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BENARNEWS- Malaysian prosecutors and defense lawyers wrapped up arguments in the first corruption trial of Najib Razak on Wednesday, ahead of a ruling next month on whether there is enough evidence for the former prime minister to present his defense.
Najib, who lost power after the general election last year, faces 42 criminal charges of graft and money laundering related to the scandal-plagued 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and other state entities.
Prosecutors said testimony from more than 50 witnesses showed that Najib was aware that  the 42 million ringgit (U.S. $10 million) transferred into his personal accounts were from SRC International, a former 1MDB subsidiary.
But defense lawyers argued the prosecution failed to support allegations that Najib abused his power.
"The evidence taken cumulatively does not support an inference that Najib corruptly received the 42 million ringgit that was deposited into his accounts," defense lawyer Farhan Read told the court.
After hearing 11 hours of arguments over two days, High Court Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali is to rule on Nov. 11 whether Najib will need to present a defense on the seven criminal charges filed against him.
On Tuesday, Attorney Gen. Tommy Thomas, the lead prosecutor, said Najib cannot claim to be ignorant about the money that ended up in his personal bank account in 2014 and 2015 as he was in full control of SRC International. Najib served as prime minister and finance minister at that time.
The defense team led by attorney Shafee Abdullah countered by arguing that Najib did not control SRC and could not be found guilty of the charges.
Thomas said Najib, who was paid less than 1 million ringgit ($238,000) a year as the country's prime minister, has to explain the more than 100 checks issued from two of his personal AmBank accounts using SRC funds. Thomas alleged Najib knew or had reasonable suspicion that the money in his account was from unlawful activity.
"This was a fraud designed by him to benefit over a period," Thomas told the court. "In every part of the transaction, the accused had an important role to play."
Additional trials
The charge sheet alleges that between Dec. 24, 2014, and Feb. 6, 2015, the 42 million ringgit were transferred into Najib's private AmBank accounts through an SRC subsidiary.
Najib, 66, faces three counts of criminal breach of trust, one count of abusing his position and three counts of money laundering and could be sentenced to up to 20 years if convicted.
The seven charges are part of 42 criminal complaints of corruption, money laundering and abuse of power faced by Najib related to 1MDB and SRC International.
In a separate proceeding, Najib is standing trial on 25 charges of abuse of power and money laundering connected with 2.3 billion ringgit (U.S. $681 million) that went missing from 1MDB. He is expected to face additional trials on the 10 remaining charges.
Prosecutors and investigators in Malaysia, the United States and other countries allege Najib used 1MDB to fund an extravagant lifestyle. Also facing charges related to 1MDB are Najib's wife, Rosmah Mansor, and fugitive financier Low Taek Jho (better known as Jho Low).


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BENARNEWS- Three women whose husbands were among 12 people arrested by Malaysian police on suspicion of having links to a defunct Sri Lankan separatist group began a hunger strike Thursday to protest the detention of their spouses.
Authorities detained the suspects on Oct. 14, alleging that they had supported and raised funds for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which had been labelled a terrorist organization by Malaysia, the United States and the United Kingdom.
LTTE fought the Sri Lankan government for 26 years as it vowed to carve out a separate Tamil state. But Sri Lankan security forces declared military victory against the LTTE in 2009 following sporadic clashes that killed tens of thousands, including civilians.
The women said they will continue the strike until their husbands and the others detained following their arrests by the Malaysian Counter Terrorism unit are released.
"Our husbands are detained, we have nothing to lose. We are not celebrating Deepavali," Umadevi told BenarNews, referring to the festival of lights scheduled to be celebrated by Hindus and Sikhs on Saturday.
"What is there to celebrate?" she said. "We can't be happy when our husbands are being mistreated."
Umadevi's husband, G. Saminathan, is a Democratic Action Party (DAP) member who represents Gadek in the state assembly and serves as Malacca executive council member.
Saminanthan and six others, including DAP assemblyman for Seremban Jaya, P. Gunasekaran, were detained Oct. 10 under SOSMA [the Security Offenses (Special Measures) Act] for allegedly promoting and recruiting members to revive LTTE in Malaysia.
Two days later, police rounded up five men, bringing the total number of those arrested to 12.
Founded in May 1976, LTTE's mission was to establish a separate nation of Eeelam from the northern and eastern regions of Sri Lanka where Tamils form an ethnic majority. Officials said the organization disbanded years ago when its leaders were killed.
Umadevi said she and two other women have been at a parking lot near the federal police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur since Monday.
"It has been four days since we started sleeping in our cars. We waited at the roadside facing the police headquarters while holding signs telling them that our husbands are innocent and that they should be released from detention," she said.
Police paid the women a visit on Monday, Umadevi said.
"Maybe they thought there are only three of us, so they didn't bother to chase us away. They just let us be," she said.
Others protesting are Vimalar Jakumaran whose husband is Suresh Kumar Velayuthan, a local lawmaker in Malacca, and Sumathi whose husband is Chandru Suparmaniam from Malacca, chief executive officer of the Green Technology Corp.
Lawyer Ramkarpal Singh filed application on Tuesday on behalf of Saminathan, Gunasekaran, Chandru, Suresh Kumar and Arivainthan Subramaniam to have them freed from detention.
The five affirmed they are not part of LTTE and denied trying to revive the terrorist group.
"We hope that the hearing could be done as early as tomorrow so they could spend their Deepavali with family members," the lawyer said, adding the five must wait until a judge hears their application.
Police ask for patience
On Wednesday, Inspector General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador urged family members affected by the arrest to be patient. While he sympathized with them, he said, police must finish their task.
"Investigators are completing the investigation papers to be sent to the attorney general. I do feel sorry for them, but my men need to make sure that our national security is not at stake," he said, according to state news agency Bernama.
Two weeks ago, Malaysia police's counter-terrorism chief Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay told reporters the authorities have solid evidence on all 12 suspects, who were accused of reviving LTTE by recruiting and channeling funds into overseas accounts.
Meanwhile, Amir Abdul Hadi, coordinator of human rights group Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram), expressed concern for the women.
"This is worrying," Amir told BenarNews. "If the situation does not go well, their health might be endangered."
Noah Lee in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian authorities on Friday filed an additional charge of possession of terrorist propaganda material against a restaurant worker who had been arrested at an airport in May as he was about to leave for Egypt to allegedly carry out terrorist acts, police said.
Hafiz Othman, 42, who has been detained since his arrest, did not enter a plea during his arraignment at the Ipoh Sessions Court in Perak state, according to a police statement distributed to reporters.
"The charge has been read and the accused nodded his understanding of the charge," the statement said.
Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, director of the police's anti-terrorism division, told BenarNews that authorities raided Hafiz's home in Perak state on May 17 and found four publications associated with the Islamic State (IS).  The raid took place a day after Hafiz was arrested at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport as he was about to board a flight to Cairo.
Hafiz could be sentenced to seven years in prison or face fines if found guilty of the charge of possession of "items associated with terrorist groups or terrorist acts."
Egypt has been battling the IS affiliate Wilayat Sinai and other extremist groups in the North Sinai province since 2011, in an insurgency campaign that intensified after President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi rose to power in a 2013 coup.
On May 30, Malaysian authorities also charged Hafiz at the Sessions Court in Selangor state for allegedly violating a section of the Penal Code that prohibits travel "from Malaysia for the commission of terrorist acts in a foreign country." The charge carries a prison term of up to 30 years.
Malaysia, a Muslim-majority nation of 33 million people, faces threats from local IS sympathizers and regional militant groups, including IS-linked groups operating in the Southern Philippines such as the Abu Sayyaf, whose suspected members had been arrested during police crackdowns in Sabah in recent months.
Since January 2018, Malaysian authorities have arrested more than 450 people linked to alleged terror activities. But dozens of those suspects have been freed, according to government figures compiled by BenarNews.
The nation's first terror attack took place on June 26, 2016, when a grenade blast injured eight patrons at the Movida nightclub in Selangor's Puchong town, about eight miles from Kuala Lumpur. It was the only successful IS-linked attack in Malaysia, authorities said.


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BENARNEWS- Two lawmakers from Malaysia's ruling coalition and eight others were charged in several courts Tuesday with supporting, promoting or possessing items linked to the Sri Lankan rebel group LTTE - which Kuala Lumpur has outlawed as a terrorist organization - and could get up to 30 years in prison if convicted.
The 10 men were among 12 people arrested three weeks ago under the nation's draconian anti-terrorism law, the Security Offenses (Special Measures) Act, or SOSMA, which allows authorities to hold suspects for 28 days without charging them.
Assemblymen Gunasekaran Palasamy and Saminathan Ganesan were charged at the Sessions Court in the southwestern state of Malacca with supporting a terrorist organization – in this case the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. In 2014, Malaysia proscribed the LTTE as a terror group.
Gunasekaran, 60, and Saminathan, 34, are members of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), a component of Malaysia's ruling Pakatan Harapan bloc. Together with 38-year-old businessman Chandru Suparmaniam, they were charged after they allegedly delivered speeches and distributed reading materials in support of slain LTTE fighters during a public event in Malacca on Nov. 28 last year.
Prosecutors also filed a second charge of "possession of items associated with a terrorist group" against Saminathan and Chandru after authorities allegedly found LTTE-linked items in their cellphones.
The courts denied bail and no pleas were recorded from the suspects, as the case would be transferred to a higher court where the pre-trial hearing would take place, lawyers told BenarNews.
Terrorism-related charges were also filed against seven men in five states. The charges were mostly for possession of items linked to the Sri Lankan terror group, including compact discs, videos and stickers, according to state-run news agency Bernama.
Two of the 12 men were expected to be charged Thursday in Kuala Lumpur, local reports said.
Gunasekaran is a deputy chairman of DAP and an assemblyman in western Negeri Sembilan state, and Saminathan is a member of the Malacca State Legislative Assembly.
DAP national legal bureau chief Ramkarpal Singh, leader of the trio's five-lawyer defense team, described the charges as "vague."
"We are unable to properly defend ourselves if we don't know what we were charged with," Ramkarpal told BenarNews.
Apart from Sri Lanka and Malaysia, the United States, Britain and Canada have designated the LTTE – otherwise known as the Tamil Tigers – as a terrorist organization.

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Democratic Action Party leader Lim Kit Siang (checkered shirt) talks to other DAP members at the Malacca Sessions Court, Oct. 29, 2019. [Courtesy of Royal Malaysia Police]

Indian leaders: 'Gross travesty of justice'
DAP senior leader Lim Kit Siang and other national and state party leaders were at the courthouse on Tuesday to give moral support to the two assemblymen.
Lim, in a blogpost on Oct.13, rejected the charges against the duo, describing them as veteran party members who had been trained to reject "any form of violence or terrorism."
"I believe that both Gunasekaran and Saminathan were not guilty of any charges related to terrorism," he said.
After reports of the assemblymen's arrest surfaced, 16 Indian leaders from within the Pakatan coalition issued a joint statement demanding their release, describing the legislators' detention without trial as "beyond comprehension."
"These arrests and detention is nothing but a gross travesty of justice. Such arrests and detention cannot be justified under the new Harapan government," the statement said.
On Oct. 14, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad rejected claims from critics who said that the arrests were politically motivated.
"It is not me who nabbed these people," Mahathir told reporters. "It is the police who did so and the arrests by their officers were following the law."
"I was briefed by the police and they gave me the reasons behind their action, and I am satisfied with them," he said.
LTTE vowed to carve out a separate Tamil state in Sri Lanka and fought Colombo for 26 years, but government forces declared victory against the group in May 2009 after a military offensive that killed thousands of people and led to the death of Tamil Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran.
Despite the group's military defeat, the U.S. Department of State, in a June 2015 report, said the LTTE's "international network of sympathizers and financial support persists."


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia began closing bank accounts of Iranian residents and companies because of "some very strong pressures from certain quarters," Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Wednesday amid reports that U.S. sanctions against Tehran were causing such actions.
"We are forced to do it because if we don't, they will close our banks abroad. It's a kind of bullying by very powerful people," Mahathir told reporters in Putrajaya.
"We have good ties with Iran but we face some very strong pressures from certain quarters which you may guess, and it's very difficult because we received threats about closing our banks abroad," Mahathir said.
The prime minister was responding to a report by Reuters that nearly a dozen Iranian people had told the news agency that their Malaysian bank accounts had been closed.
CIMB and RHB Bank had notified the Iranians that their accounts were due to be closed. While bank officials did not state reasons for closing the accounts, some of the Iranians who spoke to Reuters said the move was attributed to tighter scrutiny following U.S. sanctions imposed last year.
Officials at both banks did not immediately respond Wednesday to requests from BenarNews for comment.
News of the closure of Iranian bank accounts in Malaysia broke two months after Iran's top diplomat, Mohammad Javad Zarif, visited the Southeast Asian nation to garner support in Tehran's efforts to challenge the U.S. economic sanctions.
Just days before his visit, Defense Minister Mohamed Sabu said Malaysia was holding discussions with Iran and other countries about the possibility of using palm oil to pay for weapons as the country seeks to beef up its defense capabilities.
At the time that the United States re-imposed sanctions in November 2018, the Treasury Department said they would be the toughest ever imposed on Iran and would affect critical industries such as energy, shipping, shipbuilding and finance.
The move coincided with the U.S. withdrawal from a landmark 2015 nuclear agreement, which lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for measures aimed at stopping the country from buying materials that could be used for nuclear weapons.

In April, Washington pressured five of Iran's biggest customers – India, Japan, South Korea, Turkey and China – from buying Iranian oil.
Trading partners
As of 2013, at least 100,000 Iranians living in Malaysia, the Middle East Institute reported.
Total Malaysia trade with Iran was valued at nearly 2.5 billion ringgit (U.S. $600 million) in the 10 months leading to January 2019, according to Iranian media reports two months later. The trade balance was in Iran's favor, which exported natural gas liquids, non-alloy iron/steel ingots and bitumen while it imported palm oil, machinery and natural rubber.
In March, Sigal Mandelker, the U.S. under-secretary of Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, visited Malaysia and Singapore to warn against any involvement in schemes to evade sanctions against Iran.
"It's very important that these countries have important visibility into the different ways the Iranian regime uses to deceive the international community in connection with the shipment of oil," she said.
On Wednesday, the U.S. State Department did not respond immediately to a request for comment on Mahathir's statement about the bank account closures or Reuters' reporting.


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BENARNEWS- A senior U.S. official on Thursday called for the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations to stand up against China's attempt to destabilize the security in the region.
David Stilwell, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific, offered praise for Vietnam while responding to a question at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies in Kuala Lumpur.
"This is your turf, your place, Vietnam is doing a good job of pushing back," Stilwell told attendees after discussing U.S. policy in the region. "I would think that ASEAN centrality would join with Vietnam to resist action destabilizing and affecting security."
China claims almost all of the South China Sea, through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes annually. Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and the Philippines – all ASEAN members – have their own overlapping claims to portions of the disputed waters. Taiwan is also a claimant.
China has built seven man-made islands and equipped them with military runways, missile defense systems and outposts. Its ships patrol the sea.
Earlier this month, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad noted that tensions between China and the United States had put his country in a bind because of its economic ties to both nations.
Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah also told parliament on Oct.17 that Malaysia needs to beef up its naval assets amid the escalating South China Sea tension.
"We can make maps, we can demand certain territory, but to answer the question, we need to enhance our assets to allow us to protect our coasts, especially in facing the super powers in the South China Sea," Saifuddin said, referring to China and the United States.
He said Malaysia's position on the South China Sea is clear and consistent.
"To ensure regional peace and stability, Malaysia is committed to ensure everyone respects international law, resolves any dispute and avoids the use of force or threats of violence," Saifuddin said.
Stilwell downplayed concerns over U.S. involvement in the region.
"What we are doing doesn't just benefit us, but benefit everybody and it ensures there will be no conflict in the region. Why? Because the trades that flow through here benefit the U.S. and benefits everyone else," he said.
In prepared remarks before the question-and-answer session, Stilwell spelled out the U.S. position on the South China Sea.
"[T]he rights of all nations must be respected, regardless of size, power, or military capabilities," he said, as he urged claimant nations to respect international law and freedom of navigation. "They are critical to American and Malaysian security and prosperity."
Stilwell was in Malaysia before attending the ASEAN Summit in Bangkok running Saturday through Monday. President Donald Trump will not attend but is sending U.S. National Security Adviser Robert C. O'Brien and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
Growing giant
Reacting to Stilwell's statements, geopolitical strategist Mohamad Mizan Mohammad Aslam said China's expanding economic capability forced the United States to react.
"The U.S. had seen this as an alarming situation," he told BenarNews. "

• nce China had a gigantic economy capability, the U.S. started to worry more."
  China, he said, looks at the South China Sea as part of its greater territory.
  "China doesn't need recognition or written document on ownership of the South China Sea like Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau, but shows it through robust action," he said. "It seems that China wanted to revive the greater Chinese empire, which once ruled over this eastern region, including the Southeast Asian countries."
  Mohamad Mizan said Southeast Asian nations must take the opportunity to rally with Washington to show Beijing its efforts to expand in the region will not be tolerated.
  Aminah Farid in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.
  
  
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BENARNEWS- The United States indicated Thursday that hundreds of millions of dollars of assets recovered in a U.S. government settlement with a fugitive financier linked to Malaysia's scandal-ridden state fund 1MDB will be returned to Malaysia.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) announced the settlement with Low Taek Jho (better known as Jho Low) and his family over assets valued at $700 million (2.925 billion ringgit) which it said were purchased using funds misappropriated from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
The settlement, along with previous forfeitures, has resulted in the recovery of more than $1 billion (about 4 billion ringgit).
Speaking in Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur, where he is on a visit, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David R. Stilwell said the assets recovered in the settlement, in effect, belonged to the Malaysian public.
"So that's nearly four billion ringgit that has been returned to the rightful owners – the Malaysian people – and the U.S. is very happy to have been a part of that," Stilwell said during a speech at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (Malaysia), written remarks of which were made available to BenarNews.
The assets were located in the United States, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, he said.
"Together with his family, Jho Low allegedly misappropriated funds from 1MDB and laundered these assets through financial institutions in several jurisdictions including the United States, Switzerland, Singapore and Luxembourg," Stilwell said.
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said the recovered assets should be returned to Malaysia.
"The assets were bought with Malaysian money. We have proof that it was Malaysian money and we will now make a claim to the American government," he told reporters at an event in Johor.
DoJ spokesman Peter Carr, when contacted, did not provide details about the process of returning the assets to Malaysia.
"The money will be returned for benefit of people harmed by the corruption," he told BenarNews. "Last May, the United States returned nearly $200 million to the Malaysian authorities to assist Malaysia in addressing the financial debts and consequences caused by the 1MDB."
In a news release on Wednesday, the DoJ said as part of the settlement, $15 million (62.67 million ringgit) from the recovered assets would be released to Low's attorneys to pay legal fees.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is one of those attorneys, issued a statement praising the U.S. government and Low for cooperating in negotiating what he called a historic resolution.
"It is one of the largest civil forfeiture settlements in U.S. history represents the voluntary return of each and every asset claimed by the DOJ, thus resolving this litigation in its entirety without admission of wrongdoing or fault by the government," he said in the statement.
The Justice Department said "several civil forfeiture complaints arising out of the 1MDB criminal conspiracy remain pending against assets associated with other alleged co-conspirators," without going into detail.
Criminal charges
Low faces criminal charges in Malaysia and the United States for his role in allegedly embezzling billions of dollars from 1MDB through his relationship with former Prime Minister Najib Razak.
The financier, who fled Malaysia and is the subject of a manhunt, posted a statement on his website saying many of the allegations against him have originated from blog posts, improper leaks from within government agencies around the world, or unproven allegations filed in court, "where I have never been afforded an opportunity to set the record straight."
"I will continue to fight the broad, sweeping, unproven, biased and politically motivated allegations against me, and I am confident that as the facts come to light, the truth will be revealed," he said.
Malaysian and U.S. prosecutors allege that at least $4.5 billion (18.8 billion ringgit) was stolen and diverted through acquisitions of real estate, artwork and luxury properties by Najib and his associates, including Low. The DoJ described 1MDB as the "worst kleptocracy scandal in recent times."
Among those items was a luxury yacht, "Equanimity" that authorities allege Low purchased for $250 million (1 billion ringgit) using 1MDB funds.
The Indonesian government seized the yacht in 2018 and turned it over to the Malaysia government which sold it for $126 million (514 million ringgit) in April 2019.
Najib, who prosecutors allege misappropriated billions from 1MDB, is standing trial in two separate Kuala Lumpur courts. He could face additional trials as well on a total of 43 criminal charges linked to 1MDB, the state development fund he created in 2009 ostensibly to boost the nation's economy through investment.


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BENARNEWS- Without naming China, Malaysia expressed regret Monday about the lack of cooperation from the country where fugitive financier Low Taek Jho (better known as Jho Low) is hiding.
Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said that without such cooperation, it would be difficult to take action against Low, a key figure in the corruption scandal surrounding 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
Malaysian and U.S. investigators say at least U.S. $4.5 billion was misappropriated from 1MDB by Low and other high-level officials of the fund and their associates.
"Though we have obtained information on his whereabouts, and Interpol has issued a red notice on him, without the cooperation of the country where we believe he is hiding, it is difficult to take action," Muhyiddin told reporters in Kuala Lumpur, according to Malaysia's official news agency Bernama.
"We are still trying, we cannot give up. Whatever it takes, we want him back in Malaysia to face the courts and will leave it to the courts to decide," he said, without identifying China.
Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said in an interview with BenarNews on Sept. 27 that the country's police chief was contacting his counterpart in China to pin down Low's whereabouts.
"I am confident that the IGP [Inspector-General of Police] will contact his counterpart in China to obtain acknowledgment, if he can, and evidence that he [Low] is in China," Mahathir said.
Mahathir spoke to BenarNews a day after Malaysian police chief Abdul Hamid Bador said they had identified Jho Low's location and hoped to bring him back by the end of the year to help in investigations into the multi-billion dollar scandal.
Abdul Hamid did not name China. He had previously said that Malaysian police were working with an unnamed Asian country to secure Low's arrest and extradition.
Muhyiddin said Malaysia would leave no stone unturned in its bid to bring the fugitive businessman to justice, according to Bernama.
Police chief Abdul Hamid, speaking in Malaysia's Sabah state on Borneo island, said certain countries were being "irresponsible" by offering asylum to Low.
They also refused to cooperate with Malaysia, making it difficult for the authorities to pursue action, he said, according to Bernama.
"...[H]e seems to get a kind of immunity and protection from the authorities...We have tried various approaches, but they are giving us various excuses to the extent of saying that he had undergone facial plastic surgery," he said.
1MDB was founded by former Prime Minister Najib Razak, who was ousted in elections last year when the scandal was a central theme of the campaign. He is facing 42 criminal charges related to losses at 1MDB and other state entities.
Prosecutors accuse Najib of pocketing U.S. $681 million from 1MDB, saying the money was used to fund a lavish lifestyle for the former leader and his wife, Rosmah Mansor, who is also facing corruption charges. Najib and Low have denied any wrongdoings.
Hamid's predecessor Mohamad Fuzi Harun was quoted saying last year that Malaysian police had sent a team to Hong Kong to track down Low, but were unsuccessful.
In January, Fuzi had said that police met with authorities in China to track down the fugitive, reports said.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Tuesday announced the launching of a public-private partnership where financial institutions can share information with law enforcers to combat money laundering and terrorism financing.
Speaking at the 11th International Financial Crime and Terrorism Financing conference, Mahathir said the initiative would allow for more effective detection of suspicious transactions.
"Everyone needs to play their part against financial crime so that Malaysia can transform into a value-driven developed nation. Shared prosperity can only be achieved through shared responsibility," he told participants.
The initiative is jointly undertaken by the central bank, the securities commission, financial institutions and law enforcers. Mahathir promised that personal data and confidentiality would not be compromised in the effort to track down illegal transactions, using the European Union General Data Protection Regulation as a benchmark.
Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus, governor of Bank Negara Malaysia, the country's central bank, called on banks and other financial institutions to strengthen their policies to counter money laundering and terrorism financing.
"Reporting institutions must strengthen their internal governance and controls to preserve financial integrity, not because Bank Negara tells them so, but because it is the right thing to do," Shamsiah said at the conference.
"As a regulator, Bank Negara can only do so much to protect the financial system against terrorism financing risk. Reporting institutions, as responsible corporate citizens, must also play their parts to safeguard the financial system and the economy."
Mahathir said the effort must be continuous.
"This will ultimately enable Malaysia to effectively play its role in the global fight against financial crime and terrorism financing. We must be persistent and remain focused in delivering this agenda," he said.
The latest U.S. State Department Country Report on Terrorism said Malaysia "remained a source, transit point, and, to a significantly lesser extent, destination country for terrorist groups" such as Islamic State, Abu Sayyaf, Al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah.
The report noted that Bank Negara had issued a policy directive last year aimed at ensuring that effective measures were in place against money laundering and terrorism financing risks associated with the use of digital currencies and to increase the transparency of digital currency activities in Malaysia.
It requires all entities and persons involved in the exchange of digital currencies into money and vice versa, as well as the exchange of one digital currency for another, to register with the central bank. The move also established requirements for suspicious transaction reporting and record keeping.

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Malaysian counter-terrorism chief Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay speaks to reporters at the financial crime conference in Kuala Lumpur, Nov. 5, 2019. [S. Mahfuz/BenarNews]

Terrorist transit center designation
While Mahathir and Shamsiah discussed the new initiative, Malaysia's counter-terrorism chief Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay blamed the lax travel visa system for the country's image as a transit center for terrorists.
"There is no visa required for entry into this country for many foreign nationals, therefore their citizens, including terrorists, have easy access," he told conference attendees.
"However, since 2013 we have apprehended 38 foreign terrorists in transit," he said, adding "some of them have been charged in court and some have been deported back to their home countries."
Ayob said his team remains vigilant to take on any terror elements, adding police are tracking ideologically radical groups not involved in militant activities but are considered high risk.
"There is but a thin line separating the terror groups from radical groups," he said citing the Hizbut-Tahrir group as an example.
The group's objective is to set up an Arab caliphate in the Middle East with Sharia law, with the aim of emancipating Palestine.
"For example Hizbut Tahrir – this group rejects democratic ideas and wants to establish an Islamic state," Ayob said. "Their ideology is extreme but not up to the level of terrorism so we have to consider this factor because of its risks."
The U.S. counterterrorism report also credited Malaysia with doing due diligence in monitoring, detaining, deporting and prosecuting suspected terror group supporters.
It also credited Malaysia for cooperating with the United States and other countries to enhance its border security capabilities at airports and at the Sulu Sea, to defeat messaging by terror groups on social media and to increase prosecution of terrorists.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia allowed a senior Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) official to enter the country Thursday after detaining her for about 19 hours, a Malaysian official said a day after neighboring Thailand said it would deny entry to Sam Rainsy, the exiled leader of the banned opposition party.
Rainsy and senior opposition figures are attempting to return home by Nov. 9 to lead a series of protests they say are aimed at restoring democracy in Cambodia. Prime Minister Hun Sen has vowed to arrest Rainsy, calling the plan part of a coup attempt.
In Paris, where Rainsy lives in exile, the Cambodian opposition leader was blocked from boarding a Thai Airways flight to Bangkok on Thursday.
Mu Sochua, deputy president of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), arrived in Malaysia late Wednesday and was held for questioning about her intentions, Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah told reporters in parliament.
Saifuddin confirmed that Malaysia had received a request from the government of Cambodian strongman Hun Sen to deport Mu Sochua.
"We have received a request but we decide on our own," he said, calling it "a normal request by a government that they may want us to send back certain number of people."

Around nightfall Thursday, Malaysia Human Rights Commission Commissioner Jerald Joseph confirmed the release of Mo Sochua and two other Cambodian activists.
"Confirmed. Papers are being processed. All three will be released. I spoke to Sochua and she is OK," Joseph told BenarNews.

He also said Sochua and two others would remain in Malaysia for three days before leaving to a third country.
"They are not going to return to Cambodia. They will stay in Kuala Lumpur for three days before heading out to a third country. That is all. I am not at a liberty to tell you more," Joseph said.
As he responded to questions from reporters before Mu Sochua was released, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said his country did not want to be used as "a base for" political struggles in other countries.
He pointed to the ASEAN regional bloc's non-interference policy as he explained why Malaysia had detained Mu Sochua and the other Cambodians.
"Our principle in ASEAN in particular and generally is that we don't interfere in the internal affairs of other countries," Mahathir said.
In Bangkok on Wednesday, Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-Cha also cited the policy that is central to how the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations operates as a bloc, when he announced that Rainsy would not be allowed to enter Cambodia from Thailand.
"According to our commitment to ASEAN, we will not interfere in each other's internal affairs, and we will not allow an anti-government person to use Thailand for activism," the former junta-leader turned elected premier told reporters in Bangkok.

Mu Sochua arrived in Malaysia after Cambodia's ambassador to Indonesia barged into a press conference she was holding in Jakarta on Wednesday and told her that Cambodian police would arrest her if she did not leave the country.
Officials with Indonesia's foreign ministry and the presidential palace declined a BenarNews request on Thursday to comment on the incident.
Meanwhile, Teddy Baguilat of the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights said he hoped Malaysia's move would inspire Thailand to rethink its decision on Rainsy.
"We welcome the Malaysian authorities' decision to allow Mu Sochua, as well as Cambodian youth activists Keith Ngoeum and Seang Leang Heng to enter the country," the former Philippine member of parliament said, adding that they should not have been detained in the first place.
"We hope that this will inspire Thailand to allow Sam Rainsy into the country and all other ASEAN countries to respect people's fundamental rights," he said.
Malaysia detained the two other Cambodian activists on Monday while they waited to board a flight to Thailand.
Rainsy told Radio Free Asia's Khmer Service, a sister entity of BenarNews, that a Thai Airways employee at Paris' Charles De Gaulle Airport informed him the company's management had blocked his passage to Thailand. He said he purchased another air ticket to an undisclosed location in a neighboring country, and would "find a new way ... to enter Cambodia" to lead protests against Hun Sen's government.

"The [ticketing] agency of Thai Airways told me that they received an order from higher up, saying that they cannot allow me to fly to Thailand, because they know that if I go to Thailand then I will continue on to Cambodia immediately," he said, adding that the decision was made based on "political reasons."


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BENARNEWS- More than two dozen groups in Malaysia on Friday criticized a local Islamic court's decision to jail, cane and fine five men for attempting to engage in homosexual acts, saying the punishments were unjust, cruel and violated the defendants' constitutionally enshrined rights.
The Shah Alam Sharia High Court in Selangor state ordered one of the accused, a 42-year-old married man, to spend seven months in prison, pay a fine of 4,900 ringgit (U.S. $1,185) and receive six lashes from a cane after convicted him of attempting to commit a homosexual act.
Mohd Asri Mohd Tahir, the Sharia judge who handed down the verdict, sentenced the four other defendants between the ages of 27 and 37 to six months in prison, and ordered them to pay fines of 4,800 ringgit ($1,161) and receive six lashes for the same offense, according to Malaysian media.
Mohd Asri sentenced them to serve additional months in prison should they fail to pay their fines. He did not set a date for the canings, which are to be administered in the prison.
The laws under which the men were convicted and sentenced are discriminatory and violate human rights, particularly the right to live with dignity, the 28 organizations – mostly Malaysian NGOs – said in a statement issued Friday.
"These state laws are also in violation of the rights enshrined in the Federal Constitution, namely Article 8 of equality before the law, Article 5 on living with dignity and impartial trial, and Article 9 on freedom of movement," the groups said.
"Given the adverse and long-term impact on the lives of people, these laws must be repealed immediately."
Tenaganita, a leading women's rights organization, and organizations advocating for members of Malaysia's LGBTQ community, such as Transmen of Malaysia and KL Queer Women's Discussion Group, were listed among the 28.
Judge Mohd Asri ruled that the offense committed was a serious violation of the Sharia code.
"The facts indicated there was preparation to commit sex against the order of nature and this was not an initial attempt," he said in his ruling, according to media reports.
The charge sheet described all five defendants as Muslim men who were attempting to perform sex in an apartment outside Kuala Lumpur on Nov. 9, 2018.
According to the groups that criticized the judge's ruling, a lack of understanding about LGBTQ people and narrow views about sexual orientation lead to injustice and victimization.
"Court decisions like the one yesterday deepen the perception that LGBT people are criminals which then further sanction other ways in which this vulnerable, marginalized community experience harm – not only by the state, but also at the workplace, by their communities as well as their families," the groups said in their collective statement.
Dual court systems
Malaysia's population is more than 60 percent Muslim. Engaging or attempting to have same sex intercourse in Malaysia is considered a crime under its federal court system and Islamic court system that function separately.
The Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim) has estimated the number of LGBT people in the country to be at 310,000, although it later admitted that the figure had not been verified by the Health ministry, according to Singapore's Straits Times newspaper.
Religious matters in Malaysian states are governed by religious bodies that have the power to enact laws they deem proper through the Sharia court system.
In August 2018, the Sharia court in Terengganu state sentenced two women to caning after they were caught allegedly attempting to have sex with one another in a car in a public square.
At the time, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad rejected the punishment, saying it did not reflect the justice or compassion of Islam.
Anwar Ibrahim, leader of the People's Justice Party who is expected to succeed Mahathir as prime minister, also then criticized the punishment.
"The state has a duty to protect people and promote the human rights and dignity of all people, including people of diverse sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression," the 28 organizations said.
"It is time for the state to end all discrimination and violence against LGBTQ persons."


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BENARNEWS- Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy flew into Malaysia on Saturday, saying his campaign to challenge Prime Minister Hun Sen was "on the right track" even though he made it only part way in his return from exile.
"Keep up the hope. We're on the right track," Rainsy said on arrival at Kuala Lumpur International Airport after an overnight flight from Paris on Friday.
"Democracy will prevail. Democracy has prevailed in Malaysia. Democracy will prevail in Cambodia," said the acting president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).
Rainsy, 70, did not discuss plans to reach Cambodia from Malaysia. His earlier attempt to get there via Thailand was thwarted Thursday when he was refused permission to board a Thai Airways plane in Paris.
He told Radio Free Asia that Nov. 9 was "not the final day for repatriation to Cambodia" but a new step in his struggle to save the CNRP and democracy in Cambodia.
"This is the beginning of the struggle and fight for democracy and the revival of the CNRP."
CNRP Deputy President Mu Sochua told RFA, "our plan will not change."
"I want to appeal to all people, please continue to join with us, because we will not end this on Nov. 9," she said.
Rainsy said it was "a political success" for him to be allowed to land in Malaysia, after Hun Sen had pressed other Southeast Asian countries to deny entry to CNRP members. Rainsy will give a speech to Malaysian parliament on Nov. 12, he said. On Saturday, two Malaysian government officials confirmed to BenarNews that a local MP had invited Rainsy to come to parliament on Tuesday.
"This is encouraging for me," Rainsy said.
Sochua echoed Rainsy's praise of Malaysia.
"We have seen that Malaysia is very concerned for the rights and freedom for all of us," she told RFA.
"I would like to state anew that we can come here, because they allowed us to come," Sochua said. Malaysia allowed her to enter the country Thursday after detaining her for about 19 hours while questioning about her intentions.
"I was detained because of a 'black list' Hun Sen, requested of Malaysia as well as other countries in the Asian region, but they detained us for a short time then released us after they understood that we are not guilty of what Hun Sen accuses us," she told RFA.
Kudos for Malaysia
"Malaysia deserves kudos from around the world," said Phil Robertson of U.S.-based Human Rights Watch. "More countries in ASEAN need to emulate Malaysia going forward if the bloc is ever going to shake the moniker of being primarily a dictator's club."
The CNRP announced in August that Rainsy would return to Cambodia on Nov. 9 – the country's Independence Day – to lead a restoration of democracy, calling on supporters and members of Cambodia's armed forces to join him.
Hun Sen has labeled the plan part of a rebellion and has vowed to arrest the opposition leader on sight.
"The authorized measures are not political restrictions of rights and freedom, but the enforcement of law to prevent from causing turmoil in the society with political activities that go beyond the law," the Cambodian Ministry of Justice's spokesman Chhin Malin told RFA.
Since Sam Rainsy fled Cambodia in 2012 to avoid a string of charges and convictions widely seen as politically motivated, Cambodia's Supreme Court in November 2017 dissolved the CNRP for its role in an alleged plot to topple the government.
Sam Rainsy faces 18 years in prison from earlier court rulings that he has rejected as political persecution.
Hun Sen's government has militarized Cambodia's border provinces and ordered the armed forces to attack any opposition gatherings held on the date of Sam Rainsy's planned return, banned commercial airlines that serve the country from boarding the CNRP chief, and sought the cooperation of neighboring countries by issuing arrest warrants to ensure that the return is prevented.
"We are trying to do all our best to respect our promise, but Hun Sen started to panic when Nov. 9 approached, and he deployed the armed forces along the border to prevent us from returning to Cambodia," Sochua told RFA.


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BENARNEWS- Former Prime Minister Najib Razak will have to defend himself against charges tied to the alleged looting of billions at the 1MDB state fund, a Malaysian judge ruled Monday, saying the prosecution's case had merit and denying a prompt acquittal in the former leader's first corruption trial.
Najib, who was ousted in a general election last year, partly as a result of a campaign pledge by the opposition to root out corruption, told the court he would testify when the trial resumed on Dec. 3.
High Court Judge Nazlan Ghazali said the prosecution had shown credible evidence that Najib, 66, would have to answer the seven charges against him related to accusations that he illegally received transfers of 42 million ringgit (U.S. $10 million) from SRC International, a former unit of 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
"The actions taken by the accused cannot be construed as a purely lawful exercise," the judge said. "As such, l now call upon the accused to enter his defense in respect of all the seven charges."
Najib has pleaded not guilty to four charges of corruption and three counts of money laundering in the SRC trial. If convicted, he could face stiff fines and up to 20 years of prison terms for each corruption charge and up to 15 years for each money laundering count.
Discussing the allegations against Najib, the judge said the former prime minister's conduct in the SRC case was "pervasive and imperious" and showed he held "personal interest beyond that of the public office."
"I am calm and I am cool," Najib told BenarNews as he walked out of the courtroom at the Jalan Duta court complex with an entourage of about 10, including his son, Nizar Najib, daughter Nooryana Najwa and parliamentary opposition leader Ismail Sabri Yaacob.
But his lead defense lawyer, Shafee Abdullah, told reporters that Najib was "shocked" to hear the verdict, because the former prime minister was expecting an acquittal.
"Of course, he [Najib] was surprised and shocked," Shafee said.
Najib set up 1MDB in 2009 ostensibly to spur economic development, but the fund amassed billions in debts. In 2016, The U.S. Department of Justice accused "Malaysian Official 1" and associates of his of embezzling and laundering more than $4.5 billion in 1MDB-linked money between 2009 and 2014.
U.S. investigators said the stolen funds were used to support ostentatious lifestyles and purchase items such as diamonds, real estate, paintings and a superyacht, according to court papers.
After Mahathir's government reopened the 1MDB probe, which was allegedly stifled by his predecessor, police raided condominiums linked to Najib and seized hundreds of designer handbags and luggage stuffed with jewelry estimated at more than 1.1 billion ringgit (U.S. $264 million).
Najib faces a total of 42 charges in five separate criminal cases brought since his electoral defeat last year.


