the suspects but said they were linked Bahrun Naim, the man identified as the mastermind behind the attack that left four civilians and four attackers dead in the Jan. 14 attack in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Police Inspector General Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said the suspects, between the ages of 26 and 50, apparently planned attacks throughout the country, according to the state-run news agency Bernama. Suspects were arrested Kedah, Johor, Pahang, Kuala Lumpur and Selangor beginning Friday.
Khalid said police seized 30 rounds of ammunition, jihad books and videos and an IS flag.
One of those arrested had been in communication with Indonesian extremist Bahrun Naim, Khalid said in the statement. Jakarta police chief Tito Karnavian named Naim as the force behind the attack.
One day later, Malaysian police arrested a man they said confessed to planning an IS-ordered suicide attack. The 28-year-old Malaysian was arrested at a train station in Kuala Lumpur on Jan. 15, Khalid said in a statement.
P. Sundramoorthy, a criminologist and associate professor at the University of Science Malaysia in Penang, said because the country is smaller, police intelligence has the upper hand in detecting the movement of suspected IS militants and supporters compared to neighbors Indonesia and Thailand.
"It does not mean that the police have detected every single IS supporter, but so far they are doing a good job and hope they will maintain high level of efficiency in dealing with the threats," Sundramoorthy said. He said the focus should be on taking down terror groups rather than politicizing the effort.
Details of latest arrests
Two of the seven Malaysian suspects were arrested in Johor, including an assistant manager in the housekeeping division of a hotel in Nusajaya who is from Sabah. Khalid identified one suspect, a 31-year-old, as the chief of the cell, and the other as a 33-year-old factory supervisor, according to Bernama.

In Kedah, police arrested a 50-year-old cendol seller and his 26-year-old assistant. The older suspect allegedly raised funds for Malaysians wishing to join IS in Syria, including the assistant.
Khalid said three arrested in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Pahang, were between the ages of 30 and 33.
"All three were involved in planning to launch terrorist attacks in Malaysia," Khalid said, according to Bernama.
'Deradicalization and Countering Violent Extremism'
The two-day conference starting Monday in Kuala Lumpur will be held under tight security following the Jakarta attack and Malaysia arrests over the last couple of weeks. The Malaysian Ministry of Home Affairs said the main objective is to increase cooperation among security agencies throughout the world.
Expected attendees include Association of Southeast Asian Nations ministers in charge of fighting extremist militant threats and strategic partners the United States, France, Australia, Britain, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Japan, China and Italy.
Two main sessions, one to devise a joint ministerial statement on deradicalization, and one where the ministers will explain the deradicalization programs of their respective countries are planned.
S. Adie Zul contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Local communities should be more active in programs aimed at ending violent extremism, top government officials told an international conference convened in Kuala Lumpur to help counter the Islamic State's (IS) radical views.
By working with communities, governments can help nip IS-perpetrated violence in the bud and hasten the rehabilitation of militants jailed for their deadly actions, the officials said on Monday, the opening day of the two-day conference on "Deradicalization and Countering Violent Extremism" hosted by Malaysia.
David Gersten, a senior official at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, asked delegates to learn more "about how we can effectively work with communities to prevent these tragedies from happening in the first place."
For example, he said, a local community could be trained to reveal any "observable warning signs that indicate an individual may be moving towards extremist violence."
"This might include helping community members and parents understand how to notice a young person who is justifying the needs for violent action based on terrorist propaganda, gathering money, such as by selling electronics in order to finance international travel, or applying for a passport with the intent to travel to a terrorist-held territory," he said.
Some of these behaviors may be noticed by close friends and family members before an individual drifts toward violent extremism, Gersten said.
"When family and friends are alerted to concerns, it is important that they report to the proper authorities, including law enforcement," he told the meeting in Malaysia's capital.
Malaysia: Enlisting clerics and ex-radicals
Ministers and officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the 10-member bloc's strategic partners – the United States, France, Australia, Britain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, China and Italy – are attending the meeting.
Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told delegates that "preventive solutions" requiring deeper involvement of the community – in addition to punitive action – were needed to contain militant extremism.
He said Malaysia was engaging Muslim clerics, or ulama, and former terrorists in an integrated program to help rehabilitate those detained without trial under strict laws.
The ulama "have better influence over local communities and are considered to be more authoritative in giving the correct explanation of jihad from the religious perspective" while the ex-terrorists "can be good role models and are able to persuade former comrades to leave their misconceived struggle."
Zahid said local communities were also critical for the reintegration of released detainees into society.
"We need to ensure that the risk of being radicalized again is eliminated or greatly reduced during reintegration."
Australian officials said that Canberra's programs to counter violent extremism were aimed at reducing the community "vulnerability" to such influences, among other objectives.
Australia has developed a range of training and educational projects for families, schools, communities, institutions and frontline professionals to build awareness of radicalization, they said.
"We firmly believe that a strong, educated and empowered community is the key – the key to prevention and if necessary, the key to rehabilitation," according to an Australian paper presented at the conference.
'Information is the key'
Aside from community involvement, intelligence sharing and cooperation among countries are key to combating the IS threat, officials attending the conference said.
"The more we cooperate and share our intelligence on radical and violent extremist activities, the easier it will be to suppress dangerous extremism and prevent future violence," Thai Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda said.
He said that intelligence was crucial for preparedness and response by government officials and law enforcement on the threat posed by radical ideologies.
"We believe that information is the key," he said.
Japan's envoy for countering terrorism and organized crime, Tsukasa Kawada, told the conference that Muslim communities should play a more effective role in combating the IS threat.
He said that when IS took two Japanese hostages last year, Muslims living in Japan – many of whom had come from Asia – appealed  for their immediate release and prayed at mosques for their safe return.
"Seeing these actions through TV news, a number of Japanese people were impressed by their kind gestures and sympathized with them ... most Japanese had little contact until then with the Muslim community which is relatively limited in Japanese society," Kawada said.
Since then, exchanges between Muslims and local people have increased, he said, adding that such efforts would help create "an inclusive society" and "contribute to the prevention of radicalization."


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said Monday that he would not apologize for the tough measures he has taken to combat terrorism, warning the threat from the Islamic State group (IS) was "very real" and that he had to put the country's security above everything else.
His statement came three days after Malaysian police arrested seven suspected IS militants allegedly linked to the mastermind of the group's deadly attacks in the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Jan. 14 which left four civilians and four attackers dead.
"I make no apology, I repeat, I make no apology for taking every step to preserve that safety, and for making the security for all Malaysians and our global visitors as my first priority," Najib said in his opening remarks at the International Conference on Deradicalization and Countering Violent Extremism 2016 in Kuala Lumpur.
"This threat is very real and my government takes it very seriously," he said.
Video threat
As the conference opened, Malaysian police said the IS group had posted a video that warned of attacks in Malaysia over the arrest of its members and supporters.
The video, in the native Bahasa Malaysia and released by the Malay unit of IS known as Katibah Nusantara (Malay Archipelago Combat Unit), warned the Malaysian government to halt actions against the group and release those who have been detained or "face revenge."
Katibah Nusantara is suspected to be headed by Bahrun Naim, identified as the mastermind behind the Jakarta bombings and being based in Raqqa, the IS's de facto capital in Syria.
The video featured two Malaysians based in Syria, identified by Malaysia's police chief as Abdul Halid Dari and Mohd Nizam Arifin, speaking under the IS logo.
"The police are continuing proactive measures on matters regarding the video, which will not be taken lightly," police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said when met by reporters during the conference.
BenarNews could not independently verify the video.
Detention without trial
Muslim-majority Malaysia has arrested more than 100 people it says are involved in IS. Fifty-five Malaysians have been involved in IS in Iraq and Syria, of whom 17 had been killed, the local media quoted intelligence reports as saying.
Najib took a swipe at rights groups criticizing his tough security laws and calling them a threat to civil liberties.
"But let me tell you this: There are no civil liberties under Daesh [IS], and they are no shield against those who are set on committing acts of terrorism. The best way to uphold civil liberties is to ensure the safety of the nation," he told the conference.
In 2012, Najib oversaw the repeal of the draconian Internal Security Act, which the government had used to detain people indefinitely without trial, but last year reintroduced tough legislation he said was aimed at fighting terrorism.
Human rights groups criticized the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (SOSMA) as it revived detention without trial.
The groups also criticized Kuala Lumpur for another law approved last month that gave sweeping powers to a national security council led by Najib.
Najib branded IS's idea of creating an Islamic state as "nothing at all Islamic," adding that the peaceful majority in his country firmly rejected IS's violence to "bomb, maim and behead."
The Malaysian leader also elaborated on the country's plans to set up a Regional Digital Counter-Messaging Communications Centre to fight IS's extremist propaganda online.
"t is vital that all authorities – our muftis [Islamic leaders], our media commissions, our tech-savvy young people for whom social media is an integral part of their daily lives – ensure that the messaging the centre puts out is solid, persuasive and real, " he said.
The messages, he said, must cut through "the rhetoric and sadly seductive approaches of the militants."
"It must state clearly why they [IS] are wrong, and why true Muslims will have nothing to do with this ideology of hatred and destruction."
The two-day conference is aimed at stepping up cooperation among security agencies throughout the world in deradicalization programs, a government statement said.
Ministers and officials in charge of fighting extremist militant threats from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the 10-member grouping's strategic partners – the United States, France, Australia, Britain, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Japan, China and Italy – are attending the meeting.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said Tuesday it is time to put a financial scandal behind him now that the attorney general has cleared him of potential corruption charges over nearly U.S. $700 million deposited into his private bank accounts.
"The findings followed a thorough investigation by the relevant institutions, and he has confirmed what I have maintained all along: that no crime was committed," Najib said in a statement.
Attorney General Mohamed Apandi Ali earlier in the day announced that "no criminal offense" had been committed and that the U.S. $681 million- (2.08 billion ringgit-) sum transferred into the PM's accounts was a "personal donation" from Saudi Arabia's royal family.
The attorney general's announcement ends an investigation at the national level into a scandal that engulfed Najib for the past six months and led to calls for his resignation.
"This issue has been an unnecessary distraction for the country. Now that the matter has been comprehensively put to rest, it is time for us to unite and move on," Najib said.
Apandi announced that his office was closing out investigations into the matter and other cases in which Najib's name had surfaced since July, and which have been linked to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), an indebted state investment fund whose advisory board is chaired by the PM.
"I will now redouble my focus on the key issues that matter to Malaysia, especially combating the threat of terrorism, and strengthening the economy in the face of global headwinds," Najib said in reacting to Apandi's announcement.
It came on the second day of an international conference on deredicalization and countering violent extremism, hosted by the Malaysian government and attended by senior officials from 18 other nations, including the United States and other Western countries.
'Satisfied'
In a statement, the attorney general said there was no evidence showing that "the donation was a form of gratification given corruptly."
"Evidence obtained from the investigation does not show that the donation was given as an inducement or reward for doing or forbearing to do anything in relation to his capacity as a Prime Minister," Apandi said, referring to the$681 million deposited into Najib's accounts between late March 2013 and early April 2013 – during the run-up to that year's general election.
The $681 million "was given to him without any consideration" by the Saudi royal family, the AG said, but the prime minister gave back U.S. $620 million (2.03 billion ringgit) to the donor in August 2013 – after the May 5 election – "because the sum was not utilized."
The attorney general did not explain what happened with the rest of the $681 million given to Najib.
" am satisfied that as no criminal offense has been committed, there is no necessity for Malaysia to make a request for a mutual legal assistance to any foreign States for the purpose of completing the criminal investigation by the MACC in relation to the said RM2.08 billion donation," Apandi added, referring to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
He also cleared the prime minister in investigations of financial wrongdoing in SRC International, a government-owned firm linked to 1MDB.
Najib's name may have been cleared at the national level, but 1MDB's name surfaced last year in investigations under way in Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States, according to the Wall Street Journal. In September, the U.S.-based paper reported that the FBI had opened a money-laundering probe in connection with 1MDB.
'Executive plumber'
Malaysians reacted angrily to Tuesday's announcement.
"The fiddler plays to the tune of the payer," a Malaysian, who lives in Negeri Sembilan state and requested anonymity, told BenarNews by phone, alluding to the relationship between Apandi and Najib.
Another citizen, a resident of Kedah state, called Apandi "an executive plumber."
Najib appointed Apandi as the nation's top lawyer after sacking Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail in July, who was then leading an investigation into the allegations of corruption of against the prime minister.
On the same day that Apandi cleared the prime minister, the attorney general was named to the board of directors of Lembaga Tabung Haji (LTH), an indebted government-linked organization that provides financial services to Malaysian Muslims who plan to undertake the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, Malaysian media reported.
"While the announcement by the AG was rather anticipated, to say the least, it couldn't have come at a worse time," the source from Kedah told BenarNews on condition of anonymity.
"Today it was revealed that Tabung Haji's reserves are in the red. As if to rub salt into the nation's wound, AG Apandi was today appointed to the board of Tabung Haji," he said by phone.
Echoing the criticism of the AG's move to clear Najib of potential corruption charges, members of the political opposition questioned Apandi's integrity.
"The attorney-general should not have been involved in the decision affecting the PM because he was appointed by the PM," Reuters quoted Democratic Action Party parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang as saying.
"This will cause people to ask whether the AG carried out his duty professionally, freely and fairly," opposition leader Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said, according to Agence France-Presse.


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BENARNEWS- The war against violent extremism cannot be won without also getting into the minds of young people who could be lured into radicalism, said speakers who appeared at the end of an international conference in Kuala Lumpur on deradicalization.
"It is without a doubt that this is a battle on all fronts – in cyberspace, on the ground and in the mind," Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said Tuesday in closing the two-day conference attended by senior officials from 19 countries, including all 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
"We must ensure the effectiveness of our rehabilitation programs, we must include all relevant parties. There is a very real need to engage and re-engage our youth," he added.
It is crucial that countries battling the ideology and influence of radical groups like the Islamic State (IS) work together, Zahid said, to tap into and harness what he described as a "passionate commitment" shown by people who join such groups.
"[T]his is a passion arising from a deep-rooted adherence and a total but myopic loyalty to a mission, a mission that, often, most of them do not fully comprehend but yet, are devoted and committed [to] 100 percent," said Zahid, who is also Malaysia's home minister.
After his speech Zahid held a press conference where he announced that Malaysia would open a regional digital center on May 1, whose mission will be to counter IS online propaganda.
The 200 million ringgit (U.S. $46.8 million) project is being built through a bilateral deal signed with the United States in October. Once up and running, the center will be the first of its kind in Southeast Asia, officials said.
'Imperative'
Zahid's comments about the importance of the psychological dimension echoed earlier statements by terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna, who participated in the conference's last session of presentations.
Malaysia's success in its program to rehabilitate people who have been radicalized could be applied to all ASEAN countries, said Gunaratna, a BenarNews columnist who heads the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.
"This would take more work and diligence, but it is imperative as to diminish and end extremism, not only at the level that can be seen by the naked eye, but also the 'unseen,' in the minds, especially among the youth," Gunaratna said.
"Community-reaching programs, online campaigns, and others should be increased and wide-spread, carrying messages that IS is merely a misinterpretation and misrepresentation of Islam ...," he added.
Gunaratna later told BenarNews that it is in Malaysia's national security interest to cooperate with the Philippine government in preventing IS from expanding into the Malaysian state of Sabah from the nearby southern Philippines.
Local militant groups in the southern Philippines recently pledged their allegiance to IS and its self-proclaimed caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as Gunaratna wrote in a column for BenarNews earlier this month.
"Malaysia should be very concerned because it will directly grow into the borders of Borneo, with the nation's Sabah state taken along ...," Gunaratna said.
Modern-day paradox
He had just made a presentation along with Zaini Othman, who directs the Security and Strategic Research Center (SASSREC) at the University of Malaysia – Sabah.
In his presentation, Zaini spoke about a "global paradox" and tension that exists between modern-day progress and a parallel rise in extremist ideology as digital technology helps spread it.
"Since the issue of radicalism and extremism has gone beyond nations' borders, therefore so must the solution," Zaini said.
"Unintended consequences, such as the loss of autonomy, authority and legitimacy, must be contained carefully without unnecessary conflict arising by transparent, noble cooperation with systematic means intertwining layers of multiple nations' organizations," Zaini said.
Suhana Osman contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Top officials from Asia, the United States and Europe wrapped up two days of counterterrorism talks on Tuesday with a better understanding of the terrorism threat and acknowledging a need to make their deradicalization programs more comprehensive, according to a top official from host Malaysia.
Experts participating with the officials at the International Conference on Deradicalization and Countering Violent Extremism 2016 in Kuala Lumpur had called for a review of the programs to deradicalize potential attackers and jailed terrorists, saying they were not effective enough.
Some experts said the programs were not based on thorough research and lacked participation from local communities. Others called for a review of rehabilitation of convicted terrorists or detained terror suspects awaiting trial in prisons.
"We have developed a deeper understanding of this [terrorism] threat and a greater sense of mission," Malaysia's deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said in his closing address on Tuesday, emphasizing greater international cooperation to deal with what is the world's number one security problem.
"We have come closer to identifying its many motivations and misconceived objectives, and a new appreciation of how, in so many ways, we can work together to deal with its varied casual factors and consequential devastating effects," he said.
Zahid said countries fighting the terror threat "must ensure the effectiveness" of their rehabilitation programs by including "all parties," citing particularly "a very real need to engage and reengage our youth."
Weaknesses
The Kuala Lumpur meeting came less than two weeks after an attack by the Islamic State (IS) militant group in the Indonesian capital Jakarta which left four civilians and four attackers dead. The incident followed IS attacks in Paris in November, which killed 130 people.
Ministers and officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the 10-member bloc's strategic partners – the United States, France, Australia, Britain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, China and Italy – attended the meeting
Sidney Jones, a senior international conflict analyst, told the conference that "the biggest weakness of most deradicalization programs is that they have not emerged from a thorough study of where and how radicalization takes place."
Jones, who heads the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), said research is not a guarantee that programs would be successful, but those not based on concrete data are almost guaranteed to fail.
She said that the emergence of IS had helped focus attention of deradicalization with a particular interest in counter-narratives on social media but not many new ideas have been put forward, even as more Indonesians, including some teenagers, leave to join the group in fighting in Syria.
Among those killed in fighting in the city of Ramadi last month was a 15-year-old Indonesian from East Java.
At least two of the attackers in the Jakarta bombings were former prison inmates who had served their sentences and been released, indicating possible weakness in the prison rehabilitation process.
A clash of ideas
Delegates called for greater attention to rehabilitation of convicted terrorists and terror suspects awaiting trial in prisons.
In Thailand, for example, the number of terrorism suspects in overcrowded prisons in the country is growing, affecting the management and rehabilitation of inmates, an official from a government-funded institute said.
Most of the suspects are believed held in Thailand's insurgency-torn south, where rebels in Muslim-majority provinces bordering Malaysia have launched bomb attacks and shootings since 2004, targeting mostly troops or police but also civilians.
"The overcrowding in correctional facilities has a major impact on the available space and limited resources to provide them with the proper treatment programs and activities," said Thailand's Institute of Justice (TIJ) Deputy Executive Director Nathee Chitsawang.
Although more than 50 percent of prisoners in Thailand are drugs-related offenders, "the situation seems to be getting worse when the number of terrorists in prison has continued growing," he said.
Nathee said most prisons were not designed to hold terror suspects, adding that "the correctional settings have to be specially designed and planned for terrorist inmates."
Nathee also called for harmonization in the deradicalization programs inside and outside Thai prisons.
He said the majority of prisoners in southern Thai provinces are held together with terror suspects.
"The segregation of treatment can help to prevent them from recruiting more members among the prisoners," he said.
Mohamed Ali, the vice-chairman of the Religious Rehabilitation Group in Singapore, said it was important for governments and Muslim communities to recognize that defeating terrorist and extreme groups require an "ideological weapon."
"It is not a war against Islam, but a war against any misinterpretation and misunderstanding of Islam," he said. "It is not a clash of civilization but a clash of ideas that has divided the world into peace and war."


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian authorities are believed to have blocked a foreign news website Friday after it carried a report questioning the basis of a government decision not to pursue any corruption-related charges against Prime Minister Najib Razak over hundreds of millions of dollars paid into his personal bank account.
Malaysians who tried to log onto the Asia Sentinel online journal were greeted with a message Friday notifying them that "this website is not available in Malaysia as it violate(s) the National law(s)."
"We are aware that some are having difficulty accessing our website from Malaysia and we are looking into solutions right now," the Hong Kong-based Asia Sentinel which carries news, analysis and opinion on national and regional issues said in an email to readers.
It sent to local subscribers a web link with a tool it said would them to "circumvent online censorship."
Malaysian authorities could not be immediately contacted for comment.
The Asia Sentinel report had questioned claims by Malaysia's top government lawyer this week that that U.S. $681 million (2.08 billion ringgit) transferred into Najib's personal bank account was a gift from the royal family in Saudi Arabia.
Since Malaysian Attorney General Mohamed Apandi Ali announced Tuesday that his office was not pursuing corruption-related charges against Najib, the Asia Sentinel has carried three articles on the topic.
The Friday report questioned Apandi's statement that the $681 million deposited into Najib's private bank accounts was a "personal donation" from the Saudi royal family and that "no crime" had been committed.
The Sentinel cited a Wall Street Journal report quoting Saudi officials as saying they had "no information about such a gift and that a royal donation to the personal bank account of a foreign leader would be unprecedented."
"Other news sources say the Saudi government has begun an investigation to determine if any funds went to Najib, which is considered very unlikely," The Sentinel reported Friday.
MACC source: Charges against PM recommended
The attorney general issued his decision after receiving reports of investigations conducted by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) into the $681 million deposit and other financial transactions, in which Najib's name had surfaced in connection with 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), an indebted state fund whose advisory board is chaired by the prime minister.
A source within MACC told BenarNews it had recommended that the attorney general pursue three charges of criminal misappropriation of property amounting to 42 million ringgit (U.S. $10.1 million) against Najib.
The source who requested anonymity said the recommended charges were related to three tranches of money that added up to 42 million ringgit and were wired into Najib's private accounts from SRC International Subsidiaries, a state-owned firm linked to 1MDB.
Apandi declined comment when contacted for this story.
"I am overseas attending a conference ... so sorry," he told BenarNews in a message.
A day after he instructed MACC officials to close all files and cease investigations into the prime minister, the commission referred the attorney general's decision to two independent panels.
In a statement, the commission said its top management had decided to refer the case to an Operational Review Panel (PPO) and another special panel whose members had yet to be appointed.
The PPO is an independent body set-up by the Malaysian government to monitor the MACC, and is one of five independent bodies that monitors the performance and status of cases probed by the commission.
On Thursday, MACC chief Abu Kassim Mohamed issued a statement rejecting news reports that, through the move to refer the case to the PPO, the commission was disputing or challenging Apandi's decision to clear Najib of potential charges. The move was standard operating procedure in any case that had been closed, the head of MACC said.
'AG must not be fearful'
The attorney general's decision to not press charges against the prime minister has drawn criticism in Malaysia.
PPO member Lim Chee Wee said Apandi owed it to the public to explain clearly "why he did not prosecute Najib."
"The AG must not be fearful of the power nor position of any individual ...," Lim, a former president of the Malaysian Bar, told BenarNews via email.
The attorney general also is legally obligated to give the public a detailed and satisfactory explanation for why he might disagree with recommendations made by any law enforcement agency when the allegations involve a high-profile personality, such as a prime minister, Lim added.
Apandi's announcement also came a day before the global NGO Transparency International (TI) released its Corruption Perceptions Index for 2015, in which Malaysia declined by four ranks since 2014 to 54th out of 167 countries and territories.
Hata Wahari contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's attorney general said Saturday his office would cooperate with authorities in Switzerland after an investigation there revealed that U.S. $4 billion (16.57 billion ringgit) may have been embezzled from a Malaysian state investment fund.
"[M]y office intends to take all possible steps to follow up and collaborate with our Swiss counterparts, and we look forward to receiving the findings of their investigations and materials through the normal channels," Attorney General Mohamed Apandi Ali said in a statement.
"These materials will then be reviewed, alongside the findings of other relevant authorities and our own investigations, to determine the appropriate course of action," he said.
He noted that his office and other Malaysian agencies were carrying on with various probes into 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), the state fund in question whose advisory board is chaired by Prime Minister Najib Razak.
"I and the relevant Malaysian authorities are keen to establish all the facts about 1MDB that have led to recent allegations against the company," Apandi said.
"The Malaysian authorities ... are committed to working with all relevant foreign law enforcement entities through the applicable international conventions and agreements. Similarly, 1MDB has from the outset cooperated with the enquiries," he added.
For its part, 1MDB on Saturday issued a statement saying it was willing to cooperate in the Swiss investigation but had not yet been contacted, the Associated Press reported.
'Entirely separate'
The attorney general's statement came four days after his office cleared Najib of potential corruption charges over a deposit of nearly U.S. $681 million (2.08 billion ringgit) into the PM's private bank accounts.
The scandal involving the money, which reportedly was transferred into his accounts via companies linked to 1MDB, led to calls for the prime minister's resignation since news about the bank deposit emerged last July.
But earlier this week Apandi said "no criminal offense' had been committed, and that the huge sum of money was a "personal donation" from the Saudi royal family.
"This issue has been an unnecessary distraction for the country. Now that the matter has been comprehensively put to rest, it is time for us to unite and move on," Najib said Tuesday after the attorney general announced that his office was shutting down investigations into the prime minister.
In his statement Saturday, Apandi stressed that "contrary to recent media reports, the investigations into donations that were made to the Prime Minister are entirely separate to those into 1MDB."
"The Attorney-General's Chambers exhaustively reviewed the report provided by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission [MACC] and, as has been announced, found no evidence of wrong-doing and hence have instructed for the cases to be closed," Apandi said.
He also sent a warning to the press, saying that "any attempt by media organizations to conflate the two sets of investigations is irresponsible and prejudicial‎."
A source within the commission, however, told BenarNews on Friday that the MACC had recommended that Apandi's office pursue three charges against Najib of criminal misappropriation of property amounting to 42 million ringgit (U.S. $10.1 million).
The anonymous source said the recommended charges were connected to three tranches of money totaling 42 million ringgit that were wired into Najib's private accounts from SRC International Subsidiaries, a state-owned firm linked to 1MDB.
Money for economic, social development
Late Friday, the office of Switzerland's attorney general announced it was seeking help from Malaysian authorities in its investigation of deposits into Swiss banks of money linked to 1MDB.
Up to $4 billion in 1MDB funds may have been misappropriated between 2009 and 2013, the Swiss AG's office said.
"The criminal investigation ... has revealed serious indications that funds have been misappropriated from Malaysian state companies. The monies believed to have been misappropriated would have been earmarked for investment in economic and social development projects in Malaysia," the Swiss attorney general said in a statement.
The office said it was still investigating the intended purpose of the embezzled funds that may amount to $4 billion.
"So far it has been ascertained that a small portion of the money was transferred to accounts held in Switzerland by various former Malaysian public officials and both former and current public officials from the United Arabic Emirates," the office of Switzerland's top prosecutor said.
The concerned Malaysian companies had yet to comment on the financial losses they are believed to have incurred, it went on to say.
"The object of the request for mutual assistance is therefore to advise the companies and the Malaysian government of the results of the Swiss criminal proceedings, with the aim of finding out whether losses on this scale have been sustained," the Swiss AG's office added.
The request for cooperation from Malaysia stems from a criminal case that Swiss Attorney General Michael Lauber opened on Aug. 14, 2015 against two former 1MDB officials and persons unknown, his office said.
As part of the case, the Swiss are investigating suspected bribery of foreign public officials, money laundering and criminal mismanagement of money, Lauber's office said.
Razlan Rashid contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Once an economic powerhouse in Southeast Asia, Malaysia has been hit with a series of financial setbacks under the leadership of Prime Minister Najib Razak which are not limited to debt-ridden state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), economists claim.
Malaysia is struggling with a crisis of confidence as a result of global and domestic political issues that have contributed to an economic slowdown, Noor Ihsan Mohamad, an associate professor of the International Islamic University Malaysia's Kulliyyah of Economics and Management Sciences, told BenarNews.
"One clear instance is the recently published data on the Malaysia Consumer Sentiment Index (CSI) for the final quarter of 2015," he said in an interview.
The CSI dipped to a record low of 63.8, eclipsing the previous low, 70.2, from the third quarter of 2015. The CSI measures attitudes about the nation's business climate, personal finance and spending.
Ihsan cautioned politicians to "serve the people and create less political drama" because normal Malaysians were feeling the pinch.
Global banking group HSBC forecasts that Malaysia's economy will grow by only 3.6 percent in 2016, because of high levels of public and private debt, according to AsiaOne.
HSBC's projection points to the national economy's weakest growth in seven years. The forecast is more bearish than the official 4 to 5 percent of growth projected, and substantially lower than 2015's estimated growth of 4.5 to 5 percent.
Ongoing 1MDB issue
Malaysians are hopeful that the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which its government and 11 other Pacific Rim nations signed in New Zealand on Thursday, will help pull their country out of the doldrums. The trade deal aims to topple barriers to the free flow of goods, services and investment capital among Pacific Rim nations.
Nonetheless, Malaysia is still under a cloud as it deals with fallout from revelations of a 2.08 billion ringgit (U.S. $681 million) deposit to the prime minister's private bank accounts, via agencies related to 1MDB, in the run-up to Malaysia's 2013 general election.
Attorney General Mohamed Apandi Ali last week announced that he would not pursue corruption-related charges linked to the deposit. Apandi said no criminal offense had been committed and that the money was a personal donation from the Saudi royal family to Najib.
Most of the money – 2.03 billion ringgit (U.S. $620 million) – was eventually returned to the donor, according to Apandi, but he did not say what the donation was intended for or what happened to the remaining $61 million.
The move does not end investigations into 1MDB. International authorities in the United States, Switzerland and Singapore are investigating 1MDB, whose advisory board is chaired by Najib.
Ringgit loses value
An economist working closely with the government said that while these scandals were political in nature, they have had economic repercussions, particularly through the depreciation of the ringgit.
"The political noises started in August and, similarly, the ringgit was hit hard since then," said the economist, who declined to be named.
The ringgit's depreciation is forcing students who had planned to study in the U.S. or Britain to explore other, less expensive options, the Malay Mail reported.
According to the economist, the current political atmosphere has eroded public confidence in Najib's leadership. He said the government must become more transparent in government-related processes so as to help build confidence in the public sector.
"Even with massive structural change, we believe it would take at least five years for the effect to actually materialize. However, this is a much more difficult thing to achieve than becoming a high-income nation," the economist told BenarNews.
The lack of confidence is also reflected in Malaysia's dropping four places, to 54 out of 168 countries in Transparency International's annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). In 2014, Malaysia ranked 50th of 175 nations.
According to Barjoyai Bardai, a professor at Universiti Tun Abdul Razak's Graduate School of Business, a culture of corruption has long been embedded in Malaysia's public and private sectors and has become the only way of doing real business.
"To correct this, we need a revolution in public and private sector practices. It is not impossible, but not easy either. Hong Kong and Singapore have done it with flying colors and so can we. But we need real clean and determined leaders and government to initiate this revolution," he told BenarNews in an email.
Falling oil prices aid Malaysia
Despite claims that last year's sharp fall in oil prices hit Malaysia's economy, Standard Chartered, a British banking and financial services firm, claims the nation actually imports more petroleum than it exports and the lower cost would actually benefit it, according to the Singapore Business Review.
On the other hand, Standard Chartered claims that falling prices for palm oil negatively affected Malaysia's economy, because exports for the commodity fell more than 4 percent in the first 10 months of 2015 compared with the same period in 2014.
"Malaysia's 2015 fiscal deficit was raised only slightly to 3.2 percent of gross domestic product from the initially budgeted 3.0 percent, despite the sharp oil-price decline. This was partly thanks to subsidy savings (fuel subsidies have been eliminated), and partly because dividends from the national oil company are determined by the government and are set based on the previous year's oil prices," Standard Chartered reported.
Nation needs leaders with integrity
Hafiz Rahman, who works in the oil and gas industry, said Malaysia desperately needed political stability and that could only exist through leaders with integrity, because "investors won't invest in a corrupted country."
"Leaders with [a] high level of integrity will be able to lead their people and create a conducive economic atmosphere that will eventually bring political stability with minimal crime rate," he told BenarNews.
In order to bring this about, the government should do away with corrupt government policies and appoint ministers who are known for their integrity.
"The government must provide strong, transparent leadership, with accountability, to drive the message of zero tolerance for graft; political financing, meanwhile, should be regulated with a more practical mechanism, than the current," Hafiz said.
Malaysia has been governed by the same coalition, Barisan Nasional, since gaining its independence from Britain in 1957.
Fahirul N. Ramli also contributed to the report.


