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BENARNEWS- Defense lawyers highlighted a political motive Wednesday in the murder of Kim Jong Nam as they began linking a North Korean embassy official to the Kuala Lumpur airport killing that stunned the world.
The attorneys unfurled their courtroom strategy after the police's lead investigator on the case told the court during cross-examination that three men wanted in the killing were driven to the airport in a minivan bought by the embassy official.
"We are saying from here that this is not a simple murder. There are a lot of political connotations," Defense attorney Gooi Soon Seng told reporters at the end of the 14th day of trial of two Southeast Asian women accused of murdering Kim.
"All the people involved were North Koreans and the North Korean embassy was not cooperative in helping the police."
Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong are standing trial on charges that they conspired with four North Korean men, who fled the country after the killing, to assassinate the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at a Kuala Lumpur area airport on Feb. 13.
The defense aims to prove that although the North Korean men were not embassy officials, they were "connected in one way or another" with the diplomat, the lawyer said.
"In this case, the motive appears to be more political than anything else and we are moving towards that direction. And our clients, the girls, would not have any political motive whatsoever," said Gooi, who represents the Indonesian defendant.
Prosecutors have accused the two women of accosting the victim at the departure terminal at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 and smearing the banned nerve agent VX on Kim Jong Nam's face as he was preparing to board a flight to Macau.
Both have pleaded not guilty, saying they were tricked by the four men into attacking Kim Jong Nam and were made to believe they were being paid to perform a prank for a reality TV show.
The two, who were arrested days after the killing, face the death penalty, if convicted.
Embassy official bought minivan
Airport surveillance videos played in court on Wednesday showed three of the North Korean fugitives arrive at the airport in the minivan, which was registered to a North Korean suspect named Ri Jong Chol.
But Ri Jong told investigators that the vehicle had been bought in his name by a North Korean embassy official named Chel Su, lead case investigator Wan Azirul Nizam Che Wan Aziz testified Wednesday.
"Ri Jong, in his statement, said his name was only used to buy the minivan and he was there when it was bought but had never used it," Wan Azirul said.
This prompted Gooi to ask Wan Azirul who were the people who had used Ri Jong Chol's name to buy the minivan.
"People from the North Korean embassy," Wan Azirul replied.
Ri Jong was arrested four days after the airport killing but was later released due to insufficient evidence. He was deported soon after for not having valid travel documents.
Wan Azirul also said he had recorded statements from Hyon Kwang Song, the second secretary at the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur, and Kim Uk Il, the country manager for North Korea's national carrier, Air Koryo, at the embassy on March 26. He did not elaborate.
Closed-circuit television footage showed the diplomat, as well as the airline manager, helping the four North Korean suspects at the airport's check-in within an hour of Kim's murder.
Wan Azirul testified that he had made requests to the North Korea embassy for permission to interview Chel Su and Ri Ji U, a 30-year-old North Korean also known as James, but did not receive an answer.
The murder caused a fierce diplomatic feud between Malaysia and North Korea. But Kuala Lumpur eventually agreed to send Kim's body to Pyongyang in exchange for nine Malaysians trapped there by an exit ban.
South Korea's spy agency has claimed the attack was part of a plot by Kim Jong Un to kill a brother he reportedly never met, but North Korea has denied the allegations.
Kim Jong Nam, the eldest son of the late leader Kim Jong Il, had spoken out publicly against his family's dynastic rule.


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BENARNEWS- A Malaysian defense lawyer on Thursday bolstered his courtroom argument that the murder of Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korea's dictator, was politically motivated and therefore nothing short of an assassination.
Gooi Soon Seng, an attorney representing one of two Southeast Asian women charged in the case, emphasized a political link to it a day after focusing on the possible involvement of North Korean embassy officials in the Cold War-style murder at a Kuala Lumpur airport on Feb. 13.
"The evidence points to the fact that there is every reason to believe that this is a political assassination because the people who were the main suspects, who changed their clothes and ran away the same day, left the country on the same day," Gooi told reporters Thursday, at the end of the trial's 15th day.
Gooi's client, Indonesian Siti Aisyah, 25, and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, 28, are standing trial on charges of conspiring in the murder with four North Korean men who fled the country on the day of the killing at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2.
As he tried to expose weaknesses in the police probe, Gooi on Thursday pressed lead case investigator Wan Azirul Nizam Che Wan Aziz with questions during cross-examination over what he described as a lack of effort by authorities to compel a key witness to testify.
Gooi identified the missing witness as Ri Jong Chol, a North Korean IT expert and chemist. His rented condominium was raided by police on suspicion that it was turned into a clandestine laboratory for making the nerve agent that killed Kim Jong Nam.
Ri Jong, who was remanded to police custody for about two weeks soon after the murder, was deported to Pyongyang on March 3 after officials said they lacked evidence to press charges against him.
Gooi questioned why police did not seize Ri Jong's clothing or take nail clippings for chemical analysis.
"If they have done a proper investigation, we would have found that there will be evidence to connect him [Ri Jong Chol] with the four people who escaped, who are the main culprits," Gooi told reporters after the hearing.
On Wednesday, defense attorneys also began linking Pyongyang to the killing after the lead case investigator told the court that three men wanted in the killing were driven to the airport in a minivan bought by a North Korean embassy official.
Gooi stressed that the killing was politically motivated as there was no evidence showing that the female defendants had any motive.
"In every murder there must be a motive. Kim Jong Nam was carrying thousands of U.S. dollars, but the money was not taken," Gooi said. "Was it revenge? Was it jealousy? There is no evidence to show that."
Earlier in the trial, Wan Azirul said investigators found $100,000 in a backpack the victim carried when he was attacked at the airport.
Both women have pleaded not guilty and have argued they thought they were taking part in a prank for a reality TV show. They are accused of accosting Kim and smearing a deadly chemical, VX nerve agent, on his face at the airport's departure terminal.
The two face the death penalty if convicted.
Confiscated money not sent out for chemical analysis
During his cross-examination Thursday morning, Wan Azirul said police seized a bottle of chloride, two gloves, a toothbrush, cellphones, computers and U.S. $38,000 in cash when law-enforcement officers raided Ri Jong Chol's condo.
But when defense lawyers asked if he had requested assistance from the government's Chemistry Department to detect the presence of VX in the condo, Wan Azirul said no. The confiscated items, except for the money, were sent to the department for analysis.
Wan Azirul also testified that he did not seize Ri Jong Chol's clothes or take samples of the North Korean's nail clippings because he "felt that it was not necessary" at that time.
Wan Azirul said he had interviewed Ri Jong Chol only once before he was deported to North Korea. He said he did not apply for a subpoena requiring the North Korean to take the witness stand as he did not receive that order from his superiors.
North Korean officials have denied allegations of involvement in the airport killing.
Hadi Azmi in Shah Alam contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's tourism minister on Thursday warned hotels that allegedly ban women from wearing hijabs while working the front desk to immediately drop the policy, which has caused an uproar.
The matter came to light after the Union Network International-Malaysia Labor Center (UNI-MLC) earlier this month revealed it had received complaints from female hotel employees who said they had been prohibited from wearing headscarves while manning the front desk.
According to UNI-MLC, students in hospitality and tourism courses had also been told to remove their hijabs during internships or face not being hired after finishing.
"To any hotels that made these conditions, they should revoke them or face action by us," Tourism Minister Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz told journalists.
The policy, Nazri said, affects workers from other faiths as well.
"This is not just about Muslims. The Punjabis and Sikhs wear turbans. This is unconstitutional," he said.
Malaysia is home to about 19.5 million Muslims, who make up approximately 60 percent of the country's 32 million people. Buddhists, Hindus and Christians account for most of the rest.
On Wednesday, Malaysian Housing, Local Government and Urban Well-being Minister Noh Omar ordered local councils to take action against hotel operators who bar their Muslim staff from wearing headscarves.
"I am ordering all local authorities responsible for issuing such hotel licenses, if the complaints received are true, I recommend they withdraw licenses issued," he said, adding hotel licenses come under the jurisdiction of local councils.
'What matters to them is good treatment'
Days earlier, in response to UNI-MLC's statement, Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) president Samuel Cheah Swee Hee was quoted in local media saying the ban had been in place for a long time.
"This policy is practiced in international hotel chains that use the same standard operating procedure (SOP) on uniforms in all hotels in their chain, globally.
"The problem is, everyone wants to join the five-star global hotel brand, but they do not want to follow the uniform policy that is their worldwide standard," he said, according to The Star.
Cheah urged Muslim employees who wish to wear hijabs to consider not working at the front desk or work at a hotel that allows the headscarf as part of its uniform.
A hotelier at an international hotel in Kuala Lumpur who asked to remain anonymous condemned Cheah's statement.
"What a statement from Cheah Swee Hee, there's no such thing. As far we know, a hijab ban is not a part of international SOP that hotels should be concerned with," she told BenarNews on Wednesday.
Wan Salim Mohd Noor, the mufti or chief Islamic scholar for the state of Penang, said most hotel guests do not care if an employee wears a hijab.
"What matters to them is good treatment from those on duty. We urge hotel management to be more rational and not discriminate workers based on their attire. What should be taken into account is their capability to do their work well," he told BenarNews.
Lawyers for Liberty Executive Director Eric Paulsen said the ban was discriminatory, and dress code by hotel chains should not be overly restrictive.
"Turban, tudung [hijab] and other forms of reasonable dress sense should be allowed. Of course, the hotel still has a right to maintain an overall policy on how their staff should look and dress, but the restrictions should be reasonable," he said.
Fairuz Mazlan in Penang and Hadi Azmi contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Friday visited his political archrival, jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim who is recovering from surgery, in an unlikely stopover ahead of a general election expected to take place by mid-May 2018.
Anwar, 70, who is serving a five-year prison term after being convicted of a sodomy charge three years ago, is recuperating after undergoing a surgery on his right shoulder last Sunday.
"I visited Anwar Ibrahim at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital today. ... May he recover soon," Najib said on his Facebook page and Twitter account.
His comment was accompanied by a photo showing Najib, his wife, Rosmah Mansor, Anwar and his wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.
Anwar was sentenced to five years in prison in 2014 after the Court of Appeal reversed a High Court decision and found him guilty of sodomizing a former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, in 2008. Anwar has denied the charges, describing them as politically motivated.
This is Anwar's second sodomy conviction. He was arrested, convicted and jailed on sodomy and corruption charges in 1998. The sodomy conviction charge was overturned in 2004, but the corruption conviction stood.
Following the court action, he claimed he was framed by the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the party that leads Malaysia's ruling bloc.
Malaysian government officials and UMNO leaders have denied framing Anwar, who was imprisoned for abuse of power in 1999 when Mahathir Mohamad was prime minister.
Mahathir and Anwar apparently ironed out their differences and agreed to form an opposition alliance called Pakatan Harapan (The Pact of Hope) with Anwar as its de facto leader.
Son issues statement
Anwar's son, Muhamad Ihsan Anwar, issued a statement Friday, thanking Najib for his hospital visit, but emphasized that his father was injured during an accident while under government custody last month and his condition "worsened from imprisonment."
Muhamad Ihsan was referring to an incident that occurred while Anwar was being transported to prison after receiving treatment at the hospital.
Najib's hospital visit comes five days after Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told a political gathering that the country's general election will take place in six months.
"The elections will take place no later than 180 days from now," he said. "Those who say that the elections will take place later than that are out of touch with reality."


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BENARNEWS- The trial of two Southeast Asian women charged with murdering the half-brother of North Korea's dictator at a Malaysian airport could last well into 2018, according to a lawyer for one of the defendants.
Since the trial of Indonesian Siti Aisyah, 25, and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, 28, opened in early October, the prosecution has called 18 witnesses who have testified over 19 days of hearings. Prosecutors say they might call at least another 20 people to testify during nearly a dozen more days of courtroom sessions, which the judge has set for January, February and March.
And then defense lawyers will present their case if Judge Azmi Ariffin decides the prosecution has built a solid case against the defendants, according to Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, a lawyer representing Doan. The judge could decide to acquit the women if he determines the prosecution has not met its burden.
"It may drag into the middle of next year as the prosecution will do its submission and we will present our case," Hisyam told BenarNews. "Then the judge will have to make a decision and it will take some time for him to do that."
The two women stand accused of conspiring with four North Korean men, who later fled the country, in the Feb. 13 murder of Kim Jong Nam at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2.
Government officials from Malaysia, South Korea and the United States have accused agents from the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un of being behind the attack where his estranged half-brother was poisoned to death with a banned nerve agent, according to Malaysian police.
On Monday in Washington, U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to allude to Kim Jong Nam's murder when he announced the United States was "designating North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism."
"In addition to threatening the world by nuclear devastation, North Korea has repeatedly supported acts of international terrorism, including assassinations on foreign soil," Trump said before a cabinet meeting, adding that the designation would lead to "further sanctions and penalties on North Korea and related persons," according to a transcript from the White House.
In early November, U.S. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster accused Kim Jong Un of being behind his brother's murder in Malaysia and warned that this "act of terrorism" could result in North Korea being re-listed by the United States as a state sponsor of terrorism.
Who murdered KJN?
The trial in Malaysia is scheduled to resume on Nov. 27.
Prosecutor Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin said the focus of his case was to prove who murdered Kim Jong Nam instead of "looking for something that is not there."
"The prosecution case is so far, so good. We are putting pressure on the defense and we are still waiting for them to disclose their defense," he told BenarNews.
Wan Shaharuddin also responded to questions about how, through cross-examination, the defense team had attacked testimony given by a key witness for the prosecution, Wan Azirul Nizam Che Wan Aziz, who led the police's investigation into the murder.
"The conduct of the investigation, for us, is not that important. We are focusing on who murdered KJN, who had caused the death. Besides, there is no single case where the investigation is perfectly done," he said. "We don't look for something that is not there."
Once the prosecution rests its case, the judge could determine there is no case against the two women, meaning he could order them freed. If not, the defense could spend another few months presenting its case and calling witnesses to the stand, Hisyam said.
The women, who face the death penalty if convicted, pleaded not guilty and have claimed they thought that they were taking part in a prank for a reality TV show. They are accused of accosting Kim and smearing the deadly VX nerve agent on his face at the airport's departure terminal.
"The real culprits were the four North Korean named in the court. My client and Mr Gooi's client were the scapegoats," Hisyam said.
He added that prosecutors have done their best to put Siti Aisyah and Doan at the scene of the crime by providing closed-circuit television footage and by proving that VX was used to kill Kim Jong Nam.
"But it was all circumstantial evidence. By virtue they were trying to put the murder on both the accused with all this evidence. It's the best evidence they have," Hisyam said.
Prosecutors have to prove that the women knew that the liquid on their hands was toxic and that they intended to kill Kim Jong Nam, he added.
"In the earlier trial session, I asked the chemical weapon expert about it," the defense lawyer said. "That if someone who has no knowledge of VX, has a liquid put on his or her hand, it has no smell or taste, would he or she know it was VX?"
"The answer was no."
Fadzil Aziz in Shah Alam, Malaysia, contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Australia along with Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations have formed a new group to disrupt funding sources for Islamic State (IS) and other terror groups operating in the region, Australian Justice Minister Michael Keenan said Wednesday.
He made the announcement during the Counter-Terrorism Financing (CTF) Summit in Kuala Lumpur, three days after Thailand hosted a parade of Southeast Asia's naval firepower in an event that also included bilateral meetings on regional security threats.
Keenan said the new alliance – the South East Asia Counter Terrorism Financing Working Group – would directly target and disrupt the funding lifeline of terrorist groups, including IS.
"The stability and security of South East Asia is of critical importance to Australia, and the Coalition Government is committed to defeating the threat posed by terrorist groups," he said.
The new group, which representatives from across the region have endorsed, will be co-led by Australia's financial intelligence agency and regulator, Austrac, and the Philippine Anti-Money Laundering Council, Keenan said in a news release.
Other members will include the financial intelligence units from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the new grouping will get support from a $4.6-million package, which the Australian government will fund over a three-year span, he said.
"Intelligence generated through this initiative will ... harden our financial system from the threat of terrorism financing," said Kennan, who also holds the ministerial rank as Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's adviser on counter-terrorism.
35 countries
The four-day summit, which began Monday, is aimed at sharing insights on the latest counter-terrorism strategies. More than 350 specialists from 35 countries and international groups are attending it, organizers said.
Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told summit participants that Kuala Lumpur would monitor all transactions suspected of providing financial lifeline to terrorist organizations.
"If you kill one terrorist, another terrorist will be born," he said. "But if you cut off the funds and other economic resources, you can put an end to the entire operation."
Muhammad Ibrahim, the governor of Malaysia's central bank, told the conference that his country had begun working on a structure to regulate and secure transactions involving digital currencies such as bitcoin from money-laundering and terrorism financing, according to Reuters.
The number of suspicious transaction reports (STRs) from financial institutions had increased this year in relation to terrorism financing, he said. In the first half of 2017, Malaysian authorities had received 346 STRs related to terrorism, which led to 34 disclosures to law enforcement agencies, compared with 93 reports in 2015, Reuters quoted the bank's governor as saying.
Indonesia's security affairs minister, Gen. Wiranto, was also at the meeting. Jakarta was monitoring every organization in the country, and it would be impossible for sympathizers of terrorists to provide suspicious funding without being traced, he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.
Show of force
Earlier this week, more than 40 modern ships, including 26 from the Southeast Asian region, went on display for the International Fleet Review southeast of Bangkok. During related events leading up to the fleet review and spread out over 10 days, naval commanders held bilateral meetings and discussed regional security threats.
The display of naval firepower took place a month after Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines launched trilateral air patrols to bolster a three-month-old joint maritime effort to rid their shared borders of threats from extremists linked to the so-called Islamic State.
The increased concerns over regional security threats were an offshoot of the five-month battle against IS-backed militants in the southern Philippines city of Marawi, during which 930 militants, 165 soldiers and policemen and 47 civilians were killed.


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BENARNEWS- The terror group Islamic State (IS) has named six Southeast Asian countries as part of its "East Asia wilayah" or region, Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told senior defense officials from 40 Muslim-majority nations in Riyadh.
Hishammuddin spoke Sunday during the kick-off meeting of the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition (IMCTC), an alliance of Sunni-dominated governments that claimed to be launching a four-pronged strategy to tackle terrorism "at its deepest roots."
"Their self-declared caliphate spans Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Southern Thailand and Myanmar as they continue to lose territory in Iraq and Syria," Hishammuddin said, according to a transcript of his speech received by BenarNews on Monday.
"Make no mistake, this development will not hamper our efforts, we will fight them on all fronts," he said.
Hishammuddin said members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) had been closely monitoring the movements of IS and other terrorist groups in the region.
"Malaysia is aware that there is a widespread belief here that Iran has contributed to the instability in the region," he said, without elaborating.
IS militants are now fighting from a small stretch of land inside Syria and the desert regions along the Iraq-Syria border, according to reports.
Two years ago, Hishammuddin said, he "consciously persuaded and convinced all 10 ASEAN Defense Ministers to jointly declare our strong condemnation" against IS.
"However, my fellow colleagues, it seems our biggest fear have become a reality," he said. "It pains me to say that this threat has now reached our shores in Southeast Asia."
Hishammuddin's remarks were a rare public acknowledgement by a senior official of warnings already voiced by security experts about IS's Asian ambitions.
In June, Jasminder Singh, a senior analyst at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, flagged the same six countries and Japan as nations that had been pinpointed by IS as part of its East Asia region.
"For foreign fighters coming into the region, this gives them an idea of what they will be in for, and what the targets are," Singh told the Straits Times, a Singaporean news outlet.
'Harrowing'
Hishammuddin noted a meeting last week between Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who agreed to increase the number of security posts along their shared border.
The two nations, he said, had been involved in trilateral patrols with the Philippines as part of a months-old effort to rid the waters between their countries of threats from pro-IS extremists.
Hishammuddin said the landmark regional collaboration was needed after the Philippines had declared in late October an end to a "harrowing" five-month battle with IS-linked militants in the southern city of Marawi, during which 930 militants and 165 soldiers were killed.
"I believe one thing we can all agree on today is that we have a common enemy, and this has united us in more ways than one," Hishammuddin said.
Neither Indonesia nor the Philippines are part of the IMCTC coalition, according to the coalition's website.
The group's first meeting, which came in the wake of a terror attack that killed more than 300 people in Egypt on Friday, resolved to stomp out terrorism by combating its ideology, communications and financing, as well as through military efforts.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian police questioned a satirical cartoonist Wednesday over a caricature mocking the alleged use of public funds to help the country's scandal-scarred sovereign wealth fund settle its debts, and a court upheld a government ban preventing him from traveling abroad.
Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque, a BenarNews contributing illustrator known by his pen name Zunar, said police had also seized his cell phone when authorities investigated him about his illustration related to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) fund.
Zunar said he was questioned for about an hour at Bukit Aman, headquarters of the Malaysian Police in Kuala Lumpur. His lawyer, Farhanna Roslan, accompanied him during questioning.
"I refused to answer any questions raised by the investigating officer," Zunar told BenarNews. "The investigation is a form of intimidation against me."
On the same day, he said, a Kuala Lumpur High Court also upheld a travel ban against him. Zunar, who has been barred from leaving Malaysia since 2016, sought a judicial review from the Kuala Lumpur High Court but it dismissed his petition, he said, adding that he would file an appeal.
Chicky banks
Zunar uploaded the cartoon on his Facebook page three months ago. It features five chickens drawn to look like broken piggy banks and labeled as government-linked companies and public funds.
He said the investigating officer explained he was being questioned under Section 233 of the Communication and Multimedia Act, which involves "improper use of network facilities that create obscene, indecent, false, menacing and offensive characters with intent to annoy abuse, threaten or harass another person."
A person found guilty of violating that law could be fined 50,000 ringgit (about U.S. $12,200), punished by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both.
Zunar said the investigator asked him how he had uploaded his illustration on Facebook and prodded him to describe the characters in the cartoon.
Zunar is known for skewering government officials, especially Prime Minister Najib Razak, in his drawings.
He filed a lawsuit in August this year against Malaysian government and police officials, claiming that his arrest and confiscation of books and T-shirts at a fundraising event in Kuala Lumpur last year were illegal.
Days before Zunar's arrest at the Dec. 17 "Tea with Zunar," the then Police Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar said the illustrator should refrain from drawing cartoons that insult people or inspire hatred toward the country's leaders, according to the Sun Daily, a Malaysian newspaper.
Facing multiple charges
Zunar is also facing nine charges of sedition stemming from messages he posted on Twitter criticizing the country's judiciary conviction of de facto opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim in a sodomy case in February 2015. If convicted on all charges, the cartoonist could be sentenced to up to 43 years in jail.
Malaysia's Home Ministry banned 11 of Zunar's books, including "Sapuman: Man of Steal" – a word play on "Superman, Man of Steel" – for allegedly breaching the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984. The book satirizes Najib's alleged involvement with the 1MDB scandal.
The prime minister has denied the allegations against him. During a visit to Washington DC in September, he accused his political opponents of exaggerating the 1MDB problems and even of sabotaging it as part of a failed attempt to topple his government.
Najib, who founded 1MDB, has been implicated because nearly $700 million of money linked to 1MDB was deposited into his private banks accounts in 2013. He has denied any criminal wrong doing, saying this money was donated by the Saudi royal family and not used for his personal gain.
In April, a court awarded Zunar 18,000 ringgit (U.S. $4,060) in damages for his lawsuit against the government over its seizure of 66 copies of his books and artwork in September 2010.
But on Wednesday, Judge Azizah Nawawi ruled that the judicial review filed by Zunar seeking to overturn his travel ban had no merit.
"The issue posed did not arise from the substantive application and the application was without merit," the judge said. Zunar was ordered to pay court costs of 5,000 (U.S. $1,200).
Zunar reacted to the decision with humor.
"I'm the only cartoonist in the world being banned from leaving the country," he said.
An earlier version incorrectly spelled the last name of Zunar's attorney. This update also corrects the title of former Police Inspector General Khalid Abu Bakar.


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BENARNEWS- With a general election looming, a Malaysian government-commissioned inquiry is recommending that authorities investigate two opposition leaders – ex-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and his former deputy, Anwar Ibrahim – in connection with billions of dollars in central bank losses during the 1990s.

The recommendation is in a report by the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) that was made public on Thursday, days after the deputy prime minister said that the next general election would likely occur in the second half of February 2018, according to local media.

"The commission is of the opinion that the then-Minister of Finance had deliberately concealed facts and information and made misleading statements to the Cabinet," the report said, referring to Anwar, who was also finance minister when the central bank absorbed 31.5 billion ringgit (U.S. $7.7 billion) in foreign exchange losses between 1992 and 1994.

"The commission is also of the opinion that the then-Prime Minister had condoned the actions of the Minister of Finance," according to the commission's 524-page report, which did not identify Mahathir and Anwar, who is now serving a prison sentence on a sodomy conviction, by name.

The report marks the first time that Mahathir, 92, and Anwar, 70, have been formally accused of potential criminal wrongdoing in connection with those losses by the central bank, formally known as Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), more than 20 years ago.

It said that various government officials, including the prime minister and finance minister, may have committed criminal breach of trust or cheated, by carrying out speculative forex dealings and then concealing the losses.
Once bitter foes, Mahathir and Anwar recently joined forces to lead a new opposition coalition, Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope), pitting itself against Prime Minister Najib Razak and his ruling United National Malays Organization (UMNO) party, which has controlled Malaysian politics throughout the country's 60-year history.

Mahathir has been among Najib's fiercest critics, leading calls for the current PM to resign over allegations implicating him in a corruption scandal tied to the sovereign state fund 1MDB. Najib has denied any wrongdoing in the 1MDB affair.

'A political move'

The commission, a five-member panel appointed by Malaysia's king, began its inquiry four months ago into allegations of massive foreign exchange (forex) trading losses incurred by the central bank in the 1990s. Twenty-five witnesses were summoned to testify before the panel, which also gathered and examined 42 related documents.

On Oct. 13, the royal commission handed its report to the king. 

Although it was not listed on parliament's agenda Thursday, the report, printed in Bahasa Malaysia and English, was placed on tables of parliamentarians.

Malaysian opposition members reacted by crying foul on the timing of the release – the last day of parliamentary deliberations this year.

"The report was ready and was sent to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong [Malaysian king] six weeks ago, it should have been given to us much earlier," Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Anwar's wife and the current leader of his People's Justice Party (PKR), told journalists at parliament.

"Today, when we asked to debate the findings, it was rejected. This shows that whatever we have assumed before has now become true, that it is a political move over an issue that was resurrected after so many years to implicate their political opponents," Wan Azizah said.

Lim Guan Eng, the chief minister of Penang and secretary general of the opposition Democratic Action Party, said the report should be debated because it was significant.

"When I got up to ask that MPs be allowed to debate on the report, the minister said the decision would be made later," he said. 

'Completely astounded'

Azalina Othman, the law minister who is in charge of parliamentarian affairs, asked the opposition to request in writing that the report be debated in the legislature.

"He has not written us a letter, so please give me time for this. I will inform the government and reply in writing," she said, referring to Lim. 

On Thursday, a lawyer for Mahathir accused the government of an "ambush" against his client by releasing the report to parliament without adequate public notice or providing him with a copy.

Attorney Haniff Khatri said he would comment on the report after having an opportunity to read it in full.

" am completely astounded that there are references made in the Report to purported breaches of criminal law such as criminal breach of trust, when in fact the nature of the materials referred to by the RCI fell ridiculously short and [were] insufficient to reach such conclusions," the lawyer said, citing media accounts of the contents of the report.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian security forces killed a member of a faction of the Philippine militant group Abu Sayyaf during a shootout Monday in waters off Malaysia's eastern Sabah state, the local police chief said.
Abu Paliyak or Commander Paliyak (alias Yusof), 31, was shot dead when he opened fire at security forces near Lahad Datu district, Sabah Police Commissioner Ramli Din told a news conference.
Paliyak had been an informant for the Remy Group, an Abu Sayyaf splinter that was involved in kidnappings and cross-border crimes on the state's east coast, Ramli said.
"We believe Paliyak was out at sea to observe the operations and movements of our security personnel and to relay the information to kidnap-for-ransom groups," Ramli said in Lahad Datu.
The Abu Sayyaf, or Bearers of the Sword, is the most violent of Muslim rebel factions in the southern Philippines and was notorious for beheading hostages. It claimed responsibility for a ferry bombing in Manila Bay that killed more than 100 people in 2004.
The group also was blamed for a spate of kidnappings at sea in recent years, in which Malaysian and Indonesian sailors were taken hostage.
Paliyak, according to Ramli, was involved in maritime hijackings and kidnappings in waters off Sabah's Lahad Datu and Kunak towns in 2014 and 2015. With Paliyak's death, authorities believe they have solved many of those cases, Ramli said, without elaborating.
The shootout occurred when a Malaysian patrol approached Paliyak's boat after it was seen operating in a suspicious manner, police said. The suspect allegedly sped off and fired a shot at the direction of the security forces, forcing them to return fire.
Police said they had recovered a modified shotgun from Paliyak's boat.
Paliyak was part of an 11-member Remy Group, which was involved in kidnap-for-ransom activities in the southern Philippines and Sabah's east coast, Ramli said.
Philippine authorities recently detained five group members and killed four other suspects, he said, adding the last member is believed to be involved in criminal activities in the southern Philippines.
 


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BENARNEWS- A Malaysian official said Tuesday that Prime Minister Najib Razak was not involved in the 1MDB scandal, a day after the U.S. attorney general called the sovereign wealth fund "kleptocracy at its worst."
Speaking in Washington at the Global Forum on Asset Recovery, Attorney General Jeff Sessions revealed that the United States had seized or restrained $3.5 billion (14.2 billion ringgit) tied to corruption, of which, nearly half  was from Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuits connected to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
"Allegedly corrupt officials and their associates reportedly used the funds for a lavish spending spree," the top American law official said.
In Kuala Lumpur, Abdul Rahman Dahlan, the minister in the Malaysian Prime Minister's office, said Najib had no role in the 1MDB scandal.
"Well, I have been saying all the time that the civil suit has nothing to do with the prime minister," he told reporters.
The debt-laden 1MDB is the target of money-laundering investigations in at least a half-dozen countries, including the United States, Switzerland and Singapore, but no legal action has been taken in Malaysia. Najib established the fund in 2009 to promote economic development in Malaysia.
In July 2015, his name was tied to the scandal when reports emerged that nearly $700 million in 1MDB-linked money was deposited into his private bank accounts. The prime minister denied any wrongdoing, saying the money was a "personal donation" from Saudi Arabia's royal family.
Sessions' allegations
As he opened the three-day forum in Washington on recovering assets tied to corruption, Sessions pointed to huge amounts of 1MDB-tied money that were spent in the United States: $200 million (812 million ringgit) was spent on real estate in California and New York; $130 million (528 million ringgit) for artwork; $100 million (406 million ringgit) for a music company; and $265 million (1 billion ringgit) for a yacht.
The DOJ has filed a series of lawsuits, the most recent in June, seeking to seize assets valued at $1.7 billion (6.9 billion ringgit) and allegedly purchased with stolen funds.
"In total, 1MDB officials allegedly laundered more than $4.5 billion (18.2 billion ringgit) in funds through a complex web of opaque transactions and fraudulent shell companies with bank accounts in countries ranging from Switzerland and Singapore to Luxembourg and the United States," Sessions said in prepared remarks. "This is kleptocracy at its worst."
"Today, the U.S. Department of Justice is working to provide justice to the victims of this alleged scheme," he said.
Malaysian investigation
Malaysian Attorney General Apandi Ali, who had cleared Najib of wrongdoing regarding 1MDB and noted that Najib was not named in DOJ lawsuits, could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.
However, the prime minister is a person referred to in the U.S. suits as "Malaysian Official 1," according to a U.S. government source.
On Saturday, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi issued a written statement that Malaysian police had resubmitted its 1MDB investigation report to the attorney general.
"Police have carried out (additional) investigations as instructed by Apandi and have referred the investigation paper back to the Attorney General Chambers (AGC)," he said. "The police are awaiting further instructions from AGC."
Malaysian police have not assisted the U.S. investigation because it is not a criminal case.
Meanwhile, Malaysian electoral watchdog Bersih responded to Sessions' comments.
"Surprisingly, there is pin-drop silence by the prime minister, cabinet minister and the ministry of finance on the pointed allegations made by the U.S. attorney general.
"We reiterate our call to all international communities to continue to support our effort on assets recovery of the stolen 1MDB funds and for it to be returned to what is rightfully the money of every Malaysian," Bersih said in a statement.
Hata Wahari and N. Nantha in Kuala Lumpur contributed to the report.


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BENARNEWS- In a first at its annual general assembly, Malaysia's ruling UMNO party is displaying satirical cartoons, posters and other artwork that lampoon its political adversaries, but two opposition-aligned artists who face sedition charges are complaining of a double-standard.
The 26 pieces in the exhibit skewer a spectrum of opposition leaders as Malaysia gears up for a general election next year. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Najib Razak and his deputy opened the art show, "Information corridor," as part of the once-a-year assembly running through Friday at Kuala Lumpur's Putra World Trade Center.
"The works are based on current issues and have been translated to artwork. There are about two to three cartoonists, but this is only to be shown for UMNO members," a spokesperson for the exhibit, who requested anonymity, told BenarNews.
"It is the first time we are displaying such artwork at this assembly," the spokesperson said.
The United Malays National Party (UMNO) has dominated Malaysian politics throughout the country's 60-year history. This year's instalment of the assembly, which usually draws thousands of party members and supporters from across Malaysia, will be the last one before the 14th general election, which must be called by mid-2018.
The exhibit features unsigned works that make fun of opposition leaders through caricatures, including of former longtime Prime Minister and UMNO fixture Mahathir Mohamad, and Anwar Ibrahim, the jailed leader of the People's Justice Party (PKR). The two have joined forces in a new opposition bloc against the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition.
The unsigned works include ones that appear to play up racial and religious undertones in the multi-ethnic country. Some go after Lim Kit Siang, the leader of the ethnic Chinese-led Democratic Action Party, by insinuating that DAP was pulling the strings of the opposition and pitting Malay leaders like stooges to "screw" one another, as one post (pictured below) suggested.
Another work, a multimedia piece, went so far as to say that DAP and its supporters "twist the facts because they don't like Islam," the religion practiced by most of the Malay majority.

[https://www]

This photo of a poster displayed at UMNO's annual assembly shows a caricature of ex-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad (left) boxing with former Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin as Lim Kit Siang, leader of the opposition Democratic Action Party, referees and says in Malay, "Good! Malays screw Malays," Dec. 6, 2017. (N. Nantha/BenarNews)

 
Satire: 'Weapon of the powerless'
But two prominent Malaysian visual satirists, graphic artist Fahmi Reza and political cartoonist Zunar, questioned why the ruling party was allowed to get away with exhibiting such pieces when they got into trouble with the authorities for their art that skewered Najib and other UMNO leaders.
"Satire has always been the weapon of the powerless against the powerful," Fahmi, who has been charged with sedition for depicting Najib in clown face, told BenarNews as he commented on the UMNO exhibit.
"As a graphic designer I will continue to defend the art of satire and parody that I produce. Satire and parody is not a crime," he said.
Zunar, a BenarNews contributor whose real name is Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque, accused UMNO of operating on a double-standard.
"When myself and Fahmi Reza did exhibitions, you came and arrested us with sedition and multimedia laws, but are silent when UMNO does it," Zunar told BenarNews.
The cartoonist has been charged with violating the Sedition Act and has been banned from traveling abroad.
"My question is why, when I did a similar exhibition with the opposite subject in Penang, UMNO came and physically attacked me?" Zunar said, referring to an alleged attack by UMNO youth members at an exhibition in Penang state in November 2016.
The cartoonist whose 11th satirical comic book was banned by the government in October, had to call off another exhibition in Penang in July after allegedly receiving similar threats from the same group.
Despite his concern, Zunar said police should not arrest the artists who contributed to the show at UMNO's assembly.
An earlier version gave wrong information about the venue of the UMNO assembly and a photo caption inverted the name of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian internet regulators on Tuesday interviewed executives of a re-born news portal over an editorial that was deemed to have criticized Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, officials said.
Salleh Said Keruak, Malaysia's minister of information and multimedia, confirmed that The Malaysian Insight (TMI) was under investigation. Salleh did not elaborate.
"The MCMC is investigating if TMI had breached any laws since it has received a report on the matter," Salleh, who is in charge of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), a regulatory body, told reporters.
Salleh is also a high-ranking official of the country's largest political party, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), which has dominated Malaysian politics throughout the country's 60-year history. Najib is poised to run for re-election in polls expected next year.
TMI staff members said MCMC officials had questioned five executives with the website about a recent editorial that lambasted the government in connection with a foreign currency scandal dating in the 1990s that involved the country's central bank.
Late last month, a government-appointed panel, the Royal Commission of Inquiry, recommended that the opposition's top two leaders – ex-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and his former deputy, Anwar Ibrahim – be investigated along with other former government officials over billions of dollars in central bank losses during that period, when Mahathir was in power and Anwar served as his deputy.
Since 2015, Mahathir in particular has led calls for Najib to resign over corruption allegations tied to the 1MDB affair, a financial scandal that has overshadowed Malaysian politics. Najib has denied any wrongdoing in deposits into his private bank accounts of nearly U.S. $700 million in money-linked to 1Malaysia Development Berhad, a state investment fund that he founded in 2009. He has said that the cash was donated by the Saudi royal family.
The Malaysian Insight succeeded The Malaysian Insider, which had aggressively covered the 1MDB story before it ceased operating in March last year over financial difficulties. Those had arisen after the MCMC had ordered the site be blocked online for allegedly publishing content perceived by authorities to be defamatory.
The Malaysian Insider became the second news site to be blocked in the country in 2016 after the Hong Kong-based Asia Sentinel suffered a similar fate that January.
MCMC said in a statement then that it had blocked the Insider for violating section 233 of the nation's 1998 communications law, which bars obscene or offensive use of network facilities.
The probe on The Malaysian Insight came after the 10-month-old website ran the editorial headlined "A Sham of an RCI," which criticized the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) report that blamed Mahathir, Anwar and other officials from the Mahathir era for billions of dollars in foreign exchange losses. The commission's report marked the first time that Mahathir and Anwar were publically accused of potential criminality over the massive losses.
On Tuesday, MCMC officials visited TMI's offices near Kuala Lumpur and interviewed five staff members, including Chief Executive Editor Jahabar Sadiq.
A commission official declined to comment, but confirmed that the visit took place.
Editorial insulted Najib, UMNO officials say
On Saturday, during UMNO's annual assembly in Kuala Lumpur, party officials accused The Malaysian Insight of insulting Najib, the party's president, through the editorial.
"Do not let this to happen," said Nashrol Hisham Abdullah, an UMNO delegate. "If someone insults the president, we have to be angry."
Three associations of Malaysian journalists issued a joint statement on Sunday questioning the government's move to investigate the website.
The Malaysia Media Freedom Committee (WAN-IFRA), Institute of Journalists Malaysia (IoJM) and the Angry Media Movement (Geramm) said criticism of public officials was "a key part of freedom of speech" guaranteed under the country's Constitution.
The groups called on the government to open up the media space, instead of crippling the news industry with threats of criminal action.
"It is concerning that a government agency should be so quick to announce a probe against a news agency based on complaints that have not been backed by any proof of intent to 'insult' the prime minister, as alleged," they said.
Hata Wahari contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia and Indonesia were among Islamic countries that declared Wednesday they were recognizing East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine, while collectively condemning the United States for recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
At the end of an emergency meeting in Istanbul, the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) issued a communiqué calling on member-states to "impose political and economic restrictions" on countries, officials, parliaments, companies and individuals recognizing the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The document did not detail how these restrictions might take shape.
U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement last week about Jerusalem was "a clear desertion" of his administration's role as a peace broker in the region, the OIC said.
It also warned it would hold the United States responsible for any repercussions over failing to revoke the decision, as demanded by the OIC's members in the communiqué.
"The OIC calls again on those states that have not as yet recognized the State of Palestine to do so promptly such as to consolidate the foundations of the two-state solution, for justice and international legitimacy to prevail," OIC Secretary General Yousef Al-Othaimeen said, according to a news release from the inter-governmental body that represents the Muslim world.
'Today, I am delivering'
Trump reversed decades of U.S. policy by officially recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital and saying his administration would begin a process of moving the American embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The move is expected to take years.
For decades, the status of Jerusalem – home to sites holy to Islam, Judaism and Christianity – has been a major obstacle to reaching a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital, while Palestinians see East Jerusalem as their future state capital. Muslims worldwide see the Al-Aqsa mosque, which sits on Judaism's holiest site, the Temple Mount, as Islam's third-holiest site.
Trump's decision fulfilled a promise he made on the electoral campaign trail.
"I have determined that it is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel," the president said in a speech at the White House on Dec. 6. "While previous presidents have made this a major campaign promise, they failed to deliver. Today, I am delivering."
Trump said his move was not intended to tip the scale in favor of Israel and that any deal involving the future of Jerusalem would have to be negotiated by the parties.
He insisted he was not taking a position on "any final status issues, including the specific boundaries of the Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem, or the resolution of contested borders."
Najib, Jokowi speak out
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak was among leaders who addressed the meeting in Turkey.
"The decision by the U.S. is a provocation and has serious consequences on the security of the region. It has inflamed the sentiments of the Palestinians and the Muslim Ummah [community] worldwide," Najib said.
"We fear that this is a situation waiting to explode as tensions continue to escalate in the region," Najib told fellow leaders and representatives of OIC countries, noting that unrest and protests had broken out across the Muslim world – including in his country – in response to Trump's announcement last week.
He said his government condemned and "totally rejected the unilateral decision by the United States."
"Such a move undermines all efforts toward finding a comprehensive, just and durable solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict."
Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo echoed Najib's message.
"Once again, President Trump's recognition is unacceptable and must be strongly condemned," Jokowi said, according to a news release from his spokesman.
"Indonesia will accompany Palestine in its struggle. In every breath of Indonesian diplomacy, we have our side with the Palestinians," Jokowi said.  "The OIC must expressly reject the unilateral recognition. The two-state solution is the only solution with East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who supports Trump's decision, said Wednesday that he was not impressed by the OIC's communiqué, according to Agence France-Press (AFP).
"The Palestinians would do better by recognizing reality and acting in favor of peace and not extremism," Netanyahu said.
"They should recognize another fact concerning Jerusalem: It is not only the capital of Israel, but we also maintain respect in Jerusalem for the freedom of worship for all religions, and we are the ones in the Middle East who do this like no one else," he added.
Razlan Rashid in Kuala Lumpur and Zahara Tiba in Jakarta contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Southeast Asian diplomats cited the Rohingya exodus and a recent battle in the southern Philippines in urging the United Nations to adopt a resolution introduced by Malaysia to fight extremism through moderation and peaceful dialogue.
Officials said 135 nations had accepted the "moderation" resolution, but the United States and Israel were the only countries that voted against it last week at the U.N. General Assembly in New York. There were no abstentions.
The resolution, submitted by Malaysian envoy Mohd Shahrul Ikram Yaakob for adoption by the General Assembly, encourages worldwide dialogue and tolerance to fight intensifying violent extremism around the globe.
It calls upon U.N. members "to support the Global Movement of Moderates initiative as a common platform to amplify the voices of moderation over those of violent extremism as and when conducive to terrorism."
The United Nations said Washington had cast a "no" vote because the resolution "failed to distinguish" between the words "extremism" and "violent extremism."
"While the United States universally rejected the latter, (it) expressed concern that nations or individuals might construe the resolution's language to curtail freedoms of expression or belief," the U.N. said in a statement, which did not shed light on Israel's vote.
In Malaysia, Prime Minister Najib Razak welcomed the resolution's adoption as a step in efforts to stop radicalism from spreading in the majority-Muslim country of 32 million people.
"Another historic success for #Negaraku," Najib said on Twitter this week, referring to Negaraku (My Country), Malaysia's national anthem.
Najib has staunchly advocated what he called "wasatiyyah," or moderation, in his multicultural nation that supports a diversity of faiths.
Last month, while launching a website and two publications owned by the Global Movement of Moderates Foundation in Putrajaya, south of Kuala Lumpur, Najib said that moderation rejected all forms of evil, such as extremism.
During the past few years, his government has warned of an emerging domestic threat from militancy, particularly from the violent extremist group known as Islamic State (IS).
Since 2013, Malaysian authorities have arrested at least 349 people suspected of links to IS and other militant groups. The country says it has foiled nine IS-linked terror plots, but IS claimed responsibility last year for a grenade attack that injured eight people at a nightclub near Kuala Lumpur.
"We do not have to look far to realize the crucial importance of practicing moderation," Najib said. "When we see what happened in Marawi City recently, we see the deadly effects of extremism."
Marawi fighting 
In late October, the Philippine military declared an end to a five-month battle with pro-IS groups that had seized parts of the southern city, after bombing Marawi heavily. The fighting killed more than 1,200 people, flattened the once-scenic city and displaced its 200,000 residents. More than 970 militants died, the military said.
Teodoro Locsin, Jr., the Philippine ambassador to the U.N., told his fellow diplomats that the "moderation" resolution reflected Manila's road map to attain peace with Muslim rebels in the south.
He said a "peace caravan" involving religious leaders aboard a bus was traveling across the country, so officials could gather insights on creating avenues for dialogue and peace.
The caravan, which left the northern Philippines in late September, will end in Iligan City, about 38 km (24 miles) from Marawi.
"In a conflict misidentified as religious, it was important for all faiths to clarify what was religion and what was bloody ambition, what was prayer and what was rapine disguised as piety," Locsin said.
Diplomats rally for resolution
During the resolution's adoption on Dec. 8, Siti Arnyfariza Md Jaini, Brunei's U.N. ambassador, said "the rising threat of terrorism and violent extremism across the globe was a grim reminder of the need for sustained efforts to combat those phenomena."
"We must not allow the seeds of intolerance, hatred and extremism to take root," she said.
Indonesia's U.N. representative, Dian Triansyah Djani, said military measures alone would not be sufficient to combat or eliminate violent extremism.
It was critical to cultivate peace and stability, he emphasized, noting Indonesia's various national initiatives, including interfaith dialogue.
Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority nation with 262 million people, is also dealing with a threat from militant groups like IS. The country was trying to eliminate the links between extremism and poverty through the creation of jobs and a reduction of inequality, the Indonesian ambassador said.
Myanmar's U.N. ambassador, Hau Do Suan, mentioned attacks against security forces by the militant group Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) in Rakhine State that spawned a massive exodus of Rohingya Muslims into Bangladesh this year.
He rejected extremism as harmful to any diverse and tolerant society.
An estimated 655,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar's Rakhine state and crossed into Bangladesh during a military crackdown that began after deadly attacks on police outposts by Muslim militants on Aug. 25.
The U.N., the U.S. and rights groups have accused Myanmar's military of committing atrocities against the Rohingya Muslims in what officials described as "ethnic cleansing." Myanmar officials have denied the allegations.
Towards 'a more harmonious world community'
The Malaysian envoy to the U.N., Mohd Shahrul Ikram, said Malaysia had presented the resolution to urge the United Nations to declare 2019 as The International Year of Moderation.
"The obstacles that prevent a culture of peace from taking root are many, but they are not insurmountable and moderation be seen as the bedrock of international relations in the global world where peace remained elusive," he told BenarNews.
Recent faith-related issues that bordered on intolerance have spurred controversy in Malaysia.
In September this year, the owner of a "Muslim-only" laundromat in Malaysia's Johor state dropped his policy excluding people of other faiths, when the local Sultan ordered him to apologize and be inclusive.
A board in front of the man's shop had proclaimed that it was "Muslim-friendly."
"This launderette only serves Muslim customers due to issues of purity. Any inconveniences are deeply regrettable. Please leave your shoes before entering," the sign said.
In September, Malaysian police cancelled a beer festival following objections from Muslim leaders, who claimed the event would encourage immorality and lead to criminal acts.
Nasharudin Mat Isa, chairman and CEO of the Global Movement of Moderates Foundation (GMMF), the Malaysian group that lobbied the government to push for the U.N. resolution, said its adoption underscored the foundation's goal of inculcating global peaceful co-existence.
"The message of moderation as propagated by Malaysia can be the answer and counter-narratives to the development of violent-extremism and terrorism through moderation, which will help create a more harmonious world community," he said in an interview last month.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia will investigate allegations of a police cover-up in the 2015 discovery of mass graves that held corpses of scores of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar and Bangladeshi migrants at human-trafficking camps in the jungle, a senior government official said Thursday.
Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamad spoke to BenarNews after a local newspaper, the New Straits Times (NST), published an exposé alleging that Malaysian authorities had known about the graves and camps close to Wang Kelian, a town near the Thai border in the northern state of Perlis, months before police publicly revealed the grim discovery.
"The case on Wang Kelian has never been closed," Nur Jazlan told Benar. "It is still ongoing. And what has been reported by New Straits Times will definitely be taken into account."
When NST broke the story a day earlier, its reporters questioned his boss, Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, about the explosive allegations.
"Definitely, investigations into this must be carried out. I want the authorities to get to the bottom of this," Zahid told NST. "There will be no closing of the 'Wang Kelian file.'"
In late May 2015, Malaysian police disclosed they had unearthed 106 corpses from 139 graves at abandoned human-smuggling camps near Wang Kelian. Earlier that month, officials in Thailand announced that similar graves of smuggled Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshis were found at an abandoned camp in the jungle on the Thai side of the border.
Covered up
In its report, NST claimed it found a "massive, coordinated cover-up" by Malaysian law enforcement authorities near the border, saying a team of investigative journalists had pored over scores of official documents, checked reams of reports and sought out witnesses during the past two years.
"One shocking discovery was that the authorities, particularly the Perlis police, knew the existence of these jungle camps in Wang Kelian in early January 2015, but had allegedly chosen not to do anything about them until half a year later," the report said.
According to the newspaper, about 150 bodies were found at the jungle camps. The victims were mostly Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar's Rakhine state, it said.
The discovery of the graves and camps on both sides of the frontier led to a humanitarian crisis in Southeast Asia in May 2015, after Thailand launched a crackdown on human-smuggling syndicates and prevented boatloads of illegal migrants from landing on its southwestern shores.
As a result, about 3,000 Rohingya and Bangladeshi nationals, who were abandoned by their handlers, suddenly came ashore in neighboring Malaysia and Indonesia.
In July this year, a Thai court convicted and sentenced a former three-star general and 61 other defendants in Thailand's largest human-trafficking case, which stemmed from the discovery of the graves near the Malaysian border two years ago.
The NST report claimed that Malaysian law-enforcement personnel, other than knowing about the camps' existence, had also cleaned up the "crime scene" and were working together with the smuggling syndicates.
The newspaper questioned why Malaysian police had sent hundreds of men, including commandos, up the hill on May 11 when their own men had already taken photographic evidence and filed reports on Jan. 19 and March 13, 2015, about the existence of the camps.
A commando team that raided camps in January 2015 "saw six cages, where scores of men and women were packed inside under the watchful eyes of foreign men armed with M-16 rifles," the report said.
On June 12, 2015, then-Perlis Police Chief Shafie Ismail told journalists that there were no elements of foul play and said the victims had died from hunger after post-mortems had been done on the remains. The cases were classified as "sudden deaths."
The NST opened its exposé by alleging that "mass killings" had taken place at the "death camps" in the jungles of Wang Kelian, but the report but did not delve into how people who were kept prisoner there were killed.
Foreigners charged
To date, Malaysia has only prosecuted four suspects in connection with the Wang Kelian case.
In March 2017, Zahid, the deputy prime minister, told parliament that four foreigners had been charged in connection with the mass graves. He said 12 police officers were arrested, but eventually released for lack of evidence.
On Thursday, attempts by BenarNews to reach the Perlis police chief and the Wang Kelian Special Investigation Team for reactions were unsuccessful.
"I'm on leave now. If it is about Wang Kelian, please refer to Bukit Aman as the special investigating team was from there," Azisman Alias, the chief of Perlis police, told BenarNews.
Calls to Malaysian Police Chief Mohamad Fuzi Harun and his deputy went unanswered.
For its report, however, NST managed to reach Khalid Abu Bakar, Malaysia's former police chief, who was in charge when the graves at Wang Kelian were found.
The paper tracked the retired chief to a local bowling alley, where reporters confronted him with questions. Khalid spoke on condition that the conversation "not be recorded," NST said.
The ex-chief appeared "visibly apprehensive" and when he finally spoke, "his voice betrayed the enormity of what he was about to tell us," the paper said, adding it was bound by journalistic ethics "not to publish what he had told us."
'Without fear or favor"
Meanwhile, the chairman of Malaysia's Human Rights Commission (SUHAKAM) said he had faced difficulty obtaining information from law-enforcement agencies, particularly the police, when his panel began investigating the tragedy at Wang Kelian.
"SUHAKAM has also requested information on the criminal investigation from the Ministry of Home Affairs to which no reply was received. No information on any progress made in the investigation thus far was supplied to SUHAKAM," Razali Ismail said in a statement Thursday.
Elsewhere, Lawyers for Liberty (LFL), a human rights and law-reform group, called on the Malaysian government to set-up a Royal Commission of Inquiry to "to seriously investigate these killing fields at our very own backyard."
"In order to do so, the government must demonstrate political will to act and hold accountable all those involved, regardless of rank, status or connection," Eric Paulsen, the group's executive director, said in a statement.
"Civil society has long believed that such extensive and brazen human trafficking operations for so many years under the noses of the Malaysian authorities would not have been possible without the direct or indirect cooperation and assistance of local authorities," he added.
Tenaganita, another local rights group, expressed shock over what it called the "blatant complicity of the authorities" in the alleged cover-up as reported by NST.
"Human trafficking by criminals is a common phenomenon all over the world, but it is extremely agonizing when law enforcement agencies are found to be entrenched in the criminal activities," Tenaganita Executive Director Glorene A. Das said.
"The reported cover-up of the activities of the human trafficking syndicates and the destruction of vital evidence need to be explained; those involved in it should be brought to book, without fear or favor," she said.