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BENARNEWS- The top two Malaysian recruiters for the Islamic State extremist group, including a former rock star, were killed in Russian airstrikes in Syria in early 2019, the chief of Malaysia's counterterrorist police branch told BenarNews.
Malaysian nationals Mohd Rafi Udin (also known as Abu Ain and Abu Awn al-Malisi), 53, and Wan Mohd Aquil Wan Zainal Abidin (a.k.a. Akel Zainal), 40, were killed in January and March, respectively, according to Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, who cited information from international counterparts and Malaysian sources in Syria.
Without giving specific dates, he said both men died in airstrikes in and around Baghouz, a town on the Iraqi border and the last Islamic State (IS) bastion in Syria that fell to U.S.-led coalition forces on March 23.
Akel was killed with his wife and children, along with a Belgian IS fighter, Ayob said.
"Information received said that Akel's home in Baghouz was hit by a bomb during the airstrike in March. His wife and their two young children, aged two and three years old, were also killed," Ayob told BenarNews.
Akel, who rose to fame in his country in the 1990s as a drummer in a rock band, Kumpulan Ukays, left Malaysia in 2014 to join Islamic State in Syria.
Malaysian authorities later identified him along with Rafi Udin and two other men as citizens who became the main Malaysian recruiters for IS after Muhammad Wanndy Mohamad Jedi, the country's top IS recruiter, was killed in a drone attack in Syria in April 2017.
"The airstrike also took the life of a foreign fighter from Belgium who was at the time married to Mahmudah Ahmad, the widow of Muhammad Wanndy Mohamad Jedi," Ayob said, referring to the strike that killed Akel and his family.
Rafi, whom the United States declared as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in August 2018, was killed while trying to escape from Baghouz, the Malaysian counterterrorist police chief said.
"We received information from our counterparts a few months ago. He was killed while trying to escape the airstrike with two of his friends who were also Malaysians. We also got confirmation from Malaysians who are still in Syria," Ayob said.

Rafi, who left Malaysia to join IS in the Middle East five years ago, was a former senior member of Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia (KMM), a now defunct Malaysian militant group.
Last year, the U.S. Treasury Department designated him and two other Southeast Asians – Indonesian national Mohammed Karim Yusop Faiz and Philippine national Mohammad Reza Lahaman – as global terrorists.
The department said they were senior recruiters for Islamic State (IS), who had appeared in a propaganda video in 2016 that showed them apparently beheading three captives.
At present, 65 Malaysians who had traveled to Syria to join the IS ranks remain in that country, 40 of whom have expressed their wish to return to their home country, Ayob said.
Abdul Hamid Bador, the national police chief, said Malaysian authorities were working on bringing home the 40, who include women and children living at a refugee camp in northeastern Syria.
Malaysia so far has successfully repatriated a Malaysian woman and her two young children, who returned home in October 2018, according to Ayob.


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BENARNEWS- A judge in Malaysia sentenced a former gold trader to three years in prison Friday, convicting him under the nation's strict terrorism financing law for sending less than $50 to a top Malaysian recruiter in Syria for Islamic State.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court ruled that Mohd Zulkifli Shafie was guilty of sending 200 ringgit (U.S. $48) from his bank account to Wan Mohd Aquil Wan Zainal Abidin (also known as Akel Zainal) in 2018 to fund terror-related activities. Akel, a former Malaysian rock star, was killed in an airstrike in northeastern Syria in March 2019, Malaysia's counterterrorism chief told BenarNews last week.

"With this I sentence you to three years in jail, the date of sentence to commence from the date of arrest," Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah ruled.
The channeling of funds for terrorist activities was a serious offense under Malaysian law, said Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, the chief of Malaysia's counterterrorist police branch, who had divulged the information about Akel's death.
"It does not matter how much money was channeled, it is still an offense," Ayob told BenarNews on Friday.
Zulkifli's wife and children were in the court and were seen crying after the judge delivered the sentence. The defendant was arrested on Oct. 30, 2018, at the country's administrative capital, Putrajaya, on a charge that he had sent money to Akel Zainal.
The initial charge for terror financing carried a maximum sentence of 30 years, but Zulkifli's lawyers appealed and the court amended the charge to one that carried a much lighter penalty. The court did not reveal why it was amended.
Joined IS in Syria
Akel, who rose to fame in Malaysia in the 1990s as a drummer in a rock band, Kumpulan Ukays, left the country in 2014 to join Islamic State (IS) in Syria. Eight months ago, he died in a Russian airstrike that also killed his wife and their two young children in Baghouz, Syria, the last IS bastion in that country, according to Ayob.
Akel was one of two senior IS leaders from Malaysia who were killed in airstrikes this year, Ayob said.
The other, Mohd Rafi Udin (also known as Abu Ain and Abu Awn al-Malisi), whom the United States had designated as a global terrorist last year, was killed in a Russian airstrike as he tried to flee from Baghouz in January, the counterterrorist police chief said. Baghouz fell to a U.S.-led coalition of anti-IS forces in late March.
Malaysian authorities previously identified Akel and Rafi along with two others as the main Malaysian recruiters for IS after Muhammad Wanndy Mohamad Jedi, who had held that role, was killed in a drone attack in Syria in April 2017.
In 2016, Wanndy's older brother, Mohamad Danny, pleaded guilty in a Malacca court to a similar charge of allowing his bank account to be used to fund terror-related activities.
Danny pleaded guilty to allowing 12,310 ringgit ($2,962) to be channeled into his account and allowing 10,000 ringgit ($2,406) to be withdrawn to fund terror activities between Jan. 28 and March 5, 2016.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Monday his coalition would examine what led to its crushing defeat in a parliamentary by-election this weekend, with some analysts pointing to a series of such losses as a sign that his could be a one-term government.
The ruling Pakatan Harapan bloc absorbed its fourth parliamentary electoral defeat on Saturday when the opposition scored a landslide majority of over 15,000 votes in seizing the Tanjung Piai seat in southern Johor state. The large margin came as a shock, coalition leaders said.
"A detailed, serious and honest 'post-mortem' at all levels of the party will be made to identify the true cause of defeat in this by-election," Mahathir said in a statement, as he acknowledged that his party was expecting to lose – but only by about 2,000 votes.
Seri Wee Jeck Seng, the Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate, emerged as the winner in the six-cornered electoral fight that had been closely watched by analysts.
"The majority garnered by the opposition comes as a shock," Anwar Ibrahim, leader of the People's Justice Party (PKR), a main partner in Pakatan, said in a statement.
"Is a clear message to the PH [Pakatan Harapan] leadership," he said. "We have to learn from this defeat and take cognizance."
The Tanjung Piai election, the ninth by-election held after Pakatan took power in May 2018, was called after parliamentarian Mohamed Farid died on Sept. 21 due to heart complications. Farid was a member of the Malaysian United Indigenous Party (Bersatu), one of the components of the ruling coalition.
The coalition's resounding defeat in the by-election "is a really hard slap in the face for the inadequacies and broken promises of the newly-ruling party," political analyst Munir Majid wrote in a New Straits Times column Monday.
"Not holding together in power as it did in opposition, [Pakatan] is showing all the signs of being a one-term government," Munir said.
In July, the Merdeka Center, an independent pollster, said Mahathir's approval rating rose to the highest since September, rebounding from an all-time low in March to reach 62 percent.
But, according to Merdeka, which conducted the survey from June 28 to July 1, the approval rating for the ruling coalition has plunged to 41 percent, way below the 64 percent popularity once enjoyed by Pakatan when it trounced Barisan in a stunning triumph that catapulted Mahathir back to power in May 2018.
Before Barisan's defeat at the polls, its anchor party, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), had dominated Malaysian government for 61 years.
Murray Hunter, in an opinion column for Asia Sentinel on Monday, said the ruling coalition's defeat in Johor "leaves the Malaysian political landscape in total instability."
He cited several issues that could have angered voters, including open infighting among Pakatan leaders and Mahathir's hesitation to hand over power to Anwar.
Mahathir, then 93, stunned the nation when he defected to the opposition and joined forces with Anwar, his arch nemesis whom he once sent to jail on a sodomy charge. Before the 2018 election, he solidified support by promising to eventually transfer power to Anwar, should Pakatan win the general election that year.
"The message is loud and clear to Pakatan," Hunter said. "Unless there is a total change in direction, [Pakatan] will be completely decimated in the next general election."


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BENARNEWS- Biochemist Yazid Sufaat, the sole Malaysian linked to the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States, has been freed after serving his latest prison sentence but will be closely monitored by police, Malaysia's top counterterror official said Wednesday.
Yazid, who once attempted to cultivate anthrax as a chemical weapon for al-Qaeda, was released Wednesday from Simpang Renggam prison in Johor state following a decision made by the Malaysian Prevention of Terrorism Board on Monday, Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, chief of the national police's counter-terrorist wing, told BenarNews.
"The board has decided to free Yazid on several conditions. He is free to go home but his movement is restricted [as] part of the conditions set," Ayob said.
According to the 9/11 Commission Final Report released in July 2004, Yazid met four key al-Qaeda members at his home in Kuala Lumpur, where they "spoke about the possibility of hijacking planes and crashing them" months before the terror attacks unfolded in the U.S. in September 2001.
Two of the four men – Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf Muhammad Salim al-Hazmi – were among the Sept. 11 hijackers.
That meeting, the report said, was made at the request of Hambali, an Indonesian national and prisoner in U.S. military custody at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who was accused of masterminding the 2002 Bali bombings in Indonesia that killed more than 200 people.
Al-Qaeda, a Muslim militant group founded by Osama bin Laden, carried out the attacks that killed almost 3,000 people and injured more than 25,000 others, when hijackers flew airliners into the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon outside Washington.
A fourth hijacked plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania when passengers reportedly fought back to bring down the airliner before it could strike another target. Bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan in May 2011.
As part of the conditions for his freedom, Yazid was required to wear an electronic monitoring device for two years, starting Wednesday. Authorities also prohibited him from surfing the internet and ordered him to report to the district police, Ayob said.
"We also imposed a curfew, from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily, which means he has to be home during those times," Ayob said, referring to Yazid.

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Yazid Sufaat leaves the Simpang Rengaan prison upon his release from the facility in Johor, Malaysia, Nov. 20, 2019. [Courtesy Royal Malaysia Police]

Yazid, 55, was in Afghanistan during the Sept. 11 attacks and later fled through Pakistan to Malaysia, where he was caught by authorities and sent to prison under the now-defunct Internal Security Act (ISA) in December 2001. He was detained at the Kamunting Camp prison, which housed convicted terrorists and political detainees.
Investigators said Yazid, who received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from a university in California, joined the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militant group shortly after its founding in 1993. Al-Qaeda helped create JI, an extremist group headed by Indonesian militants with cells scattered across Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines, according to security analysts.
Yazid became a leading figure in al-Qaeda's push to develop weapons of mass destruction when he spent several months attempting to cultivate anthrax in a laboratory he helped set up near the Kandahar airport in 2001, according to the 9/11 commission report. He received training in Afghanistan under the command of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian militant who succeeded bin Laden, the report said.
A year earlier, investigators said, Yazid acquired four tons of ammonium nitrate in 2000 in preparation for a foiled bombing plot in Singapore.
Malaysian officials said Yazid was released in 2008 but re-arrested in 2013 under SOSMA – the nation's anti-terror law known as Security Offenses (Special Measures) Act – on charges of recruiting new members for the Islamic State militant group. He received a four-year prison term.
After serving his sentence, Yazid was again arrested in December 2017 after authorities discovered that he had been recruiting fellow inmates to join al-Qaeda.
Before he was accused of becoming an extremist, Yazid was an army captain who had served the military in Bosnia, where investigators said he had expressed his sympathy for the Muslims who were killed by the Serbian army.
Yazid is married to Chomel Mohamad, an Indonesian, with whom he has four children. The couple once worked as caterers at the Kuala Lumpur High Court canteen.
Chomel declined to comment about her husband's case when approached by a BenarNews reporter several weeks ago. She now owns a restaurant near the nation's capital.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian authorities said Thursday they had taken nearly 700 Chinese nationals into custody on suspicion of involvement in a syndicate that targeted people in China through an online investment scam, in the latest case of citizens from that country being arrested in Malaysia.
The raid that netted the 680 suspects – among the largest mass arrests in a single law enforcement operation in Malaysia – took place Wednesday at a six-story commercial building in Cyberjaya, a Malaysian cyber-technology hub on the outskirts of the capital Kuala Lumpur, the country's immigration chief said.
The building housed some 1,000 Chinese nationals who had allegedly worked for the syndicate since May, but more than 300 of them eluded capture in the raid, Khairul Dzaimee Daud, the director-general of Malaysia's Immigration Department, told a news conference Thursday.
"Of the number [680], 603 were men while 77 were women ... They have been detained to facilitate the investigation," Khairul told reporters.
An initial probe revealed that the syndicate offered its victims back in China lucrative returns upon their investments over a short time, he said.
The building that was raided functioned as a call center, and so there was no cash to be seized during the operation, the immigration chief said.
"All money transactions and payments went through the banking system in China." Khairul said.
"That is why there was no cash seized during the operation, but we managed to seize 174 laptops, 787 personal computers and 8,230 cell phones."
A source in the immigration department said the Chinese workers received around U.S. $600 in monthly wages, but if they secured an investment from one of the people targeted in the scheme, they each would get a commission of $1,670.
"They were arrested for alleged participation in criminal activities like this and also for violations of their social visit passes," the source, who requested anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak to the media, told BenarNews.
The source was referring to short-term social media passes, a type of visa issued to Chinese nationals arriving at Malaysia's ports of entry.
Due to the large number of arrests on Wednesday, the source said it took the department more than 24 hours to run checks on each individual arrested in the operation.
The nearly 700 who were arrested were being investigated for alleged violations of Malaysia's Immigration Act, including violating the terms of social visit passes, entering and staying in the country without a valid pass, or for overstaying their visas, officials said.
The source added that, from January to November, the department had arrested 1,333 China nationals for violating their social visit passes.
According to Khairul, his department had discussed its concerns about Chinese violating the terms of their visas with officials at the Chinese embassy.
"They are aware of their nationals whom had been misusing their social visit passes to enter Malaysia and engage in criminal activities, such as being part of a scamming syndicate. So we have agreed to exchange information on how to deal with syndicated crimes like this," he said.
Officials at the Chinese embassy did not immediately respond to calls from BenarNews.
Prior to this week's mass raid, authorities in Malaysia in recent months carried out arrests of Chinese nationals suspected of being involved in criminal activities. In late August, police arrested 100 Chinese suspects who were allegedly part of an illegal online gaming syndicate that targeted gamblers in China.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's parliament approved the new government's first defense-policy paper on Monday, as Defense Minister Mohamad Sabu slammed the intrusion of foreign ships in the nation's territorial waters as an infringement on sovereign rights.
A copy of the 90-page "Defense White Paper," which was expected to outline the government's national security blueprint, including its perspective on non-traditional threats, had been seen by legislators but had not been made public yet.
"The intrusion of foreign vessels in the waters off Sabah and Sarawak in East Malaysia [is] an infringement on Malaysia's sovereign rights in its exclusive economic zone that is protected under international law," Mohamad said in his speech to parliament before legislators gave their nod to the so-called white paper.
Mohamad did not identify the foreign ships that had sailed through Malaysian waters without permission, but his statement came right after he talked about the disputed South China Sea.
"The occupation and militarization and other activities by China in the South China Sea and the Freedom of Navigation Operations or FONOPs conducted by the United States had changed the territorial dispute into a global power struggle," he said, according to a transcript of his speech, which he gave in Malay.
Mohamad told lawmakers that relations between Washington and Beijing had "entered a new phase, which leans towards competing, instead of tolerance."
"The unstable exterior environment creates uncertainties that can threaten the country's interests," he said.
During the five-hour debate prior to the white paper's approval, opposition parliamentarians lashed out at the government for not providing details on planned military-related acquisitions.
"Plans to build a particular military asset can take more that five or even eight years, and this can affect the trajectory and focus of not only the public but also the members of the armed forces themselves," said Hishamuddin Hussein, a former defense minister.
Shahidan Kassim, a former minister in the prime minister's department, also criticized the defense document's "lack of attention" on the intrusion of foreign powers at sandbanks and islands claimed by Malaysia in the South China Sea.
"Our territories are being encroached by outsiders, but there is still no action from the Malaysian side," Shahidan told BenarNews as lawmakers debated on the country's strategic outlook. "Beting Patinggi Ali (Luconia Shoals), for example. These are our territories, these sandbanks, but the waters are patrolled by China."
The defense chief's comments came two months after Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said that Malaysia would not want to take an aggressive stance toward China in the sea dispute in which the Muslim-majority nation is a claimant state.
"We have to accept the fact that China is a big power," Mahathir told BenarNews during his visit to New York in September. "The Malay states have existed near China for the past 2,000 years. We have survived because we know how to conduct ourselves."

"We don't go around trying to be aggressive when we don't have the capacity, so we use other means," he said. "In the past, we use to send to China gold and silver flowers every year as a symbol of our being practically, well, subservient to them."
Brunei, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan also have their own overlapping claims to parts of the South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost in its entirety. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping's leadership, Beijing's military has ramped up its presence in the vital waterway through which about U.S. $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes annually.
Beijing raised regional tensions in recent years after it transformed contested shoals into missile-protected islands, with military-grade runways on three reefs.
China also rattled nerves around the region last month when it deployed its first domestically-built aircraft carrier to the disputed waters. Beijing's state-run Xinhua News Agency, however, said the warship merely sailed through the disputed waters as part of "equipment tests and routine training."
During a news conference after lawmakers approved the white paper, the Malaysian defense minister responded to criticisms that the new document lacked details on funding needed for asset purchases.
"There are things that [cannot be] disclosed and will be discussed at ministerial level, and some which are under the Official Secrets Act," Mohamad said.
Malaysia allocated U.S. $3.87 billion for its defense budget this year, a reduction of about 40 percent from the previous year. It allocated U.S. $3.4 billion for its defense next year, local reports said.
Mohamad told reporters last month that the country had received an offer from Russia to exchange part of its fleet of combat aircraft for newer models, including new Su-35 or MiG-35 fighter jets. He said, however, that the country would not realistically consider buying new combat planes until after 2030.
The Royal Malaysian Air Force currently operates about 18 Su-30MKM fighter planes, which were delivered in 2007, and has recently retired 10 MiG-29s, which were operated since the mid-1990s, according to Jane's Defense, a website that monitors acquisitions of military equipment worldwide.


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BENARNEWS- Former Prime Minister Najib Razak testified Tuesday that a fugitive financier had misled him, as he took the witness stand for the first time in one of his corruption trials tied to the 1MDB financial scandal.
Financier Low Taek Jho (better known as Jho Low) had portrayed himself as having influence with Middle Eastern governments, Najib said in court as the defense phase opened in the trial. He is charged with illegally receiving millions of dollars from a subsidiary of 1Malaysia Development Berhad, a state investment fund.
"Because of that, I thought his influence and connections would help 1MDB achieve its goals and attract investments," the ex-prime minister told the High Court in Kuala Lumpur as he read 70 pages from a 243-page statement.
After Najib's testimony on Tuesday, his lawyer described him as a victim of Jho Low, a former associate of the ex-prime minister.
Last month, Judge Nazlan Ghazali ruled that the prosecution had shown credible evidence that Najib, 66, would have to answer the seven charges against him related to accusations that he illegally received transfers of 42 million ringgit (U.S. $10 million) from SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB.
"I, in an absolute and unequivocal manner, would like to state that I do not have any personal interest in SRC, except in a professional manner as the prime minister and minister of finance and in the interest of the public," Najib told the court.
The former prime minister is to return to the witness stand on Wednesday to continue reading from his written statement. The prosecution will be able to question him during scheduled court sessions later this month.
Shafee Abdullah, Najib's defense attorney, said his client could have remained silent.
"He has chosen to be in the witness box to open himself to cross examination because we advised him there is nothing for him to fear," Shafee told reporters outside the court.
If convicted, Najib could face fines and up to 20-year prison terms for each of the four corruption charges in the case and up to 15 years for each of three money laundering counts.
Najib set up 1MDB in 2009 ostensibly to spur economic development, but the fund amassed billions in debts. In 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice accused "Malaysian Official 1" – later identified as Najib – and associates of embezzling and laundering more than U.S. $4.5 billion (18.8 billion ringgit) in 1MDB-linked money between 2009 and 2014.
Najib, who faces a total of 42 criminal counts, is standing trial in another court on 25 charges of abuse of power and laundering of money connected with 2.3 billion ringgit ($551 million) that went missing from 1MDB. He could face additional trials on the 10 remaining charges.
Attorney blames Jho Low
Addressing reporters after Najib finished testifying for five hours, Shafee called his client a victim.
"The leader of the pack was Jho Low," Shafee told reporters.
"The crux of our defense is everything was devised by Jho Low together with four Arabs – two from Saudi Arabia and another two from Abu Dhabi," he said. "The entire management of 1MDB and SRC were all paid off by Jho Low."
Shafee said Najib, who served in the dual role of prime and finance minister until 2018 when his Barisan Nasional coalition was swept from office, was not expected to examine financial ledgers to make sure nothing was out of order.
"He was working on a macro level, not a micro level," Shafee said, adding Najib was responsible for setting policy.
Jho Low, who fled Malaysia and is the subject of a manhunt, faces criminal charges in Malaysia and the United States for his role in allegedly embezzling from 1MDB through his relationship with Najib.
In October, the U.S. DOJ announced it had reached a settlement with Jho Low and his family to return assets valued at $700 million (2.9 billion ringgit) purchased using funds misappropriated from 1MDB. A U.S. official said those funds belong to Malaysia.
Shafee was charged in 2018 with two counts of money laundering and two counts of tax fraud for a pair of transactions totaling 9.5 million ringgit ($2.27 million) between September 2013 and February 2014. At the time of his arrest, the attorney called the charges politically motivated to remove him from Najib's legal team.


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BENARNEWS-The dominant party in Malaysia's ruling coalition opens its annual convention Thursday after its top two leaders appeared to have patched up a long-running rift between them.
Anwar Ibrahim and the deputy leader of his People's Justice Party (PKR), Azmin Ali, were photographed talking side by side at the Parliament building in Kuala Lumpur late Wednesday, in the first show of warmth between them since Anwar won the PKR presidency in 2018.
Azmin is close to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who had promised to cede power to Anwar two years into his term in office. Questions have been raised over the handover of the premiership due to the Azmin-Anwar rivalry.
Earlier this week, local reports portrayed the PKR as being saddled with an internal crisis as supporters of the party's top two leaders were expected to hold separate conventions – one in the southern state of Malacca and another in the nation's capital – starting Thursday.
On Wednesday, Azmin was all smiles when he told reporters that he would meet with Anwar.
"We will talk about the party's standing and congress preparation, which will start tomorrow [and go] until Sunday," said Azmin, 55, the minister of Economic Affairs. "We will also discuss several important matters and I want to state that I will attend the congress this week."
Anwar was also seen smiling after his two-hour meeting with Azmin – who had served as his private secretary back in 1995.
"Good meeting. Good congress," the lawmaker and party president said, almost shouting and without stopping to answer questions from waiting journalists, as he boarded his car.
A day earlier, Anwar told a PKR meeting in Perak that he was open to criticism but his patience was limited.
" believe everyone has a right to air their views," he said, according to Bernama, the state news service.
"However, I can't (accept) when there are those who view the party (PKR) as divided, weak ... as it is my responsibility to build its strength," Anwar added in his speech in which he also reiterated his support for Prime Minister Mahathir.
After Anwar met with Azmin on Wednesday night, the tone on social media from supporters of both factions appeared to have changed from antagonistic towards each other to reconciliatory.
Shadow convention
A plan to launch a parallel convention at the Renaissance Hotel in Kuala Lumpur was well underway until about 2 p.m. Wednesday when it was halted suddenly, a source in Azmin's faction told BenarNews.
"Azmin wants to meet the leaders in parliament after several of them did not want to commit for the alternate congress," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. "We were told to stop the work in Kuala Lumpur and wait for the leader's decision."
Analysts told BenarNews that the meeting between Anwar and Azmin was significant because the internal partisan bickering had also jeopardized the image of the ruling Pakatan Harapan alliance. The party founded by Anwar, 72, holds the largest number of seats in parliament.
"People would say, 'How are you going to manage the country when your party is in a mess?' It reflects the government and this is not good for [Pakatan]," Ahmad Marthada Mohamed, dean of international relations studies at the Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), told BenarNews.
"Pakatan Harapan could not find a solid foundation among all party components because two big names in the party ... are not on good terms," he said.
According to Awang Azman Awang Pawi, a University Malaya professor, the meeting between the two party leaders indicated that they were working toward a clearer direction.
"Future leaders in Pakatan Harapan will face tougher problems if PKR leaders continue to fight," he told BenarNews. "People will get fed up if you fight for power."
PKR, a multiracial political party formed in 2003, holds 50 out of the 129 parliamentary seats controlled by the ruling bloc.
For Anwar, who has been the face of Malaysia's reform movement during the past 20 years, mending fences with other PKR leaders would bring him closer to the premiership that has been promised by Mahathir, his former foe who heads a different party, analysts said. The duo mended their differences and became political allies when Mahathir turned against the coalition he once headed.
Anwar was pardoned and released from a five-year prison term for sodomy after Pakatan Harapan secured a stunning victory in the May 2018 general election and ended the longtime rule of the Barisan Nasional alliance.
Anwar won the PKR post in an uncontested election in August last year, replacing his wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, the deputy prime minister, as the party's president.
When he made his unusual promise to Anwar in the months leading up to the election, Mahathir, now 94, said he would hand off the premiership to his former rival after two years in power. He was sworn in as prime minister within days of the polls.
But questions on when Mahathir would step down intensified in recent weeks.
After their meeting late last month, Anwar told reporters that he had agreed with Mahathir that they would focus on preparing for the November 2020 APEC summit in Kuala Lumpur, suggesting a potentially longer timetable for the transition.
Anwar told Mahathir that the prime minister should hand over the leadership "within a reasonable period."
"I told him that the power transition has to be done in peace and proper manner within a reasonable period and also with mutual understanding," Anwar told reporters at the time, describing what he said was a 30-minute meeting with Mahathir.


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BENARNEWS- As a Dec. 31 deadline to register looms, more than 111,000 undocumented migrants have voluntarily surrendered to the Malaysian Immigration Department, agreeing to leave the country and not return under its latest amnesty program, authorities said.
The largest number of participants are from Indonesia (42,279), followed by Bangladesh (30,098), India (19,997), Pakistan (5,755) and Myanmar (5,332), according to information from the department. Others are from Nepal, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and China.
"The figures are the latest number of participants who had completed all the terms that we set," a press officer with the department, who asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the program, told BenarNews. "The data is broken down by countries. Other details will be released only at the end of the program."
As of Nov. 28, a total of 111,736 undocumented migrants had registered under the B4G (Back For Good) amnesty program, which started on Aug. 1, according to the Immigration Department. It said 61,432 had overstayed their visas, while 50,304 did not possess valid travel documents for entry into Malaysia.
"One of the conditions set to participate in this program is that they must purchase a plane ticket home," a senior officer with knowledge of the program, who also was not authorized to comment, told BenarNews.
The official said participants would not be allowed to register for the program without presenting a ticket and must return to their home countries within a month.
In addition, participants must pay a fine of 700 ringgit (U.S. $167) to qualify. Once they return to their home countries, they will be blacklisted from returning. BenarNews calculated that Malaysia had collected 78.2 million ringgit ($18.75 million) from those enrolled in the program.
Immigration sweep expected
In Bangladesh, the government ordered Biman, the national airline, to add 16 flights to Kuala Lumpur to bring back migrants who had enrolled in the amnesty program, Bangladeshi media reported.
"Biman will operate the extra flights from its responsibility of serving the greater interest of the country and its people," State Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism M. Mahbub Ali said in a news release Wednesday.
Bangladeshi Majibul Rahman was among migrants who were able to leave Malaysia at the start of the program.
"My ticket is secured and my flight is tomorrow," he told BenarNews in August. "I am going back with my two friends who are here with me.
"Praise God for the Malaysian government for this chance to go back home."
Another migrant, Indonesian Dewi, 19, who goes by one name, also left in August.
"I have been in Malaysia for three months and came as a visitor but overstayed, so now I want to go back," she told BenarNews, adding, "I knew about this program from a friend."
Malaysian officials have warned that as soon as the program ends, the immigration department is expected to round up undocumented migrants who refuse to leave the country voluntarily. Those who are detained could face a minimum fine of 5,000 ringgit ($1,198) and sentence of up to 12 months if convicted.
"With the Back For Good amnesty program ending on Dec. 31, we will ensure that on Jan. 1 we will go ahead with our enforcement efforts on a massive scale," Khairul Dzaimee Daud, the department's director general, told local media. "There will be no compromise for illegal immigrants who are caught after the program."
Previously, the director general said the program's aim was to reduce the influx of migrants and curb social problems including crime, the Malay Mail reported in July.
Malaysian officials have called this the final amnesty program. One that began in 2014 led to 840,000 migrants leaving the country after they paid about 400 million ringgit ($95.9 million) in fines.
 

3D jobs
An economic analyst and a human rights official, however, warned that the exodus of foreign workers could negatively affect the economy, especially in the development sector and 3D jobs (dirty, dangerous and demeaning).
The foreign workforce has been an important part of Malaysia's economy, especially in the 3D sector because of the nature of the work and poor wages, said Barjoyai Bardai, an economist at Universiti Tun Abdul Razak.
"The foreigners are willing to work for 1,100 ringgit ($263) a month just to make ends meet," Barjoyai told BenarNews.
"They come to Malaysia to work as hard as they can, save up and send the money back to their country. Because of this, they can adapt to the meager income, and if they are not here, there will be a huge hole to fill in 3D sector," he said, adding the country would face shortage of workers in the construction sector.
Tenaganita, a local human rights NGO that deals with issue of migrants workers, pointed out that migrant workers who have been referred to as "illegal immigrants" by government officials play a huge role in Malaysia's economic growth.
Tenaganita executive director Glorene Das said local industries would need migrant workers in the years to come. She urged the government to treat them humanely.
"The government must play a more active role in educating the Malaysian people that migrant workers are not their enemies or the cause of their own financial or employment problems," she told BenarNews.
Das said large-scale efforts to arrest undocumented migrants have consistently "failed to produce any beneficial results, except for venal enforcement personnel and unethical agents."


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian prosecutors rejected allegations Friday of a political motive behind the trial of a North Korean businessman who is facing possible extradition to the United States over money-laundering charges.
Mun Chol Myong, 54, who has lived in Malaysia with his family for a decade while being involved in business dealings in China, was arrested on May 13 after U.S. authorities requested his extradition and alleged that he was in breach of international sanctions imposed against Pyongyang. He has been in detention in Kuala Lumpur since then and has attended several court hearings.
"Our submission is this: This is money laundering and it does not have any political character like the other party is saying," the three-member prosecution team told the Sessions Court in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.
The North Korean man's lawyer, Jagjit Singh, told the court in September that Washington's extradition request was baseless.
He described his client as a "pawn" in a battle between Pyongyang and Washington.
"In my view [the extradition request] is solely based on politics," Singh told reporters at that time.
Malaysia had approved Mun's extradition, but he challenged the allegations in court. In his affidavit, Mun denied claims by the FBI that he was the "leader of an international organized criminal group involved in laundering proceeds of bank fraud."
The case revolves around Mun's work in 2014 as a business development manager with a Singapore-based company, which supplied goods to North Korea.
Prosecutors previously told the court that between 2014 and 2017, Mun laundered funds through front companies using falsified documents, and that he shipped "controlled items" to North Korea.
Mun, whose bail request had been rejected by the judge, is facing four U.S. charges of money laundering and two charges of conspiracy to launder money.
On Friday, Akberdin Abdul Kader, one of Mun's attorneys, told the court that the allegations against the North Korean businessman had not been proven in court, and extraditing him to the United States would violate his human rights.
"One clear fact is Mun has never stepped on U.S. soil and has never made any transaction dealing with any company in the states," Akberdin said.
A source in Malaysian intelligence told BenarNews that the United States believed that Mun had violated the U.N. Security Council's sanctions, which were aimed at depriving North Korea of funds that could be funneled into Pyongyang's nuclear programs.
In August, Singapore filed charges against three people linked to SinSMS Pte. Ltd, a firm in the island-state affiliated with China-based Dalian Sun Moon Star International Logistics Trading Co., on allegations of breaking U.N. sanctions. They were accused of doing so by facilitating shipments of alcohol worth 600,000 Singapore dollars (U.S. $ 432,384) to North Korea.
This came after a U.S. Treasury Department announcement in August 2018 to block and designate companies, ports, and vessels that facilitate illicit shipments and provide revenue streams to the North Korean regime, especially entities based in China, Singapore and Russia.


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BENARNEWS- An open dispute between the top two leaders of the People's Justice Party (PKR) over power and influence could work to the advantage of other parties in the ruling coalition, political observers said.
The rift between PKR president Anwar Ibrahim and deputy leader Azmin Ali revealed itself starkly during the party's annual convention that concluded Sunday, although the two men had appeared to patch over their differences on the eve of the gathering.
After Azmin and his supporters staged a mass walkout from the convention floor after lunch on Saturday, Anwar and his supporters pushed their call for the party chief to succeed Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad next year.
Mahathir and Anwar agreed to the succession plan when the PKR-led Pakatan Harapan coalition took power following a major electoral upset in May 2018. The party founded by Anwar, 72, holds 50 of the 129 parliamentary seats controlled by the ruling bloc while DAP holds 42.
"It is clear that this competition is not about ideas or principles but power and influence, not just in the party but on the national level about who will be the prime minister," Awang Azman Awang Pawi, a University Malaya professor, told BenarNews. "Even a blind man can see that they are fighting.
"There are two options – either Azmin quits the party or toes the line. There is no need to prolong this as there are many more issues to deal with," he said.

Ahmad Murtadha Mohamed, a professor at Universiti Utara Malaysia, said the disagreement was not helping the coalition as other members were staying out of the fray.
"Azmin clearly rejected Anwar because he wants Mahathir to complete his term," he told BenarNews. "Because of this, Anwar and Azmin fight.
"It is different with coalition members Amanah [the National Trust Party] and DAP [Democratic Action Party] who agree there will be a transition," he said.
Ahmad Murtadha said a lack of reconciliation could strengthen DAP, a party made up largely of members of the ethnic Chinese minority.
"DAP is the second biggest party after PKR. It looks like the party has the upper hand," he said while pointing out that its leadership did not expect to be able to name Mahathir's successor because of its minority-party status.
On Saturday, after Azmin and his supporters left the convention, Anwar delivered a speech referring to an unnamed traitor. That caused more people to leave the hall.
About 100 delegates and dozens of other observers from the Azmin camp walked out, chanting "Balik! Balik!" (go home) before complaining that the speeches were antagonizing Azmin, who later accused Anwar of having broken their agreement to refrain from negatives comments.
Anwar said he could not help it if his deputy was upset over the speech.
"If he felt offended by it, that is not my problem. It is a historical fact," he told reporters.

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PKR deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali speaks during the Shared Prosperity Vision dinner in Kuala Lumpur, Dec.8, 2019. [S. Mahfuz/BenarNews]


On Sunday, Azmin hosted what he called the Shared Prosperity Vision briefing dinner at Renaissance Hotel, the 1999 birthplace of the party, then known as the National Justice Party.
Hundreds flocked to see Azmin and leading supporters lambast Anwar's faction.
"On April 4, 1999, I was present in this hall as one of those who was called upon to establish Parti Keadilan Nasional at that time," Azmin, 55, told the crowd. "Yet 20 years later, I am called a traitor, while those who call me a traitor were not even in the hall at that time."
Mahathir said the convention would not hurt the coalition's ability to lead Malaysia.
"It is normal that there would be disagreements in any leadership, but I am confident that it will not affect [Pakatan Harapan] as the government," he told state news agency Bernama on Monday.
"Even the opposition has a lot of problems but since they are not the government, the people do not really care. But when we are the government, sometimes there is bound to be a little bit of a misunderstanding, that is normal."
In addition, he said he did not want to interfere with Azmin and Anwar.
"That is PKR's internal problem," he said.
Other parties meet
Coalition member Amanah, which held its party election over the weekend in Shah Alam, maintained its leadership. Mohamad Sabu retained his post as party president despite finishing seventh among 27 elected members of its national leadership committee.
Meanwhile, the opposition anchor party, the United Malays National Organization, which also held its annual convention over the weekend, noted its close relationship with the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) when it amended its constitution to uphold Islam as part of the party's purpose.
The provision originally stipulated, "UMNO is a political party that fights to uphold the national aspirations of the Malays and to uphold the dignity and stature of race, religion, and country," but has been amended to read "... to uphold the dignity and stature of Islam, race, and country."


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BENARNEWS- Two ships recently intercepted in Malaysian waters may have violated international sanctions in place to prevent oil trading with Iran and North Korea, according to reports, although Malaysian officials did not mention those sanctions in public statements about the incidents.
Malaysian maritime authorities have allowed one of the ships, an oil tanker managed by a Chinese state-owned shipping company, to proceed to its next destination, the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Thursday.
"In response to media queries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wishes to confirm that the [MMEA] has on 10 December 2019 inspected a foreign registered vessel, which was found anchored in Malaysian waters off the coast of Pulau Penang," the ministry said in statement Thursday.
"The inspection was carried out in line with the MMEA's standard operating procedures," it said, adding that the ship and its 25-member crew were en route to their next port of call.
The statement did not mention the Silvana III, but a ministry official told BenarNews it was referring to the Chinese ship. 

"Yes, we were referring to the same vessel as reported by media," said the official, who sought anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.
Malaysian maritime authorities had said earlier in a Facebook post that when the same ship was seen anchored about 40 nautical miles off Kuala Kurau, on the nation's west coast, on Dec. 5, it did not lower its ladder and sailed away as the agency's officers approached it to board, according to reports.
After conferring with their navy colleagues, MMEA officers determined the ship had no permit to anchor in the region, according to arxmaritime.com, which covers the shipping industry.
Maritime Commander Mohd Sharenliza bin Ghazali, the Kuala Kurau maritime zone director, asked local maritime authorities to locate and seize the ship as it had violated the nation's merchant shipping laws, local reports said.
The maritime agency posted its statement on Facebook on Monday, but is has since been taken down.
A spokeswoman for MMEA told BenarNews the agency prematurely posted the statement on the social media platform.
"The incident was still being investigated. But since the Foreign Affairs Ministry issued a statement, that will do," the spokeswoman said. "We will not issue any statement on the matter."
Silvana III, previously known as Tian Ma Zuo, is a crude-oil tanker managed by Kunlun Shipping Co. Ltd, according to records obtained from Equasis, a website that keeps shipping records of tankers and vessels.
On Sept. 25, the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned the Kunlun Shipping Co., which has its offices in Hong Kong but operates out of its headquarters in Shanghai. The department alleged that the firm had been involved in the transport of oil from Iran in defiance of sanctions set in place by Washington in November 2018.
Lloyd's List Intelligence, which provides global maritime data, said in a June 2019 report that Kunlun Shipping had been using a fleet of eight vessels which carry Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) to ship propane and butane to flout U.S. sanctions on Iranian crude exports.
Several websites currently track ships through their Automatic Identification System, which relay signals to satellites, providing their position, route and speed.
But some ships involved in sanctions violations often turn off their AIS transponders while in the Middle East Gulf region and conducting ship-to-ship transfers in waters off Malaysia and the Maldives, the Lloyd's List report said, citing intelligence data.
"The Iran-China LPG flows are in breach of U.S. sanctions on Iran's petrochemical exports," it said.
Vietnamese tanker seized
In the southern state of Johor, meanwhile, MMEA officials told BenarNews on Thursday that they were holding a Vietnamese merchant ship, Viet Tin 01, after it was found drifting in Malaysian waters.
The oil tanker previously was spotted by online tracking websites near a North Korean port in February.
"We have contacted the vessel's owners and had asked them to come forward to claim it. The investigation is still ongoing," an MMEA spokeswoman told BenarNews on Thursday on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to talk to the media.
Viet Tin 01, a Vietnam-flagged oil-products tanker whose home port is Ho Chi Minh City, may have breached U.N. sanctions on North Korea, according to the Maritime Executive, an online news platform for the shipping industry.
It said the ship was detected recently through its AIS in the port of Nampo while carrying 2,000 tons of gasoline.
Trading in petroleum products with North Korea generally is forbidden under international sanctions on the nation's nuclear program.
U.N. Security Council resolutions were passed after Pyongyang conducted nuclear tests starting in 2006. The United States and its allies have reaffirmed the need to keep sanctions to North Korea to achieve its denuclearization.
Johor MMEA director Aminuddin Abdul Rashid said in a statement on Monday that a marine special task force had been deployed to board Viet Tin 01 after it was found off the coast of Kota Tinggi, northeast of the state.
Maritime authorities found a 61-year-old Vietnamese, the vessel's chief engineer, on board, Aminuddin said.
"He told us the vessel has drifted from its original anchored point," Aminuddin said. "Prior to that, all other crews had returned to their countries, including the captain."