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BENARNEWS- On the first anniversary of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's incarceration, his wife and international human rights organizations demanded that the government release him from prison.
Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Ibrahim's wife who is president of his People's Justice Party (PKR), said the international community recognized her husband as a leader of a popular movement to reform government in Malaysia as well as a political victim of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party, which heads the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) alliance.
"Yes, Anwar is inside the prison and still listening to our shouts for reform. He constantly reminds us to be strong and continue to unite against inhumane treatment," she told BenarNews on Wednesday.
"He is our symbol of struggle and solidarity among opposition to the BN. We need to stand and fight," Wan Azizah said.
Along with requesting his release, the human rights groups on Wednesday asked that he be allowed to travel outside of the country for necessary medical treatment.
Anwar was taken into custody on Feb. 10, 2015, to begin serving a five-year prison sentence on a sodomy charge.
Last year, a Federal Court dismissed Anwar's appeal and ordered him to serve the prison term after he was convicted of sodomizing a former aide, Saiful Bukhari Azlan, in 2008. Saiful issued a statement Wednesday, calling on Anwar to use his time in prison to seek forgiveness.
On Tuesday night, about 500 people, including PKR activists and other non-governmental organizations, gathered in front of the Sungai Buloh Prison near Kuala Lumpur to push for Anwar's release.
Wan Azizah said her husband's condition was deteriorating.
"Anwar can't lift his right hand due to illness. He lifts his left hand ... with his left hand he is still able to shout out reforms," she said.
During the rally Anwar's wife released a dove as a symbol of freedom, while their children screened a video tribute to their father and read a poem, "Perjalanan Bu Aminah" ("The journey of Bu Aminah") by W.S. Rendra.
"Malaysia's conviction of Anwar Ibrahim was politically motivated, and he's already suffered through a year in prison from this travesty of justice," Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch said in a statement demanding Anwar's release.
Other international organizations issuing statements in support of Anwar were Lawyers for Liberty and Worldwide Movement for Human Rights.
The U.N. Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued an opinion in November calling Anwar's imprisonment arbitrary and against international law, Lawyers group Executive Director Eric Paulsen said.
"Any additional day Anwar spends behind bars is one more day of shame for the Malaysian government and further tarnishes its battered reputation," said Karim Lahidji, the Worldwide Movement's executive director.
'Blatant lies'
In his statement, Saiful said people had been misled into believing that Anwar was a political prisoner, not a genuine felon.
"I was the victim in this case. Am I not human, that my rights as a victim are denied by human rights groups," Saiful said.
"To the outsiders, especially the foreign countries and international bodies that believe [Anwar's supporters], let me tell you that he is not a political prisoner'," Saiful added.
The former aide to Anwar wished his ex-boss good health and peace in prison, and expressed hope that Anwar would use his time in jail to reflect on himself and seek forgiveness.
"This has nothing to do with democratic oppression. Stop giving support and funds because these are blatant lies," Saiful said.
 


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BENARNEWS- The Philippine government and militant group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) confirmed their "commitment to stay the course of peace" by adding a year to their long-standing ceasefire.
The move came Thursday at the end of a two-day meeting in Kuala Lumpur hosted by the Malaysian government and about a week after the Philippine congress adjourned without passing the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) that would develop an autonomous region for minority Muslims in the south. The Philippines is a mostly Roman Catholic nation.
The stalled legislation is linked to the March 2014 peace agreement, the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), between the government and the MILF rebels. Passage is a requirement for certain aspects of the CAB, including the decommissioning of MILF weapons and combatants.
The bill was stalled by indignation over the killing in January 2015 of 44 police commandos in fighting that involved some MILF guerrillas, the Associated Press reported.
Government negotiators, led by Miriam Coronel Ferrer, and the rebels, led by Mohagher Iqbal, reaffirmed their commitment to the peace process and "to preserve the gains of more than 17 years of negotiations."
The two parties agreed to extend the ceasefire until March 31, 2017, and agreed that the best way forward is for early passage of the bill in the next legislative session.
Analyst: BBL will create trust
"What needs to be done is to ensure that BBL can be approved by the new Philippines administration and congress. Once this is done, then the peace process can be run in accordance with the resolution as it creates a sense of trust on both sides, especially among the leaders of the MILF. As long as it is not approved, there will be a sense of unease," political analyst and Universiti Malaysia Sabah professor Askandar Zimmermann told BenarNews.
President Benigno Aquino III, who oversaw the signing of the 2014 peace agreement, cannot seek reelection later this year. Ferrer and Iqbal thanked Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak for his continued support of the peace process. Razak attended the 2014 signing at the Malacanan Palace in Manila.
During the two-day meeting, Iqbal warned that the Philippine congress's failure to pass the autonomy bill this month sparked "widespread frustration on the ground by our people," the AP reported. Iqbal said the government and the rebels should "jointly find ways and means to address this dangerous situation and avoid actions that may increase the frustrations."
A certification document signed with the joint statement spells out that the government and rebels will maintain a joint action group whose role will be to "isolate and interdict all criminal syndicates/kidnap-for-ransom groups and other criminal groups including the so-called 'Lost Commands' operating in Mindanao."
Army troops clashed this week with gunmen in fighting that killed a soldier in southern Maguindanao province, according to the AP. The gunmen, who the soldiers thought were insurgents from another group, turned out to be MILF guerrillas and both sides were taking steps to prevent such accidental clashes, regional military spokeswoman Capt. Joan Petinglay said.


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BENARNEWS- A surprise move by the Malaysian Attorney General Friday to halt sedition proceedings against a Malaysian law professor has raised hopes that similar cases may be dropped.
University Malaya Associate Professor Azmi Shahrom was facing a single charge of sedition over a comment published in a newspaper in 2014 that criticized a central government intervention in Perak state politics in 2009.
Attorney General Mohamed Apandi Ali gave no reason for his decision but said the practice of reassessing cases in court had and would continue.
"In the interest of justice and after reviewing the evidence given by all the prosecution witness in court, I am using my discretion under Article 145(3) of the Federal Constitution and decide to halt the prosecution against Assoc Prof Dr Azmi for the charge under Section 4 (1) Sedition Act 1948," he said in a press statement issued Friday.
'You cannot be too careful'
Azmi is an avid political activist and a sought-after critic on Malaysian constitutional law and related matters. He is also a regular columnist for a Malaysian English daily, The Star.
Contacted by BenarNews, Azmi cautiously welcomed the attorney general's statement but said it was not official "until presented in court."
"It is not official as of yet, and in Malaysia, you cannot be too careful," he told BenarNews, adding that a final decision would come by the end of next week or on Monday, Feb. 22.
Still, he said he was thankful and glad that "common sense has prevailed."
"I think that I should be free of the charge, of course. I am grateful to my family, my lawyers, my friends and to so many people, who I don't even know, who have been so supportive of my cause," he said.
In his statement, Apandi said there was precedent for the halting of a sedition prosecution. He cited a case involving opposition Member of Parliament Teresa Kok.
Azmi was facing a maximum fine of RM5,000 (U.S.$1,205), a maximum of three years in jail or both, upon conviction.
On Oct. 6, a five-member panel of the Federal Court ruled that the Sedition Act was valid and therefore Azmi had to stand trial for his charge.
The prosecution on Jan. 14 closed its case against Azmi with the testimony of its last witness, investigating officer Inspector Mohd Izwan Paijan.
'A flicker of light'
Malaysian civil society group Abolish the Sedition Act Movement (GHAH) welcomed the decision but was skeptical about the motive behind it.
"The Attorney General should not make this move as a publicity stunt to cover-up his controversial decision to clear Prime Minister Najib Razak from the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission investigation," it said in a statement.
Late last month, Apandi cleared the Malaysian leader of potential corruption charges over nearly U.S. $700 million deposited into his private bank accounts in 2013, saying "no criminal offense" had been committed and the sum was a "personal donation" from Saudi Arabia's royal family.
GHAH added that Apandi must show "his sincerity in its efforts to reform the legal system in Malaysia."
Human Rights Watch Deputy Director of Asia Division Phil Robertson meanwhile said Azmi "should never have been prosecuted in the first place."
"But at least now there appears to be a flicker of candle light in the dark tunnel of Sedition Act prosecutions being brought by the Malaysian authorities against numerous lawyers, NGO activists, opposition MPs, and academics," he said in a statement.
Apandi should realize it is wrong to criminalize the public for expressing political views against the government, Robertson added.
"The AG should immediately drop the sedition cases against the many people hit with charges in 2015, such as cartoonist Zunar, lawyer Eric Paulsen, opposition politician N. Surendran, and more than two dozen others," he said.


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BENARNEWS- A day after Malaysia inked a bilateral memorandum for taking in 1.5 million Bangladeshi workers, the deputy prime minister Friday announced a moratorium on all new arrivals of migrants from Bangladesh and other countries.
"Today I want to announce that the government has decided to suspend the intake of all foreign workers, including from the source countries, including Bangladesh," Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told reporters after meeting with army personnel in Sarawak state.
"And we call on all employers to hire local workers as their employees," he added.
The moratorium would last while the government reviewed a program for collecting levies for foreign workers, the Star Online quoted Zahid as saying.
He did not talk about a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between Malaysia and Bangladesh in Dhaka on Thursday. Bangladeshi officials declined to release copies of the document, but said Thursday's memorandum stipulated that Kuala Lumpur would take in 1.5 million Bangladeshi workers over a three-year period.
"What Malaysia has done is beyond diplomatic norms and decency. One minister came and signed the MoU, while another minister declares freezing of the agreement in less than 24 hours," Saiful Haque, chairman of the WARBE Development Foundation, a Bangladeshi NGO that works in migration and gives a voice to migrant workers, told BenarNews on Friday.
Malaysian officials did not immediately say why the government was putting a freeze on incoming migrants especially after having just signed the memorandum with Bangladesh.
In Dhaka, a top government official said Bangladesh had yet to be notified about the new moratorium.
"We have come to know about the freeze of the memo from the media. But unless the Malaysian government informs us officially, we will assume that the agreement stands valid," Jabed Ahmed, additional secretary at the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment, told BenarNews.
Meanwhile, the Malaysian minister who signed the MoU denied that his government had agreed to take in 1.5 million Bangladeshi migrants.
"The perception that 1.5 million‎ workers will be brought in from Bangladesh to work in Malaysia is not true," Malaysian Human Resources Minister Richard Riot Anak Jaem told a news conference in Putrajaya on Friday, the Star reported.
"The figure is, in fact, the number of Bangladeshis registered with its ministry of expatriates' welfare and overseas employment for the purpose of seeking employment in foreign countries, including Malaysia," he added.
Domestic pressure on Malaysia's government
Friday's announcement by Zahid came amid growing criticism on social media and in Malaysian labor circles toward the bilateral plan to bring in 1.5 million Bangladeshis, who would be a source of cheap labor.
Jabed Ahmed, the Bangladeshi official, said the MoU stipulated that each migrant worker would be paid a maximum of 900 ringgit (U.S. $213; 16,753 takas) in monthly wages.
Malaysia's largest union, the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC), was among local groups that criticized the plan. On Thursday the MTUC sent a memo to the government in which it objected to it.
"The country does not have to rely on labor resources from foreign countries. This situation will certainly harm the economy and have an adverse impact on the local population," the MTUC said in its memorandum, according to the state-run Bernama news agency.
And on the same day that Malaysia signed the MoU in Dhaka, Prime Minister Najib Razak issued a statement from San Francisco in which he acknowledged domestic concerns about the plan.
"I think we need to make sure that whatever move we make will fulfil the needs of the economy. Some sectors of the economy need workers, like the plantation industry," Bernama quoted Najib as saying.
'Very hard and dangerous'
The bilateral MoU would have offered a legal track for Bangladeshi workers to migrate to Malaysia in search of employment opportunities.
Such an avenue has been closed to Bangladeshis since 2009. In 2013, Dhaka and Kuala Lumpur signed deal for the Malaysian recruitment of 500,000 low-wage workers. Around 1.4 million Bangladeshis registered online for the program, but the process went nowhere.
As a result, Bangladeshi migrants have since resorted to paying human trafficking syndicates large sums of money to smuggle them into the Southeast Asian country.
Haque, of the WARBE Development Foundation, criticized the latest MoU for its lack of transparency.
"Neither Bangladesh nor Malaysia has made the MoU public," Haque told BenarNews.
"This is suspicious; people want to how much money the workers will have to pay, what will be their  wage, whether there will be any health safety clause and other [questions]," he added.
Bangladeshi workers are willing to take on so-called 3-D jobs – those that are dirty, dangerous and difficult – such as jobs on palm oil and rubber plantations, he said.
"Working on palm plantations is very hard and dangerous. Snakes and dangerous insects kill many people. So, I have opted for a cleaning job," Md. Zahir, a Bangladeshi worker employed by a company in Malaysia's Johor state, told BenarNews by phone.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, accompanied by the country's police and military chiefs, made a surprise visit to a popular shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, a day after Australia warned its citizens of a possible terrorist attack in the capital.
Najib, also joined by Defense Minister Hishamuddin Hussein, spent about an hour at the Pavilion Kuala Lumpur mall "to get a first-hand look at the joint police and armed forces security patrol in the city," the national news agency Bernama reported.
Police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said a police-military joint patrol launched in several public areas in Kuala Lumpur a month ago following deadly bombings in Jakarta blamed on the Islamic State (IS) terror group would continue "until such time it was felt that it was no longer necessary."
"I assure Malaysians and foreign tourists that the situation in the federal capital remains safe and secure against any foreign threats," said Khalid, who criticized the Australian authorities for not sharing information that was used as a basis for the terror warning.
'Indiscriminate'
The Australian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur warned in a travel advisory to Australians on Sunday that terrorists "may be planning attacks in and around Kuala Lumpur."
"Attacks could be indiscriminate and may target Western interests or locations frequented by Westerners. You should be particularly vigilant at this time," it said.
Noting that there is an "ongoing threat of terrorism" in Malaysia, including Kuala Lumpur and other major cities, the advisory said Malaysian authorities have made a number of arrests of people allegedly involved in planning attacks, including against entertainment venues in Kuala Lumpur.
Canberra's travel warning did not raise the overall threat level for the country from "exercise normal safety precautions" but drew criticism from Malaysian officials
It also advised Australians to reconsider the need to travel to the coastal region of the east Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo island.
The British government had earlier issued a travel alert regarding coastal towns and islands off Sabah raising the terrorism threat level from "general" to "high."
Khalid said the Australian government should have shared with the Malaysian authorities the information it had used to issue the travel alert.
"I do not know the basis of the Australian government in issuing such a statement because if they do know something, they should share with us," Bernama quoted him as saying.
"This is because we will always share whatever information or security situation, particularly on terrorist activities," he said.
Jakarta link
Last month, Malaysian police arrested seven suspected IS militants allegedly linked to the mastermind of the group's Jan. 14 deadly attacks in Jakarta which left four civilians and four attackers dead.
The arrests preceded a police announcement that the IS group had posted a video warning of attacks in Malaysia over the arrests of its members and supporters.
The video, in the native Bahasa Malaysia and released by the Malay unit of IS known as Katibah Nusantara (Malay Archipelago Combat Unit), warned the Malaysian government to halt actions against the group and release those who have been detained or "face revenge."
Katibah Nusantara is suspected to be headed by Bahrun Naim, identified as the mastermind behind the Jakarta bombings and being based in Raqqa, the IS's de facto capital in Syria.
The video featured two Malaysians based in Syria, identified by Malaysia's police chief as Abdul Halid Dari and Mohd Nizam Arifin, speaking under the IS logo.
Malaysia's Police Special Branch chief Mohamad Fuzi Harun revealed last month that one of the Jakarta terrorists had made a phone call to a Malaysian number just before the attack, Bernama had reported. The information came from Indonesian police, Fuzi had said.
Counterterrorism experts have expressed concern over the terrorism threat facing Malaysia after reports emerged that scores of Malaysians had gone to join the IS in Syria and Iraq.
Muslim-majority Malaysia has arrested more than 100 people it says are involved in IS. Fifty-five Malaysians have been involved in IS in Iraq and Syria, of whom 17 had been killed, the local media quoted intelligence reports as saying
Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said there may be more than 130 Malaysian militants in the two countries.
He said at the weekend that Malaysia's police would work closely with Interpol to prevent such individuals from returning to the country to "ensure that Malaysia's racial unity and its stability are not threatened," Bernama reported.