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BENARNEWS- The cousin of Isnilon Hapilon, the late "emir" of Islamic State's Southeast Asian branch, and a leader of Indonesian terror group Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) were among 20 suspected militants arrested in raids across Malaysia this month, authorities said Friday.
One of the suspects was a 50-year-old Filipino who was picked up in Kuala Lumpur on Dec. 6, Police Inspector-General Mohamad Fuzi Harun said in a statement.
"I can confirm the Filipino suspect arrested is the cousin of Isnilon," a source with Malaysian intelligence told BenarNews on condition of anonymity.
Hapilon, an Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) militant leader who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, helped lead an IS-backed siege of the southern Philippine city of Marawi. He was killed in October during the final days of a battle there with Filipino government forces that lasted five months, the Philippine military said.
"The suspect was recruiting his fellow countrymen in the Kepong area to join the Abu Sayyaf Group in the southern Philippines," Fuzi said of the 50-year-old Filipino in custody.
In announcing the arrests, Fuzi did not name the suspects but identified them as seven Malaysians, seven Filipinos, five Indonesians, and a North African. He said they were arrested in the states of Kuala Lumpur, Sabah, Johor and Selangor between Nov. 30 and Dec. 15.
The police chief identified the suspected JAD leader as a 24-year-old mastermind of a July plot to attack a café popular with tourists and locals in Bandung, Indonesia, but which failed when a homemade bomb blew up prematurely. The suspect was arrested in the southern Malaysian state of Johor on Nov. 30, according to Fuzi.
"The suspect was involved in the bombing incident in Bandung in July before sneaking into Malaysia to avoid being arrested by Indonesian authorities," Fuzi said, adding that the man in custody had been collecting funds while planning to travel to Syria to join Islamic State (IS).
JAD is the militant group that carried out a terrorist attack in central Jakarta in January 2016, in which eight people, including four perpetrators, were killed, Indonesian police said. The attack was the first successful one claimed in Southeast Asia by IS.
Former teacher arrested
Four other Indonesians between the ages of 31 and 38 were picked up in the coastal town of Sandakan, Sabah, on Dec. 4, according to police.
"The four entered Malaysia illegally from Tarakan and Nunukan, Indonesia, and were planning to sneak into the southern Philippines to join terror groups there," Fuzi said.
Among the other suspects swept up in the raids, police identified one of the Malaysians as a 46-year-old former teacher in Kuching, Sarawak, who was arrested at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) on Dec. 1.
"The suspect is part of the Whatsapp group The Rise of Jundullah, which was involved in the planning for an attack on the 2017 Better Beer Festival. Three of the terror cell members were arrested earlier in October in Pasir Puteh, Kelantan," Fuzi said adding the suspect was planning to head to the southern Philippines to join a terror cell.
The festival was canceled after authorities denied the organizer a permit for it. Police said the festival was banned over concerns of a possible militant attack.
On Dec. 10, six Malaysians and five Filipinos between the ages of 16 and 47 were arrested in Sandakan.
"All of the suspects were planning to join terror groups in the southern Philippines," Fuzi said.
On the same day, another Filipino was arrested in Johor for alleged involvement in terror activities. "The suspect is blacklisted by Philippines authorities," Fuzi said.
Later, a 31-year-old North African linked to IS was arrested at KLIA on Dec. 15, after he snuck into Malaysia from an unnamed neighboring country earlier in the month. Police did not specify his nationality.
"The suspect had been arrested by Turkish authorities in September 2016 for his involvement with IS in Iraq and Syria," Fuzi said, citing intelligence shared by international agencies.
Hundreds arrested
Over the last four years, Malaysian authorities have arrested about 370 people suspected of having links to terror groups including IS. Sixty-six of those suspects have been freed, according to government figures compiled by BenarNews.
In addition, 34 Malaysian have been reported killed while fighting for IS in Iraq and Syria. Meanwhile 24 men, 12 women and 17 children are believed to be in Syria, but may have fled from cities where battles took place. Officials had said the Malaysians might have sought refuge in camps on the borders with Jordan and Turkey.
Malaysia, whose population is about 32 million, including 19.5 million Muslims, has foiled nine IS-related bomb plots since 2013, security officials said. One IS-linked attack at a nightclub near Kuala Lumpur injured eight people in June 2016.


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BENARNEWS- Corruption-tainted Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak faces elections in 2018, which, many believe, he could survive despite a stiff challenge from the opposition spearheaded by two former government leaders.
Buoyed by rosy projections for economic growth, Najib kept former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and jailed former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim at bay in 2017 by mounting legal challenges against them, and he also doled out pre-poll fiscal goodies to voters.
"The prime minister, I think, did a good job in disseminating that the economy is doing well," geo-political expert Azmi Hassan told BenarNews.
"There have been instances that could be considered as missteps, like dealing with the high cost of living, but I think the government realized its mistakes and rectified them," he said.
Under Malaysia's constitution, a general election must take place every five years, and the next one is required before August 2018.
The opposition came close to unseating Najib's Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition in the 2013 election, but has since struggled to put up a united front to challenge the prime minister in the next general election.
Najib will decide a date for the 14th general election, and local reports said he could call polls for as early as the second half of February.
Earlier this month, during the annual assembly of his United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party, the 64-year-old leader courted the religious sensibilities of its Malay Muslim membership as he effectively kicked off his electoral run with a rousing speech.
"At this father of all elections, we will battle and fight until the end," Najib told the more than 2,500 party faithful who had gathered in Kuala Lumpur. "Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! (God is Great! God is Great!)."
That speech, supporters say, could help Najib in a potential electoral battle against Malaysia's longest-serving prime minister, Mahathir, who has joined his bitter foe, Anwar in leading a new opposition coalition, Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope).
Mahathir, 92, who served as prime minister from 1991 to 2003, has branded Najib, his one-time protégé, as corrupt, but Mahathir has indicated he does not want to be PM again.
The 70-year-old Anwar, meanwhile, is serving a prison sentence on a sodomy conviction. But, according to his lawyers, Anwar is scheduled to be released in June – another reason for Najib to hold elections much sooner, instead of giving the former deputy minister enough time to unite the opposition during the run-up to elections.
Shadow of 1MDB
Yet in 2017, Najib again was unable to shake off allegations of corruption linked to a multi-billion dollar scandal over a state sovereign wealth fund that he founded, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), and which will likely overshadow him on the campaign trail in 2018.
Najib has consistently denied taking money from 1MDB. He has been implicated in the scandal because almost $700 million of money linked to 1MDB was deposited into his private bank accounts in 2013, but he has said the money was donated by the Saudi royal family and not used for his personal gain.
This year, federal investigators in the U.S. expanded lawsuits against businessmen associated with Najib, alleging they were involved in stealing and laundering $4.5 billion from the fund.  The U.S. court documents repeatedly refer to Najib as "Malaysian Official 1."
The 1MDB affair has beleaguered Najib since July 2015 and led to calls for his resignation, but the issue did not come up during his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington in September, according to the White House.
Bigger thorn
Mahathir and Anwar have been Najib's fiercest critics, leading calls for the prime minister to resign over 1MDB.
According to analysts, Mahathir has become an even bigger thorn for Najib.
Mahathir led UMNO to five election wins and, according to political observers, Malaysians still adore him despite Najib's efforts to vilify him.
"Mahathir has a lot of followers and supporters who appreciate him the most,' Muhammad Khairy, a government worker, said. "They know what he has done for the country for 22 years, we all can clearly see that."
Mahathir's leading the opposition coalition might just be enough for Malaysians to vote for a change in government, his counsel, Haniff Khatri, told BenarNews.
"Of course, Mahathir's presence in leading the charge for the opposition is the most-crucial factor in getting the Malaysian public to vote for a change of government," he said.
But a legal move recently mounted by Najib's government could complicate things for the opposition in 2018.
In November, a government-appointed panel, the Royal Commission of Inquiry, recommended that Mahathir and Anwar be criminally investigated, along with other former government officials, in connection with billions of dollars in central bank losses during the 1990s, when Mahathir was in power and Anwar served as his deputy.
Showing solidarity with Palestinians, Rohingya
In rallying support for an electoral run from his party's Muslim Malay base, Najib lately has been vocal on international issues that play on religious sentiment. In recent weeks and months, he has led rallies to show solidarity for Myanmar's persecuted Rohingya Muslims, as well as the Palestinians in the wake of the U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
Pandering to such sentiment is crucial for attracting voters in the majority-Muslim nation, analysts say.
"Najib has demonstrated that he is willing to go against the grain if the Jerusalem and Rohingya issues are taken into account," analyst Azmi Hassan told BenarNews. "This style of leadership is highly appreciated by the people."
Last Friday, Najib told a rally that although President Trump received him warmly at the White House, he would not compromise on the sanctity of Islam.
"The United States may be a superpower, but do not look down on Malaysia. We have our pride and dignity, too, we have not asked for loans from the United States," Najib said.
'Taking care' of voters
Apart from rallying voters on issues with religious undertones, Najib's strategy of "taking care" of rural voters, including in the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak, could propel him to electoral victory, according to Malaysian businessman Ab Wahab Ali.
Analysts agree that amid the vitriol-fueled criticisms from Najib's opponents, reports from World Bank estimating that the Malaysian economy is likely to expand 5.8 percent this year and 5.2 percent next year could sway sentiments in favour of the ruling party.
Muhammad Khairy, the government worker, expects Najib to call an election in March or April – after the Chinese Lunar New Year and before the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in mid-May.
He believes this will happen after the government hands out payments from Bantuan Rakyat 1 Malaysia (BR1M), a program created by Najib that hands out cash payments of 1,200 ringgit (U.S. $294) nationwide as part of his administration's effort to ease the burden of the lower-income Malaysians.
"My prediction for the 14th general election is on March and by that time BRIM payments have been made," Muhammad Khairy told BenarNews.
"This would win the heart of suburbs."
Hata Wahari contributed to this report.
Corrrection: Anwar Ibrahim did not serve as deputy prime minister under Najib Razak. 


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BENARNEWS- A Bangladeshi film director and 18 others who were arrested in Kuala Lumpur over the weekend will face charges of violating Malaysia's tough security law, allowing authorities to hold them up to 28 days without trial, officials said Wednesday.
Film director Anonno Mamun and 18 fellow Bangladeshis were arrested at a condominium unit in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday after authorities received information that they were they were involved in human trafficking under the pretext of organizing a cultural event, police said.
The 19 suspects were detained under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (SOSMA), a law that was created to thwart internal security issues, including acts of terrorism, Shaharuddin Abdullah, chief of the Dang Wangi police district, which covers Kuala Lumpur, told BenarNews.
"It is currently under investigation by Bukit Aman," Shaharuddin said, referring to the Malaysian police headquarters. "They were detained under SOSMA."
SOSMA replaced the controversial Internal Security Act, which allowed for detention of up to two years without requiring authorities to present the suspect in court.
If found guilty, the defendants could face up to 15 years in prison, authorities said.
The film director had travelled to the Malaysian capital from Dhaka on Dec. 13 along with 57 people, including singers and artists, for the Cinematic Bangladeshi Nights entertainment event. It was held at a building in downtown Kuala Lumpur on Dec. 23.
The event's anchor, Debashish Biswas, told BenarNews that he found it "very suspicious" to see Mamun with so many people during his arrival at the airport in Kuala Lumpur.
"Everything seemed fishy," he said. "But the organizer asked us not to get worried."
Bangladeshi celebrities entertained the crowd of about 2,600 during the event, Biswas said, adding he was told by some of the undocumented Bangladeshi workers that they had paid their "handlers" the equivalent of U.S. $3,100 in taka, the Bangladeshi currency.
Muhammad Shahidul Islam, Bangladesh's ambassador to Malaysia, said he found the incident embarrassing.
"The organizers had not informed the Bangladesh High Commission before the program," he said, explaining that the diplomatic mission in Kuala Lumpur learned of the incident only after Mamun's arrest.
The Cinematic Bangladeshi Nights event brought Bangladeshi acts such as singers Asif Akbar, Ankhi Alamgir and HM Rana, rock band Chirkutt, actors Anika Kabir Shokh, Mamnun Hasan Emon, Sakhawat Hossain Nirob and Misty Zannat, and a few models.
Muslim-majority Malaysia, home to about 32 million people, has about 2 million legally registered foreign workers and a similar number of undocumented immigrants, according to non-governmental organizations.
In July this year, Malaysia swept up more than 5,000 foreigners in a crackdown on illegal immigration. Bangladeshis and Indonesians topped the list of detained undocumented workers, officials said.
Southeast Asia's third biggest economy after Indonesia and Thailand, Malaysia became a popular destination for migrant workers after it posted robust economic growth in the past few years.
In a statement released in August, the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights said that because of the crackdown in Malaysia, many migrants were living in fear.
"Poor treatment by law enforcement, including indefinite detention in abysmal conditions, are urgent concerns as well," Emmi De Jesus, a Philippine lawmaker, told reporters in Kuala Lumpur after a four-day fact-finding visit.
Hareez Lee in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia arrested slightly fewer terrorism suspects in 2017 compared with 2016, in the first year-on-year decline since 2013, according to statistics provided by counter-terror officials.
But authorities have stepped up their surveillance of suspected militants and expanded intelligence gathering to foil attacks in the Muslim-majority nation, officials said Thursday.
Police arrested 105 suspected militants this year, compared with 119 the previous year. Statistics also reflected lower numbers in charges filed: 41 this year compared with 70 in 2016.
"The decline in charges does not mean that the remaining [suspects] are freed," Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, chief of the national police's counter-terrorist special branch, told BenarNews.
Ayob said some of the suspects had been detained on charges of violating the nation's Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), which allows police to restrict the movements of suspects by using electronic monitoring devices.
"We have increased our surveillance and intelligence sources," Ayob said. "We are not saying we are smarter, but we are keeping up with the upcoming threats."
In 2013, officials charged three of four terrorism suspects who were arrested during the entire year, according to government figures reviewed by BenarNews. The following year, authorities arrested 59 and filed charges against 21.
The upward trend in the number of arrests and charges continued in 2015, when 82 suspects were arrested and 30 were taken to court. The numbers peaked last year.
Authorities attributed the sharp decline in court cases against terror suspects this year to insufficient evidence and the deportation of foreign militants.
"That does not mean the counter-terrorism team is less productive," Ayob said.
In October this year, Malaysian police released a list of 45 foreigners arrested since January for suspected links to terror groups, including the so-called Islamic State (IS).
Among the suspects were nationals from as far away as Iraq, Turkey, Albania, Yemen, the Maldives and China, as well as from nearby Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines, Police Inspector-General Mohamad Fuzi Harun said then in a statement.
Those 45 suspects arrested through Oct. 6 included nine members of the Philippine-based Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), three from Turkey's Fetullah, one from an Albanian terror cell linked with IS, and another from Bangladesh's Jamaatul Mujahideen, Fuzi said.
During the past four years, Malaysian authorities have arrested 369 people for their suspected links to terror groups, according to government statistics compiled by BenarNews. Among those arrested this year was a 26-year-old female college student who was arrested at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on April 4 after being deported by Turkish authorities.
In October, Ayob told reporters that 70 foreign fighters had been detained by Malaysian officials since 2013. Nine of those men were suspected ASG members thought to have been in contact with Mahmud Ahmad, a Malaysian militant considered the IS recruiter in Southeast Asia.
That same month, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced that Mahmud was among militants who were killed in Marawi. The five-month battle in the southern Philippine city left more than 1,100 people dead, including more than 900 militants, officials said.
Malaysia, home to about 32 million people, including 19.5 million Muslims, has foiled at least nine IS-related bomb plots since 2013. Those plots included one that targeted the Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur in August, but that was thwarted, according to police.
Last year, however, an IS-linked grenade attack at a nightclub in Puchong, near Kuala Lumpur, injured eight people.
Officials said at least three planned attacks had been foiled this year.
The Borneo connection
Terrorism spotlighted the Borneo state of Sabah this year with numerous suspected militants, especially those with ASG links, being arrested in the coastal town of Sandakan town, which has ferry services to the southern Philippines.
The Malaysian Eastern Sabah Security Command's (Esscom) attributed the arrests to tip-offs from members of the local community.
Early this month, authorities said that security forces had killed Abu Paliyak in waters off the east coast of Sabah. Paliyak allegedly belonged to an ASG faction responsible for kidnappings and robberies.
Two weeks after Paliyak's killing, authorities said that a cousin of Isnilon Hapilon, the late "emir" of Islamic State's Southeast Asian branch, and a leader of Indonesian terror group Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) were among 20 suspected militants arrested in raids across Malaysia in December.
JAD carried out the terrorist attack in central Jakarta in January 2016, in which eight people, including four perpetrators, were killed, Indonesian police said. The attack was the first successful one claimed in Southeast Asia by IS.
Esscom commander Hazani Ghazali credited the police involvement in community activities for the closer bond that led to the arrests of suspects in Sabah.
"Through these operations, we get closer and forge a relationship with the local community and this is where we build their trust and confidence in us," Hazani said during a Malaysian TV interview Wednesday.
Kamal Affandi Hashim, a Malaysian crime analyst, praised the Malaysian police for what he called an excellent job this year in curtailing terror attacks, but said authorities need to improve their public-relations efforts.
"I have faith that effort had been taken by the police to ensure public safety in the background all along," he told BenarNews. "But for 2018, I hope it will be much more visible so that there will be more trust in them."
Hareez Lee in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Authorities in Malaysia are on alert because of a new propaganda video from Islamic State that appears to show the execution of prisoners and footage of a Malaysian urging IS followers to mount attacks in their home countries.
The eight-minute video features two militants, identified by authorities in Malaysia and Singapore as citizens of their respective countries, speaking to the camera as they call on IS supporters to carry out acts of terror.
The video surfaced as Malaysia and Saudi Arabia were preparing to co-host a two-day counter-terrorism conference bringing together security ministers from 20 countries in Putrajaya, the Malaysian administrative capital, on Friday and Saturday.
"Malaysian authorities have increased their intel and resources to monitor the activities of individuals that are suspected of aiding and supporting the IS group in Malaysia," a senior Malaysian police official said Tuesday in response to questions about the propaganda video.
"From our initial findings, the video is freshly produced as the Malaysian never appeared in any video before," the source told BenarNews on condition of anonymity, adding that the video was shot recently.
A slick production posted online by Khayr Wilayah, a pro-IS media group, the video features an interview with an IS suicide bomber in his car before his mission, footage of IS-linked terrorist attacks in Paris and Nice, France, as well as scenes from war zones in the Middle East. Narrated in Arabic, the video contains scenes from a previous New Year's celebration in Sydney, Australia, and shots of downtown Los Angeles and New York City.
Malaysian police identified one of the speakers in the video as Muhammad Aqif Heusen Rahizat, the brother of Muhammad Afiq Heusen Rahizat, a militant who was in killed in a bombardment along the Iraq-Syria border in October 2014. His death occurred after Aqif traveled to the region in December 2013 to join his sibling there, the senior police official said.
Aqif, 25, whose nom-de-guerre is Abu Sufyan Malayzi, comes from Kluang, a small town in the southern state of Johor, the source said. Until 2015, Aqif actively recruited fighters through Facebook.
Among the people he allegedly recruited was his supposed bride, Ummi Kalsom Bahak, who was arrested Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 in October 2014 and charged with a terrorism-related offense, the source said.
"He went below radar since then right up until the latest video released by IS in December," the official told BenarNews.
'Slay the enemies of Allah'
Aqif appears two minutes into the video.
"If you have many obstacles to perform hijrah to the land of Khilafah and ... al-Sham and other Wilayah, then Allah has opened up for all of you the land of Jihad of your own countries," he says in an English monologue, referring to Iraq and Syria, where the strongholds of IS's self-declared caliphate, Raqqa and Mosul, fell to anti-IS coalition forces in 2017.
Later in the video, a man described by officials in Singapore as Singaporean national Megat Shahdan Abdul Samad, appears in combat fatigues toting a handgun, which he later uses in participating with two other men in what seems to be the execution of three prisoners.
"Slay the enemies of Allah wherever you are," he says to the camera, according to the video seen by BenarNews.
"Now the fighting has just begun. We will never stop cutting off the heads of every kufar and muqtaddin until we cleanse the land of Islam from East Asia to the West of Africa," he adds.
The eight-minute video was the second featuring Megat Shahdan Abdul Samad, following a shorter one disseminated in September, the Straits Times of Singapore reported over the weekend.
Malaysian authorities believe Muhammad Aqif Heusen Rahizat is hiding out with other Malaysian IS members at Abu Kamal, a Syrian town close to the border with Iraq following IS's defeat in Raqqa, the police official said.
Thirty-four Malaysian have been reported killed while fighting for IS in Iraq and Syria. Another 53 – 24 men, 12 women and 17 children – are believed to still be in Syria, but may have fled from cities where battles took place, according to Malaysian police. Officials had said the Malaysians might have sought refuge in camps along Syria's borders with Jordan and Turkey.
Since 2013, Malaysian authorities have arrested 369 people for suspected links to IS and other militant groups, according to government statistics compiled by BenarNews.
International meeting
Meanwhile, Malaysia is gearing up to co-host the two-day conference being billed as an international security dialogue on how nations can pool their experience of "wisdom and moderation in countering terrorism."
The conference is being co-organized by Malaysia's Ministry of Home Affairs and Saudi Arabia-based think-tank Rabitah Al-Alam Al-Islami or the Muslim World League.
As many as 1,000 people from Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and 18 other countries, including Indonesia, Singapore, India, Pakistan, Turkey, Australia, France and Britain, are expected to attend. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are scheduled to give speeches on Saturday in Putrajaya.
The conference will be divided into four sessions covering themes including international collaboration in combating terrorism; Islam as the means of moderation and security; the role of religion in inculcating values and moderation; and countering terrorism with wisdom and humanity.
The meeting will take place amid closer bilateral ties being forged between Kuala Lumpur and Riyadh.
During his visit to Malaysia in March 2017, Saudi King Salman announced Malaysia would be the future home of a Saudi-backed center, the King Salman Center for International Peace, which would work to counter the terrorist narrative. Malaysia's government has a two-year timeline for building the center, which will be housed at a 40-acre site in Putrajaya.
Malaysia already has an online counter-extremist messaging center overseen by the Royal Malaysia Police. It also has the Southeast Asia Regional Center for Counter-Terrorism, operated under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with assistance from the U.S. State Department.


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BENARNEWS- Suspected foreign terrorists should be deported to their home nations rather than sent back to the country they just left, Malaysia's counter-terrorist police chief said Friday on the sidelines of a an international conference here.
Separately, the director of Malaysia's prison system told BenarNews at the same meeting that 135 militants linked to the Islamic State (IS) were taking part in a state-run deradicalization process, but only nine have nearly completed phase three of the four-phase program. It was implemented under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) in September 2015.
Under current international law, a person can be deported to the last point of flight embarkation, said Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, chief of the national police's counter-terrorist special branch. Several countries had allowed suspects to choose where they wanted to be sent and many chose Malaysia because of its easy visa rules.
"From 2014 to 2017, nearly 50 suspected foreign terrorists have entered Malaysia. We have arrested and deported about 30 of them," Ayob told reporters on the sidelines of the Putrajaya International Security Dialogue 2018, a meeting in Malaysia's administrative capital attended by about 1,000 representatives and experts from 20 countries.
"We are still tracking the others and some may have left the country," he said.
Ayob did not specify the nationalities of the suspects.
"If the country that deported them – who I cannot name – had instead informed us, the police could have detected them," Ayob said, adding that such information could have helped counter-terrorism officials arrest and deport the militants.
The two-day international conference, which runs through Saturday, is focusing on how nations can pool their experience of "wisdom and moderation in countering terrorism."
Malaysia's Home Ministry and Rabitah Al-Alam Al-Islami (the Muslim World League), a Saudi Arabia-based think-tank, co-organized the event, which runs through Saturday. The 18 other countries participating at the conference include Indonesia, Singapore, India, Pakistan, Turkey, Australia, France and Britain.
Borneo spotlight
Part of Friday's conference program focused on the Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo island. Suspected militants, including many allegedly linked to the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), have been arrested in the coastal town of Sandakan, home to ferry services to the southern Philippines.
Sabah has long served as a transit route for foreign militants, including from neighboring Indonesia, Ayob said.
"If they don't transit from Sabah, they can go to southern Philippines directly from their home country. But it's a long journey over the Sulawesi Sea," he said. "So it is much easier to transit from Sabah."
Yusoph Roque Morales, a member of the Philippines National Commission on Muslim Filipinos, said many foreign militants, especially from Indonesia and Malaysia, had made the southern Philippines their base.
"Normally they have support from the locals. They give the foreigners a place to stay, [and] food, and the local communities accept them," Morales told the conference. "Malaysians and Indonesians have similarities in terms of culture, food, and communities – and most of them have common social relations like a sultan [community leader] – so that is why Muslim communities in southern Philippines accept Malaysians and Indonesians with open hearts."
Because they are welcome, some remain and join IS or ASG, he said. Yusoph did not give a specific number, but said thousands of Malaysians and Indonesians had settled in the southern Philippines.
Meanwhile, a Malaysian minister called on other countries to emulate Malaysia's "soft approach" in countering extremism.
"It should be tackled in a balanced way from all sorts of angles including education and economic. In this regard, Malaysia has been a leading country when it comes to dealing with such issues compared to other countries, which are facing problems such as starvation and deprivation of education, which then leads people to extremism," said Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki, the deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Department in charge of Islamic affairs.
Terrorists in Malaysia
Over the last four years, Malaysian authorities arrested 369 people for suspected links to terror groups, according to government statistics compiled by BenarNews.
In October, Ayob told reporters that 70 foreign fighters had been detained by Malaysian officials since 2013. Nine were suspected ASG members thought to have been in contact with Mahmud Ahmad, a Malaysian militant considered the IS recruiter in Southeast Asia.
In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte had declared that Mahmud was among militants killed in the southern city of Marawi during a five-month battle that left more than 1,100 people dead, including more than 900 militants.
Ayob said counter-terrorism officials are monitoring efforts in the Philippines to attract militants. "The recruitment of foreign fighters to the southern Philippines is not over yet," he said Friday.
Malaysia, home to about 32 million people including 19.5 million Muslims, has foiled at least nine IS-related bomb plots since 2013, according to officials. Those foiled plots included one that targeted the Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur in August 2017, police said.
But militants were successful in June 2016, when an IS-linked grenade attack injured eight people at a nightclub in Puchong, near Kuala Lumpur.
Deradicalization program
Prison Director-Gen. Zulkefli Omar said nine of the 135 people detained under POTA nearly two years ago were to be evaluated by the end January to determine if they could be placed in the final phase of the deradicalization program and reintegrated into the community.
"Currently, this militant deradicalization program has not yet been successful because the process is very long and requires evaluation by POTA evaluation committee members," Zulkefli told BenarNews.
Carried out by government agencies under the Home Ministry – namely the Prisons Department, Royal Malaysia Police and the Malaysia Department of Islamic Development (Jakim) – the program consists of four phases.
Phase one, which covers the first six months, is overseen by the Prisons Department and focuses on orientation; phase two, which runs through month 12, involves de-radicalization activities broken down into three sections by the Prison Department, Home Ministry, Jakim and the police.
Phase three, which runs from month 13 to 20, concentrates on personality reinforcement and self-development; the final phase focuses on reintegrating detainees into society.
Zulkifli said none of the 135 detainees were in the fourth phase, but nine had nearly completed the third phase.
"I can't reveal the identity of the nine detainees, but they are Malaysians and among those are Malaysians who were headed to Syria and students," he told BenarNews on Friday.
However, Ayob, the chief of Malaysia's counter-terrorist special branch, suggested that the two-year program is not long enough to reform people who are placed into it.
"In my opinion, the POTA program is too short and requires very strong evidence to allow those involved in militancy to be detained for a period of two years. But if there is no evidence, the longest a suspect can be detained is only for a month and has to be released," he told BenarNews. "Police constantly monitor them so they would not be involved again in militant activities."


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BENARNEWS- Elderly statesman Mahathir Mohamad has officially become the standard bearer for Malaysia's opposition, with the 92-year-old former longtime leader saying he is prepared to take the helm in the hopes of unseating scandal-plagued Prime Minister Najib Razak through upcoming elections.
But reactions from observers and government officials have been mixed to the opposition's move to pick the former prime minister, who ruled for 22 years from 1981 to 2003 and developed a reputation as an autocratic ruler, as its main hope for defeating the incumbent.
Malaysian opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan (PH) over the weekend named Mahathir as its prime ministerial hopeful after the country's general election, which is due by August, although Najib is expected to call the polls earlier on in 2018.
"I thank you for nominating me as prime minister. I'm already 92 years, I won't be there for long," Mahathir, who will turn 93 in July, said to cheers during a convention held by the opposition bloc on Sunday.
Should PH win the election, Mahathir would serve as prime minister to pave the way for his once bitter foe, imprisoned opposition de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim, to take over as PM if granted a royal pardon for a sodomy conviction, officials said. Without the pardon, Anwar would be barred from politics for five years.
Sunday's decision means that Mahathir could return as prime minister 15 years after he stepped down from the position.
The four opposition PH parties unanimously appointed Mahathir during their convention to challenge Najib, the leader of the Barisan Nasional coalition and the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party.
"The good thing is PH can lay claim to having an experienced candidate on its side and that it can make critical choices in the run-up to the 14th general election, by consensus," Azmi Hassan, a Malaysian geopolitical analyst, told BenarNews.
"The bad thing is that choosing Mahathir may distance a lot of voters as he had a lot of bad history. This factor matters the most to on-the-fence voters," he added.
Another analyst, Hisomuddin Bakar with the independent research firm Ilham Center, described the move as bold.
"It would greatly impact Malay voters in urban and semi-urban areas," he told BenarNews, referring to constituents from Malaysia's ethnic majority who make up the voting base of UMNO, Mahathir's former party.
But Khairy Jamaluddin, the current minister for youth and sports, said Mahathir's candidacy would cause political instability.
"This will cause upheaval in PKR and create uncertainty among investors, not knowing how long Mahathir will be prime minister before Anwar takes over," Khairy told reporters on Sunday, referring to Anwar's People's Justice Party (PKR).
In a series of tweets, Abdul Rahman Dahlan, a minister in Prime Minister Department, lambasted the choice of Mahathir, but hailed it as "absolutely good news" for BN.
"PH shows how all these years of talking of reform and giving young people a chance were mere rhetoric," one of his tweets read.
Putting the past behind
Mahathir came out of retirement amid allegations that billions of dollars from state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) were misused by Najib and others.  Mahathir has since branded Najib, his one-time protégé, as corrupt and has led calls for his resignation. Najib has denied allegations of wrongdoing in the 1MDB affair.
"The main goal now is to topple UMNO and Najib," Mahathir told journalists on Sunday.
As an autocratic leader decades ago, Mahathir threw several opposition leaders into jail, including Anwar in the late 1990s.
"It wasn't easy for the parties that were formerly my enemies to accept me, but they know the importance of bringing down the current government," Mahathir said.
"Those who were uneasy with me, my policies ... my actions and although it is difficult for them, they realize that what is important is not the past, but what is in the future."
Anwar is serving a five-year jail term for sodomy – a charge that he and his supporters insist is politically motivated. He is set to be released on June 8, according to the Prison Department.
Sunday's announcement also saw Anwar's wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, the People's Justice Party president, being named as the opposition's hopeful for the job of deputy prime minister, should the opposition win the election.
While a date for the general election has not been announced, PH is not recognized formally as a political alliance. The Registrar of Societies (ROS) demanded additional documents, which the opposition submitted.
The ROS director could not be reached for comment on Monday.
Hareez Lee in Shah Alam, Malaysia, and Hata Wahari contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Speakers at an international counterterrorism conference in Malaysia called on followers of Islam to practice moderation in their faith in helping to stem the scourge of violent extremism.
Some 1,000 participants from 20 countries – including Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Turkey, France and Britain – took part in the two-day gathering, which emphasized "holistic soft approaches" to combating terrorism as well as more conventional ones like education and cutting terrorism financing.
"We believe we cannot fight the war of terrorism through force or punitive measures alone," Malaysia's Home Ministry Secretary General Alwi Ibrahim told the conference Saturday, before reading out its final statement.
"We need to have two-prong approaches to defeat the threats of extremism and terrorism. We must attempt to win the hearts and minds of each and everyone who engaged in, or is prone to engage in the terrorist activities."
The 12-point final statement called for "a new language of moderation" to promote tolerance of differences and to combat the "ideology of takfiri" in which some Muslims quickly accuse others of straying from the faith.
Many speakers at the event, pointed to the role of religion in combatting extremist ideology.
In his closing speech, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak cited two verses from the Quran that, he said, commit all Muslims to moderation, "a crucial shield against extreme ideologies."
"Together they imply that being named a 'Muslim' and belonging to a moderate people are the same. They further imply that, as the Prophet witnesses our efforts to be both Muslim and moderate, so must we bear witness to fellow believers that if we are Muslim we are also moderate," he said.
Malaysia, which touts its multi-religious society as an example of peaceful co-existence, sponsored a resolution on moderation at the United Nations encouraging worldwide dialogue and tolerance to fight violent extremism around the globe. The resolution was adopted in December.
At the Putrajaya conference, Najib underlined the ongoing need for vigilance against terrorism.
"Daesh continues to pose a serious and potent threat in Malaysia as well as in the wider Southeast Asia region, despite the weakened state of the group in Iraq and Syria," Najib told the gathering, using an alternate name for the so-called Islamic State group.
A total of 95 Malaysians had joined IS in Syria and Iraq, Najib said. Of these, 34 were killed; eight returned to Malaysia, and were arrested; and 36 adults and 17 children were still there.
Najib in Saudi Arabia
One day after the close of the conference, co-hosted by Malaysia's Home Ministry and the Saudi Arabia-based think-tank Rabitah Al-Alam Al-Islami (Muslim World League), Malaysia's Foreign Ministry said Najib would be making a five-day working visit to Riyadh beginning Monday.
"During the visit, the Prime Minister is scheduled to have an audience with the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, His Majesty King Salman Abdulaziz Al Saud and His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Abdulaziz Al Saud in Riyadh respectively," the statement released said.
The three would discuss a range of issues including the establishment of the King Salman Center for International Peace (KSCIP) in Putrajaya, which the Saudi monarch announced during a state visit to Malaysia in March last year, the statement send.
The Saudi-backed center will work to counter terrorist narratives. The Malaysian government has a two-year timeline for building the center, which is to be housed at a 40-acre site in Putrajaya.
Malaysia already has an online counter-extremist messaging center overseen by the Royal Malaysia Police. It also has the Southeast Asia Regional Center for Counter-Terrorism, operated under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with assistance from the U.S. State Department.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's government agreed Wednesday to pay an American firm up to U.S. $70 million (280 million ringgit) to find the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight 370, which disappeared four years ago, within an Indian Ocean area ranging to at least 25,000 square km.
The government and Houston-based Ocean Infinity Ltd. signed off on a deal by which the firm agreed it would be paid only if any of its eight high-tech Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) finds the debris field from the missing Boeing 777 or the plane's black-box in-flight recorders within three months, starting "imminently."
"The contract is on a 'no cure, no fee' basis within a 90-day time frame. The search operation is scheduled to commence mid-January 2018," Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai told reporters after a Wednesday signing ceremony in Putrajaya, Malaysia's administrative capital. The agreement states Ocean Infinity will be paid only if it finds the airliner's wreckage.
The new search marks the first time in a year that Malaysia is resuming an undersee hunt for the wreckage of MH370, which is believed to have crashed into the Indian Ocean with 239 passengers and crew on board. It drifted off course during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.
In January 2017, Malaysia, China and Australia called off a search for the missing plane after spending nearly three years scouring an area of 120,000 square km (46,332 square miles) in Indian Ocean waters off the western Australian coast. That search area was selected based on satellite analyses of the flight's presumed path.
"To all the family members and loved ones on board MH370, we are with you during these trying times," the minister told relatives of passengers and crew who were at the ceremony.
The minister said Ocean Infinity would search for the wreckage of flight MH370 within a designated area of the southern Indian Ocean ranging from 5,000 square km (1,930.5 square miles) to at least 25,000 square km (9,652.5 square miles).
"Ocean Infinity will take on the economic risk of the renewed search, only receiving payment if the aircraft wreckage is located," the firm said in a statement posted on its website Wednesday.