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BENARNEWS- A Malaysian court ruled Friday in favor of a U.S. request that a North Korean businessman be extradited to the United States to face money-laundering charges related to sanctions against Pyongyang, but his attorneys vowed to appeal the decision through a lengthy legal process.
Mun Chol Myong, 54, who has been living in Malaysia for years and was involved in business dealings in China, has been in detention in Kuala Lumpur since his arrest on May 13, after U.S. authorities requested his extradition. They alleged he had breached international sanctions by supplying luxury goods to his reclusive home country.
"Based on the oral and written submissions, the court is satisfied and will allow the extradition request by the prosecutors," Sessions Court Judge Rohatul Akmar Abdullah. "The respondent (Mun) will be sent to the prison while waiting for the minister's order to send him to the [United States]."
The judge also gave Mun and his defense team 15 days to challenge the ruling before the High Court.
Mun's attorneys, who had earlier described Washington's allegations as baseless, said they would file an appeal to block his extradition.
"We can appeal the decision in a higher court. It's a long way to go. The process may take years as the decision today is only at the Sessions Court," Mun's attorney, Jagjit Singh, told BenarNews.
Mun, who wore a brown shirt and slippers in the courtroom, appeared surprised after one of his lawyers told him about the court's decision. He glanced toward his wife, Kang Son Bi, who was sitting at the public gallery behind him, then bowed his head. North Korean embassy officials were also present. 

As he was about to be escorted back to prison, Mun again asked his lawyer, Singh, to explain what the ruling meant.
Malaysia had approved Mun's extradition, but he challenged the allegations in court. In his affidavit, he denied claims made by the FBI that he was the "leader of an international organized criminal group involved in laundering proceeds of bank fraud."
Prosecutors previously told the court that between 2014 and 2017, Mun laundered funds through front companies using falsified documents, and that he shipped "controlled items" to North Korea when he worked in 2014 as a business development manager for a Singapore-based company, which allegedly supplied goods to North Korea.
Mun, whose bail request had been rejected by the judge, is facing four U.S. charges of money laundering and two charges of conspiracy to launder money. He has lived in Malaysia with his family for about a decade.


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BENARNEWS- Hundreds of Chinese nationals arrested in Malaysia last month for alleged involvement in an online scam have pleaded guilty to immigration offenses and are serving prison sentences, while others will be deported back to China, according to Malaysian officials.
Malaysian immigration police arrested close to 700 Chinese citizens during a Nov. 20 raid in the cyber-tech town of Cyberjaya, near Kuala Lumpur, in connection with an investigation into a syndicate that allegedly targeted people in China through an online investment fraud, authorities said. Except for a Bangladeshi man who was also arrested in that raid, all the other suspects have been identified as citizens of China.
On Friday and Monday, the Sepang Sessions Court in Selangor state charged more than 500 of the arrestees for alleged violations of Malaysia's immigration laws, including entering the country without valid papers or staying on after their entry permits had expired.
On Dec. 13, the court sentenced 290 of the suspects to four months in prison after they pleaded guilty to immigration-related offenses, and ordered 31 others to pay fines.
On Monday, the court ordered that at least another 150 Chinese nationals who were arrested in the Nov. 20 raid be deported home after they also pleaded guilty to immigration violations, immigration department and court officials said.
"All of them, including the Bangladeshi, paid their fines after the court proceedings and as [part of] our procedures, they will be deported home," attorney V. Kasthuri Bai, the head of the prosecution team in the case, told BenarNews, referring to Monday's hearing in Sepang.
Meanwhile, due to a lack of evidence, scores of other Chinese suspects who were picked up in the Cyberjaya raid will not be brought to court to be charged but will be deported, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the case who declined to be quoted by name, saying they were not authorized to speak about those suspects. The sources did not explain on what legal grounds the remaining suspects could be expelled.
The more than 150 suspects who were brought to court in Sepang on Monday were divided into six batches, which appeared one by one before Judge Tengku Shahrizam Tuan Lah. The entire session lasted around 90 minutes.
Last month, a source in the Immigration Department of Malaysia said the hundreds of Chinese suspects arrested in Cyberjaya had received around U.S. $600 in monthly wages. If they secured an investment from any person targeted in the investment scam, they each would get a commission of U.S. $1,670, the source said.
"They were arrested for alleged participation in criminal activities like this and also for violations of their social visit passes," said the source, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The source was referring to short-term social media passes, a type of visa issued to Chinese nationals arriving at Malaysia's ports of entry.
Prior to November's mass raid in Cyberjaya, Malaysian authorities in recent months had carried out arrests of Chinese nationals suspected of being involved in criminal activities.
In late August, police here arrested 100 Chinese suspects who were allegedly part of an illegal online gaming syndicate that targeted gamblers in China.
On Monday, the director of the Royal Malaysia Police's Criminal Investigation Department told a news conference in Selangor that his unit had arrested more than 2,600 Chinese nationals since last December for alleged involvement in illegal gaming and gambling, which are banned in China.
"They were arrested during raids conducted nationwide. Some of them we have deported home, while some are being processed at the immigration detention center while waiting for deportation," CID head Huzir Mohamed told reporters.


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BENARNEWS- A Malaysian court agreed Tuesday to hear a retrial petition from an ex-police officer on death row for the 2006 murder of a Mongolian model, after he gave a sworn statement alleging that former Prime Minister Najib Razak and an aide ordered him to kill the woman.
The Federal Court in Putrajaya set April 20, 2020, to hear the petition of Azilah Hadri, which he submitted last week along with his statutory declaration (SD) – as the sworn statement is officially known, according to his attorney. The declaration that Azilah filed contained details about the 13-year-old murder.
Azilah named Najib, who was deputy prime minister (DPM) at that time, and his aide, Abdul Razak Baginda, as the persons who instructed him to kill Altantuya Shaariibuu after telling him that the model was really a spy. Najib's attorney called the allegations "ridiculous."
"The DPM stated that this matter could not be discovered by the public because it involved a threat to national security. The DPM then ordered me to carry out this clandestine operation to apprehend and get rid of the spy and dispose her body," Azilah said in the Malay-language declaration, a copy of which BenarNews obtained from his lawyer.
Azilah, a former commando with the police's elite Special Action Unit (UTK), also claimed that Najib and Abdul Razak had used hand gestures when they told him separately to get rid of Altantuya.
Azilah alleged he told Najib that a police report should be lodged about the alleged spy, but Najib was against it.
"I asked the DPM what he meant by apprehend and dispose of the body of the foreign spy, and he answered: 'Shoot to kill,' while showing the slit-throat signal. When I asked what he meant by disposing the body of the foreign spy, the DPM said: 'dispose the body of the foreign spy with no trace.'"
In the declaration dated Oct. 17, Azilah said Najib had ordered him to use military explosives to get rid of the body.
Azilah, who is serving his sentence at the Kajang Prison in Selangor state, said Najib had given him the order 13 years earlier – on Oct 17, 2006.
He and another UTK member, Sirul Azhar Umar, were convicted of killing Altantuya sometime during the evening of Oct. 19 or morning of Oct. 20. Sirul has fled to Australia, where he has been held at an immigration detention center since January 2015.
Azilah's lawyer, J. Kuldeep Kumar, confirmed the details of the declaration and the date of the review.
"Yes, we confirm that we have filed a review application supported by an affidavit and an SD," he told reporters after Tuesday's court hearing at the Palace of Justice in Putrajaya.
Najib's attorney, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, who was present at the hearing, challenged the review.
"This is unbelievable, as unbelievable as claiming that a cow jumped over the moon. This is how ridiculous it is," Shafee told reporters after the hearing.
Shafee said he was intervening because Azilah had implicated Najib.
"We do not care at all ... if someone wants to save his life, if he wants to review and say there is no evidence, or that judges made a mistake, I would support that," he said.
"But what we are opposing is that they are suddenly implicating my client in a very spectacular way. ... What they say is an inherently non-credible story," Shafee said.
Lawyers representing Altantuya's family were present at the hearing as well.
Altantuya was 28 years old in October 2006 when she was shot dead and her body blown up in a remote jungle outside Kuala Lumpur.
Four years earlier, Altantuya worked as a translator during the Malaysian government's negotiations for the purchase of two Scorpene-class submarines from French shipbuilding giant DCNI.
She allegedly had a romantic relationship with Abdul Razak, a defense analyst close to Najib, who was serving as defense minister in 2002 under Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. Abdul Razak was tried but acquitted of abetting the crime.
In June 2018, one month after Mahathir succeeded Najib as prime minister following his Pakatan Harapan coalition's election upset, his government announced that police would reopen the murder investigation into the Altantuya case.


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BENARNEWS- A Malaysian court on Tuesday charged two men who were deported from Syria last month, accusing them of travelling to a foreign country to commit terrorist acts.
Mohamad Azmer Ramlan, 40, and Ahmad Naim Zaid, 34, were charged separately at the Sepang Sessions Court outside Kuala Lumpur – two years after they were arrested and detained by U.S.-backed forces who were then battling Islamic State (IS) militants in the Middle East.
Malaysian counter-terror officers arrested Mohamad Azmer and Ahmad Naim on Nov. 22 after they disembarked from their flight at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Both were detained under Malaysia's Security Offenses (Special Measures) Act or SOSMA, a law introduced by the Muslim-majority nation in 2012 to battle militancy and security threats.
According to a senior government official, Mohamad Azmer held a master's in engineering from the University of Oxford and the other man was a former doctorate student at the University of Malaya.
Prosecutors charged the duo under a section of the nation's Penal Code. The two suspects, if convicted, face up to 30 years in prison and possible hefty fines.
"On March 11, 2015, you left Malaysia from Kuala Lumpur International Airport in the Sepang district of Selangor state for Syria with the intention to commit a terror act. Because of that, you have committed an offense," the charge sheet said, referring to Ahmad Naim but without elaborating.
Mohamad Azmer, according to prosecutors, committed the same offense when he travelled to Syria in July 2014.
The duo were the first Malaysians to be deported home since Turkish forces crossed the Syrian border in October and launched an offensive against U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters who seized control of the last sliver of the Islamic State's self-described caliphate early this year.
Mohamad Azmer is married to a Syrian woman with whom he has a child, the high-ranking source told BenarNews. He was deported to Malaysia while his wife and child were still believed to be in the Rojava refugee camp in northeastern Syria, the source said.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, also said that Ahmad Naim was deported along with his Malaysian wife and their two children.
Ahmad Naim's wife was also detained under the 2015 Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), according to the source.
Defense lawyer Hamdan Hamzah told the judge that his client, Mohamad Azmer, intended to plead guilty. He urged the judge to expedite the case's transfer to the High Court, which has final jurisdiction over the case.
"The accused had been to Syria. That is the crux of the charge," Hamdan told Judge Saifuakmal Mohd Said. "The accused intents to plead guilty at the High Court."
Hamdan also said Mohamad Azmer had shown remorse while in Syria by surrendering himself, along with his Kurdish-Arab wife and son, to the local authorities two years ago. Mohamad Azmer was imprisoned, while his wife and child were sent to a refugee camp, the lawyer said.
To prove that his client had long since repented while in prison, Hamdan read letters that he said were written by Mohamad Azmer to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (IRCRC) and to his father, explaining his situation and asking for assistance to be repatriated to his homeland.
"Clearly, the accused had repented and is very hopeful that he will be reunited with his wife and child. His wife is not a terrorist, she was sent to a refugee camp and not jail," Hamdan said.
Judge Saifulakmal declined to consider the defense attorney's request for bail, saying that it should be brought to the High Court instead of the Sessions Court. He also scheduled the next hearing for Jan. 10.
In a separate courtroom, Ahmad Naim nodded as he heard the charges against him in front of Judge Tengku Shahrizam Tuan Lah. He said would not be represented by a lawyer, and the judge set Jan. 20 for his next hearing.
Mohamad Azmer and Ahmad Naim were separately arrested in 2017 by Syrian Democratic Forces and held at the Shirkin Prison in Qamishli, a city adjoining the Turkish city of Nusaybin, the source told BenarNews.
More than 55,000 suspected militants and their family members have been swept up and taken to detention centers since IS lost control of its territory, according to the United Nations. About 11,000 family members of fighters from almost 50 countries are being held at the Al Hol camp in northeastern Syria "in deeply sub-standard conditions," the U.N. said.
About 50 of those detainees who fought for IS are Malaysians, officials said.
Malaysian authorities have arrested 495 people linked to alleged terror activities since 2013, according to government figures compiled by BenarNews. Dozens have been freed but no clear number is available.


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BENARNEWS- A Malaysian court on Wednesday rejected the bail application of two state assemblymen and the CEO of a state-owned company, who were among 12 people arrested in October for suspected links to a Sri Lankan rebel group.
The court action marked only the second bail hearing for detainees held under a draconian national security law since it was enacted in 2012. Last month, a judge ruled that barring such hearings for suspects held under that law was unconstitutional.
At Wednesday's hearing before the Ayer Keroh Sessions Court in Malacca state, Judge Elesabet Paya Wan ruled that assemblymen Gunasekaran Palasamy and Saminathan Ganesan, as well as the third defendant, Chandru Supermaniam, had failed to establish a case for why they should be freed on bail.
"The court rejects application for bail for all three respondents because the charges against them involve national security," the judge said.
"The lawyer has failed to prove merit and exceptional circumstances to allow bail, so the court decided to reject the application," she added.
The first of the two bail hearings for suspects held under the security law took place Monday in Penang state, and also involved suspects accused of having ties to the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), or Tamil Tigers, which Malaysia branded as a terrorist group in 2014.
The Penang court rejected the bail application filed by defendants M. Pumugan, 29, and S. Thanagaraj, 26.
After Wednesday's court session in Malacca, the attorney representing the three defendants said his clients would appeal the decision to the Kuala Lumpur High Court.
"We believe that there are strong reasons for the bail to be granted. We will also soon make an application to expedite the appeal hearing," lawyer Ramkarpal Singh told reporters at the courthouse.
Saminathan, 34, is a member of the state assembly in Malacca, while Gunasekaran, 60, is an assemblyman in Negeri Sembilan state. Both politicians are affiliated with the Democratic Action Party, a member of Malaysia's ruling coalition. Chandru, 38, is the chief executive of a state-linked firm.
The three were among a dozen people arrested by counter-terrorist police during a series of raids in several states in mid-October over alleged links to the Tamil Tigers, a group that waged a separatist insurgency against the Sri Lankan government for 26 years until 2009.
The 12 have been charged with giving support to the LTTE through social media and possessing items related to the group, according to the Malaysian attorney general's office.
The defendants are being held under the Security Offenses (Special Measures) Act, or SOSMA. It allows authorities to detain suspects for 28 days without charge and bars courts from holding bail hearings for people held under the law.
The trio who appeared in court Wednesday had applied for it to hear their bail application, after a court in the capital Kuala Lumpur ruled that SOSMA was unconstitutional because of a provision that bars such hearings.
On Nov. 29, Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali ruled in favor of a petition filed by Saminathan, clearing the assemblyman to apply for a bail.
Last week, Attorney General Tommy Thomas announced that his office would not move to block the High Court's decision in allowing a bail hearing in the LTTE case.
In a strongly worded statement, Thomas expressed his concerns about the provision in SOSMA that deprives suspects held under it from the prospect of bail.
"Perhaps the most pernicious feature of SOSMA is the absolute prohibition in Section 13 of bail from the time of arrest until trial, indeed, even after an acquittal by the trial court pending appeal by [the] prosecution to the apex court," the nation's top government lawyer said. "This means that the power of a court to hear and determine a bail application by an accused before it, which is a daily occurrence in all courts handling criminal matters, is removed."
Thomas said the drafters of the 2012 law and the parliament under the previous government that adopted it did not take into account that, as a result of the national security law, "the judicial function of the courts is eroded by virtue of Section 13."
"Consequently, judicial power is eroded," the attorney general said


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BENARNEWS- An Islamic summit convened by Malaysia to discuss issues affecting Muslims worldwide has caused divisions, with Saudi Arabia staying out of the gathering and the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation warning that it could weaken Islam.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan cancelled his attendance at the last minute amid accusations from Saudi Arabia that the three-day summit, which officially starts Thursday, could dampen the role of the Jeddah-based OIC.
Indonesian vice president Ma'ruf Amin, who was scheduled to stand in for President Joko Widodo, leader of the world's most populous Muslim nation, said he also could not attend the meeting, citing health concerns.
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said he clarified to Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud during a phone conversation late Tuesday that the Kuala Lumpur summit had no intention of creating a new Muslim bloc that would rival the OIC as alleged.
"I explained to him that we are too small to do that," Mahathir told reporters, saying the Saudi king had called him to explain why he couldn't attend the gathering. "He's afraid that something not good will happen to Muslims. He has a different opinion from us."
The summit's organizers said the conference would provide a platform "to improve the lives of Muslims the world over." Leaders of Turkey, Iran and Qatar – viewed as Saudi's rivals – as well as hundreds of delegates from nearly 60 countries would attend the summit.
"We feel that we need to overcome Islamophobia," Mahathir said in a speech during a welcome dinner. "We need to find a way to address our shortcomings, our dependency on non-Muslims to protect ourselves against the enemies of Islam." He did not elaborate.
The Kuala Lumpur Summit welcomed the delegates on Wednesday as its organizers scrambled to produce a final list of attendees and a formal agenda.
"We have endeavored to hold this summit because we feel that we have to do something to improve the lives of Muslims the world over," Mahathir said in his speech amid cheers from more than 400 delegates from 56 countries. "We feel that we need to overcome Islamophobia."
But OIC Secretary General Yousef al-Othaimeen said such gatherings would divide Muslims.
"It is not in the interest of an Islamic nation to hold summits and meetings outside the framework of the (OIC), especially at this time when the world is witnessing multiple conflicts," Othaimeen was quoted by the news service AFP as saying.
Pakistan news outlets, quoting diplomatic sources, said Khan had telephoned Mahathir to inform the Malaysian leader that he would skip the meeting.
Khan, who met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman in Riyadh on Saturday, during which bilateral relations were discussed, cancelled his trip to appease Saudi Arabia, reports said.
The Pakistani leader jointly decided with Mahathir and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to hold the summit in Malaysia, while they met on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York three months ago.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi was expected to represent Islamabad, but he had also decided to cancel his attendance, reports said, as organizers marked his scheduled appearance at the summit on Friday in red, indicating it needed confirmation.
Malaysia's state-run news agency, Bernama, quoted Mahathir on Tuesday as saying that Khan may have other reasons for not attending the summit.
"That is his choice. We cannot force. In Islam, there is no compulsion," Mahathir told reporters as he checked on preparations for the summit at the capital's convention center. "He cannot make it, perhaps he has some other problems."
The Malaysian Prime Minister's Office had earlier confirmed that invitations had been sent to 56 members of the OIC, but organizers said about 20 have so far confirmed they were sending delegations.
Erdogan, Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamid Al-Thani and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani are among the leaders participating in the summit.
Summit organizers had released an agenda indicating that the participants would discuss education, food security and "preservation of national security," but reports said issues such as the plight of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and those of Uyghur Muslims in China's Xinjiang region could be addressed as well.
But, according to Mahathir, the Saudi king told him during their phone conversation that "such matters should not be discussed only among two or three nations" and the OIC should be the forum for important issues affecting 1.8 billion Muslims worldwide.
"(He says) there should be an OIC meeting. I agreed with him," Mahathir said.
During the phone call, King Salman, who also holds the title The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, emphasized the importance of achieving a joint Islamic action through the OIC, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said.
Muslim nations have largely been silent about the persecution of Uyghur Muslims.
China is believed to have locked up an estimated 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in internment camps since April 2017. Beijing denies any allegations of mistreatment of Uyghurs and says the camps provide vocational training. It has refused to allow international observers into the camps.
Analysts: Possible OIC alternative
Meanwhile, Malaysian analysts hailed the Kuala Lumpur Summit as a potential alternative for the OIC.
"Other countries should view this issue positively and not think that Malaysia is trying to take over the role of OIC," Ahmad Marthada Mohamed, a professor at the University Utara Malaysia, told BenarNews. "Countries in OIC should see themselves in the mirror to see what they have done for the Muslims. For example, the issue of Rohingya and Uyghur in China."
An army-led crackdown in 2017 in Myanmar's Rakhine state left thousands of Rohingya Muslims dead and forced more than 740,000 others to flee to safety in neighboring Bangladesh.
"KL Summit is used to discuss the Muslim problems and to create a resolution that should be put forth," Mohamed said.
Azam Azali, deputy CEO of the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies, agreed with Ahmad as he described the OIC as a "toothless organization."
"The summit's goal is not to takeover OIC, but it is as a platform to discuss things that could not be resolved by OIC, he said. "More countries should join the summit."


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BENARNEWS- The Muslim world is in a "state of crisis" with countries fighting fratricidal wars, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Thursday, as he urged a summit here of Islamic leaders to "develop and progress as fast as possible" and end their dependency on powerful non-Muslim nations.
Saudi Arabia and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) have shunned the meeting in Kuala Lumpur, attended by hundreds of delegates from 52 mainly Muslim-majority nations. Both issued veiled criticisms on Wednesday against the four-day event, saying it could emerge as a competitor to the Jeddah-based inter-governmental body's role as the collective voice of Muslims.
Mahathir, however, said the gathering aimed to find out what had caused the "pain and anguish" among the nearly 2 billion people worldwide who follow Islam.
"Yes, Islam, the Muslims and their countries are in a state of crisis, helpless and unworthy of this great religion," Mahathir said in a keynote speech, as he sought to explain why he had helped organize the Kuala Lumpur Summit.
"At the very least, through our discussion we may find what went wrong," he said. "We may even find solutions, if not to end these catastrophes at least to awaken the Islamic world."
Saudi Arabia has described the summit, which ends Saturday, as the wrong forum for important issues affecting the Islamic world, and OIC Secretary General Yousef al-Othaimeen warned that such gatherings could divide Muslims. The leaders of Iran, Turkey and Qatar – countries that are seen as rivals to the Saudi kingdom – were among those who addressed the gathering on Thursday.
In his speech, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan agreed with Mahathir that the summit was needed to provide a venue for Muslim leaders to talk freely about issues such as Islamophobia, terrorism and sectarian conflicts ravaging the Muslim world.
He criticized "platforms" that bring the Islamic world together for their "lack of implementation."
"It is a must to update the platforms such as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation which brings Islamic countries together, in such a way to increase their effectiveness," Erdogan said of the 57-member OIC, the Muslim world's largest intergovernmental body.
Turkey's leader also criticized the U.N. Security Council, saying it had "completed its lifetime," as he called for a "new structure" to protect the interests of Muslim countries.
"The system ... leaves the fate of 1.7 billion people of the Islamic world to the enjoyment of the five permanent members of the Security Council," Erdogan said, referring to China, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and United States.
"The world is bigger than those five," he said. 

Late Tuesday, Mahathir had assured Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud during a phone call that the summit in Kuala Lumpur had no intention of creating a new Muslim bloc that would rival the OIC.
The following day, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, who along with Mahathir and Erdogan had been a prime mover behind the summit, decided to stay away from the meeting in Kuala Lumpur at the last minute. According to news reports from Pakistan, Khan cancelled his plan to attend the meeting to appease Riyadh.
Indonesian Vice President Ma'ruf Amin, who was scheduled to stand in for President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, leader of the world's most populous Muslim nation, also said he could not attend the meeting here, citing health concerns.
'We cannot deny the facts'
On Thursday, Mahathir pointed out in his speech that many Muslim nations had become "dependent on the mercy and charity of the non-Muslims."
"To my mind, we have no choice but to develop and progress as fast as possible," the 94-year-old prime minister said.
"We cannot deny the facts that there are fratricidal wars in several Muslim countries, that many are beholden to the powerful non-Muslim nations," he said, emphasizing that Islamic nations "cannot even equip [themselves] with the means to ward off the attacks by others."
During the day, Mahathir and Erdogan witnessed the signing of 15 agreements, including a deal with Turkish firearms company TISAS to jointly produce handguns for Malaysian security forces.
Turkey and Malaysia also signed agreements on research and development in defense and aerospace.
When his turn came to address the summit, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani proposed the creation of a Muslim cryptocurrency and a banking system among Islamic nations, allowing them to end their dependency on the U.S. dollar.
"The Muslim world should be designing measures to save themselves from the domination of the United States dollar and the American financial regime," he said in his speech, without explaining how the economic framework would work.
Rouhani, whose country has been under U.S. sanctions since 2018, also called for joint research on artificial intelligence and cyberspace.
The conference's first full day saw no discussion about the plight of stateless Rohingya refugees from Myanmar or the persecution of Uyghurs in China's Xinjiang region, but summit organizers had indicated earlier that such issues could be addressed during the event.


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BENARNEWS- Iran is testing new and advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges, President Hassan Rouhani said, the state-run Iranian News Agency (IRNA) quoted him as saying before he used an Islamic summit in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday as a platform to slam Washington for imposing sanctions against his country.
Rouhani made the statement on Wednesday after Iran announced last month that it was doubling the number of advanced centrifuges it operates, linking the decision with U.S. President Donald Trump's move to withdraw from Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
"We have had great achievements and today, Iranian new IR-6 centrifuges are working and models IR-9 are currently being tested," IRNA quoted Rouhani as telling Iranian expatriates in the Malaysian capital, where he arrived on Wednesday to attend a three-day summit that aims to discuss issues affecting Muslims worldwide.
The IR-6 and IR-9 centrifuges can produce enriched uranium multiple times faster than the first-generation IR-1, experts say.
Meanwhile in Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday described Iranian leaders as "kleptocrats," as he accused them of committing injustices and human rights violations in their country.
"I have a message for the leaders of the regime," Pompeo told a gathering of Iranian immigrants in the American capital, "if you seek to recover respect from your people and from the world ... If you seek stability and prosperity for a once great nation ... You must respect the commitments that you have made. You must respect human rights."
Pompeo did not mention Iran's nuclear program, but said the street protests in Iran, which started and accelerated in November, signaled "that the Iranian people have just had enough."
Early this month, Tehran acknowledged for the first time that its security forces shot and killed demonstrators who were holding protests across the country over the sharply spiking price of gasoline.
Amnesty International believes the unrest that began in November and the crackdown that followed killed at least 208 people across the country.
"Iran's human rights violations are worse than unacceptable," Pompeo said. "They're evil, and they're wrong."
Iran's move to use advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges could potentially violate the landmark agreement that Tehran signed four years ago, according to analysts. But by using the advanced centrifuges, the nation also slashed the one year that nuclear experts estimate Iran would need to produce enough material for nuclear weapons, should it decide to build one.
As part of the 159-page nuclear deal called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which Iran signed with the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States – plus Germany in July 2015, Tehran was limited to enrich uranium using only 5,060 IR-1 centrifuges.
But on Nov. 4, Iran announced that it had a prototype centrifuge that worked 50 times faster than those allowed under the agreement.

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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani addresses the Kuala Lumpur Summit, Dec. 19, 2019. [S. Mahfuz/BenarNews]

In November, Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, told reporters in Tehran that the country now held more than 500 kilograms (1,102 pounds) of low-enriched uranium and had started producing 5 kilograms (11 pounds) of the uranium each day, from its previous capacity of about 1 pound daily. 

Iran has repeatedly denied that it was planning to "weaponize" its nuclear program, saying it was using the technology for peaceful purposes. The deal would limit Tehran to 300 kilograms (661 pounds).
Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal on May 8, 2018 as he announced that he would re-impose sanctions on Iran's oil sector that had been lifted as part of the agreement.
"We cannot prevent an Iranian bomb under the decaying and rotten structure of the current agreement," Trump said in justifying his decision. "Therefore, I am announcing today that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal."
While addressing the summit in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, Rouhani accused Washington of "economic terrorism" and imposing its "illegitimate demands" on other nations, as he called on the Muslim world to join forces to end America's efforts at 'arrogant domination" of the global economy.
"The Muslim world should be designing measures to save it from the domination of the United States dollar and the American financial regime," he told delegates at the summit, which was also attended by Turkish leader Tayyip Erdogan and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamid Al-Thani.
Rouhani also urged other Muslim nations to enter trade agreements using each other currencies, as he proposed an Islamic banking system and the creation of a Muslim cryptocurrency.
Hadi Azmi in Kuala Lumpur also contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia has become a destination for sex trafficking of Rohingya girls, with traffickers luring teens at Bangladesh refugee camps with false promises of a better life in the Southeast Asian nation, a Kuala Lumpur-based NGO said in a report Friday.
The Child Rights Coalition Malaysia (CRCM) released its 101-page report after the U.S. State Department alleged in June that Bangladeshi criminal groups were taking Rohingya women from refugee camps at night, exploiting them in sex trafficking and then returning them during the day.
"In Malaysia, children, mostly from South and Southeast Asia, are mainly trafficked into domestic servitude and sex work," CRCM said in its report.
"Malaysia has also been a destination for sex trafficking. Traffickers go around refugee camps in Bangladesh promising Rohingya girls a better life in Malaysia by offering them work opportunities. However, these girls are often forced into sex trafficking," it said, referring to female refugees below the age of 18.
On Friday, a senior Bangladeshi official and a Rohingya leader confirmed to BenarNews that trafficking of Rohingya women and children from refugee camps was happening.
"A syndicate of human traffickers lures the Rohingya [with the promise of] of a better life and jobs, and smuggles them to Malaysia," Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said. "In some cases, they make false Bangladeshi passports to go to Malaysia."
But since Bangladesh does not issue passports to the refugees, who are considered stateless, human traffickers smuggle them out by sea, Khan said.
The traffickers have networks at the refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh and in Myanmar's Rakhine state – which lies just across the border – "to traffic Rohingya girls and women," the minister told BenarNews.
"But recently, the trend has come down due to strong surveillance of the law enforcement agencies," he said. "We have caught many traffickers and filed cases against them."
Traffickers nonetheless remain "active" at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar district, said Mohammad Noor, a Rohingya refugee leader there.
"Many women and girls step into the trap of the traffickers, as we have no future. So, they dare to go to Malaysia by whatever means," he told BenarNews.
He said "some people" in the refugee camps were believed to be involved in kidnapping and stealing babies, who were being sent by human traffickers to Malaysia.
Three days ago, Noor said, a 2-year-old girl named Nur Begum was reported missing.
"We have come to know that one woman fed her something with food, and the child became unconscious," Noor said. "Then the woman fled the camp with the baby."
More than one million Rohingya are living in Bangladesh refugee camps, including around 740,000 who fled their homes as Myanmar's security forces launched a counter-offensive in Rakhine state after insurgents attacked police and army posts in 2017.
Human rights groups had documented cases of rape, killing and burning of Rohingya homes and villages in Rakhine, while the United Nations had alleged that Myanmar's military of carried out the crackdown with "genocidal intent." Naypyidaw's officials have denied the allegations.
NGO slams Malaysia's 'limited awareness' of child rights
The CRCM released its report the same day that Hannah Yeoh, Malaysia's deputy minister for Women, Family and Community Development, said Kuala Lumpur was in the final stages of preparing its own report on the status of children's rights in the country.
Yeoh said the government's report, which would be submitted to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child next year, would be handed over to the attorney-general's office for review before being presented for cabinet approval.
"We have not submitted this report since the first in 2006. So, Deputy Prime Minister [Wan Azizah Wan Ismail] has already given instructions for us to prepare this report and submit it next year," state-run news agency Bernama quoted Yeoh as telling reporters in the Malaysian capital.
CRCM said in its report that as of the end of 2018, more than 163,800 refugees and asylum seekers have registered with the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR in Malaysia. Among them were 42,481 children younger than 18, it said.
The NGO's report slammed Malaysia's "limited awareness" of child rights and poor enforcement of child protection laws, alleging that the "lack of a policy for the protection of refugees in Malaysia put many refugee and asylum-seeking children in vulnerable positions, such as being arrested and detained."
Despite an overwhelming number of refugees residing in Malaysia, the country is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and has not established a domestic or administrative framework that outlines the rights of the refugees, the report said.
In June, the U.S. State Department's 2019 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report said Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government "does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, but is making significant efforts to do so," explaining why it kept Dhaka on Tier 2 Watch List, just one step above the lowest ranking.
The TIP report also placed Malaysia under the Tier 2 Watch List, saying it "did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared to the previous year" in the fight against trafficking.
Despite the State Department's allegations, "very little is seen to be done as there has been little acknowledgement by the [Malaysian] government on trafficking of children for labor or sex," the CRCM report said.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia has appointed an international institute at a local university to prepare a study examining reports about alleged rights abuses committed by Beijing against Uyghur Muslims in China's Xinjiang region, Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said Monday.
The government has selected the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC) in Kuala Lumpur to "study and verify the news reports on the alleged repression of the Uyghur community in Xinjiang, China," the state-run Bernama news service reported, citing Saifuddin.
A foreign ministry official who sought anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media told BenarNews that the minister made the statement during a public event in Pahang, east of Kuala Lumpur.
"Malaysia will neither blindly support any reports provided by the Chinese government nor openly criticize China," the English daily New Straits Times quoted Saifuddin as telling reporters. "We want to ensure the truth behind each and every report that we receive about the incidents there."
ISTAC is housed at the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), a campus established in the 1980s in Selangor state with the goal of becoming a leading international research center in the field of Islamic thought, culture and civilization, according to the university's website. Malaysia, along with several other Muslim-majority countries, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, Bangladesh and Pakistan, were co-sponsors of the university when it was founded.
Saifuddin also recalled that during his meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sept. 12, he promised that Malaysia "will adopt a civilized approach" about the controversy around the plight of the Uyghurs, which includes reports that Beijing began locking up 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslims at internment camps in Xinjiang.
"We need to verify this, including the Uyghur separatist movements at the Xinjiang province and whether there were elements of terrorism in the issue," the minister said, according to the New Straits Times.
China began incarcerating Uyghurs in a vast network of internment camps in April 2017 over accusations that members of the minority Muslim group harbored "strong religious views" and "politically incorrect" ideas.
Saifuddin's comments came after China's ambassador, Bai Tian, denounced pro-Uyghur protests that took place outside the Chinese Embassy in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday and Friday. Hundreds of demonstrators waved banners and signs urging China to "stop genocide of ethnic Uyghurs."
"We will never accept irresponsible, utterly groundless accusations based on falsehoods," the Chinese envoy said Sunday.
He made the statement days after Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad appeared to have taken a tougher stance, as he vowed not to extradite Uyghurs who seek refuge in his country.
Although Beijing initially denied the existence of internment camps, China has tried to change the discussion, describing the facilities as "boarding schools" that provide vocational training for Uyghurs, discourage radicalization and help protect the country from terrorism.
"If Uyghurs are fleeing to Malaysia to seek asylum, Malaysia will not extradite them even if there is an application from China," Mahathir said. "They are allowed to go to the third country because they have valid fears over their safety."


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia received one of four large patrol ships it had ordered for the first time from China, the Royal Malaysian Navy said Tuesday, in what a security analyst hailed as a sign that Kuala Lumpur's multimillion-dollar naval modernization effort would push through. 

Four Malaysian officials led by Defense Ministry secretary Ahmad Husaini Abdul Rahman received the documents after examining the Keris-class Littoral Mission Ship (LMS) during a handover ceremony at the Wucang Port in Shanghai, the navy said in a statement.
"After the inspection, a signing ceremony was held to mark the official handover of the ship to the Malaysian government," the statement said.
The patrol ship is part of a four-vessel contract, which was originally worth about 1.17 billion ringgit (U.S. $289 million) that was approved by former Prime Minister Najib Razak in April 2017.
The contract price dropped to around 1 billion ringgit (U.S. $256 million) after Malaysia agreed that all four ships would be built and delivered in China. The initial plan stipulated that the last two units would be built in Malaysia by the state-affiliated Boustead Naval Shipyard, but the deal was updated in March this year.
The new ship is scheduled to be commissioned on Jan. 6 next year, the statement said. It said Adm. Syed Zahrul Putra Syed Abdullah, the Malaysian navy's Eastern Fleet commander, witnessed the signing ceremony and Malaysian officials also took part in the ship's demonstration voyage.
While the patrol vessel is euphemistically called a littoral mission ship (LMS), it is generally considered a warship often armed with various weapons, such as either a 20 mm or a 30 mm main gun, and torpedo launchers. Its flight deck can accommodate a medium-size helicopter.
"The ship is not only important for safety but it also relates to the country's prestige and ability to defend its maritime sovereignty," security analyst Ramli Dollah of Universiti Malaysia Sabah told BenarNews, praising Kuala Lumpur's move to upgrade its naval assets and reduce maintenance costs.
"This ownership is also part of the naval modernization effort. It's time to replace the old ships, especially when Malaysia is facing some maritime issues," he said.
The Asia-Pacific region is now one of the fastest-growing markets for arms dealers such as China, the world's second-largest military spender and owner of two aircraft carriers, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), a Swedish think tank that monitors global security issues and provides research on armaments.
Other than Malaysia, Beijing has also sold weapons to at least six Southeast Asian nations since 2006, SIPRI said.
Adm. Ahmad Badaruddin Kamarulzaman, the Royal Malaysian Navy chief, told reporters in April 2017 that the Muslim-majority nation would eventually have a total of 18 LMS in its fleet.
Mahathir ordered a review of China-backed projects as the country dealt with the country's debt after his Pakatan Harapan alliance defeated Najib's Barisan Nasional coalition in the May 2018 general election.
Security analysts earlier said Malaysia was in need of versatile and faster combat boats such as the LMS, as the country and its neighbors grappled with piracy and a flow of foreign militants across the Sulu Sea to the southern Philippines.
Economic growth and territorial disputes in Southeast Asia propelled a 52 percent increase in defense spending over the last decade to $392 billion in 2018, according to a SIPRI report last year, which underscored that the region accounts for more than a fifth of the global defense budget.
"The [Southeast Asian] region is currently embarked on a substantial arms modernization drive which is unfolding amid continuing unresolved differences and security problems," according to a SIPRI report last year.
"Under these conditions arms build-ups, unless properly handled, could result in unnecessary tensions, suspicions and instabilities," it said.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia arrested hundreds of undocumented migrants in the past two days, officials said Thursday, as Kuala Lumpur launched a promised yearlong immigration crackdown after wrapping up an amnesty program where 190,000 foreigners agreed to leave the country.
Law-enforcement agents detained 474 foreigners, including 220 Indonesians, in a sweep targeting undocumented migrant workers after the five-month program that allowed them to turn themselves in ended on Dec. 31, immigration chief Khairul Dzaimee Daud told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.
"A total of 1,871 were checked, and out of that total, 474 foreigners were arrested for various immigration offenses," Khairul said.
The Muslim-majority nation of 33 million people relies on laborers and domestic helpers from Southeast and South Asian countries, such as Indonesia, Myanmar, and Bangladesh, for construction jobs and work on palm oil plantations.
Among the foreigners who were picked up were 78 Bangladeshis, 42 from Myanmar and 22 Filipinos, the immigration chief said.
"In addition to that, four employers were also detained," he said, without elaborating.
In July last year, the Malaysian government announced its Back for Good (B4G) program, which allowed illegal workers to register and be repatriated voluntarily without facing legal action.
After obtaining identification documents from their embassies and showing plane tickets to their home countries, applicants were also required to pay a fee of 700 ringgit (U.S. $171) as a penalty for overstaying in the country, officials said.
Since last month, huge crowds of immigrant workers, including many from Cambodia, Nepal and India, had joined lines that snaked around the immigration building in Putrajaya, the Malaysian administrative capital.
Khairul said immigration agents were aiming to arrest about 70,000 undocumented migrants who failed to take advantage of the government's amnesty program. Those who are detained could face a minimum fine of 5,000 ringgit (U.S. $1,198) and could be sentenced up to 12 months in prison, if convicted.
He said 195,471 had registered under the B4G program and 165,000 had been deported.
"However, the program was not entirely taken up and some employers were still adamant," Khairul said. "Indonesians, Bangladeshis and Myanmar nationals were among the highest number of illegal immigrants who registered under the program, comprising mostly of workers."
Millions of foreigners work without permits in Malaysia, which counted more than two million migrant workers as of August last year, officials said.
The government collected about 400 million ringgit (almost U.S. $96 million) in fines when about 840,000 people came forward and left Malaysia under another amnesty program that ended in August 2018. That program, known as 3+1, was launched in 2014.
Last July, the U.N.'s Office on Drugs and Crime said in a report that the disparity between developed and least developed countries had created a demand for cheap labor in Southeast Asia, driving the growth in human trafficking and smuggling of migrants looking for work.