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BENARNEWS- The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) said Wednesday that an independent panel had asked it reopen its investigations into a controversial donation received by Prime Minister Najib Razak despite an order by the country's top government lawyer to close the case.
Nearly a month after Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali cleared Najib of corruption following revelations that more that $600 million was deposited into the prime minister's personal bank account, the MACC said in a statement that the Operations Review Panel (ORP) had asked it to forge ahead with investigations.
The ORP is an independent body set up by the government to monitor the operations of the MACC and give its views concerning cases that are not taken to court for prosecution by the public prosecutor.
"We found there is strong evidence to pursue further investigations and action," one of the panel members told BenarNews, speaking on condition of anonymity.
'Still incomplete'
Last year, Najib faced allegations of graft and mismanagement at the debt-laden state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and a revelation that about $681 million (2.6 billion ringgit) was deposited into his personal bank account.
The attorney-general ruled last month that the transfer to Najib's account was a gift from Saudi Arabia's royal family, saying no further action was necessary.
Najib insisted he did not take any money for personal gain.
But the MACC had referred the case to the eight-member ORP, comprising former civil servants, corporate figures, academics and lawyers, among others.
"Since MACC's investigation into the alleged 2.6 billion ringgit donation case is still incomplete, the panel recommended to MACC that it continues its investigation on the case," the MACC statement said.
It did not elaborate on whether it would indeed pursue the investigations as recommended.
Apandi had no immediate comment, a spokesman for the attorney-general's office told Reuters news agency in a text message. A spokesman for the prime minister's office declined to comment when contacted by telephone.
The panel also recommended that the MACC seek the help of Apandi in obtaining mutual legal assistance "in order for MACC to obtain evidence and documents from financial institutions based overseas as part of its investigations into RM 2.6 billion."
The MACC said the ORP also recommended that investigation papers on SRC International, a 1MDB subsidiary probed for alleged misappropriation of funds, be resubmitted to Apandi for review.
'An unnecessary distraction'
Last month, the MACC said it had sent two reports to Apandi's office following its investigations into the transfer of money into Najib's bank accounts and the affairs of 1MDB, but it did not reveal its findings or say whether any wrongdoing was involved.
The MACC had said that any decision to take further action based on its probe would be up to the attorney-general.
Two former leaders of Najib's United Malays National Organization have since filed court cases against Apandi over his decision to clear Najib of potential corruption-related charges in probes linked to 1MDB.
Apandi had said that most of the money was eventually returned to the donor but he did not say what the donation was intended for or what happened to the remaining money.
"This issue has been an unnecessary distraction for the country. Now that the matter has been comprehensively put to rest, it is time for us to unite and move on," Najib said after the AG's announcement.
Najib chairs the indebted state fund's advisory board.
Also last month, Switzerland's attorney general had announced his office was requesting Malaysia's help in determining whether $4 billion (16.57 billion ringgit) in funds from 1MDB and affiliated companies had been misappropriated.
Authorities in neighboring Singapore also announced that they had seized many bank accounts in the city-state as part of investigations into possible money-laundering related to probes of 1MDB, media widely reported.
Najib had sacked his deputy prime minister, replaced the former attorney-general with Apandi and cracked down on opposition leaders and academics after he was implicated in the scandal.
S. Adie Zul contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- The Malaysian government on Thursday blocked a popular news website after it published a report saying there was credible evidence to frame charges against Prime Minister Najib Razak over a scandal linked to debt-laden state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
The ban, which coincided with the eighth anniversary of the founding of The Malaysian Insider, made it inaccessible to readers in Malaysia.
"This is an unpleasant surprise, and we are awaiting clarification from the MCMC, but we have not received any notice from the commission regarding violation of Malaysian law," Jahabar Sadiq, chief executive officer of the news group, said in a message to BenarNews, confirming the ban.
In a statement, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said it had blocked the site for violating section 233 of the nation's 1998 communications law, which bars obscene or offensive use of network facilities.
"The MCMC warns news portals not to spread or broadcast articles of uncertain validity, which can cause confusion and undesired situations," the statement went on to say.
Malaysia's Center for Independent Journalism (CIJ) blasted the move.
"This is clearly an assault on media freedom, freedom of information and Malaysia's promise for a free Internet," it said in a statement.
Rebuttal
Meanwhile, two members of an independent panel that advises the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) rebutted the Malaysian Insider report, which cited an unnamed member of the panel.
"We wish to state that no anonymous source is authorized to speak for and on behalf of the panel under any circumstances," Operations Review Panel (ORP) chairman Hamid Bugo and member Mohamed Jawhar Hassan said in a press statement.
"We further wish to add that panel did not at any time say that it had 'enough proof to charge Najib over SRC', as claimed by the title of the article, or that 'there is credible evidence to frame charges against Datuk Seri Najib Razak'," the statement went on to say.
SRC International is a subsidiary of indebted state investment fund 1MDB that has been probed for alleged misappropriation of funds. Najib is chairman of 1MDB's advisory board.
The Malaysian prime minister has also faced investigations over a $681 million (2.6 billion ringgit) deposit into his personal bank account in 2013 amid reports linking the money to 1MDB.
Najib has insisted he did not take any money for personal gain.
Last month, Malaysia's Attorney Gen. Mohamed Apandi Ali cleared Najib of potential corruption charges after receiving the MACC's report into the matter, which was not made public.
But the MACC later referred the case to the eight-member ORP, an independent body set up to monitor MACC operations and review cases that are not taken to court for prosecution.
On Wednesday, MACC said the panel had asked it to reopen its investigation into the controversial donation, and resubmit investigative findings on SRC International to the attorney general for review.
"We found there is strong evidence to pursue further investigations and action," one of the panel members told BenarNews, speaking on condition of anonymity.
'Crackdown'
The Malaysian Insider is the second news site to be blocked this year after the Hong Kong-based Asia Sentinel suffered a similar fate on Jan. 29.
"Malaysians should be very concerned with the increased cases of Internet censorship by the government in recent months, signaling worse days ahead," the CIJ statement said.
The Sarawak Report, a Malaysia news website based in the United Kingdom, has been blocked within Malaysia since July 20, 2015.
CIJ also claimed that blog hosting site Medium has been blocked since January, apparently because it published an article from the Sarawak Report.
"The government alleges the article to be false, unsubstantiated and misleading and has since denied access to Medium and its diverse body of content in entirety," it said.
"For the average Internet user in Malaysia this also means having one less space for expression and exchange. It is akin to blocking the whole of YouTube because of one video that offends the government, or all of Facebook because of a single post the government deems 'problematic'."
The events unfolded a day after global rights watchdog Amnesty International said in its 2015/16 annual report that in Malaysia, "the crackdown on freedom of expression and other civil and political rights intensified" in the past year.
At least 15 people, including cartoonist Zunar, were charged for violating the amended Sedition Act, Amnesty noted. Malaysia amended the law in 2015 to cover electronic media and to include harsher, mandatory prison sentences.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian Prime Najib Razak, who has been mediating talks aimed at ending a long-running insurgency in the southern Philippines, met with a top rebel leader this week to express his commitment to peace efforts despite a recent setback and an upcoming leadership change in Manila.
Najib, who met with Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) leader Murad Ebrahim on Thursday, said he remained optimistic about the peace process.
"It is my personal wish to see lasting peace prevail. I envision the Philippines-MILF peace process as a model for resolving long-standing conflicts," Najib said in a statement published by the Malay Mail on Friday. The prime minister did not say where the meeting occurred, according to Malaysia's state-run Bernama news agency.
Najib has served as a facilitator for talks between the government of Philippine President Benigno Aquino III and Ebrahim's MILF organization. Malaysia has hosted peace talks and the prime minister traveled to Manila in 2014 to witness the signing of Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro (CAB) peace agreement.
Earlier this month, however, the Philippine congress adjourned without passing the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) that would develop an autonomous region for Muslims on Mindanao island in the southern Philippines, where they make up the religious majority.
Passage is required for portions of the CAB, including the decommissioning of MILF weapons and combatants, to take effect.
Media reported that the lawmakers failed to move the bill because of indignation over 44 police commandos who were killed in January 2015 in fighting involving MILF guerrillas.
Days after congress finished its session, Aquino's government and Ebrahim's organization agreed to add a year to their ceasefire, extending it to March 31, 2017.
"I convinced ... Ebrahim that despite the current setback, the MILF must remain faithful to the peace process since it is a practical choice to resolve the Bangsamoro issue. I also intimated to him that the process has been very successful in delivering relative peace and stability in the southern Philippines thus far," Najib said.
"Reverting to armed struggle is definitely not an option and bloodshed must be avoided at all costs," he added.
More than 120,000 people have died during more than four decades of conflict in the southern Philippines, according to reports.
The Malaysian leader said he reached an understanding with Ebrahim that the MILF should preserve the CAB, calling it the most significant gain of the peace process. "Ebrahim has pledged his utmost commitment to sustain peace and its dividends."
Najib reiterated that the Malaysian government was willing to work with the next president of the Philippines. Aquino cannot run for another term. His successor will be elected in May.
Philippines military battles militants
While Najib and Ebrahim were meeting, Philippine security forces continued to battle Islamic militants in the southern Philippines. The militants are followers of Indonesian Ustadz Sanusi, a Jemaah Islamiyah member who was killed in the Philippines in 2012, Agence France-Presse reported.
Military officials told AFP that MILF members did not participate in the current fighting, which has displaced more than 20,000 people. Three soldiers and three militants have been confirmed killed during a week of fighting, but military officials claim that another 58 combatants were killed as well, AFP reported.
Reuters reported separately that as many as 42 Muslim rebels "claiming links with the Islamic State" extremist group were killed during five days of fighting, in which Philippine government forces captured their stronghold.
Najib said he encouraged Ebrahim to reach out to other groups to foster unity in the southern Philippines and to ensure that those groups are included in the peace process.
"I call upon all groups in Mindanao to reject radicalization and extremism. As Muslims, we must uphold and implement wasatiyyah, which brings forth a moderate, just and balanced way of life," Najib said.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian police Friday questioned the chief executive and four other staffers of a popular news website that was blocked by the government after it published a report about corruption allegations shadowing Prime Minister Najib Razak.
The five from The Malaysian Insider (TMI) were summoned to police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur on the same day that the leading party of the ruling coalition suspended former Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, a vocal critic of Najib's government, as the party's deputy president.
Najib sacked Muhyiddin as his deputy in July for publically criticizing him over corruption allegations connected to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a state investment fund.
In suspending Muhyiddin from his number 2 post in the United Malays National Organization, officials claimed Friday he "did not properly assist" UMNO's president, Najib.
Meanwhile, police spent four hours questioning TMI Chief Executive Officer Jahabar Sadiq, Managing Editor Lionel Morais and Assistant News editor V. Anbalagan. They also questioned two of the website's sub-editors, Abdar Rahman Koya and Srihanasham Noordin.
The five were summoned a day after telecommunications companies shut down the website under a directive from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).
Following the ban, TMI provided an alternative address to access the website but that too was blocked by local internet regulators, according to the Malay Mail Online newspaper.
The site was blocked domestically after the website published a report alleging that there was credible evidence to frame charges against Najib in a scandal linked to 1MDB.
On Friday, Jahabar told reporters via WhatsApp that he and his staff were "standing by their story."
'We did not disclose our source'
Najib had faced investigations over a deposit of U.S. $681 million (2.6 billion ringgit) into his personal bank accounts in 2013, amid reports that tied the money to 1MDB. He has insisted he did not take any of the money for personal gain.
Last month, Attorney General Mohamed Apandi Ali cleared Najib of potential corruption charges after receiving a report from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), which was not made public.
On Jan. 26, Apandi said "no crime was committed" and that the money was a "personal donation" to Najib from Saudi Arabia's royal family. However, the commission later referred the case to an eight-member Operations Review Panel, an independent body set up to monitor MACC operations and review cases not taken to court for prosecution.
On Wednesday, the anti-graft body said the panel had asked it to reopen its investigation into the controversial donation, and resubmit investigative findings to the attorney general for review.
The Malaysian Insider website was blocked after it published the report that cited an unnamed member of the review panel.
"We did not disclose our source from the panel who provided us with the information as this is part of journalist code of ethics to not disclose sources," Jahabar said.
A day earlier, the MCMC issued a statement warning news portals "not to spread or broadcast articles of uncertain validity, which can cause confusion and undesired situations."
In messages posted on Twitter on Friday, Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said he had directed the Police Cyber Investigation Response Centre to summon Jahabar for questioning because of the news website's report on the anti-corruption commission.
Najib comments
Meanwhile, in a blog post headlined "Netizens for greater good," the prime minister weighed in on the TMI issue.
Najib chided TMI and blamed "keyboard warriors, cyber troopers and news portals" for turning the internet into their "playground" through enticing headlines that, he said, served their own agendas.
"This is an unhealthy practice of journalism. The internet is a shared property owned collectively by all global citizens. As such, we have the responsibility not to misuse it," Najib said.
'Noose of censorship'
Elsewhere, U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday criticized Malaysia for its latest move to restrict press freedom and silence critics of Najib's government, calling on it to remove the online block of TMI.
"By blocking The Malaysian Insider, the government is engaged in a blatant and outrageous breach of freedom of the press that increases fears about Malaysia's faltering commitment to human rights and democratic principles," Phil Robertson, HRW's deputy director for Asia, said in a message posted on Twitter.
Najib's administration is "tightening the noose of censorship and control," Robertson added.
UMNO suspension draws criticism
Muhyiddin was suspended as UMNO's deputy president during a two-hour meeting of its Supreme Council at party headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.
UMNO Secretary General Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said the council had determined that Muhyiddin breached an article of the party's constitution, which states that "the party's deputy president should assist the president in the latter's duties."
Muhyiddin had violated the article through his prolonged criticism of Najib, Tengku Adnan said, according to the Star Online.
Muhyiddin supporters criticized the decision.
These included Mukhriz Mahathir, who was forced to step down as Kedah state chief minister earlier this month following a revolt led by UMNO leaders loyal to Najib.
Mukhriz, who is the son of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, the most vocal critic of Najib's administration, described the council's latest move as a "disgraceful decision."
UMNO Vice President Zahid Hamidi, who also replaced Muhyiddin as deputy PM, will take over as the party's deputy president.


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BENARNEWS- Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed on Monday quit the ruling UMNO party, accusing it of shielding current leader Najib Razak from corruption allegations.
In announcing his exit from the party that has headed the country's ruling coalition since 1957 and over which he presided for 22 years, Mahathir claimed that the United Malays National Organization no longer existed as a political party but "Najib's party."
"I will not be a member of a party led by a leader who was involved with the various ignominious scandals," Mahathir, one of Najib's fiercest critics, said while reading out a statement to reporters in Putrajaya.
"UMNO is now despised in society," he went on to say, pointing to how party officials had fended off public criticism over the deposit of U.S. $681 million (2.6 billion ringgit) into Najib's private bank accounts and alleged mismanagement of money linked to the debt-ridden state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
Najib has claimed that he did not benefit from the large deposit that was made prior to the 2013 general election.
Mahathir, who served as prime minister from 1981 to 2003, said he would not join another party.
Last week, police questioned the 90-year-old ex-PM, after he had posted an entry on his blog site criticizing the country's attorney general for recently clearing Najib of potential corruption-related charges.
On Monday, Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak said Mahathir did the right thing by resigning from the party.
"This is probably for the best because when one's relationship with the party or the party leader is no longer tenable, then it is pointless for one to remain in the party," Salleh said in a statement.
"If Dr. Mahathir wants to continue to attack UMNO, then he should do so outside UMNO. That would be the noble and ethical thing to do," Salleh added.
'Emergence of a new dictatorship'
Mahathir's latest comments about UMNO followed the suspension of former Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin as the party's deputy president on Friday.
Last July, Najib sacked Muhyiddin as his deputy for criticizing him publically over corruption allegations connected to 1MDB. In suspending Muhyiddin from his post as UMNO deputy president, officials said he "did not properly assist" Najib in his role as party president.
Muhyiddin responded with a lengthy Facebook post on Saturday, in which he called for the prime minister to be investigated and prosecuted. A former attorney general told him that a criminal act had been committed, Muhyiddin claimed.
"In the face of public outrage against his leadership, Najib uses all the powers available to him to suppress dissenting voices and silence critics. We are indeed witnessing the collapse of democratic institutions and the emergence of a new dictatorship," Muhyiddin wrote.
UMNO Supreme Council member Azalina Othman Said challenged Muhyiddin's statement, retorting that there seemed to be a political conspiracy to overthrow Razak, The Star reported.
It would have been unethical for the prosecutor to brief Muhyiddin as well as a breach of the Official Secrets Act, she said.
Hafiz Abbas and S. Adie Zul contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- The Malaysian government Tuesday rejected a Wall Street Journal report saying that deposits into Prime Minister Najib Razak's private bank accounts exceeded one billion dollars and were "hundreds of millions more than previously identified."
The government issued a statement accusing the U.S.-based newspaper of "unethical" journalism and being used by Najib's enemies to tarnish his reputation.
"They keep repeating the same old allegations without providing evidence; they keep relying solely on anonymous sources that might not even exist; and they keep choosing to omit key known facts," the state-run Bernama news agency quoted an unnamed government spokesman as saying.
"The Wall Street Journal has become a willing vehicle for certain political actors who are seeking to damage the prime minister and Malaysia for personal gain. But this politically motivated anti-Najib campaign, which sought to use Western media, has failed," the spokesman said.
In its latest report on a scandal that has beleaguered Najib since last year and led to calls for his resignation, the Journal on Tuesday claimed that more than U.S. $1 billion (4.1 billion ringgit) started flowing into Najib's accounts in 2011 and 2012, and that "global investigators believe that much of it originated" with indebted state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
The new figure includes a previously reported deposit of $681 million (2.08 billion ringgit) to Najib's accounts in the run-up to Malaysia's general election in 2013, according to the Journal.
In January, Malaysia's attorney general cleared Najib of potential corruption-related charges, saying that the $681 million was a legal donation from the Saudi royal family, and most of it had been returned. Afterwards, Najib said it was time to put the matter behind him.
Similar name
Najib established 1MDB in 2009 to promote economic development in Malaysia.
That same year, the state-owned Abu Dhabi firm Aabar Investments PJS – a unit of Abu Dhabi's International Petroleum Investment Co. (IPIC) – said it would help 1MDB build a finance center in Kuala Lumpur and acquire power plants, the Journal said.
1MDB's financial filings show that in 2012 it paid a cash deposit of $1.4 billion to a company called Aabar – without specifying a full name. It also paid nearly $1 billion in 2014, according to a draft report by Malaysia's auditor general, the Journal said.
IPIC has denied that it or Aabar Investments PJS ever received this money, the Journal reported, quoting sources familiar with the matter.
The amount flowed instead into a company with a similar name registered in the British Virgin Islands, Aabar Investments PJS Ltd, and from there through other entities into Najib's accounts, the Journal alleged.
"Investigators believe that sometime later, most of the $681 million was sent back into the web of offshore entities through which it had arrived," the report said.
"International investigators have found no evidence any of this came from Saudi Arabia."
'Corruption is corruption'
On Tuesday, 1MDB issued its own statement rejecting the Wall Street Journal report.
The state fund said it "had not paid any funds to the personal accounts of the Prime Minister." It also pointed to the attorney general's and other investigations that linked the 2013 money to Saudi Arabia.
"Not once has the publication offered any conclusive evidence to support its claims, with the only justification for their continued attacks being information that they claim to have obtained from unnamed and anonymous sources," 1MDB said in a news release.
Najib has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and said he never took money for personal gain.
Meanwhile, the Sultan of Perak, Nazrin Shah, said Tuesday that corrupt practices in Malaysia should be reported "without favor, without fear, without being lopsided, because corruption is corruption no matter who commits it."
He insisted that people should be educated to view corruption as a negative and to reject leaders responsible for it.
"Fighting corruption should become a struggle, a 'jihad,' as it is the responsibility and obligation of every citizen of the country to prevent the country from sliding into the valley of humilation," the sultan said at the Utusan Business Awards 2015 ceremony at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Center.


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BENARNEWS- In a rare rebuke of a close Southeast Asian ally, the United States on Wednesday called on Malaysia to "fully respect" free speech and ease restrictions on media outlets that have been reporting critically about the government in Kuala Lumpur.
"The United States is very concerned by the Government of Malaysia's recent actions to restrict access to domestic and international reporting on Malaysian current affairs," U.S. State Department Spokesman John Kirby said in a statement issued from Washington.
"The government's Feb. 25 decision to block online news portal The Malaysian Insider (TMI) is only the latest in a series of similar efforts against media organizations."
Last week, Malaysian police questioned TMI's chief executive and four staffers, a day after telecommunications companies shut down the website under a directive from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).
The site was blocked domestically after it published a report alleging there was credible evidence to frame charges against Prime Minister Najib Razak in a scandal linked to indebted state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
TMI is the second news site to be blocked this year after the Hong Kong-based Asia Sentinel suffered a similar fate on Jan. 29.
The Sarawak Report, a Malaysian news website based in the United Kingdom, has been blocked within Malaysia since July 20, 2015. Additionally, Malaysia's Center for Independent Journalism claimed that blog hosting site Medium had been blocked since January, apparently because it published an article from the Sarawak Report.
Kirby said the U.S. was troubled that the Malaysian government did not act transparently nor provide due process to targeted media organizations and platforms prior to blocking access, and that the government initiated criminal investigations against reporters, editors and publishers from domestic and international media organizations.
Kirby also expressed "equal concern" that "many Malaysian social media users face charges for postings critical of the government and national leaders. Malaysian officials have also publicly described coming amendments to its Communications and Multimedia Act that would further restrict online space."
Ally in Trade, Anti-terror efforts
The U.S. rebuke came a day after The Wall Street Journal published a report that Najib may have received hundreds of millions more than U.S. $687 million that had been deposited into his private bank accounts in 2013. On Tuesday, the Journal reported that other deposits were made into his accounts in 2011 and 2012.
A government spokesman rejected the Journal's latest article about Najib, pointing to a report from the Malaysian attorney general's office that cleared him of wrongdoing related to the 2013 donation. The attorney general determined earlier this year that the money was a gift from the Saudi royal family, and much of it has been returned.
Despite the American rebuke, Kirby said the U.S. wanted to maintain its relationship with Malaysia.
Kuala Lumpur along with the U.S. and 10 other countries recently signed the landmark Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement. Malaysia also is a key partner of the U.S. in efforts to counter the threat of radical Islam in Southeast Asia and the regional influence of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group.
"The United States and Malaysia have built a strong comprehensive partnership, through which we hope to expand our cooperation on a range of shared challenges. In that context, we urge the government of Malaysia to ensure that all its laws, existing and future, fully respect freedom of expression, including the free flow of ideas on the internet," Kirby said.


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BENARNEWS- Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is drawing support from an unlikely source in his efforts to get the current PM to resign over a financial scandal – jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.
From his prison cell Ibrahim on Thursday posted a statement on his blog, in which he stated his backing for the 90-year-old former PM and others who have criticized Prime Minister Najib Razak over corruption allegations linked to the debt-ridden state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
"I support the position of friends in civil society, political parties and individuals including Tun Dr Mahathir, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and others to build up strength and common understanding together," Ibrahim said, referring to Mahathir and a former deputy prime minister whom Najib sacked in July 2015 for criticizing in public over the scandal.
"The 1MDB scandal involving the prime minister is the most severe scandal in our history and has badly damaged our nation's image," wrote Anwar, the leader of the opposition People's Justice Party (PKR).
"This can only happen when power is centered in one individual such as the prime minister, as well as the failure of key financial, judicial and enforcement institutes to perform their tasks independently without fear or favor."
Anwar is serving a five-year sentence for a 2008 sodomy conviction.
He is Mahathir's former No. 2.
But in 1998, then-Prime Minister Mahathir dismissed him as his deputy. That year Anwar was also booted from the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the party that heads a coalition that has ruled Malaysia since 1957.
Shortly afterward Anwar was arrested, convicted and jailed on corruption and different sodomy charges. In 2004, the sodomy conviction was overturned but his corruption conviction stood.
In Thursday's statement, he also called for political change in Malaysia.
The common understanding that he hoped to build with Mahathir, Muhyiddin and others would, Anwar wrote, "focus on the demand for Najib to resign as prime minister as he has clearly failed to lead this nation. He is responsible for continuing to engage in selfish political acts, wreaking havoc upon administrative institutions and burdening the Rakyat [people] with continued economic crisis."
"We have also learned from history that meaningful transition of power cannot happen only with a change of leadership but it also demands a systemic change," Anwar went on to say.
Najib has denied all allegations related to scandals tied to 1MBD and a 2.08 billion ringgit (U.S. $681 million) deposit made to his private bank accounts prior to the 2013 general election.
In January, Malaysia's attorney general cleared the prime minister of any wrongdoing linked to the deposit, saying it was a donation to Najib from Saudi Arabia's royal family.
Muhyiddin, Mahathir's son stay with UMNO
Anwar's statement of support for Mahathir came three days after the ex-PM – who is popularly known as "Dr. M" – announced that he was quitting UMNO in protest over the scandal and what he said was the party's efforts to protect Najib from corruption allegations.
Last week, the party suspended Muhyiddin Yassin from his post as its deputy president, saying that he had breached UMNO's constitution by failing to assist its president, Najib, in his duties as party chief.
On Thursday, Muhyiddin vowed that he would not quit UMNO but warned he would fight "crimes against the party."
"I was with UMNO since the '70s. I never said I wanted to leave the party. So today I decided to stay and fight the party from within," he told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur.
Former Kedah state Chief Minister Mukhriz Mahathir – the son of the former prime minister – joined Muhyiddin in announcing his intention to remain a party member.
Mukhriz, who was forced to resign from the Kedah post last month, blamed UMNO at the time for leading an effort to remove him.
Mukhriz said that while he did not follow in his father's footsteps by quitting UMNO, they were pursuing the same objective.
"I was with Muhyiddin and remain a member of UMNO," Mukhriz said. "I decided to criticize from within and this does not contradict the efforts of Mahathir.
"This approach may be different, but the principle is the same – going after and exposing the truth in the face of evil and falsehood," Mukhriz said.
Haireez Azeem Azizi contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Friday announced a new coalition encompassing many of his erstwhile enemies that is calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Razak over corruption allegations.
Mahathir and 57 other leading figures from across Malaysia's political and social spectrum issued a 37-point "Citizens' Declaration" calling for the removal of Razak from office.
"The movement will witness the dawn of a new comprehensive reform effort in a paralyzed state system under the leadership of Najib," Malek Maszlee, a political science professor at the International Islamic University - Malaysia, told BenarNews.
But for the new movement to succeed, the group led by Mahathir will need to gather momentum behind its cause, he cautioned.
"People also want a guarantee" that, should Najib be removed as PM non-violently, he won't be replaced by a leader "who will make more trouble after that," Malek said.
Ahmad Atory Hussain, a political scientist and former professor at the University of Science, Malaysia, described the new movement as unprecedented.
"I salute Mahathir because all the opposition leaders who had previously been hostile to him now follow behind him. This is something that never happened before," Ahmad told BenarNews.
Yet he expressed skepticism that the movement could go far in bringing about political change.
In his view, Najib remains entrenched and it will be difficult to replace him because he has the backing of 3.3. million members of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the party that has headed Malaysia's ruling coalition for nearly 60 years – and which Mahathir just quit in protest over corruption scandals under Najib's leadership.
"I'm sure he is able to control this problem. For me, he will handle this issue," Ahmad said.
'Damage done'
On Friday, Mahathir and an assortment of politicians with whom he battled while serving as prime minister from 1981 to 2003, held a news conference in Kuala Lumpur at which they unveiled the collective declaration.
"We wish to draw the attention of the people of Malaysia to the damage done to the country under the premiership of Dato' Sri Najib Abdul Razak," the declaration said at the outset.
The document delved into a long list of allegations of corruption and financial mismanagement connected to the cash-strapped state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and other firms linked to it.
Najib, who took power in 2009, established 1MDB that year as a vehicle for spurring development. He chairs its board of advisers.
The document also claimed that Najib's government had blocked investigations into potential charges of corruption against him, particularly a deposit of 2.08 billion ringgit (U.S. $681 million) into his private bank accounts during the run-up to the 2013 general election.
This week the Wall Street Journal reported that the overall deposit, in fact, exceeded U.S. $1 billion and the money began to be funneled into Najib's accounts as early as 2011. According to the Journal, global investigators believed that "much of it originated" with 1MDB.
Najib has denied any wrongdoing or that he used any of the money from the $681 million-deposit for personal gain. In January, Malaysia's attorney general cleared the PM of potential corruption charges, saying the money was a donation from Saudi Arabia's royal family.
Because of a series of 1MDB-linked scandals surrounding Najib, "today Malaysia's image is badly tarnished," the declaration signed by Mahathir and 57 others said.
"Apart from being classified as one of the 10 most corrupt countries, Malaysia is now regarded as undemocratic," the declaration went on to say.
"There is denial of freedom of speech and freedom of the press and people live in fear of arrest and detentions. Security laws are enacted to allow the prime minister (and not the King) to declare security areas where anyone could be arrested and detained without trial and tried under procedures that violate normal and fair criminal justice standards," the declaration said.
It ended with a call for Najib's removal as prime minister "through non-violent and legally permissible means," as well as those officials who have "acted in concert with him."
The document also called for a repeal of laws and agreements that "violate fundamental rights" guaranteed by Malaysia's federal constitution, and the restoration of institutions whose integrity, it suggested, had been sullied under Najib such as the national police force, the central bank and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
'It's called a general election'
When he was in power, Mahathir himself was known for an authoritarian style of governance.
After he and his new allies issued their declaration, the Prime Minister's Office shot back with a statement that brushed off their calls for Najib's immediate ouster.
"Today, Tun Mahathir and his former enemies have demonstrated the depth of their political opportunism and desperation," the office said.
"There is an existing mechanism to change the Government and Prime Minister. It's called a general election. And it is the only mechanism that is lawful, democratic and fulfils the people's will," the PM's office added.
Among Mahathir's former foes who joined him in launching the "Save Malaysia" movement were Hishamuddin Rais, an activist whom Mahathir's government had jailed under the now defunct Internal Security Act, and Lim Kit Siang, the head of the opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP).
Kit Siang told reporters he was putting has past enmity toward the 90-year-old Mahathir behind him, and focusing on working with the former PM and other figures "to solve the problems of 30 million people in the country who are dealing with various issues such as the economy, the high price of goods, inflation and so on."
The declaration came a day after jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim – another of Mahathir's foes – announced that he would support him and others who were trying to bring about Najib's removal from power.
But, although the deputy president of Anwar's party was present at Friday's news conference, it was not immediately clear whether Anwar intended to add his signature to the document.
When asked whether he would also campaign to have Anwar released from prison on a sodomy conviction, Mahathir told reporters, "Our focus is to get rid of Najib."


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BENARNEWS- The leader of a Philippine militant group is pointing to efforts by the Islamic State (IS) to gain a foothold in his country as a reason for the government to establish an autonomous region for minority Muslims in the south.
Speaking in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Chairman Murad Ebrahim called for a political solution to bring peace to the Bangsamoro region of the southern Philippines, according to reports.
Ebrahim's comments came 10 days after he met with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who then expressed his commitment to peace efforts in the neighboring country.
Razak said he supported efforts by the Philippines and MILF leaders to extend through March 2017 their long-standing ceasefire tied to a 2014 peace deal, the Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro (CAB).
The ceasefire's extension followed the recent adjournment of the Philippine congress without passage of Bangsamoro Basic Law, as required by the CAB to establish the autonomous region.
Ebrahim claimed that IS extremist group was using the growing frustration among Muslim groups in the south over the congressional inaction to establish itself in the Philippines, according to media reports.
"There have been some efforts of penetration, but they have not succeeded in establishing a stronghold," Ebrahim said, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. "But now after the non-passage of the (bill), we are quite concerned that they can capitalize on this because the (frustration) of the people in the area is now very strong."
He expressed hope that the next Philippine president who takes office in June would keep pursuing the peace process. President Benigno Aquino III, who led efforts to broker the 2014 peace agreement, cannot seek reelection.
Thousands killed over decades of fighting
Efforts to bring about peace and establish an autonomous home for the Muslim population, which forms a majority in Bangsamoro, are linked to more than 40 years of fighting in the region that has left more than 120,000 dead.
While Najib and Ebrahim were meeting late last month, Philippine security forces battled followers of Indonesian Ustadz Sanusi, a Jemaah Islamiyah member who was killed in the Philippines in 2012. MILF members did not participate in the fighting, which displaced 20,000 people and left at least six combatants on both sides dead.
Ebrahim said MILF leaders wanted the peace efforts to work and were seeking to dissuade IS-allied militants from attacks, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
"We cannot completely abandon armed struggle, but we always believe we have to give supremacy, primacy to the peace process because we believe the solution to the problem is still political," Ebrahim said, according to AFP. "As long as the peace process has a chance to move forward then we don't want to revert to violence again."