[https://www]

The flight path of MH370. [AP]

 
Search to start Jan. 17
Under the terms of the deal, the government will pay the firm $20 million (80.1 million ringgit) if its submersible drones find the debris field within an area of 5,000 square km, or up to $50 million (200.4 million ringgit) within an area of up to 25,000 square km (9,652.5 square miles), officials said.
If the subs find the airliner's wreckage beyond a radius of 25,000 square km, Malaysia will pay the firm $70 million (280.6 million ringgit), officials said. Ocean Infinity will be rewarded if it pinpoints the location of the debris field or discovers the plane's cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder.
"As we speak, the vessel Seabed Constructor is on her way to the search area, taking advantage of the favorable weather conditions in the South Indian Ocean," Tiong Lai said, referring to a ship carrying the eight AUVs and operated by Ocean Infinity, a company that specializes in collecting high-resolution geophysical seabed data.
The vessel will have 65 people on board, including two Malaysian government representatives, officials said.
Oliver Plunkett, the firm's CEO who attended the signing ceremony, said imaging technology developed by his team, as well as new data on current movements, would aid in identifying the debris field with better accuracy than in previous efforts.
"We have eight unmanned underwater vehicles, or underwater drones, that can sweep the ocean floor running at the same time, beaming the information back to onboard ships," he told journalists, adding that the operation would begin Jan. 17.
The eight AUVs are "free flying," which means they can travel untethered and can dive to depths of 6,000 meters (19,685 feet), Ocean Infinity said.
Citing discoveries of debris believed to be from MH370 that swept ashore on Reunion Island, a French territory in the western Indian Ocean in August 2015, and new ocean-current patterns, Plunkett was optimistic that his firm could solve the aviation mystery.
"We would like to say we are 80 percent confident but we don't want to put a percentage on our chances," Plunkett said. Experts from his company were involved in finding the wreckage of Air France flight 447, which crashed in the Atlantic Ocean while en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1, 2009.
In August 2015, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced a team of international experts had confirmed that debris found on Reunion were from MH370, and this marked the first physical evidence the plane had crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.
Of the 239 people on board MH370, 153 were Chinese nationals and 38 were Malaysians.
"We just want to know what happened, a closure," a relative of one of the people aboard the doomed flight, told BenarNews, identifying himself only as "Nathan."
"It's a bit difficult to come to a closure without knowing what happened to our loved ones."


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian prison authorities barred ex-PM Mahathir Mohamad, the opposition's choice for prime minister should it win this year's general election, from meeting Wednesday with jailed de facto opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim at a hospital rehab center in Kuala Lumpur.
Mahathir said police told him at the Cheras Rehabilitation Hospital that he could not visit Anwar because of "orders from above."
"Which means Minister of Home Affairs? That I am not allowed to visit Anwar," Mahathir told reporters as he left the hospital.
Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed said Anwar is a convict and anyone who wanted to visit him must get permission from the Prisons Department.
"A convict is not a free man. His life is controlled by the Prisons Department. No one is allowed to meet him other than the family," Nur Jazlan told The Malaysian Insight, a local news website.
On Sunday, Malaysian opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) unanimously selected Mahathir, 92, as its pick for the prime minister's post ahead of the country's 14th general election. Anwar's wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, was nominated as the coalition's choice for deputy prime minister.
If PH wins the election, Mahathir would serve as prime minister until Anwar, who is to be released from prison in June on a sodomy conviction, could take over if granted a royal pardon. Without the pardon, Anwar would be barred from politics for five years.
The general election must be held by August, but Prime Minister Najib Razak is expected to call the polls earlier this year. Najib's United National Malays Organization (UMNO) party heads the Barisan Nasional coalition, which has ruled Malaysia for decades.
Return to public service
Mahathir, who used to belong to UMNO, came out of retirement amid allegations that billions of dollars from state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) had been misused by Najib and others.
"He is a dictator, through his actions, not his words. I was said to be a dictator, say anything you like, but I never did things like this," Mahathir said of Najib after not being allowed to visit Anwar at the hospital.
As Malaysia's prime minister for 22 years, from 1981 to 2003, Mahathir developed a reputation as an autocratic ruler, throwing several opposition leaders into jail, including Anwar in the late 1990s.
Anwar is undergoing rehab at the hospital while recovering from surgery on his right shoulder in November for an injury suffered during a car crash involving a Prisons Department vehicle. He is serving a five-year prison term after being convicted of a sodomy charge three years ago.
"All I wanted to do was visit Anwar and thank him personally on Pakatan Harapan (PH) reaching a consensus. I feel sad. I just wanted to meet him, to thank him for not objecting, in fact, supporting me as a candidate," Mahathir said.
Arriving at the hospital around 4:30 p.m., Mahathir met with prison officials to seek permission for the visit. About 20 minutes later, he and Anwar's daughter, Nurul Izzah, left the hospital and informed reporters the request had been rejected.
"I am disappointed that we live in a democratic country but I am not allowed to meet a friend," Mahathir said.
Nurul pointed out that Najib, Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Tourism Minister Nazri Aziz had all visited Anwar days after his surgery in November.
"When Nazri Aziz visited him, he didn't get approval either. He was just allowed in. So why should this be any different?" Nurul asked.
"There is no consistency. Mahathir has expressed his intention to visit my father. We informed the authorities, prisons department in Sungai Buloh and headquarters," she said, adding, "There was no official response, but word got to us that he would not be allowed to visit."
PH officials told BenarNews this was the first opportunity for Mahathir to visit his once-bitter foe. Their last known meeting was on Sept. 5, 2016, during Anwar's challenge of a new National Security Council act.
"Anwar has a long history of confrontation with me and it's not easy for him to accept the consensus of approving me as the next prime minister should PH win in the coming general election. It is a big thing," Mahathir said.


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BENARNEWS- The Philippines will seek a pardon from the Malaysian king to spare nine Filipinos from the gallows, after Malaysia's highest court upheld death sentences for their roles in a deadly incursion in Sabah state in 2013, Philippine officials said Tuesday.

A five-member Federal Court panel sided unanimously Monday with a lower court's decision last year to hand capital sentences to the nine. 

They were charged with "waging war against the King of Malaysia" when some 200 gunmen from Sulu, a province in the southern Philippines, arrived by boat and occupied the coastline of neighboring Sabah before Malaysian forces put down the uprising and expelled them. 

"The Philippine Government has extended legal and other forms of assistance to all of them ... and will continue to extend assistance to them as their case progresses. The embassy legal team is now also initiating the appeal for clemency to the King," the Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers' Affairs at the Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. 

The standoff resulted in fighting that left 72 people dead, including 56 gunmen and 10 members of the Malaysian security forces. The gunmen claimed to be members of the "Royal Army of Sulu" who demanded that Malaysia recognize them as representatives of the Sulu Sultanate that used to rule Sabah. 

Monday's court decision means that only a royal pardon can save the nine Filipinos from execution. 

N. Sivananthan, a Malaysian criminal lawyer who is being paid by the Philippine government to represent the nine, confirmed that Manila was moving to apply for a royal pardon in order to commute their death sentences to life terms in prison.  

"Yes, we have received instructions to write for a royal pardon as the nine were not directly involved in the killings or in the battle against the Malaysian security forces," Sivananthan told BenarNews on Tuesday, saying the instructions had come from the Philippine embassy.

"We expect to submit the pardon documents by February after getting full instructions, with support from the government of Philippines and Royal Sultanate of Sulu," the attorney added.

Founded in 1405, the Sultanate of Sulu ruled the islands in the Sulu Archipelago, parts of Mindanao in the southern Philippines and parts of Borneo, including Sabah, until about the early 1800s. Sabah was incorporated into Malaysia in 1963, but the country still pays token rent to the Sulu Sultanate on an annual basis.

Many Filipinos migrated to Sabah during the 1970s to escape from armed conflict between government forces and secessionist guerrillas in the southern Philippines. About 800,000 Filipinos live in Sabah, whose population is more than 3.5 million.  

Felipe Villamor in Manila contributed to this report.

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BENARNEWS- Malaysian police announced Tuesday they had filed charges in the case of missing Pastor Raymond Koh Keng Joo, and a human rights fact-finding panel said it had suspended its inquiry into the kidnapping.
Surveillance cameras recorded the 62-year-old priest being snatched in broad daylight from a road in the suburbs of Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 13, 2017, when SUVs and motorcycles forced his car to stop and men in black face masks whisked him away. Koh's kidnapping took less than a minute and was witnessed by several other drivers who reported it to police.
Malaysian national Lam Chang Nam was charged Monday under section 365 of the country's penal code at a court in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia's police chief Mohamad Fuzi Harun said in a statement. Section 365 concerns kidnapping and abduction.
"He is suspected of involvement with seven others who are still at large, in kidnapping Pastor Raymond Koh Keng Joo early last year," the statement said.
"The investigation into the disappearance of Pastor Raymond Koh is still ongoing and police have found a new lead linking Lam Chang Nam with the case."
The statement did not say what the new evidence was or whether Koh had been found.
Meanwhile, the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) announced it had halted a public inquiry into Koh's kidnapping after receiving instructions from police to do so.
The agency had launched its probe due to an apparent lack of progress in the case, which, some witnesses said, bore the hallmarks of a police operation.
"We were surprised by this development. We had not heard anything about this until yesterday," Commissioner Mah Weng Kwai said at Suhakam's offices on Tuesday, when the 12th hearing of the inquiry had been scheduled to take place.
A letter from Fuzi on Monday called for the hearing to be halted due to the arrest of a suspect, he said. The charter of the government rights body requires it to stop inquiries on cases that are being prosecuted.
"We decided to stop the investigation until further notice," Mah said.
"A suspect was charged at Petaling Jaya Court on January 15. He was arrested on Jan. 12. We don't know whether he was remanded or released on bail."
Suhakam's decision questioned
According to the media outlet MalaysiaKini, the charge sheet said Lam was a 31-year-old part- time Uber driver, who carried out the kidnapping along with seven other people still at-large at about 10:25 a.m. on Feb. 13 last year.
If convicted, he could face up to seven years in jail, and a fine.
Lam's lawyer, Aaron Mark Pius, confirmed that his client had been charged but said he had pleaded not guilty, according to media reports.
In March 2017, Lam had entered the same plea to a charge of attempting to extort 30,000 Malaysian ringgit (U.S. $7,575) from Koh's son to free his father.
At an earlier court hearing, the head of the Selangor State criminal investigations department, Fadzil Ahmat, said Lim had nothing to do with the Koh's kidnapping but had taken advantage of it to commit extortion.
A three-member inquiry panel set up by Suhakam had already subpoenaed about 15 people, including former national police chief Khalid Abu Bakar, and it planned to question 35 others.
Koh family lawyer Gurdial Singh questioned Suhakam's decision. "Even if it's true there is a suspect involved in the case, our question is broader, concerning whether authorities are telling the truth in the disappearance of Pastor Koh," he said.
Koh's wife, Susanna Liew, said police had not informed her of the new development in the case.
"It's very surprising for our family. We didn't expect it to happen because our hope was for Suhakam to find the answers," she said.
'We have to be realistic'
Lawyer Andrew Koh of the Malaysian Bar Association said all concerned parties had to accept the latest turn of events in the case.
"We have to be realistic about the requirements of the law, which place the jurisdiction of the commission lower than the jurisdiction of the courts," he said.
But he stressed that the probe into other disappearances should be continued, and Mah said Suhakam would keep investigating the cases of activist Amri Che Mat and Pastor Joshua Hilmi and his wife Ruth Sitepu.
Koh's disappearance at first looked like an isolated case, but as it gained attention, other cases of missing Malaysians came to light.
Amri, co-founder of a local NGO and resident of the state of Perlis, was last seen on Nov. 24, 2016. His disappearance may have been religiously motivated based on allegations he was spreading Shia Muslim teachings, which are frowned upon in the Sunni Muslim-majority country, according to local media reports.
On Nov. 30, 2016, Hilmi and his wife, Ruth, both Christian preachers, were last seen at their home in Selangor state. A missing-person report, however, was not filed until March 6, officials said.
Blog postings claimed the couple had been Muslims before becoming Christians and converted others to the religion.
More than 60 percent of Malaysia's 19.5 million citizens are Muslims.


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BENARNEWS- Two Southeast Asian women will return to a Malaysian courtroom on Monday following a seven-week break as their trial resumes on charges that they murdered the half-brother of North Korea's dictator, with prosecutors expecting to rest their case by March.
The defendants, Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, face a mandatory death sentence under Malaysian law, if convicted of murdering Kim Jong Nam. They stand accused of killing him in a chemical weapon attack at a Kuala Lumpur airport, by accosting him and smearing the nerve agent VX on his face, on Feb. 13, 2017.
The women pleaded not guilty and have claimed they thought they were taking part in a prank for a reality TV show. Four North Korean men, who were named as suspects by Malaysian police, fled Malaysia on the day of the attack at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2.
Prosecutor Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin described the case as difficult for both sides.
"It is still an uphill battle for us, still 50-50. But again, action speaks louder than words and the burden is on them to prove that it was a prank," Wan Shaharuddin told BenarNews.
The trial, which began in October at the Shah Alam High Court and was last in session on Nov. 30, is expected to resume with defense attorneys cross examining the lead police investigator. The schedule calls for court sessions to be held on five days in January, two in February and four in March.
Prior to the break, prosecutors had called 26 witnesses and could call another 20 as the trial resumes.
"I think by March we can wrap up the case. The only key witness left is the investigating officer," Wan Shaharuddin said.
'There are many gaps'
Lead investigating officer Wan Azirul Nizam Che Wan Aziz previously testified that Doan, 29, and Siti Aisyah, 26, were caught on the airport's surveillance cameras attacking Kim at about 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 13, before fleeing into restrooms and then heading to the airport's taxi terminal. He also testified about the four North Korean men who were investigated for their potential roles in the killing.
Doan attorney Hisyam Teh Poh Teik said the defense was looking forward to cross-examining Wan Azirul.
"I have many things to ask him. There are many gaps. We are looking at three days for cross-examination. The defense counsel for Siti Aisyah, Gooi Soon Seng will cross-examine the IO [Investigating Officer] first, then me," he told BenarNews on Friday.
The investigator is one of three key witnesses who are equally important to the prosecution and defense teams, Hisyam said. The others have already testified.
"To us, the most important person and the most crucial time period during this trial is when the IO is being called to testify," he said.
He said the defense was hoping that the court does not call the defendants to take the stand, but if that happens, he has four or five other witnesses to call.
"It's too premature to talk about the witnesses. But Doan's full defense will be known when we cross-examine the IO," he said.
The defense team has argued that the murder of the estranged half-sibling of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un was politically motivated, and therefore an assassination, because at least three of the men named as suspects were driven to the airport in a minivan bought by a North Korean embassy official.
Siti Aisyah's attorney told the Associated Press on Friday the defense's efforts had been hampered by missing evidence, specifically Kim Jong Nam's mobile phone, which was returned to North Korea with his body weeks after his death.
"The content of his phone is vital because it could show how he arrived at the airport, who he linked up with in Malaysia, what actually happened. Until now, there is no evidence of possible debts, love affairs or revenge that could cause someone to take his life," Gooi said. "We are saying it's a political assassination because of the involvement of the North Korean Embassy."


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian authorities on Monday announced the arrests of two men suspected of links to the Islamic State (IS), including an Indonesian man who allegedly tried to stab Buddhist monks to retaliate for atrocities against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
Police chief Mohamad Fuzi Harun said the country's counter-terrorist unit arrested the suspects last month and on Jan. 17 in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.
Also on Monday, a former factory supervisor who pleaded guilty to charges related to attempting to travel to Syria in February 2017 to join IS was sentenced to eight years in prison. Mohamad Awang, 42, who was charged on Nov. 13, 2017, could have faced a life sentence of 30 years.
"The most recent arrest involves a 23-year-old Indonesian construction worker who was planning to launch attacks on the Bukit Aman (national) police headquarters, as well as the Travers police station, to seize firearms from their armories," Fuzi said. "The suspect had also planned to steal firearms from other police stations and army camps, to be used in attacks in Malaysia and Indonesia."
In a statement released Monday night, Fuzi discussed the Indonesian suspect's failed attempt to attack Buddhists.
"In November, the suspect went on a surveillance run in Jalan Pudu (Kuala Lumpur), armed with a knife, hoping to come across any Buddhist monks to kill in retaliation to the massacre of the Muslim Rohingya community in Myanmar," Fuzi said.
At least 655,000 Rohingya fled from a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine state beginning in late August 2017 following attacks on government security posts by a Rohingya insurgent group. Overall, about 1 million Rohingya refugees are sheltering in Bangladesh, including those who fled earlier waves of violence.
Malaysia is one of the countries that has shown its support for Rohingya, a Muslim-minority group, and on many occasions, called for action to be taken.
Fuzi said the suspect had pledged his allegiance to a senior IS leader over WhatsApp and attempted to recruit other Indonesians to join the group.
"The suspect also had put up an IS flag at a construction site where he worked to prove that the terror group is still active in Malaysia despite defeats in Iraq and Syria," he said without disclosing the location of the site.
December arrest
On Dec. 23, a 25-year-old teacher at a private religious school near Kuala Lumpur was arrested after being released from prison 13 months earlier, Fuzi said.
"He was previously held under the Security Offenses (Special Measures) Act 2012 and had been released from an 18-month jail sentence on Nov 9, 2016," he added.
Fuzi said the suspect became an active IS member and had planned attacks in Kuala Lumpur.
"The suspect was planning to launch attacks on entertainment centers in the Klang Valley, and had also planned to rob, kidnap or kill non-Muslims based on his understanding that non-Muslims in Malaysia are infidels and their blood is halal (permissible) to shed," Fuzi said.
The suspect was promoting IS's Salafi Jihadi ideology on Facebook to attract new members, according to Fuzi. He was found to be in contact with former IS members and the militant group Kumpulan Militan Malaysia.
Over the last four years, Malaysian authorities arrested 371 people for suspected links to terror groups, including 71 foreigners, according to government statistics.
Malaysia, home to about 32 million people including 19.5 million Muslims, has foiled at least nine IS-related bomb plots since 2013 including one that targeted the Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur in August 2017, police said. Militants were successful in June 2016, when an IS-linked grenade attack injured eight people at a nightclub in Puchong, near Kuala Lumpur.
Thirty-four Malaysian have been reported killed while fighting for IS in Iraq and Syria. Another 24 men, 12 women and 17 children are believed to be in Syria, but may have fled from cities where battles took place, according to Malaysian police.
Hata Wahari in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Returning to court on Monday after a seven-week hiatus, the prosecutors of two Southeast Asian women charged with murdering Kim Jong Nam called computer technicians to verify CCTV footage taken during and after last year's chemical attack.
Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong face a death sentence if convicted of fatally poisoning the estranged half-brother of North Korea's dictator by smearing VX nerve agent on his face at a Kuala Lumpur area airport on Feb. 13, 2017.
Lead prosecutor Muhammad Iskandar Ahmad told the Shah Alam High Court that four witnesses were expected to testify this week before lead investigating officer (IO) Wan Azirul Nizam Che Wan Aziz returned to the stand for cross examination. Before the long pause in the trial, he testified about the two women being seen on CCTV footage attacking Kim before fleeing to airport restrooms and then heading to a taxi terminal.
"We hope to resolve the testimony of all [prosecution] witnesses by March," Iskandar told reporters following the court session. The schedule calls for sessions to be held on four more days in January, two in February and four in March before the defense presents its case.
The defendants claim they thought they were participating in a game show. Four North Korean men who have been named suspects and were seen on CCTV videos at the airport, fled from Malaysia after the attack.
Last week, defense attorneys said they planned to build the case for their clients through their cross-examination of Wan Azirul.
"It's too premature to talk about the witnesses. But Doan's full defense will be known when we cross-examine the IO," Doan attorney Hisyam Teh Poh Teik told BenarNews.
He said the defense hoped the court did not call the defendants to testify, but if that happened, he had four or five other witnesses to call.
On Monday, the technicians testified about how they had downloaded CCTV footage during and after the attack and passed along disks with the footage to investigators. The defense teams had challenged the disks' admissibility, claiming they were created after the women were arrested.


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BENARNEWS- Both parents must consent to religious conversions of children, Malaysia's highest court ruled Monday in deciding that a former Hindu man's unilateral conversion of their three offspring to Islam had violated their mother's constitutional rights.
Determining that the Constitutional definition of "parent" is plural, a five-member bench of the Federal Court of Appeal ruled for kindergarten teacher M. Indira Gandhi, 43, a Hindu. Her former husband, a Muslim convert also converted their children to Islam without her consent nine years ago.
Justice Zulkefli Ahmad Makinuddin, the court of appeal president who led the panel, said the "court unanimously decided that the conversion of non-Muslim children must get the consent of both parents."
Monday's ruling, which followed a nearly decade-long court battle, declared a Muslim court's certification of conversion for the three children – now ages 20, 19 and 9 years old – to be null and void.
Gandhi's ex-husband, Muhammad Riduan Abdullah, 47, formerly known as K. Pathmanathan, converted the children to Islam on March 11, 2009, without her knowledge and left the house three weeks later with their youngest child.
Malaysia has a dual legal system where its Islamic courts, which hear cases of family disputes and inheritance involving Muslims, run parallel with the nation's civil courts. Non-Muslims have no right to appear in Islamic Courts – contributing to messy interfaith custody battles.
"We find that the Registrar of Muallafs (Muslim converts) had no jurisdiction to issue the certificates of conversion in respect to the conversion of the children to Islam," Justice Zainun Ali said when reading the judgment.
In its ruling, the court affirmed that the term "parent" should be plural and be read as "parents," according to Zainun.
"It is noted that in translating Article 12 (4) of the Federal Constitution, it would appear that the real essence of the English version is eluded. It is literally a case of being lost in translation," Zainun said.
The article states the religion of a person under the age of 18 years shall be decided by "his or her parent or guardian." Prior to the ruling, disputes focused on an argument that consent of just one parent could suffice.
While the Malaysian government previously pledged to resolve such cases, there is no law or mechanism in place to stop a parent converting a child unilaterally.
The decision signals that the rights of religious minorities are protected, senior lawyer Mohd Haniff Khatri said. The country is 60 percent Muslim and has sizeable minorities of other religions including Buddhists, Hindus and Christians.
"The minorities may look at this as a God-sent judgment in their favor," he told BenarNews.
Reunion sought
Gandhi wants to reunite with her youngest daughter, Prasana Diksa, whom she had not seen since the child was converted to Islam in 2009.
She has contact with her elder children, Tevi Darsiny, 21, and Karan Dinish, 20, while her ex-husband has custody of their youngest child.
"The sad part is my daughter is still missing, I can't see her. I really want to hold her, it's been nine years. Even when we have won this case, she is not with us," Indira told journalists outside the courtroom.
Thanking her legal team and the court, Gandhi called on Malaysian police to track down her ex-husband and hand over Prasana.
"He has to start acting right now," she said, referring to Police Inspector-General Mohamad Fuzi Harun.
Fuzi said he would abide by the court's decision and would continue to look for Riduan, adding that a warrant had been in effect since 2014. Police sent two letters in 2017 to Gandhi's lawyer to keep her informed on efforts to locate her former husband and their daughter.
"The Malaysian police again ask for the cooperation of the public with any information on Patmanathan (alias Krishnan Muhammad and Riduan Bin Abdullah) to come forward and assist the police in solving the case," Fuzi said in a statement.
Azalina Othman, a minister in the Prime Minister's Department in charge of law, said the Malaysian government was calling on all parties to respect the ruling.
"I believe today's decision also took into consideration racial harmony and the equal rights of the parents as provided under the Child Custody Act 1961," she said in a statement.
Civil rights group Bebas (Freedom) called on state Islamic authorities to amend procedures so that consent of both parents is required for minors to have their registrations changed to Muslim.
"Bebas calls on federal government to amend the federal Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act and for the state governments of Perak, Kedah, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Sarawak, Perlis, Pahang and Kelantan to also amend the respective state Islamic enactments in those states, to explicitly state that the consent of both parents is required to convert a child below 18 years of age to Islam," the group said in a statement.
Five other state Islamic authorities require the consent of both parents.


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BENARNEWS- A Southeast Asian woman charged with murdering Kim Jong Nam, the North Korean dictator's estranged half-brother, was paid for performing pranks at a mall in the weeks prior to his killing, a Malaysian court heard Tuesday.
Indonesian Siti Aisyah received 400 ringgit (U.S. $102) in January 2017 after performing a series of pranks outside a Malaysian mall, lead investigator Wan Azirul Nizam Che Wan Aziz testified during cross examination.
Wan Azirul's statement appears to bolster the defense claim that the woman was hoodwinked into believing that she was performing for a TV show when she helped smear a liquid substance on Kim's face at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 on Feb. 13, 2017.
Prosecutors were trying to prove that Siti, along with 29-year-old Vietnamese woman Doan Thi Huong, smeared the deadly VX nerve agent on Kim Jong Nam's face after receiving training from North Korean agents.
But the women have pleaded not guilty, always maintaining through their lawyers that they believed they were being paid to perform a televised prank.
Defense lawyer Gooi Soon Seng told reporters after the conclusion of Wan Azirul's testimony that Siti met a Malaysian taxi driver who introduced her to a North Korean national identified as James (also known as Ri Ji U).
"At the Pavilion mall, Siti Aisyah was asked to watch a prank show done by another person and, subsequently, Siti Aisyah performed three pranks on the day itself and the prank was recorded by James," Gooi said.
Testifying for the prosecution in November, Wan Azirul said he had asked the North Korean embassy for permission to interview James, but did not receive an answer. James was one of three men deported to Pyongyang in March 2017 in a diplomatic tradeoff between the two nations at the same time Kim's body was returned to the hermit kingdom.
Four other North Korean men who were seen on CCTV footage at the airport and were identified as suspects fled Malaysia hours after the attack that killed dictator Kim Jong Un's estranged sibling.
Testimony
In court on Tuesday, Gooi asked Wan Azirul about Siti's meeting with James, who was posing as a Japanese.
"I'm suggesting that taxi driver Kamarudin Masyod had approached the accused around 3 a.m. on Jan. 5, 2017, at the Beach Club in Kuala Lumpur," Gooi said.
"I agree but I'm not sure of the dates," Wan Azirul testified.
Gooi asked if the club meeting between Siti and Kamarudin was about an offer for Siti to act in a prank show and that the two met with James eight hours later at the mall.
"Yes, I agree," Wan Azirul replied.
He also asked if Kamarudin had witnessed Siti practicing pranks that day.
"Yes, I agree," the officer said.
As evidence, Gooi produced a photo showing Siti, James and Kamarudin at the mall together.
The trial is to resume on Feb. 8.
On Monday, Gooi questioned Wan Azirul about a meeting between Kim Jong Nam and a man identified as a "Korean-American based in Bangkok," four days before the airport murder. The investigator told reporters he could not identify the man.
Wan Azirul confirmed that a laptop was sent to a forensics laboratory in Kuala Lumpur. He said it was last used on Feb. 9, 2017, but was unsure if Kim had passed along data to the man during the meeting or if the meeting was linked to the airport killing.
Gooi accused Wan Azirul of being evasive.
"Come on, you have a total lapse in memory?" he asked the witness, according to media reports. "You say you investigated but you've forgotten everything? Which hotel? What was this investigation for, if it wasn't related to this case?"
Following Tuesday's court session, Gooi expressed confidence in the defense case.
"Because so far we have not found anything that connects our client to the incident," he said.


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BENARNEWS- In Ampang, a high-rent district in Kuala Lumpur, a studio and newsroom of a Rohingya-run operation churn out online broadcasts about dramatic developments in Myanmar's Rakhine state for an audience of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and beyond.
Because access for journalists to Rakhine, the home of the stateless ethnic group, is tightly controlled by Myanmar's government, Rohingya Vision TV as it calls itself relies on a network of dozens of anonymous local stringers and sources to feed it information and images about the news there, said Muhammad Noor, the channel's  managing director and co-founder.
"We think that we can't wait for international media to come and ask for our stories. We need to have our own media so we can tell our version of the story," the 36-year-old Rohingya, who is based in Kuala Lumpur, told BenarNews.
The five-year-old operation, which disseminates news about goings-on in Rakhine state, southeastern Bangladesh where 1 million Rohingya refugees are concentrated, and other countries, reaches its audience through its own website and social media platforms including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Rohingya Vision TV counts 92,000 subscribers on its YouTube channel alone.
Rohingya Vision TV, which boasts that it is "the world's first Rohingya TV channel and network," is one of at least five Rohingya-language news sites operating on YouTube and geared for the Rohingya diaspora, as seen by BenarNews.
On Wednesday, the channel aired its "Rohingya Daily News" program on YouTube, an 11-minute video, which opened with a gleaming opening sequence that cut to an anchor presenting the day's headlines in the Rohingya language. The video said it was "brought to you by the Rohingya Business Club."
The Jan. 31 program led with a report about "Buddhist terrorists" allegedly torching more houses in northern Rakhine, followed by a report about Myanmar and Bangladesh saying they had agreed to include the U.N.'s refugee agency (UNHCR) in their bilateral deal to repatriate hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees to Rakhine from Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.
The day's news also featured a report about the grand imam of the Baitul Muqadda, otherwise known as the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, distributing relief supplies to refugees during a visit to Cox's Bazar.
Government officials in Myanmar have rejected widespread allegations from refugees and human rights groups that Myanmar security forces committed large-scale atrocities against Rohingya civilians, although the United Nations and United States branded a military crackdown in Rakhine since August 2017 as "ethnic cleansing." The crackdown forced at least 655,000 Rohingya to flee from Rakhine to southeastern Bangladesh.

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In this screen grab from a YouTube video, Ajmeer Omar presents the news during Wednesday's Rohingya Vision TV broadcast, Jan. 31, 2018. [BenarNews]

 
Four languages, 6 countries
The news operation employs nearly 100 people in six countries and produces content in four languages: Rohingya, English, Burmese and Arabic. Apart from Malaysia, which is home to a large Rohingya expatriate community, the operation is officially headquartered in Saudi Arabia and has offices and studios in Cox's Bazar – home to the refugee camps in Bangladesh – as well as in Pakistan and Cyprus, Muhammad Noor said.
He declined to go into detail about the channel's sources of funding, other than to say it was started in 2012 by a group of Rohingya entrepreneurs amid a wave of inter-ethnic violence in Rakhine that caused another influx of Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh.
When the operation began, "we called on some Rohingya merchants to fund our project, to buy some computers, production equipment, and put the team together," Muhammad Noor said in a phone interview. He said the network was looking to get more financial backing, including from sources outside the Rohingya community.
"For now, we have enough. But we are expanding, and we definitely need more funders to support us," Muhammad Noor said.
In its first year, "RVision," as he referred to it, gathered Rohingya who possessed media skills, such as video editors and cameramen.
The operation started out with ambitions of setting up a radio station catering to Rohingya, but it proved to be too difficult to get the physical infrastructure in place in Rakhine, he said.
"Why we call RVision a network is because we have three news agencies, online TV, satellite TV, and also an online magazine," he told Benar.
"We communicate with many international NGOs to provide them with factual data, so that they can convert [this] into a report, which is part of the advocacy," he added.
More than half of the operation's staff is based in Rakhine but it has no office there, according to Muhammad Noor.
The identities of the network's correspondents in the field there are kept secret to protect them, he said.
"It's not like in Malaysia or any other country. They cannot wear a tag and go around saying, 'you know, I am an RVision reporter. I want to go here and there.' They cannot do that," he said, adding that the reporters do not travel around Rakhine but only report "secretly and quietly" about happenings in their localities.

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Presenter and journalist Ajmeer Omar records a stand-up report at the Rohingya Vision TV studio in Ampang, Kuala Lumpur. [Courtesy of Rohingya Vision TV]

 
'Only source of news'
The news broadcast by RVision reaches refugees in Bangladesh through their mobile phones.
"We cannot watch any television here in the camps. So we depend on RVision on the YouTube for developments about Rohingya," Anwar Sadique, who lives at the Lombashiar refugee camp in Ukhia, a sub-district of Cox's Bazar, told BenarNews.
"We can see the news about the Rohingya in Myanmar from RVision. This is a good source of our information. To judge the authenticity of its news, we call our brothers in Arakan (Rakhine)," he added.
Abdur  Rahman, a resident of Kutupalong refugee camp, said the news channel was his "only source of news on Burma," referring to Myanmar by its other name.
"We, the people, believe this channel," he told BenarNews.
Kamran Reza Chowdhury in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian authorities on Monday said they recovered explosives, guns, ammunition and a small amount of methamphetamine during weekend raids in northern Kelantan state that led to the arrests of six Thai nationals.
The suspects, between the ages of 19 and 55, are all related and include two married couples from Thailand's insurgency-stricken Deep South, according to police. The six were arrested following two raids Saturday morning raids on houses in Ketereh, a town along Kelantan's border with the Deep South.
"Investigations revealed that the bomb was not related to Daesh and we believe that they wanted to use the explosive for their protection (from authorities)," state police Chief Hasanuddin Hassan said, using a different term for the extremist group Islamic State. "We also believe the guns were used by the suspects for protection as they were involved in drug trafficking."
All six had entered Malaysia illegally and began renting the houses in the middle of last year, Hasanuddin said. The suspects are under remand until Feb. 10.
A team from the state police narcotics department raided the first house around 2:30 a.m. Saturday, arresting a married couple, ages 23 and 19, and a man, 39. Police recovered three pistols and explosive components including an electronic circuit board, batteries, sulphur and firecrackers, along with methamphetamine valued at 150 ringgit (U.S. $38.50).
"Kelantan state police's bomb disposal unit was deployed to inspect the home-made explosive device," Hasanuddin said.
The second raid occurred about 4:40 a.m. and led to the arrests of another couple and a woman between the ages of 31 and 55. Police recovered a fourth gun, 164 rounds of ammunition, methamphetamine valued at 100 ringgit ($25.70) and bomb-making components, according to Hasanuddin.
"We believe the seized items were smuggled through an illegal base at the Malaysia-Thailand border in Kelantan," he said.
Police: Suspects rented handguns to others
Police believe the handguns were smuggled into Malaysia after the suspects bought them for between 5,000 ringgit ($1,283) and 6,000 ringgit ($1,539) each, Hasanuddin said.
"We believe they also rented their handguns to locals, but we are still investigating whether they had been used in drug or other criminal activities," he said.
A security official in the Thai Deep South said the six had stayed in Kelantan illegally for nearly a year and the handguns likely were purchased and brought across the border through Sungai Kolok town to Kelantan.
The Malaysia-Thai border that runs through Kelantan and the neighboring northern states of Perlis, Kedah and Perak is infamous for smuggling activities involving drugs and weapons.
The Deep South has seen nearly 7,000 people – many of them civilians – killed in violence between Muslim and Malay-speaking separatists and the government since 2004.
Since 2015, Thailand's military-controlled government has held exploratory talks with MARA Patani, a panel that claims to represent all rebel groups in the region. But those negotiations, facilitated by Malaysia, have failed to produce a limited ceasefire seen as a crucial first step in settling the conflict.


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BENARNEWS- Two plays performed near Kuala Lumpur this month, including a retelling of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," offered a new twist at looking at staged dramas: both were directed and acted by casts of refugees from war-torn and strife-ridden countries.
The twin-billed "Romeo and Juliet 2000+" and "Screaming in Silence," which featured performances by people who had fled upheavals in Afghanistan, Syria, Libya and other places, were presented at the Damansara Performing Arts Center (DPAC) in Petaling Jaya, Selangor on Feb. 1-3, according to organizers of the plays.
The real-life refugees behind these plays who are sheltering in Malaysia belong to the Theatrefugee and Parastoo troupes. These seek to give playgoers an appreciation for the plight of people affected by conflict and to give refugees an opportunity to express themselves through the medium of dramatic arts, production managers said.
"I'm still going through some challenges but I've decided to channel my energy into something more positive in art, culture and society," Saleh Sepas, a 35-year-old theater director from Afghanistan who directed "Screaming in Silence," told BenarNews.
The refugee-run theater companies receive management and production support from the Geutanyoe Foundation, a humanitarian charity that was established in Aceh, Indonesia in 1999.
The two productions were funded through a seed grant from the Malaysian office of the U.N.'s refugee agency, UNHCR, as well as public donations to Theatrefugee and Parastoo funneled by the Geutanyoe Foundation. Proceeds from the performances will fund programs to support Rohingya women and other projects backed by Theatrefugee.
The Queen consort of the Malaysian state of Johore, Raja Zarith Sofiah, donated 100 tickets to refugees in Malaysia so they could attend the plays.
"Geutanyoe Foundation is proud to work with these two talented refugee theater troupes as part of our refugee arts program. The directors are highly professional and the actors are very hardworking and talented," Lilianne Fan, Geutanyoe's co-founder, told BenarNews.
The productions of the two plays debunked a dominant perception that refugees are always helpless victims, Fan said.

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A scene from "Romeo and Juliet 2000+," played by refugees at the Damansara Performing Arts Center near Kuala Lumpur, Feb. 3, 2018.Courtesy of the Geutanyoe Foundation

 
Death 'could take you at any moment'
Sepas, who is from Kabul, said he and his family were forced to escape from Afghanistan and come to Malaysia in 2016 after the Taliban had threatened them. The journey was not easy, he said.
"Screaming in Silence," an original play that Sepas also wrote, explores the tragic tale of a 12-year-old Afghan girl forced by her father into marriage to an older man as a result of a gambling debt.
The play ends with the protagonist running away only to realize that the very institutions responsible for enforcing the law have failed to protect her rights.
Life as a refugee is a frustrating and depressing one, according to Sepas, but he said he hoped his plays could provide an outlet for refugees to reflect on their experiences, as well as "be entertained while entertaining others."
As of December 2017, more than 152,000 refugees and asylum-seekers were registered with UNHCR in Malaysia. More than 133,000 were from Myanmar, officials said.
Despite the number of refugees and immigrants, the stage directors said they were having difficulty casting the right actresses to play certain roles.
"I have been trying hard to choose actresses among Afghan women and girls. It was hard because nobody had a strong desire for theater and my actors had no prior knowledge of the principle of acting and theater," Sepas said.
"Romeo and Juliet 2000+" was directed by Omar Alkhammash, a 19-year-old artist and refugee from Syria.
Alkhammash, a professional musician, said he learned to play the oud, a pear-shaped Middle Eastern stringed instrument, and piano when he was nine years old. He began performing around Syria when he was 15.
The first theater production he was involved in co-directing was at the Syrian Private University in 2012, following the killings of several students there. It was at university where he fell in love with the power of theater to "communicate messages in a pure and inspiring way."

The Syrian war, Alkhammash said, molded his experience of "being alive."
"When you live in war, with the constant threat of being killed, at some point you don't care anymore about whether you will live or die," Alkhammash, the creative director of Theatrefugee, told BenarNews. "What you care about is how you live until you die because death could come and take you at any moment."


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian police arrested 11 Uyghurs who escaped from a Thai immigration detention center in November 2017 and Chinese officials are demanding they be returned to Beijing, security officials said Thursday.
The escapees have been interrogated but were not believed to be linked to any terrorist groups, according to two Malaysian security officials who provided the information to BenarNews separately on condition of anonymity.
They said the 11 men were among the 20 Uyghurs who broke out of their detention cells in southern Thailand. Officials said at the time that the escapees may have crossed into neighboring Malaysia.
"Yes, China had demanded for them to be returned to the country," one of the Malaysian sources said, confirming a Reuters report Thursday that unidentified Chinese officials were in contact with Kuala Lumpur to arrange the possible repatriation of the Uyghurs who fear persecution and abuse on their return home.
Malaysian officials did not give BenarNews details about when the Uyghurs were taken into custody.
Muslim Uyghurs are from China's western Xinjiang region where, rights groups said, heavy-handed rule by authorities had forced many of them to flee abroad.
The Malaysian sources declined to provide more details due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Some Western foreign missions were trying to dissuade the Malaysian government from sending the Uyghurs to China, according to Reuters.
"They (Malaysia) are under great pressure from China to hand them over to China and not to Thailand," one of the Reuters sources said.
In Washington on Thursday, a U.S. State Department official said American officials were "concerned by media reports regarding Malaysia's possible deportation of Uyghur individuals to China."
"We urge Chinese authorities to uphold international human rights norms with regard to any individuals who have been returned to China, and to ensure transparency, due process, and the safety and proper treatment of these individuals," the official told BenarNews.
The 20 escapees were among the more than 200 Uyghurs who were detained in 2014 after they were found at the Tone Nga-Chang waterfall in Thailand's Songkhla province. It was not clear how they had reached the area.
The Uyghurs, who speak a Turkic language, claimed then that they were Turkish and demanded they be allowed to travel to Turkey, but Thailand kept them under detention as authorities tried to verify their citizenship.
Tighter relations under Najib
Malaysia, which has tightened bilateral relations with China in recent years under Prime Minister Najib Razak, said in November it would send one escapee who was arrested back to Thailand.
But in 2011 and 2012, Kuala Lumpur drew criticism from human rights groups and the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR), when it repatriated two groups of Uyghurs to China, including those awaiting processing of their refugee claims.
China regularly conducts "strike hard" campaigns in Xinjiang, including police raids on Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on the culture and language of the Uyghur people, including videos and other material.

While China blames some Uyghurs for "terrorist" attacks, experts outside China say Beijing has exaggerated the threat from the Uyghurs and that repressive domestic policies are responsible for an upsurge in violence there that has left hundreds dead since 2009.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters in Beijing that he did not know of the case, but added that his country would cooperate with relevant countries.
China, he said, will crack down on illegal immigration activities in accordance with the law, to jointly protect regional security and stability.
Meanwhile on Thursday, Dolkun Isa, president of the Germany-based World Uyghur Congress, urged Malaysia not to return the 11 escapees to China and respect the international principle of non-refoulement by working with the UNHCR and resettling the refugees to a safe third country.
"Once these Uyghurs are handed over to the Chinese authorities, they will face immediate imprisonment, torture, disappearance or even death," he told the Uyghur Service of Radio Free Asia (RFA), a sister entity of BenarNews. "Previous Uyghur refugees deported by Malaysia to China have simply vanished."
Roni Toldanes in Washington contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- An Indonesian woman standing trial in Malaysia on a charge of murdering the North Korean dictator's half-brother last year practiced a series of pranks and was rewarded with a trip to Cambodia prior to the killing, her lawyer argued in court on Friday.
The attorney for Siti Aisyah presented text messages to paint his client as an unwitting participant in what she thought was a prank for a reality TV show, during the deadly attack with a nerve agent against Kim Jong Nam at a Kuala Lumpur area airport on Feb. 13, 2017.
"The significance of today's evidence is that we are telling the court that this girl was tricked into doing these pranks and persuaded to go to the airport on Feb. 13. So we have to show why Siti Aisyah was at the airport on that day and the rest is up to the prosecution to prove that she in fact committed the murder," defense lawyer Gooi Soon Seng told the court.
"People will lie, but circumstances will not lie and we continue to show the consistency of this through this corroboration through text messages," he said.
Prosecutors have charged Siti and co-defendant Doan Thi Huong, 29, of Vietnam, with murder for allegedly smearing VX nerve agent on Kim's face after receiving training from North Korean agents who later fled Malaysia. The women could be executed, if convicted of the charge.
Siti received 1,500 ringgit (U.S. $380) in January 2017 to purchase tickets to Phnom Penh from a North Korean national identified as James (also known as Ri Ji U), who allegedly set up the prank scam, lead investigator Wan Azirul Nizam Che Wan Aziz testified.
Gooi said Siti flew to the Cambodian capital on Jan. 21, 2017, and met James there. Wan Azirul said the trip occurred the next day.
Previously, Wan Azirul had testified that Siti was paid 400 ringgit ($101) by James after performing a prank on Jan. 5, 2017, at a mall in Kuala Lumpur.
On Friday, Gooi asked Wan Azirul if Siti performed another prank the next day with James and Malaysian taxi driver Kamarudin Masyod at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), a terminal next to Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 where Kim was killed.
The lawyer also said she performed four more pranks at two hotels and two shopping malls in Kuala Lumpur in the weeks before the murder.
Wan Azirul said Siti told investigators about the pranks but there was no CCTV evidence that they occurred.
Text messages
Gooi presented a series of text messages to bolster the defense's claim that the Indonesian woman was hoodwinked into performing what she thought was a prank.
In one text conversation dated Jan. 11, 2017, Siti asked James: "Today no job?" and received a response: "Maybe tomorrow or the day after because my boss is not here at the moment. I will call you tomorrow to confirm."
In another text conversation four days later, Siti wrote "I see today I acting no good right?" referring to a prank around the Petronas Twin Towers. James responded: "Not natural."
After the court session that was shortened because Wan Azirul complained of illness, Gooi told reporters he was disappointed that police discounted the defense's version of the killing.
"From the answers given you can see that they never fully investigated, it's a lopsided investigation," he said. "The investigation team never replied to any of the letters sent to them by the defense team."
Gooi pointed to Wan Azirul's inability to remember important details.
"He doesn't appear to be cooperative. Everything that we pose to him he disagrees with, he cannot remember," Gooi said. "We have to turn around and show him [the evidence] and only then does he agree.
"I must say that in my 38 years of experience doing court work this appears to be one of the more exceptional cases."
Doan's lawyer will question Wan Azirul after Gooi finishes his cross examination. The trial is to resume on Feb. 22.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian authorities took a 33-year-old citizen into custody after his deportation from Singapore, which arrested him last month over allegations that he had acted on plans to join terrorist groups in the Middle East, officials said Friday.
Muhammad Nur Hanief bin Abdul Jalil, who worked as a driver for an airfreight company in Singapore, was handed over on Feb. 2, a senior Malaysian police officer said.
"I can confirm that the suspect is under our custody. He is now held under the Security Offenses (Special Measures) Act 2012 (SOSMA) for further investigations," the official, who requested anonymity, told BenarNews.
Under the act, Malaysian authorities can hold suspects up to 28 days without trial. SOSMA replaced the controversial Internal Security Act, which allowed for detention of up to two years without requiring authorities to present the suspect in court.
On Friday, Singapore's Home Affairs Ministry (MHA) issued a statement saying that Hanief, who had access to a restricted area at Southeast Asia's busiest airport, Changi, was arrested under the city-state's Internal Security Act.
Singaporean investigators confirmed that he had access to published writings of foreign extremist preachers, including Imran Hosein, Zakir Naik and Anjem Choudary, since 2008, the statement said.
"Through sustained exposure to such materials, he became convinced that he should travel to Syria or Palestine to participate in the conflict there," the ministry said.
Unlike some of its Southeast Asian neighbors, Singapore has a near-perfect record of keeping its shores free from terror. In 2017, The Economist magazine named it as the world's second safest city in 2017 after Tokyo.
Earlier this month, Singapore's police force launched terror-attack simulations. In addition, its Home Affairs Ministry admitted that it had stepped up efforts to deter terrorism in recent years. It said this resulted from security concerns over frequent terror attacks in Western countries and after a five-month battle in the southern Philippine city of Marawi, in which 1,200 people, mostly pro-Islamic State militants, were killed.
Last year, Singapore denied entry to Zimbabwean Ismail Menk and Malaysian preacher Ustaz Haslin Baharim (aka "Uztaz Bollywood"), who were on a scheduled religious-themed cruise.
'God's will'
The statement said Hanief, who had held various jobs in Singapore since 2011, was prepared to head to the Mid-East in late 2017.
"He was prepared to join any militant group there, including the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, Free Syrian Army, or Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (previously known as Jabhat Fateh al-Sham/Jabhat al-Nusra), because he believed that all these groups would ultimately unite at the 'end-of-times,'" the statement said.
The ministry said Hanief had contacted Haslin and sought advice on becoming a martyr in Syria.
"Haslin's response was that it was God's will if one should die as a martyr, which Hanief interpreted as an affirmative reply," the statement said.
"While investigations did not surface any indication that he had tried to radicalize others or planned any terrorist attacks in Singapore, his radicalization renders him a security threat to Singapore," it added.
In Malaysia, authorities have arrested 372 people (including Hanief) for suspected links to terror groups during the past four years. Those numbers include 71 foreigners, according to government statistics.
Thirty-four Malaysians have been reported killed while fighting for the extremist group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Another 24 men, 12 women and 17 children are believed to be in Syria, but may have fled from cities where battles took place, according to Malaysian police last year.