The U.S. State Department's 2019 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) placed Malaysia under the Tier 2 Watch List, saying it "did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared to the previous year" in the fight against trafficking. Tier 2 Watch List is one step above the lowest ranking.
Adrian Pereira, director of the North-South Initiative, which monitors human rights and assists migrant workers, told BenarNews that thousands of foreign workers missed the deadline to register for the amnesty because many employers were not cooperating.
"It cannot be denied that the government has given them enough time, but not all these foreign workers were released by their employers," Pereira said. "Some [employers] just let them [the foreign workers] sign up at the last minute."


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia stands by its request to extend its boundary farther into the South China Sea, Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah told reporters Friday, acknowledging Chinese opposition to the move and the potential for the case to lead to arbitration before the United Nations.
The government submitted a claim to the U.N. on Dec. 12 to increase Malaysia's continental shelf beyond the standard 200 nautical miles off the northernmost point of Malaysian Borneo, according to submission documents viewed by BenarNews. In 2009, Malaysia and Vietnam jointly petitioned the U.N. to extend their boundaries into the South China Sea, in an area between their respective Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs).
"We expected China to object, but it is our claim and we will maintain our claim," Saifuddin told reporters in Putrajaya, Malaysia's administrative capital.
"One, there will always be dispute, just like there are certain areas in the South China Sea where there will always be dispute. Second, the end game, which rarely happens, you go for arbitration."
Shortly after Malaysia filed submission documents last month under the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), China protested with the same language it used since as early as 2016 to state its case to the United Nations.
"China has internal waters, territorial sea and a contiguous zone based on its Nanhai Zhudao," the Chinese mission said in a note to the U.N., referring to its islands in the South China Sea.
"China has an exclusive economic zone and continental shelf," the note said, according to the South China Morning Post. "China has historic rights in the South China Sea."
The statement mirrors language in a Chinese government statement on its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea published on July 12, 2016.
China claims almost all of the South China Sea, a vital waterway for international shipping and trade, while Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan have their own overlapping claims to portions of the disputed waters.
In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines over China, saying there was no legal basis for Beijing to claim historical rights in the sea region.
On Dec. 20, Saifuddin questioned China's claim to nearly all of the sea.
"It is our sovereign right to claim whatever is there within our waters and which is not claimed by others," he said at the time. "For China that the whole of the South China Sea belongs to them, I think that is ridiculous."
On Friday, a reporter asked Saifuddin whether the Malaysian government feared any retaliation from China, such as through sanctions.
"If we fear that, we wouldn't submit our claim," he responded.
The Malaysian move came months after Saifuddin traveled to Beijing where he and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, agreed to establish a "bilateral consultative mechanism" to resolve differences in the South China Sea. During the September 2019 visit, Saifuddin said he would co-chair a joint dialogue panel with Wang, who said the panel would promote maritime cooperation and regional stability.
Meanwhile, an analyst linked to a Japanese university told Voice of America that Kuala Lumpur could be seeking to get more aid from Beijing while expanding its South China Sea foothold.
"They're looking at all this really hard-core pressure against the Chinese and seeing it's a potential strategic window to probably exploit more financial aid, more development aid from China," said Stephen Nagy, senior associate politics and international studies professor at International Christian University in Tokyo.
"They're exerting the pressure at the right time, understanding it's in line with the other states in the region rather than being an outlier," he told VOA, which pointed out that rivals of China were resisting its expansion in the region and, in some cases, were receiving military aid from the United States.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian anti-corruption authorities on Wednesday released audio recordings of alleged conversations between former Prime Minister Najib Razak and officials, saying these show the ex-leader was trying to cover up abuse of power and graft tied to the 1MDB financial scandal.
The nine recordings that last 45 minutes, including one believed to be a July 2016 conversation between Najib and the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates, prove elements of a cover-up involving the 1Malaysia Development Berhad state fund, the chief of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) said.
"There are various serious issues that arise including abuse of power, criminal conspiracy, obstruction of justice compromising national security, fabrication of false evidence through foreign aid and connivance," Latheefa Koya told a news conference in Putrajaya, Malaysia's administrative capital.
"All these things are pretty scary because all this happened in the midst of serious investigations of a mega scandal and corruption over the last few years," she said. "Here we are listening to conversations completely undermining the institution that is supposed to ... seek justice."
On Wednesday, Najib did not confirm nor deny the authenticity of the recordings, which include two involving his wife, Rosmah Mansor.
As he spoke to reporters at the Kuala Lumpur Court Complex, where he is standing trials on two separate sets of corruption charges linked to 1MDB, he said the public release of the recordings hurt Malaysia's diplomatic ties.
"I was a sitting prime minister at that time. Whether anyone had the right to wiretap conversations of a prime minister, especially with another head of state, this can impact the diplomatic relations and Malaysia's interests with other countries," he said.
Latheefa said the recordings were made from January to July 2016, and obtained by her agency in 2020.
"We have been given the recordings but I won't tell you from where at this point. Pursuant to our investigation, we can confirm their absolute authenticity," she said, adding, "the contents are shocking. It's a cover-up and a subversion of justice."
'I have this personal request'
Among the recordings played for reporters at the news conference was a July 22, 2016, conversation between men whom MACC identified as Najib and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zyed al-Nahyan, the Crown Prince of the United Arab Emirates.
They allegedly discussed a plan to clear Najib's stepson, Riza Aziz, from a lawsuit filed two days earlier by the U.S.  Department of Justice (DOJ) over alleged money laundering linked to Riza's Red Granite Pictures production of "The Wolf of Wall Street," a Hollywood movie.
"I have this personal request, your Highness, which relates to Riza, my son, his movie. The problem can be relatively small if there can be an agreement with Sheikh Mansour (Zayed al- Nahyan) to have a loan agreement signed and he will pay back according to the schedule. That will show that it's a legitimate financing package and not money laundering, you see.
"At the moment, he is under a bit of pressure in America. We are worried about him, in case they make him the scapegoat," Najib allegedly said as he asked the crown prince to have his son sign the loan agreement.
Najib established 1MDB in 2009 ostensibly to spur economic development, but the fund amassed billions in debts.
At the time it filed the lawsuits, the U.S. DOJ accused "Malaysian Official 1" – later identified as Najib – and associates of embezzling and laundering more than U.S. $4.5 billion (18.45 billion ringgit) in 1MDB-linked money between 2009 and 2014.
The lawsuits did name Riza as owner of Red Granite, which allegedly received $238 million from 1MDB-linked transactions used to finance movie productions and to purchase luxury real estate in the U.S. and Britain. Riza's Red Granite Pictures agreed to a $60 million (246 million ringgit) settlement with the U.S. government in March 2018.
Earlier conversation
A recording from Jan. 5, 2016, allegedly captured a conversation between Najib and a man believed to be an officer with the attorney general's office, Dzulkifli Ahmad, who discussed the status of MACC's investigation at the time into 1MDB. Dzulkifli, who later became MACC chief, allegedly told Najib that his name was mentioned as among those who should be charged over the scandal.
Three weeks later, on Jan. 26, 2016, then-Attorney General Mohamed Apandi Ali announced that "no criminal offense" had been committed related to a $681 million (2.8 billion ringgit) transfer into Najib's accounts, calling it a "personal donation" from Saudi Arabia's royal family. Apandi also announced that his office was closing probes into cases tied to 1MDB.
Najib has claimed the funds were given to him to finance 2013 political campaigns for ruling-party candidates.
The government led by Najib's successor as prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, reopened investigations into 1MDB following the May 2018 election upset that removed the United Malays National Organization party from power for the first time in Malaysia's history.
Latheefa told reporters that she did not believe the recordings would affect Najib's trials on 42 charges linked to 1MDB and its subsidiary, SRC International, but MACC would turn them over to police.
Police Commissioner Zamri Yahya, who directs the Integrity and Standards Compliance Department at the Royal Malaysia Police, attended the conference where he heard the recordings for the first time.
"After receiving the audio we will send them for forensics analysis before we initiate an investigation. The IGP will talk to the media later," Zamri told BenarNews, referring to Inspector General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador.
Response
Najib's defense lawyer, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, said he was considering action against MACC and Latheefa for contempt of court, adding it could affect the ongoing trials.
"You can see there are two or three cases where these recordings seem to pertain. Clearly SRC is involved, 1MDB is involved. And the other case is Riza's matter which is also in court," Shafee said.
Latheefa challenged Shafee.
"I don't see how it affects the current case. As far as we are concerned this is of public interest involving serious national security, so I don't see how it cannot be shared," she said.
Meanwhile, criminal attorney Akberdin Abdul Kader said MACC likely had committed two offenses by releasing the audio recordings to the public.
"It is sub judice [under judicial consideration and prohibited from public discussion elsewhere] because cases are ongoing. Secondly, revealing communication between husband and wife is an offense under Section 122 of the Evidence Act, as husband and wife communication is privileged and cannot be disclosed in public," he said.
"In court, if something involves criminal elements, it can be exposed only after receiving a judge's approval," he told BenarNews.
Another lawyer, R. Sivahnanthan, supported the opinion that conversations from wiretaps could be presented to the court but not shared in public.
"To begin with, our constitution promises us a right to privacy," he told BenarNews.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia will introduce an immigrant pass in June to help authorities track foreigners in Sabah, officials said, a move that could make it harder for militants to slip in and out from the nearby southern Philippines, according to an analyst.
The proposed Sabah Temporary Pass, to be known by its Malay acronym PSS, will help standardize the various documents held by foreigners in the eastern state and facilitate law-enforcement operations, Malaysian Home Affairs Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said.
"The PSS is a control mechanism which will provide whereabouts and movement information of foreigners in Sabah," Muhyiddin told reporters over the weekend.
Sabah, in Malaysian Borneo, has a population of 3.9 million, including about 1.1 million who are not Malaysian citizens, according to official statistics.
In September, the state's Foreigner Management Committee agreed to issue the new identification card to replace the three documents currently issued to foreigners living in Sabah.
Filipino refugees, who had escaped to Sabah after bloody clashes between government forces and Muslim secessionist rebels in the southern Philippines in the early 1970s, carry a visitors' pass known as IMM13, which was issued by the Malaysian immigration department.
IMM13 holders are allowed to stay in the state and receive other benefits, including medical services and access to education. To ease bank transactions, foreigners living in Sabah also often identify themselves using a document issued by the state's chief minister, or a census certificate.
Muhyiddin, who spoke during a public event in Papar town in Sabah, said the PSS card would contain security features, including the holder's biometrics. It can be obtained after payment of 120 ringgit (U.S. $29) in fees and must be renewed every three years, officials said.
More than 136,000 people living in Sabah would be eligible for the PSS card, Muhyiddin said.
"With such information and orderly records, any long-term action can be implemented more strategically," the state-run news agency Bernama quoted him as saying.
The PSS card does not confer permanent residency to the foreigners and would not provide a guaranteed path toward Malaysian citizenship, the Home Ministry said in a statement.
Analyst: PSS would help track down foreigners with terror links
Wan Shawaluddin Wan Hassan, a professor and migration expert at the University Malaysia-Sabah, said the card's security features would enable authorities to determine if the holder had any terror links.
"The security feature can be used to detect Abu Sayyaf group members," he told BenarNews, referring to the Islamic State-linked group based in and around the Jolo and Basilan islands in the southwestern part of the Philippines.
In May 2017, Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon led pro-IS fighters from the Philippines and other countries in a siege of the southern Philippine city of Marawi. The militant takeover precipitated a five-month battle with government forces that left the city in ruins and 1,200 people dead, most of them militants.
The proposal to issue a new ID card received mixed reactions from Sabah residents, with many calling for the immediate deportation of foreigners living in the state.
"The government should deport IMM13 holders to their country of origin," resident Sylvia Rosli told BenarNews. "That document was issued during the war [in the southern Philippines]."
She said the same policy should be adopted for foreigners who hold other forms of identification.
"Once all is settled, then only think of issuing a pass for them," she said.
Shuyang Ana in Kota Kinabalu contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- In his first public comments on India's move to restrict palm oil imports after top exporter Malaysia criticized Indian policies toward Muslims, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said countries could not allow economic considerations to overrule speaking out against "wrong."
He justified his criticisms against India regarding its conflict with Pakistan over insurgency-stricken Kashmir and new amendments to its citizenship law that allegedly discriminate against Muslims, saying money should not be the only thing that matters.
"We are concerned because we sell a lot of palm oil to India. But on the other hand, we need to be frank and when something is wrong you have to say it," he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.
"If you allow things to go wrong and think only about the money involved, then I think a lot of wrong things will be done by us and others."
On Jan. 8, the Indian government, through its Ministry of Commerce and Industry, amended its import policy on refined palm oil and palmolein – a liquid form of palm oil – from free to restricted.
Although Malaysia was not named specifically, the new restriction is expected to hurt the country because India is its biggest importer of palm oil. Malaysia and Indonesia supplied about 60 million metric tons of palm oil annually, or about 85 percent of the world's output, according to government data.
Mahathir told reporters that while Malaysia needed to resolve its differences with India regarding palm oil, he was not backing down from his comments.
"That is something we have to find a solution for, but the fact is what happens in India today has caused a lot of unhappiness among the people there and the whole world. We feel that it is wrong to discriminate against anybody intended," he added.
Last month, Mahathir criticized India over its amended citizenship law that allegedly discriminates against Muslims.
The Indian parliament adopted the amendment granting citizenship to members of religious minority groups from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who seek refuge in India and who entered the country before September 2014. It excludes Muslims from those countries from applying for Indian citizenship.
Mahathir, in an address to the U.N. General Assembly in New York in September, spoke about the Kashmir conflict, saying Pakistan and India should sit down to resolve their differences.
"Now, despite U.N. resolution on Jammu and Kashmir, the country has been invaded and occupied. There may be reasons for this action but it is still wrong. The problem must be solved by peaceful means," he said in his speech.
"India should work with Pakistan to resolve this problem. Ignoring the U.N. would lead to other forms of disregard for the U.N. and the Rule of Law," he added.
On Jan. 8, when it reported that India was imposing restrictions on palm-oil imports, the Reuters news service quoted Indian officials and industry sources as saying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government "was seeking to target Malaysia after recent criticism of India by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad."
On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, announced he had sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressing concerns about India's amended citizenship law.
"The [Indian] government's efforts in Assam has left effectively 1.9 million persons, primarily Bengali-speaking Muslims, stateless.  The government appears to now be extending this effort across the country," Menendez wrote in his letter dated Jan. 13.
"Despite the government's claims that the citizenship bill seeks to protect religious minorities, its failure to include Muslim groups facing persecution in neighboring countries, such as Pakistan's Ahmadiyya and Burma's Rohingya, signal an anti-Muslim intent," he wrote.
Menendez also wrote about the situation in Kashmir, saying the ongoing internet shutdown there had "left people's lives, jobs, and the economy in a more dire situation."
Expanding the market
Palm oil which is refined for use as cooking oil and used in cosmetics and biofuels, is Malaysia's biggest agricultural export.
India was Malaysia's top importer of palm oil, taking in more than 4.4 million metric tons in 2019, a 75 percent increase over 2018's total of 2.5 million metric tons, according to the Malaysian Palm Oil Board.
While monthly exports to India totaled from 318,000 to 550,000 metric tons early in 2019, those figures dropped to 219,956 in October, 142,696 in November and 138,647 in December, the board reported.
On Monday, Teresa Kok Suh Sim, Malaysia's minister of Primary Industries, said the country might need to find new markets for its palm oil exports. She named Pakistan and African countries as possible locations.
"Pakistan is a good market. They have about a 220 million population with a birth rate of 2.7 percent. So in average they have 5 million babies every year," she said.
"With the growth of population they need palm oil because it is the cheapest oil. So we foresee Pakistan is a new market and some of the African countries also could be new markets," she told reporters after visiting a palm oil refiner near Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysia exported slightly less than 1.1 million metric tons to Pakistan – a slight decrease from 2018 – and smaller amounts to African countries in 2019, according to board figures.
Meanwhile, Indonesia will be the winner if Malaysia cannot settle its dispute with India and loses palm oil exports to its neighbor, according to a professor with the Universiti Tun Abdul Razak.
Barjoyai Bardai said Malaysia could be forced to cut its selling price to appeal to new customers. While palm oil exports account for only 2.8 percent of the total gross domestic product, more than 1 million people are involved in growing, processing and selling it across the globe.
"The statement from Mahathir has made things worse. We cannot afford to allow the palm oil price to come down," he told BenarNews.
India's action followed a decision by the European Union last year to phase out the use palm oil as a source of renewable fuels by 2030 because of deforestation concerns.
Palm oil expansion is a major driver of deforestation and degradation of natural habitats in parts of tropical Asia and Central and South America, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a Swiss-based group of governments, conservation organizations and scientists.
Mahathir called the findings baseless, unfair and unjustified.


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BENARNEWS- If ASEAN were forced to choose between China and the United States, a majority of respondents to a survey of residents of the Southeast Asian bloc would choose Uncle Sam, according to a Singaporean think-tank report published Thursday.
But the survey by the ASEAN Studies Center at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute also found significant support for China and "a trust deficit" toward the United States.
Of the survey's 1,300 respondents, 53.6 percent said ASEAN should opt to align itself with the United States, were it forced to choose between the strategic rivals. Yet, "support for China cannot be under-estimated," said the State of Southeast Asia: 2020 Survey Report.
"The majority of respondents from seven ASEAN member states choose to align their country with China: Laos (73.9%), Brunei (69.1%), Myanmar (61.5%), Malaysia (60.7%), Cambodia (57.7%), Thailand (52.1%), and Indonesia (52%)," the survey said.
"In comparison, strong support for alignment with the US is found in Vietnam (85.5%), the Philippines (82.5%) and Singapore (61.3%)."
Nearly half of the survey respondents said ASEAN nations should focus on unity to fend off pressure from Washington and Beijing, as the two superpowers square off in a strategic rivalry.
"ASEAN's strategic conundrum is best summed up by the African proverb – 'when elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers,'" the report said.
Most trusted: Japan
Questioned about the U.S.-China trade war, 63.9 percent of respondents said their country had been negatively impacted by it.
China's economic influence is deeply felt but not well received in the region with 71.9 percent of survey respondents "worried about its growing regional economic influence," the survey found.
Respondents chose China, 52.2 percent, as the most influential political-strategic player in the region – nearly double the U.S. figure of 26.7 percent. Only respondents in the Philippines picked the U.S. over China.
Moreover, "there is a strong trust deficit toward the U.S. since among the respondents who pick the U.S. as the most influential political and strategic power, only 52.7 percent welcome Washington in the region," the report found.
As support for the U.S. fell, respondents said they looked to Japan as preferred strategic partner.
"Japan is the most trusted major power among Southeast Asians, with 61.2 percent of the respondents expressing confidence in Japan to 'do the right thing,' to provide global public goods," the report found.
China took its own hit from respondents.
"Among those who view China as having the most political-strategic influence in Southeast Asia, 85.4 percent register their concern over this matter," the think tank reported.
"Washington's shrinking diplomatic clout and ambivalent interest in ASEAN and regional affairs are paving the way for China to expand its regional influence and carve out a sphere of influence in Southeast Asia," the report stated.
Other concerns
Responding to questions on other topics, the respondents rated domestic political instability (70.5 percent) and economic downturn (66.8 percent) as the region's most pressing security concerns while terrorism (44.6 percent) was last.
Nearly all respondents rated climate change as a concern with 52.7 percent calling it a serious threat and 44.1 percent calling it an important issue that deserves to be addressed. Less than 1 percent of respondents agreed with the assertion that there is no scientific basis for climate change.
The online survey conducted between mid-November and early December 2019, drew on "a specialized pool of respondents from five professional categories: research, business and finance, public sector, civil society, and the media." A total of 1,308 people participated in the survey.
Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) is an autonomous research organization established by the parliament of the city-state in 1968. It was renamed the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute in 2015.


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BENARNEWS-  Authorities on Saturday said they suspect a Southern Philippine kidnap-for-ransom group kidnapped five Indonesian fishermen from Malaysian waters in eastern Sabah earlier this week.
Malaysian police reported the abduction occurred around 8 p.m. Jan. 16 when six masked gunmen boarded a boat containing eight men near Tambisan island and headed toward Philippine waters. Philippine authorities could not immediately be reached for comment on the report.
The kidnappers took the captain identified as Arsyad Dahlan, 41, and four others, Arizal Kastamiran, 29, La Baa, 32, Riswanto Hayano, 27, and Edi Lawalopo, 53, boarding their own boat and releasing three of the fishermen who returned to Sabah the next day. The three were identified as Abdul Latif, 37, Daeng Akbal, 20, and Pian Janiru, 36.
Hazani Ghazali, chief of the Eastern Sabah Security Command, confirmed the incident.
"We suspect that this was done by a kidnap-for-ransom group," he told BenarNews when asked if the kidnapping was carried out by Abu Sayyaf Group or a different group operating from Philippines islands bordering Malaysia.
Hazani confirmed reports that the fishing boat was detected at 9:10 p.m. Friday as it returned to Malaysian waters and the three fishermen were detained by marine police to be questioned about the kidnapping.
Authorities have not determined the group responsible for this latest kidnapping, the first in 2020.
Abu Sayyaf has been blamed for a spate of kidnappings in the region in recent years where Malaysian and Indonesian sailors and fishermen have been taken hostage. Suspects in previous kidnappings would demand ransom for their release.
In September, three Indonesian fishermen were abducted from their boat off Sabah's east coast near the border with the Philippines. On Wednesday, Philippine officials announced security forces rescued the third Indonesian fisherman weeks after authorities said he was recaptured by Abu Sayyaf captors while his two compatriots were rescued in southern Sulu province.
Earlier in the same month, Malaysian police said security forces gunned down two suspected Abu Sayyaf members during a shootout at sea off the Sabah state.
Founded in the early 1990s, Abu Sayyaf is notorious for kidnappings, bombings and beheadings carried out in the southern Philippines over the past two decades. The group, based in and around Jolo and Basilan islands in the southwestern part of the Philippines, has been blacklisted by the United States as a foreign terrorist organization.
Sabah has been under a dusk-to-dawn sea curfew during the past few months as authorities took steps to curtail movements of armed groups involved in kidnap-for-ransom activities.
Malaysia signed an agreement with the Philippines and Indonesia in 2017 to launch trilateral patrols in the region aimed at reducing the risk of kidnapping and other terrorist acts.


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BENARNEWS- Thailand and southern BRN rebels have held direct talks in Kuala Lumpur for the first time in years, officials said Tuesday, expressing confidence the meeting set the stage for negotiations to end a decades-long conflict that has killed thousands.
A delegation from Bangkok, headed by chief Thai negotiator Gen. Wanlop Rugsanaoh, met with a team representing the Barisan Revolusi Nasional insurgents during talks on Monday facilitated by Malaysia, the two sides said.
"This meeting reaffirmed our endeavor and intention to seek peaceful solutions to the problems in the Southern Border Provinces of Thailand," according to a statement issued by Thailand's so-called Secretariat for Peace Dialogue.
"The meeting provided an opportunity for both sides to meet and get to know each other and also acknowledge a working framework which would help ensure the progress and continuity of the dialogue," the Thai side added.
It was the first official bilateral meeting between Thailand and BRN's military wing brokered by Malaysia since late 2013, when a previous effort at negotiating peace in the mainly Muslim and Malay-speaking southern border region appeared to go nowhere.
Monday's meeting took place in the Malaysian capital as Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha visited the region known as the Deep South to promote economic development in the impoverished area.
"We hope that an improvement in people's living standard can help reduce violence," he said during his two-day trip.
Late last year, officials representing Thailand and the BRN held back-channel talks in Berlin that were organized by an international organization, but Malaysia was not consulted about the meeting ahead of time, an official on the Malaysian National Security Council told BenarNews in December.
At this week's meeting, the BRN delegation was led by Anas Abdulrahman (also known as Hipni Mareh), a former teacher at a religious school in southern Thailand's Yala province.
He told a news conference in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday that the BRN and Thai delegations agreed to a set of commitments on which they could build mutual confidence.
"On Feb. 28, 2013, there was a political agreement between BRN and the Thai government. However, due to several issues, which saw the need for confidence building between both sides to be carried out step-by-step, we continued the process through the back channel," he told the press conference organized by Malaysia but where only a handful of news organizations were allowed in.
"The result, thank God, is the formation of this [negotiation] today," Anas told reporters.
The Thai military has blamed BRN for carrying on with deadly attacks across the region.
"We reached a mutual agreement to resolve the unending conflict that, until now, has caused thousands of deaths and casualties," said Abdul Aziz Jabal, a BRN delegate.
"Therefore, both the BRN and Royal Thai government have a mutual understanding to resolve the conflict in Patani through political means, which is through the peace process," he added, using a separatist name for the Deep South.
According to Anas, both the Thai and BRN negotiators agreed during the first round of talks on Monday that they needed to strengthen their commitment to terms of reference, which they had framed before, and that Malaysia would continue to facilitate the process.
MARA's place in new talks unclear
Last month, Wanlop, Thailand's new negotiator, said he was determined to involve all rebel groups and factions in efforts to bring about peace to the Deep South.
Since 2015, Thailand has been involved in talks with MARA Patani, a panel representing southern insurgent organizations, but those negotiations achieved no breakthroughs to date and BRN's military wing stayed away from them.
On Tuesday, it was unclear whether BRN had included MARA Patani in the new talks with Thailand, excluded it from direct negotiations with Bangkok, or whether the Thai government was pursuing a second track of negotiations with MARA.
According to a highly placed Malaysian government source who has direct knowledge of the peace process, Monday's dialogue was only an introductory meeting and BRN had informed other participants that they would bring in the other groups to join future negotiations. The source requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.
Abu Hafez Al-Hakim, the spokesman for MARA Patani, said it was too early to predict if BRN would pursue negotiations with Thailand separate from MARA or involve other members of the panel in the talks.
"If they did not want others to be involved, and Malaysia along with Thailand also agreed on that, then MARA can just sit back and relax," he told BenarNews.
Crisis Group: Peace talks need 'reboot'
BRN panelists spoke to reporters in Kuala Lumpur the same day that the International Crisis Group (ICG), a Brussels-based NGO that specializes in research into conflict resolution, published a study about efforts to bring peace to the Thai Deep South.
The group's report noted how Wanlop had called for direct talks with BRN, "which has rejected the existing dialogue."
According to ICG, the dialogue process "needs a reboot" with BRN involved and prepared "to engage constructively."
Bangkok, for its part, "should overcome its aversion to international mediation and cease equating decentralization with partition," the group said as it urged Thailand and Malaysia "to incorporate external mediation."
More than 7,000 people have been killed in roadside bombings, shootings and other violence across the Deep South – which consists of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala provinces and four districts of Songkhla province – since the separatist insurgency reignited in 2004.
Malaysia, which shares a border with the Deep South, remains a crucial facilitator, ICG said, but Kuala Lumpur "is too enmeshed in the conflict for the parties to see it as impartial."
Araya Poejar in Bangkok and Nani Yusof in Washington contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad welcomed the chief of the Palestinian militant group Hamas to Putrajaya on Wednesday during his first official trip to Malaysia since becoming the organization's top leader in May 2017, officials said.
While paying a courtesy call at the prime minister's office, Ismail Haniyeh praised Mahathir, who is known for being outspoken in criticizing Israel, for supporting the Palestinian people, according to state media and information on the Malaysian leader's official Twitter account.
Both the United States and Israel have branded Haniyeh as a terrorist and Hamas as a terror organization. Haniyeh was visiting Malaysia as part of his first trip outside of the Gaza Strip or Egypt as chief of the political wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), a tour that has also taken him to Iran, Oman, Turkey and Qatar.
"According to the Hamas leader, Malaysia has a very special position in the Islamic world," Malaysia's state-run Bernama news service quoted Mahathir as saying about his conversation with Haniyeh.
Mahathir said Haniyeh expressed gratitude for the prime minister's efforts "to bring fresh ideas to the Islamic world," and the Hamas leader cited the Kuala Lumpur Summit organized by the Malaysian government as an example.
Last month, Malaysia hosted the leaders of Iran, Turkey and Qatar – all rivals of Saudi Arabia –during a three-day conference. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) criticized it as an event that could weaken the 57-nation intergovernmental body based in the Saudi kingdom.
In 2018, after Haniyeh became the Hamas chief, the United States government added his name to its list of specially designated global terrorists, saying he had "committed, or poses a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security, foreign policy or economy of the United States."
The U.S. State Department had previously listed Hamas as a foreign terrorist organization, accusing units associated with it up of conducting suicide bombings against Israeli civilian and military targets.
In April 2018, a Palestinian engineer named Fadi Mohamad Al Batsh, who was allegedly linked to Hamas, was gunned down in Kuala Lumpur. According to reports in the Israeli press, he was killed by the Mossad, Israel's national intelligence service.
The 94-year-old Mahathir, who has been accused in the Israeli and Western media of expressing anti-Semitic views, has not shied away from criticizing the United States over its longtime alliance with Israel, even after returning to office as prime minister of Muslim-majority Malaysia in 2018.
In a September 2016 interview with BenarNews, Mahathir pointed to Western polices in the Middle East, including ongoing Western support for Israel, as exacerbating the worldwide problem of terrorism.
The militant group that calls itself the Islamic State grew out if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he said.
"But the world will not see it because the press is totally controlled by the Western countries," Mahathir said in the interview. "They will not blame themselves. ... The real cause is that they have mishandled the Middle East over the last 60 years."


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's home ministry has canceled a planned single identity card for foreigners living in Sabah because the local government said it would not implement the program after the state's ruling party lost a by-election on Jan. 18, officials said.
The state cabinet on Wednesday decided to cancel the proposed Sabah Temporary Pass (PSS), which was to be introduced in June and would have helped Malaysia monitor its border with the Philippines, Sabah Chief Minister Shafie Apdal said.
The card was expected to standardize documents held by foreigners in the two states in Malaysian Borneo and aid law enforcement operations, Home Affairs Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said as he announced the card program on Jan. 13. The card, to be renewed every three years, was to contain security features including the holder's biometrics, and could be obtained for a fee of 120 ringgit (U.S. $29).
Shafie said his cabinet took into account two issues before deciding to drop the project and notifying the home ministry.
"Not only the Kimanis by-election, but the complaints from people as a whole – they said they did not want to see it implemented," he told reporters.
Mohamad Alamin, a candidate for the opposition Barisan Nasional coalition, defeated Warisan Party candidate Karim Bujang by more than 2,000 votes in Saturday's parliamentary by-election. Afterward, Najib Razak, the former prime minister and former chief of Barisan Nasional, said the outcome showed that the state government should cancel the temporary pass program.
Sabah has a population of 3.9 million, including about 1.1 million non-citizens, according to official statistics. Muhyiddin had said more than 136,000 people living in Sabah would be eligible for the card.
On Thursday, Shafie said the state would carry on with efforts to monitor foreigners.
"The state government will continue to carry out our responsibility in managing the undocumented migrants ... we will try our best to ensure that this would not affect the security as well as the environment of our state," he said.
The home ministry, meanwhile, said it was aware of the Sabah decision.
"The ministry wants to stress that efforts to settle issues of refugees in Sabah is the commitment of both the federal government together with the Sabah state government, which must be carried out continuously and more meticulously without jeopardizing the rights of the citizens, as well as the interests and security of the people of Sabah," the ministry said in a statement.
'Rebranding'
Analyst Lai Yew Meng of the Universiti Malaysia Sabah supported the action.
"The decision by the Sabah state government to not push ahead with the plan to introduce the PSS reflects its position as a democratically elected government that respects the decision of the people of Sabah, who have made clear their objection toward the newly proposed documentation during the Kimanis by-election," he told BenarNews.
He said the state government was wise to drop the single I.D. card program for the time being because of the negative public sentiment and lack of understanding of its security function.
"The introduction or 'rebranding' of this security document in the foreseeable future would undoubtedly have to be preceded by more comprehensive stakeholder engagement," he said.
Such efforts were needed, he said, "to ensure the general public be more politically literate and aware of the need for such an identification and documentation measure to address the perennial problem of illegal immigrants and refugees in Sabah."


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian health officials announced four confirmed coronavirus infections on Saturday, becoming the fourth Southeast Asian country where the virus has emerged.
Early Saturday, Malaysian Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad confirmed that three Chinese nationals – a 65-year-old woman and her two young grandsons – were infected and had been admitted to Sungai Buloh hospital in Kuala Lumpur for treatment. He identified the woman as the wife of the man detected with the virus in Singapore on Thursday.
Hours later, Noor Hisham Abdullah, director-general of Malaysia's health department, announced a fourth confirmed infection.
"This case is not related to the three positive cases that were reported earlier today (Saturday)," he said in a post on the health department's official Facebook page.
Cases of the coronavirus have also been reported in Vietnam, and Thailand confirmed a fifth infection on Friday.
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said his government had no plans to block Chinese tourists from entering Malaysia.
"No stopping them," Mahathir told reporters on Saturday, referring to Chinese tourists.
"We will check them," he said. "By checking, it would enable us to detect [the presence of the virus] at early stage."
China has confirmed more than 1,300 cases of the virus and at least 41 deaths, reports say. It has blocked an unprecedented 36 million people from travelling, as the Asian country and the Chinese diaspora mark Lunar New Year, typically the most festive holiday of the year.
Australia confirmed four cases on its soil on Saturday, bringing to at least 11 the total number of countries outside China to be touched by the previously unknown strain of coronavirus first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
Five others tested negative
In Malaysia, five others who were traveling with the grandmother tested negative for the virus, the Malaysian health minister said.
"Right now we have the grandmother and the two young kids in an isolation and observation ward," Dzulkefly told a news conference. "The mother of the children requested to stay with the kids and we're allowing her to."
Noor, the Malaysian health department's director-general, said Malaysia's fourth confirmed case involved a 40-year-old man from Wuhan in China's Hubei province. He said the man arrived with his wife and child by bus from Singapore in Johor Bahru, capital of the state of Johor, on Jan. 22.
As of Saturday, the man was reported to be suffering from fever and coughing but in a stable condition while undergoing treatment at a government-funded hospital, Noor said.
Johor health officials had also located all 17 Chinese tourists who were in the same bus and "screening results showed that they did not have fever and there was no symptoms of infection," Noor said. The visitors had been placed under isolation at a health facility, he said, without elaborating.
There was no confirmed case of the coronavirus in the Philippines as of Saturday. A 5-year-old Chinese boy recently tested negative for the virus, while health officials said they were monitoring a 36-year-old man from the central city of Tacloban.


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BENARNEWS- A Malaysian court on Tuesday acquitted a teenage suspect but ordered another to enter his defense in an arson case that killed 23 people at an Islamic boarding school in Kuala Lumpur three years ago.
Azman Abdullah, a Kuala Lumpur High Court judge, ruled that the prosecution had established enough evidence to prove its case against one of the two defendants, both 19-year-old males.
"The court has made a decision that the prosecution was only able to prove a prima facie case against the first accused on all charges. Meanwhile, the second accused is acquitted," Azman said in handing down the verdict. "With this, I order the first accused to enter his defense on all 23 charges."
The two defendants broke down in tears after hearing the verdict.
"I have no plans but I'm grateful for this. I'm a bit upset that my friend could not walk free," the freed teen told reporters outside the courtroom.
The blaze broke out before dawn on Sept. 14, 2017, at the three-story Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah, a madrassa where Muslim boys study and memorize the Koran.
Two teachers and 21 students, aged 6 to 16, were killed in the fire that trapped them behind barred windows and a locked door, officials said. Firefighters found the bodies piled up and charred beyond recognition.
The blaze caused outrage on social media and led to calls for better regulation of religious schools, which are mostly privately run and not supervised by Malaysia's Ministry of Education.
Within days of the disaster, Malaysian authorities announced the arrests of seven suspects and declared a motive: Revenge.
"The motive was to cause a fire, not to kill. It was also prompted by mocking," Kuala Lumpur police chief Amar Singh said then during a televised news conference. "It was likely that they were under the influence when they allegedly committed the offense."
Singh did not elaborate. Police later filed murder charges against the two teens.
If the court convicts him of murder, the remaining teen could face life imprisonment. In Malaysia, a murder charge carries a mandatory death penalty, but minors may only be sentenced to life behind bars.
On Tuesday, the court ordered the trial's defense stage to start on March 2.
Juriani Tumin, the father of the acquitted teen, expressed gratitude over the court's decision.
"I thank Allah for this. Maybe after this, my son will continue his studies," Juriani told reporters outside the courtroom. "He will be a better person."
The mother of the other teen, who asked that her name not be used, expressed disappointment as she spoke to BenarNews outside the courtroom.
"I did not expect this outcome," she said. "Of course, I'm upset that my son is not off the hook while his friend walked free."
Tuesday's verdict brought mixed feelings for the mother of one of the victims.
Businesswoman Hartini Abd Ghani, whose 12-year-old son, Nik Muhammad Ridzuan Nik Azlan, died in the fire, said she would appeal the court's decision or move for a retrial.
"There must be reasons for the court to make that decision, but I will discuss with my lawyer to see if there are venues for appeal or a retrial," she told BenarNews in a phone interview.
"Those responsible for the loss of 23 lives must be found. That's the fact – 23 lives have been lost, but it wouldn't have happened if someone didn't start the fire," she said.