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BENARNEWS- One of Malaysia's most popular news portals ceased publication Monday after a government block of the site compounded its financial difficulties, its publisher said.
The announcement came as media advocates protested the six-hour detention Saturday of two Australian journalists who allegedly got too close to Prime Minister Najib Razak.
"It is with much sadness that The Edge Media Group ... wishes to announce that we have decided to cease the operations of The Malaysian Insider (TMI) with immediate effect," Publisher and CEO Ho Kay Tat said in a statement.
The Edge could no longer sustain TMI after having incurred 10 million ringgit (U.S. $2.4 million) in losses since acquiring the website in June 2014, he said.
"We believe the recent problems TMI had with The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) had made it more difficult for a sale to be concluded even though discussions had started before that," Ho added.
Malaysia's government blocked access to TMI within Malaysia on Feb. 25, a day after the portal published a report saying there was credible evidence to frame charges against Najib over scandals linked to the indebted state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
TMI's Chief Executive Officer Jahabar Sadiq said he and his staff stood by the story when police questioned them the following day.
In January, Malaysia's attorney general cleared Najib of potential corruption charges linked to the deposit of U.S. $681 million into his private bank accounts during the run-up to the 2013 general election. Najib has maintained that he never took money for private gain.
'Half-baked stories'
The closure of the TMI website removes from circulation an online news site that had been doing critical reporting on the 1MDB and associated stories.
"The TMI incident is not only a form of a government censorship, but a case to serve as a warning to other online publications which are critical," Mustafa Kamal Anuar a lecturer in communications at the University of Science, Malaysia, told BenarNews.
"After all, all the mainstream media is controlled as much as possible, now it's time for the regime to try to control alternative media and social media that have various lines of view," he warned.
However, another commentator accused TMI of dishing out "rubbish and concocted stories and lies."
"t is heartening to know that more and more intelligent Malaysians are waking up and no longer believe wholeheartedly the half-baked stories that are being churned out to them. TMI dug its own grave," media critic Baharuddin Aziz told BenarNews.
'I won't put my pen down'
Before the site went dark at midnight (local time), TMI editors and staff bid goodbye to readers with a staff photo and special articles posted on its homepage.
"I hope we have served you well since our first day ... and I hope others will continue to serve you in our absence," Jahabar told readers in a farewell piece.
"We worked as impartial journalists to inform Malaysians and other readers so that they make informed decisions. We worked to make all voices heard in the marketplace of ideas," Jahabar wrote.
"I won't put my pen down, I won't lay down my camera, I won't shut up and I won't be blinkered or turn a deaf ear to what goes on in Malaysia and the world. And I urge all of you to do the same," Jahabar vowed.
The Insider was the second news website to be blocked within Malaysia this year after the Hong Kong-based Asia Sentinel.
In 2015, the government blocked online access to The Sarawak Report, a Britain-based news site that covers Malaysia and also has published articles critical of Najib.
Legal Threats
Meanwhile, media organizations expressed alarm over the arrest Saturday of two Australian journalists who had tried to question Najib over corruption allegations.
Australian Broadcasting Corp. (ABC) reporter Linton Besser and cameraman Louie Eroglu were held for six hours after they approached Najib at a mosque in Kuching, according to media freedom group Gerakan Media Marah (Geramm).
Authorities temporarily seized their passports, then ordered the pair to remain in Kuching while authorities decided whether to file criminal charges against them for "allegedly crossing a security line and aggressively approaching the prime minister," the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in a statement.
The CPJ called on Malaysian authorities to "drop all legal threats against them" and Geramm condemned the arrests.
The Foreign Correspondents Club of Malaysia (FCCM) issued a statement in which it said it was "compelled to express our gravest concern at the treatment of the [ABC] team."
The club said it "simply does not see the need, based on the current explanation of the case, to arrest the two journalists."


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia on Tuesday deported two Australian journalists who were arrested over the weekend for allegedly crossing a security line to try to interview Prime Minister Najib Razak over ongoing financial scandals.
The government expelled Australian Broadcasting Corp. (ABC) reporter Linton Besser and camera operator Louie Eroglu, after authorities decided not to press charges against the pair for getting too close to Najib while he visited a mosque in Sarawak state on Saturday, officials said.
The move followed criticism over their arrest from press advocacy groups, as well as concern expressed by Australia's foreign ministry about the case amid growing restrictions on press freedom in Malaysia.
"On Tuesday, police had received instructions from the DPP that no prosecution was made against them – instead they have been ordered to leave the country," Dev Kumar, senior assistant commissioner for Sarawak's Criminal Investigation Department, said in a statement released to media.
"They will be deported under Section 18(3)(h) of the Immigration Act 1959/63."
Besser and Eroglu boarded a flight to Singapore on Tuesday, but they would only be allowed to re-enter Malaysia as tourists, Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed warned.
"If they have been deported, that means they have done something wrong. When they come back, we will see then," he told reporters. "If they come back as tourists, then there's no problem, but there will be a problem if they come back and break any laws."
'What is wrong with asking the question?'
Albert Tang, a Malaysian lawyer representing the Australian journalists, told BenarNews that while the government had the right to file charges for "obstructing state officials" - referring to official allegations that his clients had breached a security line - such action would have been the right approach.
The government should not have detained and interrogated them because all they wanted to do was question Najib about scandals linked with the indebted state fund 1 Malaysia Development Berhad, the lawyer added.
"What is wrong in asking questions? I see many journalists do that every time, but they were not arrested, interrogated and charged in court," he said.
During a visit to Fiji on Monday, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Australia was raising the case of the two ABC journalists at the highest levels within the Malaysian government, the Associated Press reported.
"I'm always concerned where there are instances of a crackdown on freedom of speech, in democracies particularly, and I'm also concerned about the freedom that journalists have to carry out their work in places around the world," AP quoted Bishop as saying.
On Tuesday, New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) criticized Malaysia over its "knee-jerk reaction" in the case of Besser and Eroglu.
Their six-hour detention demonstrated "the incredible lengths that the authorities are prepared to go to protect Prime Minister Najib from any sort of hard questions about his actions," said Phil Robertson, deputy director of HRW's Asia division.
"It's shameful that the Malaysia government is apparently willing to shred the country's already diminished reputation as a rights-respecting democracy to shield one man from serious allegations of malfeasance," he added.


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BENARNEWS- Singapore has arrested four men under its Internal Security Act (ISA) who joined or planned to join violent overseas conflicts, its Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said Wednesday.
Three of the men were involved in a sectarian conflict in Yemen while the fourth attempted to join a Kurdish militia group fighting the so-called Islamic State (IS) in Syria, an MHA statement said.
The ISA allows suspects to be detained without trial or issued restriction orders under which their movements are monitored and they are required to attend religious counseling sessions.
Two of the men, Mohammad Razif bin Yahya and Amiruddin bin Sawir, were detained in August 2015 after they voluntarily participated in an armed conflict in Yemen, the MHA said.
Razif, 27, began religious studies in January 2010 and Amiruddin, 53, in July 2013. Both volunteered for armed sentry duties at a religious institution to prevent incursions by Shiites, the statement alleged.
It said that Amiruddin was involved in a gunfight with Shiites and that both men were prepared to kill and be killed as martyrs.
"By taking up arms in Yemen, they have demonstrated a readiness to use violence to pursue their religious cause. As such, they are assessed to pose a security threat to Singapore," the MHA statement said.
Yemen has endured years of armed conflict between its majority Sunni Muslims and Houthi rebels, who are Shia. Saudia Arabia and a coalition of Arab states entered the conflict in 2015.
Against IS
Two other men, Mohamed Mohideen bin Mohamed Jais and Wang Yuandongyi, were issued restriction orders (RO) this month, according to MHA.
Mohideen, 25, performed sentry duties in Yemen while pursuing religious studies from 2009 to early 2011 but was not involved in any firefights, according to the MHA.
Wang, 23, planned to travel to Syria to join a Kurdish militia group that is fighting against the Islamic State (IS). He left Singapore in January 2016 planning to travel to Turkey and Syria, but someone who became aware of his plans reported him.
MHA said Wang was taken into custody in an unnamed country and returned to Singapore where he was placed on an RO this month.
In December 2015, Wang contacted a Kurdish militia group online to express interest in their fight against IS and communicated with others about joining the militia group, the MHA said.
Wang had Singapore military-issued gear including a uniform and boots he planned to use in battle, it said.
"The government takes a stern view against anyone who supports, promotes, undertakes or makes preparations to undertake armed violence, regardless of how they rationalize such violence ideologically," the MHA statement said.


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BENARNEWS- The offices of the attorney general and public prosecutor should be separated to ensure that criminal justice is enforced fairly and impartially in Malaysia, the local chapter of corruption watchdog Transparency International said Thursday.
The attorney general is appointed by the prime minister and holds the parallel office of public prosecutor, but no single person should hold so much power over the nation's criminal justice system, according to Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M) and civil society groups.
The current set-up "has made it easier for unchecked and inappropriate decisions to be made in relation to cases involving high-profile individuals," TI-M President Akhbar Satar said in a statement.
The system should also be changed so that the public prosecutor is answerable to parliament and not the executive branch, Akhbar argued.
"This separation of powers as a method of checks and balance will ensure that prosecution decisions can be made without any fear or favor and protected from political interference," he said.
Akhbar went on to cite the recent decision by Attorney Gen. Mohamed Apandi Ali to clear Prime Minister Najib Razak of potential corruption charges in financial scandals linked to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad state investment fund.
"Very clearly," Apandi "needs to come clean and be transparent" about this decision, Akhbar said.
In January, Apandi announced that his office was closing investigations into corruption scandals facing the prime minister, particularly one involving a deposit of U.S. $681 million into his private bank accounts before the 2013 general election.
Apandi said "no criminal offense" had been committed, that most of the money had been returned , and that it was a "personal donation" from Saud Arabia's royal family.
Najib has maintained he never took money for private gain. But last July, the month when news of the scandal broke, he sacked Abdul Gani Patail, the attorney general at the time who was heading an inter-agency task force probing that and other scandals associated with 1MDB.
On Thursday, Apandi did not respond to requests from BenarNews seeking comment.
'A serious structural issue'
University of Malaya law professor Azmi Shahrom agreed that the public prosecutor's office should be autonomous from the attorney-general's office.
"TI-M is correct. But it could only work if our version of the prosecution service is independent and free from government interference. There is no way a Barisan Nasional government will allow that," Azmi told BenarNews, referring to the coalition that has ruled Malaysia since 1957.
Elsewhere, the head of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) described the current set-up as problematic.
"In cases involving any member of the executive, especially the Prime Minister, extraordinary measures must be taken to guarantee that deliberations on prosecution will be handled independently. There is a serious structural issue with the Attorney General's Chambers which impacts upon public trust in the institution," IDEAS Chief Executive Officer Wan Saiful Wan Jan said Thursday in a statement.
And according to G25, a civil society group led by influential people from across Malaysian society, a fundamental conflict of interest exists in the functions and powers bestowed on the attorney general.
"It is poor governance that the Attorney General is the legal advisor for the government of Malaysia and also the final arbiter on decisions to prosecute," the G25 said in a statement.
Under pressure
The current attorney general is facing pressure over his decision to close the investigations into Najib.
On Tuesday, opposition leader Wan Azizah Wan Ismail called for Apandi to be removed from office by submitting a parliamentary motion for a no-confidence vote against the attorney general. But Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia rejected the motion.
Meanwhile, the Malaysian Bar Association this week lodged a case with the Supreme Court asking the justices to review Apandi's handling of the investigations connected to the prime minister.
Hata Wahari contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Singapore announced Friday that it would step up security measures across the prosperous island-state in response to a rising threat from the Islamic State (IS) militant group in Southeast Asia.
Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam, in unveiling the measures, said multi-ethnic Singapore had to prevent IS supporters and other radicals groups in neighboring and predominantly Muslim Malaysia and Indonesia from infiltrating its territory.
"The threat of a terror attack here is at the highest level in recent times, much more so than after 9/11 and the arrest of Jemaah Islamiyah members," he said, referring to JI, a Southeast Asian  group linked to al-Qaeda.
He said IS posed a "qualitatively different and much more dangerous threat" than al-Qaeda ever did in the region.
Singaporean officials previously said that the city-state was a target of militants because it hosts multinational corporations and is a regional financial center.
Just after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington, Singaporean authorities arrested several suspected militants and foiled an attempt to carry out bomb attacks on U.S. and other foreign targets in the city-state.
"There are multiple layers of threats in this region – complex, interwoven, fusing religion with domestic political grievances, ranging from Myanmar to Indonesia," Shamugam said at a ministry forum.
"And we are in the middle, an oasis of calm, and a prime target for all."
He said Singapore would impose enhanced security checks at its borders – particularly its very busy border with Malaysia – increased vigilance at Changi International Airport and government buildings.
He said 10,000 closed-circuit cameras would be set up at public housing estates and multi-story garages to stave off the threat.
"We have several possible Molenbeeks around us," the minister said, alluding to neighboring countries and a district of the Belgian capital Brussels, which was home to militants involved in IS-claimed attacks in Paris that killed 130 in November.
As many as 145 million out of 200 million people who enter Singapore annually by land, sea and air pass through two checkpoints on the Malaysian border, Shanmugam noted.
"It is no longer a question of whether an attack will take place, but really, when an attack is going to take place in Singapore, and we have to be prepared for that," he added.
Even though Singapore has been well equipped and prepared to deal with terror threats till now, "the nature of the threat has changed, and we have to evolve some new tactics based on what we saw in Paris and Jakarta," Shanmugam told reporters separately on Friday, referring to a terrorist attack in downtown Jakarta on Jan. 14 that left eight dead, including four suspected assailants.
Multi-pronged threat
He said in his speech that Singapore faced threats from home-grown radicals in Malaysia and Indonesia, as well as from Southeast Asians who have returned from or are coming home from combat tours with IS in the Middle East.
As many as 1,000 people from Southeast Asia – mainly Indonesians and Malaysians who "are willing to die" – have travelled to Syria or Iraq to join IS and some of them have joined the ranks of Katibah Nusantara, an IS combat unit led by Southeast Asians and made up exclusively of Malay-speaking fighters, he said.
Southeast Asians in Syria and Iraq also have been encouraging supporters of IS in their home region to mount terror plots in Southeast Asia, Shanmugam said.
The situation is more challenging in Indonesia because, in addition to home-grown radicals and those returning from abroad, Indonesia has weak anti-terror laws and authorities there this year are set to release 150 people convicted on terror-related charges who have not yet been de-radicalized, according to the minister.
He cited the example of how Singapore had previously detained four Indonesians who were passing through the city-state while in transit to Syria. Singapore deported the four, but Indonesian authorities had to release them because they lacked legal grounds to hold them.
'Clean skins'
In Malaysia, authorities last year foiled seven terror plots and arrested more than 100 people with suspected links to IS. The suspects included government officials such as commandos, police officers and civil servants, Shanmugam said.
"In Malaysia, there is also a substantial threat posed by 'clean skins,' people with no criminal records and not under the scrutiny of security agencies," according to the minister.
"They come together through social media. In April 2015, Malaysia arrested 12 militants, all clean skins. If they wanted to travel, they could get past many immigration counters undetected."
The move to introduce new security measures came two days after the Home Ministry announced that four men had been arrested and detained under Singapore's Internal Security Act (ISA) on suspicion that they planned to fight in conflicts in Yemen and Syria. The law allows Singapore to hold suspects without trial or monitor and restrict their movements.


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BENARNEWS- The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission is moving to interview witnesses in the case of the alleged misappropriation of 107 million ringgit (U.S. $26.5 million) from the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the head of MACC's investigations teams said Monday.
On Friday, nine people were arrested in the case, including a 56-year-old department division head at the ministry who is suspected of embezzling 20 million ringgit ($4.95 million) since 2010.
"Witnesses expected to be called up today are from the ministry and the involved government agency," MACC Director of Investigations Azam Baki told BenarNews, adding that he expected no more arrests to be made in connection with the allegations.
The anti-graft body said the money was channeled to companies for bogus contract programs and to the key suspect's bank accounts.
Azam said investigators still were determining whether other companies were involved in the corruption case, other than those already identified in the probe.
"There are possibilities, of course. The MACC needs to make sure of it, we are not playing a guessing game here," Azam said.
The department head in custody is believed to have masterminded the embezzlement, and he and the eight other suspects were remanded to MACC custody for a week, starting on March 18, according to Azam.
The unnamed main suspect used 69 bank accounts – all now frozen – to handle transactions by directing the financial department of a related agency to make payments to about 14 companies for bogus programs that were never implemented, the commission said at a press conference on Saturday.
The suspect, who had worked at the ministry since 1998, would receive his cut from the companies, some of which deposited checks into his personal bank accounts, Azam told the news conference.
The suspected mastermind also received other payments from contractors, including money spent on houses, luxury cars, insurance payments and trusts fund units amounting to millions, the MACC investigations' chief said.
"He was able to afford expensive, branded watches; one of them priced at 400,000 ringgit [U.S. $99,000], a stack of jewelry worth not less than 600,000 ringgits [U.S. $148,000], and 'bedding' valued at more than 300,000 ringgits [U.S. $74,000]," Azam told reporters.
The 69 bank accounts that held an estimated 8.3 million ringgit (U.S. $2 million) were frozen under the nation's anti-corruption, anti-money laundering acts and other laws.
On Monday, Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin confirmed that the department divisional head was among the suspects.
"The MACC had informed me several weeks ago of the investigation, and I had stated that the ministry and agencies under it are willing to cooperate fully as to ensure a smooth, and holistic probe," Khairy said said.
Khairy said the ministry's internal mechanisms as well as its management of funds would be investigated. The arrests would not disrupt the ministry's preparation for next year's Southeast Asian Games, which will take place in Kuala Lumpur, he added.


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BENARNEWS- Ratcheting up his effort to remove Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak from office, ex-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against him alleging corruption and abuse of power.
Mahathir and two other plaintiffs are suing Najib to force him to pay the government 2.6 billion ringgit (U.S. $681 million) in exemplary damages and 42 million ringgit (U.S. $10.1 million) in aggravated damages for malfeasance allegedly committed while holding public office, their lawyer said.
The malfeasance was exposed by investigations into financial improprieties under Najib's leadership, including alleged improprieties linked with the indebted state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), attorney Mohamed Haniff Khatri told BenarNews.
"If each and every effort taken to pass the message to the wrongdoer to step down has been exhausted, and if the wrongdoer further perpetuates the wrongdoings to cling on to his position without remorse, it therefore requires one to seek the aid of the house of the judiciary, as the last bastion of justice," Haniff said.
The 90-year-old Mahathir, who served as prime minister from 1981 to 2003, is among Najib's most vocal critics. Since last year he has led calls for Najib to resign over financial scandals, particularly over the deposit of $681 million into his private banks accounts in 2013.
Last month, Mahathir quit the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the party that heads Malaysia's ruling coalition, in protest over scandals linked to 1MDB. On March 7, Mahathir and an array of former political enemies unveiled a "Citizens' Declaration" calling for Najib's ouster by peaceful means.
In January, Attorney General Mohamed Apandi Ali cleared Najib of potential wrongdoing and ordered that investigations into the PM be closed, saying that "no criminal offense" had been committed. The $681 million was a personal donation to Najib from the Saudi royal family, and most of the money was returned to the donor, according to Apandi.
Najib has maintained he never took the money for his personal gain. The prime minister, who could not be reached for comment on the lawsuit, chairs 1MDB's advisory board.
Co-plaintiffs
Joining Mahathir in the lawsuit are Khairuddin Abu Hassan, a former UMNO division vice chief, and ex-UMNO member Anina Saadudin.
In 2015, Khairuddin traveled to Switzerland, Britain, France and Hong Kong to draw attention to the 1MDB case, but was later detained in Malaysia under the Security Offenses (Special Measures) Act of 2012 (Sosma) for allegedly plotting against Najib. Anina was removed by UMNO for filing a separate lawsuit against Najib.
The 34-page suit highlights allegations of Najib's "interferences and financial impropriety" concerning 1MDB and other financial scandals.
"Through the suit, we are seeking justification of Najib's misconduct ... all his obstructions on the authorities investigating the 1MDB debacle, and that is what's wrong, as it hinders all that could be done in getting to the bottom of the matter," Haniff told BenarNews.
Mahathir 'out of options'
Reacting to Mahathir's latest move against Najib, one of the PM's strongest allies in the cabinet, Minister of Communications and Multimedia Salleh Said Keruak, posted a blog saying that Mahathir was "clutching at straws."
Salleh wrote that Mahathir's suit came only after he had failed to topple Najib through UMNO annual party assembly and by a parliamentary vote of no confidence.
"His accusations are false, so he will fail yet again. He has run out of options," he wrote.
Meanwhile, Deputy Home Minister Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed said that Mahathir had no legal grounds for suing the current prime minister.
"A common man does not have the locus standi to sue Najib [as prime minister]. This is a publicity-seeking political gimmick, Mahathir attempts to invoke the people's anger," Jazlan told Malaysia media.
On the contrary, anyone could sue a prime minister, UMNO lawmaker Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, a friend of Mahathir, told BenarNews.
"If a minister doesn't do a satisfactory job or misuses power, the common man who is unhappy with that minister, or any government servant, has the right to take legal action," the longest-serving MP said.


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BENARNEWS- Fifteen people suspected of ties to the Islamic State extremist group and plotting a terror attack in Malaysia were arrested in nationwide raids conducted over three days, police said Thursday.
Four women are among the suspects who range in age from 22 to 49 years old, and they include a police officer and an airplane mechanic, Malaysian Police Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar told BenarNews.
The 15 were involved in terror-related activities including trying to acquire chemicals for making bombs, raising funds that were to be sent to an unnamed militant group in the southern Philippines, and trying to help two foreign militants enter another Southeast Asian country via Malaysia, Khalid said.
"Those arrested are government employees, private workers, a preacher, housewives and students," Khalid told Benar.
The 15 were picked up in raids mounted in seven states since Tuesday night by Bukit Aman, the Royal Malaysia Police's counter-terrorist special branch, Khalid said. Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Kedah and Penang were among the states where the raids took place.
The special police operations began amid a heightened state of alert in Malaysia and on the day that IS claimed responsibility for coordinated terrorist attacks on Tuesday, which killed at least 30 people and injured at least 270 others in Brussels, Belgium.
The latest arrests in Malaysia brings to 177 the total number of people taken into custody on suspicion of links to IS.
On Wanndy's instructions
Later on Thursday, Malaysia's police chief issued a statement alleging that the suspects were "raising funds among IS supporters in Malaysia to be passed to Malaysians who have joined the group in Syria."
"They were also involved in hacking a number of websites owned by the government and also establishing working relationships with other terrorist groups in Southeast Asia," Khalid's statement went on to say.
The suspects were receiving instructions from Muhammad Wanndy Mohamed Jedi, a young Malaysian suspected of having joined IS in Syria, Khalid said.
In February 2015, Wanndy and fellow Malaysian Mohd Faris Anuar made headlines back home when they reportedly took part in the videotaped beheading of a Syrian prisoner, which was posted online.
In November, Faris was killed while allegedly fighting along IS forces in Anbar province, Iraq.
Meanwhile, authorities in Malaysia accuse Wanndy of actively recruiting Malaysians via social media to join IS in the Middle East .
According to Khalid's statement, the 15 suspects apprehended this week were also involved in recruiting and sending Malaysians to Syria. The four female suspects were planning to sneak out of the country to join IS, Khalid said.
All of the suspects were arrested for terrorism-related offenses and will be investigated under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012, he said.
'Not political spin'
Malaysia has been on a heightened state of alert since IS claimed it carried out a terror attack in Jakarta that killed eight people, including four suspects, on Jan. 14 – the first strike carried out by the extremist group in Southeast Asia.
In a written reply to questions from lawmakers, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told parliament on Thursday that Malaysians should take the threat of terrorism seriously. Earlier in the month, Zahid announced that IS last year had plotted to kidnap Prime Minister Najib Razak and other top officials.
As of March 14, 162 people had been arrested in the country up until then over suspected links to IS, Zahid wrote on Thursday.
"I have several times made a statement about the dangers of terrorism and national security. It is not political spin but it is the result of intelligence," Zahid said in his reply.
Last month, the home minister said that more than 130 Malaysians might have travelled to Iraq or Syria to join IS.
But on March 5, the state-run Bernama news agency quoted Bukit Aman Director Mohamad Fuzi Harun as saying that a total of 47 Malaysians were currently in either of those two countries and that 18 others had been killed while fighting for IS.


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BENARNEWS- Thai police Wednesday announced the arrests of two Malaysians who were allegedly caught with more than one-quarter ton of crystal methamphetamine at a southern border crossing.
Following a tip-off from authorities in neighboring Malaysia, Chang Kim Sui, 49, and Lim Yean Hooi, 37, were arrested Tuesday at the Sadao checkpoint in Songkhla province, while trying to enter Malaysia, officials said.
The two were driving separate cars and were carrying a total of 282 kilos (621 pounds) of methamphetamine, also known as Ice, in the trunks, police told reporters in Bangkok.
The arrests and haul was the second major drug bust involving Malaysian suspects on the Thai-Malaysia border in less than a week.
Chang and Lim were charged with possession of narcotics for sale, and could face the death penalty if convicted, police said, adding that both men admitted their guilt.
"This is the biggest bust we have made in several years," Thailand Police Chief Chakthip Chaichindda told reporters at a news conference in Bangkok, where the suspects were presented and the confiscated Ice was displayed. Police also presented a Thai suspect arrested separately with three kilos of the drug.
Police Lt. Gen. Rewat Klinkesorn, the chief of Thailand's anti-drugs bureau, said Malaysian narcotics police tipped off his officers about the suspected traffickers.
He said both suspects rented a house in Sadao district for months, and police surveyed them before finally catching them.
"They both are drivers and had they successfully entered Malaysia, there would be new drivers taking over driving the cars," he said.
Rewat declined to identify where the drug was manufactured, but said Ice could travel from Myanmar to Laos, en route to Vietnam. Because of crackdowns, traffickers chose northern and northeastern Thailand as a new transit route. Much of the drugs are destined for the United States, Europe and Australia.
'War can be won only with mutual cooperation'
On March 24, Thai police announced the arrests of 15 Malaysians suspected of trying to smuggle 226 kilos (498 pounds) of crystal methamphetamine and eight kilos (17.6 pounds) of heroin aboard a train heading to Padang Besar, a southern Thai town on the Malaysian border.
At that time, police said a one-kilo packet of Ice fetched 300,000 to 500,000 baht (U.S. $8,494 to $14,154) in Bangkok, meaning the 262 kilos seized on Tuesday could have a street value of as much as 141 million baht (nearly U.S. $4 million).
Deputy Police Chief General Pongsapat Pongcharoen who was present at Wednesday's briefing said the traffickers arrested Tuesday appear to have no links with the group arrested last week, but police are trying to determine if the Ice was made in the same facility.
"We tried to check out connections of different lots. We will have lab tests of this lot and the other lot seized by railway police to see if they share common ingredients," he said.
Mohd Mokhtar Mohd Shariff, chief of Malaysia's Narcotics Criminal Investigation Department, joined Thai officials at the press conference.
In 2015, Malaysia confiscated drugs valued at 280 million ringgit (U.S. $71.3 million), he told reporters. From January through March this year, officers confiscated drugs valued at 60 million ringgit (U.S. $15.2 million).