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BENARNEWS- A diplomat from Indonesia and a local rights group urged Malaysian authorities Monday to conduct a thorough investigation into the death of an Indonesian maid who suffered injuries and, according to a neighbor, was forced to sleep outside with the family's dog.
Police in the northern Malaysian state of Penang, where maid Adelina Lisao worked, have arrested three suspects – her 36-year-old female employer and the employer's 39-year-old brother. The siblings' 60-year-old mother was arrested on Monday, according to Nik Ros Azhan Nik Abd Hamid, the district police chief.
"We will apply for a remand order in court tomorrow and we have taken statements from several witnesses, including the neighbor," he told reporters. "We are investigating the case under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder."
Police and other officials rescued Lisao, 26, on Saturday after authorities received a complaint from a neighbor, according to local councilman Joshua Woo Sze Zeng.
Woo Sze Zeng said he found the maid sleeping in the house's carport. She suffered wounds to her face, hands and legs and was taken to a hospital but died on Sunday.
Lisao was made to sleep on a mat where a Rottweiler was tied up nearby for almost two months, Woo Sze Zeng said, citing an account given to him by a neighbor.
Neni Kurniati, a consul at the Indonesian Consulate in Penang, demanded a quick resolution, urging Malaysian authorities to immediately find the culprit behind the Indonesian woman's death.
"We will leave it to the police to conduct a thorough probe into the matter," she told reporters Monday at the hospital where the maid had been taken. She said there were no complaints from Lisao about being abused by her employer.
Lisao had been working for the same household since December 2014, Kurniati said, adding the consulate was trying to locate her family.
The consulate would make arrangements for her body to be flown back to Indonesia after the post-mortem and investigations are over, Kurniati said.
Police said Lisao had bruises on her head and face. She suffered "multi-organ failure secondary to anemia," which means her organs failed to work because of a lack of blood in her body, doctors said.
"There is a high possibility that the victim was neglected," Dr. Amir Saad Abdul Rahim said in a brief report.
Muslim-majority Malaysia has about 32 million residents, including almost 1.8 million legally registered foreign workers and about 2 million undocumented immigrants who work in sectors ranging from agriculture to construction.
'Sub-human entities'
Tenaganita, a local migrant and refugee rights group, said Lisao's death mirrored the Malaysian society's utter disregard for the dignity and rights of migrant domestic workers.
Glorene Das, Tenaganita's executive director, said there have been many examples of verbal and physical abuse committed by Malaysian employers on domestic workers.
"This suggests that many employers consider their domestic workers as sub-human entities who can be abused and ill-treated at will," she said in a statement.
Such ill-treatment was prevalent, she added, because of the lack of legal protection accorded to foreign domestic workers in Malaysia.
"The Employment Act 1995, which purportedly protects the rights of domestic workers, does not even recognize them as workers, but, instead, defines them as servants," Das said.
"Their place of work is seen as a private domain, which is not subject to public scrutiny to ensure that the labor and human rights of domestic workers are protected," she said. "As a result, many employers feel that they can subject their domestic workers to sustained abuse and torture with impunity, which sometimes end tragically as in the case of Adelina, and many others before her."
Victims who free themselves from abusive and exploitative work by running away are inadvertently punished by authorities under the Immigration Act because they become undocumented, she pointed out.
"The government should live up to its responsibility to protect this very vulnerable sector of our labor force, which has contributed so significantly to the well-being of millions of Malaysians," she said. "We do not want to see another death of an innocent domestic worker in Malaysia."

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Neni Kurniati, a consul at the Indonesian Consulate in Penang, Malaysia, talks to reporters at the Seberang Jaya Hospital in Penang, Feb.12, 2018.[Fairuz Mazlan/BenarNews]



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BENARNEWS- Malaysia is in talks with Thailand over the fate of 11 Uyghurs who escaped from a Thai jail last year, the Malaysian deputy prime minister said Tuesday, amid demands from Beijing that they be sent to China.
Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said his country would resolve the issue diplomatically and in a way that did not offend any country.
"We are talking with the Thais," said Zahid, who is also the home minister.
The 11 men were among 20 Uyghurs who broke out of their detention cells in southern Thailand in November, according to Malaysian officials.
"We will take action that will not hurt the feelings of any country," Zahid told reporters in Kuala Lumpur, without elaborating. "The decision, God willing, would be the best decision."
When asked whether Malaysia planned to send the Uyghurs back to Thailand, the deputy prime minister replied, "I'm not saying that, but we will have further negotiations on diplomacy and security with countries involved."
He said Malaysia would take into account concerns articulated by human rights groups from the region and other parts of the world.
Thai officials could not be reached immediately for comment.
Earlier this month, BenarNews reported that unidentified Chinese officials had been in touch with Malaysia to arrange the possible repatriation of the Uyghurs to China.
The escapees had been interrogated but were not believed to be linked to any militant groups, according to two Malaysian security officials who provided the information separately on condition of anonymity.
The officials did not say when the Uyghurs were taken into custody.
On Feb. 9, New York-based Human Rights Watch called on Malaysia to ensure that the detained Uyghurs were not forcibly sent to China where they faced "credible threats of imprisonment and torture."
The eleven should be given "urgent access" to proceedings by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to determine their status as refugees, the rights watchdog said.
Meanwhile, the United States expressed concerns over the possible deportations of the Uyghurs to China.
"We urge Chinese authorities to uphold international human rights norms with regard to any individuals who have been returned to China, and to ensure transparency, due process, and the safety and proper treatment of these individuals," a State Department official told BenarNews this month.
Uyghurs are from China's western Xinjiang region where, rights groups said, heavy-handed rule by the authorities have forced many from the Muslim minority to flee abroad.
The 20 who escaped from the Thai detention center in November 2017 were among more than 200 Uyghurs detained in March 2014 after being found at a popular tourist spot in southern Thailand's Songkhla province. It was not clear how they had arrived there.
The Uyghurs, who speak a Turkic language, claimed then that they were Turkish and demanded they be allowed to travel to Turkey, but Thailand kept them under detention as authorities tried to verify their citizenship.
Tensions have remained high in Xinjiang, where Uyghurs have long complained of pervasive discrimination, and religious and cultural repression under Chinese rule.
China blames Uyghurs for "terrorist" attacks, but rights groups have accused Chinese police of Uyghur households and restricting their Islamic practices, among other restrictions that curb their freedom.
Last month, Radio Free Asia (RFA), a sister entity of BenarNews, quoted an unnamed security official as saying that about 120,000 ethnic Uyghurs were being held in political "re-education camps" in the Kashgar prefecture of northwest China's Xinjiang region alone.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's police chief has exposed plans by the ruthless Abu Sayyaf militant group to set up a base in the east Malaysian Sabah state following the arrest of 10 people who allegedly helped suspected terrorists travel to the group's base in the southern Philippines.
Authorities uncovered the plans after multiple raids in the eastern Borneo state of Sabah from Jan. 25 to Feb. 6, Malaysian police chief Mohamad Fuzi Harun said in a statement.
"Initial investigation from the 10 suspects arrested in Sabah showed there were attempts by ASG to set up a cell in Sabah," Fuzi Harun said.
Officials arrested two Malaysians and three Filipinos during the first set of counter-terrorism raids on Jan. 25 and 26 in the coastal town of Sandakan, Sabah, Fuzi said.
"One of the suspects, a 39-year-old Filipino, had pledged loyalty to a senior leader of a terror group in the southern Philippines in 2000," he said.
Fuzi declined to identify the Filipino, but said the suspect allegedly communicated with a senior leader of a pro-Islamic State (IS) group in the southern Philippines.
The suspect, Fuzi said, received instructions to assist several IS members in traveling to the southern Philippine province of Zamboanga, where they were expected to join a militant group.
Fuzi did not identify the nationalities of the IS members and it was not clear if they successfully reached their destination. Investigators believe the four other suspects were involved in the travel arrangements as well.
The safe passage would allow IS to bring in fighters from Southeast Asia to the southern Philippines for combat training, Fuzi said.
"The same terror cell could be used to launch attacks in Sabah in the future," he said.
Fuzi did not provide more details on the suspects, but said they were between the ages of 33 and 50 and two of them worked as laborers while one was a boat skipper. One was unemployed and the rest illegally worked in foreign currency trading.
Counter-terror police also arrested three Filipinos and a Malaysian woman in Sabah's Penampang district on Feb. 4, Fuzi said.
He said the suspects were mostly gardeners, but one of them was a 27-year-old man believed to be a trusted aide of a leader of the extremist Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) based in Basilan in the southern Philippines, where Islamic militants have been operating for decades.
In another recent follow-up raid in Sandakan, Fuzi said authorities arrested a 49-year-old cab driver, a Filipino with a Malaysian permanent resident status. The cab driver and the other nine suspects were detained under the Security Offenses (Special Measures) (SOSMA) Act 2012.
Under SOSMA, Malaysian authorities can hold suspects up to 28 days without trial. The law replaced the Internal Security Act, which allowed for detention of up to two years without requiring authorities to present the suspect in court.
The arrests bring to 382 the number of people detained by Malaysian authorities on suspicion of links with terror groups during the past four years, according to a BenarNews tally.
Transit route for militants
Last month, Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, chief of the national police's counter-terrorist special branch, said Sabah has long served as a transit route for foreign militants, including from neighboring Indonesia.
"If they don't transit from Sabah, they can go to southern Philippines directly from their home country. But it's a long journey over the Sulawesi Sea," he said. "So it is much easier to transit from Sabah."
The coastal town of Sandakan provides ferry services to the southern Philippines, where ASG militants operate in remote villages. ASG is notorious for kidnappings, bombings and random attacks in the southern Philippines.


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BENARNEWS- CCTV footage that appears to capture the fatal attack on Kim Jong Nam at a Malaysian airport does not show an Indonesian defendant interacting with the victim, a chief investigator acknowledged under cross examination Thursday.
The recording showed contact between Kim and another person, but not with Indonesian Siti Aisyah, police investigator Wan Azirul Nizam Wan Aziz testified. The detective was responding to questions from the attorney for Siti, one of two women charged with murdering the half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in a nerve agent attack on Feb. 13, 2017.
Siti and co-defendant Doan Thi Huong, 29, of Vietnam, are standing trial at the Shah Alam High Court near Kuala Lumpur over allegations they smeared VX nerve agent on Kim's face at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2, after receiving training from North Koreans who later fled Malaysia.
Presenting the footage in court, defense lawyer Gooi Soon Seng said it showed a woman in a white shirt who appeared to be in contact with Kim at the time of the attack.
"The CCTV footage did not show anyone else and Siti Aisyah, my client, was not wearing a white shirt," Gooi told the court.
In response, Wan Azirul testified that there was no clear footage of Siti putting anything on Kim. He testified that investigators had not found any traces of the nerve agent in airport bathrooms used by the suspects after the attack, and no trace of Siti's DNA was detected on the victim's body, his clothes or belongings. In addition, none of Kim's DNA was found on Siti, her clothes and belongings.
"So these findings prove that these two people were not in contact," Gooi said.
The attorney has been questioning Wan Azirul over several court sessions since Jan. 22. Doan's lawyers will begin their own cross examination after he finishes. The trial is to resume next week.
"There is no iota of evidence pointing to the fact that Siti Aisyah was involved in the attack." Gooi told reporters after the court session.
Earlier in court, Gooi said Siti had celebrated her birthday with friends at the Hard Rock Cafe on the night before the attack and went shopping at a Kuala Lumpur mall after leaving the airport.
"If she knew she was carrying out a crime, why didn't she flee?" Gooi asked reporters.
Seven minutes
Gooi was able to get the investigator to agree there was a gap between 8:59 a.m. and 9:06 a.m. when Kim could not be located on CCTV footage until he reemerged to lodge a complaint with airport staff about the attack.
"Where was Kim Jong Nam? Did he go to the toilet? Did he wash himself? What was he doing? Was he in contact with anyone else before he lodged his report with the staffs at the counter," Gooi told reporters.
The two women have claimed they were misled into believing that they were participating in a prank for a TV show.
In previous court sessions, Wan Azirul testified that a North Korean national identified as James (alias Ri Ji U) had paid Siti to perform pranks at a Kuala Lumpur mall. James has since fled the country.
On Thursday, Gooi read a posting by Siti on Facebook dated Feb. 7, 2017 – less than a week before Kim was killed. "Last day shooting. Hopefully given more responsibility and may my contract continue. [Amen], even though the body aches, the spirit is still high."
The court examined documents to confirm that Siti had traveled to Cambodia on Jan. 21, 2017, on a trip paid for by James as a reward for her previous performances.
"We have established that Siti Aisyah was asked to do pranks in Cambodia, where for the first time she was introduced to a guy by the name of Chang, who is also known as Hong Song Hac," Gooi said.
After returning to Malaysia, Siti met with Chang and performed pranks at the airport on four occasions leading up to the attack. "We were able to establish that in those pranks Siti Aisyah was given baby oil and she was asked to wash her hands afterward," Gooi told the court.
In addition, Chang had told Siti to travel to Macau for a prank on Feb. 9, 2017, but the trip was called off with no explanation, Wan Azirul testified. Gooi told reporters that the trip likely was cancelled because Kim had entered Malaysia on Feb. 6, 2017. On the day of his murder, Kim was booked on a flight to Macau, where he lived with his family.
Chang is one of the four North Koreans wanted by police and was at the airport on the day of Kim's murder. He and the three others fled Kuala Lumpur hours later.


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BENARNEWS- Months before Kim Jong Nam was assassinated at a Kuala Lumpur airport last year, the estranged half-brother of North Korea's dictator feared for his own life, a lead investigator testified on Tuesday.
Kim told a friend in Malaysia about his fear, chief police investigator Wan Azirul Nizam Che Wan Aziz said under cross examination.
"Six months before the incident, Kim Jong Nam had said I am scared for my life and I need a driver," Wan Azirul said. He identified the friend as Tomie Yoshio, a Japanese citizen who provided Kim with his personal driver, Ahmad Fuad Ramli.
"Fuad was tasked with picking up Kim Chol when he arrived at KLIA2 [Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2] and sending him to Grand Millennium hotel in Kuala Lumpur, to go out dining as well as to drive him wherever he wanted to go," Wan Azirul told the court as defense lawyer Gooi Soon Seng cross-examined him. The investigator was referring to Kim Jong Nam by another name listed in his North Korean passport.
Gooi represents Siti Aisyah of Indonesia, who along with co-defendant Doan Thi Huong of Vietnam, are standing trial at the Shah Alam High Court near Kuala Lumpur over allegations that they smeared VX nerve agent on Kim's face on Feb. 13, 2017, at KLIA2. Both women face the death penalty if convicted.
The court heard that Kim stayed at a hotel in central Kuala Lumpur's shopping district from Feb. 6 to 8 before traveling to the Malaysian island of Langkawi, where he stayed until Feb. 12.
Last May, Japanese news agency Asahi Shimbun reported that Kim had met with an alleged U.S. intelligence agent of Korean-American descent in Langkawi days before his death.
In court, Gooi presented a photo that appeared to show the alleged agent, who apparently arrived at Langkawi on the same day and stayed at the same hotel, with Kim in an elevator.
Speaking to BenarNews after the trial broke for the day, Gooi said digital forensic evidence showed that information had been extracted from Kim's computer into a USB drive.
"Normally when a pen drive is used, it means a large volume of data is collected and that occurred when [the alleged intelligence officer] met Kim at the Westin Hotel," he said.
Gooi said the data was given in exchange for U.S. $138,000 (541,000 ringgit) that Kim was carrying when he was killed.
During Tuesday's testimony, Wan Azirul said he did not investigate the source of the money and denied it had anything to do with the murder. Unlike Kim's personal belonging, which were given to the North Korean government along with his body in March 2017, Malaysian authorities did not hand over the money.
Four North Koreans who are considered suspects in the case and were at the airport when the estranged half-brother of dictator Kim Jong Un was killed fled Kuala Lumpur that day.
Cross examination
Responding to questions from Gooi, Wan Azirul said he never went to Siti's room in a hotel when she was arrested or after. Gooi highlighted discrepancies in testimony from the arresting officer, police superintendent Nasri Mansor, and Wan Azirul.
"You said you were never in Room 356 during the arrest so you have no knowledge of how Superintendent Nasri conducted the arrest?" Gooi said.
Wan Azirul agreed he did not have knowledge of how Nasri collected and kept the evidence before handing it over to him. Gooi asked the question after the investigator testified about receiving evidence, contradicting Nasri's earlier testimony.
Wan Azirul also revealed that despite being chief investigator for the case, he personally interviewed only two witnesses while other officers interviewed the others.
Doan's attorney are scheduled to cross examine Wan Azirul after Gooi finishes.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's highest court on Tuesday ruled that only the country's Sharia courts can hear cases on conversion from Islam, dismissing the petitions of four Muslims to be allowed to be Christians under the nation's laws.
In a unanimous decision, the five-judge Federal Court's panel, which included a non-Muslim member, ruled that the Sarawak Sharia court was the proper court for apostasy cases.
Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin, Malaysia's Court of Appeal president and panel chief, said that while there was no provision in Sarawak's religious laws for the state Sharia court to handle such cases, there was legislation to allow it.
"Sections 68 and 69 in the Sarawak Islamic Ordinance council can be used by the Sarawak Shariah Court to hear apostasy cases," he said in the ruling.
Malaysia has a dual legal system where its Islamic courts mostly hear cases of family disputes and inheritance involving Muslims. Islamic courts run parallel to the nation's civil courts, but non-Muslims have no right to appear during trial.
"Apostasy is a sensitive matter among Muslims and the way to deal with it is embodied in the Islamic law. The Federal Court's decision is considered significant because it recognizes the power of the Sharia court," political analyst Azmi Hassan told BenarNews.
"Otherwise, when apostasy cases are judged in civil courts there would be a possibility of a decision not in accordance with Sharia requirements and this scenario would not be limited to apostasy but also other matters relating to Islam," he said.
Tuesday's decision means the four appellants – Salina Jau Abdullah, Jenny Peter, Mohd Syafiq Abdullah (alias Tiong Choo Ting) and Syarifah Nooraffyzza Wan Hosen – will have to go to the Sharia court to hear their cases.
Syarifah Nooraffyzza was born a Muslim, while the other three converted to Islam to marry Muslims. They renounced the religion after their spouses died or their marriages ended in divorce.
The legal battle began in Sarawak's high courts in 2015 when the four petitioned to have their conversions from Islam to Christianity officially recognized by having their names and their religion changed on their national identification cards.
Government lawyers objected on the ground that the civil high court had no jurisdiction over apostasy or religious cases that were usually reviewed by Sharia courts.
Because their official documents identify them as Muslims, the four petitioners must first obtain Letters of Apostasy from a Sharia court before they can change their legal identities.
But the Sharia Court in Sarawak created a dilemma for converts to Christianity after it ruled that it had the authority to approve conversions to Islam, but not from Islam to any other religion.
Tuesday's ruling also means that the Sharia Court would act in accordance with the Federal Court's decision.
Critic speaks out
The ruling strengthened critics' arguments that the lack of religious freedom in the Muslim-majority country violates one of the principles of the Malaysian constitution.
More than 60 percent of Malaysia's 32 million citizens are Muslims and religious matters are sensitive, even in Sarawak where Muslims are in the minority.
Human rights activist Peter John Jaban called such religious laws to be scrapped, saying such matters should be a personal and family choice.
"We do not want our beloved country to be embroiled in a conflict arising from religion," Jaban said, reacting to the court decision.
Hata Wahari in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- With a general election looming and amid criticism over a crackdown on its critics, the Malaysian government announced Thursday that it was developing a national human rights action plan (NHRAP) to be implemented within a "certain timeframe."
The plan was unveiled by Prime Minister Najib Razak, whose government has charged some of his critics under the nation's sedition laws and also clamped down against calls for him to resign over allegations of corruption tied to state fund 1MDB.
"The NHRAP, I am proud to say, is a comprehensive plan that has taken into account the aspirations of the people," Najib said during the launch at the Perdana Putra building in Putrajaya.
The plan is to provide: an "objective depiction" of the state of human rights; a comprehensive assessment of needs; increase the government's capacity to promote and protect human rights; incorporate greater standards in domestic laws and policies; integrate principles into other areas such as development, business, education, health care and justice; and raise public awareness.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) questioned the timing of Najib's announcement.
"In reality, this so-called action plan has been cooking on the stove for years – and suddenly a few months before the election, the government announces it with great fanfare," HRW Asia Division Deputy Director Phil Robertson told BenarNews.
Najib, who will  call for the general election which is to be held by August, expressed confidence that the NHRAP could boost the performance and image of the country, especially in terms of economic development and efficient and credible governance. He said he wanted Malaysia to become among the most advanced countries of the world in the next three decades.
"When I say among the best countries by 2050, it does not mean only in terms of per capita income, but also as a more equitable, caring and kinder Malaysia. This is my vision," the PM said.
Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and others, meanwhile, have criticized Najib and his United Malays National Organization for the government's efforts to go after political foes and others. Mahathir will represent the opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan in the election.
Suhakam role
In a news release, the government acknowledged that the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) had advocated for the plan since 2002 and would assist in its preparation by providing information when possible. Suhakam also will monitor and assess its implementation.
Azril Mohd Amin, executive director of the Center for Human Rights Research and Advocacy, said he hoped Sukaham would serve as a monitor for the plan once it was implemented. He added that it should not ignore history, culture and religion as enshrined in the constitution.
The government should ensure that those involved must understand the meaning of human rights, said Siti Zabedah Kasim, a member of the Malaysian Bar Council of Human Rights Committee.
"I also think this human rights action plan should not be misused and taken advantage of by terrorists and asylum seekers," she told BenarNews.
Robertson said the plan contained some good elements, but he added it "reads more like a report card on what the government has already done, and omits anything about the misuse of laws to persecute political opponents, critical media outlets, and civil society activists."
He also questioned Najib's announcement that a mobile phone app would be set up to gather feedback from the nation.
"Asking for comments from the public via a mobile phone app is an indication of just how little civil society participation there was in putting together this plan. PM Najib is clearly trying to be all things to all people in his campaign for re-election, and the downside is any serious implementation of the pledges in this plan will likely falter as soon as the votes are counted in the general election," Robertson said.


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BENARNEWS- An American law firm engaged by Malaysian businessman Jho Low offered to help get the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to drop 1MDB-linked lawsuits for a fee of U.S. $75 million, to be paid if it succeeded in 180 days, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
The offer was contained in a draft agreement between a California law firm and representatives of Low, a target of DOJ lawsuits that allege he helped siphon off $4.5 billion from the state-owned Malaysian development fund between 2009 and 2015, the paper said.
It is not clear if the agreement was ever signed, according to the Journal, which said it was among "emails dated during the past year" from the accounts of lawyer Robin Rosenzweig of Colfax Law Office Inc. and her husband Elliott Broidy.
In another email, Broidy, a senior fundraiser for President Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign, appears to offer talking points for Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak's 2017 White House visit, the paper said. It was not clear if those talking points were used, it added.
The Journal quoted a spokesman for the pair confirming that Rosenzweig's law firm was engaged "to provide strategic advice as part of a broader team to Mr. Low."
"During the course of this engagement a number of strategies were discussed ... But at no time did Mr. Broidy or Ms. Rosenzweig, or anyone acting on their behalf, discuss Mr. Low's case with President Trump, any member of his staff, or anyone at the U.S. Department of Justice," the Journal quoted the spokesman as saying in a statement.
Neither Colfax Law nor Broidy ever represented Malaysia or any of its officials in any capacity, the statement said, adding that the Wall Street Journal appeared to have obtained in a questionable manner "internal drafts of documents that were never used."
In its article, the paper refers to "a cache of emails .... provided to the Journal" but does not clarify who provided them or why.
Jho Low (also known as Low Taek Jho) has denied any wrongdoing in the 1MDB affair. Earlier this week, at the request of American authorities, police seized his luxury yacht in Bali after investigations found it was purchased "with proceeds of corruption," Indonesian officials said.
In a statement, a spokesman for Low complained about the seizure because U.S. justice officials had "still not taken any steps to prove that any impropriety has occurred."
"It is therefore disappointing that, rather than reflecting on the deeply flawed and politically motivated allegations, the DOJ is continuing with its pattern of global over-reach – all based on entirely unsupported claims of wrongdoing," the spokesman said.
Najib, who faces a re-election test later this year, has been linked by critics to the scandal surrounding the 1MDB affair, but cleared by Malaysia's attorney general of any wrongdoing.
Najib founded the sovereign wealth fund in 2009.  In 2013, he acknowledged receiving close to $681 million in his personal bank accounts but said it was a political donation from Saudi Arabia's royal family used to fund candidates in the 2013 election.
In announcing it would seize assets allegedly purchased during a "multi-year, multi-billion-dollar fraud scheme," Department of Justice officials said the funds "financed the lavish lifestyles of the alleged co-conspirators at the expense and detriment of the Malaysian people."


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BENARNEWS- An internal inquiry cleared Malaysia's chief crimes investigator of "any form of indictable offenses," national police said Friday, after Australia had seized AUS $320,000 from his Sydney bank account on suspicion that it held laundered money or criminal proceeds.
Deposits in the account of Ahmad Najmuddin Mohd, chief of Malaysia's Federal Criminal Investigation Department (CID), were proceeds from the sale of his house in Shah Alam, Malaysian Police Inspector General Mohamad Fuzi Harun said, citing an internal probe. The deposits amounted to the equivalent of some U.S. $248,000 or 969,700 ringgit.
"It is baseless to assume that the source of the money was from questionable origins or Ahmad Najmuddin was involved in any form of indictable offences," Fuzi said in a statement.
Najmuddin initially opened the bank account in 2011 to support his son's education in Australia, and it was subsequently reactivated in 2016 to also help his daughter obtain a master's degree in Sydney, Fuzi said, adding that the officer had provided enough documents to justify his deposits.
But according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald, Australian police launched an investigation after bank officials discovered a "flurry of suspicious cash deposits" into Najmuddin's Commonwealth Bank "Goal Saver" bank account. It had been dormant after being opened seven years ago. Australian police then froze his accounts.
"There does not appear to be any apparent lawful reason for the form and manner of the deposits," an Australian police officer said in an affidavit cited by the newspaper.
Najmuddin, 59, was previously the police chief in the southern Malaysian city of Johor. He was appointed to head the Federal CID in August last year.
BenarNews could not immediately reach Najmuddin for comment. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that he had not tried to wrest the money back from Australian authorities, quoting him as denying any wrongdoing but saying that court action was too expensive.
The newspaper said deposits below AUS $10,000 (U.S. $7,750 or 30,300 ringgit) had started coming in a week after Najmuddin visited Australia in 2016, and multiple deposits were made at different branches and ATMs around the country.
The SMH report said Najmuddin's account balance quickly grew within a month, leading authorities to suspect that the money had been laundered or came from proceeds of a crime.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia has started distributing about U.S. $1.6 billion to millions of low-income citizens as part of a government plan to spur economic growth, but critics slammed the move as vote-buying ahead of a general election that could come within months.
Seven million eligible Malaysians began receiving the first batch of payments Monday, with recipients taking home up to 1,200 ringgit (U.S. $306) this year, a big jump from 500 ringgit (U.S. $127) when the scheme was first launched in 2012.
The handouts are part of a proposed 2018 spending plan of 280 billion ringgit (U.S. $71.6 billion) unveiled by Prime Minister Najib Razak in October, when he announced the country's largest-ever annual budget.
The government earlier described the handouts as a remedial effort to help lower-income citizens, including palm oil farmers, offset a higher cost of living that followed higher global oil prices and a weaker local currency. Officials had explained that the handouts would also have a multiplier effect, as people would use the money they had received to buy goods and help stimulate the country's economy.
But Rafizi Ramli, vice-president of the opposition People's Justice Party and a member of parliament, questioned why Najib decided to offer handouts to the public rather than offer subsidies.
"Instead of easing the livelihood cost, BR1M instead becomes a treat for the people – generally from the low-income bracket – to go out for a one-time dining," he told the Malaysian daily Sinar Harian last month.
Rafizi was referring to the Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia or 1Malaysia People's Aid, known locally as BR1M, which Najib started in 2012.
Opposition struggles to build united front
The dishing out of cash comes as Najib faces his toughest electoral test, which he could still survive, since becoming prime minister in 2009, according to political analysts. He can expect a stiff challenge from an opposition spearheaded by two former government leaders, ex-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and his jailed former Deputy Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim.
Under Malaysia's constitution, a general election must take place every five years, and the next one is required before August this year.
The opposition came close to unseating Najib's Barisan Nasional coalition in the 2013 election, but has since struggled to put up a united front to challenge the prime minister in the next general election.
The 2018 increase in handouts to more than 6 billion ringgit, compared with 2.6 billion ringgit six years ago, is being criticized by opposition lawmakers.
This week, Najib fired back at his critics who alleged that the payout was a form of vote- buying in the nation with a population of 32 million.
"This targeted subsidy is better than a blanket subsidy that can have a lot of leakages," Najib said before an estimated 2,000 handout recipients.
Economist Hoo Ke Ping, in an interview with BenarNews, dismissed assertions that handout recipients would automatically vote for Najib's coalition. He cited results from the previous general election, which was held a year after BR1M was first introduced.
"Barisan Nasional failed to get any substantial votes from the Chinese community despite there being Chinese people of low income who were recipients of the handouts," he said, referring to one of Malaysia's ethnic minorities.
The handout program, he said, was necessary because low-income citizens "really need it to supplement their livelihood."
Correction: An earlier version of this story had the wrong total for proposed 2018 spending plan.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's opposition coalition on Thursday promised to provide 1 million new jobs and affordable houses if it wins the 14th general election later this year.
In its 200-page manifesto, "Book of Hope: Rebuilding our Nation, Fulfilling our Hopes," Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) also declared that, if elected, it would abolish the much-hated, two-year-old sales tax and limit the prime minister to two five-year terms in office.
The goods and services tax (GST) introduced by Prime Minister Najib Razak at a rate of 6 percent in 2015 is unpopular because it is perceived as having an inflationary effect on prices.
The manifesto focuses on alleviating the high cost of living, instituting political reforms; spurring economic growth, restoring Sabah and Sarawak to the status accorded in the Malaysia Agreement 1963 and creating an inclusive, moderate country that is respected by the world.
Sarawak together with Sabah, another state on Borneo island, as well as Singapore gained independence from Britain and joined the Federation of Malaya to form Malaysia in 1963 under certain conditions.

Singapore left Malaysia in 1965 but Sabah and Sarawak remained, occasionally complaining since that their powers are being eroded.
"The manifesto of a political party is to inform the Malaysian about what will be done by the party in future," said Pakatan Chairman Mahathir Mohamad, who served as prime minister from 1981 to 2003.
"This book contains many promises that we will implement when we make it to Putrajaya," Mahathir said, referring to the seat of Malaysian government.
If elected, Pakatan said, it would immediately work on several issues, including scrapping the GST, streamlining minimum wages and investigating scandals. It also promised to guarantee free education at public universities.
Najib, who leads the United Malays National Organization and who is expected to announce the election date before August, is seeking his third term in the office he has held since 2009.
Mahathir has said he will serve until his former deputy, Anwar Ibrahim, could take over.
Anwar, who is jailed on a sodomy conviction, is to be released from prison in June and would need a royal pardon to serve. Without the pardon, he would be barred from public office for five years.


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BENARNEWS- Authorities in eastern Malaysia's Sabah state have added two suspected Malaysian leaders of Islamic State (IS) to an updated list of wanted militants, although the Philippine military had said both were killed in last year's battle of Marawi.
The names and photos of Mahmud Ahmad and Amin Baco appear as new additions to a list of 16 militants that the Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSCOM) published in January.
The command oversees security along Sabah's east coast that lies close to the southern Philippines, where the five-month battle took place. This is the first wanted list that ESSCOM published after the Philippine government declared the IS-linked militant siege of the Marawi over in late October 2017.
"All the 16 are wanted for various suspected cross-border crimes, such as murder, kidnapping, sea hijacking and also militancy," ESSCOM chief Hazani Ghazali told BenarNews. "All of them are Filipinos except two who are Malaysians, Amin Baco and Dr Mahmud Ahmad."
Hazani did not respond to questions from Benar about Ahmad and Baco.
Deaths remain unconfirmed
In October, the Philippine military declared that Ahmad, a former Malaysian university professor who had succeeded Filipino Isnilon Hapilon as regional leader of IS after Hapilon was killed during the battle of Marawi, died soon after.
"He [Ahmad] died during the assault of our troops the other day – or the other night, where 12 other rebels died," Philippine military spokesman Maj. Gen. Restituto Padilla said on Oct. 20, 2017, adding then that troops had not recovered the body.
To date, the Philippine government has not confirmed Ahmad's death through DNA testing.
A former student at Islamabad Islamic University in Pakistan, Ahmad reportedly received training at an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan in the 1990s before returning home to teach at the University of Malaya.
In 2014, Ahmad fled to the southern Philippines when Malaysian police announced that he and several other Malaysians were wanted for suspected militant activities.
He is believed to have helped transfer funds from IS's core group in Syria to the southern Philippines through Indonesia to finance the militant siege of Marawi.
Baco, one of the other new names on ESSCOM's list, is as an expert bomb maker. After the Philippine military broke the Marawi siege, he was said to be leading IS stragglers in the area. But on Nov. 6, Padilla said Baco was believed to have been killed alongside other militants during post-battle firefights.
"Baco's remains are now the subject of an ongoing aggressive search," he said at the time.
On Tuesday, Philippine National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said Baco was one of two leading candidates to take over the top leadership role of the regional branch of IS.
Baco's body had not been found, but reports suggested he is alive in the southern Philippines, the Associated Press quoted Esperon.
"He was not accounted for in Marawi but he was reported somewhere else," the national security chief said.
Security cooperation 'totally chaotic': analyst
Independent conflict and security analyst Pawel Wójcik said the inclusion of Ahmad on ESSCOM's list shows a low level of cooperation between Philippine and Malaysian authorities.
"This is another case where the Malaysian and Philippine cooperation seems to be weak despite last year's calls for joint-intelligence sharing and multiple law enforcement agencies' attempts to establish some form of a new understanding between the two countries because of a growing jihadi threat," the Polish expert told BenarNews.
"In fact, the designation of [Ahmad] as a wanted man on the list leads us to think that such understanding and cooperation are at a totally chaotic level and that actual improvement is not there."
Patrick Blannin, a security analyst from Australia, said the decision to list Ahmad could mean that "Malaysian security officials have intel that he's still alive."
"Either way, it may highlight a lack of a much needed coordination between the two states, which is a problem," Blannin, an international security researcher based at Bond University in Queensland state, told BenarNews.


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BENARNEWS- The lawyer for a Vietnamese woman accused of killing the North Korean leader's estranged half-brother last year accused Malaysian authorities of prejudice toward his client, while questioning the prosecution's star witness on Wednesday.
Hisyam Teh Pok Teik, who represents suspect Doan Thi Huong, said he received a letter from the Malaysian attorney general dated Dec. 4, 2017, declining his request to assist the defense in bringing a witness from Vietnam to appear at the Shah Alam High Court.
Doan is standing trial with Siti Aisyah of Indonesia on charges that they murdered Kim Jong Nam in a chemical attack at a Kuala Lumpur area airport on Feb. 17, 2017. Both could face the death penalty if convicted.
Siti's attorney, Gooi Soon Seng, had finished his questioning of lead police investigator Wan Azirul Nizam Che Wan Aziz earlier in the day. Before wrapping up, Gooi took his own shot at the government's case against his client by alleging that CCTV footage presented during the prosecution phase was edited to hurt the defendants.
Request declined
Hisyam had asked the attorney general's office in November for assistance in convincing Vietnamese citizen Nguyen Vich Thuy to travel to Malaysia to testify about her role in introducing Doan to a North Korean man who allegedly duped her into participating in the killing.
"It's unfortunate that the AG declined to exercise his power to do this and in doing that deprived us of having the opportunity for police to go to Vietnam and investigate," said Salim Bashir, another attorney representing Doan.
Hisyam told the court that Nguyen's testimony was crucial because she introduced Doan to Ri Ji Hyon (alias Mr. Y), one of four North Korean men who fled Kuala Lumpur hours after the murder, according to testimony from Wan Azirul.
Hisyam also criticized Wan Azirul for failing to take the necessary steps to get Nguyen's statements.
"In doing an investigation you are supposed to look for the truth, but your investigation is only focused on the CCTV footage," Hisyam said. "There truth is there (in Vietnam) but no one in Malaysia is interested."
Nguyen, according to Hisyam, turned down efforts by Vietnamese police and defense lawyers to travel to Malaysia to testify for Doan, citing her responsibility in running her bar with her husband and taking care of her young child.
Affidavits introduced
The defense attorney presented two declarations made by Nguyen at the Malaysian embassy in Hanoi outlining her involvement with the incident.
In one affidavit, Nguyen who worked with Doan at a bar in Hanoi until 2016, said she suggested her co-worker to Ri Ji Hyon when he came to her bar two months before the murder. The man who identified himself as Lee spoke fluent Vietnamese and said he was a child of Vietnamese and Korean parents.
He said he was working for a South Korean production company looking for candidates to participate in prank videos for YouTube.
"Nguyen herself was offered the role and declined because she had to take care of her small child," Hisyam said, adding that Nguyen then reached out to Doan.
The affidavit corroborates Doan's statement to the Malaysian police that she was an actress who was in Malaysia to do prank videos, the defense argued.
Nguyen also said Ri Ji Hyon told Doan that the pranks would be done at airports and involve pouring water on people's heads. The job required flying to cities in the region, including Kuala Lumpur.
Nguyen's affidavit and Doan's statement to police are consistent with Siti's statement that she believed she was participating in a prank show.
Before finishing his questioning of Wan Azirul, Gooi slammed Malaysian investigators for not allowing him to meet with Siti during her 14-day remand and for releasing portions of the video linked to the attack on the estranged brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
"I put it to you that your failure to copy all the footage from the CCTV server from the KLIA airport compromised the defense of Siti," Gooi told Wan Azirul.
He added that police failed to investigate crucial evidence such as Siti's jeans and glasses that were not sent for lab tests.
"Even the chemistry department tests showed that Siti's finger nail cuttings, nail swabs and blood had no traces of VX," the attorney said, referring to an internationally banned nerve agent used in the attack.
Gooi said he might have more questions for Wan Azriul after Doan's lawyers finished their cross examination.
State Department statement
During the court session, Hisyam and Gooi asked Judge Azmi Ariffin to allow a statement by the U.S. State Department confirming that the North Korea government used VX to kill Kim. It was the first official statement from the U.S. government linking North Korean government directly to his death.
"The United States strongly condemns the use of chemical weapons to conduct an assassination," spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in the statement dated March 6.
Azmi said he would decide at some point in the trial whether to admit the statement.


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BENARNEWS- Attorneys for a Vietnamese woman standing trial for the murder of Kim Jong Nam in Malaysia tried Thursday to portray the lead investigator as not doing a thorough job, as the defense pressed forward its efforts to spare two defendants from the death penalty.
Under cross-examination by attorney Hisyam Teh Pok Teik, investigator Wan Azirul Nizam Che Wan Aziz acknowledged that he did not check Doan Thi Huong's statement about staying at five different hotels in Malaysia prior to Kim's death in February 2017.
Doan is standing trial at the Shah Alam High Court with Indonesian Siti Aisyah on charges of murdering Kim, the estranged half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, in a chemical weapon attack at a Kuala Lumpur area airport.
Reading from Doan's 11-page statement as he questioned Wan Azirul, Hisyam told the court that Doan stayed at Concorde Hotel Kuala Lumpur from Jan. 3 to Jan. 5, 2017, and at Pearl International Hotel Kuala Lumpur from Feb. 4 to Feb. 6, 2017. Neither of those stays was investigated by police, Hisyam said.
Doan's defense team, which began questioning Wan Azirul on Wednesday afternoon, tried to present still photos from CCTV footage and photocopies of hotel guest registrations, but Judge Azmi Ariffin ruled that such evidence should be presented by prosecutors in original form.
Wan Azirul told the court that he chose not to investigate the hotels because he believed Doan was lying, although he did not specify which part of her statement was false.
Speaking to reporters following the court session, Hisyam said the lead investigator was not in any position to accuse his client of lying.
"It's an open allegation. It's very easy to openly allege that so-and-so lied," Hisyam said. "One must appreciate that at the time Doan was making her statement, she purely relied on her memory and nothing else, and dates are easy for one not to remember exactly."
At the time, she had to recall facts from memory, because police had confiscated her passport, mobile phone and travel documents, but evidence obtained from hotels appeared to show she had been truthful, he said.
"Supporting documents given to us by various hotels is to show that weight must be given to the statements of Doan supported by independent evidence ... that are not investigated by the investigating officer, primarily on the grounds that he is not interested," Hisyam said.
The trial is to reconvene next week.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia could dissolve its parliament within two to three weeks, paving the way for its 14th general election pitting the opposition led by a 92-year-old ex-prime minister against a ruling party firmly controlled by an incumbent hounded by corruption allegations, a source and media reports said.
This is the first time that a Malaysian government has waited this long to call an election since 1955, according to Khoo Kay Khim, a University of Malaya history professor. On July 27 of that year, the country held its general election before declaring independence from Britain in 1957.
Prime Minister Najib Razak, 64, is expected to dissolve the legislature in late March or early April and then announce a date for the polls, according to reports and a BenarNews source. His government's term expires on June 15, and the constitution requires that the next general election be held before August.
This week, The Straits Times of Singapore quoted unnamed sources as saying that Malaysia's parliament would be dissolved before the end of March. On Thursday, a Malaysian daily newspaper, The Star, also interviewed unnamed sources who said the dissolution would take place "on March 28, 29 or 30."
"Dissolution as early as March 29 or 30. Polling end of April or beginning May," a source told the Straits Times.
A source in the Prime Minister's Department told BenarNews that parliament would be dissolved on April 4, a day before its current session ends.
It's not clear when balloting will take place. The Straits Times said potential dates being mentioned were the weekends of April 28, May 5 and 12.
Najib, who assumed office as prime minister on April 3, 2009, leads UMNO (the United Malays National Organization), the party that has held power since independence in 1957 and heads the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition. 

Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia's longest-serving premier and Najib's former political mentor, leads the opposition Pakatan Harapan bloc and has offered himself up as a reluctant savior.
If Pakatan wins the election and names him as prime minister, Mahathir has vowed to relinquish the leadership role quickly to another former protégé, Anwar Ibrahim. Two years ago, Mahathir quit UMNO and accused the party's leadership of shielding Najib from corruption allegations tied to state investment fund 1MDB.
Possible reasons for late announcement
BenarNews sought the opinion of political analysts and historians over why it has taken Najib this long to make the electoral announcement.
Khoo Kay Khim, a prominent Malaysian historian, said the ruling party might have wanted to gauge voters' sentiments before oiling up its political machinery.
Understanding the on-the-ground situation is crucial for UMNO and Barisan to win this election, said Khoo, a University of Malaya emeritus professor.
"Voters today have the knowledge," Khoo told BenarNews. "Thus, those who are contesting in this election must understand the sentiment of voters. That is why it takes some time for the government to call for this election."
The delay simply could be because the ruling party needed more time to prepare, another commentator said.
"They want to make sure they can win conveniently," Mohd Azizuddin Mohd Sani said. "They have to win big."