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BENARNEWS- Militants linked to Islamic State extremists have launched an ideological campaign to persuade dozens of Malaysians living in Syrian camps to stay and fight to re-establish a caliphate in the Middle East, Malaysia's counter-terrorist police chief said Thursday.
Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay said efforts to repatriate Malaysians from Syria, including women and children, were being complicated by the Islamic State information campaign as IS tries to regain power it lost, after Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces drove its forces out of Baguz in March 2019. Baguz was the last IS stronghold in Syria and Iraq.
"IS is trying its best to brainwash, control and persuade Malaysians and others that IS will return to power, making some of them reluctant to return home," Ayob told BenarNews.
"They have gone through a very strong process of indoctrination to believe that their actions are correct [and] based on the hadith," he said, adding that police had received intelligence regarding Malaysians in Syria from the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR.
Malaysian police were working with unnamed third parties in the region to reach out to those citizens in Syria and begin the repatriation process, and the Malaysian government would decide whether to allow them to return home, Ayob said.
Police identified 56 Malaysians – 19 men, 12 women, 17 boys and eight girls – who are living in Syrian camps or at large, according to the chief of the Malaysian police's anti-terror wing.
"IS is attempting to strengthen their ideology at camps where women and children are detained in Syria. We have obtained information that IS is influencing them not to return to their country of origin," Ayob said, according to the New Straits Times newspaper.
Previously, 11 women and children told officials they were willing to return, but that number has fallen to nine, he said. Police have identified 10 women, 12 boys and five girls who are living at the al-Hol refugee camp in northeastern Syria.
"Nine Malaysian men are in the al-Hasakah prison while one is in the Idlib prison. So far, we have not been able to contact them," Ayob told BenarNews, when asked if the Malaysian men wanted to be repatriated.
If the men choose to return, they will be detained and investigated for potential criminal charges, Ayob said, adding that the women and children would undergo a special assessment by psychologists.
"We will find out why they are in Syria, whether they were forced or joined IS. If there is sufficient evidence, the women will be charged as well," he said.
2 men deported, charged
In December, two men who were accused of traveling to Syria to commit terrorist acts were charged under Malaysia's Security Offenses (Special Measures) Act. Both men could face up to 30 years in prison if convicted.
The pair were the first Malaysians to be deported from Syria after Turkish troops crossed the border into Syrian territory in October 2019 to go after Kurdish fighters.
Lawyer Hamdan Hamzah who represents one of the suspects, Mohamad Azmer, told a judge that his client wanted the case to be heard by the High Court.
"The accused had been to Syria. That is the crux of the charge," Hamdan told Judge Saifuakmal Mohd Said at a hearing last month. "The accused intents to plead guilty at the High Court."
Meanwhile, Ayob said about 120 Malaysians were known to have traveled to Syria since 2014 to engage in terrorist activities, adding that there had been no recent attempts.
More than 55,000 suspected militants and their families have been taken to detention centers since IS lost control of its territory, according to the U.N. About 11,000 family members of fighters from almost 50 countries are being held at the al-Hol camp in substandard conditions.
About 50 detainees are Malaysians, officials said in December.
In addition, Malaysian authorities have arrested 495 people linked to alleged terror activities since 2013, according to government figures compiled by BenarNews. Dozens have been freed but no clear number is available.
Nani Yusof in Washington contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Authorities charged an Indonesian and two Malaysians on Friday, accusing them of possessing terrorism-related items and being involved in extremist activities by using a popular electronic messaging platform to gather support for the Islamic State group, an official said.
The Indonesian, identified as a 30-year-old construction worker named Irwanzir, was charged at the Sessions Court in Penang state, according to the official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case with the media.
"Irwanzir intended to open a military training camp here for IS and has picked the jungles at Batu Gajah and Ipoh in Perak state as the location," the BenarNews source said, using the acronym for Islamic State.
IS, which once proclaimed a self-styled "caliphate" across parts of Syria and Iraq, was largely defeated in 2019 when its last stronghold in the region fell and its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed during a night-time raid by U.S. special forces in northwest Syria.
The Indonesian, a native of Aceh province who goes by the alias Abu Ali or Iskandar, was arrested on Jan. 6. Authorities filed immigration-related charges against him for overstaying his visa and for possessing items linked to IS.
If found guilty, Irwanzir faces up to seven years in prison and fines.
The Indonesian man also tried to influence members of a group on the online messaging platform WhatsApp to join him in a "holy war" in his homeland, said the official, who did not elaborate.
It was not immediately clear if Irwanzir was represented by a lawyer on Friday. Sessions Court judge Norsalha Hamzah set March 5 for the defendant's next court hearing.
Two Malaysians charged in Perak
Also on Friday in Perak, about 161 km (101 miles) southeast of Penang, authorities filed separate terror-related charges against two Malaysians – a masseur and an a driver of a taxi-hailing app.
Wan Amirul Azlan Jalaludin, 35, and Mohamad Ayub Musa, 36, are members of Iwanzir's pro-IS group on WhatsApp, the official also told BenarNews.
The two men, who were not represented by lawyers on Friday, face allegations of pledging their allegiance to IS, a criminal offense they allegedly committed in Batu Gajah, a town in Perak.
They were charged separately before Ipoh Sessions Court Judge Azman Abu Hassan, who denied bail for both and set March 20 for the next hearing.
Malaysia, a Muslim-majority nation of 33 million people, experienced its first terror attack on June 26, 2016, when a grenade blast injured eight patrons at the Movida nightclub in Puchong town near Kuala Lumpur. Authorities blamed that attack on Islamic State.
Authorities have arrested more than 500 people linked to alleged terror activities since 2013, according to government figures compiled by BenarNews. Dozens of suspects have been freed but no clear number is available.


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BENARNEWS-

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BENARNEWS- The start of a long-awaited corruption trial against Rosmah Mansor, the wife of the ex-Malaysian prime minister, was postponed for two days when she failed to show up on Monday and her attorney claimed she was suffering from a "life-threatening" illness.
The former first lady, who is facing charges over allegations that she had sought a multimillion-dollar bribe in connection with a solar-hybrid power project in Sarawak state, was to appear before Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan for the opening of her trial. Instead, her attorneys were present without Rosmah.
Apologizing on his client's behalf, defense lawyer Jagjit Singh handed a letter to the judge from a medical professional stating that Rosmah was suffering from chronic adrenal issues, which could lead to Addisonian crisis. The court did not release the name of the doctor, described as an orthopedic and trauma surgeon at a private medical center in the nation's capital.
"Based on searches through Google, complications faced by my client can be life threatening," Jagjit said as he handed Zaini a document containing search results on the condition.
The letter also stated that Rosmah, 68, suffered from severe neck pain and osteoarthritis in both knees. The physician advised her to rest for one to two weeks from the date of the letter, Feb. 2.
Zaini responded that the request was wasting the court's time and he ordered Rosmah to appear on Wednesday.
"Can I suggest that your client comes in a wheelchair," he told the attorney. "I understand she has to sit on a hard bench, which may not be good for her condition, so I will allow her to come in a wheelchair."
The judge also said he would allow for short breaks during the trial as needed.
"These dates are very precious to me. If I were to know that this would happen, I would have scheduled other cases today. I am very sorry for your client, but I also cannot postpone this trial much longer."
Lead deputy public prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram also questioned Rosmah's health issues, calling the defense request a last-minute attempt to stall the proceedings.
"I also have those," said Sri Ram, 76, in response to Rosmah's medical issues.
The only thing Rosmah is suffering from is "an overdose of publicity and wealth," he said, while suggesting the court cancel her bail.
Rosmah is facing two counts of graft under the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act for allegedly asking for 187.5 million ringgit ($45.56 million) and receiving 1.5 million ringgit ($364,500) for helping Jepak Holdings win a contract valued at 1.25 billion ringgit to supply hybrid solar systems to 369 schools in Sarawak. She posted 1 million ringgit ($243,000) bail when the charges were filed in November 2018.
She also faces five charges for failure to declare income to Malaysia Income Tax Revenue Board and 12 money laundering charges.
Former aide Rizal Mansor, who also was charged in the Jepak Holdings case, saw the complaint against him dismissed in January as court officials said he could be called as a prosecution witness.
Loss of power
Charges against Rosmah were filed after her husband, former Prime Minister Najib Razak, lost power in May 2018 when the upstart Pakatan Harapan defeated the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition in the general election.
Najib is standing trial in two different courts on several of the 42 charges he faces linked to the beleaguered state development fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad and its subsidiary, SRC International. Malaysian and U.S. prosecutors allege that at least $4.56 billion (18.8 billion ringgit) was stolen from 1MDB and the subsidiary and diverted through acquisitions of real estate, artwork and luxury properties by Najib and his associates.
Shortly after the government of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad took power, police raided Najib properties, seizing jewelry, handbags, cash and documents valued at $273 million (1.1 billion ringgit). The items included 117 million ringgit ($28.4 million) in cash in different currencies, luxury handbags, designer Swiss-made watches and 12,000 pieces of jewelry.


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BENARNEWS- Southeast Asian nations reported an eruption of new cases of the deadly coronavirus on Tuesday, with Malaysia confirming its first citizen case and neighbors Thailand and Singapore detecting more cases of the illness that has killed hundreds in China.
As of Tuesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) had recorded 20,647 confirmed cases from 25 countries, including 20,471 in China.
Thailand still had the highest number of cases outside China, with 25, while Singapore's rose to 24 on Tuesday. Malaysia had so far recorded 10 cases and the Philippines, which announced the first virus death outside of China on Sunday, had reported three cases, according to WHO.
China's National Health Commission reported 64 deaths on Monday, taking the country's toll to 425.
The latest reports on the virus from selected South Asian and Southeast Asian nations:
Malaysia
Malaysia confirmed two new cases on Tuesday, including that of a 41-year-old man who became the nation's first citizen to be infected with the coronavirus.
The announcement brought the total number of cases in the nation to 10.
Malaysian Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad said the man from Selangor state had attended a business meeting in Singapore with Chinese colleagues, including one from Wuhan.
"He returned to Malaysia on Jan. 23, and on Jan. 29 he received treatment at a private hospital because of fever and cough," Dzulfefly told reporters.
The other new case of the flu-like illness involved a 63-year-old man from Wuhan, who has been in Malaysia since Jan. 18, he said.
A statement from Singapore's health ministry on Tuesday confirmed six additional cases of the virus, bringing to 24 the number of confirmed cases in the city-state at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula.
"Three of the local transmission cases can be traced to contact with recent travelers from Mainland China. The fourth case is a close contact of one of the local transmission cases," the statement said.
The remaining two were from among the group of Singaporeans who were evacuated from Wuhan on Jan. 30, it said.
The four cases that involved human-to-human transmission included an Indonesian maid of a Singaporean woman working in a health product shop patronized by Chinese tourists, the statement said.
Noor Hisham Abdullah, director-general of Kuala Lumpur's health ministry, said Tuesday that the 10 cases in Malaysia included a 4-year-old Chinese girl who had recovered from the virus and was allowed to return home.
"She is now is good health and has been allowed to return home," Noor said in a statement.
"This case shows that the 2019-nCoV infection is treatable and that the patient can recover completely," he said, referring to the assigned name of the 2019 novel coronavirus.
Thailand
Thailand said it detected six more cases on Tuesday, bringing its total to 25.
Suwannachai Wattanayingcharoenchai, director-general of the Thai Department of Disease Control, told reporters in Bangkok that four of the six new cases involved Thais, including two rental-car drivers who had picked up Chinese passengers. The other two are a Chinese couple who had returned from a recent trip to Japan, he said.
"Five out of six new patients announced today have improved, and when the lab results show a negative, they will be allowed to leave the hospital," Suwannachai said.
One of the four Thais, a 70-year-old with pneumonia, was currently in serious condition, Suwannachai said, without elaborating.
Authorities said 17 of the total 25 people carrying the virus remained hospitalized. The Buddhist-majority nation on Friday identified a taxi driver as its first case of human-to-human transmission.
Meanwhile, a Thai Air Asia flight arrived on Tuesday at the U-Tapao airport with 138 Thai nationals evacuated from Wuhan, officials said.
News photos showed the repatriated Thais waving from buses, which would take them to a naval facility east of Bangkok, where officials said they would be quarantined for 14 days.
Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters that six of the evacuees were sent to hospitals after exhibiting high fever upon arrival.
"They were checked for symptoms and high fever," he said.
Elsewhere, a 42-year-old South Korean woman has been diagnosed with the virus after returning home on Jan. 19 from a tour in Thailand, according to a statement from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Thai authorities could not confirm if the South Korean contracted the virus while visiting Thailand, since Seoul authorities have also detected 16 cases, Suwannachai said.
The woman sought treatment on Jan. 25 after experiencing chills and other symptoms, but only tested positive for the virus on Tuesday, South Korean officials said.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh's decision on Sunday to suspend the issuance of visas-upon-arrival to Chinese nationals in the wake of the virus has sparked complaints from Taiwan.
Dhaka's blanket ban has resulted in some Taiwanese being refused entry to the South Asian country, Taiwan's foreign ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou told reporters Tuesday.
She said the ministry had contacted the Bangladeshi government, informing Dhaka authorities that Taiwan "is not part of the People's Republic of China."
Taiwan, which has reported 11 cases of the virus, established the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Bangladesh in 2004, but shut it down five years later.
On Saturday, Bangladesh repatriated 312 of its nationals from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus, but so far has not confirmed any cases. The repatriated Bangladeshis were expected to be kept at a quarantine unit in the capital.
Indonesia
Although it has not confirmed any case of the coronavirus so far, Indonesia has imposed a travel ban to and from China starting midnight on Wednesday, amid efforts to prevent the infection from spreading in its archipelago.
Chinese Ambassador to Indonesia Xiao Qian warned that such a ban, including Jakarta's move to suspend its visa-free and visa-upon-arrival policies for Chinese nationals, could hit Indonesia's tourism industry.
"We need to be calm," Xiao told reporters Tuesday. "Don't overreact and cause a negative impact on investment and the economy."
China is one of the biggest sources of investment and tourism revenue for most Southeast Asian nations, whose top officials had earlier shied away from imposing travel bans.
Xiao said about 2 million Chinese tourists visit Indonesia last year, representing 13 percent of the Southeast Asian nation's total tourist arrival for that period. "We hope that Indonesia can be rational," he said.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told reporters on Sunday that visitors who have been in China for 14 days would be barred from entering or transiting the country.
On Tuesday, Indonesia rejected East Timor's request to quarantine its 17 citizens scheduled to be evacuated from Wuhan.
Tjokorda Oka Artha Ardhana Sukawati, vice governor of the island of Bali, earlier told reporters that the East Timor government had asked Jakarta to quarantine 17 students in Bali for up to three weeks when they land on the island.
But Ketut Suarjaya, chief of the island's health office, said an official letter rejecting East Timor's request had been sent through the Indonesian embassy in Dili.
Philippines
The Philippines, where the first recorded death outside China occurred over the weekend, has also imposed travel restrictions, banning the entry of all foreign nationals travelling from China.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte urged Filipinos on Monday not to engage in xenophobia, a day after his government reported the death of a Chinese man, who was already infected when he traveled to the Philippines in January.
"This mentioning the Chinese and blaming them is xenophobia," Duterte told reporters. "Stop this xenophobia thing."
He said that Chinese nationals flying in from outside China would be allowed to enter the Philippines, as health authorities said they were awaiting confirmation on whether 48 other patients currently under observation were infected.
WHO has declared the flu-like illnesses that started in China late last year a global emergency, but experts say much is still unknown about the deadly virus, including its mortality rate.
"No new countries reported cases of 2019-nCoV in the 24 hours since the previous situation report," the WHO said in its latest Situation Report on Tuesday.
Wilawan Watcharasakwet in Bangkok contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- The corruption trial of Rosmah Mansor, the wife of ex-Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, began Wednesday with prosecutors saying she wielded great influence in her husband's government, while her attorney shot back by accusing the other side of "character assassination."
The former first lady, known for her taste in expensive clothes, shoes, handbags and jewelry while Najib was in power, walked into the courtroom despite what her lawyers had described as a life-threatening health condition that delayed the trial's opening by two days.
"By herself, she occupied no official position. However, she wielded considerable influence by reason of her overbearing nature," prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram said in his opening statement as proceedings started at the Kuala Lumpur High Court.
Gopal portrayed Rosmah's image as that of a powerful woman who could have influenced government decisions.
But defense lawyer Jagjit Singh accused the prosecution team of making sensational statements with "odors of publicity."
"These are the remarks that they themselves chose to defame the accused and give a remark to the press," Jagjit said. "This is a character assassination."
Rosmah's trial – the first against her – was expected to start Monday but was postponed after her attorney told the court she was hospitalized after suffering from severe neck pain and osteoarthritis in both knees.
Najib lost power when his longtime ruling coalition suffered a shock electoral defeat in 2018, after U.S. and Malaysian authorities exposed a multibillion-dollar corruption scandal at state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
Rosmah, 68, and Najib, 66, are at the center of a wide-ranging corruption probe into 1MDB that Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad launched after returning to power in 2018.
Mahathir barred the couple from leaving the country and authorities raided their properties, confiscating up to U.S. $273 million in cash, jewelry and luxury handbags that, critics said, symbolized the couple's ostentatious lifestyle.
Najib is also facing 42 counts of graft, breach of trust, abuse of power and money laundering related to allegations that about $4.5 billion had been siphoned off from 1MDB, which he founded in 2009. If found guilty, Najib could spend the rest of his life in prison.
In November 2018, prosecutors filed three counts of corruption against Rosmah over allegations that she solicited 187.5 million ringgit ($45.5 million) in 2016 from an executive of Jepak Holdings to help it win a contract from the education ministry to supply hybrid solar systems to schools in eastern Sarawak state.
She also pocketed 1.5 million ringgit ($364,500) from the same company official in 2017, prosecutors allege. Rosmah pleaded not guilty last year to both charges, which each carry prison sentences of up to 20 years and hefty fines.
Prosecutors also filed five tax-related offenses and 12 money-laundering charges against her in October 2018.
On Wednesday, Rosmah, wore a bright-green, flowery traditional Malay blouse and skirt as she appeared in court. She walked on her own from her car up to the fifth floor of the courthouse. An ambulance was seen following her car.
Local media quoted her as saying, "Do I have a choice?" when reporters asked the former first lady if she was feeling better.
Her husband, who is also facing trial at the High Court, appeared in the courtroom and sat next to her during the day's session.


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BENARNEWS- A Malaysian journalist was charged here Wednesday for allegedly spreading misinformation about the novel coronavirus via social media, as the country's attorney general called for expanded legal powers to stop "rumor mongering" during the global health emergency.
Wan Noor Hayati Wan Alias pleaded not guilty at the Kuala Lumpur Magistrate's Court to three counts of violating a section of the penal code that prohibits the publication of any statement, rumor or report with the intention of, or likelihood, of causing fear or alarm among the public.
She is a newspaper reporter with Berita Harian, a Malay-language daily. If convicted, she could face up to two years in prison for each count, or be punished with a fine or both.
Wan Noor Hayati is the first person to be charged in Malaysia over allegations of spreading misinformation about the coronavirus.
Police Inspector-General Abdul Hamid Bador warned that the authorities would go after anyone who spread fake news or information, which could cause public panic and disorder.
"The actions would be irresponsible and unfair to the people because it could simultaneously invite a more serious situation to the harmony (in the country)," Bernama, the state-run news agency, quoted him as saying on Wednesday.
"The police view seriously the actions of those quarters who spread invalid news, and firm and prompt action will be taken to curb them,'' the nation's police chief said.

As of Wednesday the outbreak of the virus, which started in the Chinese city of Wuhan, had topped more than 24,500 cases in 24 countries – but concentrated mostly in China, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The outbreak to date has led to nearly 500 deaths in China and one death in the Philippines. On Wednesday, Malaysian health authorities confirmed two more cases of people infected with the virus, bringing the nationwide total to 12. Three are Malaysian citizens and the rest are Chinese nationals, officials said.
The charges against Wan Noor Hayati accuse her of publishing three posts on her personal Facebook page on Jan. 26, under the pseudonym "Ibu Yati," with the intention of creating public fear.
All the posts have since been removed. It remained unclear whether any were linked to her journalism.
According to Malaysiakini, a local news publication, police shared a screenshot of one of her posts. It appeared to take a dig at Lim Guan Eng, Malaysia's finance minister who is a member of the ethnic Chinese minority.
"This morning, the news said that 1,000 people from China had arrived in Penang ... perhaps there would only be an emergency once LGE gets the virus?" according to the screenshot of the message written originally in Malay.
Wan Noor Hayati, who was freed on bail Wednesday, could not be reached immediately for comment.
Top prosecutor: free speech no license for lies
Later in the day, Attorney General Tommy Thomas issued a strongly worded warning against "lies and rumor mongering" in connection with the viral outbreak.
"No society can permit truth to be a casualty in such circumstances," he said in a three-page statement. "When epidemics occur, panic must be prevented among the citizenry ... Lies about the origin, scale and magnitude of the disease must not be permitted because they endanger public safety."
" have decided that it is in the national interest that persons who initiate and disseminate lies on any issue relating to the 'coronavirus' on the internet shall be investigated, and if a case exists, be charged," Thomas said.
His office would charge individuals suspected of such online activity under Section 505(b) of the penal code, the provision under which Wan Noor Hayati was charged.
Thomas also called for suspects in such cases to face potential prosecution under the 1998 Communications and Multimedia Act. However, the law's relevant provision would need to be expanded through a parliamentary amendment to enable his office to prosecute those cases, the attorney general noted.
Malaysia's constitution guarantees free speech but, Thomas said, this does "not give a license to propagate lies."
"The phenomenon is compounded by our obsession to introduce racial or religious overtones into every issue of public life. Hence, lies on the internet connecting 'coronavirus' to any particular ethnic or religious group is not only deplorable but inflammatory in our plural society," he added.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian counterterrorism chief Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, who has been hailed for the capture of hundreds of militant suspects during his four-year stint despite threats to his life, has been promoted to head the police force in Johor state, officials said this week.

Ayob's transfer and new assignment with the rank of Commissioner of Police will take effect March 6, the Royal Malaysia Police announced late Thursday in a statement. It will cover efforts to combat general crime and maintain public order and security in one of Malaysia's biggest states.

His successor in the top counterterror role has yet to be named. 

Ayob's promotion was overdue and he needed to be exposed to a bigger role, Abdul Hamid Bador, the nation's police chief, told the local media on Friday.

"He has done a wonderful job," he said. "So he has been given the opportunity to be out there to lead," Abdul Hamid said.

Although rumors of Ayob's transfer had circulated over the past six months, it was understood that he was only notified about the promotion late Thursday evening. He was summoned to meet with the Mohamed Farid Abu Hassan, director of the police's Special Branch, on the same day and later by Abdul Hamid, the Inspector General of Police, who broke the news to him.

Ayob told BenarNews that he was looking forward to the new challenge. 

"It is something new for me. Insyallah (God willing), I will carry out the task given to the best of my ability," he said briefly.

Under Ayob's leadership in counterterrorism efforts, more than 500 suspects from multiple terror organizations, including Islamic State (IS), have been arrested.

The father of two who hails from Pendang district in the northern Kedah state was appointed as the police's counterterrorism chief in 2016. 

That same year, Malaysia's most wanted terrorist, Muhammad Wanndy Mohamad Jedi, had threatened to kill Ayob. It was only the beginning of many threats that followed from members and supporters of IS.

Ayob had to limit his movements. At one point, he was placed under heavy security due to the threats he received. He is hardly seen in public with his family or wife, who is also a top police officer, to avoid any unwarranted attention and exposure to threats.

Ayob, who holds a Master's degree in information technology from a local university, joined the police force in December 1991. He served three years as a cadet officer in the Criminal Investigation Department before being transferred to serve in the Special Branch, whose functions combine the roles of elite police unit and domestic intelligence agency.

He has been with the Special Branch ever since. He joined the counter terrorism desk in 1995 before it became a separate and bigger unit with its own budget to combat terrorism and extremism in the Southeast Asian country.

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BENARNEWS- The wife of a Malaysian Christian pastor who has been missing since his abduction in 2017 announced on Wednesday that she and her family were suing the government and federal police in an effort to get closure.
Susanna Liew named two former national police chiefs, Mohamad Fuzi Harun and Khalid Abu Bakar, along with other officers, in the civil suit filed Tuesday at the Kuala Lumpur High Court. Her husband, Raymond Koh, was kidnapped on Feb 13, 2017, while driving in Selangor state.
"We really hope filing the civil suit will help to unravel the truth about the abduction," she told BenarNews in a text message.
The suit alleges breach of constitutional and statutory rights for the abduction of Koh, failure to account or disclose his whereabouts, misfeasance in public office, conspiracy to injure and negligence, Liew said earlier as she read from a copy of the legal document.
The lawsuit did not specify damages being sought, she told reporters attending a Wednesday night dinner marking the third anniversary of Koh's abduction.
Last April, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) concluded that, "on a balance of probabilities," Koh "was abducted by State agents" – namely the Special Branch, which is based in the Bukit Aman federal police headquarters.
Speaking at Wednesday's dinner, Liew said she was running out of options to learn what happened that day in 2017.
"We have no alternative but to turn to the last bastion of justice and truth – our judiciary. Only time will tell whether the truth will prevail and all those who perpetrated this heinous act against a citizen of Malaysia will be brought to account for the unlawful acts," Liew told reporters.
Jerald Gomez, Liew's lawyer, said his client did not include a request for damages to be paid should she win the lawsuit, leaving that to the courts.
"In civil cases, we sue for general damages. I know there has been a practice of putting figures, but that is not encouraged by our courts because it sensationalizes the case, and in the end we don't get the figures," he said.
"So we are leaving it to the court to decide how much compensation should be paid," Gomez said.
Fuzi and Khalid did not immediately respond to BenarNews requests for comment.
Joining them as defendants in the lawsuit are serving and retired senior police officers including Awaludin Jadid, former chief of the Special Branch's Social Extremism Division, Huzir Mohamed, director of the Criminal Investigation Department, and Fadzil Ahmat, the CID chief in Selangor, according to media reports.
Other police officers named were Supari Ahmad, Khor Yi Shuen, Hazril Kamis, Mohamad Shamzaini Mohd Daud, and Saiful Bahari Abdul Aziz.

Liew's first lawsuit in the case comes about two months after a special task force formed in June 2019 failed to release a report at the end of its probe.
The government appointed a six-member panel headed by former High Court Judge Rahim Uda to investigate Suhakam's claim that "on a balance of probabilities," Koh was the victim of an enforced disappearance carried out by police officers. The taskforce had a six-month deadline but sought an extension from the Home Ministry to complete its investigation.
Koh was 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. The abduction took less than a minute and was captured on surveillance cameras.


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BENARNEWS- Senior Malaysian politician Anwar Ibrahim said he discussed the handover of power with Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Thursday and claimed that the much-anticipated transfer would be determined during a meeting of the ruling coalition on Feb. 21.
At their meeting on Thursday in Putrajaya, Anwar said he raised the matter of leadership transition after receiving reports that several groups were seeking signatures calling for Mahathir to serve out his full five-year term.
"I tend to believe that he will continue leading the country until the end of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit (APEC)," said Anwar, Mahathir's anointed successor. "However, the matter will be finalized at the Pakatan Harapan (PH) Presidential Meeting on February 21."
Anwar is president of the People's Justice Party (PKR), the linchpin of the Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) coalition, which swept into power in the 2018 general election.
Anwar said Mahathir assured him that he was not involved in the signature campaign and that the 94-year-old leader even said "emphatically" that he would step down as promised.
The meeting took place two months after Mahathir – the world's oldest prime minister – suggested during the Doha Forum in Qatar that he may have to stay in power after 2020, saying he wanted to fix issues he had inherited from the previous government before handing over power to Anwar.
Despite his recent statements related to the transition of leadership, Mahathir had not made it clear exactly when he intended to leave office.
But he told Reuters in an interview that he would keep his promise, although the hand over would not take place before a summit of APEC countries that Malaysia will host in November.
"I made a promise to hand over and I will, accepting that I thought that a change immediately before the APEC summit would be disruptive," Mahathir said.
Mahathir said he would fulfill his promise "irrespective of whatever allegation" people may have against his anointed successor, alluding to fresh claims that Anwar had tried to force a former aide to have sex.
"If people don't want him, that is their business, but I will do my part of the promise," Mahathir said. Anwar has denied the allegations.
Anwar was the nation's most famous political prisoner until he received a royal full-pardon in May 2018, when the opposition alliance that he jointly led with Mahathir pulled off a stunning election victory, ushering then-Prime Minister Najib Razak's political downfall.
Anwar, who once served as deputy prime minister in the 1990s, was sacked by the ruling party after a bitter feud with Mahathir, his political mentor. He served years in prison on what his supporters claimed were politically-motivated sodomy charges, including one that was allegedly orchestrated by Najib.
To defeat Najib, Anwar and Mahathir set aside their bitter feud. Mahathir had pledged during the campaign for the May general election that he would hand over power to Anwar after two years serving as an interim premier.
Anwar, in his statement Thursday, said he told Mahathir that he and his allies would "continue to defend" the pact that they signed on Jan. 7, 2018, in which they agreed that he would eventually take over as prime minister.
"I also reminded that during almost two years under Pakatan Harapan, that agreement has not been challenged by any of the coalition partners," he said.


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BENARNEWS- A bioterrorism expert on Friday became Malaysia's first female counterterror chief, taking the helm of the Muslim-majority nation's agency in charge of fighting threats from Islamic State, al-Qaeda and other violent extremist groups.
Police Inspector-General Abdul Hamid Bador confirmed Normah Ishak's appointment as the police branch's new chief. She succeeds Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, her former boss who was promoted to chief of police in southern Johor state after heading the federal police's counterterrorist force since 2016.
Abdul Hamid described Normah as "a highly qualified, very experienced, [and] tough professional of high integrity, and an excellent commander."
"She is a gutsy officer and there is no doubt she will carry out the task given to her to the best of her ability," the national police chief told BenarNews late Friday. "On top of that, the division has dozens of equally determined and very experienced officers."
The appointment took effect at 11 a.m. Friday.
Abdul Hamid said one of Normah's first tasks would be to deal with the potential return of 56 Malaysians stranded in Syria, including families of fighters who had traveled to the region to join the Islamic State (IS) militant group. In January, Ayob said 19 men, 12 women, 17 boys and eight girls were living in refugee camps or were on the run in Syria after the military defeat of IS in the region last year.
Previously, the government reported that 120 Malaysians had traveled to Syria since 2014 to engage in terrorist activities.
Normah, who joined the police force in 1991, was appointed as Ayob's deputy in 2016, the year of the first attack claimed by IS in the Southeast Asian nation.
Malaysian IS terrorist Muhammad Wanndy Mohamed Jedi masterminded a grenade attack that injured eight people at a pub in the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur on June 28, 2016, officials said. A year later, Wanndy was killed in a drone strike near Raqqa, Syria.
While working under Ayob, Normah assisted in foiling terrorist plots by al-Qaeda in foreign countries with the arrest of foreigners, including five Egyptians, who were part of the Muslim Brotherhood in February 2019.
Normah could not immediately be reached for comment.
A source at federal police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur said she was the right person to lead the counterterrorism unit.
"She is a woman, but gender has nothing to do with how one executes the task given. She is capable of carrying out the task as counterterror chief. She is very strict but humble," the source told BenarNews, adding that the unit's officers would respect her.

Nisha David in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- A second test confirmed that an elderly American woman, who had traveled on a cruise ship allowed to dock in Cambodia, was accurately diagnosed with the coronavirus upon arriving in Kuala Lumpur on a flight from Phnom Penh, Malaysia's deputy prime minister said Sunday.
The Cambodian government and the cruise ship's operator asked Malaysian authorities to retest the 83-year-old U.S. citizen after Malaysia's health ministry announced Saturday that the woman had initially tested positive for the coronavirus (COVID-19).
"This is not the case of a false positive. I repeat, the result is still positive for the wife, negative for the husband," Deputy Prime Minister Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said in a statement.
The unidentified American woman is the first confirmed case of a person diagnosed with the virus after being aboard the ship, the M.V. Westerdam. It set sail from Hong Kong on Feb. 1 but was prevented from docking in Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines and Guam over concerns that its more than 2,200 passengers and crew could be infected with the mystery virus, which originated in China's Hubei province.
On Feb. 13, health authorities in Cambodia – a close ally of China – allowed the ship to dock at the port of Sihanoukville after declaring its more than 2,200 passengers and crew free of the mystery virus, which first broke out in the Chinese province of Hubei.
Cambodian authorities allowed the passengers and crew to begin disembarking from the ship on Friday.
The Ministry of Health said it cleared them for disembarkation after it "conducted thorough health examinations on the Westerdam's passengers and crewmembers," and had worked with the World Health Organization (WHO) and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in doing so, according to Agence Kampuchea Presse, the state news agency.
The Holland America Line, the ship's operator, said it had screened all 2,257 passengers and crew for illness – but no one displayed a fever – and disembarking passengers were screened a second time as well as asked to fill out a health questionnaire.
The passports of everyone onboard the Westerdam were also reviewed to "ensure no one had traveled through mainland China in the 14 days prior to the cruise," the company said in a statement Sunday.
"During the voyage there was no indication of COVID-19 on the ship," Holland America said after Malaysia announced that the woman had tested positive a second time for the virus.
"The guest who tested positive did not visit the ship's medical center to report any symptoms of illness."
So far, no other passengers or crew on the ship or on their way home had shown signs of the illness, the shipping line said, adding it was working with Malaysian and Cambodian authorities, along with WHO and the CDC, to deal with the situation.
"We are in close coordination with some of the leading health experts from around the world," said Dr. Grant Tarling, chief medical officer for the Holland America Line. "These experts are working with the appropriate national health authorities to investigate and follow-up with individuals who may have come in contact the guest."
Malaysia bars entry to other passengers from ship
The American woman and her husband were both first tested after showing symptoms while being screened at Kuala Lumpur's international airport, where they and 143 other passengers from the ship had arrived on a chartered Malaysia Airlines flight on Friday while heading back to their home countries, Malaysian officials said.
Three other chartered flights that were scheduled to bring more passengers from the ship as they transited home via Kuala Lumpur have since been canceled over public health safety concerns, Malaysia authorities said.
The Malaysian government confirmed that "no additional passengers from the Westerdam will be allowed entry into Malaysia," the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur said in a statement posted on its website Sunday.
"Upon their arrival, the Malaysian health authorities have conducted health screenings on all passengers, where an American couple was detected through the thermal scanner of having symptoms and they were immediately taken to the Sungai Buloh Hospital for further checks," Wan Azizah said.
The American woman had a cough but no fever or difficulty breathing, and an X-ray scan revealed she had signs of pneumonia, the deputy prime minister said.
The woman and her 85-year-old husband, who tested negative for COVID-19, were both being treated at a local hospital, Wan Azizah said, noting that the man was diagnosed with a bacterial infection.
Of the other 143 passengers on the charter flight that brought the American couple to Malaysia, 137 had departed the country after undergoing health screenings, officials said. The remaining six – four U.S. citizens and two Dutch nationals – were cleared for departure late Sunday after testing negative for the virus, Noor Hisham Abdullah, Malaysia's director-general of health, said in a news release.
22 cases
The case of the infected American woman brought to 22 the number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Malaysia.
That number includes two other cases that were also confirmed by the health ministry on Saturday but unconnected to the woman who had traveled aboard the Westerdam.
The 21st case is a 32-year-old Chinese citizen married to a Malaysian man and living in Malaysia. Between Jan. 22 and Jan. 30, she traveled to China to visit relatives, and tested positive for the coronavirus after complaining of a sore throat, officials said.
The 20th case was identified as a 27-year-old male Chinese national who was first detected with fever by a thermal scanner as he crossed into Malaysia from Thailand at the overland border crossing in Kedah state, the health ministry said.
On Saturday, Thailand confirmed its 34th case of the coronavirus, a 35-year-old Thai female health care worker who got the virus through contact with a patient, authorities said.
According to the latest information released from WHO on Sunday, the number of COVID-19 cases has topped 51,800 cases in 25 countries, with the vast majority concentrated in China. At least 1,669 people have died from the virus, which the U.N.'s health agency has declared a global emergency.
As of Sunday, neither Indonesia, the most populous country in Southeast Asia, or Bangladesh had confirmed any cases of the virus on their territory.
Last week, Terawan Agus Putranto, Indonesia's health minister, pushed back against research by a Harvard University professor, Marc Lipsitch, who had suggested in a study that Indonesia was possibly underreporting the coronavirus situation. The minister described the Harvard report as "insulting."
On Saturday, hundreds of citizens from both Indonesia and Bangladesh, who had been evacuated from Hubei province, were allowed to return home after being quarantined for two weeks on home soil after being evacuated by plane from Wuhan – the provincial capital and epicenter of the outbreak – reports said.
Meanwhile in the Philippines, which has recorded three cases – including the first death from coronavirus outside of China – President Rodrigo Duterte's government said it was considering evacuating hundreds of Filipinos who were part of the crew on the virus-stricken Diamond Princess, a cruise ship that had been quarantined for two weeks off Japan.
On Sunday, Japanese health authorities announced that 70 new cases of COVID-19 aboard the ship docked in Yokohama had been confirmed, bringing the total number of cases aboard the Diamond Princess to 355 – the largest concentration outside of China.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's foreign ministry summoned the Palestinian envoy Thursday to ask him to clarify comments in which he told a news outlet that the Palestinians had not received monetary donations from Malaysian NGOs for the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem since 2018.
After the meeting, the ministry responded to the statement by Ambassador Walid Abu Ali that donations collected by non-governmental groups in Malaysia – except for one group – had not reached the proper fund for the mosque through the government of Jordan, the custodian of Islamic and Christian holy sites in the Old City of Jerusalem.
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs takes the issue raised seriously," the ministry said in a statement. "According to the Palestinian ambassador, his statement has been made based on records from the management of the Al-Aqsa Mosque since 2018. However, he has not been able to confirm whether a donation has been made specifically to the Al-Aqsa Mosque Waqf Department run by the Jordanian government."
Muslims worldwide see the mosque, which sits on Judaism's holiest site, the Temple Mount, as Islam's third-holiest site.
The foreign ministry also reported that Malaysian NGO leaders issued a joint statement Wednesday declaring that donations had been distributed to assist Palestinians through partners in the region, and not through the government-run account.
"We know that our projects are going well," Anas Abdul Wahab, media director of the NGO Aman Palestin-Malaysia, told BenarNews on Thursday.
"It was not through [Palestinian authorities], but through other bodies, our NGO friends, that assistance reached their people," he told BenarNews, adding that the funds were destined for Palestinians in Gaza and on the West Bank.
"With the government, there usually will be beauracracy," he said, adding, "we know all the rules and can simplify the programs we want to implement.
"There is no bureaucracy and it allows us to move faster," he said.
Aman Palestin sends between 10 million and 20 million ringgit (U.S. $2.39 million and $4.78 million) directly to its bank account in the region each year, depending on the programs it plans to fund, according to Anas.
On Tuesday, the Palestinian ambassador told the New Straits Times that only donations from the Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais) had been accounted for by the Al-Aqsa fund. He said citizens should ask what had happened to their donations.
"Some NGOs in Malaysia, they focused on supporting Palestinians, supporting people in Gaza by raising donations," Walid told the news organization. "I mean, you contribute. You raised the money, but did you ever ask who received the money? Who benefited from it? No one knows."
He added that officials who handled such donations could confirm that money donated by Malaysians was "missing," the newspaper quoted him as saying.
"There are so many NGOs in Malaysia and they have raised money for the Al Aqsa Mosque. But, the money was never received," Walid said, according to the NST.
"It is good (to donate), but make sure your money reaches the right beneficiaries and use the right channels, including via the embassy or the Jordanian and Palestinian Waqf Ministries that are in charge of funding the Al Aqsa Mosque," he said.
The foreign ministry, meanwhile, reiterated that it would continue to aid the Palestinian people. It highlighted efforts by NGOs to provide Palestinians with financial, food, medical and educational assistance.
"The government and the people of Malaysia strongly support the Palestinian struggle for freedom and independence," it said. "Malaysia will continue to provide humanitarian assistance to alleviate the suffering of Palestinians, which is still colonized and oppressed by the Israeli regime in Palestinian territories in the West Bank including Jerusalem, as well as the Gaza Strip."