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BENARNEWS- The indebted state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad on Thursday challenged an American newspaper report alleging that money linked to 1MDB went into Prime Minister Najib Razak's spending on lavish holidays, shopping and jewelry.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Thursday reported that Najib spent up to U.S. $15 million (58.1 million ringgit) on holidays and luxury goods at stores in the United States, Malaysia, Italy and elsewhere, based on a probe into his personal banking records.
"1MDB has consistently maintained that it has not paid any funds to the personal accounts of the Prime Minister," 1MDB said in a statement responding to Thursday's article in the Journal.
The state fund has been tied to financial scandals surrounding the prime minister. These have led to calls for his resignation since the Wall Street Journal first broke the story in July 2015 that nearly $700 million in 1MDB-linked money was deposited into Najib's private bank accounts.
As of late Thursday (Kuala Lumpur time), the Prime Minister's Office had not issued a statement in response to the article.
The money spent on holidays and shopping came out of private bank accounts in Najib's name, into which, investigators believe, hundreds of millions of dollars were deposited since 2009 – much of it money originating from 1MDB – the Journal reported in its latest article, citing official investigative documents.
The Journal claimed Najib spent U.S. $130,625 (506,238 ringgits) at Chanel in Honolulu two days before a Christmas Eve golf match with U.S. President Barack Obama in 2014.
"The transaction in the Chanel store was paid for with a Visa card in Najib's name, according to the Malaysian investigation documents. At first, the transaction didn't go through and Najib, who was present, had to call his bank to approve the charge, said one of the people aware of the shopping trip," the Journal reported.
According to its article, the money came from SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB, which Najib chairs.
"On the day Najib played golf with Obama, SRC International transferred a further U.S. $9 million (34.8 million ringgits) to the account via 1MDB's corporate social responsibility arm. The money arrived the day after Christmas."
In addition, the WSJ reported, documents showed that Malaysian luxury clothing retailer Jakel Trading Berhad received more than U.S. $14 million (54.2 million ringgit) from Najib between 2011 and 2014. Documents also showed a purchase U.S. $56,000 (216,834 ringgit) at a high-end car dealership in Kuala Lumpur on June 28, 2011.
Report names Najib's brother
The WSJ report also claimed that Najib's younger brother, CIMB Bank Chairman Nazir Razak, received U.S. $7 million (27.1 million ringgit) to be distributed among politicians ahead of Malaysia's general election in 2013.
Nazir confirmed in a written statement that he did receive the sum, which was disbursed by the bank staff officials of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) – the party that heads Malaysia's ruling coalition – according to instructions from party leaders.
However, Nazir told WSJ, he believed the money was from donations that he helped raise from Malaysian corporations and individuals for the elections, but he was not sure of any other funding source.
"I had no knowledge whatsoever that these funds may have originated from any other source(s)," the WSJ report quoted Nazir as saying.
Najib maintains innocence
In January, Malaysian Attorney General Mohamed Apandi Ali announced that his office was closing investigations into the 1MDB-linked corruption scandals facing Najib, particularly one involving a deposit of U.S. $681 million into his private bank accounts before the 2013 election – as reported by the Journal in July.
Apandi said no criminal offense had been committed, that most of the money had been returned, and that it was a "personal donation" from Saudi Arabia's royal family.
Najib has maintained he never took any of the money for private gain. But soon after news of the scandal broke in July, he sacked Abdul Gani Patail, the attorney general at the time who was heading an inter-agency task force probing that and other scandals associated with 1MDB.
On Thursday, 1MDB took a hard line against the latest Wall Street Journal report. Apart from repeating earlier denials that 1MDB never paid any money into Najib's accounts, officials reiterated their earlier claim that the money came from Saudi Arabia.
"‪Despite this, the Wall Street Journal continues to repeat the same allegations, without providing any concrete evidence to justify these claims," 1MDB said in a news release.


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BENARNEWS- Suspected Filipino gunmen have abducted four Malaysians from a ship off eastern Sabah, near the southern Philippines, Malaysian authorities said Saturday, but officials could not confirm whether Abu Sayyaf Group militants were responsible.
The Friday night hijacking of a Malaysian registered timber-hauling barge, the M.V. MASFIVE 6, occurred after last week's abduction of 10 Indonesian sailors by Abu Sayyaf in the southernmost region of the Philippines, where the al-Qaeda linked group operates and which borders Malaysia's Sabah state.
The four Malaysians crewmembers were abducted by eight gunmen in waters off Pulau Ligitan, near Semporna on Sabah's east coast, according to reports.
The gunmen, who boarded the vessel which was travelling from Manila after delivering cargo, then fled with the four hostages on a speedboat toward Philippine waters, reports said. There were five other crewmembers on the barge – three sailors from Myanmar and two from Indonesia – but the gunmen left them behind.
Malaysia's foreign ministry issued a statement Saturday condemning the kidnapping as "senseless and barbaric," and Malaysian Police Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar told the state-run Bernama news agency that the authorities were trying to determine whether Abu Sayyaf abducted the four sailors.
The Philippine Muslim militant group has taken foreigners hostage in the past, killing some of their captives. Last year, a 39-year-old Malaysian citizen, Bernard Then, was executed by Abu Sayyaf after being abducted from a seaside restaurant in Sabah in May.
Khalid said that the kidnappers, in the latest case, had not yet contacted authorities with any demands.
No confirmation yet from Philippines
In the southern Philippines, an army spokesman told Agence France-Presse that the military was still verifying the report of Friday's abductions after being notified by Malaysian officials.
"Whether or not they were seized by the Abu Sayyaf or brought to the Philippines, we have yet to confirm," regional army spokesman Felimon Tan said.
Meanwhile, a report in the Philippine Inquirer quoted an anonymous military source as saying that the gunmen who kidnapped the four Malaysians were with Abu Sayyaf.
The gunmen, who spoke broken English and Filipino, declared themselves as ASG members as they boarded the barge, the source said.
Malaysia-Philippine cooperation
The statement from the Malaysian foreign ministry said that officials, including at Malaysia's embassy in Manila and consulate in Davao City, in the southern Philippines, would work closely with Philippines authorities in the investigation and efforts to secure the four sailors' release.
The four Malaysians range in age from 21 to 34 and are from the town of Sibu in Sarawak state, the ministry said. The four crew members were identified as Wong Teck Kang, Wong Hung Sing, Wong Teck Chi and Johnny Lau Jung Hien.
In Sabah, state police Commissioner Abdul Rashid Harun Sabah said authorities were trying to pinpoint whether the abduction occurred in Malaysian or international waters, according to AFP.
Sabah police also were trying to figure out a motive as well as why the four Malaysian – and not all nine crew members – were taken by the gunmen, local media quoted the commissioner as saying.
In the cases of Friday's incident aboard the Malaysian vessel and the earlier kidnapping of the 10 Indonesian sailors from a tugboat sailing from Kalimantan, Indonesia to Batangas, in the southern Philippines, the attackers targeted slow-moving ships in the Sulu Sea that were relatively easy to board, the Associated Press quoted Malaysian officials as saying.
On Tuesday, Indonesia's foreign ministry announced that the 10 sailors had been taken by Abu Sayyaf.
That kidnapping at sea is believed to have occurred on April 26. According to the Philippine military, initial information pointed to the 10 Indonesians being taken by a faction of Abu Sayyaf to Sulu, an island in the southern Philippines where the militant group operates, AFP reported.


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BENARNEWS- The board of cash-strapped Malaysian state fund 1MDB offered to resign Thursday after a parliamentary inquiry committee recommended criminal investigations into its senior management.
1Malaysia Development Berhad has been in the middle of corruption allegations swirling around Prime Minister Najib Razak, the chairman of the firm's advisory board, since July. However, the 106-page report released by the Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday did not mention his name, according to media reports.
PAC called for probes into unapproved payments by 1MDB totaling close to U.S. $3 billion, among other discrepancies, according to a copy of the Malay-language report seen by BenarNews.
PAC also found that the debt of the state-run investment firm, whose mission is to spur development projects in Malaysia, grew five-fold since 1MDB's establishment in 2009, and stood at 50 billion ringgit (U.S. $12.6 billion) in January 2016.
The committee called on former CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi and other top managers of the firm to take full responsibility for its "constraints and shortcomings," according to the report.
Shahrol Azral and the five other directors of 1MDB offered their resignations after the committee handed its report to parliament, said a statement posted on the firm's website.
"There was no wrongdoing or illegal activity at the company under my watch," local media quoted Shahrol Azral as saying.
"I will continue to extend my full cooperation, confident in the knowledge that I have done no wrong and have nothing to hide," said Shahrol Asral, who served as the company's chief executive from its founding in 2009 to 2103.
The stunning offer of resignation by the six 1MDB directors followed months of controversy about alleged financial mismanagement at the firm. 1MDB officials had consistently rejected media reports linking the firm to hundreds of millions of dollars deposited into the prime minister's private bank accounts.
Poor oversight of funds
Authorities from at least seven countries spanning three continents are investigating allegations of financial wrongdoing linked with international banking transactions that involved 1MDB.
Najib, whom Malaysia's attorney general has cleared of potential corruption charges in investigations linked to 1MDB, has maintained he never took any of this money for personal gain. Najib is also the finance minister, and 1MDB was set up seven years ago as a wholly-owned subsidiary of his ministry.
In its report, PAC also proposed that 1MDB's advisory board be abolished for better management of the firm.
The report accused the board of directors of failing to safeguard the interests of the company and shareholders by not proactively scrutinizing the management and tracking of cash-flow activities at 1MDB.
"The board of directors should closely monitor the company's activities by questioning the prices of asset purchases and cost of debts," the committee said.
Unapproved payments
Among payments by 1MDB that were not approved by the board, the parliamentary committee said it found that 1MDB had paid 4.24 billion ringgit (U.S. $ 1.07 billion) to Aabar Investments PJS Ltd (Aabar Ltd.), a firm registered in the British Virgin Islandsl.
Other unapproved payments mentioned in the report included one of U.S. $700 million to an unnamed company, following a loan by 1MDB Petro Saudi Ltd, a joint-venture company, the report said.
After PAC submitted its report to parliament, 1MDB announced in a news release that the members of its board collectively decided to offer their resignations, given the committee's findings.
"This has been a difficult decision to take but we believe is the right thing to do, given the circumstances, in order to facilitate any follow-up investigations as recommended by the PAC," said the statement from 1MDB.
Prime Minister Najib also came out with a statement responding to the PAC's findings. In it, he acknowledged that the report had identified weaknesses in 1MDB's capital and management structure.
He vowed to follow through by acting on the committee's recommendations "if any evidence of wrongdoing is found."
An earlier version incorrectly reported that the 1MDB board had resigned.


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BENARNEWS-Malaysia's police have asked organizers to cancel a scheduled talk this week by a controversial Islamic preacher from India following protests from Hindu groups.
Zakir Naik, a popular Muslim televangelist who has been previously banned from entering Britain and Canada, was scheduled to deliver a talk on "Similarities Between Hinduism and Islam" on April 17, but police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said it could hurt religious sensitivities in multi-racial Malaysia where Islam is the official religion.
Zakir, who heads the Islamic Research Foundation, raised eyebrows several years ago when he called the Sept. 11 deadly attacks in the United States "an inside job."
In a July 2008 TV broadcast, Naik suggested that the terror group al-Qaeda was not responsible for flying hijacked airliners into New York's World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, killing almost 3,000 people.
"Even a fool will know that this was an inside job," he said in a video, claiming then-President George W. Bush was behind the attacks, according to published news reports.
The U.S. State Department had strongly criticized Zakir for those remarks.
Malaysian Police chief Khalid said in a tweet Monday that the April 17 forum was scrapped to protect "public order and religious sensitivities in Malaysia."
Khalid, when contacted by BenarNews, explained that the planned talk at the Universiti Teknikal Malaysia (UTeM) in the state of Malacca could be a "threat to security."
"We the police will not allow this to happen," he said.
However, Khalid declined to comment on the fate of other speeches by the preacher scheduled in several Malaysian states.
Zakir, who heads the Islamic Research Foundation, is already in Malaysia. His talk at a stadium in the northern state of Terengganu on Sunday night was attended by about 30,000 people.
Several ethnic Indian and Hindu groups in Malaysia had lodged police reports against Zakir, claiming the preacher had slandered other religions in the past.
His last visit to Malaysia in 2012 also received similar protests by Hindu groups, reportedly over his insults to Hinduism.
S. Subramaniam, the head of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), thanked the police for canceling the talk and heeding "the voice of concerned citizens."
"Needless to say, it will be a mockery to all that we have stood for, and will be putting our nation on the dangerous path of religious turbulence," added Subramaniam who is also the Minister of Health.
The opposition Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) criticized the police move.
"Dr. Zakir Naik is only debating and giving his opinions on the beauty of Islam and doing a comparative study with other religions. Why can't what he says be countered by others?" information chief Nasaruddin Tantawi said in a statement.
Zulkifli Mohammad Al-Bakri, a mufti (Islamic head) for the Federal Territories of Malaysia, described Zakir as a leading Islamic figure with expertise in comparative religion.
Zakir was conferred the Maal Hijrah Icon, an annual top Islamic award in Malaysia, in 2013 for his role as an international and influential Islamic scholar. He was also one of five recipients of the King Faisal International Prize from Saudi Arabia in 2015.
His most high-profile talk in Malaysia is scheduled to be held at the National Hockey Stadium on April 16. It is titled "Is the Quran God's Word?"


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BENARNEWS- A controversial Indian Muslim preacher will be allowed to give a talk on April 17 in the Malaysian state of Malacca, after all, but not on his original topic – "Similarities Between Hinduism and Islam."
Popular Muslim televangelist Zakir Naik had been told Monday that his planned speech at the Universiti Teknikal Malaysia (UTeM) was cancelled over concerns that it could hurt religious sentiment in multi-racial Malaysia where Islam is the official religion, according to national police chief Khalid Abu Bakar.
But that changed on Tuesday.
Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said he met with the police chief and they determined that Zakir could speak at the university on the topic of "Women's Rights in Islam."
Ahmad did not explain why the government decided to lift the ban, and, as of late Tuesday, Zakir had not commented on the government's decision.
Upcoming talk
Zakir's most high-profile talk in Malaysia, "Is the Quran God's Word?", is scheduled to be held at the National Hockey Stadium in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday – one day before the now on-again speech in Malacca.
According to a statement issued by Khalid, police did not question Zakir's credibility or stature, but the talk's original topic stirred a debate among people that could affect racial and religious sentiment.
"Any decision made is based on safety aspects with regard to the interests of all parties, in order to maintain public safety," Khalid said.
The government's latest decision occurred on the same day that a petrol bomb was thrown at a senior politician's office in opposition-ruled Penang state after he allegedly described Zakir as Satan, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Tuesday.
Police said no one was injured in Tuesday's attack. State Deputy Chief Minister P. Ramasamy said the attack could have been prompted by his recent Facebook posting that denounced Zakir.
"I regret the use of the word 'Satan' which has caused uneasiness and unhappiness among Muslims in Malaysia," Ramasamy told AFP, adding that the word had been removed from his post.
History of controversy
Zakir, who heads the Mumbai-based Islamic Research Foundation, was criticized by the U.S. State Department several years ago when he called the Sept. 11 attacks in New York City and Washington an "inside job."
The scholar, who previously visited Malaysia in 2012, drew about 30,000 to a speech in the northern state of Terengganu on Sunday. His appearances have not been without controversy, with members of Malaysia's Indian and Hindu minority lodging complaints with police claiming that he had slandered other religions in the past.
In 2013, Zakir received the Maal Hijrah Icon, a top Islamic award in Malaysia, for his role as an international and influential Islamic scholar. He was also one of five recipients of the King Faisal International Prize from Saudi Arabia in 2015.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's High Court is scheduled Thursday to hear a challenge to the Sedition Act lodged by a satirical cartoonist and his legal team on grounds that it contradicts the country's constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech.
Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque – better known as Zunar – and attorneys Eric Paulsen and N. Surendran filed the challenge in October 2015 after Zunar was slapped with nine charges of sedition for tweets he sent criticizing the jailing of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on sodomy charges in February 2015.
The High Court is likely to decide the matter at its first hearing Thursday, Paulsen told BenarNews.
A rejection of the case will clear the way for a lower Sessions Court to set a date for Zunar's sedition trial.
"Although we are likely to appeal further to the court of appeal, and we will seek further postponement of Zunar's hearing at the Sessions Court," Paulsen said.
A guilty verdict on all nine counts of sedition could carry a 43-year jail term.
After he sent the tweets in February 2015, police seized a compendium of his cartoons, which focused on Anwar, alleged government corruption, and the lavish lifestyle of Prime Minister Najib Razak's wife Rosmah Mansor.
Zunar called nine charges under the Sedition Act "a new tactic to ensure that I'm silenced forever." Since 2008, he has twice been arrested. His books have been banned. Printing presses and book stalls have been warned not to work with him.
"They don't need nine. Logically, one is enough," he told BenarNews in an interview in November.
In 2014 and 2015, some 200 people were investigated, arrested or charged under the Sedition Act, he said.
"We challenged the law because in our view, it goes against the Federal Constitution which in Article 10 states that every citizen has the right to freely give their views," Zunar said.
Zunar, 53, received an International Press Freedom Award in November 2015 from the Committee to Protect Journalists, an international non-profit organization that promote press freedom.
Editor's Note: Zunar is a BenarNews contributor.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's High Court on Thursday turned down satirical cartoonist Zunar's legal challenge to the Sedition Act, clearing the way for a lower court to set his trial date on nine counts of seditious speech.
Zunar, whose real name is Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque, could face 43 years in prison if tried and convicted of alleged sedition stemming from tweets he had sent out that criticized last year's jailing of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on sodomy charges.
Zunar, 53, and his legal team were challenging the legality of the 68-year-old law, arguing that the Sedition Act contradicted the constitution's guarantee of free speech.
High Court Judicial Commissioner Ab Karim Ab Rahman, however, ruled against the cartoonist and his attorneys, saying that the nation's highest court, the Federal Court, had answered this question on Oct. 6 by then rejecting a similar challenge to the Sedition Act lodged by a Malaysian law professor, Azmi Sharom.
Eric Paulsen, one of Zunar's lawyers, told BenarNews that his client would now try to persuade the Court of Appeal to overturn the High Court's decision.
Zunar, who was in London on Thursday, declined comment.
The court's rejection allows the lower Sessions Court to fix a date for Zunar's trial. A panel of the Sessions Court is scheduled on Friday to hold a "mention" – a legal term used in Malaysia that refers to a case being called up or managed – over the cartoonist's case.
'An attempt to muzzle the entire population'
In an op-ed article in the New York Times on Thursday, the former chief executive officer of the recently shuttered news website, The Malaysian Insider (TMI), described this legal setback for Zunar as part of a growing campaign by the government of Prime Minister Najib Razak to use the Sedition Act to silence his critics.
"Zunar faces up to 43 years in prison on nine counts of sedition – the most counts anyone in Malaysia has ever been charged with," Jahabar Sadiq wrote.
"[T]he Najib administration, after pledging to repeal the archaic law, is now wielding it to silence anyone who questions the state, or even the political status quo. This is an unprecedented onslaught against free expression in Malaysia, and an attempt to muzzle the entire population," he added.
Last year, Jahabar and four TMI editors were briefly arrested under the act. In late February, Malaysian internet regulators blocked the news portal after it reported that an independent panel within the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission "had found sufficient evidence of financial improprieties by Mr. Najib," the former TMI CEO wrote.
Because of lost advertising revenue as a result of the online blockage and a lack of bids from potential buyers, The Malaysian Insider closed last month.
'It goes against the Federal Constitution'
The Sedition Act was enacted by the British colonial government in 1948 to combat communists, and was amended by Malaysia following race riots in 1969.
The law defines "sedition" broadly and places many limitations of free speech, particularly over sensitive political issues, according to a report by Center of Independent Journalism Malaysia.
In 2014 and 2015, some 200 people were investigated, arrested or charged under the Sedition Act, Zunar told BenarNews in an interview in Washington in November.
"We challenged the law because in our view, it goes against the Federal Constitution which in Article 10 states that every citizen has the right to freely give their views," Zunar said then.
Editor's note: Zunar is a BenarNews contributor.


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BENARNEWS- Upcoming State Legislative Assembly elections in Sarawak, Malaysia's biggest state, will be a national litmus test for the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, which has controlled local politics for 53 years, analysts say.
But even though a financial scandal has overshadowed the government of Prime Minister Najib Razak and led to widespread calls for his resignation in Peninsular Malaysia, some political analysts are casting doubt that the 1MDB affair could tilt the balance of power in the East Malaysia state toward the opposition when polling occurs May 7.
"Bread-and-butter issues reign supreme for many in the interior. All these issues about 1MDB, Najib scandals and even clean governance are too far for them to digest, unless the opposition have played their part in educating these rural voters," Jeniri Amir, an associate professor at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, told BenarNews.
He was referring to allegations of corruption and the mismanagement billions of dollars linked with the state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad.
On Thursday, the Election Commission announced the date for legislative polls, with 1.3 million registered to vote in Sarawak. The commission also set April 25 as the date for when parties could nominate candidates for 82 seats in the assembly, which was dissolved on April 11.
According to Mohd Faisal Syam Abdol Hazis, an associate professor at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, the opposition in Sarawak will try to exploit 1MDB and other "urban issues," but that might not go far enough to sway voters in the largely rural state on Borneo whose population is scattered.
"The anger it creates may not be translated into votes at the end of the day," Faisal told BenarNews.
The state elections in Sarawak are also seen as a political test for Malaysia's ruling coalition and the opposition, because Sarawak and neighboring Sabah are the only Malaysian states that hold state legislative elections separately from parliamentary elections.
The vote here, in other words, could offer signs as to what might happen in the next general election, which is due in the middle of 2018, some observers say.
Popular politician
One of the names that will loom large in next month's elections in the Land of the Hornbills is that of Chief Minister Adenan Satem, the president of the United Traditional Bumiputera Party (PBB) – the largest political party in Sarawak and a partner in the nation's ruling BN coalition. At the local level, the Sarawak United Peoples' Party (SUPP), the Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) and the Sarawak Peoples' Party (PRS) are PBB's allies in the state's ruling BN coalition.
The BN has ruled Sarawak since the region joined Malaysia in 1963.
Since taking office in 2014, Adenan has made headlines for combating illegal logging and corruption in timber-rich Sarawak.
He succeeded Abdul Taib Mahmud, who served as chief minister for 23 years, and is now Sarawak's governor.
According to electoral rules, the governor appoints as chief minister the leader of the party that wins a majority of assembly seats.
"Adenan is very loved by many. His ability to reach out to the masses and his people-centric policies made him so. He even disassociates the state from sensitive issues and policies like the Good and Services Tax by saying it has nothing to do with Sarawak," Jeniri said.
He was alluding to a GST tax rate of 6 percent, which was introduced by the federal government a year ago and remains deeply unpopular because of its perceived inflationary effect on prices.
Other observers, however, predict that Adenan stands to lose some votes because of the 1MDB affair.
"Studies show the GST policy has really hurt both the urban and rural communities. Everyone is feeling the economic pinch. Even with Adenan's popularity, everyone knows he can't be contesting in all 82 seats, unless the candidates convince voters otherwise," Haziz said.
Visiting opposition figures banned
Adenan, a former federal government cabinet minister, has also been instrumental in helping Barisan Nasional retain its grip on Sarawak by banning opposition leaders and activists from other parts of Malaysia from entering his state during the run-up to elections.
On Tuesday, Adenan told local media that such as ban was needed "to protect the interests of Sarawak from unsavoury elements."
"Political or otherwise, it is my job as chief minister. But they have the liberty to come to Sarawak anytime - after the elections," he added.
Sarawak has certain level of autonomy in administration, immigration and judiciary from West Malaysia including controlling the entry and residence of non-Sarawakians.
Thirty people, mostly opposition figures, have been banned from setting foot in the state while federal ministers from BN are allowed to roam freely here.
An official from the multi-racial and opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP) Abdul Aziz Isa, criticized the state travel ban imposed by Adenan.
"Adenan is playing racism through regionalism. If he believes in the 84 percent Sarawakian support, then why does he has to be afraid of West Malaysian opposition leaders coming into the state," Abdul Aziz told BenarNews.
An earlier version gave wrong information about Sarawak's unusual format for state and parliamentary elections.


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BENARNEWS- Saudi Arabia's foreign minister has confirmed that someone from his country deposited a "donation" into Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak's bank account, becoming the first official from that country to back the Malaysian leader's assertion about the origin of the funds.
The statement came after a bilateral meeting between Saudi and Malaysian officials, according to reports, as international entities probe alleged corruption and mismanagement of money at One Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a troubled state investment fund chaired by Najib.
"We are aware of the donation, and it is a genuine donation with nothing expected in return," Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told Malaysian reporters Thursday, on the sidelines of an Organization of Islamic Cooperation summit in Istanbul.
"We are also fully aware that the attorney general of Malaysia has thoroughly investigated the matter and found no wrongdoing, so as far as we're concerned, this matter is closed," al-Jubeir said.
The Saudi official did not give any further details about the transaction, such as when it occurred, who contributed the money, or for what purpose. Nor did he mention 1MDB.
In March, the Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed "global investigators," reported that deposits into Najib's personal accounts had totaled more than U.S. one billion dollars, much of it originating with the state development fund.
The U.S. financial newspaper has also reported that U.S. $200 million flowed into Najib's accounts in 2011 and 2012 from a Saudi individual and Saudi Arabia's finance ministry.
Attorney general closes investigation in January
In January, Malaysian Attorney General Mohamed Apandi Ali announced that his office was closing investigations into 1MDB-linked corruption scandals facing Najib, particularly one involving a deposit of U.S. $681 million into his private bank accounts before the 2013 election.
Apandi said no criminal offense had been committed, that most of the money had been returned, and that it was a "personal donation" from Saudi Arabia's royal family.
Najib has maintained he never took any of the money for private gain. But soon after news of the scandal broke in July, he sacked Abdul Gani Patail, the attorney general at the time who was heading an inter-agency task force probing that and other scandals associated with 1MDB.
1MDB has also repeatedly denied that it paid any money into Najib's accounts.
In a television segment last month, the Australian Broadcasting Co. reported that Najib received U.S. $75 million from a Saudi prince and U.S. $80 million from the Saudi Finance Ministry to fight extremism.
In a statement released after the program aired, the Malaysian Prime Minister's office said it had confirmed Najib's version of events.
"And, what multiple lawful authorities concluded after exhaustive investigations: the funds were a donation from the Royal Family of Saudi Arabia. The investigations included forensic examination of every wire transfer. Malaysian authorities also travelled to Saudi Arabia to examine documentation and interview members of the Royal Family, and the officials that administered the donation," a statement said.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian authorities face a challenging task in foiling cash transfers the Islamic State (IS) may be sending to its Southeast Asia arm, Katibah Nusantara.
Authorities are having a difficult time tracing these funds because of the underground black market money network in Southeast Asia and the emergence of the elusive hawala system.
"It would be a straight-forward case if the fund is being channeled via the conventional banks as we could track it through the Suspicious Transaction Record (STR) but it would be harder if it is being distributed through other systems out there," Malaysian police counter terrorism official Ayub Khan Mydin Pitchay told BenarNews.
"They can even use the simplest method by using courier services and even the more complicated elusive ancient hawala money transfer system," he added.
The hawala system, often used in the Middle East and North Africa, is a means of transferring money via a large network of brokers without money actually moving.
Local English daily The Sun recently reported that IS had allocated more than U.S. $73,000 (RM 292,000) for Katibah Nusantara to finance bombings and attacks at strategic locations in Southeast Asian countries including Malaysia.
Leaders of Katibah Nusantara are pushing their followers to stage attacks similar to the Jan. 14 attack in Jakarta that left eight dead, The Sun reported, citing sources in the intelligence arm of the Royal Malaysia Police, who said they got the information from their international counterparts.
Katibah Nusantara includes IS followers in Malay-speaking countries – mainly Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. Approximately 1,000 Southeast Asians had travelled to Syria and Iraq to join militant groups there by the end of 2015, according to the U.S. State Department.
No specific country
Ayub said intelligence received on the transfers were vague. He added that police have not confirmed whether the funding had made its way to any group in Malaysia.
"We were only informed that the fund is purportedly being channelled to Southeast Asia region, but it is not specific to which country," he said.
Meanwhile, University Science of Malaysia (USM) Criminologist associate professor P. Sundramoorthy said tracking fund movements and distribution is complicated.
"I think it will not be an easy task for the authorities to identify and track down the funds distribution as they happened, particularly given the fact that they are not distributed in one, big lump sum.
"In some cases, these funds are being transferred in smaller amounts and even some are being channelled using conventional financial institutions," he told BenarNews on Monday.
Monitoring needed
Malaysia has more than 400 currency or money changing premises, and many of them offer money transfer services.
The Malaysian Association of Money Services Business (MAMBS), which represents all licensees under the Money Services Business Act 2011, insists its members ask customers to produce identification documents for transactions greater than RM 3,000 (U.S. $769), according to a statement.
"This is for the purpose of complying with requirements pursuant to the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing Act 2001, which requires licensees to identify and verify the customers performing money services transactions," reads the undated press statement on its website.
Sundramoorthy said it is paramount that strict monitoring is carried out, along with intelligence sharing among law enforcement agencies, to curb the threat posed by terror organizations.