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Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, gestures during a speech to supporters of the ruling coalition in Kuala Lumpur, Jan. 3, 2018. [AP]

 
Test for PM
This year's election could be an acid-test for Najib, who founded 1MDB in 2009 and served as chairman of its advisory board, analysts said.
Najib has acknowledged receiving close to U.S. $681 million in his personal bank accounts, but said the money was a political donation from Saudi Arabia's royal family. The prime minister and 1MDB officials have denied the embezzlement allegations.
The controversy over the 1MDB scandal has stoked negative opinion polls against Najib since 2015, but the opposition has struggled to make a serious dent in Najib's rural support, according to other analysts.
Early this month, Najib's government began distributing about U.S. $1.6 billion to millions of low-income citizens as part of a government plan to spur economic growth, but critics slammed the move as vote-buying ahead of the general election.
Meanwhile, as the nation moves closer to the 14th general election, Najib is expected to present new electoral maps before parliament next week, according to the Straits Times. The last time Malaysia redelineated its electoral boundaries was in 2003.
But there's no guarantee that the new electoral maps would favor the ruling party, analyst Mohd Azizuddin Mohd Sani said. He brushed aside reports that the changes would give UMNO an edge because, he said, its ethnic Malay supporters are concentrated in certain areas.
"First of all, who can guarantee that the Malays will give their votes to Barisan Nasional?" Azizuddin told BenarNews.
Azizuddin said the forthcoming polls would have many interesting "unique elements," including Mahathir forming an alliance with Anwar in order to oust Najib.
Mahathir first put the 70-year-old Anwar in prison almost two decades ago. Anwar was imprisoned for sodomy in 2014 and has denied the charges, claiming they were politically motivated.
"Mahathir is working together with Anwar Ibrahim," Azizuddin said. "Who would have thought so, right?"


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian PM Could Dissolve Parliament in Late March, Early April



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BENARNEWS- One of the two Southeast Asian women accused of murdering the estranged half-brother of North Korea's leader practiced carrying out what she believed was a prank at an airport in Vietnam two weeks before the Kuala Lumpur killing, a Malaysian court heard on Tuesday.
Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong had been recruited to participate in what she thought was a reality TV show, her lawyer told the court, as the defense panel laid out a history of pranks to bolster the claim their clients were scapegoats in Kim Jong Nam's murder on Feb. 13, 2017.
Doan is standing trial with Indonesian Siti Aisyah on charges that they smeared Kim's face with the deadly VX nerve agent. If found guilty, they could face the death penalty.
"We maintained throughout our entire defense that she was recruited by the North Koreans on the false premise that she had been employed to do funny videos or video pranks," Doan's lawyer, Hisyam Teh Pok Teik, told reporters during a courtroom break.
Hisyam spoke after the defense team on Tuesday presented closed-circuit TV footage from Hanoi Noi Bai airport showing Doan apparently touching a Vietnamese man's face from behind.
The 10-minute video, dated Feb. 2, 2017, shows Doan standing at the arrival hall of Noi Bai airport apparently waiting for her prank target, according to her defense lawyers. They said the target was Vietnamese government employee Trinh Ngoc Linh, who was seen in the video walking through the terminal after visiting Singapore.
Doan could be seen running toward Trinh and apparently touching his face with her hands as he exited the arrival area. The whole interaction happened in seconds, after which she is seen walking away.
During the court hearing, the defense panel also presented two other videos, which they said showed Doan carrying out similar pranks in Vietnam.
The videos were produced in 2016 by a man named Nguyen Manh Quang, who runs a YouTube channel with prank videos, lawyers said.
Doan participated in a jigsaw puzzle game on a tablet device in one of the videos and a game with a toy crocodile in another. In an affidavit signed by Nguyen on April 24, 2017, which was presented in court, Nguyen said he paid Doan about U.S. $13 for each of the two videos.
Naran Singh, another defense lawyer, said the videos indicated that Doan was involved in the business of making funny and prank videos.
"She was recruited as an actress to prepare video pranks on several other people. You saw this at Hanoi Garden and now at Hanoi Airport," Naran told the court. "All these go to show she is a victim."
North Koreans
Also on Tuesday, the prosecution's main witness agreed during cross-examination that four missing North Korean agents who were believed involved in Kim's murder should be on trial as well.
Police had earlier identified the four as Ri Ji Hyon (alias Mr. Y), Ri Jae Nam (alias Hanamori), Ri Ji-u (alias James) and Hong Song Hac (alias Chang) who fled Kuala Lumpur hours after the murder.
"Do you agree with me that the four North Korean men, Mr. Y, Hanamori, James and Chang ought to be here sitting in this dock?" Hisyam asked lead police investigator Wan Azirul Nizam Che Wan Aziz. "Your answer is very important, the whole world wants to know."
"I agree," Wan Azirul replied.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's newest political party, Bersatu, is focusing on gaining the votes of the ethnic Malay Muslim majority in its bid to topple Prime Minister Najib Razak's ruling coalition in upcoming elections, party president Muhyiddin Yassin told BenarNews on Tuesday.

Disenchanted Malay voters are "highly likely" to help the opposition  increase its 2013 popular vote tally by three to five percent,  according to the former deputy prime minister and head of the United Malaysian Indigenous Party (Bersatu or PPBM).

"Our strategy is to pull the support from Malays who used to support BN and especially UMNO. It is clear our strategy is working," Muhyiddin told BenarNews in an interview at the Malaysian parliament in Kuala Lumpur.

Najib, leader of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), linchpin of the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, will face a stiff challenge in the election from his former mentor, ex-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who heads Bersatu.

Mahathir quit UMNO two years ago when he accused the ruling party of shielding Najib from corruption allegations tied to a financial scandal around state fund 1MDB. The prime minister has denied those allegations.

Barisan Nasional (BN) has ruled Malaysia since its founding in 1957. 

"In the 2013 General Election, the opposition had 52 percent of popular votes and BN had 48 percent. But it wasn't enough to bring a change," Muhyiddin said.

"I believe if there is a 5 percent move, to maybe 55 percent or 57 percent, which is highly likely to happen especially among the Malays, the win will be for [the opposition coalition] Pakatan Harapan." 

Registration trouble

Pakatan Harapan is an alliance made up of Bersatu and three other parties that are hoping to defeat the ruling bloc in this year's election, which must be held before August, according to the country's constitution.

Najib is expected to dissolve parliament during the last week of March or first week of April and then set a date for the 14th general election, according to reports and an official in the Prime Minister's Department. Polls could take place at the end of April or early May, the source told BenarNews last week.

But Bersatu is now facing a hurdle – the possibility of being de-listed as a party by the Registrar of Societies (RoS), the government agency responsible for registering political parties in Malaysia.

On Feb. 28, the registry warned Bersatu that it would issue a notice of dissolution to the party if it failed to submit minutes from branch and central committee meetings and certain financial statements within 30 days.
Officials at RoS did not respond immediately to requests for comment emailed by BenarNews. 

Earlier, RoS Director-General Surayati Ibrahim said the notice was issued following complaints from former PPBM members to the agency, and RoS required such information to complete an investigation of those complaints.
"Notice 14 (2) is a notice referring to matters directed by ROS pertaining to submission of minutes of branch, divisions meetings, and at central level as well as the description of the party's financial statements," she said in a statement on March 9.
If RoS removes Bersatu from its registry, the party will still have options for contesting the upcoming polls, Muhyiddin said.

"We know what we can do," he told Benar. "[W]e are committed [to] the cause of Pakatan Harapan."

"We believe members of the other three parties would want us to be part of the coalition and so what has been agreed by them is PPBM's participation in the election, seat allocations and all. Of course we still will be able to contest under the election even if we don't have a party, even it is deregistered," he added.

Wong Chin Huat, a political analyst from the Penang Institute, said Bersatu would not be able to field candidates in the 14th General Election if RoS cancelled its registration.
But, he said, the party's candidates could still contest the polls under the banner of other opposition parties.
"According to Malaysia's constitution, if Bersatu's registration is cancelled, the party cannot place candidates in the 14th General Election but they can contest as independent candidates, or using another party's logo in Pakatan Harapan," he told BenarNews.
'We will fight for all races'

Mahathir quit UMNO two years ago when he accused the ruling party of shielding Najib from corruption allegations tied to a financial scandal around state fund 1MDB. The prime minister has denied those allegations.

In early January, Pakatan Harapan announced that the 92-year-old Mahathir would be its choice as the next prime minister should the opposition coalition defeat Barisan Nasional in the coming election.

Pakatan officials said Mahathir could serve as PM before ceding the position to Anwar Ibrahim, his former bitter foe and the imprisoned de facto opposition leader, should Malaysia's king pardon Anwar for his sodomy conviction. 

In the interview, Muhyiddin also tried to allay concerns from members of Malaysia's ethnic minority groups that Bersatu was a party that would pander solely to the Malay majority.

"They thought we are racist but now they understand we are not," he said. "We are really a Malaysia party with a nationalistic nature, fighting for all Malaysians – Chinese, Indians, Sabahans, Sarawakians and others." 

"It is a national party for the sake of Malaysia ... We will fight for all races, find solutions to many ills the country and people are facing," he added.

After Pakatan unveiled a 200-page electoral manifesto this month that promised to provide 1 million jobs and do away with the goods and services tax (GST) introduced by Najib at a rate of 6 percent three years ago, the prime minister shot back. He said the nation's debt would surge to 416 billion ringgit (U.S. $106.1 billion) if Pakatan did away the tax and road tolls. 

"Going by its manifesto, our country will decline more into debt. You (young people) will have to bear it. We cannot cheat the people; don't cheat the people. We do what we can. If we cannot do something, we have to admit that we cannot do it," Najib told students at Universiti Malaysia Perlis on March 13, according to Bernama, the state-run news agency.

"But believe me, we [Barisan Nasional] always have the people under consideration because the people come first in our policies."


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BENARNEWS- The government agency that registers political parties in Malaysia is threatening to remove the country's newest opposition party from its rolls because it has become a threat, its president claimed to BenarNews on Tuesday.
The United Malaysian Indigenous Party [Bersatu] – led by former prime minister Mahathir Mohamed – is expected to mount a stiff challenge to Prime Minister Najib Razak's ruling coalition in polls that must take place within the next six months.
"When we applied, within 30 days we were registered. Maybe the warlords up there thought, this is a party of old men, small party, can't do much," Bersatu President Muhyiddin Yassin told BenarNews on Tuesday, recalling its debut on the political scene in August 2016.
"Our campaign throughout the country has received such a huge welcome, and probably they are afraid with such a situation. This is a democratic country, whoever wants to form a party, they can form ... it looks like their action is unfair and is a way of scaring us," he said.
Now, Bersatu – also known by its Malay acronym, PPBM – is rushing to file financial statements and minutes of meetings at branch and headquarter levels after the Registry of Societies warned it would receive a notice of dissolution on March 28 if it failed to do so.
RoS has said it needs the documents to investigate complaints it has received from former PPBM members.
Bersatu candidates – including Mahathir – will still compete in the election if the party loses its registration, Muhyiddin said.
He deemed it "highly likely" the opposition would attract defectors from Najib's United Malays National Organization (UMNO), but also predicted that "massive cheating" could ensure it stays in power.
Najib has dismissed the opposition claims, saying the nation's electoral system is more transparent than ever, as free and fair elections are ensured with polling agents, counting agents and the use of indelible ink, among other measures, according to a local news report.
"The chance to cheat is almost non-existent," he said. "So how can they (the opposition) say the electoral system is unfair?"
Excerpts of the interview with Muhyiddin:
BenarNews: Are you still trying to meet the March 28 deadline?
Muhyiddin Yassin: We will try to meet the deadline but we are not too sure even if we meet the requirements, whether the answers we give is acceptable and complete from their point of view, that I'm not too sure. Whatever it is, we have to wait when the time comes.
BN: If you miss the deadline, what happens next? How will your candidates contest the election?
MY: We have options. We have discussed this at length at our Supreme Council. We know what we can do. But importantly we are committed [to] the cause of Pakatan Harapan ... We believe members of the other three parties would want us to be part of the coalition and so what has been agreed by them is PPBM's participation in the election, seat allocations and all. Of course we still will be able to contest under the election even if we don't have a party, even it is deregistered.  If the Pakatan leaders say, you can use our logo, whichever one you want to use, they allow us to do so.
BN: Do you think this threat of possible deregistration has arisen because PPBM is getting more support than anticipated?
MY: I think that is one of the reasons. When we applied, within 30 days we were registered. Maybe the warlords up there thought, this is a party of old men, small party, can't do much ... Our campaign throughout the country has received such huge welcome, and probably they are afraid with such a situation. This is a democratic country, whoever wants to form a party, they can form ... it looks like their action is unfair and is a way of scaring us.
BN: It looks like PH has been open to PPBM being part of the coalition.
MY: In such a short period of time, we have forged quite a deep bond. It is clear the coalition movement is going strong. They initially said we were in disarray and all that.
BN: Do you think this coming general election is going to be a fair one?
MY: No! ... For the reason [Prime Minister Najib Razak] fears BN is going to lose and fears for himself and his cronies. So under that situation and severe pressure and stress, I can imagine, he could do anything possible to derail the election ... We are quite aware. We have submitted our views to the Election Commission and we want the commission to be an independent body, to act freely and fairly. ... We seek for foreign observers to look [at] what is happening here, so then when we lose it is not because of no votes but because of cheating ... massive cheating that Najib is going to do during this election.
BN: Why would non-Malays vote for a party called the United Malaysian Indigenous Party?
MY: I think they understand the name of Bersatu/Pribumi. They thought we are racist but now they understand we are not. We are really a Malaysia party with nationalistic nature, fighting for all Malaysians – Chinese, Indians, Sabahans, Sarawakians and others. It is a national party for the sake of Malaysia... We will fight for all races, find solutions to many ills the country and people are facing.
BN: There are signs that parliament would be dissolved soon. Is Pakatan ready?
MY: Pakatan Harapan is tired of waiting for the 14th General Election but the signs in the Parliament are there ... In Johor, Merdeka Centre said 39 percent of voters are ready to vote for opposition. This has never happened before for a state like Johor, which is an important state where Barisan Nasional has long been the powerhouse.  This is not a good sign for Barisan Nasional but a great sign for  Pakatan Harapan.
Our strategy is to pull the support from Malays who used to support BN and especially UMNO. It is clear our strategy is working. In the 2013 General Election, the opposition had 52 percent of popular votes and BN had 48 percent. But it wasn't enough to bring a change, there are still weaknesses. I believe if there is a 5 percent move, to maybe 55 percent or 57 percent, which is highly likely to happen especially among the Malays, the win will be for Pakatan Harapan.


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BENARNEWS- Politicians in Malaysia are exploiting racial issues to jockey for seats in an upcoming general election, a local human rights group warned this week in a rare report on racial discrimination in the multi-ethnic country.
Pusat Komas blamed the government of Prime Minister Najib Razak for the problem, saying it had reneged on its promises to promote national unity and social cohesion in the country.
"In fact, racism has become more pronounced and is being increasingly used as a tool to divide and rule," the NGO said in the report released in conjunction with the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on March 21.
Pusat Komas, which aims to promote and enhance unity through the use of popular media, said incidences of racial discrimination in Malaysia had increased last year based on news reports.
"As the 14th General Elections is around the corner, numerous politicians from all sides, have resorted to the usage of racial politics to win the political support of the people," it said.
Ruling, opposition parties deny playing race card
Malays and other indigenous groups account for nearly 70 percent of Malaysia's population of 31 million, with ethnic Chinese making up 23 percent and ethnic Indians and others the remainder.
Most of the Malaysian political parties are race-based, including Najib's United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the linchpin of the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition.
UMNO has denied exploiting racial issues.
"UMNO does not survive on racial issues despite the fact the party relies heavily on the support of the Malays," Annuar Musa, UMNO's information chief, told BenarNews on Friday.
"The core of the party's struggle is for the benefit of the Malays, but the party still looks into the needs of the non-Malays that are part of the various ethnic groups in the country," he said.
But ethnic minorities have complained about a lack of educational and business opportunities, saying that a government affirmative-action policy in favor of ethnic Malays had marginalized them.
Among other BN component parties are the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) and Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), both of which cater to the ethnic Chinese and Indian population.
The key opposition Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) party, led by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, is Malay-based and he has made it clear that racial politics are here to stay.
"The sophisticated and highly educated urban people may believe that racial politics are not in keeping with the times," Mahathir, the former president of UMNO, said in a blog post soon after setting up the party in 2016.
"But on the ground it is different. For the rural people who largely are poor, race is not only important but they believe (it) is essential for their well-being. UMNO's popularity is because it is a racial party."
Among the other opposition parties are the predominantly Chinese Democratic Action Party (DAP) and Malay Muslim-based Parti Islam Se Malaysia (PAS).
Liew Chin Tong, the head of the DAP in southern Johor state, rejected any notion that his party played the race card.
"DAP has always championed the principles of accepting all Malaysians, including Sabahans and Sarawakians," he said referring to the people of the east Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, on Borneo, that joined Malaysia in 1963.
"Racial politics is never part of DAP, we fight for all Malaysians irrespective or race, religion and color," Liew told BenarNews.
Religious extremism on rise
The Pusat Komas report mentioned "a rise in religious extremism" in Malaysia and said it had "led to discriminatory actions that have impeded the rights of Malaysians from different ethnic groups.
"Though the discriminatory actions may stem from a religious perspective, the intersectionality between religious and racial discrimination is apparent in these cases," it said. "This new trend is not only worrying but it highlights the inherent danger of the overreach of bureaucratic Islamic institution."
Islam is the official religion of Malaysia, which has sizable Buddhist, Christian and Hindu communities.
The Pusat Komas report also highlighted several positive examples where initiatives were taken to promote national unity and social cohesion, including by high-level politicians, sultans, commercial bodies, youth groups, sportsmen, military, religious authorities and even a beauty company.
"This clearly shows the power of ordinary citizens to stop racism and racist remarks in time and prevent the spread of hatred before it would severely damage the social fabric," said Rita Izsak-Ndiaye, a member of the panel that monitors the implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).
Malaysia was among a handful of countries which did not sign and ratify the ICERD, Ndiaye, a former U.N. Special Rapporteur on minority issues, said in a foreword to the Pusat Komas report.
"Joining the other 179 State Parties who have already done so is not only important because it signifies an important pledge toward eliminating racial discrimination, but comes with very concrete benefits," she said.
Hata Wahari in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian authorities filed charges Monday against two suspected Islamic State (IS) members, alleging they were planning to launch attacks on non-Muslim places of worship and other targets, including police stations.
Another suspected militant was charged in the southern state of Johor with possession of pro-IS videos in his mobile phone and tablet, officials said.
The three were part of a six-member terrorist cell arrested by Malaysian counter-terror officials in three separate raids since the end of February in the state, Malaysia's Inspector-General of Police Mohamad Fuzi Harun said in a statement on Saturday.
Authorities did not name the places of worship in the charge sheet.
"We cannot reveal the names of their targets, but I can confirm they were targeting a few police personnel and officers from Johor," Fuzi told reporters.
A suspected Filipino bomb maker with alleged ties to Furuji Indama, a leader of the pro-IS militant group Abu Sayyaf in the southern Philippines, also was arrested in the eastern state of Sabah this month, Fuzi said. Officials did not release the suspect's name.
Abu Sayyaf militants are known for beheading hostages unless ransom payments are made. Last year, they beheaded a German captive in February and two Vietnamese sailors in July.
Charge sheet details
Officials alleged that Nik Muhamad Zaini Nik Hassan, 37, who works as a technician, and security guard Ismadi Md Nor (alias Ismail), 30, planned to launch an attack on a building in Johor Bahru, the capital of Johor.
If found guilty, the duo could face imprisonment of not more than seven years.
The third accused, Mohammad Zaki Ibrahim, 49, also a security guard, was charged with possessing video clips of IS activities in his mobile and tablet. He also faces a seven-year prison term, if found guilty.
The three men were not represented by a lawyer and, according to court officials, no pleas were recorded on Monday. They had planned to escape to an unnamed neighboring country upon successfully executing their planned attacks, Fuzi said.
The poorly secured seas separating Malaysia from the southern Philippines are a haven for pirates and terrorists, officials said. The two Southeast Asian nations began joint air patrols with Indonesia in October 2017 to bolster their trilateral maritime efforts aimed at ridding their shared borders of threats from IS extremists.
Fuzi said the terror cell allegedly planned on attacking police stations after Sunday's national Police Day celebrations.
A source close to the investigation told BenarNews it was not the first time Malaysian authorities knew about plans of militants to attack and kill police personnel.
The Johor cell is considered dangerous as it has links to groups based in southern Thailand, the source also said.
Muslim-majority Malaysia's top IS recruiter Wanndy Mohamad Jedi, who was killed in a drone attack last year in Syria, had called for IS members in Malaysia to launch attacks in the country against police personnel.
Plan to turn Borneo into haven for extremists
Fuzi told reporters on Saturday that the Filipino bomb maker had been planning to attack targets in Sabah in a bid to transform the Malaysian part of Borneo into a safe haven for the IS terrorists.
"The suspect has links with Dr. Mahmud Ahmad, a Malaysian citizen who joined IS in the southern Philippines," Fuzi said. "The suspect is also wanted by the Philippine authorities for his alleged involvement in series of attempted murders and kidnap-for-ransom activities."
Abu Sayyaf members, backed by Southeast Asian and other foreign militant fighters, joined forces last year to take over the southern Philippine city of Marawi, engaging Philippine security forces in five months of vicious gunbattles that killed more than 1,200 people, mostly militants.
The arrests bring to 389 the number of detained terrorism suspects as Malaysian authorities stepped up efforts to disrupt militancy during the past four years, according to a BenarNews tally confirmed by Fuzi on Sunday.
Malaysia, home to about 32 million people, including 19.5 million Muslims, is one of the most-developed economies in Southeast Asia. It has foiled at least nine IS-related bomb plots since 2013, according to officials.
Those foiled plots included one that targeted the Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur in August 2017, police said. But in June 2016, IS-linked militants carried out a grenade attack at a nightclub in Puchong, near the capital Kuala Lumpur, injuring eight people.
Prime Minister Najib Razak on Sunday paid tribute to Malaysian police for keeping the country safe.
"Up until today, I am grateful that none of Malaysian were killed in the country over an IS attack," Najib said in a speech. "This is because of the effective police action."


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BENARNEWS- The foreign ministers of Malaysia and Indonesia met separately with senior U.S. government officials in Washington this week to discuss security-related issues including the South China Sea and efforts to counter the terrorist threat from Islamic State (IS), officials said.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan held individual meetings on Monday with Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman and Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi. Indonesia's top diplomat also met with U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis at the Pentagon.
During Sullivan's meeting with Anifah, the two diplomats talked about strengthening bilateral ties in key security areas in light of a "growing threat" posed by IS and the need to ensure freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.
Nauert said Sullivan and Anifah "discussed the South China Sea, to include ensuring freedom of navigation and over-flights, as well as upholding a rules-based maritime order."
The meeting took place as Chinese naval vessels were exercising this week with an aircraft carrier in a show of force involving at least 40 ships and submarines off Hainan Island in the South China Sea, Reuters news service reported Tuesday.
"The two leaders also pledged to strengthen cooperation to counter the growing threat of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria," Nauert said, referring to the other name of IS.
It was not immediately clear if Nauert was referring to the IS threat in Southeast Asia, which has experienced militant attacks in recent years, including vicious fighting during a five-month siege by IS-linked militants in the southern Philippine city of Marawi last year.
Regarding Sullivan's meeting with Retno, Nauert said they agreed to deepen "cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region for the benefit of regional security, prosperity, and a rules-based international order."
Meeting at Pentagon
Earlier in the day, Retno met with Mattis, who described Indonesia as a "geographic and diplomatic fulcrum for the Indo-Pacific region" that had the ability to build consensus within the ASEAN regional bloc.
Mattis said this was "a very important factor as we seek to expand counterterrorism, to bolster maritime cooperation and to promote collective security," according to a transcript released by the Pentagon.
"We welcome greater Indonesia leadership and training and interoperability with your neighbors. We believe it is a stabilizing factor, what you are doing," Mattis said.
As an example, he cited an agreement between Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines to launch joint maritime patrols in their common sea lanes.
"Your trilateral cooperation agreement with Malaysia and the Philippines serves as a good model from the North Natuna Sea, to the Sulu Sea and beyond," the American defense chief said.
The three countries launched joint maritime patrols in June 2017. Four months later, as the battle of Marawi was nearing its end, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Manila began joint air patrols to bolster their coordinated maritime efforts. These were aimed at preventing cross-border movements of IS extremists to and from the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, among other common security concerns, officials from those countries said at the time.
Security analysts said the poorly-secured waterways separating Malaysia from the southern Philippines were a haven for pirates and militants, and may have been the route used by foreign fighters, including Malaysians and Indonesians, as they penetrated Mindanao and joined pro-IS militants in Marawi.
At least 1,200 people, mostly militants, were killed during five months of fighting in Marawi, according to Philippine military officials.
Chinese naval movements
Meanwhile, in developments related to territorial tensions in the South China Sea, satellite images provided by Planet Labs Inc. confirmed that a Chinese carrier group had entered the sea region as part of what the Chinese navy had earlier described as combat drills that were part of routine annual exercises, according to Reuters.
The sea is a vital waterway through which about U.S. $5 trillion in international trade passes annually. It was unclear where the flotilla was headed or how long operations would last, the report said.
China claims most of the mineral and resource-rich South China Sea, which is also claimed by Malaysia Brunei, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan.
Sullivan's meeting with the Indonesian and Malaysian foreign ministers took place just days before April 1, when he is expected to step in as acting U.S. Secretary of State, following Rex Tillerson's dismissal earlier this month.


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BENARNEWS- An elusive tycoon from Malaysia accused of taking part in embezzling billions of dollars from a Malaysian state fund has been battling to keep his mega-yacht away from American authorities, U.S. court documents show.
Businessman Jho Low gave instructions for the $250-million yacht Equanimity to avoid territorial waters of known American allies, such as Australia and Singapore, as soon as news broke that a California court had ordered its seizure in June last year, U.S. attorneys said.
Indonesian and U.S. authorities impounded the Equanimity, a Cayman Islands-flagged vessel, while it was moored off the Indonesian island of Bali last month. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) alleges that Low bought the luxury vessel with money stolen from the state fund known as 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
"In the months following the issuance of the court's [seizure order], there is significant evidence that Low instructed claimants to keep the Equanimity outside the government's hands and outside the United States," according to documents filed by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) at a California court on Monday.
Four companies have been named in the federal court papers as claimants representing Jho Low, whose full name is Low Taek Jho.
A lawyer for one of the claimants said U.S. authorities were thinking of sailing the yacht to the United States with only eight crew members.
The DOJ sought to sail the yacht to the United States, where it would be seized and sold, but claimants said eight people could not safely operate the vessel, which has a current rotational crew of 55.
"It is my understanding from industry professionals that such a reduced number would seriously jeopardize the safety of the crew and would be disastrous for the preservation of the asset," lawyer Naeun Rim said, according to court documents.
On June 15, 2017, the United States filed a civil forfeiture lawsuit against the vessel, claiming Low purchased it with funds "stolen and embezzled" from 1MDB.
After news broke that a California court had ordered the yacht's seizure, the claimants hid the Equanimity in a series of foreign locations, frustrating the government's efforts to bring the asset for forfeiture in the United States, according to the newly filed court documents.
FBI Special Agent Justin McNair, in a statement filed in court, alleged that Low had issued instructions to the vessel's captain, via the mobile messaging application WeChat, to turn off Equanimity's Automatic Identification System (AIS) after news got out about the yacht being targeted for seizure.
"While vessels may sometimes turn off their AIS to 'hide' themselves when they are in high-risk territories with serious pirate concerns, the Equanimity was not in a high-risk territory when it turned off its AIS right after new broke about (possible seizure)," McNair said.
He said another directive from Low was for the captain to avoid "major problems" by not entering U.S. territorial waters and those of certain jurisdictions, but instead keep the yacht in "safe places" like Vietnam and Cambodia.
But the claimants debunked the FBI agent's claim, saying in court papers that the vessel employed a long-range identification and tracking system, which had never been turned off and was different from AIS.
In order to preserve the yacht's value and to protect the rights of third parties, a California court on Monday ordered that the yacht remain in Indonesia "until a court orders otherwise."
Pursuing criminal action
In August 2017, DOJ announced it was pursuing criminal action against those involved in the misappropriations and fraudulent diversion of funds from 1MDB, an entity wholly-owned by the Malaysian government.
The department asked the court to set aside its civil lawsuits seeking to recover more than $1.7 billion in real-estate and other assets because it was trying to protect evidence and witnesses in its criminal investigation.
1MDB, which is at the center of money-laundering investigations in at least six countries, including Switzerland and Singapore, was formed in 2009 ostensibly to pursue projects that would benefit Malaysian citizens through development projects that primarily relied on the issuance of debt securities, U.S. officials said.
Money from the fund was used instead to feed the ostentatious lifestyle of those with power over it during a five-year period, between 2009 and 2014, according to court documents.
Low, who has been identified in court documents as an adviser on the creation of TIA, the predecessor entity of 1MDB, has publicly denied any involvement with the state fund after its inception. His current whereabouts remain unknown.
The state fund has also been tied to corruption allegations surrounding Prime Minister Najib Razak, who founded 1MDB. He has denied any wrongdoing in connection with deposits into his private bank accounts of nearly U.S. $700 million in money linked to the fund.
Jho Low has never held a formal position at the state fund but he "nevertheless exercised significant control over 1MDB" during the acquisition of the Equanimity, according to the DOJ lawsuit.
The yacht, built in 2014 in Rotterdam, Netherlands, is equipped with a helicopter landing pad, an onboard gymnasium, a cinema, a massage room, a sauna and a plunge pool, court documents said.
Funds used to buy the Equanimity were diverted from 1MDB and funneled through a bank account controlled by Low "in a manner intended to conceal the origin, source, and ownership of the criminal proceeds," DOJ said in its lawsuit.
"Low knew those funds were misappropriated from 1MDB," the department said.


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BENARNEWS- A court in eastern Malaysia sentenced two Indonesians and a Malaysian on Wednesday to 10 years in prison each after convicting them on charges of planning to commit terrorist acts in the nearby southern Philippines.
The Indonesians – Faisal (who uses only one name) and Ali Misron – were sentenced along with Malaysian Nor Azmi Zahyi after they pleaded guilty before Judge Ravinthran Paramaguru at the Kota Kinabalu High Court in Sabah state.
Faisal, 24, and Nor Azmi, 49, were arrested on June 15 last year in Sandakan, a local district that provides ferry services to the southern Philippines, authorities said, adding that Ali, 36, was arrested at the Sandakan airport later in the evening on the same day.
The trio was charged under Malaysia's tough penal code and the court could have handed each of them a 30-year prison term, prosecutors said.
Nor Azmi changed his plea on Wednesday after having pled not guilty, while the two Indonesians pleaded guilty last month.
Prosecutors said the three had communicated through Facebook to meet at a mosque in central Sandakan before planning to move to Tawi-Tawi, an island-province in the southern Philippines.
From there, the three planned to travel up north and link up with pro-IS militants who were then locked in vicious fighting with Philippine security forces in Marawi city, investigators said.
Transit route
In February, Malaysian authorities said they had exposed plans by the Abu Sayyaf extremist group to set up a base in Sabah following the arrest of 10 people who had allegedly helped suspected militants travel to the group's base in the southern Philippines.
An ASG faction led by Isnilon Hapilon, the acknowledged IS leader in the Philippines, laid siege to Marawi for five months, engaging security forces in a battle that left 1,200 people dead, most of them militants, according to Philippine officials.
Authorities said they had uncovered the plans after multiple raids in the Malaysian state on Borneo island, from Jan. 25 to Feb. 6.
Sabah has long served as a transit route for foreign militants, including from neighboring Indonesia, Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, chief of the Malaysian police's counter-terrorist special branch, said in January.
"If they don't transit from Sabah, they can go to the southern Philippines directly from their home country," he said. "But it's a long journey over the Sulawesi Sea, so it is much easier to transit from Sabah."
Malaysian officials announced the sentencing of the three men a day after Foreign Minister Anifah Aman met U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan in Washington. The two diplomats agreed to strengthen ties in key security areas in light of a "growing threat" posed by the extremist group Islamic State (IS), U.S. State Department officials said.
"As ISIS has lost territory in Syria and Iraq, the ISIS threat has evolved because battle-hardened veterans are attempting to return to their home countries or take the fight to other regions," including Southeast Asia, a U.S. State Department spokesman told BenarNews, referring to IS by another acronym.
Roni Toldanes in Washington contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's parliament swiftly approved a new electoral map Wednesday amid howls of protest from opposition lawmakers and activists who said it favored Prime Minister Najib Razak's ruling coalition in upcoming polls.
In total, 129 lawmakers voted for and 80 voted against a bill allowing for the redrawing of electoral boundaries that was bulldozed through parliament and expected to take effect just in time for the 14th General Election, which must be called by August.
Malaysia's king must still approve the motion, after which Najib is expected to seek his permission to dissolve parliament and announce a date for the election.
Prominent electoral reform activist S. Ambiga described the move as "cheating the people and an act of challenging democracy."
"We cannot allow that. Why they are rushing the report through," she told reporters during a protest outside parliament, referring to a document detailing the changes to the electoral map that was produced by the nation's Election Commission (EC) and submitted to the legislature.
Lawmakers held a chaotic debate on the measure in parliament late Wednesday in front of Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia, who abruptly suspended senior opposition leader Lim Kit Siang for six months for speaking out of turn.
In introducing the bill, Prime Minister Najib Razak told the House that the redistricting would not produce any new seats but would change the boundaries and names of some existing districts.
He said redistricting was needed because the electoral map had last been drawn up in 2003, and due to "the different topography and demography of rural areas."
"This had indirectly posed restrictions in terms of connectivity and transportation," Najib said.
"This problem had caused far higher concentration of population in the urban areas compared to the rural."
Most supporters of the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition are in rural areas, especially villages built for low-income Malays as part of a decades-old development scheme targeting Malaysia's ethnic majority.
"The government did not interfere nor had any influence [on the] EC in executing their duties. The government ... respects all decisions made by the commission, for the benefit of all and for the interest of the rakyat [the people] and our country," Najib said.
Bigger districts
The new electoral map appears to pack more voters into districts currently held by the opposition.
For example, it renames the Petaling Jaya Utara seat in opposition-held Selangor state and enlarges it from 84,456 to 150,439 voters, making it the largest constituency in Peninsular Malaysia.
Meanwhile, the Kuala Lumpur Lembah Pantai seat, held by the daughter of jailed de facto opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, now includes the federal police headquarters Bukit Aman, adding at least additional 6,000 votes, although the two areas are not geographically adjacent.
Anwar's daughter, Nurul Izzah, won the seat in 2013 by 1,847 votes, ousting a former government minister in a shock upset.
Other changes included renaming 12 parliamentary and 28 state seats.
Malays and other indigenous groups account for nearly 70 percent of Malaysia's population of 31 million, with ethnic Chinese making up 23 percent and ethnic Indians and others the remainder.
Most of the Malaysian political parties are race-based, including Najib's United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the linchpin of the ruling BN coalition.
'Tyranny'
Earlier in the day, about 1, 000 people clad in yellow T-shirts of the electoral reform movement Bersih marched towards parliament, led by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. He had abandoned the ruling party in 2016, saying it was shielding Najib from corruption allegations.
Mahathir said BN had "bulldozed" through the proposal without giving adequate space for it to be debated.
"The law needs more time to be debated. This law is only for the general election," Mahathir said commenting on the half-day given to debate around the redrawing of electoral boundaries.
"This is a form of tyranny," he added.
Mahathir has been named as the choice for prime minister by the opposition Pakatan Harapan coalition should it expand its share of seats from 90 to a simple majority of 112 or more.
The suspended opposition leader Lim, a Batu Pahat parliamentarian and advisor of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), had questioned Pandikar's decision to prevent the redistricting proposal from being made public when it was handed to parliamentarians last week.
In a press conference shortly after the bill was passed, Lim said the redistricting was aimed at protecting Najib and his ruling coalition.
"Today the parliament voted for a motion to protect Najib and BN, tomorrow it will vote to protect Najib from 1MDB with the fake news law. The choice is in the voter's hand whether to allow for this to succeed," he told reporters.
A bill introduced in parliament on Monday would make spreading fake news a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
1MDB affair
Najib could be facing his toughest electoral battle yet due to a massive corruption scandal involving a state-owned investment fund, 1MDB. The ruling BN coalition lost its super majority in 2008 and saw its majority further trimmed in 2013.
The 1MDB affair has spawned international investigations and most recently the seizure of a mega-yacht allegedly purchased with funds stolen from 1MDB by Malaysian tycoon Low Taek Jho, the main target of a U.S. government money-laundering investigation.
Najib has acknowledged receiving close to U.S. $681 million in his personal bank accounts just before the 2013 election, but said the money was a political donation from Saudi Arabia's royal family. The prime minister and 1MDB officials have denied the embezzlement allegations.
The controversy over the 1MDB scandal has stoked negative opinion polls against Najib since 2015, but the opposition has struggled to make a serious dent in Najib's rural support, according to analysts.
Mahathir's new party, Bersatu, is focusing on gaining the votes of the ethnic Malay Muslim majority, its president, Muhyiddin Yassin, told BenarNews earlier this month.
"Our strategy is to pull the support from Malays who used to support BN and especially UMNO," he said, noting that in 2013 the opposition won 52 percent of the popular vote but was still unable to form a government.
"I believe if there is a 5 percent move, to maybe 55 percent or 57 percent, which is highly likely to happen especially among the Malays, the win will be for Pakatan Harapan," he said.
Earlier this month, Najib's government began distributing about U.S. $1.6 billion to millions of low-income citizens as part of a government plan to spur economic growth, but critics slammed the move as vote-buying ahead of the general election.

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Opposition coalition members hold signs saying "Rise Up, People, and Stop the Fraud" at a press conference after parliament approved electoral redistricting, March 28, 2018. Fadzil Aziz/BenarNews



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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's lower house of parliament passed a bill Monday to punish people who spread false information, despite protests from the opposition claiming Prime Minister Najib Razak intends to use it to silence his critics amid looming elections.
The "Fake News" bill was approved by 123 lawmakers, including 10 from the opposition Islamist party (PAS), while 64 voted against it. The upper house is expected to pass it later this week before it will be taken to the king for approval and gazetted into law.
The bill declares that any person found guilty of creating, offering, publishing, distributing, circulating or disseminating fake news is liable to a fine to not exceed 500,000 ringgit (U.S. $129,412), imprisonment for up to six years or both.
The bill describes fake news as any news, information, data or report that is wholly or partly false, whether in the form of features, visuals, audio recordings or any other form capable of suggesting words or ideas.
Once the bill is passed, Najib is expected to dissolve parliament in preparation for Malaysia's 14th General Election, which could take place in a matter of weeks.
The bill is not meant to stifle free speech but to curb the spreading of fake news because it is a global problem that needs to be contained, said Malaysia's minister in charge of law, Azalina Othman.
The law is not draconian because the courts will decide what type of news is considered as fake, she added.
"Power will be given to the court to eliminate any fake news production," she said.
'It must not be rushed': Najib's brother
Earlier, opposition Democratic Action Party leader Lim Guan Eng said the bill was a form of dictatorship and was meant to jail opposition leaders if they lost in the coming general election.
Additionally, Najib's younger brother, Nazir Razak aired his opposition to the government's move in getting the bill passed so quickly.
"As much as I abhor fake news, the Anti Fake News Bill should be deferred. It must be comprehensively drafted and debated. It must not be rushed," Nazir said on Instagram.
Monday's vote came five days after the legislature approved redrawing the nation's electoral maps in a way that would favor Najib's party and the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, critics said. The new map is expected to take effect in time for the general election, which must be called by August.
Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is to lead the opposition Pakatan Harapan bloc against BN, led by Najib.
If Pakatan wins the election, Mahathir, 92, could serve as prime minister before ceding the position to Anwar Ibrahim. Anwar, who served as Mahathir's prime minister before they had a bitter falling out, is imprisoned on a sodomy conviction and would need a pardon by the king to take over as prime minister.
On Sunday, Anwar issued a statement condemning the new electoral boundaries, calling them a blatant and unconstitutional act of gerrymandering.
"It is an admission by the BN that they would lose the general election using the old boundaries," he said.
Anwar also challenged the fake news bill.
"They want this law to prevent further public discussion and criticism of the 1MDB scandal and other corruption scandals and wrongdoing of the BN," he said, alluding to a scandal involving the loss of billions of dollars from the nation's development fund, which Najib had founded.
"Fake news or false news can be dealt with by defamation laws," he said. "Can we let the thieves who stole billions in public money decide what is fake?"