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia Summons Palestinian Envoy over Comments on Donations for Al-Aqsa Mosque



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BENARNEWS- Malaysia abruptly dropped all charges on Friday against two lawmakers and 10 others facing allegations of supporting the Sri Lankan rebel group Tamil Tigers, saying there was no realistic prospect that any of the accused would be convicted.
Attorney-General Tommy Thomas said the 12 men were facing 34 charges after police found some photos of Velupillai Prabhakaran, the slain founder of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), in their mobile phones and Facebook accounts.
"If such conduct can constitute a criminal offense, it would bring the law into disrepute," Thomas said. "I have decided that there is no realistic prospect of conviction for any of the 12 accused."
He said his order to discontinue court proceedings against the accused would be effective immediately.
Assemblymen Gunasekaran Palasamy and Saminathan Ganesan and the 10 other men were arrested in October last year and were charged under the nation's draconian anti-terrorism law, the Security Offenses (Special Measures) Act, or SOSMA. They could have faced sentencings of up to 30 years in prison, if convicted. The courts denied their bail.
Thomas did not make it clear why prosecutors filed the charges in the first place, but said in his statement that he had considered the facts that only became known to him after charges had been laid out.
"Harm to Malaysians cannot be established by the prosecution," he said.
Annun Nancy, Gunasekaran's daughter, expressed relief upon hearing the news.
"We were speechless and overwhelmed with joy," she told BenarNews.
Ram Karpal, defense lawyer for seven of the accused men, welcomed the attorney-general's decision.
"Acts of terrorism can surely never be condoned," he told BenarNews, "but the nature of the charges against the 12 suggested they never committed any acts of terrorism."
The 34 charges mostly included "giving support" through social media and "possession" of items associated with LTTE, which Malaysia outlawed as a terrorist group in November 2014.
Gunasekaran, 60, and Saminathan, 34, are members of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), a component of Malaysia's ruling Pakatan Harapan bloc. Gunasekaran is a deputy chairman of DAP and an assemblyman in western Negeri Sembilan state, and Saminathan is a member of the Malacca State Legislative Assembly.
They were charged after they allegedly delivered speeches and distributed reading materials in support of slain LTTE fighters during a public event in Malacca two years ago.
LTTE, also known as the Tamil Tigers, vowed to carve out a separate Tamil state in Sri Lanka and fought Colombo for 26 years, but government forces declared victory against the group in May 2009 after a military offensive that killed thousands of people and led to Prabhakaran's death.
Thomas said the accusations against the 12 men carried one common theme: They were in possession of Prabhakaran's photographs either on their online accounts or in their cell phones.

But Thomas said historical personalities and slain revolutionary leaders had often been subjects of adoration.
"Millions of people across the globe admire Lenin, Stalin, Mao Tse Tung or Che Guevara," he said. "Having their photos and other representations in one's mobile phone or on a Facebook account does not transform one to being a terrorist."


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BENARNEWS- Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said he would decide the best time to step down as Malaysia's leader after meeting on Friday night with Anwar Ibrahim, the PM in waiting, and other members of the Pakatan Harapan ruling coalition's presidential council.
The 94-year-old prime minister said fellow leaders of the council trusted him to make the right decision in transferring power.
"We discussed in length the future of the party. And finally, I do not have to repeat what has been said – there were two opinions and I am proud that, in the end, they left the decision to me," he told reporters in Putrajaya, the country's administrative capital.
"And I have said the transition will happen after APEC, but there is no time, no date, no nothing set," he said, referring to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, which Malaysia will host in November.
"I will decide when I will step down. It is up to me. They have full confidence in me," Mahathir said.
Flanked by Anwar and Anwar's wife, Deputy Prime Minister Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Mahathir spoke to reporters for about seven minutes. Earlier, the three met privately with other coalition leaders before conducting a meeting of the full council.
Both Mahathir and Anwar told reporters that the issue of Anwar's succession as prime minister was not discussed Friday evening.
"That didn't arise. The decision is for me to make after APEC," Mahathir said.
Anwar said he pushed for the coalition to support Mahathir and allow him to govern the country as he saw fit.

"Our stance is clear. There is no question of our commitment to ensure that Mahathir, as the prime minister will be able to carry out his duties with our full support," Anwar told reporters, adding that Mahathir would determine the right time for the transfer of power.
"In the meantime, I have to be patient," Anwar said, repeating words that he had articulated months ago.
Mahathir and Anwar, who had served as deputy prime minister during Mahathir's earlier tenure as prime minister, formed the Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) coalition to take on and defeat Prime Minister Najib Razak's Barisan Nasional coalition in the May 2018 general election.
In the run-up to the polls, Anwar, who was then in prison on a sodomy conviction, formed a pact with Mahathir, in which Mahathir agreed to hand the reins of government to Anwar after two years in office. Mahathir took the oath of office on May 10, 2018.
After the election, Anwar received a royal pardon, was freed from prison and later elected to parliament in a by-election.
Following another meeting with Mahathir last November, Anwar issued a statement to stress that the power transition plan must be done peacefully and properly in a reasonable timeframe and through mutual understanding.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad resigned on Monday following a split within the ruling coalition, but the nation's king asked him to serve as an interim leader until a resolution of the political crisis.
King Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah accepted the 94-year-old premier's resignation and, on Mahathir's advice, also gave his consent to dissolving the cabinet, according to Mohd Zuki Ali, the government's chief secretary.
"He [Mahathir] will continue to manage the country until the appointment of the new prime minister and the formation of the new cabinet," Zuki said in a statement issued after Mahathir, the world's oldest leader, met with the king at Istana Negara, the monarch's official residence, in Kuala Lumpur.
Mahathir's decision followed a statement from his Bersatu party that it had pulled out of the ruling Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) coalition, in a surprise move after his allies held urgent closed-door meetings in an apparent bid to block the ascension to power of the PM's appointed successor, Anwar Ibrahim.
On Monday, Mahathir also resigned from Bersatu.
Party President Muhyiddin Yassin, who served as home minister until the cabinet was dissolved, said the party's supreme council decided on Sunday to quit the Pakatan alliance "after taking the current political developments and the country's future into consideration," Channel News Asia quoted Muhyiddin as saying. All MPs affiliated with the party had signed a declaration of oath to keep supporting and trusting Mahathir as prime minister, Muhyiddin said.
But after Bersatu's supreme council held an emergency meeting Monday evening, it issued a statement saying it had rejected Mahathir's resignation as party chairman.
Local reports said more than three dozen lawmakers had withdrawn from Pakatan, including a flank of MPs from its anchor People's Justice Party (PKR) – Anwar's party – in a political upheaval that thwarted the planned transition of power.
Despite speculation in the local media that Mahathir was involved in the deft tactical move, Anwar and other allies, such as Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, said Mahathir had resigned because he rejected attempts of former associates of the old government, which he had defeated in the 2018 elections, to join forces with him.
"His name was used, by those within my party and outside," Anwar told reporters.
Anwar, who described events that unfolded on Sunday as a "betrayal," said Mahathir told him that "in no way will he ever work with those associated with the past regime," referring to the corruption-tainted former government led by Najib Razak, who is facing multiple criminal charges over the multibillion-dollar corruption scandal at state fund 1MDB.

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Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad reacts as Anwar Ibrahim answers a question during a news conference after the Pakatan Harapan Council Meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Feb. 21, 2020. [S. Mahfuz/BenarNews]

'Nefarious attempt'
Lim Guan Eng, whose Democratic Action Party (DAP) is a major component of the ruling coalition, said Mahathir had informed him of his intention to resign as a protest over the "nefarious attempt" to topple the current government.
"Mahathir clearly stated that he cannot work with UMNO when we worked so hard to reject UMNO successfully in the 2018 general elections," Guan Eng told reporters, referring to Mahathir's old United Malays National Organization party, which had dominated national politics for decades before being swept out of power in those polls.
Guan Eng said his party would re-nominate Mahathir as premier.
Mahathir's resignation came just days after a meeting on Friday night with Anwar and other members of the Pakatan bloc's presidential council, during which he said that his political allies had agreed he would decide the best time to step down.
"I will decide when I will step down. It is up to me. They have full confidence in me," Mahathir told reporters at that time in Putrajaya, the country's administrative capital.
"I have said the transition will happen after APEC, but there is no time, no date, no nothing set," Mahathir added then, referring to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, which Malaysia will host in November.
The Prime Minister's Office announced Mahathir's resignation in a terse two-line statement, which did not give an explanation. It came shortly before his allies raised the possibility that a new government would be formed after Bersatu announced it was leaving the ruling coalition and 11 legislators also left Anwar's party.
Guan Eng said his party condemned "the treachery of some [Pakatan] leaders and MPs that attempted to form a back-door government to replace the existing democratically-elected [Pakatan] government with a new coalition."
The 11 MPs who announced that they were "walking out from PKR and [Pakatan] to form an independent block in Parliament"  included Mohamed Azmin Ali, who, as a result, was sacked as deputy president of the party headed by Anwar, with whom Azmin had been feuding.
Late Monday, Azmin and the 10 other lawmakers issued a statement in which they accused "some quarters" of Pakatan's leadership of "trying to force Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to set the date for him to let go of his premiership and to hand it over to PKR president Anwar Ibrahim."
"We are confident that attempts to force the Prime Minister to set date of power transition is an evil attempt to make the Prime Minister a 'lame duck PM' ... Because of that we took the proactive measure to thwart the conspiracy to topple the Prime Minister during the midterm," their statement went on to say.
'A betrayal of voters'
Also on Monday, Bersih 2.0 (the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections) and 41 other grassroots NGOs and civil society groups came out with a joint statement saying they were "extremely distressed by the break-up of the elected Pakatan Harapan" bloc through the departure of Bersatu and the defection of the 11 PKR parliamentarians.
"We view the attempted formation of a backdoor government as undemocratic and a betrayal of voters who voted for change," Bersih and the others said.
"The Rakyat voted for Pakatan Harapan and its coalition parties based on their promises and policies in their respective manifesto. Such reconfiguration of the component parties mid-term through the shifting of alliances and defections has nullified the election manifesto of [Pakatan], the Buku Harapan," they added.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Tommy Thomas told the news portal Malaysian Insight that there was no time frame for how long an interim prime minister could stay in power. He said that person could also appoint cabinet members.

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Anwar Ibrahim and his wife, Deputy Prime Minister Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, arrive at the headquarters of the People's Justice Party in Malaysia's Selangor state, Feb. 24, 2020. [S. Mahfuz/BenarNews]

But it remains unclear who could form the next government. Under the Malaysian Constitution, anyone who has the support of a majority of the 222-seat parliament can be appointed prime minister by the king, or the monarch can call a fresh general election. The king still signs off on most laws and appointments, including the prime minister.
The political chaos unleashed by Mahathir's resignation took place less than two years after Mahathir and his Pakatan allies pulled off a general election victory, which devastated a coalition that had led Malaysia for 61 years.
Mahathir had pledged during the electoral campaign to clean up government and install one that reflected the nation's diversity, and that he would hand over power to Anwar, his former arch nemesis.
He joined forces with Anwar, whom he once sent to jail on a sodomy charge, after leaving the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the anchor party in a ruling bloc that had dominated Malaysian politics since independence from Britain in 1957.
In the run-up to the 2018 general election, Anwar, who was then in prison on a sodomy conviction, formed a pact with Mahathir, in which Mahathir agreed to hand the reins of government to Anwar after two years in office. Mahathir took the oath of office on May 10, 2018.
After the election, Anwar received a royal pardon, was freed from prison and later elected to parliament in a by-election.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's king announced Tuesday he was holding individual interviews with every member of parliament before choosing the next prime minister, a day after Mahathir Mohamad stunned the nation by resigning from the post.
But opposition parties and a prominent activist group called on the king to dissolve parliament to make way for a fresh election. They rejected a potential "unity government" after Mahathir said he was meeting with leaders of all major political parties.
In an extraordinary move, King Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah appeared Tuesday at the gates of the National Palace, and handed out fast food to waiting journalists, asking them for patience with the unprecedented interview process, which could last into Thursday.
"We are very concerned, yes, I know. Be patient. First of all, let me do my duty. I hope we will find the best solution for the country," he told the throng of reporters.
"Just a small gesture for all of you," said the king, who doled out hamburgers, French fries and drinks from McDonald's.
On Monday, he accepted Mahathir's resignation and his recommendation to dissolve the cabinet, but then appointed the 94-year-old as interim PM.
Earlier on Tuesday, a spokesman for the king said the country remained "in peace and order" despite the tumult around Mahathir's sudden resignation and the collapse of the ruling Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) coalition, when three dozen MPs pulled out from the political alliance.
"Article 42 and 43 states that the king will pick one of the members of parliament whom the Majesty thinks gets the highest majority in parliament as the prime minister," Ahmad Fadil Shamsuddin told reporters
"All MPs are invited for interview session with the king ... three minutes have been allocated for each session," he said, adding that 90 would be interviewed Tuesday.
Bernama, the state news agency, confirmed that the king had concluded the first round of individual meetings with parliamentarians by 6 p.m.
Fadillah Yusof, a lawmaker from Petra Jaya in Sarawak state, said MPs were given a form to select their choice for prime minister during their meeting with the king.

"I wrote Tun Dr. Mahathir's name as the prime minister. No discussion, just a form to select who to be the prime minister," he told reporters as he left the session.
Fadillah is a member of the United Traditional Bumiputera Party (PBB), which is aligned with Barisan Nasional.
Under normal circumstances, the prime minister is the candidate who has the support of at least 112 members of the 222-seat Malaysian parliament.
Mahathir was selected as prime minister after the Pakatan coalition swept to power in the 2018 general election. The bloc consisted of 50 MPs from the People's Justice Party (PKR), 42 from the Democratic Action Party (DAP), 26 from Bersatu and 21 from other parties aligned with the coalition.
The prime minister, who led Bersatu, quit the party on Monday after it withdrew from Pakatan.
The opposition Barisan Nasional coalition included 39 MPs from the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), 18 from the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) and 26 from parties aligned with Barisan or independents, according to figures from parliament.
Back to business
While the king met with MPs at the palace, the Prime Minister's Office released a photograph of Mahathir working at his desk in his new role as interim leader, in an apparent attempt to portray stability amid uncertainty.
"Just another day in the office," Mahathir said in a message posted on his Twitter feed.
It also said that Mahathir held meetings on Tuesday with leaders of virtually every political party.
Those included UMNO, the long-ruling party and anchor of the Barisan coalition, which Pakatan Harapan ousted in the historic 2018 election, and PAS, the conservative Muslim party.
Mahathir, a former UMNO member, defected to the Pakatan alliance to lead it in that election. The opposition bloc won it on a platform of ridding government of corruption.

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Interim Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad works at his office in Putrajaya, Malaysia, Feb. 25, 2020. [Prime Minister's Office via AP]

Following those meetings, UMNO and PAS leaders, joined by officials of other opposition parties, called for new elections.
"We are not going to join the unity government as we cannot work with DAP. Return the mandate to the people, dissolve the parliament and let the people decide," UMNO information chief Annuar Musa told reporters. "Unity government is a hypocrisy."
Most of the members of the Democratic Action Party, a partner in the Pakatan alliance, are members of the ethnic Chinese minority and DAP advocates social justice and multi-racialism.
"Mahathir led four parties and it collapsed, what would happen if he led a 12-party coalition," Annuar said. "It is not fair to the people and we will not join a unity government."
Wee Ka Siong, an MP from Johor with the Malaysian Chinese Association party, also said the unity government would not work. MCA belongs to the Barisan coalition.
"A democracy without opposition cannot flourish," he told reporters. "There needs to be checks and balances."
Among the voices speaking out in favor of dissolving parliament to call fresh elections was the grassroots NGO Bersih 2.0 – otherwise known as the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections.
It issued a statement expressing concern over whether Mahathir was considering forming a unity government where, as Bersih described it, all major parties would be represented.
Such a government "goes against the spirit of democracy," Bersih said. "Democracy is about allowing political parties with different ideologies to compete against each other for the right to govern and implement policies based on their ideologies."
"A unity government would also mean there would be no opposition to the government of the day. There would be no parties to do effective check and balances, to hold the government accountable," Bersih added.
Defectors support Mahathir
Meanwhile, a group of 11 People's Justice Party defectors spoke out Tuesday in support of Mahathir maintaining power as prime minister. PKR is led by Anwar Ibrahim, who with Mahathir spearheaded the 2018 election upset and had been tagged to succeed him as prime minister before the end of the five-year term.
"We would like to reiterate our undivided support to Mahathir Mohamad as the prime minister for the full term. We have stressed this during a closed-door party meeting and also openly," said the group led by former PKR Deputy President Mohamed Azmin Ali.
"Our action is based on the people's aspiration for a stable government, strong unity and a focus on efforts to restore and generate strong economic growth."
Also on Tuesday, leaders of what is left of Pakatan Harapan held a presidential council meeting.
Speaking afterward to journalists outside PKR headquarters in Petaling Jaya, two leaders of the National Trust Party (Amanah) said there was no need for new elections.
"No, we didn't discuss fresh polls," Amanah communications director Khalid Samad said about the meeting. "Why should we waste money on fresh polls when we can get a clear [majority]?"
The Pakatan council also reached an agreement on who to support to run the country.
"We have made a decision," Amanah Deputy President Salahuddin Ayub said. "The decision will be announced tomorrow."


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BENARNEWS- Two days after Malaysia's government collapsed, the pair of politicians at the center of the drama addressed the public Wednesday, with Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and one-time heir-apparent Anwar Ibrahim both offering themselves up as the nation's next leader.
Mahathir, who resigned on Monday but returned a day later to serve as interim prime minister at the king's request, spoke first, reiterating his call for a so-called "unity government."
"In my opinion, right or wrong, politics and political parties should be set aside for now. If I am allowed, I will try to form a government that does not side with any parties but will focus only on the national interest," Mahathir said in a nationally televised address, the 94-year-old statesman's first public remarks since his stunning resignation.
Later, Anwar said that he and members of the Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) coalition who support him would not betray the nation's trust.
"Today, the PH members from [PKR], DAP [the Democratic Action Party] and Amanah have nominated Anwar Ibrahim as the prime minister candidate for the PH government," said Anwar, president of the People's Justice Party, the linchpin party in the Pakatan alliance, referring to himself in the third person.
"Pakatan remains committed to receiving the people's trust and aspirations to bring the country to a better future – be it through the economy, politics or social issues. We will not betray that trust," said Anwar who leads PKR.
Malaysians are closely watching him and Mahathir as they maneuver for the 112 parliamentary seats needed to hold a majority and lead the country, said Yvonne Tew, an associate professor of law at Georgetown University who has focused on the Malaysian constitution.
"t appears to be a struggle between the current interim prime minister Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar Ibrahim as to who actually command the numbers for the majority of parliament," she told BenarNews.
"At this point, anything can happen, but over the next few days it will probably be determined by political negotiations between the different stakeholders, [or] the role of the king potentially."
Addressing what led to his resignation, Mahathir said that while he had promised to step down and let parliament choose his replacement, "in my opinion, because I was still supported by both sides, the time for me to resign had not yet arrived."
Mahathir said he had "asked for time," but because his Bersatu party and some of its allies decided to leave the governing coalition, the Pakatan government was no longer viable.
"Apart from that, there were also allegations that I did not intend to resign and was power crazy," he said while apologizing to the Malaysian people for the political havoc and worry that his resignation had caused.
During the 1990s Mahathir, as prime minister, and Anwar, as his deputy, were members of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the party that dominated Malaysian politics. The two fell out then and Mahathir removed Anwar from the deputy's post.
But in the run-up to the 2018 general election, they joined forces to lead Pakatan in an effort to remove the UMNO-anchored Barisan Nasional bloc, led by then-Prime Minister Najib Razak, from power.
Ahead of the polls two years ago, the Pakatan manifesto stated that Mahathir would hand power to Anwar after two years in office, and it was this arrangement that voters had endorsed in handing the opposition bloc its historic victory.
The interim prime minister said he feared what would happen if his Bersatu party were to join forces with UMNO and the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), in trying to form a new government. Mahathir quit as the party's chairman when he resigned as PM.
"This government would be dominated by UMNO as the biggest party," Mahathir said, adding he did not want the party that led Malaysia's government during the nation's first six decades to be in charge of the unity government he had offered to lead.
"I am willing to accept UMNO members who quit UMNO and joined other parties. But it wants to join the unity government as UMNO. This I cannot accept," he said.
Malaysian media has named Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, an UMNO MP from Kelantan who has been described as a friend of Mahathir, as a third potential candidate to lead the government.

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Journalists in Kuala Lumpur use their mobile phones to watch interim Prime Minister address the nation, Feb. 26, 2020. [S. Mahfuz/BenarNews]

About an hour after Mahathir's televised address, Anwar told reporters that he had the support of remaining Pakatan members to lead Malaysia. He said the coalition's presidential council met Tuesday night and invited Mahathir to chair the meeting, but Mahathir did not attend.
"And because of that, the presidential council has determined that Pakatan's prime minister candidate is Anwar Ibrahim," Anwar said.
While Pakatan members believe they have enough support to back Anwar's bid to become prime minister, he said they would abide by the king's decision.
An official who requested anonymity told BenarNews on Wednesday that King Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah had finished interviewing MPs. The official said the king had interviewed all but one lawmaker – MP Nazri Aziz was in London.
On Tuesday, the monarch said he would interview all MPs to gauge who they support for prime minister before announcing his pick to lead the Malaysian government.
'Uncertain and unstable'
In Penang, a University Science of Malaysia political analyst said the king had the power to appoint the nation's next leader.
"I believe His Majesty will put the country's needs first," Professor Sivamurugan Pandian told BenarNews, adding, "most importantly is to recover the confidence, trust and government stability.
"A vote of confidence [in parliament] happens only if there is a motion," he said
Sivamurugan called the political situation "uncertain and unstable."
"There is too much speculation and Malaysia is in a leadership crisis. Political turmoil has taken us here and we are facing a situation where no one knows what's happening."
In Washington, Georgetown's Tew said any one of a series of scenarios leading to a new prime minister taking power could play out.
As she explained it, those scenarios include Anwar leading a majority or minority government; Mahathir continuing as interim prime minister until someone else is able to form a majority government; or the king dissolving parliament and calling for a snap election.
"In 2018, Malaysia was hailed as one of the outliers to the global rise of illiberal populism and nationalism worldwide, with its 2018 unprecedented national elections seen as a democratic breakthrough," Tew told BenarNews.
"In some ways, this is why we are watching this particularly closely, to see how that story of that democratic triumph is going to end. It could continue along that triumphant vein or there could be a somewhat tragic end to that post-2018 narrative."


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's king will ask parliament to vote for a new prime minister after two days of interviewing MPs failed to break the country's political impasse, interim leader Mahathir Mohamad said Thursday.
If no candidate gets majority support, the sultan will call fresh elections, Mahathir said, after meeting with Malaysia's ruler earlier in the day.
"As you know, the king has asked all MPs to make a statement ... they have made statutory declarations ... and for two days they did that," Mahathir, 94, told a packed press conference in the administrative capital of Putrajaya during the launch of an economic stimulus package.
"The result is, they cannot find anybody with a distinct majority, and because he did not get a distinct majority, he says that the right forum is the parliament," Mahathir said, referring to the king.
"So the Dewan Rakyat will be called on March 2 in order to determine who gets majority support in Dewan Rakyat to become the next PM. However, if the Parliament fails to find a person with the majority, we will have to go for a snap election," he said.
The National Palace did not issue a statement on Thursday but has called a meeting of its council of rulers for Friday morning.
One of the prime minister hopefuls, Anwar Ibrahim, suggested that Mahathir's announcement was "a challenge to the rights and privileges" of Malaysia's ruler.

"As we all know, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong is scheduled to meet the Council of Rulers to discuss this matter. The presidential council urges all parties to respect the discretion and authority of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on this matter," Anwar said in tweeting a statement issued by Pakatan Harapan, the political coalition he now heads after Mahathir withdrew from it.
Two or three candidates
The special vote and events during the past week are unprecedented in the history of the multi-racial country of 30 million, which gained independence from Britain in 1957.
Over the last two days, King Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah held individual interviews with almost every member of the 222-seat lower house of parliament, to determine who they support to be appointed as prime minister after Mahathir resigned as the country's leader.
Mahathir was re-appointed as the interim PM after the king accepted his resignation on Monday.
Under the constitution, the king does not have the authority to call for elections on his own and can only act upon the advice of an interim, acting or caretaker  prime minister, according to Malaysia's foremost authority on constitutional law, Professor Shad Saleem Faruqi.
A source in Mahathir's party told BenarNews there currently were two or three candidates for the premiership.
"The candidates are Dr. Mahathir and Anwar Ibrahim and possibly Muhyiddin Yassin," the source told BenarNews, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly.
Anwar, the president of the People's Justice Party (PKR), was Mahathir's designated successor as prime minister, but tensions over whether and when he should assume power had roiled Malaysian politics for months.
Muhyiddin is president of the Malaysian United Indigenous Party (Bersatu), and was home minister until Monday.
Mahathir told reporters he had discussed with Muhyiddin the possibility of his being Bersatu's candidate for prime minister. Mahathir is Bersatu's chairman, although he briefly stepped down from that post this week.
"If everybody chooses him (Muhyiddin), I'm okay," Mahathir said.
Asked if Bersatu would be naming two candidates, Mahathir said that the party had not yet come to a decision.
Mahathir said that he and Muhyiddin had differing views on working with the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the country's former ruling party.
"My position is, of course, I won't accept UMNO as a component party. But Muhyiddin is a little bit more relaxed, quite prepared to accept them en bloc," Mahathir said.
'A new experience'
Mahathir's media adviser, Kadir Jasin, said the special parliament sitting was unprecedented.
"This is a new experience for Malaysia. But it also shows that there are systems in place to overcome the problems relating to the choice of a candidate for the prime minister ... and to overcome political tussles amongst parties," Kadir told BenarNews.
He added that Mahathir's announcement of possible snap elections if the parliamentary vote failed to determine a new prime minister "proves wrong the allegations all these years that Mahathir is a dictator."
During the 1990s Mahathir, as prime minister, and Anwar, as his deputy, were members of UMNO, the party that dominated Malaysian politics for decades. The two fell out then and Mahathir removed Anwar from the deputy's post.
But in the run-up to the 2018 general election, they joined forces to lead the Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) coalition in an effort to remove the UMNO-anchored Barisan Nasional bloc, led by then-Prime Minister Najib Razak, from power.
Ahead of the polls two years ago, the Pakatan manifesto stated that Mahathir would hand power to Anwar, and it was this arrangement that voters endorsed in handing the opposition bloc its historic victory.
But in a live address on national TV on Wednesday, Mahathir said he had resigned from the post to give parliament an opportunity to decide who would replace him.
"If it's true that I'm still supported, I'll be back. Otherwise I will accept whoever is selected," Mahathir said.
Whoever is chosen to serve as the next prime minister can appoint whoever he wants to fill posts in the new cabinet, Mahathir said.
"He can choose any member without ties to any party... (to be in the cabinet) as individuals and not looked upon as representatives of their party," the interim leader said, adding that qualified independent candidates could also be considered for the next cabinet.
The Democratic Action Party (DAP), an ethnic Chinese-majority party belonging to the Pakatan bloc, said it was backing Anwar as a potential candidate for prime minister and resisting Mahathir's call for a so-called "unity government," according to the Asia Times.
"Mahathir [said] he wanted to form a 'unity government of individuals.' This means that only Mahathir will decide who will be cabinet ministers. DAP and other political parties will not be consulted in the process," the news outlet quoted DAP lawmakers as saying.
Lim Kit Siang, the party's leader, spoke out strongly against the notion of a unity government.
"It is foolish and short-sighted to purportedly establish a national unity government by destroying the Pakatan Harapan Government," he said in a statement Thursday.
"The ideal way to establish a national unity government is to build on the Pakatan Harapan coalition and convince other political parties and entities to come together in the larger interest of the nation to build a New Malaysia," he added.
Pakatan council criticizes Mahathir
Meanwhile late Thursday, Pakatan's Presidential Council held an emergency meeting after which it came out with a statement criticizing Mahathir's public announcement about the upcoming special parliamentary session. Anwar posted excerpts from the same statement on his Twitter feed.
"The right and power to appoint a Prime Minister is in the hands of His Majesty," the council said.
It was "unreasonable for the interim Prime Minister to precede His Majesty's speech in this regard," the statement said.
Mahathir's move to announce the calling of the special session of parliament to elect the next PM posed a challenge to the rights and powers of the king, the Pakatan council alleged.
The council also urged "all parties to respect the discretion and authority of His Majesty the King in this matter."


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BENARNEWS- A former home minister has emerged as a front runner to become Malaysia's next leader, after the king concurred with a decision by the parliamentary speaker on Friday not to hold a special session to vote for the country's next prime minister.

The statements from the speaker and palace marked a turnaround from the day before when interim Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, after meeting with the king, said the lower house of parliament would be called Monday to determine who had majority support to lead the country.

"His Majesty is also pleased with the decision made by the Speaker of the House of Representatives not to call a special meeting of the Dewan Rakyat on Monday, March 2, 2020," the National Palace said in a statement Friday.

"The National Palace will contact leaders of political parties who have representatives in the Dewan Rakyat to give them an opportunity to put forward names of lawmakers as the future prime minister," it said.

In a stunning turn of events, the former ruling Barisan Nasional bloc and dozens of MPs from Mahathir's own Bersatu party joined in backing Muhyiddin Yassin, who served as home minister under Mahathir, as their choice for prime minister while it remained unclear whether Mahathir would be a candidate as well, according to statements.

"A meeting of the Members of Parliament of Bersatu today has decided to nominate Muhyiddin Yassin, the president of Bersatu and Member of Parliament of Pagoh, as the 8th Prime Minister, to the King," Marzuki Yahya, Bersatu's secretary-general, said in a statement.

The serious and low-profile Muhyiddin, 72, was the home affairs minister before Mahathir's shock resignation on Monday brought about the collapse of the 94-year-old leader's Pakatan government.

Muhyiddin's nomination received the backing of constituent parties in Barisan Nasional, the coalition that dominated Malaysian politics for decades until its defeat in the 2018 general election, along with the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS).

But according to Mahathir's media adviser, Kadir Jasin, Muhyiddin's nomination was not decided by the Bersatu party's Supreme Council.

"As an explanation, the decision was not made by Bersatu. The supreme council was not brought in to deliberate or informed of the issue," Kadir said in a Facebook post on Friday.

"The stance of the council is as per Monday's meeting, in which Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad remains as the Prime Minister," he added.

Meanwhile, Anwar Ibrahim, who had been anointed Mahathir's eventual successor before their Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) coalition swept to power in the 2018 polls, said that he too had the backing to become Malaysia's 8th prime minister.

"Pakatan Harapan has the numbers. Let's see out this democratic process," Anwar, the president of the People's Justice Party (PKR), said in a Facebook post.

In a separate statement, Pakatan's Presidential Council issued a statement saying it believed that Anwar had "received the largest number of nominations" from members of parliament.

"The President's Council believes that the Pakatan Harapan candidate, Dato 'Seri Anwar Ibrahim should be given the opportunity to appear before His Majesty the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to prove the confidence of the majority of the Members of Parliament," the statement said, using the Malay term for the king.

As things stood on Friday, the parties supporting Muhyiddin for PM had gained control of 96 parliamentary seats, while Anwar's side claimed it controlled at least 92 seats. A nominee for prime minister must command 112 seats to secure a majority needed to form a new government.

As for Mahathir, his status remained unclear late Friday. There were no statements issued by the interim prime minister or parties based in Malaysian Borneo that in the past have been kingmakers on the national political scene.

Attorney General quits

In other political news on Friday, Tommy Thomas resigned as Malaysia's attorney general, he confirmed to BenarNews without stating a reason.

Thomas, was appointed by Mahathir in 2018 as the nation's top prosecutor, and was the first member of Malaysia's ethnic Indian minority to serve as attorney general.

Mahathir's selection of Thomas, a Christian, spurred a backlash from rightwing Malay Muslims, who were concerned that his appointment would compromise the status and the rights of ethnic majority Malays and indigenous people, as well as the status of Islam as the federal religion.

Just last week, Thomas announced that his office was dropping all charges against two lawmakers and 10 others, who faced allegations of supporting the Sri Lankan rebel group Tamil Tigers, saying there was "no realistic prospect" that any of the accused would be convicted.

Muhyiddin, who was still home minister when the attorney general dropped those charges on Feb. 21, criticized Thomas's decision, while PAS, the conservative Muslim party called on Thomas to resign, reports said. The faith-based party also threatened to hold a public rally if the government didn't dismiss Thomas and reinstate the charges against the 12 men in the Tamil Tiger case.   

Analyst: Muhyiddin seen as 'Malay first'

According to Mohd Faizal Musa, a research fellow at the Institute of the Malay World and Civilization at the National University of Malaysia, the backing by PAS and Barisan for Muhyiddin to serve as the next prime minister was a "move to save a few political elites."

Asked why Muhyiddin had received the endorsement of Barisan and PAS, Faizal told BenarNews, "Because he is always seen to be Malay first. Anwar has the endorsement from non-Malays. So that's how it's been portrayed."

Earlier this week, King Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah spent two days holding individual interviews with almost every member of the 222-seat lower house of parliament, to determine who they supported to be appointed as prime minister, after Mahathir resigned as PM on Feb. 24.

That same day the king accepted Mahathir's resignation, but then re-appointed him as the interim leader.

Under the constitution, the king has the discretion to appoint as prime minister an elected MP who commands majority support in the 222-seat parliament. 

On Friday, the Speaker of Parliament, Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof, rejected remarks made by Mahathir on Thursday.

Mahathir said then the king had told him that because his interviews with MPs had not resolved the issue of which MP could secure a distinct parliamentary majority, "he says that the right forum is the parliament."

"So the Dewan Rakyat will be called on March 2 in order to determine who gets majority support in Dewan Rakyat to become the next PM. However, if the Parliament fails to find a person with the majority, we will have to go for a snap election," Mahathir told reporters on Thursday.

The speaker said he had received a letter signed by the interim prime minister stating that the government had agreed for a special sitting of parliament on Monday.

"I found that the letter does not fulfil Standing Order 11(3) because it was not accompanied by a complete notice for the motion (to be debated)," Mohamad Ariff said in a statement.

"I am of the opinion that the special sitting could only happen after receiving an official decree from the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King) regarding the process of selecting a new prime minister," he added.

Early on during the tumult caused by Mahathir's resignation, Muhyiddin said that the Bersatu party was fully behind Mahathir as its choice for prime minister.

Muhyiddin had also served as deputy prime minister under Prime Minister Najib Razak, but was sacked from the post in 2015 after publically raising concerns over a financial scandal allegedly tying Najib to the theft of hundreds of millions of dollars from 1MDB, a state investment fund.

Both Mahathir and Muhyiddin later quit the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), Barisan's anchor party, and defected to the opposition to join an electoral campaign to remove Najib from power and rid the government of corruption. Najib now is facing 42 corruption-related charges stemming from the 1MDB affair. 

When reports surfaced earlier this week that Muhyiddin was looking to ally with UMNO in a potential bid to form a new government, Mahathir signaled that he and his former home minister did not see eye to eye on that prospect. 

"My position is, of course, I won't accept UMNO as a component party. But Muhyiddin is a little bit more relaxed, quite prepared to accept them en bloc," Mahathir said.

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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's king has appointed Muhyiddin Yassin as the nation's 8th prime minister, the National Palace said Saturday, just one day after the former home affairs minister emerged as a contender backed by members of the scandal-ridden regime he helped topple two years ago.
However, in a late night statement, interim Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad claimed that he commanded the support of at least 114 MPs, and said he would write to the king to inform him of the latest developments.
The shock palace announcement had initially appeared to quash a bid by Mahathir to return to the post, after he resigned a week ago and was appointed caretaker prime minister.
Muhyiddin, 72, president of the Malay-based Bersatu party he co-founded with Mahathir, was to be sworn in Sunday at 10.30 a.m., the comptroller of the Royal Household, Ahmad Fadil Shamsuddin, announced Saturday in a statement.
"After receiving representatives from all leaders representing their respective parties as well as independent lawmakers, His Royal Highness is of the opinion that the lawmaker who may be able to gain the confidence of the majority of lawmakers is Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, the MP from Pagoh," the statement said.
"His Majesty decrees that the appointment of the prime minister cannot be delayed as the country needs a government for the well-being of its people and the country we love," it said.
Twists and turns
Confusion over Muhyiddin's appointment came after a week of political crisis with twists and turns by the hour that kept the nation riveted.
It was triggered by Mahathir's resignation on Monday, which automatically dissolved the government. Mahathir was promptly re-appointed interim prime minister by the king.
Under the constitution, the king has the discretion to appoint an MP who commands the majority support of elected members of the 222-seat lower house of parliament.
A candidate needs to have a minimum support of 112 MPs to be appointed prime minister.
About four hours after the palace statement, video streamed on Facebook by the communications director for Anwar Ibrahim's People's Justice Party (PKR) showed lawmakers signing a document in a jovial atmosphere while Mahathir, clad in a grey jacket and blue tie, looked on.
"We have 114 members of parliament. One-one-four," Fahmi Fadzil said, as people in the room applauded and said "Viva Tun!"
In a statement shortly after, Mahathir, 94, said he would explain the situation to the king.
"At present, I have received a total of 114 members of parliament who support Tun Dr. Mahathir as the 8th prime minister," the statement said.
"I have prepared a letter to be sent to High Royal Highness explaining this matter ... I hope his majesty will receive my letter and explanation," Mahathir said.
'Historic moment'
Earlier Saturday, in his first statement as prime minister-designate, Muhyiddin said he was backed by a new "National Alliance" of lawmakers from Bersatu, the former ruling coalition Barisan Nasional, the Islamist PAS party, lawmakers from Sarawak in eastern Malaysia, and independents.
"It has been confirmed that I am the 8th prime minister of Malaysia. I thank the king for appointing me the prime minister," he told reporters at his home.
"This is undoubtedly a historic moment, more so due to the support of all MPs especially from the National Alliance coalition...giving us the sufficient numbers. We have a majority," he said.
Muhyiddin's appointment came on the same day that the Pakatan Harapan coalition named Mahathir as their new candidate for prime minister, after having ditched him earlier in the week for Anwar Ibrahim.
Anwar, 72, was Pakatan's candidate for prime minister from Wednesday to Friday, with its leadership council claiming that he had received the "largest number of nominations" from members of parliament.
Sources close to Pakatan told BenarNews that Anwar and leaders of component parties of Pakatan approached Mahathir late Friday after they discovered this was not the case, and as Muhyiddin emerged as a contender.
The Pakatan government had collapsed when Mahathir rejected plans from renegades in his ruling coalition, including Muhyiddin, who wanted to forge a new coalition with the former ruling UMNO party while keeping Mahathir as prime minister.
Mahathir has rejected that coalition as he regards UMNO as "kleptocratic."
The Pakatan Harapan or Alliance of Hope bloc comprises Anwar Ibrahim's multi-racial PKR, the Chinese-based Democratic Action Party (DAP), the moderate Muslim Amanah party, and Bersatu members still loyal to Mahathir.
In May 2018, Mahathir and his Pakatan allies pulled off a general election victory, which devastated a coalition that had led Malaysia for 61 years.
Leading figures from the last government including ex-prime minister Najib Razak, his wife Rosmah Mansor and former home minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi were subsequently put on trial for abuse of power and corruption for allegedly siphoning huge sums of money from a state-owned development fund, 1MDB, and other charges.
Mahathir had pledged during the electoral campaign to clean up government and install one that reflected the nation's diversity, and that he would hand over power to Anwar, his former arch nemesis.
He joined forces with Anwar, whom he once sent to jail on a sodomy charge, after leaving the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the anchor party in the ruling bloc that had dominated Malaysian politics since independence from Britain in 1957.
In the run-up to the 2018 general election, Anwar, who was then in prison on a sodomy conviction, formed a pact with Mahathir, in which Mahathir agreed to hand the reins of government to Anwar – an arrangement endorsed by voters in the Pakatan victory.
After the election, Anwar received a royal pardon, was freed from prison and later elected to parliament in a by-election.
But tensions over when and whether the handover of power should take place were one factor in the collapse of the ruling coalition, according to multiple accounts.