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BENARNEWS-Malaysian police said Wednesday they had dismantled a local drug smuggling syndicate with a link to India and seized the liquid equivalent of 226 kilos (498 pounds) of methamphetamine – one of the biggest narcotics hauls this year on home soil.
The meth haul with an estimated street value of 36 million ringgit (U.S. $9.3 million) was confiscated as part of police raids mounted in Perak and Selangor states on Tuesday, during which 10 ethnic Tamil Malaysian suspects were arrested, Malaysian Police Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar told a news conference at police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.
Officials said the total amount of meth was enough to supply 12 million drug users in Malaysia, which has strict laws against narcotics trafficking and consumption.
"From January to date, the total of value of drug seizures in the country is 65.64 million ringgit [U.S. $17 million] from synthetic drugs to more traditional drugs [like] marijuana and heroin. Properties seized related to narcotics have reached the value of 38 million ringgit [U.S. $9.8 million]," Khalid told BenarNews.
Since the start of the year, police have arrested 63,382 people on suspicion of drug-related offenses, including 6,352 suspected dealers, 14,475 people caught holding illegal drugs, and 42,555 testing positive for narcotics use through drug screens, the police chief added.
Police took down the drug syndicate after months of intelligence gathering and surveillance by members of the Special Tactical Intelligence Narcotics Group (STING), a unit of the police department's narcotics bureau that received help through tips from law-abiding citizens, Khalid said.
The 10 suspects, including a chemist, were arrested in police raids at a store in Hutan Melintang, Perak, and two drug processing labs in Shah Alam, Selangor, according to police.
Officers also seized 2.83 million ringgit (U.S. $735,000) in cash, 78,000 Indian rupees (4,600 ringgit), a pistol and a magazine, 38 bullets, jewelry, 12 cars and two motorcycles, Khalid told reporters.
Police also seized 150 synthetic drug pills, 35 kilos (77 pounds) of ephedrine powder and meth-making chemicals including acetone, toluene, red phosphorus and caustic soda, as well as lab equipment.
The syndicate was masterminded by citizens, and the meth was meant to be sold on the local market, according to Khalid.
The haul included 752 kilos (1658 pounds) of meth in its liquid form, which could have been processed into 226 kilos (498 pounds) of "marketable meth," Khalid said.
Another 13 kilos (28.6 pounds) of crystal meth – otherwise known as Ice – was recovered in its crystal form along with raw materials for making drugs that were smuggled in from India, he added.
Tuesday's drug bust comes weeks after authorities in neighboring Thailand made two major drug busts involving Malaysian suspects who were allegedly trying to smuggle crystal meth into Malaysia.
On March 30, Thailand charged two Malaysian men on suspicion of trying to smuggle 282 kilos (621 pounds) of meth across the border by car.
Six days earlier, Thai police announced the arrests of 15 Malaysian suspects in a separate case that involved the smuggling of 226 kilos (498 pounds) of meth and eight kilos (17.6 pounds) of heroin aboard trains bound for the Padang Besar, a town on the Malaysian border.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's debt-ridden government investment fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd., at the center of a graft scandal that has shadowed Prime Minister Najib Razak, announced Tuesday that it has defaulted on a series of bonds.
The default dealt another blow to Malaysia's image in capital markets, with the country's ringgit currency dropping for a fourth day in its longest stretch of losses since November and stocks plunging to a six-week low.
The default on a $1.75 billion bond 1MDB issued in 2012 stemmed from its withholding of a U.S. $50 million interest payment amid a dispute with Abu Dhabi's International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC)., the co-guarantor of the bonds.
1MDB said in a statement that the missed payment triggered cross defaults on nearly two billion dollars of the fund's debt, including borrowings that are guaranteed by the Malaysian government.
It said however that the cross defaults were "limited."
Credit raters said the Malaysian government has the ability to foot the bill on any debt it has guaranteed.
The Bloomberg financial news group quoted Yee Farn Phua, a Standard & Poor rating agency analyst in Singapore, as saying that the 1MDB's default may prompt other bondholders to demand payment earlier than scheduled.
But he said he expects the Malaysian government to make good on the debt it has guaranteed or supported.
"1MDB trusts that the respective parties and the financial markets in general, will understand this unfortunate default as being very specific to its dispute with IPIC and is not due to an inability to make payment when due," 1MDB said in its statement.
1MDB is mired in debt of more than U.S. $11 billion. It is under investigation over claims of money laundering and embezzlement in Malaysia and half a dozen countries.
Global investigators say they are looking into possible misappropriations of about U.S.$ 6 billion, the Wall Street Journal quoted a person familiar with one country's probe as saying.
The Wall Street Journal, citing Malaysian and global investigations, has reported about how investigators have found more than U.S. $1 billion was transferred to Prime Minister Najib's personal bank accounts, the majority originating from 1MDB and moving via a web of intermediary entities.
Najib has denied wrongdoing or taking money for personal gain.


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BENARNEWS-Malaysia's government on Wednesday appointed the deputy governor of the central bank to replace outgoing Gov. Zeti Akhtar Aziz, ending months of speculation in the nation's financial industry.
Bank Negara Malaysia Deputy Gov. Muhammad Ibrahim is to replace Gov. Zeti Akhtar Aziz, who will retire at the end of April, ending her 16-year tenure as the first woman to head Malaysia's central bank.
Wednesday's announcement halted a four-day slide by the Malaysian ringgit against foreign currencies, the longest stretch of losses since November. Meanwhile, stocks had plunged to a six-week low.
Ibrahim's appointment as the new central bank chief came a day after the nation's image in capital markets took a blow, when Malaysia's debt-ridden state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd. (1MDB) announced it had defaulted on a U.S. $ 1.75 billion bond that it had issued.
Zeti investigated for role in 1MDB probe
The fund has also been plagued with allegations of financial mismanagement and corruption that have overshadowed Prime Minister Najib Razak and led to calls for his resignation.
Zeti took part last year in a special task force that was investigating these allegations.
But on July 13, 2015, Police Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar said his agency would investigate all members of the task force, including Bank Negara personnel, to identify the source of a leak of "classified documents to foreign nationals" pertaining to 1MDB.
Khalid served on the task force along with Zeti, then-Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail and Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Chief Commissioner Abu Kassim Mohamed.
Najib sacked Gani two weeks after the investigation was announced, and replaced him with Mohamed Apandi Ali. In January, Apandi cleared Najib of potential corruption charges linked to U.S. $681 million in money linked to 1MDB that was deposited into the prime minister's private bank accounts.
Najib, who also serves as finance minister, issued a statement on Wednesday thanking Zeti for her contributions to the nation's financial system while praising Muhammad, who will take over on May 1.
"I am confident that under Muhammad's leadership, Bank Negara Malaysia can continue its service in helping the government, providing advice and views for catalyzing the country's economic growth, as well as administer monetary policy and oversee the country's financial industry, including continuing Bank Negara Malaysia's efforts to grow the financial industry," Najib said.
Zeti praises Muhammad
Zeti was appointed as the central bank's acting governor for a week in September 1998 during the height of the Asian financial crisis that erupted in 1997.
She then served as the bank's deputy governor for two years before taking over as governor in May 2000. In 2009, Global Finance magazine rated Zeti, now 68, as the World's Best Central Bank Chief.
The retiring governor called Muhammad's appointment positive for the country.
"Being part of our policy team at the bank will provide continuity and the much needed certainty in this prevailing period of great uncertainty. I have great confidence in his ability to lead the bank going forward into the future," Zeti said in the statement.
As speculation about her future grew last year, Zeti told reporters at a press conference that "16 years is too long."
More recently, she spoke about her potential successor.
"There is plenty more to do – the financial system needs to leverage on technology, including electronic payments. There are so many more things to be done for the central bank as a catalyst," she told reporters.
Muhammad, who joined the central bank in 1984 and holds a master's from Harvard University, was appointed deputy governor in 2010. He was seen a favorite to replace Zeti.
Accepting Najib's appointment, Muhammad stressed humility, calling it a way to serve the country.
"I will strive to carry out the duties of governor of Bank Negara Malaysia to the best of my ability. I wish to record my appreciation to the prime minister and the government for the confidence and trust placed upon me," he said in the statement.
He said the bank must maintain financial stability by remaining focused on its strategic agenda.
Izzuddin Yussof, a research economist at the Malaysian Industrial Development Finance Bhd. (MIDF), described Muhammad as a positive pick because of his experience working at the central bank under Zeti.
"With this appointment, we are expecting that the monetary policy path during Zeti's era would continue and negative sentiments on Malaysia's economy would improve," he told BenarNews.


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BENARNEWS- Physical force inflicted by police officers on a detainee whose ears were stapled while he was still alive led to the man's death in May 2013, a Malaysian government commission reported on Thursday.
In presenting its findings Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) Chairman Yaacob Md Sam said detainee N. Dharmendran died of physical trauma and sustained 52 bruises, according to a pathologist's report.
The pathologist at Kuala Lumpur Hospital, who performed an autopsy on May 22, 2013, determined that Dharmendran died of soft-tissue injuries brought on by blunt force.
"The pathologist confirmed the deceased' ears were stapled while he was alive," Yaacob told a news conference in Kuala Lumpur, adding that officers had altered times on entries logged in a lock-up diary.
Dharmendran was arrested on May 11, 2013, on a charge of the attempted murder of two people in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur. He died 10 days later while in custody.
Four police officers were charged with killing Dharmendran.
On Dec 12, 2014, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur acquitted them, ruling that there was no prima facie evidence to support the case against them. Judge Kamardin Hashim stated then that the prosecution team had failed to prove a motive and had provided only circumstantial evidence.
An Appeals' Court later overruled the acquittal and ordered the four to present their defense following an appeal by the prosecution.
Reacting to Thursday's report, Police Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar said the EAIC should not have made the announcement because the case is sub judice – meaning it is under judicial consideration and therefore prohibited from public discussion since the officers face a murder trial.
"Yaacob Md Sam knows very well that the case against four police officers accused in the murder of the victim will resume from May 25 to 27 at the Kuala Lumpur High Court when they will be called to enter their defense," Khalid said in a statement.
The EAIC was formed in 2011 to handle complaints of misconduct against 19 enforcement agencies including police, immigration and customs.
EAIC: police tried to prevent fair investigation
Along with detailing the cause of Dharmendran's death, Yaacob said there were attempts to fabricate information to prevent a fair investigation.
Among those linked to the cover-up was a senior police officer who instructed a lower-ranking officer to type out a report that contained false information about Dharmendran's condition.
Yaacob urged the attorney general's office to charge those officers.
Khalid challenged Yaacob's statement, saying the new report would lead the public to believe that police failed to take action although a thorough, detailed and transparent investigation was undertaken.
Kuala Lumpur Police Chief Amar Singh Ishar Singh had little to say about the report.
"For me to comment now on the matter is not appropriate," Amar told BenarNews.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian satirical cartoonist Zunar traveled to Switzerland this week to pick up a prestigious international award for his work, just two months before he is to stand trial back home on nine counts of sedition.
Zunar, whose real name is Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque, on Tuesday received the 2016 International Editorial Cartoons Prize from former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Zunar shares the prize with Kenyan cartoonist Gado. The award was presented to the co-recipients at the Palais Eynard in Geneva on World Press Freedom Day.
"Malaysians are my strength. Without their support I would not be able to survive until now," Zunar told BenarNews from Geneva on Wednesday.
Zunar is known for his biting cartoons that lampoon the Malaysia's ruling Barisan Nasional coalition and Prime Minister Najib Razak, and that highlight themes such as corruption.
"The '2016 International Editorial Cartoons Prize' gives new strength for me to continue the fight against the 60-year-old corrupt and repressive Malaysian regime. Human rights and freedom of expression in Malaysia are in dire straits," Zunar, a BenarNews contributor, said in a separate statement.
"The Sedition Act and other draconian laws are used widely to silence critics. All institutions are being used as political tools by the regime in order to maintain power," he added.
Zunar is scheduled to stand trial on July 14, and he could be sentenced to more than four decades in prison if convicted on all nine counts under Malaysia's Sedition Act.
He has been jailed twice – for two days in September 2010 and for three days in February 2015. Five of his books have been banned and his office in Kuala Lumpur has been raided. Printers have been warned to not publish any of his cartoon books.
The latest charges against him stem from tweets he had sent that criticized the 2014 jailing of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on sodomy charges.
The Sedition Act, enacted by British colonial rulers in 1948 to combat communists, was amended by Malaysia following race riots in 1969. The law defines "sedition" broadly and places many limits on free speech, particularly over sensitive political issues, according to a report by Center of Independent Journalism Malaysia.
In March 2015 alone, some 114 people in Malaysia were arrested under the act for allegedly criticizing the government.
The prize that Zunar received along with Gado was bestowed upon them by the Cartooning for Peace Swiss Foundation and the City of Geneva.
"Through their commitment toward open and transparent societies, Gado and Zunar, who have received threats in their countries of origin and can no longer practice their profession, confront us with our responsibility to preserve freedom of expression and act in order to support the combat of those who cannot express themselves through their art," Annan said during Tuesday's ceremony.


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BENARNEWS- The scorching temperature of 36 degrees Celsius (96.8 degrees Fahrenheit) does not seem to stop Malaysian farmer Saidin Saad from inspecting the harumanis mangoes that grow abundantly in his orchard in Perlis state.
The 65-year-old farmer is one of a lucky few growers of the harumanis variety of mango who are enjoying a windfall from a prolonged heat wave that has swept across Peninsular Malaysia since January. Dubbed the 'Super' El Niño phenomenon among locals, the heat wave has particularly hit northern states, including parts of Perlis and Kedah that have not had rain for more than a month.
"Normally, we begin to pluck the mangoes in April and the trees would stop producing within a month, but this time it is totally different," Saidin, whose small orchard lies near Kampung Paya Kelubi, told BenarNews.
"This time, the harvesting started as early as the middle of March and yet the trees are still producing flowers, so I suppose we are able to continue harvesting until June as compared to previous years where we normally get just one round of harvesting."
Saidin expects his 0.7-acre (0.28 hectare) orchard to produce six metric tons (6.6 tons) of these mangoes in 2016 – double its annual output in previous years.
But Saidin's luck is not shared by more than 3,000 harumanis growers based in Perlis. Poor maintenance and lack of fertilization have caused an overall 60 percent dip in production this year – a huge plunge from 2,200 metric tons (2,425 tons) last year to 1,000 metric tons (1,102 tons) this year, according to the state's agricultural department.
The reduced supply has brought about a domino effect on the retail price of grade "A" harumanis, which leapt from 25 ringgit (U.S. $6.20) per kilo to between 35 and 40 ringgit ($8.65 and $9.93) per kilo.
Saidin is reaping a windfall from this because his supply is more abundant.
Weather affected crop production
Saidin's joy is shared by his brother, Ishak, 56, who operates another orchard nearby.
"There are various factors that contributed to lower yield, besides the El Nino factor. It is a combination of many factors such as poor trees, maintenance and lack of fertilizer usage, while the weather could be just one of the compounding factors," he told BenarNews.
"But harumanis trees need a hot and dry climate to produce a good yield and that is why [the variety is] only grown in Perlis."
According to Perlis Agricultural Department director Zulkepli Amin Jusoh, weather at the start of the year dampened crop production for many other farmers.
"There was heavy rainfall in the East Coast states between last December and this January, which sent cold wind to Perlis, which triggered rains in several parts in Perlis at that time, when the weather was supposed to be hot and dry.
"This has affected harumanis trees [from flowering], which translated into a significant drop in overall production," Zulkepli told BenarNews.
He said the situation was unprecedented because Perlis was not expected to have rainfall during December to spur the flowering of harumanis.
"Many of the harumanis growers do not have alternative crops to rely on, so they are suffering a massive losses this year," he added.
Zulkepli said the department had distributed almost 200 water pumps to harumanis growers, whose orchards have been severely affected by the heat wave. The department also submitted a report to Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Ministry to seek compensation for the affected growers, he added.
The home of harumanis
Harumanis is a special tropical mango breed which grows only in Perlis, the smallest Malaysian state near the Malaysia-Thai border. Orchards are found in many parts of Perlis but the three main cultivation areas are in Bukit Bintang, Paya Kelubi and Chuping.
The state is on the receiving end of the hottest and driest climate in the country. Harumanis lovers often visit Perlis between mid-April and early June. A growing online trade is spiking the demand for this breed of mango, which is one of the most expensive tropical fruits.
The fruits grown in Perlis are literally going places – securing export markets in Japan, Singapore and Brunei and generating 40 million ringgit (U.S. $9.9 million) last year. It is the only Malaysian mango allowed to enter the Japanese market.
Small wonder then that the Intellectual Property Corp. of Malaysia (MyIPO) last year granted the government of Perlis exclusive rights in marketing of harumanis mangoes.
Yet the domestic demand cannot be met even as farmers employ locals as temporary security guards to keep poachers away from their crops.
No supply for Japan this year
Zulkepli said the production shortage had forced the state to defer exporting harumanis to the Japanese market this year.
He described the massive production dip as a major loss not only for the affected growers, but the state economy as well, since the crop draws so many tourists to the region.
He said the lower yield was recorded even as the land devoted to harumanis orchards grew, reaching 1,028 hectares (2,540 acres) this year.
And in an effort to increase exports (especially to Japan) in coming years, the department is encouraging orchard owners to apply for the My Good Agriculture Practice (My GAP) certification, which meets the Japanese market's stringent quality standards, Zulkepli said.
"To date, we already have 14 growers with My GAP certificates and they have successfully exported their crop to Japan last year.
"We are auditing 29 new individual orchard owners for the Japanese export program and ... we are targeting the overall yield to hit 4,000 metric tons in coming years," he added.


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BENARNEWS- A helicopter carrying a Malaysian deputy minister and five others vanished Thursday during a flight in Malaysia's eastern state of Sarawak, two days ahead of closely watched state elections.
The helicopter disappeared from radar screens while flying from the town of Betong to Sarawak's capital Kuching, local media quoted Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as saying.
"The helicopter is believed to be in the Sebuyau costal area. Police, General Defense Forces and Marine Police have been deployed to the area to try to carry out a search-and-rescue operation," Zahid said.
Those on the flight were identified as Plantation Industries and Commodities Deputy Minister Noriah Kasnon, her husband Asmuni Abdullah, Sundaran Annamalai, the ministry's secretary general, Kuala Kangsar MP Wan Mohammad Khair-il Anuar Wan Ahmad, bodyguard Ahmad Sobri Harun and the pilot, Capt. Rudolf Rex Ragas.
Air traffic controllers lost contact with the helicopter at 5 p.m. Thursday, near Sebayau, according to early reports. A search and rescue operation has been launched, the Department of Civil Aviation confirmed.
"Deeply concerned about the reports of helicopter missing between Betong and Kuching. Search and rescue activated. Let us pray for their safety," Prime Minister Najib Razak said in a message posted on Twitter and Facebook.
Sarawak official seeks federal concessions
As many as 1.3 million people are eligible to vote in Saturday's State Legislative Assembly election. It is being seen as a litmus test for Malaysia's ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which also controls politics in Sarawak but has been mired in corruption scandals.
Sarawak and neighboring Sabah are the only Malaysian states that hold legislative elections separately from parliamentary elections. Eighty seats are being contested but BN already has captured two other seats unopposed.
After being ruled by BN for 53 years, people in Sarawak want the Malaysian government to give their state a greater share of revenue from its own resources. Chief Minister Adenan Satem, who is running in the May 7 election, has been spearheading talks with federal officials over this issue.
Adenan disassociates himself from federal government policies when talking to the state's residents, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak associate professor Jeniri Amir told BenarNews.
"If you listen clearly to his speeches, his message is always saying that whatever Putrajaya is doing has nothing to do with Sarawak. This election is about Sarawak and has nothing to do with Najib," Amir said.
Sarawak's biggest demand is that royalties from oil and gas production be increased from 5 percent to 20 percent.
Najib, who leads BN, on Wednesday shot down that demand. He said it was not the right time to pursue negotiations because government revenues had shrunk due to a sharp drop in oil and gas prices.
The professor said some many translate Najib's presence in the region during the campaigning season and his announcement on royalties as a threat to Adenan. In urban areas,opposition parties have labelled Adenan as a "puppet" for Putrajaya.
Opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP) candidate Abdul Aziz Isa has tried to seize on Najib's announcement, claiming that Adenan failed Sarawak for not getting the higher royalties.
BN, affiliates draw support
Observers expect that, come Saturday, BN will retain control of the legislative assembly in Sarawak.
It will be difficult to shake support for BN in Sarawak because many still regard the coalition as the only option, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia associate professor Mohd Faisal Syam Abdol Hazis told BenarNews.
"The opposition can't even work together and agree on seat allocations. In Batu Kitang constituency for example, DAP is challenging PKR [The People's Justice Party] which is also challenging BN. This alone not only sends a strong message to the voters, it will also split their chances," Hazis said.
Meanwhile, a group of affiliate parties represent BN in Sarawak.
Sarawak United Bumiputera Heritage Party (PBB) is the strongest affiliate party in the state and is targeting 40 of the 82 seats contested.
Three other local affiliates are Sarawak People's Party (PRS), Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP) and Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP). These affiliates allow Sarawak BN to create a perception that it is run by local parties that understand local concerns.
Three parties, namely DAP, PKR and National Trust Party form an opposition bloc. The Islamic party, Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party left the bloc several months ago and is contesting 11 seats on Saturday.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian officials Friday confirmed the death of a deputy minister, Noriah Kasnon, in a helicopter crash in the eastern state of Sarawak but rescue teams still were searching for the pilot and four other passengers.
The body of Kasnon, deputy minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities, was recovered Friday from the crash site near the coastal town of Sebuyau.
Prime Minister Najib Razak confirmed Kasnon's death via Twitter late Friday.
Razak and his deputy Ahmad Zahid Hamidi were at the Sarawak General Hospital mortuary where Kasnon's remains were taken after being recovered from near a debris field along the Batang Sadon River.
The AS350 helicopter went down during a flight from the Sarawakian town of Betong to the state capital of Kuching, less than two days before legislative assembly elections there.  The aircraft departed Betong at 4:12 p.m. Thursday but vanished from radar screens about 20 minutes into a 45-minute flight, officials said.
Among those still unaccounted for were Kasnon's husband, Asmuni Abdullah, Sundaran Annamalai, the secretary general of the ministry where Kasnon serves as deputy minister, and Wan Mohammad Khair-il Anuar Wan Ahmad, an MP representing the Kuala Kangsar constituency in Perak state. The pilot, Capt. Rudolf Rex Ragas, and another passenger, bodyguard Ahmad Sobri Harun, were also missing.
The ongoing search occurred on the eve of state legislative assembly elections set for Saturday. These are being scrutinized as a test for Malaysia's ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which also controls politics in Sarawak but has been mired in a corruption scandal.
Wide debris field
A hearse carrying Kasnon's body arrived at the hospital morgue from the Kuching Royal Air Force Base at 3:30 p.m. Friday.
"The team found the wreckage at 9:30 a.m. today and we began combing the area following the river currents. Based on that, our search radius is currently within four kilometers [2.5 miles] wide," State Fire and Rescue Department Director Nor Hisham Mohammad told BenarNews.
He said a search and rescue operation comprising more than 100 personnel was scouring the area for signs of the five missing people and more debris. So far, the searchers had recovered a rotor blade from the helicopter, a floatation device, part of a wall, a door and a seat.
Difficult terrain
Transportation by helicopter is the preferred mode of transportation for politicians and other VIPs traveling in Sarawak, a heavily forested state with rugged terrain and that lacks many roads.
Apart from the option of traveling by car or truck to reach communities in mountainous or areas or in the jungle, VIPs also travel by boat through the state's complex network of rivers.
At least seven helicopter crashes have occurred in Sarawak over the past decade. The most notorious accident took place in 2004, when seven people, including an assistant state minister, were killed when their helicopter crashed into the Bakelalan mountains.