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's top maritime agency on Tuesday intercepted a boat carrying nearly five dozen Rohingya near the country's northwestern coast, officials said.
The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) said the boat, discovered off the island of Langkawi, was ferrying 36 adults and about 20 children. The group belongs to the ethnic Rohingya community, which has been at the receiving end of what the United Nations calls a "systematic ethnic cleansing" in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
An official said 29 of the boat's occupants were women.
"[MMEA] provided early aid such as food, water and medicine," said North Regional Director Adm. Rozali Mohammed Said.
The refugees were to be handed over to the state immigration department because they were found within Malaysian waters and without valid documents, Rozali said.
While the MMEA took seriously any sign of aggression across Malaysian waters, agency officials were trying to show leniency to the Rohingya on the principle of humanity, he said.
The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, expressed appreciation for Kuala Lumpur's move allowing the refugees to disembark on Malaysian territory.
"UNHCR regards this as a very positive humanitarian gesture on the part of the Malaysian government, and consistent with international norms for the protection of asylum-seekers and persons at risk at sea," UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic told BenarNews in an emailed statement.
"UNHCR has been in contact with the Malaysian maritime authorities to seek access to these individuals, and we stand ready to lend our support in providing any necessary humanitarian assistance to the refugees in line with international standards," he said.
On Monday, Malaysian authorities said they had stepped up security in the Malacca Strait and Andaman Sea to intercept boats presumably filled with Rohingya who were seeking to escape the latest wave of violence against their community in Myanmar.
At least 670,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar and settled in makeshift camps across the border in Bangladesh since August 2017, according to the latest estimates from the United Nations. At that time, members of the insurgent group Arakan Salvation Rohingya Army (ARSA) allegedly attacked Myanmar police and army posts, provoking a brutal military crackdown on the Rohingya minority concentrated in Myanmar's Rakhine state.
Six Malaysian government ships were mobilized off Langkawi after officials received intelligence that a boat carrying 56 Rohingya had anchored near Thailand on Sunday because of rough seas, Rozali said.
Human rights advocacy group Fortify Rights said Thai police confirmed spotting the boat near Krabi province and sending it back to sea.
"It [the boat] was sent to Malaysia after it was repaired and its crew was supplied with food and fuel," a Thai official told BenarNews on condition of anonymity.
Rozali said there had been no confirmation of the boat's entry into Malaysian waters.
Fortify Rights CEO Matthew Smith said governments in the Southeast Asian region needed to follow their legal obligations to protect Rohingya refugees instead of packing them off to potential death sentences at seas.
"This is not a problem that will go away on its own," Smith said.
While the origin of the Rohingya has not be determined, Krabi police chief Col. Pattanachak Chakrabhan said most of the boat's occupants likely came from Myanmar's Rakhine state and had planned to take refuge in Malaysia.
"They had no connections with human trafficking syndicates," he said.
In May 2015, human traffickers abandoned boats carrying thousands of Rohingya and Bangladeshi survivors of trafficking after Thailand and Malaysia reinforced their borders and refused to allow the boats to make port, resulting in an untold number of deaths, according to Fortify Rights.
"The Thai and Malaysian authorities went so far as to tow boats of refugees out of their territorial waters, leaving them adrift at sea," the rights group said.
An official from Bangladesh, where thousands of Rohingya have found shelter following the latest wave of violence in neighboring Myanmar, said the boat could not have crossed his country's waters.
"People can no longer use any river and sea route to go to Malaysia as we have stopped movement of boats on the Bangladesh side of the river Naf [that divides Myanmar and Bangladesh]," Afrozul Haque Tutul, additional superintendent of police in Cox's Bazar, told BenarNews.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak unveiled a huge package of initiatives Wednesday including hundreds of millions of dollars in pay hikes for government employees and pensioners, as his ruling coalition gears up for a general election this year.
The nine initiatives will include awarding a large portion of 2 billion ringgit (U.S. $516 million) in salary increases and extra cash for Malaysia's 1.6 million civil servants and 800,000 retirees, respectively, Najib told a gathering of 10,000 government officials and employees in Putrajaya, the country's administrative capital.
"On behalf of the government, I would like to announce the salary increment to all government servants involving the expenditure of 1.46 billion ringgit ($377 million), effective July 1," he said.
Najib made the announcement amid widespread expectation that he will call for the 14th general election any day now. According to Malaysia's constitution, the election must be held by August, but many observers expect it to take place within the coming weeks. Nearly 15 million Malaysians are eligible to vote, according to 2017 government data.
Najib, who heads the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, announced similar pay hikes leading into the last general election in 2013.
On Wednesday, the prime minister announced as well that his government had allocated 200 million ringgit ($51.6 million) to increase pensions by 1 percent in July as well. He joked that "a 93-year-old pensioner" would benefit from the increase.
Najib apparently was referring to former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who turns 93 in July. Mahathir will be leading the opposition Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition in the upcoming election.
Other incentives
Najib said the government would offer a maximum of seven days of paid leave to non-Muslims who want to perform their religious duties, a privilege that had been given only to Muslim government employees who undertook the Hajj pilgrimage. The government will also offer a special quota to pensioners who want to perform Hajj.
In addition, Najib said the government had allocated 7.4 million ringgit ($1.9 million) to create a special pay grade for education service officers who excelled in their jobs. The government also agreed to extend medical benefits to the parents of 42,869 contract officers.
Mahathir's PH coalition made its own promises to voters in March. Its 200-page manifesto declared it would provide 1 million new jobs and affordable housing while abolishing the much-hate two-year-old Government Sales Tax (GST) instituted by Najib.
Previous promises
In recent days and weeks, Najib's government has implemented or announced other financial measures aimed apparently at wooing voters ahead of the national polls.
On Friday, Najib announced incentives of 2.9 billion ringgit ($748 million) for Bumiputera entrepreneurs to help them be more competitive. In multi-racial Malaysia, Bumiputera, which means "sons of the soil," refers to members of the ethnic Malay majority and other indigenous people.
In February, the prime minister announced 1.3 billion ringgit ($335 million) for projects to assist residents of Langkawi island. He told the residents the funding was available for the projects because of Malaysia's strong government.
And, late last month, his government announced it had started distributing about U.S. $1.6 billion in cash handouts to millions of low-income citizens as part of a government plan to spur economic growth. Critics slammed the move as vote-buying ahead of the general election.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian authorities deregistered the key opposition party Thursday, in a move that leader Mahathir Mohamad called "an abuse of power" and an attempt to confuse citizens on the eve of the widely expected dissolution of parliament preceding a general election.
Mahathir's United Malaysian Indigenous Party (Bersatu) was deregistered for failing to hand over a series of documents within a 30-day deadline after being notified, Registrar of Societies (RoS) Director General Surayati Ibrahim declared.
Bersatu is a member of the opposition Pakatan Harapan (PH) alliance.
"The application to register PH has also been rejected because of the temporary deregistration of Bersatu," Surayati announced at 2 p.m., an hour after parliament adjourned for its last session during the current government's term.
Mahathir, a former prime minister who came out of retirement and defected to the opposition from the ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO) two years ago, said PH would appeal to the government and courts, if necessary.
The action by RoS was aimed at preventing his party from challenging the ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party in the election, a Bersatu statement said.
"As far as we are concerned, we are a functioning party," Mahathir told reporters.
RoS claimed Bersatu had 30 more days to comply with its instruction to produce documents related to meetings held at branches, divisions and the central level, or face an infinite deregistration.
Surayati told reporters the action was necessary because Bersatu failed to comply with a Feb. 28 notice.
She denied there was political pressure from UMNO, adding that RoS was investigating 402 complaints from Bersatu members who were dissatisfied with how the party was being run.
The notice was handed to Bersatu Secretary General Shahruddin Md Salleh, Suriyati told reporters at RoS headquarters in Putrajaya.
Moving forward over the next 30 days, Bersatu is not allowed to conduct any activities using its name or logo.
"An action will be taken if they refuse to abide by the law," Suriyati said without explaining what such action would entail.
Can't stop us: Mahathir
Speaking to reporters hours later at Pakatan headquarters in Petaling Jaya, Mahathir challenged the legitimacy of the original notice, alleging it was delivered to the wrong people at the wrong address. Although it was dated Feb. 28, it was not delivered until March 6, meaning the original 30 days to respond had not expired, he said.
Bersatu also answered the questions, he said.
"RoS has been told we have no branches," Mahathir said, adding that because it was a new party, there were no meetings and no minutes. The press statement said Shahruddin had reached out to RoS on March 30 to ask whether additional information was required and was informed the party had conformed with all orders.
Meanwhile, the coalition will move forward with its campaign until the courts rule against it, Mahathir said, adding it planned to use its name and logo.
"There's no way they can stop us from contesting. They can declare our parties illegal, but they can't declare us illegal," Mahathir told reporters and supporters.
Anticipating that Prime Minister Najib Razak will dissolve parliament on Friday afternoon – after which the Election Commission will set a date for the election – Mahathir announced an event would take place that evening where PH would discuss its campaign plans.
"We are a very open party," Mahathir said. "No secrets, nothing to hide."
Mahathir heads the Pakatan coalition that is looking to challenge the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, led by Najib, in the coming 14th general election.
The polls must be held by August but are expected to occur by early May.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian prosecutors on Thursday rested their case against two Southeast Asian women accused of wiping the lethal VX nerve agent on the face of the North Korean leader's estranged half-brother during an airport attack.
After the court session, defense attorneys claimed that despite presenting 34 witnesses, prosecutors did not establish a clear motive in the Feb. 13, 2017, murder of Kim Jong Nam at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2.
The women – Indonesian Siti Aisyah, 25 and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, 29 – are on trial at the Shah Alam court complex in Selangor state. They face the death penalty if found guilty. Meanwhile, four North Korean suspects who flew out of Malaysia hours after the killing remain at large.
During the 39 days of trial that began on Oct. 2, 2017, prosecutors tried to prove the women knew they were handling a lethal nerve agent when they smeared it on Kim's face.
The duo's lawyers, on the other hand, argued the women were duped by suspected North Korean agents into believing they were playing a harmless prank for a reality TV show.
The judge said closing oral arguments in the trial will begin on June 27.
Lawyers said that after the closing arguments, the court will decide if there is a case against the women before calling on the defense to present its witnesses. If the court finds that there is no case, they will be freed.
Speaking to reporters during a court break on Thursday, Doan's lawyer, Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, said he brought a strong argument to prove his client's innocence.
"We are convinced because that is the truth," he said. "The prosecution has to prove the question of either knowledge or motive."
Kim's murder drew negative attention to what had been a close relationship between Pyongyang and Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia was among a handful of countries that maintained ties with North Korea, which has been under international sanctions over its nuclear weapons program.
But a diplomatic row erupted after North Korea announced it was barring Malaysians from exiting its country until Malaysia returned Kim's body and allowed two North Koreans, who were wanted for questioning, to leave.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak condemned North Korea's move and likened it to holding his countrymen as hostages. He responded by downgrading ties with North Korea.
South Korea claimed the airport murder was part of a carefully set plot by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to kill a sibling he reportedly never met.
Defense questions
On Thursday, chemical weapons expert Raja Subramaniam told the court the Malaysian laboratory that tested the VX allegedly used to kill Kim was not on the list of centers approved by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the global chemical weapons watchdog.
Labs need to maintain a certain standard to be on the OPCW list, Raja said, adding the center must participate in proficiency testing at least once a year.
After the court session ended, the defense attorneys underscored the prosecution's weaknesses, including the absence of four main North Korean suspects.
"We cannot question them or question their involvement in this case," Hisyam told reporters.
Siti's lawyer, Gooi Soon Seng, asked why the North Koreans were allowed to leave.
"We say the motive in this murder is related to politics, and it might have been a political killing," he said. "If they are still here, we can prove the motive in this case is mere politics and not something else."


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BENARNEWS- Prime Minister Najib Razak on Friday announced the dissolution of Malaysia's parliament, paving the way for what is expected to be a tightly contested general election within weeks.
Malaysia's Election Commission will now set dates for nomination of candidates and the 14th general election, which by law must happen within two months after the dissolution of parliament and will likely take place before Ramadan begins around May 15.
In a televised address from his office in Putrajaya, Najib, 64, said he had had an audience with Malaysia's king and received his consent to dissolve parliament on Saturday.
"In accordance with Article 55 of the Federal Constitution, his Majesty has given his blessing for the dissolution to take effect on Saturday, April 7," he said.
Najib then launched into a campaign speech, asking voters to deliver a new mandate for the Barisan Nasional coalition that has ruled Malaysia since independence.
"We have delivered, and we will continue to deliver," said Najib, whose United Malays National Organization (UMNO) is the linchpin of the ruling coalition. "We will develop this country from Perlis to Sarawak and Sabah ... so there is no one left behind."
Unprecedented
The election is unprecedented in that nonagenarian former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has come out of retirement to lead the opposition in its bid to unseat Barisan. Mahathir led UMNO when he was prime minister for more than two decades.
"UMNO is beyond resuscitation, beyond turning around. It has become very bad, it has become, obviously, very corrupt. The leaders are corrupt. They don't express the views of the people," Mahathir told BenarNews in 2016.
In the coming election, the party that wins a simple majority in the 222-seat parliament will form the next federal government. Barisan Nasional currently holds 130 seats.
But this year's general election promises to be a stiff challenge for Najib, 64, because his coalition will be vying against an opposition alliance led by still-popular Mahathir, 92.
Once Najib's mentor, Mahathir quit UMNO in 2016, accusing party leaders of shielding the prime minister from corruption allegations tied to 1MDB, a state investment fund started by Najib. Mahathir has been nominated to serve as the next PM should the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition defeat Barisan at the polls.
For the past three years, Najib's name has been linked to a scandal involving hundreds of millions of dollars allegedly stolen from the fund known as 1Malaysia Development Berhad, but he has denied allegations that he committed any wrongdoing.
Najib has acknowledged receiving close to U.S. $681 million in his personal bank accounts, but said the money was a political donation from Saudi Arabia's royal family. The prime minister and 1MDB officials have denied the embezzlement allegations.
The controversy over the 1MDB scandal has stoked negative opinion polls against Najib, but the opposition has struggled to make a serious dent in Najib's rural support, analysts say.
"This government is a credible and trustworthy government and fulfills promises, because. I believe politics is not just promises but the ability to fulfill promises," Najib said in his speech Friday, claiming that Barisan had fulfilled "99.4 percent" of its promises.

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Prime Minister Najib Razak's motorcade arrives at the Prime Minister's Office in Putrajaya ahead of the announcement of the dissolution of parliament, April 6, 2018. [S. Mahfuz/BenarNews]

 
Prime minister in waiting
In 2008 elections, Barisan Nasional lost the two-thirds majority that UMNO and its partners had enjoyed since 1957. Najib was sworn in a year later, in a move aimed at stemming the ruling party's lagging popularity amid a slowing economy.
In 2013, the opposition made further inroads, winning 52 percent of the popular vote. But Najib and his allies ultimately held on to power by securing 133 seats in parliament.
Anwar Ibrahim, who headed the bloc that challenged Najib in the last election, has been in jail since 2015 on a sodomy conviction following a trial that a U.N. rights panel deemed politically motivated. He is due to be released on June 8.
Mahathir has pledged to relinquish the prime minister's post to Anwar after that date should the opposition prevail in the upcoming elections.
The opposition bloc Pakatan Harapan is made up of the United Malaysian Indigenous Party (Bersatu or PPBM), the Democratic Action Party (DAP), People's Justice Party (PKR) and Amanah.
Malays and other indigenous groups account for nearly 70 percent of Malaysia's population of 31 million, with ethnic Chinese making up 23 percent and ethnic Indians and others the remainder. Most Malaysian political parties are race-based, including UMNO.
But Islam-based parties also have a role to play, with some observers saying the Pan-Malaysia Islamic Party (PAS), which allied with the opposition bloc in 2013, could tip the balance in favor of the incumbents this year.
PAS's 2015 push to implement a Sharia penal code in northern Kelantan state, its power base, fractured the opposition bloc at the time. It has since reformed with UMNO deserters and a newly formed moderate Islamic party.
Experts weigh in
Following Najib's announcement on Friday, Malaysian political analysts expressed a range of views on the electoral prospects for both the ruling Barisan bloc and the opposition Pakatan alliance heading into national polls.

According to recent surveys of voters conducted by a think-tank, the Darul Ehsan Institute, the two sides were polling fairly evenly, but with support for Pakatan and its constituent parties growing to 41 percent against Barisan's "static" 42 percent. Sixty-one percent of people surveyed by the institute said they supported Mahathir, versus 39 percent who said they backed Najib.

Young voters who had been so-called "fence sitters" were "now making their stand by choosing PH," Redzuan Othman, the institute's CEO, told BenarNews on Friday.

"Overall, the public still sees Mahathir, Anwar Ibrahim era as the golden period of our country," he said, noting that 72 percent of ethnic Chinese survey respondents said they supported Mahathir, compared with 61 percent and 57 percent of support for him, respectively, from ethnic Indian and Malay respondents.

Analyst Wong Chin Huat, of the Penang Institute, said Barisan would retain control of parliament on polling day if voter turnout was low.

"If there is an increase in the number of voters turning up, it shows that people are angry with the government and that will not benefit BN and will foil attempts at gerrymandering," he told Benar.

Ibrahim Suffian, program director at the Merdeka Center, a think-tank, predicted that Najib's coalition would face an uphill challenge in winning the popular vote in this year's general election. But Barisan would hold on to power through controversially redrawn electoral maps that were approved by parliament last week, he said.

According to critics, the altered electoral boundaries would give Barisan an unfair advantage by skewing the upcoming vote in its favor through packing more voters into districts currently held by the opposition.

"Not only BN will be given a new mandate but there is a probability that it will get back a two-thirds majority based on the approved redrawing of the electoral map," Ibrahim said.

"BN will win more parliamentary seats and PH will get the majority in popular votes but will not be able to form a government," he told BenarNews.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's four most important opposition parties will drop their separate logos and contest upcoming elections under the banner of jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's party, leaders said Friday.
The move came a day after authorities suspended the registration of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's new party and hours after Prime Minister Najib Razak dissolved parliament, clearing the way for elections expected by mid-May.
"It is not easy for every Pakatan Harapan party member to drop their symbols," Mahathir said, referring to the informal opposition coalition. "But because we want to unite, we agreed that all these four parties will use only one symbol."
"I am very happy, something that was impossible to do before, it was done by all of us now. I am pleased to inform Malaysians and the world ...  the symbol we are going to use is the People's Justice Party (PKR)," he said to cheers at a campaign event in Pasir Gudang, Johor state.
On Thursday, Malaysia's Registrar of Societies (RoS) announced it had rejected Pakatan Harapan's application to be registered as a political coalition and de-registered Mahathir's party, Bersatu, saying the party had failed to hand over required documents within a 30-day deadline.
Leaders of all four parties in the opposition alliance shared the stage at Friday's event in Johor, including Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Anwar's wife and the current PKR president.
"I feel very happy with Pakatan Harapan's decision to use the Peoples Justice Party's logo for the next general election," Wan Azizah told BenarNews, calling it a historic night and symbolic of people's support for her husband.
The founder of the opposition People's Justice Party was charged with sodomizing a former aide in 2008. The High Court acquitted Anwar in 2012 but the Court of Appeal reversed that decision and sentenced him in 2014 to five years in prison.
A court recently rejected his latest attempt to overturn the conviction after reports surfaced that the lead prosecutor had received millions from the prime minister to handle the case.
Anwar, who is 70 and being treated for a shoulder problem, led the opposition to new gains in 2013 elections, five years after the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition lost its super majority in parliament for the first time since 1957.
PKR holds 28 seats in the parliament set to be dissolved Saturday. The opposition party that holds the most seats, 36, is the Democratic Action Party (DAP).
"The DAP decision not to use the Rocket logo, which had appeared in the ballot papers for 11 general elections from 1969 to 2013, was not an easy one, but a most painful and heart-wrenching decision," DAP founder Lim Kit Siang wrote in a blog post.
"The 14th General Election is probably the only opportunity in many decades for a change of federal government and for Malaysia to take the first step to become a normal democracy where voters can change the government peacefully and democratically," he said.
The goal is for opposition bloc candidates to win a simple majority in parliament "to Save Malaysia from becoming a failed, rogue and kleptocratic state," he said.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian voters will go to the polls on May 9, the Election Commission (EC) announced Tuesday, as Najib Razak's ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition seeks to retain power in the face of a major challenge from an opposition alliance led by ex-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.
In setting a mid-week date for Malaysia's 14th General Election, the EC announced that the nomination date for candidates would take place on April 28 – kicking off 11 days of official campaigning – and absentee ballots known as postal votes would be due on May 5. Commission Chairman Mohd Hashim Abdullah announced the dates after leading a special meeting at the commission's office in Putrajaya.
The EC had to pick May 9 after considering several factors, Mohd Hashim told BenarNews.
"The campaign period will be too short if we pick May 7 for election and Sunday, May 13, has been associated with the darkest history in our country and we try to avoid the date," he said.
The commission head was referring to race riots in 1969 that crippled the nation and led to a general election being postponed after the government declared a state of emergency.
He said the May 9 date would also give voters who are far from electoral areas where they are registered ample time to plan to travel home for the election. Malaysian voters living in southern Thailand, Singapore, Brunei and Kalimantan province, Indonesia are not eligible for postal votes and must return to cast ballots.
The announcement that a mid-week vote would follow a relatively short campaigning period drew complaints from opposition and civil rights groups, who said the schedule would favor Najib's coalition and lead to a low turnout at the polls.
"Not only is the campaign period only the minimum 11 days, but the polling day is on a Wednesday, a working day and a school day," electoral reform group Bersih said in a statement.
In recent weeks, Bersih and other groups have complained about efforts by Najib and his supporters to strengthen BN's power leading up to the vote. Those efforts, they said, included the redrawing of electoral boundaries and pushing through a bill in parliament to punish people who spread "fake news" despite opposition claims that BN would use it to punish Najib critics.
Meanwhile, Mahathir said that the EC's action would make it difficult for 500,000 Malaysians who work in Singapore to exercise their voting rights.
"I hope voters will make a proper plan so that they can vote in this coming general election," Mahathir told reporters.
Mohd Hashim reminded employers to allow their Malaysian employees the time needed to exercise their right to vote, or face a penalty.
Malaysia Airlines and its sister airlines, Firefly and MASwings, announced that they would waive flight-change fees to those who booked flights to vote on May 9. The waiver is applicable for all tickets for travel dates between May 8 and 10, but must be booked within the next 10 days, the airline announced.
In addition, grassroots efforts are springing up to help people get to the polls. Twitter accounts have been set up featuring the hashtags #CarpoolGE14 to match passengers with drivers to get them to the polls; and #PulangMengundi (#ReturnToVote) to offer financial assistance to those traveling home to vote.
Previous weekday elections
Meanwhile, a BN official said that the decision to hold the vote on a Wednesday was fair, adding there was historic precedence. Strategic communications deputy director Eric See To said not all Malaysian states considered their weekends to be Saturday and Sunday.
The election in 1992, when Mahathir served as prime minister, was on a Thursday and elections in 1995 and 1999 were held on Mondays, he noted.
A weekday election should not be an issue, according to Azmi Hassan, a political analyst at Malaysia's Technology University.
"Whether it's on working day or not, it will still affect both BN and PH," he told BenarNews, referring to the opposition Pakatan Harapan coalition.
Tuesday's announcement occurred within 24 hours of all 12 states officially dissolving their state assemblies and days after Najib announced the dissolution of parliament to clear the way for the election.
Najib, 64, the eldest son of Malaysia's second prime minister Razak Hussein, is leading the nation's oldest ruling coalition against his mentor, Mahathir, 92, who leads the new coalition in what could be the toughest election in the country's 60-year history.
The two had a falling out that saw Mahathir leave the ruling coalition in 2016 to create a new party and align with other opposition parties with the aim of unseating Najib.
The coalition that wins a simple majority of 222 parliamentary seats will form the government. In the 2013 election, the opposition coalition won 52 percent of the popular vote but Najib and his alliance maintained power by winning 133 parliamentary seats.
For the past three years, Najib has been linked to a scandal involving billions of dollars allegedly stolen from the state development fund known as 1Malaysia Development Berhad. The prime minister has denied committing any wrongdoing even as foreign governments, including the United States, have sought to recover funds.


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BENARNEWS- Southeast Asian governments have to step up their games to counter the Islamic State (IS) threat as the extremist group seeks to establish safe havens in the region following defeats in Syria and Iraq, a senior U.S. State Department official said.
Irfan Saeed, director of the department's Bureau of Countering Violent Extremism (CVE), specifically named Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines while also praising their counter-terrorist efforts during a conference call this week from Washington with reporters in East Asia.
"We need to understand both the global and local drivers of violent extremism because situations are not the same on the ground," he said, adding that drivers that trigger radicalization of people in the Philippines were different than those in Indonesia or Malaysia.
Saeed stressed the need for research into identifying local drivers of violent extremism as opposed to a one-size-fits-all approach. Research, he said, was the first of a five-prong approach to combatting CVE followed by prevention, de-radicalization and reintegration, along with counter-messaging.
He praised the three nations for efforts already in place to counter extremism.
"Malaysia is doing a good CVE job in the educational sector and in the government reform perspective as well as by having initiatives such as their Southeast Asian Regional Centre for Counter Terrorism," he told reporters during Wednesday's call. "The Philippines is having its long-term anti-extremism programs in place while Indonesia is doing well in understanding the drivers of violent extremism."
Saeed warned that the region must remain vigilant, even though Islamic State was losing territory in Iraq and Syria.
"At this time last year I think our focus would have been on the over 1,000 foreign terrorist fighters that had gone from Southeast Asia and different parts of Southeast Asia up to Syria and Iraq to join the ISIS fight," he said, referring to IS by another acronym.
"A year on a lot of good work by our partners across Southeast Asia, our partners across the world, the Global Coalition, and the good news is that we are not talking about a massive flow of fighters going to Syria and Iraq anymore."
The bad news, however, was that Islamic State was now eying other parts of the globe for its operations, he said.
"They are looking at different parts of the world, and unfortunately I think Southeast Asia is in their radar. They are looking very clearly about how to establish safe havens across maybe the Southern Philippines and other parts of Southeast Asia. So, when we are looking to counter violent extremism and counter terrorism, it's important to ensure that we don't give them that safe space that they need," Saeed said.
Nations also needed to guard against the threat that IS and other militant groups "do not reconstitute, they don't strengthen, and they don't continue to inspire others to commit acts of violence," he said, adding Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and Abu Sayyaf should not be allowed to take their place.
"We can't let them grow in a vacuum that ISIS used to occupy," Saeed said.
Learning from each other
To counter those efforts, the State Department official said, each country had something to offer the others and it was important that they learned from each other to address terror threats that had not gone away. The countries could also learn from the initiatives of others including United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Britain.
Southeast Asian countries also should follow the lead of IS and use social media against it by intensifying campaigns to drive out militant groups, Saeed said, adding that as IS lost strength in Iraq and Syria, it had used social media to establish new caliphates.
In Malaysia, Mohamad Abu Bakar, a retired international security analyst from the University Malaya, supported the State Department's message. The sharing of best CVE practices among Southeast Asian nations was necessary because of unique circumstances and situations, he said.
"What is suitable for Malaysia may not be currently usable for Indonesia, for example," he told BenarNews.
"But because of sharing, Indonesia will be prepared for a driver of violent extremism if it emerges in the future. And for such a driver, the Indonesians will know how to address it thanks to lessons from other countries who had such an experience in the past," he added.
Abu Bakar also said Southeast Asian countries could learn from the Middle East in dealing with such conflicts.
"The Arab world's grievances, rooted in colonial times, have a long time ago turned into conflicts in what I'd call 'crunch zones,'" he said. "In Southeast Asia, our conflicts have started relatively recently, so we could learn also from the experience of the Middle East countries."
BenarNews staff in Washington contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Sarawak and Sabah – the two semi-autonomous states in Malaysian Borneo – could provide Prime Minister Najib Razak and his ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition the votes they need to stay in power through next month's general election, political analysts say.
The ruling coalition and an opposition alliance led by former longtime Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad are battling ahead of the May 9 vote for electoral support over several issues. But Sabah and Sarawak offer solid blocs of votes for Barisan, analysts told BenarNews.
"Yes, Sabah and Sarawak will still be the 'fixed-deposit' states for the BN," said Jeniri Amir, an associate professor at the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas), referring to a common term for votes from states that have sided with the ruling coalition in previous elections.
Jeniri's forecast was grudgingly accepted by some leaders of the opposition Pakatan Harapan (PH), both in Borneo and Peninsular Malaysia.
"I hope not," Xavier Jayakumar, an opposition assemblyman in Sri Andalas, a township in the peninsular state of Selangor, told BenarNews.
BN, made up of its linchpin party, the United Malay National Organization (UMNO), and 12 other smaller parties that have been in power continuously since the 1950s, won only 86 seats in Peninsular Malaysia during the March 2008 general election – a devastating upset described by local newspapers as a "political tsunami."
By contrast, the then-opposition Pakatan Rakyat coalition won 89 seats in the 222-member parliament.
But the 54 seats that BN secured in Sabah and Sarawak gave the ruling coalition a slight majority to form a government again.
The electoral setback for Najib and his BN in the peninsula continued in the 2013 general election, during which they lost more seats to the opposition.
"Again it was the BN coalition partners in Sabah and Sarawak – where the people are agitating for more autonomy, the return of their rights – that came to shore up Najib's flagging political fortune," Jeniri told BenarNews.
Opposition's pledge
In its manifesto for the upcoming election, called the "Book of Hope," Pakatan Harapan has vowed to review the 1963 Malaysia Agreement (MA63), which paved the way to the formation of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963. The opposition's election pledge was aimed at granting Sabah and Sarawak more autonomy from the federal government.
MA63 was an agreement signed by the Federated Malay states in the peninsula, Singapore and the former British Borneo territories of Sarawak and North Borneo – now renamed Sabah. Singapore withdrew from Malaysia in 1965.
Since the 1970s, as part of Malaysia's policy of bridging a wealth gap with the wealthier Chinese community, ethnic Malays and indigenous people in Borneo – who are known locally as "bumiputra" or "sons of the soil" – enjoy special privileges in education and business. 

After the 2013 election, the 64-year-old Najib appointed six ministers from Sabah and seven from Sarawak to his federal cabinet to "reward" the territories for helping him maintain his power.
Jeffrey Kitingan, a leader of Star, the local opposition party in Sabah, said the ministerial appointments were rewards to the two states for continuing to be Najib's fixed-deposit states, even as the two Sarawak deputy chief ministers, Douglas Uggah and James Masing, indicated that the cabinet appointments in 2013 fell short of their expectations.
But Najib, in power since 2009, showered Sabah and Sarawak with more rewards by approving major projects, such as the 25 billion ringgit (U.S. $6.47 billion) Pan Borneo Highway. He also promised to return all rights lost "advertently or inadvertently" as he paved more roads with asphalt.
Kelvin Yii, the opposition's pick for the Stampin federal seat in Sarawak, said the two states offered "fragile fixed-deposits" because Najib, in his view, was taking the states for granted.
"Even though they (Najib and the BN) are throwing out goodies, at end of the day, they are not addressing the real desire and need of the state, which is the return of the special rights," he said.
Sarawak Chief Minister Abang Johari, however, defended the federal government and said the discussion was on the way.
Abang, a Barisan politician, had said in the past that the issues being discussed were "constitutionally complex" and needed time and a detailed study.
Voting for 'bread-and-butter issues'
Meanwhile, despite a corruption scandal surrounding Najib over state investment fund 1MDB that has led to widespread calls in Peninsular Malaysia for the prime minister to resign, rural voters in the two Borneo states will continue to cast their votes for BN because they have a "low level of political literacy," said Jeniri, the political analyst.
The 47 seats that BN won in Sarawak and Sabah during the 2013 election are largely rural seats whose voters come from more than 100 tribes. The Dayaks are the largest ethnic tribespeople in Sarawak, and the Kadazadusun, Dusun, Suluk and Bajau are the major ones in Sabah, which has more than 1.1 million registered voters.
In Sarawak, 25 of the 31 federal seats are rural.
The tribes in the rural areas will vote for BN because of fears from the populace that voting for the opposition may result in the loss of vital financial development allocations to fund development projects in their areas, Jeniri said.
To back up Jeniri's assertion, a Unimas analysis in January forecast that 60 percent of Sarawak voters would support BN in the coming election because "they are more concerned with bread-and-butter issues."
"That's a fact," said 43-year-old Vatz Lamit, a resident of a Saratok longhouse, the traditional dwelling of natives. Many residents living in isolated longhouses deep in the state's interior also share that sentiment, she said.
"They want their piped, treated water, a road from their longhouse to the main road and 24-hour electricity from the power grid," she said, adding that despite some unfulfilled promises by the ruling coalition in the past, rural voters still trusted BN to bring the basic amenities.
But, Jeniri said, Najib and the ruling coalition must tread warily. He warned that if they failed to keep rewarding Sabah and Sarawak and pacify residents' complaints on the federal government's failure to respect the MA63, the coming election may see a shift in political power.
"If Najib does not continue to bring large-scale development projects to Sabah and Sarawak and fail on the MA63, people might not vote for the BN," he said.


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BENARNEWS- A Thai national is among four suspected Islamic State (IS) cell members being pursued by authorities in Malaysia for alleged terrorist activities, including a bomb plot targeting non-Muslim worship sites, the nation's police chief said Monday.
The four suspects managed to escape a police raid while six others were arrested during law-enforcement operations between Feb. 27 and March 1 in the southern state of Johor, Police Inspector-General Mohamad Fuzi Harun said in a statement.
"We believe the four individuals are remnants of the [IS] cell and are still at large and dangerous," Fuzi said.
Police identified the suspects as Muhamad Faizal Muhamad Hanafi, 28; and his father, Muhamad Hanafi, 51, who were from the northern state of Kelantan; Nor Farkhan Mohd Isaa of Johor; and Thai national Awae Wae-Eya, 37, who is believed to be from Narathiwat, a province in Thailand's insurgency-wracked Deep South.
The four men are believed to be hiding in southern Thailand, an intelligence source told BenarNews on condition of anonymity.
Fuzi issued the statement three weeks after Malaysia filed charges against two suspected IS members in the alleged plot to bomb non-Muslim sites in southern Johor state. Another suspected militant also was charged in Johor for keeping pro-IS videos on his mobile phone and tablet, officials said.
The three were believed to be part of a terrorist cell and were arrested by Malaysian counter-terror officials in separate raids since the end of February in the state, Fuzi said in a statement on March 26. Authorities did not name the places of worship in the charge sheet.

An investigation revealed that Awae had been to the Malaysian state of Pahang in 2016, but it was not clear why he visited the area, officials said.
Fuzi warned that those withholding information or harboring the suspected terrorists could also face charges under Malaysia's Penal Code.

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Awae Wae-Eya [Courtesy of Royal Malaysia Police]

Expert: IS sympathizers live in Thai Deep South
In February, Malaysian police expressed suspicion that some of the pro-IS militants detained in Kelantan state had received bomb-making training in several countries, including next-door in Thailand.
The Thai government has long denied the existence of IS militants on its soil or the smuggling of firearms across its southern border into Malaysia to support terror activities.
But Ahmad El-Muhammady, a counter-terrorism analyst from the International Islamic University of Malaysia, said he did not find it surprising that an IS militant would come from Thailand's predominantly Muslim far south, where a separatist insurgency has lasted decades.
"I can confirm that such groups of sympathizers exist in the Deep South, based on my conversations with people there and field visits to the southern Thai region, as well as from research on social media," El-Muhammady told BenarNews.
"They themselves told me that while their struggle in southern Thailand was a domestic issue that does not warrant a foreign militant group's involvement, they do sympathize with the IS group's struggle," he said. "They told me that their and IS' struggles were based on the same thing; that is to create a Daulah Islamiyah or Islamic state."
El-Muhammady, who serves as a counter-violent extremism adviser to the Malaysian police and prison authorities, said he had not seen evidence of a network of IS operatives among the Thais so far.
"But as the Malaysian police is looking for a named Thai operative, then I dare say the sympathy in Thailand ... has translated into dangerous operations by an operative or operatives," he added. "The Thai government can no longer deny the existence of IS operatives on their soil."
"They have to start curbing this problem," he said, "before it blows from just several individual IS operatives into a full-fledged network that threatens national and regional security."
Meanwhile on Monday, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak told a defense forum that 389 people had been arrested in Malaysia since 2013 on suspicion of IS-linked activities.
He said 34 of the 95 Malaysians known to have joined IS groups in Syria and Iraq had been killed in conflict zones. Nine of those were suicide bombers, he said.
Updated to add location of law-enforcement raids.


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BENARNEWS- The head of Malaysia's hardline Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), which has been fighting for the introduction of strict Islamic criminal law that includes amputation and stoning to death as punishments in the multi-racial country, sat down for an interview with BenarNews this week.
The 70-year-old Abdul Hadi Awang, who has led the party for the last 16 years, answered a range of questions – from his party's push for a strict Islamic penal code to the "kingmaker" role it is expected to play in upcoming elections.
Excerpts of the interview with Abdul Hadi:
BenarNews: What are the key elements of the PAS election campaign?
Abdul Hadi Awang: PAS will use Islam as the platform in its campaign for the upcoming GE14, where our fight is to show that all administrative matters have to be based on religion. Development too will have to be based on Islamic principles.
We are strict on this and the Islamic principles cannot be bulldozed ... We respect the ideologies of other parties but when it comes to Islam, we cannot tolerate that and everyone has to respect this basic principl.
This has been PAS's platform since the beginning, and this will be the thrust of our struggle.
BN: How do you see support for PAS in the 14th general election?
AHA: There is an increase in support for the party. That is why ... BN has redrawn the electoral map.
If we look closely in Terengganu, the areas ... controlled by PAS have nearly 100,000 voters, while the areas controlled by BN have about 40,000 voters.
This shows PAS continues to gain support, and this frightens the present BN government.
BN: Do you see others supporting PAS? Why would ethnic Chinese and ethnic Indians vote for PAS?
AHA: When we won Kelantan and Terengganu, others – the non-Muslim communities like the Chinese and Indians – witnessed our style of administration where no one was denied their rights, even though they were not Muslims.
This has given them the confidence to support PAS like in the previous election, and the party is confident they will continue to support PAS based on the fairness that we showed during our administration .
BN: Will the adoption of Islamic criminal law be a key component of the PAS campaign in the elections? If so, how would PAS achieve this?
AHA: Championing Islam is our responsibility as Muslims. We will be the kingmaker.
... The BN [Barisan Nasional] and PH [Pakatan Harapan] will not able to get the majority to form a government. PAS would make the difference.
In order for them to form a government, they have to rope in PAS and we have one condition if that happens – that would be for Islam to be made the foundation of any government administration.
If they refuse to accept our condition, we are fine being the opposition but the question here is how can they form a government without [a] majority? Because of this, PAS is confident that they will finally accept our condition.
BN: Will PAS work together with Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Harapan in the coming election?
AHA: We are not going to be [cooperating] with BN and PH.
We have Gagasan Sejahtera, a coalition of four parties – namely PAS, the Love Malaysia Party [PCM], Parti Next Gen and the Malaysia National Alliance Party [Ikatan] that will contest under the PAS logo, where we will contest for 160 seats and maybe more.
All will be revealed on April 19 [when PAS would reveal its slate of candidates for the elections]. So in this coming election, we can see three main logos and those will be BN, the People's Justice Party [PKR] and PAS.
BN: Can PAS retain its seats in parliament and the state assemblies as well as retain control of Kelantan state?
AHA: PAS is confident about winning 40 parliamentary seats, and will retain Kelantan state and recapture Terengganu.
PAS also predicts it will win key seats in Kedah, Perak, Pahang and Selangor, where the state governments cannot be formed without the support from PAS. PAS is also expected to win state seats in Sabah, Negri Sembilan, Johor, Malacca and Penang.
BN: Will this year's election be a fair one?
AHA: [T]here has never been a fair election because BN, the ruling coalition, has always made changes ...
It does not matter because PAS will contest [the election], and it does not matter how they make it unfair [for us] ... We had made big gains and suffered big losses previously but we never boycotted an election, even when we only won one seat.
We will accept the challenge and will face it with courage.
BN: A former PAS leader has alleged that the ruling UMNO party paid 90 million ringgit (U.S. $23.1 million) to PAS to help your party. How do you respond to this allegation?
AHA: t's a lie. How can BN donate 90 million ringgit to PAS, a party that would never be with them in the coming election?
We do not see this as a main issue because [the party's] grassroots are aware that PAS is not a weak party that has to accept a donation from BN ...
Former PAS leaders can continue to spread the false allegation but the grassroots and the supporters will not accept it because the evidence shows that PAS never received it.
BN: Is PAS fully geared for this election?
AHA: Of course we are. We have our members and supporters at the grassroots who are ready to fight.
They are in all electoral areas, including the voting centers. These are the people who will always fight and support PAS because they are very loyal.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's dueling political blocs will need the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party's (PAS) backing to form the government in next month's general election, and it will side with whichever coalition agrees to make Islam the foundation of the new administration, its leader told BenarNews.
PAS is confident it can triple its number of seats in parliament because support for it is growing, PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang said during a late-night interview Monday in northern Perak state. The party held only 13 seats in the parliament that was dissolved earlier this month but Abdul Hadi believes it can capture about 40 seats in the upcoming polls.
"We will be the kingmaker," he told Benar. "The BN and PH will not be able to get the majority to form a government. PAS will make the difference."
The elections are expected to witness a tight contest between the ruling Barisan Nasional [BN] bloc, which has controlled Malaysia's government since the nation's founding in 1957, and Pakatan Harapan [PH], an opposition coalition led by former longtime Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. Pakatan is looking to stop the current leader, Najib Razak, from serving a third term as PM.
"In order for them to form a government, they have to rope in PAS and we have one condition if that happens – that would be for Islam to be made the foundation of any government administration," Abdul Hadi said.

"If they refuse to accept our condition, we are fine being the opposition but the question here is how can they form a government without [a] majority? Because of this, PAS is confident that they will finally accept our condition."
Campaigning for the May 9 vote doesn't officially begin till April 28, but PAS' president and his party were out and about at partisan events in the states of Perak and Penang in recent days.
On Sunday, Hadi was accompanied to a partisan assembly in Penang by 300 members of the party's youth wing, who rode in on motorcycles and mopeds.
As he did in Penang a day earlier, Hadi wore a green robe – his party's official color, which is associated with Islam – over a white shirt as he addressed a crowd of around 1,000 supporters in Bandar Seri Iskandar, a township about 40 km (24.8 miles) from Ipoh, Perak's capital.
"PAS will use Islam as the platform in its campaign for the upcoming GE14 [14th general election], where our fight is to show that all administrative matters have to be based on religion. Development too will have to be based on Islamic principles. 

"We are strict on this and the Islamic principles cannot be bulldozed ... We respect the ideologies of other parties but when it comes to Islam, we cannot tolerate that and everyone has to respect this basic principle. This has been PAS' platform since the beginning, and this will be the thrust of our struggle."

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PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang (center, in dark green top) stands with local PAS leaders at a partisan assembly in Permatang Pauh, Penang state, April 15, 2018. Fairuz Mazlan/BenarNews

 
'PAS will only be with those who support Islam'
PAS has been governing the northern state of Kelantan for the last three decades. Nightclubs and cinemas are banned in the state, which is religiously conservative and predominantly Muslim. At supermarkets in the state, there are separate checkout lines for men and women.
Three years ago, state lawmakers unanimously passed a bill aimed at enforcing harsh penalties for criminal offenses under an Islamic criminal law known locally as "hudud."
Criminal cases are currently handled by federal laws in Malaysia, where Muslims account for more than 60 percent of the 30 million population.
Critics warned that enforcing Islamic criminal law at the state level could ultimately divide the nation along religious and ethnic lines.
At the time, PAS was a member of the opposition Pakatan Rakyat alliance, but its hardline stance on the hudud issue led to the bloc breaking up in June 2015.
PAS also proposed a controversial parliamentary bill in May 2016 to give Islamic courts in the country more clout in increasing punishments meted out by them. The bill received preliminary backing by Najib's United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party, but was criticized by human rights advocates as potentially infringing on the country's secular constitution.
"PAS will only be with those who support Islam," Hadi told a large crowd of supporters in Penang on Sunday. "Why PAS is out of Pakatan Harapan? Because they rejected  Sharia Islam."
Malaysia's main opposition bloc is now known as Pakatan Harapan. But because Malaysia's Registrar of Societies recently rejected its application to be registered as a coalition and de-registered Mahathir's Bersatu party, the bloc's member parties say they will contest the coming elections under the banner of the People's Justice Party (PKR). That party is led by jailed de facto opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.
In the interview, Hadi denied allegations that his party had accepted a donation of 90 million ringgit (U.S. $23.1 million) from Najib's party.
"t's a lie. How can BN donate 90 million ringgit to PAS, a party that would never be with them in the coming election?" Hadi told BenarNews.
During his speech in Penang the day before, the PAS president took a verbal shot at Malaysia's elder statesman, 92-year-old Mahathir, suggesting that the ex-prime minister who was trained as a professional physician should quit politics and return to medicine.
On Tuesday, Mahathir fired back, saying Hadi did "not know anything about politics," according to Malaysian news reports.
"Hadi should not have joined politics. He should be an ustaz, teach in villages. [This would] suit him better," The New Straits Times quoted Mahathir as telling reporters.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian nongovernmental organizations on Thursday unveiled "Be My Protector," a mobile phone app aimed at helping people report cases of human trafficking, including foreign migrant workers.
Tenaganita and Change Your World (CYW) said they spent two years developing the app to reach diverse groups in Malaysia, which has a migrant population of 3.1 million. The app, which is free and available in eight languages, allows a victim – or anyone who has identified possible trafficking victims – to attach photographs and anonymously file a report.
Aegile Fernandez, director of Tenaganita, a migrant and refugee rights group, said the idea came from realizing that her group and others needed to reach more victims of human trafficking in the Malaysian west coast state of Selangor and elsewhere.
"Selangor is the gateway and has the highest number of cases [of human trafficking]," she said during the app's launch in Puchong city, Selangor, where Tenaganita is based. "How do we reach them, what do we do?"
In 2015, Tenaganita identified a low-income public housing area of Mentari Court in Petaling Jaya as a hotspot of trafficking.
"We began to receive cases from Mentari Court that involved students and traffickers who were posing as students at the universities," she said, noting that at least seven private colleges were within 5 km (3 miles) of the housing area.

"It was happening in the colleges and universities, but nobody wanted to believe that," she said.
Government efforts
The Malaysian government, meanwhile, has touted its efforts to combat human trafficking.
In January, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told reporters that a special court to deal with human trafficking cases would be established in June. He said the court was a crucial component of the government's effort to fight human trafficking.
As many as 282 human trafficking cases were prosecuted last year, compared with 131 in 2016 and 26 in 2015, Zahid said.
In June 2017, the U.S. State Department upgraded Malaysia in its annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report that ranks countries in their efforts to combat the problem. The department bumped Malaysia up by a notch to a Tier 2 ranking from its Tier 2 Watch List.
The TIP report credited the government with increasing efforts to identify trafficking victims, but said Malaysia fell short on protection. Government officials said they hoped to reach Tier 1 status by 2020.
"It is a huge problem because we have a lot of migrant workers here, and Malaysia will be measured globally by how we treat the victims of human trafficking," said Hannah Yeoh, former speaker of the Selangor State Legislative Assembly.
Partnering in protecting people
Tenaganita and Change Your World say they are targeting 100,000 downloads of the new app by the end of 2018 and about 1 million by 2023. It is the first anti-human trafficking mobile app in Southeast Asia, developers said.
CYW co-founder Kelvin Lim told BenarNews his organization would promote the app while Tenaganita, which has been dealing with human trafficking during the past three decades, would investigate the complaints.
"If they find that [a report] is real, they will call police," he said, adding that Tenaganita would begin investigations of reports within 24 hours.
Crime analyst Kamal Affandi Hashim applauded the app, saying it should help government efforts against traffickers.
"Even though TIP showed that the country is in the Tier 2 list, the channelling of information has to continue to increase government efforts in tracking and rescuing victims and in charging culprits," said Kamal, a former police officer.

However, Kamal expressed concern that the app could be used to spread fake information.
"If the data is not secured carefully, it can have a bad impact on the victims," he said.


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BENARNEWS- Two unidentified motorcycle-riding gunmen shot dead a Palestinian engineer Saturday as he was walking to a mosque for dawn prayers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian police and the political group Hamas said.
Fadi Mohamed Al Batsh, 35, was killed at dawn after the gunmen opened fire with pistols, striking him four times, including once in the head, police said.
Hamas didn't disclose Al Batsh's role in the Islamist militant group but it issued a statement on its website describing him as a member and a scientist who was originally from a refugee camp north of the Gaza Strip.
Al Batsh's killing came a day after Israeli intelligence minister Israel Katz threatened the Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip with "targeted elimination," after the Islamist militant group reportedly released a video of top Israeli officers in a sniper rifle crosshairs.
Hours after the shooting, Malaysia's state news agency Bernama quoted Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as saying that the suspects were believed to be Europeans with links to a foreign intelligence agency.
Mazlan Lazim, the Kuala Lumpur police chief, told reporters that footage from a closed-circuit television showed that the shooters had waited for Fadi for almost 20 minutes. He said police were investigating all angles, including terrorism.
"Based on the shooting marks, it showed that [the gunmen] had fired more than 10 shots at him, suggesting that they really wanted to kill him," Mazlan said.
"Why they wanted to kill him, we have no idea," he said. "We are probing further."
Ahmad Zahid claimed that Al Batsh was active in pro-Palestinian non-governmental organizations and was an expert in electrical engineering and rocket-building. He also said the victim had links with foreign intelligence, but he did not provide evidence. 

Al Batsh could have been seen as "a liability for a country that is an enemy of Palestine," Zahid told reporters, according to Bernama. The deputy prime minister did not elaborate.
Anwar H. Al Agha, the Palestinian ambassador to Malaysia, told the newspaper The New Straits Times that victim Al Batsh was a University of Malaya graduate and was supposed to have left to chair a conference on energy in Turkey on Saturday.
"He was a kind, friendly and a quiet person. He mixed well with everyone," the diplomat said, adding that the victim has been living in Malaysia for 10 years, "working as electrical engineering lecturer at a private university."
Malaysia's Islamist party, PAS, condemned Al Batsh's killing and urged the government to conduct a thorough investigation.
Hamas, in a short statement posted on its website, mourned Al Batsh's death, described him as a "martyr" and praised his "commitment for the Palestinian struggle."
According to news reports on Friday, four people were killed, including a 15-year-old boy, in the fourth consecutive week of protests organized by Hamas along the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip, which Hamas controls.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian police appealed for public help Monday as they released images of two suspects in the killing of a Palestinian engineer in Kuala Lumpur.

The militant group Hamas has accused Israel of involvement in the killing of Fadi Al Batsh, who was gunned down by two motorbike-riding men Saturday as he walked to a mosque near his home for dawn prayers. Israel has neither denied nor confirmed the claims. 

Malaysia Inspector General of Police Mohamad Fuzi Harun said the computer-generated sketches were based on witnesses' description of the shooters who were seen on security video waiting for the victim for almost 20 minutes outside a residential complex. 