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BENARNEWS- A former home minister and one-time ally of Malaysia's longtime leader Mahathir Mohamad was sworn in by the king as the new prime minister on Sunday, as Mahathir questioned the move's legitimacy, claiming that he had majority support in parliament and his candidacy had been ignored.
In a brief ceremony broadcast live, Muhyiddin Yassin, 72, took the oath of office before King Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah, who chose him as premier "after receiving representatives from all leaders representing their respective parties, as well as independent lawmakers."
Muhyiddin heads an alliance dominated by the multi-ethnic country's Muslim majority, including the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party of corruption-tainted ex-premier Najib Razak, as well as the Islamist PAS party, which has been campaigning for stricter Islamic laws.
The new prime minister did not issue any statement about his vision for the country after taking the oath but his close ally and aide said the new government would strive for national unity, press freedom, judicial independence and political and other reforms, and that the graft trials of past leaders would continue without any political interference.
"We are committed to the national agenda to drive economic resilience, guarantee mutual prosperity, safeguard national security and sovereignty, strengthen people's unity and enable institutional reform," said Azmin Ali, a senior minister in the previous government who was instrumental in ousting Mahathir's Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) coalition from power by joining ranks with Muhyiddin.
"Najib's trial will go on ... and for Rosmah and Zahid as well," Khalid Jaafar, a strategist for Azmin, told BenarNews, referring to Rosmah Mansor, the wife of the former prime minister, and Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, the home affairs minister in Najib's government.
He said there had been "no conditions, no deals" with UMNO, the anchor party of the ruling coalition that Mahathir defeated in 2018.
The country was relatively calm despite a past week of political turmoil.
Defying police warnings, about 100 people turned up in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday evening for a second day of protest against what some called a "backdoor government" and chanting as the "death of democracy," according to reports.
Police said in a statement that a man had been held and three others were being investigated for social media posts that insulted the king and threatened public order.
The palace did not provide the number of elected representatives backing Muhyiddin, but Mahathir claimed he had statutory declarations of support from 114 members of Malaysia's 222-seat lower house of parliament and demanded that a legislative meeting be held as soon as possible.
"We have the majority. We have 114 Members of Parliament who back us. But apparently that is being ignored," Mahathir told a press conference before the swearing-in ceremony, which his Pakatan Harapan coalition boycotted.
Muhyiddin had pulled his Bersatu party, which he and Mahathir founded in 2016, out of the ruling coalition on Monday, triggering its collapse. Several MPs from Bersatu were being erroneously counted as supporters of the new prime minister, Mahathir charged.
The king had declined a requested meeting, Mahathir said, "so I don't have the chance to tell the king that he [Muhyiddin] does not have the majority."
Mahathir's Pakatan Harapan coalition said in a statement that it had the backing of "112 members" in parliament  – two less than what Mahathir had claimed – and called for the next legislative session to open as previously scheduled on March 9.
"This is an excellent opportunity to determine support for the Prime Minister and thus end the political crisis gripping the country," the statement said.
Mahathir suggested that if parliament was not convened quickly, the number of elected representatives supporting his coalition could shrink, because his supporters could be wooed to back Muhyiddin's government through offering of minister posts and other incentives.
"The rule of law no longer applies," he charged.
The political crisis erupted after Mahathir's resignation on Monday, which automatically dissolved the government. Mahathir was promptly re-appointed interim prime minister by the king.
Under the constitution, the king has the discretion to appoint an MP who commands the majority support of elected members of the 222-seat lower house of parliament.
Amid questions over whether Muhyiddin enjoys the support of the majority of MPs, Ambiga Sreenevasan, once president of the Malaysian Bar and now a social activist, suggested that he call for an emergency parliamentary sitting this week to resolve the issue amicably.
"It would not only be in his interests to do so, but it would also be in the overriding interests of the nation," she said, according to online portal malaysiakini.
Parliamentary speaker Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof said he would discuss with Muhyiddin, who would clock in to work on Monday, whether a session would be held on March 9 as scheduled previously.
Meanwhile, the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) said in a statement that it wanted the new government to "give the priority to improve the economy, narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor, improve the level of education and equal and fair development in [Peninsular Malaysia] as well as [east Malaysian states] Sabah and Sarawak and at the same time safeguarding the Federalism principle with the states."
"PAS urges all Malaysians to maintain the peace and harmony among the multiracial society and propose that the government be fair and takes care of the well being of its people regardless of their race, beliefs and their political inclination."


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BENARNEWS- In his first public address as Malaysia's prime minister, Muhyiddin Yassin promised a clean government Monday, as he emphasized that he had reluctantly accepted leadership to stabilize the country following a political turmoil that required the king's intervention.
Muhyiddin, 72, delivered the 16-minute speech from the prime minister's office about 34 hours after being sworn in by Malaysia's king, amid claims from his predecessor, Mahathir Mohamad that he – instead of Muhyiddin – had support to form a government.
"I realize that my appointment was not through an election. Instead, I was appointed after getting the support of the majority of members of parliament," Muhyiddin said, without giving a total number of lawmakers backing him.
"I did not crave the office of prime minister. I only came to the rescue when both prime minister candidates did not have the support of the majority of members of parliament," he said.
He was referring to Mahathir and Anwar Ibrahim, another prominent lawmaker who had put himself forward as a candidate for prime minister during a week of political turmoil that followed Mahathir's shock resignation one week ago.
"What choice did I have?" Muhyiddin asked, adding that had he not stepped in, it could have prolonged a political crisis, possibly leading to the dissolution of parliament and fresh elections.
Clad in a blue suit and tie and crisp white shirt for his first day as the nation's leader earlier Monday, Muhyiddin cast himself as a savior, not a traitor.
"As expected, some are calling me a traitor. Listen well. I am not a traitor," he said.
"My instinct is clear, my presence here is to save the country from ongoing turmoil."
Parliamentary vote sought
Muhyiddin now heads an alliance dominated by the multi-ethnic country's Muslim majority, including the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party of corruption-tainted ex-premier Najib Razak, as well as the Islamist PAS party, which has been campaigning for stricter Islamic laws.
However, neither the king who appointed him to the post on Saturday nor Muhyiddin nor any of his allies have given an accounting of exactly how many lawmakers are in his new National Alliance coalition. Mahathir, for his part, asserted on Sunday that he had 114 MPs in his camp.
The number was trimmed later to 112 by Mahathir's Pakatan Harapan coalition amid warnings by him that it could be whittled down further through defections fueled by promises of government posts.
Mahathir and other opposition politicians and activists have called for an urgent session of parliament to settle the matter but Muhyiddin has not said if he'll move to gain the endorsement of parliament in a bid to prove that he has majority support.
"The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0) calls for a special session of Parliament to put beyond doubt the question of whether the newly sworn-in PM Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin commands the majority in Parliament," the group said in a statement, echoing similar calls voiced by demonstrators at a small rally staged late Sunday.
"If a special session is not called, then this vote of confidence should be moved as soon as when the next sitting of Parliament convenes on March 9th," Bersih said.
Muhyiddin, who was sacked as deputy prime minister by Najib in 2015 after raising corruption concerns, later joined forces with Mahathir in leading a diverse coalition that brought about the first change of government in Malaysian history, with Mahathir at the helm.
Muhyiddin said Monday that his government would continue efforts to curb corruption and abuse of power.
"I'm also aware that what the people want is a government that is clean, has integrity and is free from corruption. To start with, I promise to appoint cabinet members from among individuals who are clean, of caliber and integrity," he said.
A court hearing scheduled on Monday on 47 corruption and money laundering charges against UMNO leader Zahid Hamidi was postponed to Tuesday after his lawyers claimed that he had a scheduled meeting with Muhyiddin over the formation of a new cabinet, local news reports said.
Muhyiddin's office issued a statement Monday "clarifying" that there was no meeting scheduled with political leaders that day.
Zahid was then summoned to court to face possible contempt-of-court charges by government lawyers for allegedly lying to the court but he insisted that he had a letter to back his claim, the New Straits Times reported. The court then asked him to bring the letter on Tuesday, the report said.
Aside from Zahid – who faces a separate corruption trial in October involving 40 charges and 33 alternative charges of receiving bribes in his former position as home minister – several other UMNO leaders also await trials on graft charges, reports said.
UMNO, with 39 MPs, is the biggest party in Muhyiddin's new National Alliance coalition.
In his speech, Muhyiddin also asserted that he was prime minister of all ethnicities and groups in the racially diverse country, although his governing coalition appeared to include only three non-Malays and no non-Malay parties.
"Give me a chance to leverage my 40 years of political and government experience to steer Malaysia," Muhyiddin said.
'Treachery and betrayal'
On Sunday, an aide to Azmin Ali, a minister in the previous government who was instrumental in ousting it by joining ranks with Muhyiddin, said the new government would protect press freedom and judicial independence, and that the graft trials of past leaders would continue.
"Najib's trial will go on ... and for Rosmah and Zahid as well," Khalid Jaafar told BenarNews, referring to Rosmah Mansor, Najib's wife, and Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, the home affairs minister in Najib's government.
He said there had been "no conditions, no deals" with UMNO, the anchor party of the ruling coalition that Mahathir defeated in 2018.
A leading figure with the Democratic Action Party (DAP), a predominantly ethnic Chinese party that holds the largest number of seats in parliament – 42 seats – blasted the new government.
"In 2018 the people decided, in 2020 the MPs decided," said MP Ramkarpal Singh, chairman of the party's legal bureau, calling Muhyiddin's rise to power a result of "treachery and betrayal."
"His success was not based on a level playing field," Ramkarpal wrote. "It was a result of the treachery and betrayal of certain Members of Parliament who unashamedly deserted the very platform they campaigned on just less than two years ago to win the votes of the people."
"They have brought back the very people the Rakyat [people] voted out two years ago," he said. "This is unforgivable."


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia will host direct peace talks this week between Thailand and southern BRN rebels despite the change of government in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, a state news agency reported Monday, citing a source from the insurgent group.
Abdul Rahim Noor, the facilitator of the Kuala Lumpur-brokered peace process in the Thai Deep South, told BenarNews that he would brief Malaysia's new prime minister, Muhyiddin Yassin, within the next two weeks about efforts to end the long-running separatist insurgency.
Abdul Rahim will facilitate a second round of direct talks between delegations representing the Thai government and BRN on Wednesday, March 4, a source with Barisan Revolusi Nasional (the National Revolutionary Front, or BRN), told Bernama, the Malaysian state-run news outlet.
"Now, everyone is in Kuala Lumpur and is preparing for negotiations this time around," the source said, according to Bernama, which noted that it was understood the meeting would see "both sides proposing long-term recommendations for peace in southern Thailand."
The two sides held a first meeting in the Malaysian capital in late January. The next day, chief Thai negotiator Gen. Wanlop Rugsanaoh signaled on Jan. 21 that he had opened direct talks with BRN, the largest and most powerful of the rebel groups, whose hardcore military leaders had stayed away from peace talks with Bangkok under way since 2015.
The announcement marked a departure from talks that Thailand had pursued for the previous five years with MARA Patani, an umbrella group representing the various southern rebel factions, but whose BRN panelists were not seen as wielding influence over combatants in the field, according to analysts.
More than 7,000 people have been killed across Thailand's mainly Muslim and Malay-speaking southern border region, which is next-door to Malaysia, since the insurgency reignited in 2004.
In Kuala Lumpur, Abdul Rahim sidestepped the question when BenarNews asked him whether the talks were to resume on Monday, as a source in MARA Patani had specified earlier.
"This is actually the decision we have made that we will not reveal the development or progress of the peace talks. When we reach a mutual understanding, find ways to solve [the conflict], then we will make a statement," he told BenarNews on Monday.
He said the warring sides "did not wish to publicize" the talks in order to avoid raising expectations among the public about the new phase of the peace process.
When asked about when he could issue any statement about the talks, he replied "when we reach basic peace."
"That was their desire. It depends on how fast and how soon they make peace with each other. The faster the better," the facilitator told BenarNews.
In August 2018, then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad appointed Abdul Rahim, a former national police chief, as the new facilitator of the southern Thai peace talks.
Mahathir's Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) government collapsed last week when he resigned from office on Feb. 24. Muyhyiddin, the former home minister in Mahathir's government, defected to the opposition to form a new government. Over the weekend, Malaysia's king announced that Muhyiddin was his choice for the country's top political leadership role.
"For Malaysia, we hope that the feud [in the Deep South] ended when Tun M [Mahathir] was the prime minister. Now he has resigned. Now we have a new prime minister ... I will see him in the next week or two to brief him," Abdul Rahim said.
In Bangkok, an aide to Wanlop, the chief Thai negotiator, told BenarNews that the general did not go to Kuala Lumpur on Monday but was traveling upcountry during the day.
On Jan. 31, Wanlop announced that he anticipated that his delegation would hold a second meeting with BRN delegates in Kuala Lumpur in "early March."
On Monday, BenarNews also spoke to a member of the MARA Patani panel who leads the Patani United Liberation Organization (PULO), one of the separatist groups in the Deep South.
"Initially, I don't know whether there are talks today. But I affirm that I fully support the talks, I support every negotiation. This time around, I stress the importance of inclusivity, making it a top priority from the beginning," Kasturi Mahkota said.
"To avoid failure like in the past, I'm not going to talk too much on it because the process has just begun," he told BenarNews.


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BENARNEWS- After a prolonged stand-off with Vietnam, Chinese vessels are again monitoring and harassing energy exploration efforts by another claimant country in the disputed South China Sea, according to a report by a Washington-based think tank. This time it is Malaysia that's on the receiving end.
A report from the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI)revealed that in October 2019 an exploratory vessel, contracted to Malaysian state-owned oil company Petronas, and its offshore supply vessels entered an area of the South China Sea claimed by Vietnam, China, and Malaysia.
In response, China Coast Guard ships identified by AMTI as the Haijing 5202, Haijing 5403, Haijing 5203, and Haijing 5305 patrolled around the Petronas-contracted vessel consistently throughout December and January. They left it alone in early February only after an appearance from the Royal Malaysian Navy and Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency.
But the let-up didn't last. Using online ship-tracking software, Radio Free Asia has learned that fishing vessels affiliated with China's People's Armed Forces Maritime Militia (PAFMM) took their place.
The Lurongyuyun 50018 and Lianxiachulu 008 were still sailing unusually close to the same offshore supply vessels as of Feb. 24, seemingly harassing them as they maneuver within China's nine-dash line, which is Beijing's rough demarcation of its expansive claims in the South China Sea.
The Lurongyuyun and Lianxiachulu, notably, share the same maritime mobile service identification number, a tell-tale sign that one or both of them are practicing GPS-spoofing to hide their presence.
This follows a pattern of behavior by China Coast Guard vessels and fishing boats operating far from Chinese ports, evading detection through GPS-spoofing and often resting during long voyages into the South China Sea at Chinese-built facilities constructed on disputed features. This was most prominently seen during the recent deployment of coastguard ships to Vanguard Bank and Second Thomas Shoal.
As reported by AMTI, Chinese ships can only sustain pressure campaigns far from the Chinese mainland if they can dock and replenish at key artificial islands such as Fiery Cross and Subi Reef.

China Coast Guard vessels and maritime militia had previously interrupted oil drilling efforts by the Russian company Rosneft within Vietnam's exclusive economic zone in mid-June.
And at the same time that China Coast Guard ships were monitoring Malaysian energy exploration efforts, a flotilla of PAFMM and other coastguard vessels sailed within the exclusive economic zone of Indonesia's Natuna Islands.

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An aerial shot of Chinese-claimed reef Subi reef, taken from a Philippine Air Force plane, April 21, 2017. AFP

Vietnam fields maritime militia
In the most recent incident revealed by AMTI, Malaysian exploration also drew in the presence of Vietnamese fishing boats, who are part of a growing Vietnamese maritime militia presence in the South China Sea.
There is less information on the Vietnamese maritime militia than there is on the more prominent PAFMM. However, Vietnam's 2009 Law on Militia and Self Defense Force explicitly calls for a 'marine militia' that, as with other types of militia, would constitute a part of Vietnam's armed forces and be responsible for defending fishing vessels engaging in commercial activities.
The Vietnamese maritime militia has been built up since then, according to Derek J. Grossman, a senior defense analyst with the U.S.-funded think tank RAND Corporation, and now constitutes a mix of commercial fishing vessels and marine safety vessels under Vietnam's Ministry of Transportation. AMTI reported Vietnamese fishing vessels observed, but did not intervene, in Malaysia's exploration activity.

"One of their missions is to report back," Grossman explained. "Vietnam, in terms of maritime domain awareness capabilities, is not very good. They don't have satellites like China does. They're using old school techniques. They're using tried and true techniques."

Referencing a report on Vietnamese maritime militia activity near Hainan publicized by the South China Sea Probing Initiative, a think-tank run out of China's Peking University, Grossman elaborated that this is in keeping with the militia's purpose.  "It's not a crazy idea to go up to enemy lines," he said, referring to the borders of China's territorial waters.
The creation of Vietnam's maritime militia is also closely linked to the involvement of China's PAFMM in maritime disputes, which at times has been aggressive.
"I think it's entirely focused on the Chinese maritime militia. When you look at how many countries around the world have fishing militia, I've only been able to find China and Vietnam. It's not something other countries do because there's no reason for it," Grossman said.
Vietnamese fishing vessels purported to be part of the militia were involved in several high profile maritime disputes, most notably during the 2014 stand-off between China and Vietnam over the Hai Yang Shi You 981 oil rig. In that incident, a Chinese fishing vessel rammed and sank a Vietnamese one.
However, there is evidence that the use of maritime militias on both sides is a strategy to prevent a greater conflict between the two countries' navies. China has maintained plausible deniability over whether its fishing fleets are acting at the behest of its armed forces.
"Fishing boats ramming fishing boats could then bring in the coast guard, which could then bring in the Navy. But I think both sides, China and Vietnam, think that it de-escalates," Grossman explained, "Neither of them are admitting they use them for military purposes... in a scenario, they can say 'This is civilian-on-civilian. We can keep the situation bottled up.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's new prime minister, the son of a Muslim cleric, is a longtime government insider who kept a low profile as he climbed the ranks of power over some 50 years.
Muhyiddin Yassin, 72, was sworn in by the king as the eighth prime minister of the multi-ethnic and multi-religious Southeast Asian nation on Sunday, after a week of political intrigue full of twists and turns that ultimately saw him replace his former boss, Mahathir Mohamad, as PM.
"My instinct is clear, I am here to save the country from prolonged political turmoil," Muhyiddin told a national audience on Monday following his first day on the job in Putrajaya, while fending off accusations that he had committed treachery in reaching for the highest post in government.
The new leader came to power without being elected. He now a heads a ruling coalition that is largely based on a Muslim-Malay majority.
Political analyst Mohd Azizuddin Mohd Sani, a professor at University Utara Malaysia, praised Muhyiddin for his rise in politics, which began in the early 1970s in the southern state of Johor, where he grew up.
"Muhyiddin is a very clean person with no controversies. He is religious and comes from a non-elite background," Azizuddin told BenarNews.
"He never held portfolios that exposed him to the outside world ... However, when he was deputy prime minister, he was exposed to the outside world and known in neighboring countries," Azizuddin said.
Muhyiddin's allies in the new ruling bloc include the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the very party he had been loyal to for decades but which he quit in 2016. He defected to the opposition then to help remove UMNO from power via the ballot box over allegations of entrenched government corruption.
Muhyiddin 'needs strong support'
For Muhyiddin, the long road to the prime minister's office was filled with its share of bumps.
That included being removed as deputy prime minister in 2015 and in 2016 as deputy president of UMNO, which had dominated Malaysian government since his country gained independence from Britain in 1957.
Born in Johor in May 1947, Muhyiddin's political career began in 1971 when he joined UMNO. He later became the chief of the party's youth wing in the state, a post he held until 1987. He served as chief minister of Johor, from 1986 to 1995.
Elected as an MP in 1978, Muhyiddin served as education and youth and sports minister before being named as Najib's deputy prime minister in 2009, a post he held until 2015, when he fell out with Najib over the 1MDB scandal.
After the May 2018 election, Mahathir appointed Muhyiddin as home affairs minister.
That same year, Muhyiddin was diagnosed with early stage pancreatic cancer and was hospitalized during July and August 2018. Doctors said surgery on the tumor was successful.
Political analyst Azizuddin said Muhyiddin had succeeded in government, both at the state level in Johor and on the national stage. He said Muhyiddin's blueprint for education following his appointment as education minister in 2009 remained in use today.
Azizuddin expressed hope for Muhyiddin.
"He needs strong support from the cabinet ministers and needs to appoint a good lineup to restore the country's economy. He needs a good economic adviser," Azizuddin said. "If he manages all well, the country's economy can be restored."
'I have my own principles'
In 2015, then-Prime Minister Najib Razak sacked Muhyiddin as his deputy when Muhyiddin publicly stated his support for investigations into a financial scandal tied to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a state investment fund.
"Except on the 1MDB issue, I have my own principles and stand in defense of people's rights, the good name of the party and state interests. If I was dropped from the cabinet because of my stance on this issue, I am alleviated," he said in July 2015.
Najib founded 1MDB in 2009 to spur Malaysia's economic growth, but he and some associates face criminal charges linked to what the U.S. Department of Justice described as embezzlement of more than U.S. $4.5 billion (18.8 billion ringgit).
After losing his UMNO position, Muhyiddin took a hardline stance in a Facebook post.
"In the face of public outrage against his leadership, Najib uses all the powers available to him to suppress dissenting voices and silence critics. We are indeed witnessing the collapse of democratic institutions and the emergence of a new dictatorship," Muhyiddin wrote in February 2016.
Months later, Muhyiddin and Mahathir joined forces to found the Malaysian United Indigenous Party (Bersatu), whose membership would be made up of Bumiputera citizens – a Malaysian term referring to ethnic majority Malays and other indigenous people. Non-Bumiputera citizens, meanwhile, would be recognized as "associate members."
"We want to be inclusive. We will give them new recognition. We want them to play a role in terms of presenting ideas," Muhyiddin said at the time.
Bersatu aligned with Anwar Ibrahim's People's Justice Party (PKR) and parties representing ethnic minorities to form the Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) coalition in a bid to bring down the UMNO-anchored Barisan Nasional ruling coalition. The three men – Muhyiddin, Mahathir and Anwar who had all been members of UMNO – pulled off the electoral upset in 2018.
After leading Bersatu to break from Pakatan at the beginning of last week, Muhyiddin gained power through forming a new coalition with UMNO and the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), claiming he had the support of at least 112 of the 222-member parliament. Neither he nor King Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah, who delivered the oath of office on Sunday, released figures showing that Muhyiddin had the support of a majority of MPs.
The move did not sit well with Mahathir, the man he succeeded as prime minister.
"Muhyiddin is willing to accept anything. He says politics are more important than principles," Mahathir told a news conference on Sunday.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's new prime minister ordered treasury and economic affairs authorities Tuesday to accelerate the release of a $4.7 billion stimulus package, as the central bank slashed its key interest rate, in twin moves aimed at fending off the economic impact of the coronavirus.
Muhyiddin Yassin issued the directives during his second day on the job, as Malaysian health authorities confirmed seven new cases of COVID-19 – the official name of the virus that has killed more than 3,100 people worldwide – bringing the nationwide total to 36 cases detected with no deaths recorded so far.
"The prime minister has ordered the government machinery to pay serious attention to implementing and accelerating the execution of Budget 2020 and the economic stimulus package," Muhyiddin's office said in a statement after the meeting that focused on "strengthening domestic economic activities."
Referring specifically to COVID-19, the statement said "the Prime Minister advised all citizens not to panic-buy and to take healthcare measures as outlined by the Ministry of Health."
Muhyiddin's second day in office conveyed a semblance of relative normalcy after days of domestic political turmoil and whirlwind backroom deals that followed the collapse of Mahathir Mohamad's reform-oriented government on Feb. 24.
However, police confirmed on Tuesday that they were investigating human rights activists, including Mahathir's daughter, for their alleged involvement in a pro-democracy rally on Sunday, the day the non-elected Muhyiddin was sworn by the king as Malaysia's eighth prime minister.
Meanwhile, the central bank said that economic growth would be affected by the viral outbreak, mostly in tourism and manufacturing sectors even though Malaysia, Southeast Asia's third-largest economy, grew faster than expected in the first half of 2019.
The announcement by the central bank that it had reduced its key interest rate by 0.25 percentage points to 2.5 percent – its lowest level since 2010 – took place after China and Australia announced similar moves.
Bank Negara Malaysia, as the central bank is known in Malay, said in a statement Tuesday that the economic stimulus package, which then-interim Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad had announced last week, would help mitigate the impact of the virus that first emerged in China's Wuhan city in December.
Malaysia bucked a global cooling trend and posted a growth rate of 4.3 percent last year, but Mahathir unveiled the stimulus package on Feb. 27 as officials braced for the COVID-19 outbreak's impact to the nation's economy. The package includes financing measures, such as cash aid and tax breaks to help support small businesses.
Activists summoned by police
Muhyiddin, 72, was sworn in as premier on March 1, after saying he was the most likely candidate to garner a majority support in parliament following Mahathir's resignation as prime minister six days earlier. But Mahathir and his Pakatan Harapan alliance disputed the monarch's decision, claiming they had secured the support of at least 112 lawmakers in the 222-member parliament.
The new premier has not publicly revealed the total number of lawmakers backing him, while rejecting criticisms that he betrayed the nation by joining forces with the scandal-plagued United Malays National Organization.
On Tuesday, police said they were investigating rights activists Ambiga Sreenevasan and Marina Mahathir, the daughter of the former prime minister, in connection with the pro-democracy demonstration on Sunday.
Mohd Fahmi Visuvanathan Abdullah, police chief of Dang Wangi district, told BenarNews that authorities had summoned several individuals for questioning. He said he could not say how many had been questioned but he identified Marina as one of those under probe. 

"I am unable to confirm the exact number, but some like Marina Mahathir will come tomorrow," he said.
Officials from the human rights group Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) said that 19 people had agreed to give their statements to investigators related to a series of protests last week that were not permitted by police.
"Yes, the list is correct. We are preparing lawyers," Sevan Doraisamy, executive director of Suaram, told BenarNews, referring to the list of 19 people, which has been shared widely on social media. Authorities said five of the 19 people were being investigated on suspicion of sedition.

The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) said the police probe could be considered harassment.

"Police investigations against expressions of dissent may constitute a form of harassment and, if left unchecked, may create a chilling effect in which citizens self-censor or restrain themselves from fully exercising their right to freedom of expression in fear of threats of legal sanctions," Suhakam said in a statement.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's new government has ignored calls for an urgent sitting of parliament to show it has a majority support from lawmakers, amid criticism from opposition and civil society leaders who say that legitimacy of the ruling coalition is in doubt.
The next session of parliament, which had been scheduled to open on Monday, will begin in mid-May, according to a schedule released by the speaker of parliament based on instructions from new Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.
"I have received a notification letter signed by the prime minister as the head of council to inform that the government has decided the first meeting of the third session, which was scheduled to begin on March 9, has been postponed to Monday, May 18," said the statement signed by parliamentary speaker Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof.
Muhyiddin was sworn in March 1 after he and other lawmakers from the ruling coalition defected and joined ranks with the party of corruption-tainted ex-premier Najib Razak, whose government was ousted in the 2018 general election, and the Islamist PAS party, which has been campaigning for stricter Islamic laws in the multi-racial country.
Both Muhyiddin and Malaysia's king said that he had support from a majority of 222 members of parliament, without giving a tally.
On Wednesday, opposition figures again called for more concrete evidence.
The postponement "has been interpreted as a 'sign of weakness' that the prime minister, Muhyiddin Yassin, does not have the majority support of MPs to be a legitimate prime minister of Malaysia," said Lim Kit Siang, a senior leader of the Democratic Action Party (DAP).
DAP was a main party in the Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) coalition that unraveled in late February, leading to the shock resignation of then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Feb. 24.
Following a week of political turmoil and shifting alliances, Mahathir announced that he had the support of 114 MPs to return to the post, but said that King Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah would not meet with him to allow him to present the information.
Power to delay parliament session
Back in power as part of Muhyiddin's new National Alliance coalition, officials from the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) – Najib's party – said the two-month postponement was needed and not a delay tactic.
"Some say we are afraid to convene and that is why it is being postponed. You have to understand that this is not done in haste," UMNO Secretary General Annuar Musa told reporters at party headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.
Annuar said Muhyiddin's new government needed to issue a notice appointing a new parliament speaker and to appoint new members to cabinet posts.
"The new opposition will have to send questions to parliament and parliament has to pass those questions to the ministers. Right now where do we send questions when the prime minister has yet to appoint any ministers?" Annuar asked.
He said the Pakatan coalition, after assuming power in May 2018, spent nearly two months establishing a cabinet before parliament could reconvene.
Constitutional analyst Shamrahayu A. Aziz, of the International Islamic University of Malaysia, said the prime minister had the power to delay a legislative session.
"ecause the prime minister has just been sworn in, he probably wants to take some time before having the parliament in session," Shamrahayu told BenarNews.
On the day Mahathir said he had 114 supporters, Pakatan Harapan later revised the number down to 112 amid warnings that it could be whittled down further through defections fueled by promises of government posts.
Mahathir and activists, including from the grassroots Bersih movement, had also pressed for an urgent session of parliament.
"The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0) calls for a special session of parliament to put beyond doubt the question of whether the newly sworn-in PM Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin commands the majority in parliament," the group said in a statement on Monday.
"If a special session is not called, then this vote of confidence should be moved as soon as when the next sitting of parliament convenes on March 9th," Bersih said.
Court issues
Muhyiddin's alignment with UMNO, meanwhile, has created questions about the status of criminal charges against Najib and his former deputy prime minister, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
Najib is on trial in two separate courts on corruption charges linked to beleaguered state development fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and a subsidiary. A total of 42 charges have been filed and the former prime minister could face additional trials linked to what U.S. prosecutors described as the embezzlement of more than U.S. $4.5 billion (18.8 billion ringgit) from 1MDB.
Speaking to Reuters news service, Najib said he expects his time in court to be different under the new government.
"I would expect that the atmosphere would be more conducive toward a fair trial," Najib told Reuters in an interview at his mansion in an affluent neighborhood of Kuala Lumpur.
"I don't want any undue manipulation or pressure put on the judge or judges for political reasons. And on the strength of the evidence, I'm more than happy to go through the court process."
His former deputy, Zahid, saw a Monday court hearing on 47 corruption and money laundering charges postponed for a day, after his lawyers claimed he had a scheduled meeting with Muhyiddin to discuss the new cabinet, according to local media. Muhyiddin challenged the claim of a meeting, leading Zahid to promise the court he would present a letter to prove he had been summoned by the new prime minister.
On Tuesday, Zahid escaped a contempt of court ruling, according to local media. Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah accepted his explanation that there might have been miscommunication and that he had chosen the wrong words to seek the postponement.
The two UMNO leaders were not the only people with political ties to face legal action this week.
Mahathir's daughter, Marina, was one of 19 activists questioned by police on Wednesday about their roles in weekend protests over her father losing power. Malaysian law requires obtaining police permission before holding a protest rally, Agence France-Presse reported.
"This reminds us of more than two years ago, when so many of us had to undergo this," she told the news service. "The new government has only been in two days and all this is happening."


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BENARNEWS- A Malaysian woman whose Christian pastor-husband remains missing after police agents allegedly snatched him from his car in broad daylight urged new Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin on Wednesday to fulfill an earlier promise to prosecute those behind the 2017 abduction.
Susanna Liew, the wife of Pastor Raymond Koh Keng Joo, made the appeal after she and 11 other women from around the world received a prestigious award in Washington from the U.S. State Department, which honored them for their individual courage amid adversity in their home countries.
"I met him with our lawyer and he assured us that he will look into it, get into the bottom of this," Liew told BenarNews after Wednesday's ceremony at the State Department.
She was referring to an April 2019 meeting with Muhyiddin, who was then serving as home minister in the previous government. On Sunday, Muhyiddin was sworn in as prime minister and head of a new ruling coalition by Malaysia's king, after a week of political turbulence that followed the collapse of Mahathir Mohamad's Pakatan Harapan government.
Liew said she met Muhyiddin after the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia – a parliamentary-backed investigative panel also known as Suhakam – released a 95-page report concluding that Koh and social activist Amri Che Mat were probably "abducted by State agents."
"My hope and appeal is that since he is now the prime minister, he has the power to arrest, to prosecute the culprits who were involved in this case of enforced disappearance," she said.
Liew spoke after accepting the 2020 International Women of Courage Award from U.S. first lady Melania Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
"I still believe my husband is still alive," Susanna told BenarNews hours after Mrs. Trump handed her a small acrylic plaque. "We have dreams, my family and I ... and we hold on to this hope that one day we will reunite with him."
Mrs. Trump, who said she was inspired by the personal stories of each of the 12 women, noted that each of the recipients had risked their safety to help others.
"These are the faces of true heroism," the first lady said during the event which was widely shared on social media.
While the State Department's news release about the recipients mentioned that Pastor Koh was abducted "allegedly by state agents," the probability that police authorities were involved in the abduction was not mentioned during the awarding ceremony.
"Susanna is being honored for her selfless dedication to fight on behalf of members of religious minorities who've disappeared in Malaysia or face persecution for their beliefs," the master of ceremonies said as Liew stood, wearing a red traditional Malay dress.
"She has endured police harassment and death threats and never stopped actively pursuing justice," the emcee said.
Women from around the world who have shown leadership, courage and "willingness to make sacrifices for others, especially in promoting women's rights" qualify for the award, officials said.
U.S. embassies and diplomatic missions overseas nominate one woman of courage from their respective host countries, and the recipients are chosen from finalists selected by senior department officials.
The other 11 recipients of this year's award were from Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Zimbabwe, and the Ele Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture in the Xinjiang region of northwestern China.
'On a balance of probabilities'
In April 2019, Suhakam released a 95-page report detailing findings of its investigation, which  focused on whether the disappearances of Koh and that of Amri were voluntary or involved state agents.
"The direct and circumstantial evidence in Pastor Raymond Koh's case proves, on a balance of probabilities, that he was abducted by State agents," the commission said.
The report used the same language when it laid out legal arguments that Amri could have been abducted by state agents, particularly those under the federal police's Special Branch, headquartered in Kuala Lumpur.
Liew and Koh founded the Hope Community in 2004, a nonprofit organization that works with the poor, needy and marginalized. She previously served as a school principal and educator, according to the State Department news release.
The Suhakam report, which chipped away at police statements that Koh's disappearance did not involve state agents, underscored that the disappearances of Koh and Amri "bore uncanny similarities," with the two victims getting dragged out of their vehicles by men who wore black clothing and moved with precision.
Pastor Koh was taken in broad daylight from a road near Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 13, 2017, when SUVs and motorcycles forced his car to stop, and men in black face masks whisked him away. The abduction took less than a minute and was captured on surveillance cameras.
Amri, a resident of Perlis state, was last seen on Nov. 24, 2016. His disappearance may have been religiously motivated based on allegations that he was spreading Shia Muslim teachings, according to local media reports.
The commission said it found no evidence to support the contention of Koh's attorney that his abduction was carried out "with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State." Rights groups had earlier said the pastor was likely targeted over the belief that he preached Christianity to Muslims.
The report culminated months of public inquiry in which the panel heard testimonies from 16 witnesses, from October 2017 to December 2018.
But the inquiry could not determine what happened to Koh and Azmi after their abductions. Hours after the commission released its findings, then-Prime Minister Mahathir described the report as "hearsay," according to state-run news agency Bernama.
Lawsuits filed
On Feb. 12, Liew named two former national police chiefs, Mohamad Fuzi Harun and Khalid Abu Bakar, along with other officers, in a civil lawsuit filed at the Kuala Lumpur High Court.
"We really hope filing the civil suit will help to unravel the truth about the abduction," she told BenarNews in a text message then.
The lawsuit alleges breach of constitutional and statutory rights for the abduction of Koh, failure to account or disclose his whereabouts, misfeasance in public office, conspiracy to injure and negligence, Liew said. The lawsuit did not include a request for damages to be paid should she win the lawsuit, her attorney said.
Islamic authorities generally consider apostasy a crime in Muslim-majority Malaysia, where proselytizing Muslims is outlawed in most states and Shia Muslims are also persecuted by religious officials, human rights groups say.
Besides Koh and Amri, Pastor Joshua Hilmy and his Indonesian wife, Ruth Sitepu, have also been reported missing since November 2016. Joshua was a Malay Muslim who had converted to Christianity.
On Monday, the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS), a Jakarta-based NGO that deals with human rights issues in Indonesia, said in a statement that it had been appointed as legal assistants of Ruth Sitepu's family during the ongoing Suhakam public inquiry into the couple's disappearance.
"This public inquiry process was a last hope for the family after earlier, in February 2018, the family made a missing-person report to the Malaysian police, but there were no significant results at that time," the statement said.
The Indonesian NGO issued its statement as Suhakam pursued its inquiry, which began last month, into the disappearances of Hilmy and Sitepu.
In October last year, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom accused Malaysia of "religious freedom violations," citing Pastor Koh's and Amri's abductions. The independent commission has placed Malaysia under its Tier 2 designation for the next most-serious level of religious freedom violations.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian and Indonesian authorities are tightening travel restrictions to try to slow the spread of the new coronavirus, in a week where cases in Malaysia shot up, Indonesia confirmed its first cases and Thailand its first death.
Malaysia has reported 26 new cases during a three-day stretch since Tuesday, bringing to 55 the number of people in the country infected with the mystery virus known as COVID-19.
On Thursday, the Malaysian government reported five new cases and convened a high-level meeting to determine how to respond to "the second wave of the COVID-19 outbreak," Health Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said, referring to the surge in domestic cases.
The five new cases were part of a cluster of more than two dozen confirmed COVID cases linked to one patient, a 52-year-old Malaysian man who had visited China in mid-January, the Ministry of Health said.
After Thursday's meeting, officials decided that several measures needed to be taken, including imposing restrictions on foreign travelers coming to Malaysia from specific regions of Italy, Iran and Japan that were affected by the virus, Noor said in a statement.
"The government ... decided to put a temporary ban on visitors/travelers of any countries who had visited or been to [those regions] within 14 days before their arrival to Malaysia," he said.
Noor also urged Malaysians to postpone plans to visit the affected regions: Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna in Italy; Tehran, Qom and Gilan in Iran; and Hokkaido in Japan.
On Feb. 28, Malaysia announced a temporary ban on South Korean nationals traveling to the country, including a ban on all foreign nationals who had been in Daegu City or Cheongdo district during the previous 14 days, reports said.
More than 93,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed and at least 3,000 deaths reported in 77 countries, although most cases have been concentrated in China, where the outbreak was detected, according to the latest available information from the World Health Organization (WHO).
Outside of China, three countries – South Korea, Iran and Italy – have been identified as hotspots for the virus, with thousands of cases detected and scores of deaths reported.
On Thursday in Jakarta, the government announced a similar travel ban on people coming from regions in Italy, Iran and South Korea hit hard by the virus.
Travelers coming from areas in those countries that lie outside the affected regions would be allowed to enter Indonesia, provided they showed certificates issued by health officials in their respective countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
"According to the latest WHO report, there is currently a significant increase of COVID-19 cases outside China, particularly in three countries: Iran, Italy, and the Republic of Korea (South Korea), and in the interest of public health, Indonesia has issues a temporary measure for incoming visitors from the three said countries," the ministry said in a statement.
Indonesia, the most populous country in Southeast Asia, announced its first two cases of COVID-19 on March 2, weeks after neighboring countries had confirmed cases of the virus.
To guard against its spread, Indonesia has evacuated hundreds of its citizens from cruise ships located abroad and placed them in quarantine on an island off Java.
In Bangkok, Thai authorities confirmed four new cases on Thursday, bringing the nationwide total to 47 cases, including an infected person who died on Sunday. The new cases include two people had traveled in Italy and two others who had visited Iran, the Thai Department of Disease Control said.
Suwannachai Wattanayingcharoenchai, the head of the department, said health authorities also were arranging facilities to quarantine thousands of undocumented Thai workers who were expected to be heading home from South Korea.
Meanwhile in Bangladesh, government officials have yet to confirm any cases of the virus on home soil, but at least seven Bangladeshi citizens have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Italy.
And in the Philippines, which was the first country outside China to record a death on its territory from the virus, only three cases have been confirmed.
Earlier in the week, Philippine health officials said that a total of 86 cases had been detected among Filipinos working abroad, including 80 in Japan. Last week, Manila evacuated back home hundreds of citizens who were on a cruise ship docked in Yokohama, many of whom worked as members of the crew.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin on Friday appointed a federal court judge as the nation's top lawyer amid questions over how the new government would pursue ongoing trials against key figures linked to the multibillion-dollar theft at state fund 1MDB.
Yassin's office announced that Judge Idrus Harun would be the new attorney-general on the same day that the nation's anti-corruption chief confirmed that she had tendered her resignation, the second senior official to quit after the ruling alliance led by Mahathir Mohamad collapsed last week.
Idrus' appointment came after the king, Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, also known as Yang di-Pertuan Agong, had accepted Tommy Thomas' "application to shorten his service" as attorney-general.
"The government wishes to record its gratitude to Tan Sri Tommy Thomas for his service to the country during his tenure of office as Attorney-General," a statement from the prime minister's office said, using an honorific.
Thomas, who filed corruption charges against former Prime Minister Najib Razak over the 1MDB financial scandal, resigned last week saying he had to step aside and give way to the new government to appoint his successor since he was a political appointee.
"His Majesty the Yang di-Pertuan Agong had consented to the appointment of Tan Sri Idrus bin Harun, the Federal Court Judge, as the new Attorney-General for a two-year term effective March 6, 2020," the statement added.
Latheefa Koya, chief of the Anti-Corruption Commission, said she was not pressured to resign.
"Speculation that pressure was brought up upon me was baseless," she said in a statement Friday, emphasizing that her decision would allow her to work again as a human rights advocate.
Latheefa and Thomas were appointed by Mahathir after his Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) coalition brought down Najib's corruption-tainted government in 2018. Their decisions to quit came after a change in government that surprised the nation following a week of political infighting and horse-trading that led to Mahathir's resignation.
Mahathir resigned, saying he refused to work with graft-tainted politicians. He also accused the new governing coalition of joining forces with "kleptocrats" embroiled in the embezzlement of money from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
"As I had repeatedly stated, I am against any form of cooperation with individuals who are known to be corrupt and was part of the kleptocratic administration which the Pakatan Harapan government had worked hard to rid off," Mahathir said in his Feb. 29 statement.
Mahathir, who was ousted as prime minister as a result of the realignment of political affiliations that required the king's intervention, had accused Najib and his party United Malays National Organization (UMNO) of engineering the political crisis to avoid conviction in his 1MBD-related cases.
Muhyiddin came to power after his Bersatu party formed an alliance with UMNO, the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) and other parties.
"If Najib can be part of the government now, he can do all sorts of things to free himself," Mahathir told reporters on Sunday.
It was not immediately clear how Muhyiddin reacted to Latheefa's resignation. The Prime Minister's Office did not immediately respond to a BenarNews phone call seeking comments.
The resignations raised questions on the future of the 1MDB trials. But Cynthia Gabriel, director of the anti-corruption watchdog C4 Centre in Kuala Lumpur, told reporters that "the worst-case scenario is that these grand corruption trials will be dropped through judicial interference and more."
Latheefa said that she had a meeting with Muhyiddin on Thursday during which she discussed the ongoing efforts to recover the stolen 1MDB funds.
"He was fully supportive of these actions," she said in a one-page statement issued to media.
Local reports said MACC's deputy chief commissioner of operation, Azam Baki, would take over Latheefa's place starting Monday.
Latheefa announced her resignation a day after she testified in court about recordings of phone calls released by her office that she said included Najib, his wife, Rosmah, and various individuals linked to the 1MDB probe.
Rosmah, 68, and Najib, 66, are at the center of a wide-ranging corruption probe into 1MDB. After Mahathir took power, he barred the couple from leaving the country and authorities raided their properties, confiscating up to U.S. $273 million in cash, jewelry and luxury handbags that, critics said, symbolized the couple's ostentatious lifestyle.
Najib is also facing 42 counts of graft, breach of trust, abuse of power and money laundering related to allegations that about $4.5 billion had been siphoned off from 1MDB, which he founded in 2009. If found guilty, Najib could spend the rest of his life in prison. Prosecutors also filed three counts of corruption against Rosmah in November 2018.
Among other things, Latheefa was asked about her intention in revealing the audio to the public.
"It contains a very serious matter of public interest," local newspapers quoted her as saying. "It reveals conversations where members of the government and institutions ... were involved in conspiring to cover up certain investigations against persons."