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BENARNEWS- The Barisan Nasional coalition just extended its decades-long rule over the eastern Malaysian state of Sarawak with a decisive legislative electoral win, but new allegations of corruption from abroad are buffeting its governor and long-time former chief minister.
The ruling coalition took 72 of 82 seats in the state's legislative assembly polls on Saturday, in a vote touted as a litmus test at the national level for Barisan, whose current government in Kuala Lumpur has been mired in a corruption scandal.
At the state level, residents across resource-rich and heavily forested Sarawak voted Chief Minister Adenan Satem into office in his first electoral bid as the incumbent.
Two years ago Adenan succeeded Abdul Taib Mahmud, who then became governor of Sarawak despite allegations of corruption accumulated over his 33 years as chief minister. Both men belong to the same party, the United Bumiputera Heritage Party (PBB).
Now, an Australian senate committee has opened an investigation into money-laundering allegations against Taib's family over multi-million dollar real estate deals and assets owned by it in Australia, Malaysian media reported on Tuesday. The reports said that the committee was looking closely at AU $55 million given to the Adelaide Hilton hotel, which is owned by the Taib family.
Taib, who is better known as Pak Uban (white-haired uncle), separately faces allegations of massive corruption and profiteering from illegal logging. He has denied such allegations that came from abroad.
It appears, however, that voters were satisfied enough with Adenan's job performance to date as chief minister, and that the old cloud of alleged corruption hanging over his predecessor did not harm Adenan at the polls.
Voter Heyward Maxwell Pengabang, 32, said he was delighted with Adenan's performance so far, adding that the chief minister has helped keep living costs for the people of Sarawak lower than in other states in Malaysia.
Thanks to Adenan, Sarawakians do not have to pay tolls on roads and utility and tax bills are relatively low, he said.
"With all these issues of increasing cost of living, these changes really help most of the normal people like myself," Heyward told BenarNews.
Progressive leader?
Since taking office in 2014, Adenan has implemented policies that have set his administration apart from his predecessor, including policies to combat illegal logging and corruption, as well as instituting some people-friendly policies.
For example, Adenan's administration has recognized the private Chinese Unified Education Certificate in the state. This is a controversial issue in the rest of the country because the educational qualification geared for ethnic Chinese Malaysians is not accepted by public universities and public service agencies.
Adenan also implemented a policy that led to tribal communities in Sarawak – which form 50 percent of the state's population – being officially recognized on government forms.
Lim Kit Siang, the national leader of the Democratic Action Party (DAP) and a stalwart of the opposition – whose party won only three seats in Saturday's election in Sarawak – conceded at a news conference afterward that Adenan had instituted changes leading to improvements in under-developed Sarawak.
'Unsavory elements'
Yet it also appears that Adenan's popularity did not win him the election alone.
Adenan, a former cabinet minister in the federal government, helped Barisan retain its grip on state politics by banning opposition leaders and activists from other parts of Malaysia from entering his state during the campaigning season.
Those barred from setting foot in the state included Selangor state Chief Minister Mentri Besar Mohamed Azmin Ali.
Prior to election day, Adenan said such a ban was needed "to protect the interests of Sarawak from unsavory elements."
Compared with Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak enjoys a degree of autonomy in administration, immigration and judicial matters, including controlling the entry and residence of non-Sarawakians.
Fractured opposition
For its part, the opposition bloc that contested the election was fractured and trailing behind Barisan even before the polls were held, according to one political science expert.
"The failure [of opposition parties] to negotiate the allocation of seats led to split votes even in areas where they could have won," Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia associate professor Mohd Faisal Syam Abdol Hazis told BenarNews.
In addition, instead of uniting against a common enemy, bickering among the opposition parties undermined their cause, he said.
"I believe this is also one of the reasons for low voter turnout. The opposition parties failed to convince voters that they were a better choice. Instead, they showed that they simply can't work together to achieve a common goal," Mohd Faisal added.
An earlier version incorrectly reported that Barisan Nasional had ruled over Sarawak for 53 years.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia at the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday stressed the need for a collective social media effort to counter the narrative put forward by the Islamic State and other terrorist groups.
"We believe there is a need to encourage more IT [information technology] and media savvy Muslim public figures and scholars to reach out to the youth via the social media to provide a counter narrative, including to clarify the concept of jihad [holy war] that has been twisted to serve the terrorist agenda," Reezal Merican Naina Merican, the deputy Malaysian foreign minister, told a Security Council forum in New York.
"At times, the promise of heavenly reward and spiritual salvation has led some to become misguided and fall for the terrorist narrative," he said during the open debate on "Threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts: Countering the narratives and ideologies of terrorism."
Describing past international efforts to counter terrorism and violent extremism, he said that while they had seen varying degrees of success, "the international community could and must do more."
Rejecting any association of terrorism with any one religion, nationality or ethnic group, he said however that Muslims "should not be in denial." He emphasized a critical need to address what he called the exploitation of Islam by terrorist groups which had led, he said, to a perceived link between the religion, Muslims and terrorism.
"Peace was the very definition of Islam," Reezal said, denouncing claims by terrorists that the religion sanctioned acts of barbarity.
"True Muslims did not accept ideologies that espouse hatred, wanton violence and destruction," he said.
For those who were marginalized, disenchanted or disenfranchised, an ideology could be a powerful thing, Reezal continued, stressing that countering terrorist narratives meant removing the root causes of marginalization, disenchantment and disenfranchisement, while exposing the "fallacy" of terrorist narratives.
He said part of Malaysia's effort to counter the extremist narrative was to engage with religious and community leaders in spreading "accurate" messages about Islam.
International framework
The one-day forum was aimed at providing a platform to discuss and exchange views on an international strategy for countering the narratives and ideologies of terrorist groups, particularly IS, and explore a possible mechanism to coordinate, follow-up and mobilize international action and resources in countering terrorism.
The Security Council on Wednesday requested its main counter-terrorism subsidiary body to present a proposal by next April for a comprehensive international framework on countering terrorist propaganda.
The 15-nation council asked its Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) to recommend guidelines and good practices to effectively counter the ways that IS, al-Qaeda and other terror groups use their narratives to encourage and recruit others to commit terrorist acts.
The CTC would work closely with the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force (CTITF) and other relevant bodies, as well as interested U.N. member states.
The council noted with concern that IS and other terror groups "craft distorted narratives that are based on the misinterpretation and misrepresentation of religion to justify violence."
In his opening remarks at the open debate, U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson emphasized that terrorist groups were exploiting religious beliefs in order to incite hatred and violence and to divide and polarize societies.
"Terrorists and violent extremists blatantly challenge the values enshrined in the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as our shared pursuit of peace, justice and human dignity," he said.
"Faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, and the primacy of global solidarity represent the greatest force in our hands to counter terrorist narratives and ideologies," Eliasson said.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian authorities said they arrested 22 men including 12 foreigners for suspected links to a foiled uprising against the government of the eastern state of Sabah three years ago.
"We have reasons to believe that these men [were] allegedly involved in efforts to topple the government, and associated with the Royal Sulu Force," Sabah Police Chief Abdul Rashid Harun told BenarNews on Thursday, confirming the arrests of the 22 suspects under Malaysia's Security Offences (Special Measures) Act.
The Royal Malaysia Police arrested the men as part of Gasak III, an operation mounted across Sabah over the weekend by the state's Criminal Investigation Department (CID), the Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSCOM) and the police department's Special Task Force on Organized Crime (STAFOC), he said.
Abdul Rashid did not reveal the nationalities of the 12 foreigners, but said that two of them had birth certificates stating they were born in Sabah, and another man had a visitor's pass from the nearby Philippines. The other nine foreigners had no identification papers, and the  suspects ranged in age from 22 to 75 years.
In February and March 2013, Malaysian security forces put down an insurrection by some 200 fighters from Sulu – a neighboring province in the southern Philippines – who identified themselves as the Royal Army of Sulu and followers of the self-proclaimed Sultan of Sulu, Jamalul Kiram III.
Seventy-two people, including 56 Sulu gunmen, 10 members of the Malaysian security forces and six civilians were killed in fighting spread over several weeks.
The Filipino group demanded to be recognized as representatives of the Sulu Sultanate that used to rule Sabah. In the past the sultanate was spread over several southern Philippine islands and parts of Borneo, including Sabah before it became a British protectorate in the 19th century. Sabah was incorporated into Malaysia in 1963, but the country still pays token rent to the Sulu Sultanate on an annual basis.
"Ten Malaysians and the other 10 foreigners were detained on Saturday which was the second day of the 'Op Gasak III.' The remaining two suspects were arrested on Monday at a location in Ranau," Abdul Rashid said.
Raids took place in Lahad Datu, Sungai Bilis and Tanjung Batu – parts of eastern Sabah where the foiled invasion and insurrection occurred. The operation, which was launched on Friday, resulted from months of planning and gathering of intelligence from sources including locals, Sabah's police chief added.
Since the conflict three years ago, the ESSCOM is responsible for overseeing security from northern Kudat to south-eastern Tawau.
Abdul Rashid said police still were trying to determine the suspects' individual roles in the 2013 conflict.
"All of them were most likely followers [of the sultan of Sulu], some were active informers," he said.
The arrests were announced Wednesday night in a message posted on Twitter by Malaysian Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar.
The 22 suspects were being held at police headquarters in the state capital of Kota Kinabalu, Abdul Rashid said.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian police said Friday they had deported two Russians with alleged links to the Islamic State (IS) extremist group and a Sri Lankan national who had allegedly posted death threats on social media.
The two unidentified Russian nationals of ethnic Chechen origin, men aged 23 and 25, were arrested on March 28 by the Malaysian police's counter-terrorism special branch (Bukit Aman) and sent back to Russia on Friday, Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said in a statement.
"They previously were detained by Turkish authorities in February for suspected involvement in IS movements in Syria. Both were expelled and managed to find their way into Malaysia in early March," Khalid said.
The unidentified Sri Lankan, a 42-year-old man who was working as a closed-camera television technician in the Klang Valley, was arrested last month for posting death threats via Facebook against Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Khalid said.
The suspect was on Sri Lanka's list of wanted fugitives.
"With the help from the Sri Lankan enforcement agency, he was detained on April 22 and deported back home in a special operation five days later," Khalid said.
Khalid did not into detail about why the three suspects had traveled to Malaysia. All three men were arrested in the state of Selangor.
Chechens are from Chechnya, a predominantly Muslim republic in the North Caucus region that used be part of the former Soviet Union and where separatist conflicts against Russia were fought in the 1990s.
Chechen militants have also been blamed for carrying out acts of terrorism in Russia, and are among foreign fighters that IS has been recruiting for its combat ranks in Iraq and Syria. Malaysian officials say they face a similar threat from IS targeting young Malaysians for recruitment through social media.
Citing intelligence sources, the Home Ministry claimed that more than 130 Malaysians had attempted to join IS in Iraq or Syria. At least 19 Malaysians have been killed while fighting for IS in the Middle East, according to Bukit Aman chief Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay.


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BENARNEWS- The government of the eastern Malaysian state of Sarawak has exhausted efforts to save a local man from being executed by Singapore next week for a murder conviction, the chief minister told BenarNews on Friday.
The execution date for Kho Jabing, 32, has been set for May 20 but Sarawak officials were unable to persuade Singaporean authorities to grant the man from Ulu Baram clemency for killing a construction worker in the city-state eight years ago, Chief Minister Adenan Satem said.
"We have sent representatives to secure leniency and even written to the Singaporean authorities, but we have failed to change their verdict," he told Benar.
Kho's family received a letter from the Singapore Prison Service on Thursday saying that his execution was scheduled to take place next Friday.
"I can't believe that they are going to hang my brother on my birthday," Kho's younger sister, 27-year-old Jumai, told BenarNews.
In 2010, the Singapore High Court in found Kho guilty of using a tree branch to kill the construction worker, Cao Ruyin, during a robbery attempt in 2008.
Since then, Kho's family pleaded with the Sarawak government to appeal to the Singaporean authorities to change the death sentence to life imprisonment.
Jumai and her mother are expected to leave for Singapore on Saturday, hoping they can persuade the Singapore government to change Jabing's death sentence.
"I am still hoping that some miracle would come to our family. All we ask for is a life sentence so that we could at least meet him every now and then. I just don't want to bring my brother home in a coffin," Jumai said.
Kho had been scheduled to be executed on Nov.  6, 2015, but received a stay after his lawyer filed a motion challenging the verdict. On April 5, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence and lifted the stay of execution.
In August 2013, following revisions to Singapore's mandatory death penalty laws, a court sentenced him to life and 24 strokes of the cane instead. However, the prosecution challenged the decision and the top court changed the sentence to death.


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BENARNEWS- The leader of a Malaysian grassroots movement who planned to pick up a human rights award in South Korea said she could not board an international flight after the government barred her from traveling abroad.
"This action is an infringement on my constitutional right and freedom of movement," Maria Chin Abdullah, chairwoman of Bersih – a coalition of Malaysian NGOs and activist groups advocating clean government and fair and transparent elections – told BenarNews.
"It is politically motivated and shows a desperate government clutching on to power when it should be accountable and engaging with the people on key issues challenging this country."
She had expected to fly to Seoul on Sunday to receive the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights, which recognizes individuals and organizations who promote and advance rights, democracy and peace. Past recipients include Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar and former East Timorese (Timor-Leste) President Xanana Gusmao.
Bersih was being honored with the award in recognition of the bravery and commitment of Malaysians who have championed greater democracy and rights throughout the years, Chin said.
Bersih, which means "clean," was founded in November 2006 and has since spearheaded massive street demonstrations in the country. In August 2015, it organized protests throughout the country that called for the ouster of Prime Minister Najib Razak over a corruption scandal linked to the indebted state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
Days before a main rally in Kuala Lumpur rally drew about 200,000 demonstrators, according to Bersih, the Malaysian government blocked four Bersih websites in an effort to quell the protest.
'We have the power to bar anyone'
Chin said she had expected to be able to fly to Seoul, believing that a previous travel ban was no longer in effect.
"I asked in December 2015 to check if there was a travel ban, but was told it was lifted since 2012. This seems to be a new order from Putrajaya," she said, referring to the Malaysian government. "The action to control citizens' mobility is a total violation of our democratic rights."
On Monday, Malaysian immigration officials and Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed did not respond to multiple requests for comment from BenarNews. But he told reporters at parliament that the government did not have to explain its reasons for a travel ban.
"We have the power to bar anyone from leaving the country," he said. "Every citizen is given the right to a passport, so the passport can be revoked by the government.
"Travel conditions are attached to the passport and the condition is that the passport is the first document you must have. We can also pull back the passport," he added.
1MDB affair
International investigators are examining Prime Minister Najib's role in a financial scandal involving 1MDB, particularly an investigation into how nearly U.S. $700 million ended up in his personal bank accounts prior to the general election in 2013.
Earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal reported that Najib used 1MDB funds to pay for lavish holidays, shopping and jewelry. The newspaper reported that the prime minister spent up to $15 million on holidays and at luxury stores in the United States, Malaysia and Italy.
Regarding the bank deposit of $681 million, Malaysia's attorney general has declared no wrongdoing on Najib's part, and a Saudi Arabian official claimed the money was a personal donation from the Saudi Royal family. For his part, Najib has maintained that he never used any of this money for personal gain.


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BENARNEWS- Authorities in Malaysia have introduced a policy that bans citizens who discredit or ridicule the government from traveling abroad, according to a local daily, drawing criticism from civil liberty advocates.
"Anyone who runs down the Government or 'memburukkan kerajaan' [smears the government] in any manner will be barred from going abroad," a source in the Immigration Department told The Star newspaper.
Citizens can be barred from traveling abroad for up to three years, the source said following a foreign travel ban imposed on the chairwoman of the Bersih grassroots coalition, which prevented her from boarding a flight to South Korea where she was to pick up the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights.
Immigration Director-General Sakib Kusmi later confirmed with the newspaper the existence of the new policy, saying that owning a passport was "a privilege and not a right."
Because the government has the power to issue international passports to its citizens under the aegis of the king, "the [g]overnment has the discretion to either issue, defer or revoke the travel document," Sakib said.
BenarNews was unable to reach Sakib for comment.
'Punishment without trial'
Mohamad Haniff Khatri, a prominent Malaysian lawyer, reacted to the report by describing the policy as an example of the government abusing its power in unrestrained way and restricting the liberties of activists and critics.
"By arbitrarily imposing bans without that individual firstly, being charged for any specific offence, and secondly, without that person being found guilty. It's a punishment without trial. That is the issue," Haniff told BenarNews.
Arbitrary travels bans should not should not be occurring in Malaysia especially if "the Malaysian government claims to be progressive and democratic," according to another commentator, Wan Saiful Wan Jan who heads the Institute of Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS), a local think-tank.
"The freedom of movement​, which includes ​the right to travel is a universal human right. The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, which the Malaysian government has claimed to adopt and uphold, specifies that everyone has the right to leave the country and to return," he told BenarNews, adding the government had also failed to understand that Malaysian citizens have a right to criticize its policies and actions.
'She should have checked with Immigration'
The issue came to light after Bersih leader Maria Chin Abdullah said Malaysian immigration officials had barred her from flying to South Korea on Sunday.
Bersih, a movement that advocates clean government, transparency and fair elections, last year organized massive rallies in Kuala Lumpur and other Malaysian cities that called for the removal of Prime Minister Najib Razak over corruption allegations.
On Wednesday, Deputy Home Affairs Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamad defended the ban, saying that outspoken Malaysian politicians and activists in particular should check their travel status with the Immigration Department before booking international trips.
"With regards to Bersih 2.0 chairman Maria Chin, she should have checked with Immigration if she still was barred from leaving the country or not. Don't just wait, check with Immigration," a separate report in The Star quoted the deputy minister as saying.
Few Malaysians have been barred from leaving the country for discrediting the country, but it was up to the discretion of the department's head, Sakib Kusmi, to ban foreign travel for certain citizens, Nur Jazlan added.
In March, Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told parliament that 827,921 Malaysians had been barred from leaving the country for going bankrupt (200,727), failing to repay students loans (118,892), and committing security-related offences (520). The remaining 507,782 were banned from traveling abroad for various other offenses, according to local media reports.


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BENARNEWS- Singapore hanged Kho Jabing of Sarawak, Malaysia, on Friday afternoon for killing a construction worker eight years ago, after a last-minute stay of execution was lifted.
Rachel Zeng of the Singapore Anti-Death Penalty Campaign confirmed that Koh, 32, was executed at 3:30 p.m. at the Changi Prison after meeting with his family.
Kho had been granted the stay on Thursday night after his legal team filed an appeal. On Friday morning, a five-judge panel dismissed the appeal, clearing the way for the unusual afternoon execution. Singapore normally carries out capital punishment at dawn.
"This court should not be seen as a device to undermine the legal process. We cannot allow applications made at the eleventh hour, one after another," Judge of Appeal Chao Hick Tin said in dismissing the appeal Friday, according to reports.
Kho's family, who could not be reached for comment Friday, received a letter from the Singapore Prison Service last week stating the execution was scheduled for the morning of May 20.
The execution brought a sudden end to a six-year legal saga that included a period in which Kho's sentence was changed to life in prison.
Six-year saga
Kho was sentenced to die in 2010 after the Singapore High Court found him guilty of using a tree branch to kill construction worker Cao Ruyin during a robbery attempt in 2008. Cao, who died six days after being beaten, suffered multiple skull fractures.
In August 2013, following revisions to Singapore's mandatory death penalty laws, a court sentenced Kho to life and 24 strokes of the cane instead. The prosecution challenged the decision and the top court changed the sentence to death.
Kho's execution was stayed in November 2015 when his lawyers challenged the verdict. On April 5, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence.
On May 13, Sarawak Chief Minister Adenan Satem told BenarNews the state government had exhausted all efforts to persuade Singaporean authorities to grant Kho clemency.
Condemnation
Global rights group Amnesty International (AI) condemned the execution since it was "mere hours" after Kho's last chance for a reprieve was dismissed.
"It is disgraceful that Kho Jabing was executed, particularly with such indecent haste, after his final appeal was denied this morning," AI's Deputy Director of South East Asia and Pacific Regional Office Josef Benedict said in a statement.
AI's Malaysia chapter Executive Director Shamini Darshini said that Singapore had taken a step back toward the ranks of countries that use cruel and inhumane forms of punishment.
"He has variously [been] sentenced to death, re-sentenced to life imprisonment and caning, and sentenced to death once more. The ordeal Kho's family had been put through for the past six years would have been puzzling and utterly cruel," she said.
Singapore executed six people in 2014 and 2015 – five for drug offenses and one for murder. The government did not release details on their nationalities.
Malaysia has not abolished capital punishment and the government on Tuesday announced 1,041 prisoners are on death row.
In November, Nancy Shukri of the Prime Minister's department of legal affairs, said the Malaysian government planned to submit a bill to abolish the mandatory death sentence for several crimes, particularly drug-related offenses and possession of firearms.


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BENARNEWS- The office of Switzerland's attorney general said Tuesday it had opened criminal proceedings into potential money laundering by BSI AG, a Swiss bank linked to Malaysian state fund 1MDB, and Swiss financial regulators announced a takeover of the bank.
And while Swiss regulators said they had confiscated CHF 95 million (U.S. $95.7 million) worth of profits from BSI, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said it planned to shut down BSI's Singaporean branch.
1Malaysia Development Berhad has been at the center of a corruption scandal shadowing Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who chaired 1MDB's advisory board until its dissolution earlier this month.
"Through business relationships and transactions linked to the corruption scandals surrounding the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund1MDB, BSI AG committed serious breaches of money laundering regulations and 'fit and proper' requirements," the Swiss Financial Market Supervising Authority (FINMA) said in a statement Tuesday.
"n the case of 1MDB, the bank executed numerous large transactions with unclear purpose over a period of several years and, despite clearly suspicious indications, did not clarify the background to these transactions," FINMA added.
In Singapore, the MAS issued a statement saying it intended to strip BSI's local branch of its license as a merchant bank in the city-state because of "serious breaches of anti-money laundering requirements, poor management oversight of the bank's operations, and gross misconduct by some of the bank's staff."
"BSI Bank is the worst case of control lapses and gross misconduct that we have seen in the Singapore financial sector. It is a stark reminder to all financial institutions to take their anti-money laundering responsibilities seriously," MAS Managing Director Ravi Menon said.
Along with saying that it planned to close the local BSI branch, MAS referred six bank officials, including a former chief executive officer and former deputy CEO to the Singapore prosecutor's office to determine if they should face criminal charges.
The statement from the Singaporean authority, however, did not mention 1MDB.
1MDB: 'Committed to fully cooperating'
The statement from the Swiss AG's office said it had suspected that deficiencies in BSI's internal organization were linked to allegations of the misappropriation of billions of dollars from 1MDB, which it has been investigating.
According to FINMA, the Lugano-based bank executed many large suspicious transactions over several years.
In the context of 1MDB, BSI failed to monitor a client group that maintained about 100 accounts in the bank, FINMA said. In one case, bank officials accepted a client's explanation that funds for a deposit of U.S. $20 million were from a gift.
In another case, U.S. $20 million was "routed through a variety of accounts within the bank on the same day before eventually being transferred to another bank. Transactions of this kind are often a clear indication of money laundering."
FINMA described the confiscated CHF $95 million as profits that were generated illegally, saying the money would revert to the Swiss government.
In Kuala Lumpur, 1MDB posted a three-paragraph statement on its website responding to the actions by the Singaporean and Swiss authorities.
"1MDB states that it has not been contacted by any foreign lawful authority on matters relating to the company. 1MDB remains committed to fully cooperating with any foreign lawful authority, subject to advice from the relevant domestic lawful authorities, and in accordance with international protocols governing such matters," 1MDB said.
It went on to say that its investments were not affected by Tuesday's announcements in Switzerland and Singapore.
Ongoing investigations
The announcements abroad further widen international criminal investigations linked with the deeply indebted Malaysian state fund.
In February, Swiss authorities said a criminal investigation into 1MDB had revealed that about $4 billion appeared to have been misappropriated from Malaysian state companies. That same month, Singapore's central bank announced that it had seized many bank accounts over possible money-laundering and other offenses linked to 1MDB.
1MDB also faces investigations in the United States, United Arab Emirates, Luxembourg, Great Britain and Hong Kong, as well as other investigations in Switzerland and Singapore.
In April, the Malaysian Parliamentary Accounts Committee issued a 106-page report that recommended criminal investigations into 1MDB senior management, but without mentioning Prime Minister Najib Razak by name.
The committee called for probes into unapproved payments by the fund totaling close to U.S. $3 billion, among other discrepancies, which is being investigated by a special task-force headed by Police Inspector- General Khalid Abu Bakar.
1MDB and Najib have been the targets of investigations after the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported in July 2015 that nearly $700 million ended up in his private accounts. Since then, the newspaper reported that millions of dollars of money linked to 1MDB had been spent by Najib to fund a lavish lifestyle.
Malaysia's attorney general has cleared Najib of any wrongdoing.
More recently, Najib and the rest of the advisory board said they would resign in light of the ongoing investigations. Najib told members of parliament that the advisory board has no administrative function and makes no transactions, according to media reports on Tuesday.


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BENARNEWS- The Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) on Wednesday denied allegations from three Filipino fishermen that they were beaten after being caught encroaching into Malaysian waters near the disputed Spratly islands more than two weeks ago.
"The RMN have conducted an investigation to look into what really happened in the incident. Till now, there is no truth in the claims by the Filipino fishermen,'' RMN Chief Ahmad Kamarulzaman Ahmad Badaruddin said in the statement.
The fishermen, Nelson Plamiano, Arlon Sandro and Odelin Baisa, were part of a 22-member crew of the fishing boat Justin Lloyd, which reportedly ventured into waters claimed by Malaysia in the South China Sea.
On Monday, the trio told Philippine media that they were handcuffed and beaten during a four-hour detention on May 9. Two days later, relatives told Philippine media about the alleged abuse, but the Philippine Navy and Coast Guard did not respond to requests for details about the detention.
This week, the fishermen asked the Philippine government to sue those responsible for their assault, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer. The navy's Western Command told the Inquirer that their complaint was being addressed, but did not name Malaysia.
According to the statement from Ahmad Kamarulzaman the Malaysian investigation concluded that the Philippine boat had entered the country's exclusive economic zone (EEZ), requiring the check by the RMN patrol boat.
"The fishermen were ordered to show their identification. The fishing trawler skipper then sent three of its crew in smaller boats to approach our vessel. Two of the fisherman complied with the demand, while another decided to jump into the sea to avoid inspection,'' he said.
He said Malaysian sailors rescued the fisherman. After checking their identification, the fishermen were returned to the trawler and ordered to leave Malaysia's EEZ, Ahmad Kamarulzaman said.
Counterparts with the Philippine navy have been informed of the investigation, he added.


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BENARNEWS- The recent arrest of the relative of a Malaysian man allegedly fighting for Islamic State (IS) in Syria underscores how the extremist group is aggressively recruiting family members for its cause, counter-terrorism experts told BenarNews.
The man in custody, who was among 14 suspected IS supporters caught by Malaysia last week, is related to Muhammad Wanndy Mohamed Jedi, an IS fighter from the country who threatened to kill Prime Minister Najib Razak and the chief of Malaysian police, officials said Saturday when they announced the arrests.
"Authorities have to pay attention to the relatives of these IS militants, so that they do not become silent agents spreading IS ideology in this country," P. Sundramoorthy, a professor of criminology at Universiti Sains Malaysia, told BenarNews.
According to Deputy Inspector General of Police Noor Rashid Ibrahim, the relative, whose name was not released, had wired money to IS from his bank account in Malaysia. On Sunday police confirmed they had frozen the account, but declined to give more details or say how much money had been sent to IS.
A multigenerational campaign
The 14 were arrested in police raids mounted from May 17 to 20 in six states – Johor, Selangor, Perak, Kedah, Perlis and Kuala Lumpur – bringing the number of IS suspects arrested by Malaysian police to 193 since 2013, according to statistics from Royal Malaysia Police. By the end of last year, about 1,000 Southeast Asians had joined IS in Iraq or Syria, according to the U.S. State Department.
Seven of the suspects who were picked up last week had worked at a private company. Two had their own businesses and the others included a mechanic, an aircraft technician, a former karaoke lounge hostess, a lab assistant and a laborer, Rashid said in a statement.
"Eight of the suspects were responsible for channelling funds to IS in Syria and the Abu Sayyaf Group in southern Philippines. They were detained in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Perak, Perlis and Johor," he said.
The suspects range from 22 to 49 years in age, officials said.
In March, 15 suspected Malaysian supporters of IS were arrested at home and were believed to have been receiving instructions from Wanndy to raise money for the IS effort in the Middle East, police said at the time.
In February 2015, Wanndy and fellow Malaysian Mohd Faris Anuar made headlines back home when they reportedly took part in the videotaped beheading of a Syrian prisoner, which was posted online.
In November, Faris was killed while allegedly fighting alongside IS forces in Anbar province, Iraq.
The effort by IS to recruit relatives and friends of its fighters is part of a strategy by the group to entice entire families to join its cause of defending its self-proclaimed caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria that it controls, said Rohan Gunaratna, who heads the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.
"IS wants males to come with their women and children into a war-zone. Single fighters coming are not sufficient to create a multigenerational campaign," Gunaratna told BenarNews.
Last week, Zainuri Kamaruddin, a former leader of Kumpulan Mujahiddin Malaysia (KMM), appeared in a recycled video that showed Southeast Asian children being drilled on extremist ideology, trained to use weapons, and incited into burning what appeared to be Indonesian and Malaysian passports.
Through such propaganda that it disseminates online, IS tries to paint a rosy picture of life in the caliphate, where children also play and go to school, said Gunaratna, a columnist for BenarNews.
The propaganda encourages families to go and live in the Middle East together, a recruitment campaign aimed at reducing a high turnover rate among IS fighters, Gunaratna said.
"After spending a year in Syria and Iraq, nearly 50 percent of those who migrated to the so-called caliphate want to return home. It is only a small percentage of highly committed IS activists who could not make it in their own homelands who want to remain in the caliphate forever," he said.
Fahirul N. Ramli in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian immigration officers are among some 100 people being investigated for alleged involvement in sabotaging a system designed to improve immigration services, government investigators announced Thursday following a three-month probe at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
Some of the people suspected of sabotaging the program known as the Malaysian Immigration System (MyIMMs) over the last six years were in police custody, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told reporters Thursday, according to the Bernama state news agency.
"Investigations showed the sabotage involved immigration support and middle-class officers and no high-level officials were involved," Zahid said.
"The officers were working in cohort with the syndicate for financial rewards. Let me reiterate that we will not protect anyone who has committed such wrongdoings," he said, adding, "In fact, we want action be taken against them."
Intelligence gathered by police and the Malaysian Immigration Department (JIM) revealed that the syndicate had taken part in activities breaching departmental procedures over the past six months to two years through leaking data, which included code numbers, Bernama quoted Zahid as saying.
The announcement came amid the recent arrests in Thailand of two non-Malaysian people who were taken into custody for allegedly traveling on fake Malaysian passports.
Sabotage began in 2010
Without going into detail about the scope of the sabotage or how it occurred, Immigration Department Director General Sakib Kusmi revealed that it began six years ago.
"Let the police investigate first. When it is completed, we will find the answer," Sakib told BenarNews.
An immediate crackdown was needed because of the depth of the sabotage, Sakib told Bernama. Immigration officers will face stern action including dismissal if they are found to have participated in the scheme, he said.
Zahid told Bernama that the investigation had focused on the Kuala Lumpur airport, but other entry points into the country would be investigated as well.
On Tuesday, a task force headed by Home Ministry Secretary-General Alwi Ibrahim was formed to investigate weaknesses in the immigration system.
Released on May 17, the Auditor General's Report for 2015 stated that MyIMMs, which was set up to streamline and improve Malaysia's immigration services, was not functioning satisfactorily.
The report cited the example of how a biometric facility valued at 10.3 million ringgits (U.S. $2.5 million), and which was designed to screen and identify foreigners as well Malaysians at the country's entry points, had not been installed and was not being used.
The country's immigration and passport system made news on Wednesday when a Chinese citizen was detained at Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok while allegedly trying to use a fake Malaysian passport. Wang Jianghua, who was arrested by Thai immigration police, admitted paying U.S. $6,000 to buy a fake passport over the Internet, according to reports.
His arrest followed an incident on May 14 when a Sri Lankan national was arrested at Chiang Mai Airport while allegedly traveling with a fake Malaysian passport. Investigators determined that the passport belonged to a Malaysian woman.
Ahmad Najmi Nasruddin contributed to this report.
An earlier version gave a wrong date for the publication of the Auditor General's Report.