The sketches distributed to all police stations and border patrols nationwide showed bearded, light-skinned men of European or Middle Eastern heritage, investigators said.

"One of them has quite prominent facial features and ... [is] heavily built," Fuzi said.
The police chief said investigators narrowed down the type of motorcycle used by the suspects to either a BMW GS or a Kawasaki Versys. He urged anyone who might have information to come forward, but acknowledged police were not sure if the gunmen were still in the country.
A hospital post-mortem report showed Al Batsh, 35, was shot 14 times in his body and head, Fuzi told reporters, adding the suspects fired at least 20 rounds. 

Al Batsh, a father of three, had been in Malaysia for more than seven years and held a Malaysian permanent resident status, officials said.

The University of Kuala Lumpur, which has more than 30,000 local and foreign students, said in a statement that Al Batsh was one of its senior lecturers and had joined its staff in 2016. 

It said Al Batsh had a doctorate in electrical engineering and power electronics from the University of Malaya and received his master's and bachelor's degrees in electrical engineering from the Islamic University of Gaza, an independent school in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
Hamas and Al Batsh's relatives had accused Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, of having a hand in the killing, according to reports.
On Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said his country had "no reason to shed a tear" over Al Batsh's killing, according to the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz. He commented the killing may have been the result of "a settling of scores among terrorist organizations."
Armed men in camo
Hamas did not disclose Al Batsh's role in the Islamist militant group, but described him as a member.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that when Al Batsh's family and dozens of others gathered in Gaza on Sunday, a sign outside a tent read: "Qassam Brigades mourns its martyred leader. The engineer Fadi Mohammed al-Batsh."
The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades is Hamas' military wing and armed members of the group dressed in camouflage attended the gathering, WSJ said.
Malaysia Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told state news agency Bernama on Saturday that Al Batsh was active in pro-Palestinian non-governmental organizations and was an expert in electrical engineering and rocket-building.
Zahid said he suspected foreign intelligence could have been responsible for the killing but did not provide any evidence to support his claim.
Hafidzi Mohd Noor, chairman of the Malaysian Islamist NGO MyCare, rejected Zahid's claims.
"He was an electrical engineer and expert in power and electronics. Never a rocket scientist or drone expert," Hafidzi, who worked with Al Batsh, told BenarNews on Saturday.

Fauziah Mohd Hasan, a representative of the Rose2Rose, an NGO that works with Palestinian women, told BenarNews she visited Enaas, the widow of Al Batsh, at their home in Kuala Lumpur hours after the killing. 

"Tell me it's just a nightmare when I wake up," Fauziah quoted Enaas as saying.
She said the 30-year-old mother of three was inconsolable despite being surrounded by family and friends.
Anwar Al Agha, the Palestinian ambassador to Malaysia, told BenarNews on Monday that Kuala Lumpur has approved his request to fly Al Batsh's body to Palestinian territories through Egypt.

"Preparations are being done. Maybe in two to three days. All we need is the approval from the Egyptian government to allow us to pass through," Anwar said.
Malaysia, a Muslim-majority nation of 32 million people, has no formal diplomatic relations with Israel. It hosts a Palestinian envoy and about 3,000 Palestinians, mostly university students.
Malaysian officials have in recent years denied allegations by Israeli security services that Hamas operatives were training on Malaysian soil to carry out military operations against Israel.


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BENARNEWS- The body of a Palestinian engineer gunned down in Kuala Lumpur was flown to Egypt late Wednesday for burial in Gaza, after a funeral procession in the Malaysian capital and Malaysia's police chief released a photograph of one of the two alleged killers.
The family of Fadi Mohamad Al Batsh, 35, who was killed over the weekend, claimed his body from Selayang Hospital on Wednesday afternoon and took it to a mosque near his home. Hundreds of people marched through Kuala Lumpur as they trailed a van carrying Al Batsh's coffin from the funeral home to a mosque, where about 500 mourners gathered for prayers.

"Dr. Fadi is a very kind person. He has been a teacher to everyone around him. He is a very optimistic person," his widow, Enas, told BenarNews. "Even when I saw him at the morgue, he still has that optimistic look in his face. He has that positivity that spreads to everyone around him."
After prayers, the family traveled with the coffin to Kuala Lumpur International Airport, where members boarded a flight to Egypt before heading to Gaza to bury Fadi. Enas said she planned to remain there after burying her husband.
Earlier on Wednesday, Malaysia's police chief showed reporters a picture of one of the suspects that bore a striking resemblance to a computer-generated sketch released Monday. Investigators believed that the two suspects, who were on a motorbike when they allegedly shot and killed Fadi, were still in Malaysia, Police Inspector-General Mohamad Fuzi Harun told a news conference in Kuala Lumpur.
"He may change his look, shave his head or facial hair or wear a hat to cover his hair," Mohamad Fuzi Harun said of the one suspect identified in a photograph.
Police also revealed that the suspects' Kawasaki motorcycle was discovered in the neighborhood of Danau Kota, about nine minutes from the crime scene.
Fuzi said investigators believed the suspects had entered in Malaysia at the end of January.
"We suspect they used fake IDs to enter the country or while in the country," he said.

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Malaysian Police Inspector-General Mohamad Fuzi Harun shows the photograph of one of two suspects next to a computer-generated sketch released days earlier, during a news conference at police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, April 25, 2018. [S. Mahfuz/BenarNews]

 
Widow speaks
Al Batsh, a father of three, had been in Malaysia for more than seven years and held Malaysian permanent resident status, officials said.

The University of Kuala Lumpur said Al Batsh was a senior lecturer and had joined its staff in 2016. He had a doctorate in electrical engineering and power electronics from the University of Malaya and received his master's and bachelor's degrees in electrical engineering from the Islamic University of Gaza, an independent school in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
Enas, 31, described Al Batsh as a loving husband and father to their children – aged 1, 4 and 6 – during an interview late Tuesday with BenarNews.
She declined to answer questions about her husband's alleged link with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, stressing instead the good things he did while living in Malaysia.
"When we opened the house for people to come and give their condolences, I noticed everyone has been coming – Muslims, non-Muslims of every nationality, they came here to pay tribute for Dr. Fadi," she said.
"One neighbor, a Malaysian Chinese, told me that he treated her with respect, always asking her how she was doing, asking about her life. She said he had goodness and depth in his heart."
Enas also said she would finish work on her doctorate in Islamic studies.
"It has been the wish of my husband for me to pursue my education because I waited for him to finish his studies, and he said it's only fair that I get to pursue my own education," Enas said, adding she decided to stay in Gaza after the funeral and was seeking options with the university to continue her studies online.
Hamas and Al Batsh's relatives had accused Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, of having a hand in the killing, according to reports.
On Saturday, the day Al Batsh was slain, Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told state news agency Bernama he suspected that a foreign intelligence agency was involved.
On Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said his country had "no reason to shed a tear" over Al Batsh's killing, according to the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz. He said the killing may have been the result of militant organizations settling scores.
Following the slaying, Hamas did not disclose Al Batsh's role in the militant group, but described him as a member.
Palestinians in Malaysia
MyCare, a non-governmental organization working with the Palestinian expatriate community, said more than 5,000 Palestinians are living in Malaysia.
They are there to seek a safe place to live and to help their families back home, Mohamad Abu Bakar, a lecturer in international and strategic studies at the University of Malaya, told BenarNews.

He said the global community was aware of Malaysia's stand in providing aid in its humanitarian outreach to the Palestinian people.
Palestinians linked to Hamas have been in Malaysia, geopolitical analyst Azmi Hassan said.
"The Malaysian government has declared Hamas as a legit political party and, at the moment, it is Hamas that is governing Gaza. Because of that, the presence of Palestinians linked to Hamas whether for businesses, work or to further study are legal," Azmi told BenarNews.

Malaysia, a Muslim-majority nation of 32 million people, has no formal diplomatic relations with Israel. 

In recent years, Malaysian officials have denied allegations by Israeli security services that Hamas operatives were training on Malaysian soil to carry out military operations against Israel.
Hareez Lee in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS - Malaysia's human rights commission (Suhakam) vowed Thursday to press ahead with its plans to monitor nationwide voting May 9, after it announced that the country's election officials had turned down its application seeking accreditation for observing the polls.
Suhakam chairman Razali Ismail said it would deploy about 50 of its officials and volunteers in areas where parliamentary seats would be hotly contested in next month's general election – such as in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor and Kelantan states – although the Election Commission (EC) had denied its application for accreditation.
"We will, in the public interest, proceed with our monitoring plans," Razali said in a statement, without elaborating.
"Suhakam cannot comprehend this decision," Razali said, adding that the panel considers itself a vehicle of integrity with a legislated mandate to protect and promote human rights in Malaysia.
The rejection means Suhakam representatives will not be allowed to enter polling stations. EC officials did not respond to BenarNews queries seeking confirmation on this development.
Suhakam's announcement came two days after the Election Commission issued new campaigning rules for the upcoming vote that exclude the opposition from using photos of its two most recognizable leaders – former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and jailed People's Justice Party (PKR) founder Anwar Ibrahim – on campaign posters and banners in most of the country.
The Election Commission also came under fire from the opposition late last month after parliament passed a bill to redraw the nation's electoral maps, as recommended by the EC. The opposition said the changes to the electoral boundaries would favor the ruling bloc in Malaysia's 14th general election.
Formal campaigning kicks off on Saturday with political parties and coalitions vying for 222 parliamentary seats and 12 state assemblies. Almost 15 million Malaysians are registered to vote.
Eric See To, deputy director of strategic communications for Barisan Nasional (BN), Malaysia's ruling coalition, said the EC should have approved Suhakam's application.

"I think they should be granted, unless they were never granted before or if other NGO groups have already been granted," he told BenarNews in a text message.
New rules

On Tuesday, the EC issued new guidelines stipulating that only the images of party presidents and deputy presidents, or their equivalents, could be used on campaign materials, except for the photo of the candidate in his or her particular constituency. 

The new guidelines means that the image of Prime Minister Najib Razak, who heads the United Malays National Organization, can appear on campaign materials, but not those of the opposition's two biggest leaders, Mahathir and Anwar.
Mahathir, the opposition's choice for prime minister should it win the election, heads the Bersatu party. But Malaysia's Registrar of Societies (RoS) earlier this month de-registered Bersatu as a party.
Bersatu and other partners in the Pakatan Harapan coalition – whose application for registration was rejected by RoS – later announced that they would contest the election under the logo and banner of Anwar's party, PKR.
But the incarcerated Anwar does not currently hold the party's position of president or deputy president.
On Wednesday, Bersih 2.0, a grassroots Malaysian clean government and elections watchdog, questioned the necessity and rationale behind the new campaigning guidelines, saying there were bigger issues for the EC to resolve.
"In view of the other larger electoral issues that require the immediate attention of the Election Commission, it is surprising that the EC chose to focus on regulating campaign materials of political parties," it said. "Why are these additional regulations suddenly needed now?

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Barisan Nasional chairman Najib Razak holds a copy of his party's campaign manifesto in Kuala Lumpur, April 7, 2018. [S.Mahfuz/BenarNews]

 
Najib predicts 'better result'
Meanwhile, in an interview with Bloomberg News on Wednesday, Prime Minister Najib predicted a "better result" in this year's election campaign, saying his political rival and former mentor in 92-year-old Mahathir would be a "hard-sell" for voters.
In 2013, the BN coalition lost the popular vote for the first time since the country gained independence in 1957. But BN won a slim majority of parliamentary seats.
Najib said he was not predicting "a huge majority" but that his party was "reasonably sanguine" about possible results.
"We are reasonably confident of a good result," Najib, 64, told Bloomberg. "There is no movement for changing the government. I don't see that."


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BENARNEWS- Making their case to take over Malaysia's government following the May 9 general election, leading politicians from the main opposition bloc are threatening to freeze major development projects involving China to reevaluate whether they truly benefit their country.
The ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, headed by Prime Minister Najib Razak, has been touting multi-billion dollar projects aimed at attracting investments from China – Malaysia's No. 1 trading partner – to boost his nation's economy.
But such projects will bring little benefit to Malaysians, take jobs away from them, favor people from mainland China and add to an influx of foreigners, according to officials from the opposition Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) bloc.
In interviews with BenarNews, officials from different parties in Pakatan (PH) commented specifically about the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL), Malaysia's most ambitious railway project to date that is backed mostly by loans from China.
"PH will call up all ECRL contractors to listen to their explanations on the economic effect of the project because PH cannot make a justification regarding the cost and economic impact to the East Coast area," Wong Chen, strategic director for the People's Justice Party (PKR), told BenarNews.
As an MP, he represents Kelana Jaya, a parliamentary constituency in the Kuala Lumpur area where the 688 km (430 mile) railway project will pass through in connecting the two coasts of Peninsular Malaysia.
Estimated to cost $13 billion, the project is expected to lure Chinese investment as part of Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a grand geopolitical strategy to expand China's economy through building a vast network of roads, railway lines and ports in South Asia and beyond.
Freezing and reevaluating the need for Chinese projects should be done because the country's deficit has increased under Najib's leadership, said Dzulkefly Ahmad, director of strategy for the National Trust Party (Amanah), a faith-based partner in the PH coalition.
"Pakatan Harapan is clear that we will manage the country's finances and deal with the fiscal deficit by plugging the leaks which will save billions of ringgit ... by practicing good government," he told BenarNews.
Dr M: 'We gain nothing'
Earlier this month, Pakatan leader and former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad made headlines when he aired his concerns for bringing in Chinese investments and project. The 92-year-old has been tapped as the opposition's pick to again serve as PM should it win the election.
Mahathir said many Malaysians did not like Chinese-backed development efforts. He singled out the construction of a huge master-planned city in Johor – an electoral battleground state in the south.
"We are for Malaysia. We want to defend the rights of Malaysians. We don't [want] to sell chunks of this country to foreign companies who will develop whole towns," he told the Bloomberg news service.
"Here, we gain nothing from the investment. We don't welcome that," he said, adding, "No work for our people. They don't even pay tax here."
Mahathir, Najib's former mentor in the ruling bloc and UMNO, its anchor party, called out the prime minister.
"In the case of Najib, what he does is he invites foreign investment from China to buy property in Malaysia, develop whole sophisticated towns which are priced beyond the reach of Malaysians," Mahathir said. "This development will be for outsiders including mainland Chinese to come and live here."
Najib has defended himself against such criticism that his government is selling away Malaysia to investors from China.
"When it comes to FDI [foreign direct investment], by the way, you may have heard some irresponsible politicians scare-mongering about FDI from China, saying that we are selling our sovereignty," the prime minister said during a speech in January at Invest Malaysia 2018. "[M]y government will never sacrifice an inch of our sovereignty.
"Remember that Malaysian investment into China used to be bigger than Chinese investment in Malaysia, and that we have more Malaysian investments overseas than foreign direct investments in this country," he said in the speech in Kuala Lumpur. "So this is a two way street. FDI levels vary over time, and such connections are part of, and key to, a healthy and diversified economy.
China is the top leader among countries that trade with Malaysia, and is among the top five countries that are sources for foreign direct Investment (FDI) in Malaysia, according to a December 2017 report by the World Trade Organization.

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Huang Yuzang, vice president and chief developer at Country Garden, announces a competition offering prize money for an eco-friendly landmark piece of architecture for the firm's Forest City development in Malaysia, Aug. 13, 2016. (AP)

 
Battleground state
Johor is expected to play an important role in determining who gains power after Malaysia's 14th general election. In March, Najib visited the state that neighbors Singapore, promising locals railway and expressway improvements along with a new stadium, Reuters news service reported.
Barisan, the ruling bloc, controls Johor.
In a separate rally involving Barisan's women's wing last month, Johor's chief state minister issued a warning about the election, according to Reuters.
"If we allow our party to lose, it is not impossible that we would lose forever. We must win, because Johor is not a place to experiment and try your luck," Mohamad Khaled Nordin told those at the rally.
Think tank report on Chinese investment
In February, the Yusof Ishak Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) research institute in Singapore called for improved transparency in projects involving China.
"Despite Malaysia's overall welcoming stances towards FDI (foreign direct investment), there is considerable domestic dissent toward the increasing Chinese investment in the country," ISEAS said in its report, Chinese Investment in Malaysia: Five Years into the BRI.
The report showed the growth of Chinese investments in Malaysia from 2010, when it totaled U.S. $350 million (1.37 billion ringgit) and focused mainly on metals, to $7.37 billion (28.8 billion ringgit) in 2015 covering energy, real estate, technology and transportation.
"China's entry into manufacturing is primarily motivated by the wish to access other markets via Malaysia's regional trade agreements, thus using Malaysia as a springboard to enter the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) market," the report said.
"Investments in the solar sector were made for the purpose of exporting to the U.S. to circumvent U.S. anti-dumping duties on imports of solar panels from China at that time."
Still, China's investment in large-scale non-manufacturing activities is a source of concern among many Malaysians, the think-tank said.
"It is the investment in large-scale non-manufacturing activities that generates the greatest domestic concerns in Malaysia," the report said. Those concerns include an increased presence of Chinese workers, crowding out of local subject-matter experts and relatively high risk of projects funded by guaranteed loans, it said.
Forest City
The housing scheme that Mahathir criticized is Forest City, a project in its beginning stages that is being developed by Chinese real estate firm Country Garden Holdings Co. Ltd.
It has been described as a $100 billion project to build apartment buildings spread out over four artificial islands along the Strait of Johor, and that is expected to accommodate 700,000 people, according to the New York Times.
Country Garden has a partner in the project – a company controlled by Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar, royal heir to the sultanate of Johor, the Times reported.
While many do not want to comment about the project because of its ties to the Sultan, Mahathir questioned its value to Malaysians.
"We don't have 700,000 people with the wealth to buy these very expensive flats," he said in the Bloomberg interview.
"This is not foreign direct investment. None of our people are employed as workers," Mahathir said. "None of our companies are used for designing and planning and supervising. We get nothing."


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BENARNEWS- Official campaigning for next month's Malaysian general election kicked off Saturday when polling authorities approved nominations for hundreds of candidates, clearing the way for what experts predict will be a close battle between the ruling bloc and opposition.

The governing Barisan Nasional coalition nominated the highest number of candidates nationwide with 642, among them 197 for parliamentary seats, while the opposition Pakatan Harapan alliance fielded 634 candidates, including 194 running for parliament, officials with the nation's Election Commission (EC) said.

Embattled Prime Minister Najib Razak and Mahathir Mohamad, a 92-year-old ex-PM and top leader of the main opposition bloc, were among parliamentary candidates who checked in at 222 nomination centers nationwide to have their paperwork approved by the EC.

The atmosphere was festive. Supporters from all sides waved partisan flags and colors to mark the occasion known as Nomination Day, which began 11 days of campaigning that will culminate in Malaysia's 14th general election on May 9.

Both Najib and Mahathir were cleared Saturday to enter the contest for parliamentary seats in their respective constituencies in Pekan, in Pahang state, and Langkawi, in Kedah state.

"I am feeling okay, I'm alright," Mahathir, who wore a traditional red Malay outfit, told the Straits Times of Singapore. "Yes, of course we are confident."

Najib, 64, who has been shadowed by corruption allegations stemming from a financial scandal involving the theft of billions of dollars from sovereign wealth fund 1MDB, did not speak to reporters outside the nomination center in Pekan.
The prime minister has denied allegations of wrongdoing connected with deposits of nearly U.S. $700 million in 1MDB-linked money into his private bank accounts, saying the cash was donated by a member of the Saudi royal family.

On Saturday, Najib and his retinue wore blue traditional clothes that matched the colors of Barisan. Mahathir had ruled Malaysia as a strongman for 22 years and a mainstay of Barisan and its anchor party, the United Malays National Organization, but he quit in 2016 and bolted to the opposition in protest of the 1MDB scandal.

Mahathir has been picked to serve as prime minister again should the Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) bloc win a majority of seats in the 222-seat Malaysian parliament. Seats in 12 state assemblies are also up for grabs on May 9.

The four-party opposition alliance headed by Mahathir is contesting the election under the banner of People's Justice Party (PKR) because Malaysia's Registrar of Societies rejected Pakatan's application for registration.

When the 13th parliament was dissolved on April 6, Barisan held 130 seats, compared with at least 72 combined seats held by the members of Pakatan. The Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), which is neither a member of Barisan or Pakatan, held 13 seats.

Najib is now set to defend his Pekan constituency seat for the tenth time, but he will be in a four-cornered fight against candidates from PKR, PAS as well as an independent candidate.

In the Langkawi race, Mahathir, who retired from government in 2003, will be in a three-way contest with candidates from Barisan and PAS.

Meanwhile, Lim Kit Siang, leader of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), one of the partners in Pakatan, will defend his Iskandar Puteri parliamentary seat, previously known as Gelang Patah, against Jason Teoh Sew Hock, a candidate from the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) party, which is a partner in Barisan.
This will be the 13th time that Lim, 77, is participating in a general election.

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Veteran DAP leader Lim Kit Siang (second from right) arrives at a nomination center in Iskandar Puteri to submit paperwork as the incumbent for the parliamentary constituency in Johor state, April 28, 2018. BenarNews



 
Some nominees rejected 

While there were no reports that the Election Commission blocked any of the Barisan nominees, five of Pakatan's candidates reportedly had their nomination papers rejected.

Barisan was assured a no-contest win in the parliamentary seat representing Negeri Sembilan, near Kuala Lumpur, when PKR's candidate, Streram Sinnasamy, was not allowed into the nomination center in Rembau district for failing to produce an entry pass issued by the commission, EC officials told a news conference in the Malaysian capital.

The blunder was almost repeated by another PKR candidate, Tan Yee Kew, who was contesting the Wangsa Maju parliamentary seat, when she forgot to bring her identity card to the nomination center. However, authorities later allowed her inside after she produced a copy of the card. 

Elsewhere, Chua Tian Chang, a PKR candidate for the Batu parliamentary seat, was disqualified because he failed to pay a fine of 2,000 ringgit (U.S. $510), which was ordered by a court after it convicted him on a charge of using foul language against a police officer in 2014, the EC said.

Eric See-To, BN's deputy director of strategic communications, said Chua Tian should be allowed to contest the seat if he was legally permitted to do so.

"BN is not afraid to contest against Chua Tian. However, I am not a lawyer, nor the judge, so I only have my own opinion," he said.

'It will be interesting'

Barisan, which has ruled Malaysia since its independence in 1957, lost its parliamentary supermajority in the last two general elections, and is in for a tough fight in the May 9 polls, experts said.

In the last general election, in 2013, the opposition bloc won the popular vote but Barisan held on to power by retaining a simple majority in parliament.
"[W]e can see a more stiff fight, especially the three-cornered fights," political observer and analyst Mohd Azizuddin Mohd Sani told BenarNews about the coming election. He was referring to the Barisan and Pakatan blocs as well as the faith-based PAS party.

"It will be interesting. The number of women candidates also slightly increased," Mohd Azizuddin added.

He also predicted Barisan would have a high chance of winning of it secured more than 70 percent of the vote from the ethnic Malay majority, but that the opposition was poised to win a large number of non-Malay votes.

"The non-Malays will be the kingmaker," he said.

On April 26, an independent Malaysian pollster, the Merdeka Center, published results of a recent survey showing that BN would lose nearly 9 percent of Malay votes to the opposition. But the swing vote-effect would not be enough to remove the Barisan government from power, Merdeka said.

Nearly 15 million Malaysians are registered to vote in the May polls.
An earlier version gave the wrong year in which Mahathir Mohamad retired from government and it misidentified the location of the nomination center from which Streram Sinnasamy was barred from entering.


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BENARNEWS- A Danish national of Yemeni descent on Monday became the first person sentenced under Malaysia's new law against "fake news" after he pleaded guilty to posting inaccurate criticism of police on social media.
Salah Salem Saleh Sulaiman, 46, will serve a month behind bars after apologizing and admitting that he posted a video on YouTube accusing police of making a slow response to distress calls when a Palestinian electrical engineer was shot dead in Kuala Lumpur on April 21.
Malaysia began prohibiting "fake news" in April after its parliament passed a law that makes "maliciously" spreading or creating fake news punishable by up to six years in prison and a maximum fine of up to 500,000 ringgit (about U.S. $128,000). Critics said the law could potentially stifle free speech as the country gears up for its May 9 general election.
Salah, who holds a Malaysian tourist visa, said in his video that authorities took 50 minutes to respond to the killing of Fadi Mohamad Al Batsh, a 35-year-old university lecturer who was gunned down by two men on a motorbike as he walked to a mosque in the capital.
But police said it took them only eight minutes and prosecutors charged that Salah published fake news through his video "with ill intent."
"I apologize to Malaysians. I did not know such a law and I did not have any knowledge about it," Salah, who was wearing a white robe and a green skullcap, told the court in English.
The court sentenced Salah to a week in jail, including time already served since his arrest on April 23, and a fine of 10,000 ringgit (about U.S. $2,500), but he chose to serve a month behind bars in lieu of paying the fine. 

Salah, who was not represented by an attorney, said he posted the video in a "moment of anger" but meant no harm.
Prosecutors said the two-minute video, which has been deleted from the video-sharing portal, showed Salah appearing near the scene of Al Batsh's killing after the shooting.
Police said they were pursuing suspects in the killing. Last week, investigators released a picture of one of the alleged shooters who had a striking resemblance to a computer-generated sketch of one of the suspects believed to be of European or Middle Eastern origin.
The militant group Hamas has eulogized Al Batsh as a member and accused Israel of involvement in the killing, but Israeli officials dismissed the allegations.

Malaysia's Anti-Fake News Act covers "news, information, data and reports" that are deemed "wholly or partly false" and includes features, visuals and audio recordings. The law applies to offenders outside Malaysia and includes foreigners, if the country or any of its citizens are affected.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) issued a statement challenging Salah's sentence.
"Malaysia's first conviction under its 'fake news' law shows authorities plan to abuse the new provision to criminalize critical reporting," CPJ senior Southeast Asia representative Shawn Crispin said. "The dangerous precedent should be overturned and this ill-conceived law repealed for the sake of press freedom."

Muslim-majority Malaysia is not the only Southeast Asian nation that recently clamped down on false news. Lawmakers in Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines also are preparing legislation to counter the proliferation of fake news online.

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BENARNEWS- Next week's Malaysian general election provides voters an opportunity to "free" the country of "corruption, discrimination and injustice," the leader of a key opposition party told BenarNews in an interview.
Longtime MP Lim Kit Siang heads the Democratic Action Party, which held 36 seats in the recently dissolved parliament. That was the lion's share or half of the 72 seats controlled by the four-party Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) bloc.
For the May 9 election, his party has fielded a slate of 47 parliamentary candidates and 105 candidates for state assembly seats. DAP is hoping to help the Pakatan alliance defeat the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which has ruled Malaysia since independence in 1957.
"We need to save Malaysia," Lim, 77, told Benar News as he campaigned in the southern city of Johor Bahru.
"I will summarize this in three words: Set Malaysia Free. That is what we ought to do, which is to set Malaysia free so that we will free the country from corruption, discrimination, injustice in this country."
Lim, who has participated in 12 previous general elections, was referring apparently to the 1MDB financial scandal, which has shadowed Prime Minister Najib Razak for the past three years and led to calls for his resignation.
Lim keeps a blog in which he regularly posts criticism related to the scandal. He referred to 1MDB in at least three blog postings on Tuesday.
In one, Lim called Najib "the most unpopular Prime Minister in Malaysian history," saying he was responsible for a money-laundering scandal, which had turned "Malaysia into a global kleptocracy and international outcast" overnight.
1MDB had governance issues but "you cannot just accuse somebody of being a thief or anything unless there is evidence," Najib told Bloomberg news service in a recent interview.
"It's been cleared, there's been no wrongdoing," Najib said. "I stand by it."
'I felt hurt'
Last month, DAP and Pakatan's three other members decided to drop their separate partisan logos and contest the upcoming elections under the banner of the People's Justice Party (PKR), after Malaysian authorities denied Pakatan its application to be registered for the May 9 polls as a coalition.
PKR, which held 28 seats in the last parliament, is headed by jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.
"I felt hurt by not using our symbol," Lim told BenarNews, adding that the move was necessary.
"But we have a bigger objective to save the nation. ... We need to save Malaysia."
Senior leaders of DAP, including party co-founder Chen Man Hin, have expressed displeasure over the dropping of the rocket logo, saying loyal supporters might get confused at the polling booths. 

Tan Siew Giaw, another DAP leader, echoed Chen's concerns. 

"All the 52 years of hard work ended in a blink of an eye when the symbol became two crescent moons, and red turned into blue," Tan told the local daily Utusan on April 12, referring to the PKR symbol and colors.

Lim, a member of Malaysia ethnic Chinese minority, was first elected as a member of parliament in 1969 – the year that Sino-Malay race riots broke out in the country – making him one of the country's most-senior legislators. 

"This is the first time I'm standing not on a rocket and, as you know, the decision to not use the rocket is a painful decision," Lim said, referring to the logo that has been the rallying symbol for DAP for about 48 years.

DAP, a multi-ethnic political party, advocates for social democracy and racial diversity. In previous elections, Lim has been vocal about a system of preferential treatment instituted by Barisan-led governments that favors members of the Malay majority and indigenous people in jobs and schooling.
DAP's strongholds include the states of Johor, Penang, Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur. 

Lim will be defending his parliament seat in Johor, a longtime bailiwick of Barisan and the birthplace of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the anchor party in the ruling bloc.

"Johor used to be a BN 'fixed-deposit' state but now it is our aim to win Johor, so that we can march to Putrajaya [the seat of government]," Lim said, using a common term for votes from states that have sided with the ruling coalition in previous elections.
Targeting at least 120 seats
On Tuesday, Lim told the state-run news service Bernama that Pakatan Harapan would need to win 120 out of 222 parliamentary seats in order to oust Barisan Nasional from government. But the Election Commission on Saturday rejected the nomination of six PH candidates, he said.
Pakatan, or PH, is made of the DAP, the Malay-led multiracial PKR, the Malaysian United Indigenous Party (Bersatu), and the faith-based National Trust Party (Amanah). All decided jointly to use PKR's symbol – two crescent moons forming a circle – as a common banner for the general election.
That decision came after the Registrar of Societies (ROS) turned down an application for registration by Pakatan and temporarily de-registered Bersatu after the party allegedly failed to submit certain required documents. Opposition leader and former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad described the move, made a day before the dissolution of parliament, as "an abuse of power" and an attempt to confuse citizens.
In 1987, when Mahathir was prime minister, Lim and his son, current DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, were among the 119 people rounded up in a major crackdown described by the government as an effort to prevent more racial rioting in Malaysia. They were arrested under the controversial Internal Security Act (ISA). Lim spent 17 months in detention while his son was jailed for 12 months.


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BENARNEWS- With days to go until voters in Malaysia get their chance to voice who they want to run the government, polls show Prime Minister Najib Razak's Barisan Nasional (BN) could maintain power while losing the popular vote to opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan (PH).
PH is likely to pull in 43.7 percent of the popular vote when Malaysians cast their ballots in the 14th General Election on May 9, according to independent pollster Merdeka Center. Najib's BN, on the other hand, is expected to pull in just 40.3 percent of the vote, but win more seats in parliament, giving it control of the government in Putrajaya.
BN benefited from a similar outcome five years ago.
"It is going to be a very close contest in the coming week," Merdeka Center director Ibrahim Suffian announced in a forum livestreamed Wednesday on Facebook.
The center, which is polling daily leading up to the election, said support for PH among ethnic majority Malays has increased, but that growth has not come from BN voters switching allegiance.
Instead, the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), an opposition party not aligned with the ruling or main opposition coalitions, has seen its support drop to 16 percent as of Tuesday from 17.2 percent in April, Reuters news agency reported.
Other polling organizations, including FT Confidential Research (FTCR), an independent research service of the Financial Times, issued similar observations about the election outcome in recent days.
Its polling in northern Malaysia showed that more than half of the respondents had a negative view of the economy.
Despite voters' concerns, FTCR expects the ruling party's redistricting earlier this year to help carry it across the finish line even as it looks to trail in the popular vote for the second straight general election.
In March, Najib introduced a bill that would redraw boundaries, saying said it would not produce any new seats but would change the names of some existing electoral districts. The map appears to benefit rural districts that most strongly support BN.
By contrast, it packed more voters in districts held by the opposition as seen in Petaling Jaya Utara seat in Selangor state, which was enlarged from 84,456 to 150,439 constituents.
"Today the parliament voted for a motion to protect Najib and BN, tomorrow it will vote to protect Najib from 1MDB with the fake news law. The choice is in the voter's hand whether to allow for this to succeed," senior opposition leader Lim Kit Siang said after the vote.
The government passed the fake news law, leading to a complaint being filed on Wednesday against former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, PH's candidate to oust Najib. The complaint was filed over a comment Mahathir made last week that he was concerned his plane could have been sabotaged.
One poll, the Invoke Malaysia Center for Policy Initiatives, reported last week that Mahathir has a big lead over his former protégé Najib, according to the Asian Correspondent.
Invoke, which is aligned with the opposition, showed Mahathir had the support of 30 percent of those polled while Najib drew 24 percent. The PAS candidate, Abdul Hadi Awang, drew the support of 10.4 percent of those polled while the rest of the respondents chose other candidates.


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BENARNEWS- At the twilight of his political career, former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is aiming to make a comeback at age 92 by trying to demolish the party that helped him transform Malaysia into one of Southeast Asia's most-prosperous nations.
During his 22-year-rule that began in 1981 – the longest in Malaysia's history – Mahathir delivered prosperity with solid backing from the United Malays National Organization, or UMNO, the anchor party in a ruling bloc that has dominated Malaysian politics since independence from Britain in 1957.
But Mahathir, a former medical doctor popularly known as "Dr M," quit UMNO and came out of political retirement two years ago, in protest over allegations of financial malfeasance directed against Prime Minister Najib Razak, his former protégé.
He said UMNO needed to be vanquished.
"It is not easy for me to destroy the party that I loved for 60 years," Mahathir said, referring to UMNO. "But now, today, I am fighting to take it down."
The longtime leader made the statement during a convention speech in January, in which he accepted to lead the main opposition bloc in a battle against the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN, or National Front) coalition, led by Najib, in the May 9 general election.
Mahathir stunned the nation when he bolted to the opposition and joined forces with his arch nemesis, former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, whom he once sent to jail on a sodomy charge.
Mahathir is leading Pakatan Harapan (PH), an amalgam that includes the Malay-led multiracial People's Justice Party (PKR), the Democratic Action Party (DAP), the Malaysian United Indigenous Party (Bersatu) and the faith-based National Trust Party (Amanah). All are campaigning under PKR's banner after authorities recently rejected Pakatan's application for registration as a political coalition and also de-listed Bersatu as a party.
Mahathir, during an interview with BenarNews in September 2016, described UMNO as "beyond resuscitation, beyond turning around."
"It has become very bad. It has become very, obviously, very corrupt. The leaders are corrupt. They don't express the views of the people," he said. "So we have no choice but to form another party."
'Obsessed about control'
Najib, who is pitching a campaign promise of economic growth built around infrastructure projects, explained his falling out with Mahathir during an interview with Bloomberg News last week.
"I think he's obsessed about control, about calling the shots, in fact, when we were quite close together he even suggested establishing a council of elders,'' Najib said. "Of course, you can imagine who's going to chair the council of elders. And a sitting prime minister, after every cabinet, I suppose I would have to march to his office to get his consent."
In recent years, Mahathir has been drawn back into the political spotlight because of his multiple jabs at Najib, his former political student who has been embroiled in a multibillion dollar financial scandal involving 1MDB, a state development fund.
Mahathir, and other opposition leaders and activists, have also accused Najib of redrawing electoral boundaries within weeks of the polls to favor UMNO's candidates. But Najib told Bloomberg News that Mahathir had also presided over several district redraws when his former political mentor was in power.
Critics also accused Najib of further stifling dissent or criticism against his government after the country began prohibiting "fake news" in April. Parliament passed a law then to make the "malicious" spread or creation of fake news punishable by up to six years in prison and a maximum fine of up to 500,000 ringgit (about U.S. $128,000).
On Wednesday, authorities said they were investigating Mahathir under the new law over claims last week that he suspected sabotage of a private plane that was supposed to take him from the capital Kuala Lumpur to Langkawi district, where he is running for a parliamentary seat.
"We have opened an inquiry based on a police report made against Mahathir," Kuala Lumpur police chief Mazlan Lazim told reporters.
Private medical practice
Mahathir will turn 93 on July 10. He was appointed as the country's fourth prime minister on July 16, 1981, but he began his political career in 1946 when he joined UMNO.
Mahathir, the son of a school principal, was educated at Sultan Abdul Hamid College, one of Malaysia's oldest and most prestigious schools, based in his home state of Kedah. 

After receiving his degree in medicine from the University of Malaya, Mahathir worked as a government health officer and later ran a private medical practice in Kedah for seven years. He was elected to parliament in 1964.

In the 1940s and 1950s, using the pen name "Che Det," Mahathir wrote articles on Malay politics and economic issues for The Sunday Times.
On Sept. 26, 1969, Mahathir was sacked from UMNO by the country's first premier, Tunku Abdul Rahman, who was reportedly irked by Mahathir's dissenting opinion about ethnic Malay nationalism. He rejoined the party after Tunku Abdul's resignation in September 1970.
Malaysia's economy under Mahathir's leadership boomed from 1991 to 1995, with annual gross domestic product (GDP) growing an average 8.7 percent and low unemployment rate of about 2.5 percent. According to the World Bank, the Muslim-majority nation that is now known for its semiconductor factories posted an estimated 2017 GDP of U.S. $989 billion, making it the third wealthiest nation in Southeast Asia, after Singapore and Brunei.
Authoritarian tendencies
During Mahathir's early tenure as prime minister, he solidified his authority by dramatically reducing the power of the sultans who ruled Malaysia's states. 

He was also accused of having authoritarian tendencies after he ordered the arrests and detention of more than 100 people, including opposition leaders and activists, under the internal security act in 1987.
In 2017, Mahathir stopped short of apologizing, but accepted blame for the arrests.
"I accept the blame even though the detention was not my decision," he said in a blog post, decades after the operation, dubbed Ops Lalang.
"I am now told that detainees were tortured. I regret that the detainees in Ops Lalang were tortured. This is against the law," he said.
Longtime parliamentarian Lim Kit Siang, leader of the Democratic Action Party, and his son, current DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, were among those rounded up in the crackdown described as an effort to prevent race riots. Lim spent 17 months in detention while his son was jailed for 12 months.
Three newspapers – The Star, Sin Chew Daily and the now-defunct Watan – were also suspended.
Yet Malaysia's high-tech industry, including software engineering, grew under Mahathir, as the nation also saw the building of mega projects, including the Petronas Twin Towers – the world's tallest buildings until 2004.
At the peak of his leadership, Mahathir developed and made Putrajaya the country's new administrative center in 1999, replacing the old city Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysia emerged relatively unscathed from the Asian financial crisis in the 1990s after Mahathir defied the International Monetary Fund by introducing controversial currency controls that effectively isolated his country from the global economy.
Admitting wrong decision
During an interview with Sin Chew Daily at his office in Putrajaya in March, Mahathir said he would not have sacked Anwar, if he could have turned back the clock and chosen again.
Mahathir said he made a wrong decision to go strictly by the book in acting against Anwar in 1998.
"From a political point of view, I would not have done this. When I was the prime minister, I promised myself not to do anything that would make people hate me," Mahathir said.
On Feb. 29, 2016, Mahathir left UMNO after a public outcry over allegations that Najib had allegedly helped embezzle funds from 1MDB.
U.S. authorities allege that between 2009 and 2014, top executives of 1MDB and Najib's associates looted at least $4.5 billion from the fund in a complex money-laundering scheme through acquisition of properties and bank deposits in the United States, Singapore, Switzerland and other countries.
According to court documents filed by the U.S. Justice Department in a civil case that seeks to recover some of that money, about U.S. $681 million landed in Najib's private bank accounts. Najib said the cash was a political donation from Saudi Arabia's royal family. He denied any wrongdoings related to1MDB.
"I left UMNO for a reason," Mahathir told reporters. "That it is now a party that protects Najib at all costs, from any wrongdoings committed by him."


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BENARNEWS- With a few days left before the May 9 general election, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak underscored his confidence that he could weather another challenge to his staying power, as he mocked the opposition's allegations against him as a "slander tsunami."
Najib has deftly endured multiple controversies during his nine years as Malaysia's leader. But analysts and pollsters predict his ruling bloc will face a tough test in next week's vote, as he attempts to survive a multibillion-dollar corruption scandal that has engulfed 1MDB, a state investment fund that he founded to spur economic development in his country.
"I recently mentioned that we are facing a 'slander tsunami' during this general election ... the opposition does not have anything solid to speak about and instead choose to spread hatred and lies," the New Straits Times quoted Najib saying as he campaigned Thursday in his home state of Pahang.
Najib, 64, apparently was taking a jab at the opposition's much-hyped claim that they expected a "Malay tsunami," a reference to voters from the ethnic Malay majority swinging away from the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which has ruled Malaysia since independence from Britain in 1957.
The main opposition Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) bloc is led by Mahathir Mohamad, a 92-year-old former longtime prime minister and former mentor of Najib's who has been his most virulent critic over the 1MDB scandal.
Najib, eldest son of a former prime minister and nephew of another, has consolidated his political grip based largely on his adroit financial skills as a British-trained economist.
He effectively deployed allocations for his electoral constituents, spread largesse among Malay landless families and pumped up voter support though an annual cash-handouts program. This political strategy, analysts said, allowed Najib to build a deeply embedded support at the grassroots level, giving the ruling party a powerful voter base among teachers, military personnel and rural settlers.
On his personal website, najibrazak.com, which features glossy pictures and catchy headlines, the prime minister boasts that "we delivered" on the economy, education, public security and health care, referring to some of his government's promises from the previous electoral campaign. Among its many successes, his government created 2.26 million jobs, Najib's website claimed.
"We must be a government that places a priority on performance, because the people must come first," according to a quote by Najib posted prominently in bold letters on his site.
Yet his government wound up losing the popular vote in the last election in 2013, and could again lose more votes to the opposition in the May 9 election, according to recent polls, although Barisan is expected to retain a parliamentary majority.
Apart from allegations of corruption tied to the 1MDB affair, the prime minister has been severely criticized in recent years for his government's policy of instituting a 6-percent sales tax (GST) aimed at increasing fiscal revenue.
On Thursday, Najib defended the controversial policy while campaigning in Pahang.
"The higher income group pays more if they spend more. When they pay more tax, we can distribute (the money) to those who need aid from government," he told a campaign rally, according to Channel News Asia. "That's why we can raise the salary of civil servants this year."
Political scion
The eldest son of Malaysia's second premier, Abdul Razak Hussein, Najib was born on July 23, 1953, in Kuala Lipis, in the east coast state of Pahang. He is the nephew of Hussein Onn, the third prime minister.
Najib holds a bachelor's degree in industrial economics from Nottingham University in England, where he transferred after his secondary education at Malvern Boys College in Worcestershire. He was a teenager when his father served as PM.
Upon returning to Malaysia in the early 1970s, Najib worked as a public relations manager at the state oil firm Petronas. In 1976, at age 22, he became the country's youngest electoral candidate, when he ran for a parliamentary seat in Pahang, which was left vacant when his father died.
From 1986 until 1999, Najib held various cabinet posts, including as defense and education minister, before his appointment as deputy prime minister and finance minister in 2004, during which he oversaw the Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA), an agricultural land scheme for the poor.
It was while he was overseeing FELDA that Najib introduced infrastructure projects and benefits for more than 110,000 Malay landless families who also received incentives and bonus payments.

Extending his grip
In an April 24 interview with Bloomberg News – his first one with foreign media outlet in years – Najib predicted he would prolong his rule, as he discussed the 1MDB embezzlement scandal that spawned a probe in at least six countries, including Switzerland, United States and Singapore.
"You cannot just accuse somebody of being a thief unless there is evidence," he said. "I stand by it: There's no wrongdoing. The Saudi government has come out with a statement admitting it's an official donation. The facts speak for themselves, but it's been turned into a political issue."
In August 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it was pursuing criminal action against those involved in the misappropriations and fraudulent diversion of funds from 1MDB, an entity wholly-owned by the Malaysian government.
DOJ is trying to recover more than $1.7 billion in real-estate and other assets allegedly siphoned off through a labyrinth of complex transactions from 1MDB, which Najib formed in 2009 ostensibly to pursue projects that would benefit Malaysian citizens through development projects.
Leaked court documents showed that about U.S. $700 million of those stolen funds may have been diverted through companies and government agencies linked to 1MDB before landing into the personal bank accounts of Najib, who has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
Najib said that a deposit of about U.S. $681 million into his personal bank accounts, which was made ahead of the 2013 general election, was a political donation from a member of the Saudi royal family.
'Give me a chance'
In 2009, Najib's United Malays National Organization (UMNO) partywas experiencing one of its most difficult times in its unbroken reign of government when he replaced Abdullah Badawi, who was hastened into retirement after the party's electoral failure. 

BN, anchored by UMNO, lost its super majority in 2008 and saw parliamentary seats under its control further trimmed in 2013.
Newspapers, quoting opinion polls, reported in 2009 that Najib was more unpopular than the man he was replacing. There were allegations by the opposition of corruption and bribery back then, including when Najib was still defense minister. 

But despite the allegations against its leader, Malaysia, a multi-ethnic nation of more than 30 million people, grew under Najib, enhancing its standing as one of Southeast Asia's most vibrant economies, with a growth rate of between 5.2 and 5.7 percent last year, rebounding from 4.2 percent in 2016.
Higher oil prices also spurred economic growth and revenue last year, allowing Najib to propose hefty spending, including millions of dollars in pay hikes for government employees and pensioners, according to economists. 

Meanwhile, Najib, the political blue-blood, persevered and pledged sweeping reforms. 

"Give me a chance, judge me by my actions. Don't judge me on rumors and baseless allegations," he said during a party convention in 2013 where he was elected unopposed as a leader. "I will reform and I will make changes."


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BENARNEWS- In an election in which a nonagenarian is leading the charge to topple a government 61 years in power, young candidates and young voters are hard to come by.
With more than 1,000 candidates competing for national parliament and state assembly seats in Malaysia's 14th general election on Wednesday, only about 19 are under the age of 31, according to an informal count by BenarNews.
The youngest, law undergraduate P. Prabakaran, 22, told a campaign rally on Sunday that his main agenda was to "raise a voice for youth" and show that young people can participate in governing.
"In parliament, most are 50 years old and above. We, the youth, must conquer parliament," he said in a short speech, according to The Star. "Democracy is not just about voting ... I will use this platform for the development of youth, not just Batu but the whole nation."
Prabakaran is running as an independent candidate for the Batu parliamentary seat, one of 11 in Kuala Lumpur. He has been endorsed by the Pakatan Harapan bloc after its own candidate for the seat, Chua Tian Chang, was disqualified over a conviction for insulting a police officer.
Among 30-and-younger candidates, 15 represent the opposition Pakatan Harapan coalition headed by 92-year-old former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, and four are from Prime Minister Najib Razak's Barisan Nasional bloc, which has held power since 1957.
Those who are 21 and voting for the first time would have been 6 years old when Mahathir resigned from his prime ministerial post in 2003 after 22 years in office.
Mohd Izzuddin Ramli of the Penang Institute think tank said fielding young candidates is not easy for political parties because voters tend to favor older candidates, especially in rural areas.
"But they have to answer the call for political rejuvenation by attracting youths to join politics to gain young voters' votes," Izzuddin told BenarNews.
Cost of Living Concerns

In their campaign manifestos, both Pakatan and Barisan tried to entice young voters with pledges of job and educational opportunities, and housing specifically for young families.

The concerns of young people are similar to those of older voters, said Oh Ei Sun, senior adviser for International Affairs at the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute.

"But I believe they are also more keen on fundamental issues such as social justice," Oh said.
The latest survey of Malaysian voters by the independent Merdeka Center for Opinion Research found the top issues for voters were economic concerns – inflation, job opportunities and income – followed by corruption and housing.
First-time voter Regunaa Narayanan Sharma, 27, said she plans to go home to the northern state of Kedah to vote Wednesday and expects to cast a ballot to change the government which she said had held power too long and become "complacent" in managing the country.
"The government failed to protect the people. The cost of living is high even for the middle income families," Sharma said.
Adryan, 30, from Sabah in eastern Malaysia who would give only his first name, expressed concern about a 6 percent sales tax recently levied by the government (GST) and the national debt, which officially stands at 684 billion ringgit (U.S. $174 billion), according to Malaysian business portal theedgemarkets.com.
"The present government has placed a lot of burden on the people and caused the cost of living to rise by imposing the GST," he said.
Apathy?
Raja Azraff Raja Azmil, 29, a first-time voter in Selangor, stressed the importance of casting a ballot without tipping his hand. "I always believe that voting is a responsibility, privilege and right for a citizen," he said.
There are 5.8 million Malaysians between the ages of 21 and 30, according to the Malaysian Department of Statistics.
If all of them registered to vote, they would make up slightly more than 28 percent of the electorate, according to Watan, a non-partisan campaign that aims to promote youth voting.
But because of low registration rates among this bracket, young people comprise just 18.55 percent of Malaysia's 14.96 million registered voters, said Watan, which called young people the largest bank of non-voters in Malaysia.
A survey Merdeka and Watan carried out in August 2017 of 604 Malaysians in this age group found that 71 percent felt they had no influence over what the government does, and one in four believed voting makes no difference.
"The survey results corroborate findings from a focus group discussion carried out by Watan early this year which shows a worrying level of apathy towards registration among Malaysian youth," Watan executive director Masjaliza Hamzah said at the time.
The winning element?
But Izzuddin, the Penang Institute analyst, claimed younger voters caused Barisan Nasional to lose the popular vote in 2013. 

"Support for the BN among young people between 18 and 35 dropped from 57 percent in the 2008 general election to 54 percent in 2013. It has almost certainly fallen further in the last five years and is likely to be lower still among ethnic Chinese and Indian youths," said Izzuddin, citing data from Politweet, a Malaysian-based pollster.
Some observers allege the decision to hold Malaysia's vote on a Wednesday was aimed at suppressing voter turnout. Many young people who work or study away from home need to return home to vote.
The announcement triggered a Go Home and Vote (#PulangMengundi) movement on social media to collect donations and arrange carpools to help people get home midweek to vote.
Former finance minister Daim Zainuddin, who is famed for having made accurate predictions about the outcome of the 2008 and 2013 elections, told BenarNews the winning element this time around would be the rural and young voters.
"Whoever wins the election has not only to tackle the youth voters but also the rural voters including those in Felda, a settlement set up by the government to help poor Malays to own lands and get themselves involve in an oil palm plantation," he said.
Daim was one of two former ministers dismissed by the ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO) over the weekend for appearing at an opposition rally.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian security forces shot dead four suspected members of a Filipino kidnap-for-ransom group during a gun battle Tuesday off the Borneo Island state of Sabah, officials said.
The clash occurred after members of the Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) and marine police intercepted a boat before dawn at about 9.6 nautical miles off the coast of Lahad Datu, a town on the eastern edge of the state.
"The suspects, in their 20s to 40s, then fired at the team, which forced the authorities to return fire in self-defense," Sabah Police Chief Ramli Din told a news conference.
Ramli said two suspects were found dead in the boat and the bodies of two others were found floating nearby. Security forces were unharmed but a rifle round struck the left side of their boat's bow, Ramli said.
Ramli told BenarNews police are investigating to determine if the suspects had any links with militant groups, such as the Abu Sayyaf, in the southern Philippines.
"We are looking into whether they were pro-Islamic State (IS)," Ramli said.
The suspects did not carry identification cards and were believed to have used firearms that could have fallen into the water during the clash, he said.
Authorities seized the boat, a 45-caliber Remington pistol, a 40 mm grenade and about three dozen rounds of ammunition for rifles, he said.
The Abu Sayyaf, or Bearers of the Sword, has been engaged in banditry, kidnapping and bombings in and around Jolo and Basilan islands in the southwestern part of the Philippines since its inception in the early 1990s.
In May 2017, a pro-IS faction of Abu Sayyaf led by Isnilon Hapilon, led a siege of the southern Philippine city of Marawi. More than 1,200 people, mostly militants, were killed in a battle that ended in October.


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BENARNEWS- Observers from nine Asian countries are on the ground for Malaysia's general election, according to the Election Commission, which earlier barred the national human rights agency from monitoring what the opposition has branded as a "dirty" vote.
The 25 foreign observers – national election commissioners from Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, India, Pakistan, the Maldives, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan – were taken on Tuesday to see a vote-counting center in Putrajaya, Malaysia's administrative capital near Kuala Lumpur, officials said.
"Every one of these observers are the persons who are involved in the elections in their own country. They asked plenty of questions and are very keen to oversee our [election] tomorrow," Othman Mahmood, the EC's deputy chairman said, according to state-run news service Bernama.
"The purpose of ... inviting these foreign observers is to prove the transparency of the election process and we are able to get feedback from them to improve the management of the elections in the future," he added.
More than 1,200 people representing a host of local groups also will be stationed as observers of Malaysia's 14th general election (GE14), the EC said. Among the groups sending observers to polling places are the Malaysian Youth Council (MBM), the Kota Bharu People's Organization (OKB), the Vision Voters Organization of Malaysia and local universities, according to a list from the commission.
However, no western nations are represented among the foreign observers. Press officers at the American and British embassies in Kuala Lumpur declined requests from BenarNews to comment on why their countries were not sending observers to monitor the Malaysian polls.
Separately, EC member K. Bala Singam declined interview requests from BenarNews.
'Entrusted by the King'
In late April, the nation's human rights commission (Suhakam) announced that the EC had rejected its application to accredit its observers for the polls. 

In a statement the following day, the EC said it did not need Suhakam's services, explaining that it had approved "enough" observers for the polls.
"[T]he involvement of Suhakam as election observers is not needed because the EC has invited independent and foreign observers to observe the 14th general election," the EC said on April 27.
"At the same time the law also provides the rights of all candidates and contesting parties to appoint their agents as the observers in the election process," said the statement, which was attributed to EC Chairman Mohd Hashim Abdullah.
"As a free and fair body with integrity, entrusted by the King to manage the general election, EC will ensure [that] every GE14 process conducted by 250,000 public members will be carried out in a fair and transparent manner without pressure and interference from any party," he said, referring to the number of volunteers and poll workers expected to be on hand Wednesday.
Suhakam officials, nonetheless, have vowed to send a team of 50 officials and volunteers to observe voting in hotly contested constituencies, including Kuala Lumpur and Selangor and Kelantan states.
Opposition leader Mahathir Mohamad told Agence France-Presse last month that the May 9 election would be the "dirtiest" ever held in Malaysia, citing changes to the electoral map and other measures.

"Of course the opposition invariably complains about the election but this time around it is so obvious that even members of the governing party ... are very unhappy," he was quoted as saying.
Doubts about accredited observers
Meanwhile, some analysts and watchdog groups questioned the role that the officially invited foreign observers could play in helping guarantee a clean vote come Election Day.
"With such a short trip, they look more like just visitors to endorse the EC. Also, neither the Thai [delegation] nor the Maldivian one has much credibility. Both countries are not democracies," Wong Chin Huat, an analyst at the Penang Institute, a local think-tank, told BenarNews.
Mandeep Singh, a manager for Bersih 2.0, a grassroots group that advocates for free and fair elections in Malaysia, echoed that comment.
"Our position is that these people are not observers, but merely visitors. It is clear that they came here under [an] invitation from the Malaysian government. It's a government-to-government program so they are doing it just as a courtesy to the caretaker government," Singh told BenarNews.

"Proper monitoring takes six, three, or at least one month prior to the actual balloting day. It's not enough just witnessing the ballots being cast. Actual monitoring needs to look into the entire election process," he added.
He also questioned the impartiality of some of the local observers approved by the EC.
"[W]ho are these people and these organizations? What have they done in regards to elections? Majlis Belia Malaysia [the Malaysian Youth Council], for example, has been seen campaigning for BN," he said, referring to the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition.
"How is it possible for election monitors to be campaigning for a candidate at the same time?"


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak's Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition continues to lose ground ahead of national elections but may scrape through to retain power while losing the popular vote, according to a poll released Tuesday.
The ruling bloc will retain a slim majority in parliament even though nearly two-thirds of about 15 million eligible voters will vote for the main opposition rival, Pakatan Harapan (PH), led by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, or other parties, independent pollster Merdeka forecast on what could be the closest-fought Malaysian election yet.
BN, which has ruled Malaysia throughout the nation's 61-year history, will garner only 37.3 percent of votes, falling short of the 43.4 percent predicted to go to PH, an opposition coalition, the pollster said. The Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), which is not aligned with either coalition, is expected to get 19.3 percent of the vote, according to Merdeka.
In a survey a week ago, Merdeka had said BN would garner 40.3 percent of the popular vote while PH would pull in 43.7 percent of the popular vote.
While BN could lose the popular vote for the second straight election, it is expected to keep 100 of parliament's 222 seats compared with 83 for PH and two for PAS, it said.
Merdeka pointed out that a "high number" of 37 seats are too close to call, implying that "voter turnout will be a critical factor in determining the outcome of many seats on election day."
The coalition that wins at least 112 parliamentary seats will lead the government.
In addition, candidates in legislative assemblies of 12 Malaysian states will be on the ballot. Merdeka's survey of the popular vote did not cover the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak, which have historically been pro-Barisan, although there have been recent signs of a swing away from the government in Sabah, reports say.
Merdeka warned that the outcome could change.
"As our survey was concluded at noon on May 8, about 12 hours before the end of the official campaign period, it may not capture any last-minute shift or changes that may take place in the final hours of the campaign."
The survey found that voters are revolting over a 6 percent sales tax levied by the government (GST), the rising cost of living and perceived government shortfalls. Economic concerns were an issue for 43 percent of the voters, followed by governance and corruption (21 percent), and weaknesses in leadership (8 percent).
Final push
The candidates and their coalitions kept campaigning late into Tuesday night. An official 11-day campaigning period was due to end at midnight.
Prime Minister Najib, the BN leader, addressed the nation on live TV at 10 p.m. while former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, the PH leader, offered a dueling speech from Langkawi where he is on the ballot for parliament.
Najib focused on goodies for young voters and Muslims as Ramadan nears.
"Youths under 26 who are working, regardless of their income, will not have to pay income tax," he said during the televised speech.
In addition, he declared that new public holidays would fall on Monday and Tuesday to prepare for Ramadan on May 16 while toll charges would be dropped for five days next month to allow Muslims to travel home for Eid al-Fitr, which begins on the evening of June 14.
"Toll charges will not have to be paid two days before Hari Raya for those that will go back to their hometowns, and on the first, second, and third day of Hari Raya," he said using another term for Eid.
Mahathir, 92, a former prime minister who led the country for 22 years and joined the opposition coalition earlier this year, finished off his campaign with a call for voters to join with PH to change government.
"The people alone cannot save themselves and the country," Mahathir said in his final speech before polls open. "A party like PH is unlikely to be able to revive the country alone, but the people and party together can do that, God willing!
"So go out to vote and vote for Pakatan Harapan, hoping to save Malaysia from kleptocracy and restore Malaysia democracy and rule of law."
At the same time that Mahathir was speaking, Malaysia's finance minister sponsored a concert 4 km (2.5 miles) away featuring the country's best singers and performers.
Roadblocks
In the weeks leading up to the election, opposition politicians have accused the ruling bloc of throwing up a series of roadblocks to prevent Pakatan from winning at the polls.
In March, the parliament pushed through a new electoral map that drew protests from opposition lawmakers claiming it favored the ruling BN party. The map appears to pack more voters in districts held by the opposition while creating safe BN districts in rural areas.
In early April, parliament then passed an anti-fake news law despite opposition concerns that it could be used as punishment against those seeking to oust the ruling party.
The concerns came to fruition in the last week of the 11-day campaign. On May 2, authorities confirmed they were investigating Mahathir under the new law over claims that he suspected sabotage of a private plane taking him from the capital Kuala Lumpur to his home Langkawi district.
Three days later, police announced that a second opposition leader, Rafizi Ramli, also was being investigated under the new law over remarks on social media that an opposition candidate in Negeri Sembilan state was not allowed to file nomination papers.
In April, just days after the parliament passed the anti-fake news law, the Registrar of Societies (RoS) deregistered Mahathir's United Malaysian Indigenous Party (Bersatu) for failing to meet a 30-day deadline to turn over requested documents.
And because RoS also rejected an application by Pakatan to be registered as a coalition, the bloc's four member parties later agreed to contest the election together under the symbol of the People's Justice Party (PKR), which is headed by jailed leader Anwar Ibrahim.


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BENARNEWS- Ex-premier Mahathir Mohamad's opposition alliance scored a historic victory Thursday in Malaysia's 14th General Election, ousting the Barisan Nasional government which had ruled the country since independence six decades ago.
The 92-year-old Mahathir's Pakatan Harapan (PH) bloc had secured 113 seats to gain a simple majority in the 222-member parliament and form the federal government, according to official Election Commission results posted online at 5 a.m. Thursday (local time).
Tainted by corruption allegations, Prime Minister Najib Razak's Barisan Nasional got only 79 seats, ejecting him from government leadership after being at the helm for about a decade.
The Pakatan coalition comprised several opposition parties, including Mahathir's Malaysian United Indigenous Party (Bersatu), the People's Justice Party (PKR), the Democratic Action Party (DAP), and the faith-based National Trust Party (Amanah).
All campaigned under the banner of PKR, the party of jailed opposition icon Anwar Ibrahim who is expected to take over from Mahathir after he is released next month and gains a royal pardon.
The move to run under a common logo in the election came after the authorities rejected Pakatan's application for registration as a political coalition and also de-listed Bersatu as a party.
Under the country's electoral system, the party with a simple majority of seats in the 222-member parliament can form the government.
During the 2013 election, BN lost the majority vote but pulled in 133 seats.
Analysts were surprised by the unassailable opposition lead. Independent polls conducted before the election had indicated that Najib would win by a small margin while losing the popular vote for the second time.
Mahathir immediately gave an assurance that the new Pakatan government would not go on a witch hunt, but he quickly added that the law would take its course.
"We are not seeking revenge. What we want to do is to restore the rule of law. If anybody broke the law, they will be tried," he said at a pre-dawn press conference.
Najib, 64, has been buffeted by a scandal over 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a state fund from which billions of dollars were allegedly siphoned off.
The U.S. Justice Department says $4.5 billion was looted from 1MBD by associates of Najib, including $700 million that landed in his private bank accounts. He has denied any wrongdoing.
Mahathir and the opposition had used Najib's link to the corruption scandal as a key theme of their election campaign.
Nonagenarian Mahathir had ruled the Muslim-majority nation for 22 years, from 1981 to 2003, and came out of retirement to take on his former protégé Najib.
He has promised to hand over power to once arch-rival Anwar Ibrahim, who is due to be released from prison on June 8. Anwar had been convicted for a second time on sodomy charges, which, he said, were concocted by Najib's government to eliminate the threat he posed to its hold on power.
Mahathir said Thursday that he would push for a royal pardon for Anwar so that he could take over as premier.

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People line up outside a polling station in Kuala Lumpur to cast their vote in Malaysia's 14th General Election, May 9, 2018. (S. Mahfuz/BenarNews)

 
Close race
The Election Commission reported 70 percent of about 15 million registered voters had cast their ballots across the country.
The turnout appeared considerably lower than the 85 percent recorded in the previous general election in 2013, officials said.
Even before the official results were announced, Mahathir claimed victory.
"We need to have only 112 seats and it would seem that we have practically achieved that figure and the figure for the BN is very much less than that," Mahathir declared.
Barisan Nasional, which has led Malaysia since independence from Britain in 1957, said it would respect the election results.
"Obviously we are going to accept the will of the people but the prime minister will be issuing a statement," said Khairy Jamaluddin, the head of the youth wing of the United Malays Nasional Organization (UMNO) party, the linchpin of Barisan.
"We need to make sure the election result is respected and we move on," he said.
Najib, who heads UMNO, had earlier chaired a meeting of the UMNO top brass at his residence and was scheduled to hold a press conference later Thursday.
The meeting included deputy prime minister and UMNO deputy president Zahid Hamid, Defense Minister and UMNO vice-president Hishamuddin Hussein and Khairy, the youth minister.
Mahathir has thrown his lot in with an alliance packed with parties that he crushed while in power, which includes Anwar.
Analysts had widely predicted that Najib's BN would retain power mainly due to a newly re-jiggered electoral system, which, critics said, had been heavily manipulated.
There was no immediate response from the BN on the results.
The Election Commission called for patience after Mahathir accused it of delaying the results.
"Please give us some time for us to make an official announcement after all the results are verified," said Hisham Abdullah, the commission's chairman.
"We are still receiving results from states as well as from head of voting stations as well as returning officers. I am sure the people are waiting and we understand this."
"I'm sure those who win are anxious to take the oath of prime ministership and form the government. We ourselves have nothing up our sleeve, so please be a little patient."
The commission also announced that Mahathir's party had retained control of two states – Selangor and Penang – and won three other states – Negeri Sembilan, Melaka and Johor, the birthplace of Najib's UMNO party.
Barisan retained Perlis and Pahang states while the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) retained Kelantan and wrested control of Terengganu from Barisan. PAS had won 18 parliamentary seats, meanwhile.
In a blow to the ruling bloc, the leaders of its Chinese and Indian component parties both lost their seats.
Liow Tiong Lai, president of Malaysian Chinese Association, lost his seat in Bentong, Pahang state, and S. Subramaniam, president of the Malaysian Indian Congress, did not win his constituency of Segamat, Johor state.
Najib expressed concern over personal attacks during the election campaign.
"It's not been that tense, but it has been quite vicious in the content of the personal attacks which doesn't reflect a mature democracy," he said about the election campaign, according to aljazeera.com. "But the most important thing is for the people to decide on the destiny of this nation."


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BENARNEWS- Mahathir Mohamad emerged triumphant after leading Malaysia's main opposition bloc to an upset victory early Thursday (local time) against a ruling coalition he had helped entrench as the country's dominant political power.
Mahathir, who will turn 93 on July 10, sprang out of political retirement two years ago, demanding clean government. He later became the opposition's driving force and held true to a vow of demolishing the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition at the polls. He is now poised to become the world's oldest prime minister.
His four-party Pakatan Harapan (PH) bloc ousted Barisan, led by his former protégé, Prime Minister Najib Razak, whose nine years in power were tarnished by corruption allegations.
On Wednesday night, hours after at least 70 percent of 15 million registered voters turned out to cast their ballots, Mahathir claimed that Pakatan had won enough parliament seats in the general election, allowing it to form the next government.
"It would seem that we have practically achieved that figure of 112 and the figure for BN is very much less than that," Mahathir told reporters. "This isn't fake news. They are left far behind. The likelihood is that they would not be forming the government."
The final results posted Thursday morning (local time) on the Malaysian Election Commission's website showed that Pakatan had won at least 113 seats, one seat above the threshold of 112 parliamentary seats needed to clinch a simple majority and choose a new prime minister.
In the run-up to the May 9 election, pollsters and analysts predicted that Mahathir and Pakatan likely would win the popular vote away from Barisan but would not capture enough seats for a parliamentary majority, partly because of a newly reconfigured electoral map that, according to observers and critics, appeared to boost the ruling bloc's chances of winning.
In the 2013 election, BN lost the majority of votes but clung to power by pulling in 133 seats.
Mahathir, a former medical doctor nicknamed "Doctor M," governed the Muslim-majority nation with an iron fist for 22 years beginning in 1981. 

During his rule, he helped transform Malaysia into one of Southeast Asia's most-prosperous nations.
On Feb. 29, 2016, Mahathir left the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the anchor party in a ruling bloc that has dominated Malaysian politics since independence from Britain in 1957.
But to help bring down Najib, Mahathir said UMNO must be demolished.
During an interview with BenarNews in September 2016, Mahathir described UMNO as "beyond resuscitation, beyond turning around."
"It has become very bad. It has become very, obviously, very corrupt. The leaders are corrupt," he said.
Mahathir stunned the nation when he bolted to the opposition and joined forces with his arch nemesis, former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, whom he once sent to jail on a sodomy charge. Anwar is now serving a prison term over a separate sodomy conviction, but is expected to be released in June.
Principal's son
The son of a school principal, Mahathir was educated at Sultan Abdul Hamid College, one of Malaysia's oldest and most prestigious schools, based in his home state of Kedah.
He launched his political career in 1946 when he joined UMNO. After receiving his degree in medicine from the University of Malaya, Mahathir worked as a government health officer and later ran a private medical practice in Kedah for seven years.
He was elected to parliament in 1964 and appointed as the country's fourth prime minister on July 16, 1981.
At the peak of his leadership, Mahathir developed Malaysia's high-tech industry. He also oversaw the building of mega projects, including the Petronas Twin Towers – the world's tallest buildings until 2004.
From 1991 to 1995, the country experienced economic growth with a low unemployment rate.
But during his term as prime minister, Mahathir also faced criticisms after he ordered the arrests and detention of more than 100 people, including opposition leaders and activists, under the internal security act in 1987. About 30 years later, Mahathir stopped short of apologizing, but accepted blame for the arrests.
During an interview with Bloomberg News last month, Najib described Mahathir as a person "obsessed about control, about calling the shots."
U.S. authorities allege that between 2009 and 2014, top executives of 1MDB and Najib's associates looted at least $4.5 billion from the fund in a complex money-laundering scheme through acquisition of properties and bank deposits in the United States, Singapore, Switzerland and other countries.
Najib has not yet issued an official comment on the election tally. No BN leader made any comments to reporters gathered at UMNO party headquarters on Wednesday.


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BENARNEWS- In a somber press conference hours after Malaysian election results were announced, outgoing Prime Minister Najib Razak said he would respect the outcome of voting while accusing his electoral rival of sedition.
Without mentioning him by name, Najib referred to a speech former premier Mahathir Mohamad had given around midnight Wednesday slamming the slow pace of electoral results and suggesting the delay was deliberate and an indication of results manipulation.
"There was also allegations that my friends and I were planning to have a National Security Council meeting last night ... to declare an emergency. That is another example of sedition," Najib said while flanked by outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, outgoing Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein and other senior members of his government.
"No such meeting took place," said the 64-year-old leader, calling the election a "tough clash" marked by "slander" against his government.
In brief remarks at his party headquarters in Malaysia's capital, Najib, who had been prime minister since 2009, never mentioned Mahathir or the opposition coalition that ousted his government by name.
He said Malaysia's king would decide whom to select as Malaysia's next prime minister as no party had achieved a simple majority of parliament seats.
Official results showed that parties in the informal Pakatan Harapan alliance, which had announced Mahathir as its prime minister candidate, won 113 of parliament's 222 seats, while Najib's Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition won 79.
"BN will honor whatever decision His Majesty will make and I urge all Malaysia's to keep calm and have faith in the king's wisdom to make the best decision," he said.
"I accept and my friends all accept the verdict of the people, and Barisan Nasional is committed to respect the principle of parliamentary democracy."
'Let's not waste more time'
Appearing before reporters about 90 minutes later in Selangor, Mahathir said leaders of his alliance had written to Malaysia's king, Sultan Mohammad V of Kelantan, asking for a new prime minister to be sworn in as soon as possible.
"We would like to make it clear that there is the urgency here to form a government now. Today. That is because there is currently no government of Malaysia," Mahathir said.
"We hope that by 5 o'clock today we will have a new government."
He said his coalition now claimed the allegiance of "well over 135 MPs" including the Sabah Heritage Party and "other individuals in Sabah."
"Pakatan Harapan has already won a clear majority and therefore we are entitled to form a government," Mahathir said.
Separately, the sultan of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim Ibni Almarhum Sultan Iskandar, called for a new prime minister to be sworn in without delay.
"Elections [are] over. I ask for everyone to respect the choice of the people. I hereby ask for a government to be established immediately and let's not waste more time," he said in a statement.
'Not perfect'
In his earlier remarks, while thanking his colleagues and their families, Najib said his government had elevated Malaysians' quality of life and was proud of its record, but "there are things that are not perfect in the time when we were in power."
Najib has been buffeted by a scandal over 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a state fund from which billions of dollars were allegedly siphoned off.
The U.S. Justice Department says $4.5 billion was looted from 1MBD by associates of Najib, including $700 million that landed in his private bank accounts. He has denied any wrongdoing.
In a statement late Wednesday the U.S State Department congratulated Malaysia for a hard-fought election campaign and high levels of peaceful participation in the electoral process.
"We fully expect all institutions will carry out their functions and duties to produce and implement official results in accordance with the federal constitution and the will of the people," it said.
N. Natha in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Mahathir Mohamad took the oath of office Thursday night as Malaysia's seventh prime minister, after his induction ceremony was postponed twice in 12 hours, and vowed that his new government would uphold the nation's laws and abolish oppressive ones.
Mahathir, 92, was sworn in as the new PM at the royal palace in Kuala Lumpur in front of Malaysia's king, a day after leading the opposition Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition in a stunning win in the country's 14th General Election.
"We promise to set up a good government based on the constitution and law of this country, a government where the constitution is upheld and the law will guide us,"he told a news conference after he was re-inducted as prime minister for the first time in 15 years.
Dressed for the ceremony in a black and gold traditional Malay outfit, Mahathir became the oldest person in the world to serve as a head of government after he was sworn in around 10 p.m. (local time), in a nationally televised event that had Malaysians glued to their TV sets. He will turn 93 in July.
Top government officials and leaders of Pakatan were on hand to witness the much-anticipated ceremony as he took the oath of office and oath to guard the nation's secrets before Sultan Muhammad V, Malaysia's 15th king.
"We seek to abolish suppressive and unfair laws – for example, the anti-fake news law and the National Security Council [law],  which is set up to frighten people," he told the post-ceremony news conference, referring to some laws passed by the outgoing government led by his former protégé, Najib Razak.
During his previous tenure as prime minister from 1981 to 2003, Mahathir was known as one of Southeast Asia's strongmen. In 1987, he ordered the arrests and detention of more than 100 people, including opposition leaders and activists, under the notorious Internal Security Act (ISA).
After taking office, Najib abolished the act but his government later implemented the Prevention of Terrorism Act, which, critics said, was similar to the draconian ISA.
Mahathir had previously said that if he became prime minister again, he would hand over the reins of government eventually to Anwar Ibrahim, his former political foe-turned-ally who is due to be released from prison next month after serving time on a sodomy conviction.
On Thursday night, a reporter asked the new prime minister how long he intended to stay in office this time around.
"Maximum time as PM? I think I have some experience and the government needs my experience. And I'll stay for as long as my experience is needed, but not too long," Mahathir responded.

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Pakatan Harapan Chairman Mahathir Mohamad (third from right) talks to his son Mokhzani while walking to a ceremonial hall at the royal palace for his swearing-in ceremony as Malaysia's new prime minister, May 10, 2018. [S. Mahfuz/BenarNews]

 
Controversy over delays to oath-taking
On Thursday, there was some drama leading up to Mahathir's latest inauguration because of at least two delays to the ceremony that led some to question whether and when he might be sworn in.
"The delay was unavoidable due to the unnecessary procedures but in the end I was sworn-in today," Mahathir said during the news conference that followed the ceremony.
On Wednesday, Mahathir led a historic upset against the Barisan Nasional bloc, which he used to head and which was ousted from leading government for the first time in Malaysia's 61-year history. The Pakatan bloc won at least 113 parliamentary seats, enough needed to control a simple majority and form a new government.
Thursday's ceremony had been postponed twice, once at 9:30 a.m. and later at 5 p.m.
After the ceremony, Mahathir told reporters that the formation of the new government depended on the king's signature but the monarch insisted that an official count from the Election Commission had to come first before proceeding with the ceremony – and the king wanted the results in writing.
The EC was slow in sending the written results that did not reach the palace until 3 p.m. Thursday, Mahathir said.
Following the first postponement, Mahathir told reporters there appeared to be some confusion over whether Pakatan had won a parliamentary majority because the bloc's four parties had contested the election under the logo of the People's Justice Party, one of the alliance's member parties.
He said PH had "already won a clear majority and therefore we are entitled to form a government."
"The constitution says the PM should have the support of the majority of the members of parliament. It does not say it should have the support of any party. As long as it has the support of the majority of members of parliament, he is entitled to become the PM. The majority has the right to name him and to require him to be duly appointed according to the constitution," Mahathir said.
"However, there have been delays over a lack of understanding of the constitution, but we'd like to make it clear that there is an urgency here. We need to form the government now, today because there is now currently no government of Malaysia," he added.
Separately, the royal palace issued a statement "strongly refuting" any allegation that the king "had delayed the appointment of Mahathir as prime minister."
The king had met with four of the leaders of Pakatan Harapan at 5 p.m. to interview them and listen to their views before deciding to invite Mahathir to form the next federal government, the palace said.
"His Majesty then consented to swear Tun Dr. Mahathir in as Prime Minister at 9:30 p.m. today," the statement said. "His majesty looks forward to working with Tun Dr. Mahathir and his administration for the betterment of our nation and all its people."
Najib concedes defeat
On Thursday morning, Najib gave a somber news conference where he said, "I accept and my friends all accept the verdict of the people, and Barisan Nasional is committed to respect the principle of parliamentary democracy."
Najib also said his government had elevated the quality of life for the Malaysian people. He was proud of its record but there were things that were "not perfect in the time when we were in power," conceded Najib, who served two terms, starting in 2009.
Going into the election, Najib had been shadowed for the past three years by corruption allegations tied to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a state investment fund that he started. He denied allegations of wrongdoing, but Mahathir made the 1MDB affair a plank in Pakatan's electoral platform.
At Thursday night's press conference, Mahathir told reporters that his government would seek to get back billions of dollars that had allegedly been stolen from the fund and led to money-laundering investigations around the globe.
'I feel like crying'
Supporters of the victorious Pakatan coalition, meanwhile, were jubilant as the statesman prepared to return to office.
"Let's not talk about them [the past government]. I am here tonight to celebrate with other Malaysians," said 34-year-old Ryan Lim, a salesman who was celebrating outside the National Palace where Mahathir was sworn in.
Shashipriya Nadaraja, a 38-year-old school teacher, said she had been waiting for long time for a change in her country's government.
"I am extremely happy.  I am speechless and I feel like crying because the overwhelming feeling of victory. This is the real independence," she told BenarNews.
But, she added, "I really hope that they can fulfill their promises. I also hope that the new government will not let us down."
An earlier version referred to Mahathir Mohamad, 92, as an octogenarian.


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BENARNEWS- Government and opposition leaders in South and Southeast Asia cheered Mahathir Mohamad and his Malaysian opposition bloc on Thursday after it pulled off a stunning general election victory by ousting a coalition that had led Malaysia for 61 years.
Exiled former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra fired off a series of positive comments on his official Twitter account, praising Mahathir for his "spectacular comeback."
Mahathir, who governed Malaysia for more than two decades, took his oath Thursday night and became the Muslim-majority nation's seventh prime minister.
"The power of the people has spoken loud and clear that they do not only remember his outstanding legacy but needed his leadership," said Thaksin, who was Thailand's prime minister from 2001 until he was overthrown in a military coup in September 2006. 

"I am certain that all the Thai people share my sentiment and respect towards him," Thaksin said.
He said Mahathir's leadership, ideas and vision "would undoubtedly reinvigorate" the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a regional political and economic bloc that includes Malaysia and Thailand.
Cecep Hidayat, a political science lecturer at the University of Indonesia, agreed with Thaksin's comments that Mahathir's "outward-looking" leadership would benefit Malaysia at the ASEAN forum.
"Mahathir will be more flexible and very active in his foreign policy," Cecep told BenarNews. "Malaysia can be great again in Asia, perhaps more popular than Indonesia."
Mahathir, 92, led the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN) before stepping down in 2003. He emerged from retirement and joined the opposition in 2016, expressing anger over a corruption scandal at the state-owned investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad, which was headed by his former protégé, Najib Razak, who has denied any wrongdoing.
Bobby Rizaldi, a member of the Indonesian parliament, described Mahathir's triumph as "extraordinary" and said the Malaysian leader could have an impact Jakarta's ongoing battle with illegal drugs smuggled to destination countries through the porous border.
Authorities seized at least 45 tons of methamphetamine in East and Southeast Asia in 2014, during police operations in Malaysia, Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries, according to the 2016 report of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.
"Many of drugs come from Malaysia [as a transit country] to Indonesia," Rizaldi told BenarNews. "How committed is Mahathir to solving the border issue?"
Election provides vehicle for change, activists say
In Thailand, pro-democracy activist Rangsiman Rome, a key leader of the Democracy Restoration Group (DRG), said Mahathir's victory proved that elections were a good vehicle to give people the opportunity to correct their own mistakes.
"To have elections once every four years allows the voters to review how their choices worked and to not repeat the mistake," Rangsiman told BenarNews. "It is sad that Thailand remains under the military junta, while Malaysia had an election. What a contrast."
Malaysia holds its general elections every five years.
Thai activists, including DRG, last week announced plans to launch protest rallies against the Thai junta later in May to mark the fourth anniversary of a coup that toppled Thaksin's sister, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
Meanwhile, Gen. Aksara Kerdpol, Thailand's chief representative in talks with insurgents in the Deep South, expressed confidence that Mahathir would continue Malaysia's support for the Thai peace process.
"There might be some effects when government changes," he told BenarNews. "I believe the new government would follow through with peace talks because it is a non-violent method."
Ruckchart Suwan, president of the Thai NGO Buddhist Network for Peace, agreed with the general's comments.
"I believe there is no effect on the peace-talk process because both countries do realize its importance. But I am not sure about whether the mediator would be changed," he said, referring to Malaysia's Ahmad Zamzamin Hashim, the facilitator of the peace negotiations.
In Bangkok, Gen. Prawit Wongsuwan, Thailand's deputy prime minister for security affairs, told reporters bilateral relations would not be altered by the government shift in Kuala Lumpur.
"The opposition won the election, but there should not be drastic change to cause troubles," he said.
In Singapore, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, said his country looked forward to developing an "equally constructive relationship" with Mahathir.
"As Malaysia's closest neighbor, we have a vested interest in Malaysia's stability and prosperity," Lee said on his Facebook page.
In Bangladesh, Delwar Hossain, the director-general of the foreign ministry's external relations wing, told BenarNews that diplomatic relations would remain tight under a new Malaysian government led by Mahathir.
"Elections and change of government are part of democratic process," he said. "We are committed to working with any government in Malaysia."
Mahbubur Rahman, a senior official of the opposition Bangladesh National Party, described Mahathir's triumphant return to politics as "a big lesson for us and the whole world."
"He punished Anwar Ibrahim but he aligned with his foe for the sake of democracy and the people," he said, referring to Mahathir's jailed former political enemy turned ally. "The victory of the opposition once again proves that people are sovereign and supreme."
Kamran Reza Chowdhury in Dhaka, Tia Asmara in Jakarta, Nontarat Phaicharoen in Bangkok and Mariyam Ahmad in Pattani, Thailand, contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Najib Razak took a spectacular downfall on Thursday, shedding his "political blue-blood" as Malaysia's prime minister and conceding defeat as he pledged to accept the verdict of the people.
Najib, who has masterfully endured controversies during his decade in power, gave his statement as stunned Malaysians woke up after the opposition bloc pummeled the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN) in the May 9 general election.
"I accept and my friends all accept the verdict of the people," he said, according to the translation of his address.
But his next sentence irked Mahathir Mohamad, who led the opposition coalition to victory.
"And because no party has gotten a simple majority, therefore the king will be making a decision as to who will be the prime minister," said Najib, who also accused his electoral rival of issuing seditious statements.
Mahathir, 92, took his oath at the royal palace in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, becoming the world's oldest elected leader.
Najib's statement despite his humiliating electoral defeat drew attention to his unpopular moves while leading the Muslim-majority nation.
Political dynasty
The 64-year-old Najib, eldest son of a former prime minister and nephew of another, consolidated his political grip based largely on his adroit financial skills as a British-trained economist.
He deployed allocations for his electoral constituents, spread a largesse among Malay landless families and pumped voter support though an annual cash-handouts program. 

That political strategy, analysts said, allowed Najib to build deeply embedded support at the grassroots level, giving the ruling party a powerful voter base among teachers, military personnel and rural settlers.
But BN, the coalition that conquered every election since the country gained its independence from Britain 61 years ago, did not gain from Najib's political decisions, analysts said.
"Najib is a liability. His narcissism cost them the election," Bridget Welsh, a John Cabot University analyston Malaysian politics, told CNN. "He used racial politics and money, like he did in 2013, but it did not have the same traction."
It could not be determined how the long-running allegations of corruption linked to the state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) influenced the Malaysian vote.
But the electoral bloodbath that led to BN's defeat was sparked by 1MDB.
Mahathir's decision to forge strategic electoral pacts with sworn enemies, including Anwar Ibrahim – a former ally who became his nemesis who became his ally again – reflected distrust of Najib after the 1MDB scandal broke.
In August 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it was pursuing criminal action against those involved in the misappropriations and fraudulent diversion of funds from 1MDB, an entity wholly owned by the Malaysian government.
DOJ is trying to recover more than $1.7 billion in real-estate and other assets allegedly siphoned off through complex transactions from 1MDB, which Najib formed in 2009 ostensibly to pursue projects that would benefit Malaysian citizens through development projects.
Court documents allege that about U.S. $681 million of 1MDB funds were diverted into Najib's personal bank accounts ahead of the 2013 general election, but Najib said the money came as a political donation from a member of the Saudi royal family.
In an April 24 interview with Bloomberg News – his first one with foreign media outlet in years – Najib predicted he would prolong his rule, as he discussed the 1MDB embezzlement scandal that spawned probes in at least six countries, including Switzerland, United States and Singapore.
"You cannot just accuse somebody of being a thief unless there is evidence," he said. "I stand by it: There's no wrongdoing."


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian King Sultan Muhammad V has agreed to pardon Anwar Ibrahim, paving the way for the jailed politician's entry back into politics, a transitional requirement that would allow him to take over political power, new Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Friday.

Mahathir made the announcement during a news conference after meeting leaders of the opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan (PH) at his office in Kuala Lumpur.

"In the course of our discussion with the king yesterday, he said he is willing to pardon Anwar Ibrahim immediately," Mahathir said.
Meanwhile, Malaysia's new leadership has taken precautions to prevent Najib Razak, the prime minister defeated in the May 9 election, and his wife from leaving the country, the Wall Street Journal reported late Friday, after reports emerged that the names of the couple were on a private airplane's manifest that was scheduled to take off from Kuala Lumpur on Saturday.
Najib had planned to take a short break, then return to Malaysia, an official with his United Malays National Organization (UMNO) told the paper.
Najib has been shadowed for the past three years by corruption allegations tied to the Malaysian state investment fund 1MDB. Mahathir had pledged in the electoral campaign to work to get back for Malaysia billions of dollars allegedly stolen from the fund and to prosecute those who broke the law.
The Journal cited sources close to Prime Minister Mahathir saying steps had been taken to stop Najib and his spouse from going abroad, and these sources had confirmed the details of the flight's manifest. According to the Reuters news agency, citing two sources and local media reports, the private jet was scheduled to fly to Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport in Jakarta.
Unlikely alliance
Mahathir, 92, emerged triumphant after leading Malaysia's main opposition bloc to an upset victory on Wednesday by forging an unlikely alliance with Anwar, his former protégé and deputy.
Anwar, 70, was expected to succeed Mahathir but was prosecuted and jailed in 1999 on allegations of corruption and sodomy, which were widely believed to be politically motivated.
In 2015, Anwar was jailed for sodomy for a second time and is due to be released on June 8.
As part of his campaign promise while running as the opposition bloc's leader, Mahathir agreed to seek the pardon for Anwar and vowed to make way for his former nemesis to replace him as prime minister. 

Anwar's daughter, Nurul Izzah, said the actual date of his pardon had not been confirmed.

"It will take time, the documentations, so I cannot tell you now," she told reporters after visiting her father at the Cheras Rehabilitation Hospital in Kuala Lumpur. "God willing, we hope for the best."
Anwar had been recuperating at the hospital after a surgery. 

But Anwar's wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said his release might take place next week, at the earliest, if all went well.

"There are many things that we have to look through," she told reporters Friday. "But what's most important is, the king has expressed his willingness to give full pardon to Anwar."
Mahathir, during the news conference, also announced the formation of his administration's 10 core ministries, including defense and foreign affairs.

"We discussed things in depth, and for right now we are only going to create a small cabinet," he said. "We do not want a huge cabinet."

Oh Ei Sun, a senior analyst at the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute, told BenarNews that the new cabinet list could be a consolidation of related functions, allowing the country's economy to propel forward.

"Basically it will be a combination of Economic Planning Unit previously under the prime minister's office, and perhaps the industry portion of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry," Oh said.

During the electoral campaign, the opposition promised to downsize the prime minister's office, which had 28 separate ministries under the Najib Razak administration. Mahathir said discussions on cabinet appointments would take place on Saturday. 

"This is to give time for parties to decide which ministry they want to be in and who will be in it," Mahathir said.

When asked whether Anwar will be given a cabinet-level position, Mahathir replied that the law requires that the jailed politician must first become a member of parliament. 

"That process can take a long time. It will be decided when the time comes," Mahathir said.

On foreign affairs, Mahathir said he wanted to maintain good relations with other countries, while remaining neutral on controversial issues. 

"Malaysia is a trading nation and we want to ensure the market for Malaysia is as large of possible," he said.
Mahathir was apparently reacting to news reports that China had urged him to uphold the bilateral agreements between Beijing and Kuala Lumpur.

"Some foreign powers may want to impose sanction to countries that are not doing what they want, but big powers will not influence our policies," Mahathir said without elaborating.
On Thursday, Mahathir told reporters that he had no problem with China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a wide-reaching infrastructure program that includes the 688-kilometer (430-mile) East Coast Railway Link, a railroad that would connect the west coast to the east coast of peninsular Malaysia.
But Mahathir added that his government "would not like to see too many warships in this area, because [a] warship attracts other warships."

Changing of the guard

A few top government officials are facing the risk of being removed from their positions, Mahathir also told reporters. 

"Our intention is to go for people who have shown a tendency to be corrupt or who have committed known corrupt acts," Mahathir said. 

Mahathir did not name names, but analysts said among those in the firing line could be Attorney General Apandi Ali, who had cleared Mahathir's predecessor, Najib, of corruption allegations related to state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
The U.S. Department of Justice is trying to recover more than $1.7 billion in real-estate and other assets allegedly siphoned off through complex transactions from 1MDB, which Najib formed in 2009 ostensibly to pursue projects that would benefit Malaysian citizens through development projects.
Court documents allege that about U.S. $681 million of 1MDB funds were diverted into Najib's personal bank accounts, but Najib said the money came as a political donation from a member of the Saudi royal family.

"At the moment the AG [attorney general] has undermined his own credibility. He has hidden evidence of wrongdoing and that is wrong under the law," Mahathir said.
Mahathir was sworn in as Malaysia's seventh prime minister on Thursday, a day after the coalition he led defeated the nation's longest-ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional, in the 14th general election. PH garnered 113 seats out of the contested 222 parliamentary seats.
Correction: This story was updated to reflect that Wan Azizah Wan Ismail did not take the oath of office as deputy prime minister.


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