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BENARNEWS-Thirty-six Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar were on their way to resettlement in the United States after leaving a detention center in Malaysia, the U.N.'s refugee agency confirmed Friday.
The 36 were part of a wave of Rohingyas who landed in Malaysia during a migration crisis that gripped Southeast Asia in May 2015, according to the Kuala Lumpur office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
"They left about 2 a.m. [on Thursday]," Yante Ismail, spokesperson for UNHCR in Malaysia, told BenarNews. She declined to say specifically where the Rohingyas were heading to in the U.S. as part of the U.N. agency's program to resettle refugees in third countries.
In Washington, the press office of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a BenarNews request for information about the arrival of the three dozen Rohingyas.
They were among at least 370 Rohingyas who were detained by Malaysia when they came ashore last year after fleeing Myanmar aboard human-smuggling boats. Rohingyas are a stateless people and a persecuted religious minority in majority Buddhist Myanmar, according to human rights advocacy groups.
The 36 U.S.-bound Rohingyas were released from Malaysian detention on Wednesday afternoon, UNHCR said in a news release.
"UNHCR welcomes the move by the Malaysian Government to release the 36 extremely vulnerable Rohingya refugees from the Belantik Immigration Detention Centre," Richard Towle, the U.N. agency's representative in Malaysia, said in a statement.
"We are also extremely grateful to the Government of the United States of America for their generosity in providing resettlement spaces for this group of extremely vulnerable individuals, for whom no other safe, long-term solution would be an option," he added.
Towle voiced concern about the other 334 Rohingyas still being held at the detention center, 12 months after their arrival.
"These people have undergone traumatic experiences at the hands of smugglers and traffickers, and are in need of specialized care," Towle said. "The best option for them is to be released into UNHCR's care where we can assess their protection needs and help find support for them within the refugee communities in Malaysia."
'I can finally live a free live'
Last year's irregular migration crisis saw some 3,000 Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi migrants come ashore in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. The crisis erupted when Thai authorities imposed a maritime blockade on people-smuggling boats, following the discovery of graves of undocumented migrants in the jungle near Thailand's border with Malaysia.
According to estimates cited by UNHCR, approximately 370 refugees and migrants who departed from the Bay of Bengal by sea in 2015 died before reaching land, "mostly from starvation, dehydration, disease, and abuse by people smugglers."
Among the batch of 36 being resettled in the U.S. are two 19-year-old Rohingya girls, Bibi and Aishah, who met one another last year aboard one of the smuggling boats.
They were then traveling alone and without their families, but have now become best friends. The two will start their new lives together in the United States, UNHCR said.
"We were together in the boat. We came together to Malaysia. We spent one year in detention together," Bibi told UNHCR. "I am so glad we are going together to the U.S. I am so glad that I can finally live a free life."
Imran Vittachi in Washington contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- The ruling party in Malaysia has given preliminary backing to a proposed law in parliament seeking to give more clout to Islamic courts, raising tensions in the multi-racial country where non-Muslims fear it contradicts the country's secular constitution.
But legal experts who BenarNews spoke to Tuesday said that non-Muslims need not be concerned by the proposal of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) to increase the punishments meted out by the sharia courts.
In a surprise move last week, a cabinet minister from Prime Minister Najib Razak's ruling Barisan Nasional coalition fast tracked the PAS bill for debate.
Only Muslims, who make up more than half of the country's population, are subject to sharia laws and Najib has stressed that non-Muslims would not be affected by the proposed measure to amend the Sharia Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965.
At present, sharia courts can impose a maximum sentence of three years' imprisonment, a maximum fine of 5000 Malaysian ringgit (U.S. $1,214) and whipping up to six strokes.
Under the proposed amendment, sharia court judges may be able to impose whipping of up to 100 strokes on those convicted of engaging in illicit sex and up to 80 strokes for consumption of alcohol, a group of non-governmental organizations said in a statement.
"Technically the bill merely sought to widen the powers of the sharia court; it is not about hudud," Abdul Aziz Bari, a professor of constitutional law, told BenarNews.
Hudud is the Islamic penal code which sets punishments that include amputation of the hand for theft and stoning for illicit sexual relations.
Experts said sharia courts will not cover crimes that conventional courts have jurisdiction over at present.
A laughing stock
The PAS bill would insert a clause stating that in the exercise of the criminal law, "the Sharia Court has the right to impose penalties allowed by sharia law ... other than the death penalty," according to a copy seen by BenarNews.
PAS is attempting to elevate the status of the sharia courts whose inadequate punishments have made them a laughing stock, the party's deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man told a press conference Tuesday in Kelantan, according to Free Malaysia Today.
The conservative northern state unanimously passed a hudud bill in March 2015 but it could not be implemented until a parliamentary bill removed obstacles at the federal level.
But that bill swiftly opened fissures in Najib's ruling Barisan Nasional coalition as several key members reportedly threatened to resign over it.
Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) president and Health Minister S. Subramaniam said he would quit as health minister if the law were implemented, following a similar move by Liow Tiong Lai, Malaysian Chinese Association president and transport minister.
Sim Kui Hian, president of the Sarawak United People's Party, said the legal maneuver could cause the sprawling state in eastern Malaysia to secede.
"The passing of the bill could motivate Sarawakians to part ways with Malaysia," CNN quoted him as saying.
Najib attempted to smooth over the tensions.
"I would like to state that it's not for the implementation of hudud. It's just to give the Sharia courts enhanced punishments. From six-strokes caning to a few more," he said, according to media reports.
Opposition leaders called the bill an attempt to circumvent the Malaysian constitution, which names Islam as the state religion but guarantees a secular society.
"Clearly PAS is trying to bypass and get around the constitutional requirement of a 2/3 majority by treating this as an ordinary law which requires only a simple majority,' Malay Mail Online quoted Lim Guan Eng, secretary general of the opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP), as saying.
He said the amendment could pave the way for two separate criminal systems in the diverse country, where religion and race often go hand in hand.
Most of the country's ethnic Malays are Muslim; many of its sizeable ethnic Chinese, Indian and indigenous citizens are not. About 61% of 30.5 million Malaysians are Muslim.
Federal v. sharia
Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar, president of Muslim Lawyers Association of Malaysia, suggested that many of the bill's most vocal critics may not have actually read it.
The law would apply only to Muslims and to crimes not covered by federal criminal statutes, he told BenarNews. Moreover, it must be approved by state assemblies before it can go into effect, since states have jurisdiction over religion in Malaysia.
"Among the more pertinent question is what would happen [under the proposed law] if, for example, a Muslim woman was raped by a non-Muslim man. Would the man be charged under the sharia law, or federal law?" he said.
"The answer is very simple. That non-Muslim man cannot be charged under the sharia law because rape (as a crime) falls under federal jurisdiction ... Even if the bill is passed it doesn't make the crime shifted to state jurisdiction."
Zulhazmi Shariff, a sharia law expert, said the amendment would not enable punishments such as cutting off a hand for theft.
"The crimes of theft and rape, which could be punished under hudud law, can only be brought before a civil court under the federal constitution. The sharia court has no jurisdiction over them," he said.
Hudud punishments laid out in Muslim scripture include up to 100 lashes for illicit sexual relations; up to 80 lashes for false accusations of illicit sex; up to 80 lashes for drinking intoxicants; and death or banishment for apostasy, or abandoning one's faith.
"With the exception of Saudi Arabia, hudud punishments are rarely applied, although recently fundamentalist ideologies have demanded the reintroduction of hudud, especially in Sudan, Iran, and Afghanistan," according to the website Oxford Islamic Studies Online.


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BENARNEWS- A move to strengthen the Sharia court system in Malaysia is a political ploy to win votes for the ruling coalition and divert attention from pressing issues, critics say.
Others worry that the move, if implemented, could erode human rights in the country or undermine national unity.
The Barisan Nasional coalition is using this to distract public attention away from a financial scandal over state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), which has mired Prime Minister Najib Razak in corruption allegations, or other issues that have dominated domestic headlines, said the head of a prominent civil society group.
"Suddenly, the public and opposition's attention is swerved to the proposed bill and we suddenly stop discussing about alleged mismanagement at 1MDB and other misconduct in the government," Sevan Doraisamy, executive director of Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram), told BenarNews.
As a result, Sevan said, Malaysians are now debating whether a proposed amendment to the Sharia Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act of 1965 marks a first step toward introducing the Islamic penal code known as Hudud. It sets punishments that include amputation of the hand for theft and stoning for illicit sexual relations.
The existing law gives Malaysia's states power to set up sharia courts with jurisdiction over Muslim family law, Muslim property law and other matters that are not covered by the country's criminal code. The proposed amendment would authorize sharia judges to impose punishments of up to 100 strokes of the cane for illicit sex and up to 80 strokes for consumption of alcohol, according to a group of NGOs.
"This issue should not be labeled as an issue of Islam versus non-Muslims or hudud law issue, but should be seen as an initiative to improve the [Sharia] Court as a judicial system that is recognized by the constitution," local newspaper Utusan Malaysia quoted Yusri Mohamed, president of the Islamic Da'wah Foundation Malaysia and a supporter of the bill, as saying this week.
'A gimmick'
The debate was spurred by a Barisan Nasional cabinet minister's move last week to fast-track the proposed amendment for parliamentary debate, which is being pushed by the faith-based Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS).
According to Chong Eng, a politician with the opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP), the move is "a gimmick" by Barisan to win support for upcoming by-elections. These will be held to fill two parliamentary seats on the states of Selangor and Perak, which were vacated when the incumbents were killed in a helicopter crash in Sarawak last month.
"I suspect that PAS has struck some kind of cooperation with BN to go into the battle, knowing well they are battling with the Pakatan Harapan opposition block in the by-elections," Chong told BenarNews.
DAP and PAS were partners in an opposition coalition but the bloc broke up last year when they feuded over efforts by the Islamic party to implement hudud in the northern state of Kelantan.
A threat to the nation's fabric?
Although the bill's supporters say that the punishments outlined by it would apply only to Muslims, other critics nevertheless warn that it could fuel tensions among Malaysia's different racial groups, divide the country, and impinge on human rights.
In an interview with the Star Online, a former chief of national police on Thursday suggested that PAS was using the bill to amend the Sharia law as part of a long-term push for implementing hudud nationwide.
"This is not a good sign. It can jeopardize our national integration. I feel the government should be firm and stress that hudud cannot be implemented in this country because it contravenes the Federal Con­stitution," former Inspector General of Police Rahim Noor told the newspaper.
"This is a big deal and a question of criminal justice. It has an impact on our spirit of togetherness because all citizens should be treated equally under the law," he added.
Elsewhere, the Malaysian feminist group Joint Action Group for Gender Quality (JAG), issued a statement calling on the government to be transparent in legislating the proposed amendment.
"We are specifically concerned that the amendments may lead to a significant degradation of human rights," JAG said. "We are of the opinion that [Sharia] laws have been applied in a discriminatory fashion, often victimizing the minority sects of our society."


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BENARNEWS- Police have opened a defamation case against ex-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad for allegedly remarking in public that Malaysia's king had likely been "placed under house arrest," Mahathir's lawyer said.
Mahathir on Friday was questioned at his office in Kuala Lumpur by four police officers for 40 minutes, including about the remark he is alleged to have made on May 19 while seeking royal intervention in his campaign to remove Najib from office over corruption allegations, attorney Mohamad Haniff Khatri said.
"There were 37 questions. Two thirds of the questions concerned his statement on the King and house arrest," Haniff Khatri told BenarNews.
Mahathir, one of Najib's fiercest critics and a former member of the prime minister's party, since early March has spearheaded a Citizens' Declaration campaign which has sought to gather 1.2 million signatures on a petition to oust Najib through non-violent means.
Mahathir and the campaign's supporters were hoping to get a royal audience and hand the petition to the king, who is known as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and who is the head of state in Malaysia.
The police also questioned Mahathir about the Citizens' Declaration, the lawyer said.
Friday's interview marked the third time in less than a year that the 90-year-old former PM was questioned over public comments related to Najib Razak.
'False and mischievous'
Since last year, Mahathir has led calls for Najib to resign over alleged corruption, particularly over a scandal involving the deposit of $681 million into his private banks accounts of money linked to the state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
Najib has refused to resign and has maintained that he never used the money for personal gain.
Four days after quitting the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the party that heads Malaysia's ruling coalition, Mahathir teamed up with other political figures and civil society leaders to launch a Citizens' Declaration demanding Najib's ouster.
On May 13, Mahathir announced that the Citizens' Declaration had met its target of gathering 1.2 million signatures.
He was later quoted as saying in public that the King and other members of Malaysia's Conference of Rulers had likely been "placed under house arrest" in order to prevent them from receiving the signatures gathered on the petition.
On May 23, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission adviser Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim filed a police report against the former prime minister regarding his claims, saying they were "false and mischievous."
"Our Federal Constitution crystalizes the actual position and role played by the Monarchs (Rulers) as the fourth arm in this system, to carry necessary checks and balances on the other three arms of the government," said Mahathir's lead counsel, Haniff.
He was referring to the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government as well as Malaysia's constitutional monarchy, in which the role of king revolves once every five years among the rulers of the country's states.
"Of course, it would then be within the constitutional powers of the monarch to either order Najib to take leave from his office for a certain period deemed suitable in the discretion of the King in order for necessary authorities to carry out investigations – or order Najib to resign from his office," Haniff added.
Abdul Aziz Bari, a professor of constitutional law, said the Conference of Rulers could play a limited role in checking and balancing power.
"They can intervene just like monarchs in other countries so long as the end result is promoting democracy and the objectives of the Constitution," he told BenarNews.
Hata Wahari contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian graphic artist Fahmi Reza, who made waves in January by posting an image on Twitter that depicted the prime minister as a clown, is to appear in two different courts next week to face potential charges of violating the country's internet law.
Fahmi has been summoned to separate courts on Monday and next Friday, where he may be charged under the Communication and Multimedia 1998 Act over allegations of improperly using network facilities and services to post satirical posters of Prime Minister Najib Razak and other Malaysian officials and institutions on his Facebook and Instagram accounts.
Fahmi was issued a warrant at the Dang Wangi district police station in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.
"I believe that in a country where artists, designers, cartoonists and satirists have been censored, arrested and charged in court for their art, it is important that this vital form of artistic expression – parody and satire as a form of political protest – is continued to be practiced and to be defended at all costs," Fahmi told BenarNews.
Fahmi, 38, has been lampooning a string of such arrests cited under the act, which he calls the #AktaSakitHati (#HurtMyFeelingsAct).
The first potential charge against him says he intentionally used his Instagram account to post his clown-face depiction of Najib on Jan. 31 with the intent of offending others.
The post, whose caption reads, "In 2015, the Sedition Act was used 91 times. But in a country full of corruption, we are all seditious," caused a stir on Twitter.
In a second potential charge, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission claims that Fahmi intentionally posted a parody of an MCMC notice featuring a similarly altered photo of Najib, on his Facebook page on Feb. 8.
Fahmi said he did nothing wrong and only exercised his right to free speech.
He is scheduled to appear to answer the first charge on Monday at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court and on June 10 for the other charge at the Ipoh Sessions Court in the state of Perak.
If convicted, Fahmi faces up to two years in prison, or a 50,000 ringgit (U.S. $12,178) fine, or both for each charge.
Zunar's trial approaches
The possible case against Fahmi comes as another Malaysian satirist, political cartoonist Zunar, nears the start of his trial on nine counts of sedition.
Zunar, whose real name is Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque, is known for his biting cartoons that lampoon Najib and highlight themes such as corruption.
The co-recipient of the 2016 International Editorial Cartoons Prize is scheduled to stand trial on July 14, and he could be sentenced to more than four decades in prison if convicted on all nine counts under Malaysia's Sedition Act.
Zunar has been jailed twice – for two days in September 2010 and for three days in February 2015. Five of his books have been banned and his office in Kuala Lumpur has been raided. Printers have been warned to not publish any of his cartoon books.
The latest charges against him stem from tweets he had sent that criticized the 2014 jailing of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on sodomy charges.


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BENARNEWS- A Briton who sexually abused Malaysian infants and children while volunteering in impoverished Christian communities in Kuala Lumpur over an eight-year period on Monday was sentenced in London to 22 concurrent life sentences, reports said.
Judge Peter Rook of the Central Criminal Court ordered Richard Huckle to serve a minimum of 25 years after the defendant pleaded guilty to 71 counts of child-sex offenses involving victims aged between 6 months and 12 years, Agence France-Presse reported.
Huckle, 30, who is believed to have abused up to 200 children, admitted to committing 71 offenses against 23 girls and boys from 2006 to 2014, AFP said.
The sentence handed to Huckle was too lenient, suggested Malek Ahmad, an official with Malaysian NGO Yayasan Amir.
"I just feel it is not equivalent to what he has done to the poor kids," he told BenarNews. "But it is a lesson to all Malaysian NGOs and other related agencies. We need to quickly establish some sort of a guideline for social workers handling kids."
Huckle took advantage of a lack of such proper safeguards in Malaysia, and as a result "23 children in Malaysia and Cambodia are scarred forever," Malek said.
Did Huckle commit other crimes?
According to Malaysian officials, most of Huckle's 22 victims were from impoverished Christian communities in Kuala Lumpur, where he had worked as an English teacher and Christian charity worker, and that the 23rd victim was Cambodian.
Kuala Lumpur Police Chief Amar Singh said officers had identified two locations in the Malaysian capital that Huckle frequented during visits to the country from 2005 to 2014.
Huckle was arrested by British police at London's Gatwick Airport in December 2014, as he was returning home from Southeast Asia to celebrate Christmas with his family.
"Statements were taken from locals in the area were also taken. We are also tracking down people who know him for information on his activities in finding these victims," Amar told BenarNews.
Police were also investigating whether Huckle may have committed other crimes against minors in other states that he visited during his trips to Malaysia, including Negari, Sembilan and Perak, Amar said.
Ong Chin Lan, the assistant head of the Royal Malaysia Police division that investigates sex-based crimes against children and women, on Friday told the state news agency Bernama that police had requested information about Huckle from Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA).
"The victims have not been identified and the NCA only informed us about the incident about one month ago," she said, adding that no information about victims had been released because the case had not been adjudicated in Malaysia.
"We have asked for the information repeatedly and will continue to press them for more information for follow-up action," she added.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development last week set up a hotline for Malaysians to report information on Huckle.
The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia called for immediate action to pass robust and specific national laws to protect children from all forms of sexual violence, according to Bernama.
[https://www]A handout picture released by Britain's National Crime Agency shows Richard Huckle in custody. [AFP/National Crime Agency]
'Deeply remorseful'
Huckle's sentencing was expected on Friday but the judge at London's Old Bailey pushed the date back to Monday in order to consider mitigating factors submitted by his lawyers.
That day they read out a statement from Huckle in which he confessed to "the true scale of damage" his acts had created in the Malaysian community.
"I had hoped to escape this mundane life of solitude in the U.K., yet was overwhelmed by the attention I received in Malaysia. I completely misjudged the affections I received from these children. My low self-esteem and lack of confidence with women was no excuse for me to use these children as an outlet," his statement read, according to news reports.
"I am deeply remorseful and regretful of what had happened and will do all I can in being proactive towards rehabilitating myself," Huckle added.
British investigators pointed to a 60-page manual written by Huckle and which was titled "Pedophiles and Poverty: Child Love Guide." The manual explained how to select deprived children and avoid detection by authorities.
Investigators found the document encrypted on Huckle's laptop


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BENARNEWS- Southeast Asia is facing a "gathering storm" of terrorism as the Islamic State militant group has recruited sympathizers at a much faster pace than terror mastermind Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, a regional security conference was warned at the weekend.
The warning from Singapore at the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual regional security forum hosted by the island state, was followed by a call from Malaysia for a comprehensive plan to defeat IS involving greater cooperation of all parties, including but not limited to the military.
"Destroying it could very well be the greatest challenge of our generation," Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told the meeting – Asia's biggest security summit – attended by defense ministers and military chiefs from 28 Asia-Pacific countries.
Singapore's Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen told the conference that in the past three years alone, IS has recruited more sympathizers and operatives in Southeast Asia than al-Qaeda did in the last decade, with more than 1,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria.
"Terrorists have capitalized on existing smuggling routes to move people and arms in the region that include Southern Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. This gathering storm has the real potential to destabilize this region, if not tackled decisively and together," he said.
Some of the militants transit through Singapore in the hope of eluding authorities by taking multiple hops to their final destinations in the Middle East, he said.
Just three months ago, he said Singapore caught four Indonesian travelers linked to IS while they were on the island and handed them back to Indonesia's counter-terrorism police.
Also in November last year, two other Indonesian men who planned to travel to Syria were held, he said.
Allegiances
Ng called for security forces, including militaries of individual countries, to combat terrorism "rigorously."
"The threat will grow if terrorist groups become more organized to mount sophisticated, large-scale attacks with deadlier weapons," he said. "Collectively, we must work closely together to build up joint responses, and strengthen intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance efforts."
About 30 terrorist groups in the region have publicly pledged allegiance to IS, including Abu Sayyaf in Southern Philippines and Jamaah Ansharud Daulah (JAD), which conducted the Jakarta bombing with IS funding.
In Malaysia, 14 suspected IS militants were recently arrested during a four-day operation across five states. Several personnel from the Malaysian Armed Forces, including two commandos, have also been found to have links with the group.
Hishammuddin cautioned that countries combating terrorism should realize that IS was not the usual terrorist group they had been used to dealing with.
"DAESH is not al-Qaeda," he said, using an Arabic acronym for IS. "They differ in their goals but are partly rooted in their histories."
Hishammuddin said that terror organizations like al-Qaeda had only hundreds of active cells, could not directly confront military forces, preyed on civilians and most importantly, did not claim control of territories.
"On the other hand, DAESH asserts control over vast amounts of oil-rich land which has allowed the group to build a self-sustaining financial model, unthinkable for most terrorist groups," he said.
At present, IS boasted more than 31,000 fighters with extensive military capabilities engaging in sophisticated operations while controlling lines of vital communication and commanding infrastructure, he said.
"This is why conventional counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency strategies have not and will never work against DAESH," the Malaysian minister said.
"We need to agree on a comprehensive plan to defeat DAESH – and the plan needs to involve greater cooperation of all parties including, but not limited to the military," he said. "Destroying it could very well be the greatest challenge of our generation."
Rivalries
In a report released at the conference, organized by British think tank the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the Singaporean government, IISS said there were growing fears of jihadist violence in Indonesia since IS's January 2016 deadly attack in Jakarta.
Analysts believe that further attacks could be driven by competition between pro-IS groups in the country or between Indonesian IS factions based in Syria, according to the "Asia-Pacific Regional Security Assessment 2016: Key Developments and Trends."
"It is also possible that a rivalry will develop between jihadists in Indonesia and those in the southern Philippines, who may seek to curry favor with the central leadership in Syria and to showcase their territory as the potential site of an ISIS wilayat (province) in Southeast Asia," the report said.
It also raised the possibility of IS attacks in Malaysia.
"Activity by Malaysian jihadists has also increased steadily, resulting in speculation that they will soon stage an attack there," it said.
This concern, it said, prompted the Australian, New Zealand and British governments to issue travel warnings in February 2016, naming Kuala Lumpur and the east Malaysian state of Sabah as high-risk areas.


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BENARNEWS- Four Malaysian sailors taken hostage by Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) militants two months ago have been freed, news reports quoted Philippine and Malaysian officials as saying Wednesday.
The Malaysians who were abducted from their ship as it sailed near southern Philippine waters on April 1, were released Wednesday morning, Philippine military spokesman Maj. Filemon Tan said according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
He identified the Malaysians as brothers Wong Teck Kang, 31, and Wong Teck Chii, 29, their cousin Johnny Lau Jung Hien, 21, and Wong Hung Sing, 34, who is not related.
In Malaysia, Deputy Inspector General of Police Noor Rashid Ibrahim confirmed that the four had been released from captivity at the hands of the southern Philippine-based Islamic militant group, and told the New Straits Times newspaper that the sailors were OK.
After their release, the sailors were taken to the coast of the southern Philippine province of Sulu, where they boarded a speedboat to Sandakan, in the nearby eastern Malaysian state of Sabah, AFP quoted Tan as saying in a statement.
"Information received from ground units disclosed that the freed victims arrived in Sandakan at about 6 a.m. today," Tan said, adding he could not confirm if a ransom had been paid.
Previous reports claimed that Abu Sayyaf had demanded 18 million ringgit (U.S. $4.46 million) for their release.
Reports from Jolo, in the southern Philippines, indicated that Malaysian and Filipino negotiators managed to secure their release after several rounds of negotiations.
Family member contacted
According to The Star newspaper in Malaysia, an unnamed relative of two of the sailors confirmed that all four were free.
"I was told that the four of them are in good health. Their family members are now in Sandakan waiting to receive them," the relative said.
The Star reported that the four arrived in Sandakan on Wednesday morning after being released late Tuesday by Abu Sayyaf, whose leaders have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) extremist group.
The four were taken hostage from their tugboat while it sailed to Sarawak, a state that borders Sabah on the island of Borneo, from Manila. Five other crew members on the Malaysian-registered timber-hauling barge – three sailors from Myanmar and two from Indonesia – were left behind.
The April 1 hijacking occurred a week after Abu Sayyaf abducted 10 Indonesian sailors in waters of the southernmost region of the Philippines that borders Sabah. The Indonesians were released on May 1, but Indonesian officials did not comment on whether a ransom had been paid.
Abu Sayyaf: a history of executing hostages
In the case of the abduction of the four Malaysian sailors, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak ordered government agencies to step up efforts to secure their safe release. Najib personally assured family members that the sailors would return home safely.
In November, Abu Sayyaf beheaded Bernard Then, a Malaysian citizen who had been abducted from a seaside restaurant in Sabah in May 2015.
While the four Malaysian sailors were being held hostage, Abu Sayyaf beheaded Canadian hostage John Ridsdel on April 25, five hours after a ransom deadline had passed.
Ridsdel, 68, a former mining executive, was kidnapped along with countryman Robert Hall, 50, Norwegian Kjartan Sakkingstad, 56, and his Filipino girlfriend, Maritess Flor, 40, from a resort on Samal Island, in the Philippine province of Davao, in September.
Two weeks earlier, Abu Sayyaf had threatened to behead one of the captives if a ransom of 1 million ringgit (U.S. $6.2 million) for each person was not paid.
In its latest ultimatum, the group gave the Philippine and Canadian governments and families of the captives until 3 p.m. on June 13 to pay the ransoms.


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