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BENARNEWS- When he first addressed the nation as Malaysia's new prime minister, Muhyiddin Yassin vowed to serve "all Malaysians," but non-Malays already are criticizing his government by saying that his largely Malay-based ruling coalition could effectively shut out minorities.
Muhyiddin's Perikatan Nasional (National Alliance) bloc is dominated by parties whose members belong to the Muslim Malay majority, and there are only three lawmakers from parties affiliated with the coalition that represent minorities.
That's in stark contrast to the Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope), where minorities were well represented, but which collapsed last week less than two years after it won a historic election.
Charles Santiago, an MP representing the multi-cultural Democratic Action Party (DAP), took aim at Muhyiddin's move to remove himself from Pakatan to gain power by aligning his party with a coalition that had ruled the multi-ethnic country before the 2018 election.
"Malaysia is set up as a multicultural, secular nation by the founding fathers. This is a test of the founding fathers' vision of Malaysia," Santiago told BenarNews.
"It is now a government that is far removed from the reform agenda brought about in GE14 by all Malaysians. Non-Malay voices will be subdued," he said, referring to the country's 14th general election in May 2018.
Muhyiddin and former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad created the Bersatu political party, which joined other parties in 2018, including the People's Justice Party (PKR), to defeat the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) and its coalition, which had been in power from Malaysia's beginning as a nation in 1957.
Santiago said he had fears about UMNO, the party of former Prime Minister Najib Razak who faces a slew of criminal charges tied to the alleged embezzlement of billions of dollars from a state fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
He worried that UMNO would use its regained power to push Muhyiddin to drop charges against Najib and others, including UMNO president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who faces corruption charges not tied to 1MDB.
"If the PM does, then he will be seen as weak and complicit with those who were rejected by the people. This will be a difficult government to manage and I don't know how they will do it," Santiago said.
He said he also feared that the conservative Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), which allied with Bersatu and the UMNO-anchored Barisan Nasional coalition to form Perikatan, would seek to introduce sharia law into the criminal justice system.
Shortly after taking the oath of office on March 1, Muhyiddin, a non-elected PM, tried to alleviate the concerns of the nation's minorities. Malays account for about 60 percent of Malaysia's 32 million people.
"I am prime minister for all Malaysians, from Perlis to Sabah. Whatever race or ethnicity, I am your prime minister. Give me a chance to use my 40 years of experience in politics and government to steer Malaysia to glory," the 72-year-old career politician said in a nationally televised speech the next day.
His assurances did not sit well with some minority voters.
"I feel betrayed, like my voice doesn't even matter in the grand scheme of things," comic artist Kelvin Ng, 34, told BenarNews.
Ng, an ethnic Chinese, said he was particularly worried about the status of the trials involving Najib, Hamidi and Najib's wife, Rosmah Mansor, who also faces charges related to 1MDB. U.S. prosecutors allege that more than U.S. $4.5 billion (18.8 billion ringgit) was embezzled from 1MDB.
"I'm worried those charged will get away with it, and I am disappointed that this country is yet again run by corrupt people," said Ng.

Another ethnic Chinese, Bok Chek Chu, a 58-year-old Penang resident, said he had no hope for the three non-Malay MPs who are part of the new ruling coalition.
"They are from MCA (the Malaysian Chinese Association) and MIC (the Malaysian Indian Congress), which were clearly rejected by the people in the last election," he said.
Taking office in May 2018 after the electoral upset, Mahathir took steps to create an inclusive cabinet.
Among his first moves was appointing Tommy Thomas as attorney general. The appointment of Thomas, a Christian who was the first ethnic Indian to hold the post as the nation's top lawyer, angered rightwing Muslim Malays who feared for the status of Islam as the federal religion.
Thomas resigned from his post last week, leading Muhyiddin to name Federal Court judge Idrus Harun to serve as attorney general on Friday.
Soon after taking office two years ago, Mahathir also named Lim Guan Eng, an ethnic Chinese member of DAP, as finance minister.
So far, only a few days into Muhyiddin's term as prime minister, neither DAP, PKR or what is left of Pakatan Harapan have come out with any public statements questioning the stark lack of minority representation in the new government.
UMNO politician: 'No big deal'
However, former UMNO supreme council member Shahrir Samad said the lack of such diversity in Muhyiddin's coalition should not be an issue.
"It is no big deal except for the racists. Lim Guan Eng was at the helm and it did not make matters any better for the Chinese," said Shahrir who lost his seat in parliament to a Pakatan candidate in 2018.
He called members of the ethnic Chinese community pragmatic, adding that their concerns were more about what the new government would do to make life better after "a dismal 2019," and how it would deal with COVID-19.
"I reckon everyone knows it is going to be a tough year. So it will be tough for Muhyiddin too," he said.
'Mono-ethnic government'
The new coalition could be making a mistake by not recognizing that Malaysia is a multicultural country, said James Chin, an analyst at the Asia Institute at University of Tasmania.
He described the new reality of Malaysian politics as "a mono-ethnic government in a multicultural country."
"It is dangerous that they are trying to run a government that is just for one race," he told BenarNews.
"PAS, I believe, will again try to push for RUU355, this time as a ruling party meaning they won't be blocked from tabling it in parliament," he said. RUU355 refers to PAS's previous unsuccessful attempt to introduce amendments giving the nation's sharia courts greater power.
Meanwhile, Awang Azman Awang Pawi, a political analyst at the University of Malaya, suggested that non-Malays would quietly make a comeback after the collapse of Pakatan and the rise of Perikatan.
"I believe there is growing talk of their voices being denied by what happened last week," Awang Azman said, adding, "their leaders of choice won fairly and democratically in the previous election."
Some, but not all, ethnic Chinese might become apathetic and see the sentiment of democracy as a waste of time, he said. For others, the change of leadership will serve as a catalyst.
"They have not given up on democracy, they will rise back up in silence," he said.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia has beefed up security near its maritime border with the southern Philippines, where recent kidnappings have taken place, in a move that will include the deployment of six light attack helicopters purchased from the United States, security officials said Friday.
Hazani Ghazali, chief of the Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSCOM), said authorities arrested 41 undocumented Indonesia and Filipinos during raids on March 4 as part of a security operation codenamed "Ops Gasak," which was aimed at disrupting cross-border criminal activities.
"Ops Gasak will neutralize the hotspot areas in ESSzone from any cross-border crimes," Hazani said in a statement, using the acronym for the Eastern Sabah Safety Zone. "Our operations also work as deterrence."
"ESSZone should be free from cross-border criminal activities which could disrupt the country's peace and harmony," he said.
Security forces launched the operation in January, when they began checking immigration documents of people suspected to be working as "lookouts" for kidnap-for-ransom gangs in the region.
Among those captured in the security raids were men and women up to 65 years old, Hazani said in a statement, without elaborating.
During another operation early this month, authorities arrested a 47-year-old undocumented migrant from Indonesia, who was charged with illegal possession of a homemade shotgun and six 12-gauge cartridges, officials said.
The man was found hiding out in a palm oil plantation in Kalabakan, a district in Sabah state in Malaysian Borneo.
Authorities believe the "hotspots" in the region include "water villages," which are floating communities or squatter settlements with houses on stilts.
Five operations conducted thus far at water villages in Sandakan, Kunak and Semporna districts led to the arrests of 723 undocumented migrants who were among 9,332 people interviewed by security officials.
Malaysia has yet to deport those arrested pending instruction from the National Security Council, officials told BenarNews.
Army confirms delivery schedule for helicopters

Six new light-attack helicopters, purchased by the Malaysian government under a U.S. $76 million contract inked in 2016, will be stationed in Sabah as part of the government's move to bolster state's security and reinforce anti-crime efforts in coastal areas, according to Army chief Gen. Hasbullah Mohd Nawawi.
The Muslim-majority nation will receive the first of six MD 530G helicopters this year and the military personnel who would be handling the choppers, euphemistically called "little birds," would be sent for training in the United States, Hasbullah told reporters last week.
The remainder of the attack helicopters will be delivered in stages through 2021, he said.
"Once that is done, we will send the pilots for conversion training, followed by the maintenance crew to equip themselves with the know-how for the helicopters' upkeep," the New Straits Times quoted Hasbullah as saying.
Akhbar Satar, a director at the HELP University in Kuala Lumpur, told BenarNews that ESSCOM would need budgetary support to solve its security issues.
"It is high time Malaysia brings about an effective solution to the current dilemma," he said. "If not, this terrible trend will continue again."
Malaysian security authorities should set up a hostage-negotiation unit and follow the model used by the FBI in dealing with kidnapping scenarios, he said. 

"The Behavioral Change Stairway Model developed by the FBI's hostage-negotiation unit is an example of what we could follow. Besides techniques, crisis negotiations require a cool head and experience in hostage negotiation," he told BenarNews. 

In recent years, clashes between Filipino soldiers and suspected insurgents had caused criminals to cross over from the nearby southern Philippines into Sabah, from where they had planned criminal activities, including piracy and kidnappings, authorities said.
One such crime involved the kidnapping of five Indonesians who were believed seized within Sabah's territorial waters on Jan. 16 by suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf, a group of bandits based in the southern Philippines.
About a week after the abductions, Philippine authorities said the captives and the gunmen were believed to be hiding in the jungles of an island off the coastal town of Parang in Sulu, in the southern Philippines.
Their fate remains unknown although news reports said their suspected abductors had attempted to demand ransom through a phone call.
In September last year, three Indonesian fishermen were also abducted from their boat off Sabah's east coast.
Philippine officials announced in January that security forces rescued the third Indonesian fisherman weeks after authorities had rescued his two compatriots in southern Sulu province.
Earlier in the same month, Malaysian police said security forces gunned down two suspected Abu Sayyaf members during a shootout at sea off Sabah.
Abu Sayyaf is a militant group founded in the 1990s and notorious for kidnappings, bombings and beheadings of foreigners carried out in the southern Philippines during the past two decades. The group's stronghold is in Jolo and Basilan islands in the southwestern part of the Philippines.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's new prime minister on Monday announced a cabinet with a sharply reduced number of ethnic minorities, while an Islamic scholar was named the country's religion minister and a party that advocates for Sharia law was put in charge of legal affairs.
The new cabinet also included nine politicians from the corruption-tainted United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party, and no deputy prime minister, for the first time in the nation's 63-year history.
Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said he was making the government more efficient by appointing "senior ministers" to head the portfolios of international trade and industry, defense, works, and education.
"With the appointment of these senior ministers, there is no need during this time for a deputy prime minister," he said in a speech at the Prime Minister's Office in Putrajaya.
"I want to form a cabinet that can truly provide the best service to the people – a cabinet that delivers," Muhyiddin said.
The announcement came eight days after Muhyiddin's sudden ascent to the country's top office, after he and others quit then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's political alliance and joined forces with UMNO and the Islamist Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS).
In a scathing review of the line-up, Liew Chin Tong, deputy defense minister under the Pakatan government, said Muhyiddin had orchestrated the cabinet to keep control of the purse strings by placing technocrats in key finance positions, and had relegated powerful figures to more junior posts than they held previously.
"The prime minister is fearful of his own team members, some of whom were his plotters that brought down the Pakatan Harapan government recently," Liew said.
Liew questioned Muhyiddin's decision to govern without a deputy prime minister (DPM).
"This is a disservice to the nation. The need to appoint a DPM is to ensure that in any unforeseen circumstances there is a designated replacement until the parliament confirms a successor that commands the majority," he said.
New names
PAS – which has campaigned for stricter sharia law in the multi-ethnic country – was rewarded with three cabinet posts. The appointments marked the first time the party has held a cabinet seat since 1977.
Muhyiddin increased the number of cabinet posts by four to 31, but only five of them are occupied by members of ethnic minorities, compared to 11 under Mahathir.
King Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah approved the cabinet earlier Monday, and it was to be sworn in on Tuesday.
Among the most recognizable names in Muhyiddin's cabinet is Foreign Affairs Minister Hishamuddin Hussein, who served as defense minister in the government of Najib Razak until Mahathir's coalition scored a stunning election upset in May 2018.
New names include prominent banker Zafrul Aziz from CIMB Group Holdings as finance minister – a post reserved in past governments for the prime minister or his deputy. Najib carried the portfolio as prime minister. Mahathir appointed Penang MP Lim Guan Eng his finance chief.
Muhyiddin also named Zulkifli Mohamad Al-Bakri, a popular mufti or Islamic jurist, to the post of minister in charge of religious affairs.
"With a humbled heart I ask for the kindness of all you my friends to continuously pray to God that he might grant me strength to carry this trust and responsibility with all my might," Zulkifli said on his Instagram page after the announcement.
PAS members who will hold minister positions include Takiyuddin Hassan, the party's secretary general, who will serve as Minister at the Prime Minister Department handling the law and parliament portfolio.
The others are Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali, minister of plantation industries and commodities, and PAS Vice President Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man as environment minister.
Winners
James Chin, director of the Asia Institute at the University of Tasmania, said Muhyiddin had appointed technocrats to some top positions.
"The other thing that stands out is that many of them served in the last UMNO government before it fell in 2018," he told BenarNews.
Chin said other big winners included Azmin Ali and lawmakers like him who broke from Mahathir's coalition to align with UMNO, the party that ran the government for more than six decades prior to the 2018 election.
"PAS got the law portfolio, so it can follow up with RUU355 (Hudud law) as expected," he said, referring to a law proposed in 2016 seeking to give more clout to Islamic courts. Hudud, the Islamic penal code, sets punishments that include hand amputation for theft and stoning for illicit sexual relations.
Chin said UMNO had thwarted previous PAS attempts to change the justice system, but that could change going forward.
"Yes, with PAS now, they are desperate enough to win over the Muslim electorate," he said.
Meanwhile, PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang, who is not part of the cabinet, said his party was willing to listen to others.
"PAS vows to uphold this responsibility diligently and is ready to listen to positive comments from all parties, especially the academics, professionals and community leaders who are capable of aiding in the development of this beloved nation," Hadi said in a statement.
Results, quickly
Amnesty International (AI) urged the government to implement reforms promised during the Mahathir government such as repeal of harsh security laws and establishment of a commission on police conduct.
It also called on Muhyiddin's government to drop investigations of demonstrators who hit the streets in recent weeks to protest what they saw as a change of government without an election.
"We remain concerned by the recent investigations of activists by the police in response to peaceful demonstrations. To show that the new government is serious about protecting human rights, these investigations should be ended immediately, and the rights to freedom of expression and assembly respected," Preethi Bhardwaj, AI Malaysia interim executive director, said in a statement.
Political analyst Sivamurugan Pandian of the University of Science, Malaysia, said the new cabinet appeared to be sound and should be supported by the public.
"With the variety of backgrounds, experiences and the inclusion of technocrats as well as religious leaders, this cabinet should be given a chance to stabilize the governmental structure.
"What's essential is to harmonize the leadership with the public and for them to deliver results that are beneficial without taking too much time," he said.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia's new government will last until the next general election, former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad predicted Wednesday, as he conceded that he no longer had the majority parliamentary support he claimed just before Muhyiddin Yassin was sworn in to replace him.
Mahathir's comments, which seemingly acknowledged the strength of the new government, came as Muhyiddin convened his first cabinet meeting and told reporters that he and the 94-year-old former leader had exchanged letters.
"[Muhyiddin] can retain [government] until the next general election," Mahathir told the Malay-language newspaper Sinar Harian, referring to the next balloting expected to take place in 2023.
Mahathir also acknowledged that a no-confidence vote in parliament against the new leader would likely "not succeed."
"We had more than 114 seats but now that has become less. ... This is because he [Muhyiddin] has taken my people to his side," Mahathir said, indicating that his supporters had switched sides after being lured with ministerial posts.
Muhyiddin, who once served as an interior minister in Mahathir's cabinet, agreed with the former prime minister's comments that he had enough support from legislators to survive a parliamentary challenge.
"Of course. If not, I would not be here," Muhyiddin told his post-cabinet news conference while thanking Mahathir for his comments.
Muhyiddin, 72, stormed into power last week after back-door political maneuverings led to Mahathir's resignation, which brought about the collapse of the pro-reform ruling alliance. He was sworn in by the king on March 1.
The new premier on Monday unveiled a roster of 31 Cabinet ministers dominated by ethnic Malays, the majority of Malaysia's 32 million people. The appointments include nine posts going to politicians from the corruption-tainted United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party.
He also chose 38 deputy ministers but scrapped the position of deputy prime minister. Instead, he appointed four senior ministers – Ismail Sabri Yaakob for defense, Azmin Ali for international trade and industry, Fadillah Yusof for public works and Radzi Jidin for education – allowing them to chair cabinet meetings in his absence.
Muhyiddin told reporters that he sought forgiveness from his predecessor in a letter sent last week, in which he also asked for an endorsement of his new government. 

"I asked for his forgiveness if I hurt his feelings with the things that happened over the last few days," Muhyiddin said. "I want Tun [Mahathir] to endorse this government. It is legal it is constitutional."
He said Mahathir replied in a letter, saying "it was not the time yet for a meeting."
Muhyiddin's rise to power came after a week of political crisis with twists and turns that kept the nation riveted to news reports.
He consolidated his legislative support by forming a new coalition with the Islamist party PAS and the old ruling party, UMNO, which has ex-leaders including former PM Najib Razak who are facing trial for corruption charges related to the alleged multibillion-dollar theft from state fund 1MDB.
The new leader's first cabinet meeting occurred as health authorities across the globe grappled with alarming clusters of COVID-19, including Malaysia, where 149 cases had been reported as of Wednesday. Worldwide, about 118,000 have been infected and more than 4,200 have died.
Muhyiddin said he would review to determine if a planned 20 billion ringgit ($4.73 billion) stimulus package announced by the former government last month should be increased. He said he would create a council to tackle the economic and trade impacts of the virus.
He also appealed to Malaysians to allow the new government to prove itself.

"Come on, give us a chance," he said.
Malaysia to mend ties with Saudi Arabia, India

Meanwhile, after reporting to work for the first time as Malaysia's new foreign minister, Hishamuddin Hussein said he would focus on repairing ties with Saudi Arabia and India, which frayed under the previous government's convening of a Muslim summit and criticism of Delhi's crackdown on Muslim-majority Kashmir.
Hishamuddin, who served as defense minister in Najib's government until Mahathir's coalition scored a stunning election triumph in May 2018, said he had called his Saudi counterpart prior to his first cabinet meeting under the new government.
"The leadership of Saudi said they will ask Prince Faisal bin Farhan to come to Malaysia to meet the new foreign and foreign deputy minister," he said.
The Prime Minister's Office had received calls and expressions of support from foreign ministries of China, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand, Muhyiddin said.
During his news conference, Muhyiddin said Malaysia would continue hosting direct peace talks between neighbor Thailand and Deep South insurgents "as long as it is good for the country and the people concerned."
Abdul Rahim Noor, the facilitator of the Kuala Lumpur-brokered peace process in the Thai Deep South, told BenarNews early this month that he would brief Muhyiddin about efforts to end the long-running separatist insurgency.
Thai officials had confirmed that Thailand and BRN had opened direct talks aimed at settling the long-running conflict, which has claimed more than 7,000 lives in the mainly Muslim and Malay-speaking Deep South region since 2004.
"We will look in a general way at government foreign policy which we have implemented to date, which is quite good. We will continue it," Muhyiddin said, replying to a question from BenarNews.
"However if there are certain changes that we need to execute to make our policy more clear, we will do it," he said.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia on Monday announced a two-week nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of novel coronavirus, after cases nearly tripled in three days, and as neighboring countries announced similar restrictions amid a sharp uptick in infections.
With 553 cases confirmed Monday, from 197 on Friday, Malaysia remained the Southeast Asian country with the highest number of infections. Sixty percent of those cases stemmed from an international Islamic gathering at a Kuala Lumpur mosque late last month, health officials said.
"The current situation requires drastic action," Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said in a late night broadcast, announcing "a blanket ban on mass movement and gatherings nationwide" to begin Wednesday and run through March 31.
No Malaysian or foreign travelers would be allowed to enter or leave the country, and all schools and places of worship would be shuttered, he said.
"We have seen that countries that took quite drastic measures to curb the spread of this outbreak, like China, showed a drastic decrease in the number of infections," he said, asking Malaysians for calm and patience "in facing this test."
In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte widened a lockdown he had imposed in the capital, Manila, to the entire main island of Luzon, after COVID-19 left 12 dead and infected 140 others, according to the latest government figures.
"I am placing the entire mainland of Luzon under quarantine until April 12," Duterte said.
"During this time our enemy is ourselves, and the disease that is COVID," he said, in a recorded cabinet meeting. "We are in the fight of our lives. We are at war against a vicious and invisible enemy – one that can't be seen by the naked eye. In this extraordinary war, we are all soldiers."
In a speech later in the evening he urged Luzon residents to leave their houses only to buy food, medicine and other basics. "Only such establishments [that] provide these basic necessities and services will be open," he said.
Last week, Duterte placed Metro Manila with more than 12 million people on lockdown, prohibiting domestic travel in and out of the area to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus.
National police spokesman Police Brigadier General Bernard Banac said they would assign more than 70,000 personnel to implement the new directive on Luzon, which comprises about one-third of the country.
"The biggest challenge here would be the attitude of the people. It's very important the people would help us maintain this community quarantine and that everybody will comply on the policy of social distancing and staying indoors," Banac said.
Worldwide, more than 168,000 cases have been confirmed and around 6,610 people have died of the disease in nearly 90 countries, according to the latest figures from the World Health Organization (WHO).
According to the WHO, 80 percent of patients only experience "mild illness" and eventually recover. It added that some 14 percent experience severe illness while 5 percent were critically ill.

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A Thai immigration officer checks the body temperature of a traveler returning from Malaysia at a border checkpoint in Narathiwat province, March 16, 2020. [Matahari Ismail/BenarNews]



Thailand: Songkran festivities 'postponed'
In Thailand, a coronavirus task force chaired by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha recommended postponement of festivities marking the Thai New Year next month, and immediate closure of schools, sports events, bars and theaters nationwide.
The cabinet was expected to approve the measures Tuesday.
Officials reported 147 positive cases as of Monday, from 75 on Friday, including one death.
The restrictions were proposed after new infections were linked to a bar and two boxing stadiums in Bangkok and a cock-fighting den in Chachoengsao, a province about 83 km (51 miles) east of Bangkok.
Officials also announced postponement of Songkran next month, when Thais reunite with their families, make religious offerings and enjoy water fights, parties and parades.
"The committee carefully considered the matter and found that to have five days off in a row would allow increased traveling, and we fear Bangkok residents may unknowingly bring germs to their families ... so we have postponed the holidays," said Wissanu Krea-ngam, deputy prime minister for legal affairs, referring to the April 13 to 15 holiday and two weekend days before it.
Among COVID-19 patients being monitored were two Thais from the Deep South, among a group of 132 who attended the Islamic gathering at Sri Petaling Mosque in Kuala Lumper last month, officials said.
Indonesia: cabinet minister hospitalized
In Indonesia, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said he and other senior officials had been tested for infection after a cabinet minister was hospitalized with COVID-19.
Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi tested positive for the virus on Saturday after he attended a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
Test results had yet to be announced, except for Vice President Ma'ruf Amin who reportedly tested negative.
Indonesia's government has not considered a lockdown despite the spread of COVID-19, which saw 134 cases with five deaths announced Monday, from a total of 69 cases and 4 deaths Friday.
"Seventeen additional patients are positive, bringing the total number of infected to 134," Health Ministry Disease Control and Prevention Director General Achmad Yurianto said Monday.
"Up to now, we have not considered planning a lockdown policy," Jokowi said in a statement issued from the Presidential Palace in Bogor, West Java, on Monday.
On Sunday, he urged people nationwide to avoid crowds, and to work, study and pray at home.
But officials in the city of Jakarta and several regions decided to shut schools and tourist destinations in response to COVID-19. The National Monument (Monas) was among sites closed.
Bangladesh: young children infected
In Bangladesh, officials reported eight confirmed cases of the virus, up from three on Friday.
Among the patients were two children younger than 10, said Dr. Meerjady Sabrina Flora, director of Bangladesh's Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research. They are related to a man who recently returned from Europe and tested positive for the disease on Saturday, she said.
"Their infection is not severe. But we have been treating them at hospital to stop others from being infected," she said.
The government on Monday announced it was closing down all educational institutes in Bangladesh until March 31 "as a precautionary measure."
Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen on Monday told BenarNews that leaders of seven countries that make up the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) held a video conference on Sunday to discuss ways to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the region.
Leaders of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka participated.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed a fund to fight health disasters and contributed U.S. $10 million, Momen said.
"Our Honorable Prime Minister [Sheikh Hasina] has backed forming the fund and proposed establishing an institute to research ways of fighting health disasters," he said.


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BENARNEWS- The Malaysia Health Ministry on Tuesday evening announced the country's first deaths linked to COVID-19 – two male patients who had been receiving treatment in Johor and Sarawak states.
Health Minister Adham Baba told reporters in Putrajaya that the victims were 34 and 60, adding the older patient died at Sarawak General Hospital.
The 34-year-old patient, who attended the Islamic religious gathering at the Sri Petaling Mosque in Kuala Lumpur late last month, died at a hospital intensive care unit (ICU) in Johor Bahru, according to Adham.
"Sadly, I have to inform that there have been two deaths due to the COVID-19 virus reported to the Health Ministry's Crisis Preparedness and Response Center today," Adham said.
Malaysia recorded 120 new cases as of noon Tuesday, bringing the total to 673. Of those, 12 are on ventilators, according to the new health minister, who added that 95 of the new cases were found to be connected to the Islamic gathering held from Feb. 27 to March 1.
"Of the 673 cases recorded, 428 came from the tabligh cluster," Adham said referring to the gathering at the Kuala Lumpur mosque.
While the Health Ministry did not specify the names and occupations of the victims, the older man has been identified by the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee as a pastor at the Emmanuel Baptist Church in Kuching, Sarawak. He died about 11 a.m., according to the committee's news release, adding that 193 people he had been in contact with are being quarantined.
Adham told reporters the victim had a history of chronic illnesses including diabetes and hypertension.
The victim showed symptoms of fever, cough and breathing difficulty beginning on March 7 and was admitted to the hospital on March 14 after testing positive for COVID-19.
"His condition worsened and he was admitted to the ICU where he passed away today," Adham said.
The younger patient, meanwhile, apparently had no other illnesses and was found to have died "purely due to COVID-19," the official said.
He started showing symptoms of fever on March 5 and was admitted to the Permai Hospital in Johor Bahru on March 12 after testing positive for the virus. The patient was transferred to Sultanah Aminah Hospital ICU where his condition worsened.
Adham urged the public to abide by government's lockdown order taking effect Wednesday and running through March 31.
"The cooperation of all parties, both public and private, must continue. We urge the public to follow the order," he said. "This approach has to be executed by the government, to prevent more Malaysians from being infected by COVID-19 and curtail the outbreak," he said.
Failure to follow the order could result in a prison sentence of up to two years and a fine, according to officials.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia reported its first deaths due to novel coronavirus on Tuesday, as the World Health Organization called on Southeast Asia nations to "urgently" scale up measures to slow the spread of COVID-19.
In some countries, extreme measures were already underway. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte declared a six-month "state of calamity" to free up funding for containment efforts, as an "enhanced community quarantine" went into effect for 60 million residents of the northern island of Luzon.  Malaysians prepared for a two-week nationwide lockdown beginning Wednesday.
Indonesia confirmed 38 more cases on Tuesday, bringing its total to 172, while Thailand recorded a new total of 177, and Bangladesh reported two new cases for a total of 10.
Malaysia
In Malaysia, Health Minister Adham Baba announced the deaths of two men who had been receiving treatment in Johor and Sarawak states. The victims were 34 and 60, he told reporters.
The 34-year-old patient had attended a four-day gathering at the Sri Petaling Mosque in Kuala Lumpur, according to Adham. He apparently had no other illnesses and was found to have died "purely due to COVID-19." It was the first death linked to the event.
Malaysia recorded 120 new cases as of noon Tuesday and said that 64 percent of its total 673 infections had been traced to the religious event held from Feb. 27 to March 1.
The Sarawak Disaster Management Committee identified the older man as a pastor at the Emmanuel Baptist Church in Kuching, Sarawak. It reported that 193 people he had been in contact with were being quarantined.
Adham told reporters the victim had a history of chronic illnesses including diabetes and hypertension.
The Malaysian government prepared to institute what Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had announced would be "a blanket ban on mass movement and gatherings nationwide" beginning on Wednesday and running through March 31.
Under the ban, no Malaysian or foreign travelers would be allowed to enter or leave the country, and all schools and places of worship would be shuttered. Failure to follow it could result in a prison sentence of up to two years and a fine, according to officials.
The ban was to affect thousands of Malaysians who travel to Singapore for work and tons of goods passing between the countries.
Muhyiddin announced that a committee representing both countries was being set up to address the travel concerns.
Singapore's Ministry of Manpower announced it was working with the private and public sectors to make short-term housing in hotels, dormitories and private residential properties available for Malaysian workers who could not return home.
Meanwhile, Malaysia's Ministry of International Trade and Industry announced the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministerial Meeting planned for next month has been postponed until June.

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Police in Manila gather at a command outpost as they prepare to enforce President Rodrigo Duterte's Luzon-wide lockdown, March 16, 2020. [Basilio Sepe/BenarNews]

Philippines
In the Philippines, the Department of Health reported two additional deaths, bringing the total to 14, while the number of infections rose by 47 to 187.
"Some infected patients have no relation with other confirmed patients. We need to find out where it came from," Philippine Health Assistant Secretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told reporters.
Duterte issued a proclamation enabling the government to appropriate funds for containment efforts and ordered all government agencies to "render full assistance and cooperation and mobilize the necessary resources to undertake critical, urgent and appropriate response" amid the spread of COVID-19.
"There is hereby declared a state of calamity throughout the Philippines for a period of six months, unless earlier lifted or extended as circumstances may warrant," Duterte said.
In Luzon, the main island of about 60 million people, the government has virtually shut down all public gatherings; cancelled classes for a month; allowed work from home arrangements; shut air, sea and land travel to and from the main island of Luzon and canceled all public transportation.
Philippine Airlines announced it was canceling domestic flights through April 12.
Indonesia and Thailand
In Indonesia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced a temporary ban beginning Friday on travelers from Iran and European countries hardest hit by COVID-19 – Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, along with the Vatican.
It had already banned people trying to enter the country from China and regions in South Korea hit by the virus.
In Thailand, the cabinet approved a plan to close schools and universities beginning Wednesday through the end of March. The government also postponed the Thai New Year Festival, known as Songkran, scheduled for April 13 to 15.
The plan also closes pubs, entertainment places, massage parlors and cinemas in and around Bangkok for two weeks.
The government urged people to avoid events that draw large crowds, but allowed department stores, shops and restaurants to remain open.
To minimize infection threats from abroad, Thailand now requires medical certificates no more than three days old for travelers from high-risk countries, namely China and its territories, Italy, Iran and South Korea.
In Bangladesh, where two new cases were reported, schools were to close nationwide beginning Wednesday through March 31 in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Scale-up needed: WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday called on Southeast Asia nations to "urgently" scale up measures to slow the spread of COVID-19, with hundreds of cases confirmed in the region and a growing risk of community transmission.
"The situation is evolving rapidly. We need to immediately scale up all efforts to prevent the virus from infecting more people," Dr. Poonam Khetrapal Singh, WHO Southeast Asia regional director, said in a statement from New Delhi.
"More clusters of virus transmission are being confirmed. While this is an indication of an alert and effective surveillance, it also puts the spotlight on the need for more aggressive and whole-of-society efforts to prevent further spread of COVID-19," she said.
Some countries were clearly heading towards community transmission, Singh said, adding, "we clearly need to do more, and urgently."
First detected in Wuhan, China in December, COVID-19 has now spread to 159 countries, areas and territories across the world, causing more than 7,500 deaths and nearly 185,000 infections, according to WHO figures from Tuesday.


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BENARNEWS- A conservative Islamic movement has come under international scrutiny after a mass gathering it organized in Malaysia emerged as a source of hundreds of coronavirus infections in more than half a dozen countries grappling with a global pandemic.
Malaysian officials on Friday reported that 624 of the nation's 1,030 COVID-19 cases were linked to the gathering organized by the India-headquartered Tablighi Jamaat missionary movement at a mosque outside of Kuala Lumpur.
Two of the three COVID-19 deaths reported in Malaysia involved participants of the packed event at the Sri Petaling mosque from Feb 27 to March 1.
Authorities have been able to screen at least 10,553 of the estimated 16,000 attendees after news broke about the outbreak, according to Noor Hisham Abdullah, the country's health director general.
Some 1,500 foreigners from a dozen countries had attended the gathering and many of them were found to be infected by the COVID-19 virus, including from Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam, according to reports.
Malaysian officials are desperately trying to identify thousands of local participants who have not come forward.
"I understand the concern regarding the Tabligh group, there are over 4,000 of them yet to be identified," Defense Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob told reporters on Thursday. "While police said they will take up the search effort, I hope those who went for the event voluntarily get themselves tested."
Malaysia has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia. It has overtaken Japan to become the Asian country with the third highest number of cases, after China and South Korea, according to data compiled by infections-disease experts at Johns Hopkins University in the United States.
The Malaysian chapter of Tabligh Jamaat, which began in India in the 1920s, is apolitical and accepted by the local Muslim community but the reluctance by members to answer government calls to undergo COVID-19 screening has smeared its image, some say.
"Nothing bad happened before. Only this time they got entangled with COVID-19," Ahmad el-Muhammady of the International Islamic University of Malaysia told BenarNews.
Ahmad said the government should take a hardline stance against those who refuse to be tested.
"It is an irresponsible act," he said.
Prominent Islamic jurist and scholar Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin questioned the apparent lackadaisical attitude among Tablighi Jamaat members toward coming forward to be tested for the COVID-19 virus, suggesting that some of them may have deviated from the teachings of Islam.
"The reason Allah sends his religion is for the well-being of the human being. The religion does not teach its followers to self-destruct," he told BenarNews.
"There is nowhere in the religion's teachings that teaches about harming ourselves. (But) some members seemed to have failed in understanding this," he said.
The Malaysian chapter of Tablighi Jamaat is based at the Sri Petaling Mosque and has organized various programs involving local and international participants.
Indian Muslim migrants launched the Malaysian chapter in the 1960s, especially in Malay-majority areas including Kedah, Perak and Terengganu, according to Khairin Sharep, an academic in the history department at the University Pendidikan Sultan Idris.
"The introduction of the Malay language and local preachers in the Tabligh movement at that time showed the start of a strategy to introduce a Malay Tablighi Jamaat," he said.
By 1970 the movement was using the Ar-Rahman Mosque at the University of Malaya to attract new members, he said, adding it operated as a loose organization and focused on preaching missions.
"This lack of specific organizational structure is so that Tabligh followers only focus their efforts to their preaching missions while [not giving emphasis to] positions or titles," Khairin said.
A Tablighi Jamaat member who asked to be identified as Zakariya called the COVID-19 outbreak a test from Allah.
"We don't fulfill the obligations to continue Prophet Muhammad's work fully and Allah wants us to repent and to be more diligent in the future," said Zakariya, 49, a clerk from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.
He apologized for those who have failed to be tested.
"Because of the actions of a few, all tabligh members are seen in a bad light by others. In Islam, the teachings are simple: Obey your government as long as they aren't asking you to do haram or bad things," he said.

'Renounce all things'
Farish A. Noor, an academic based in Singapore who spent seven years studying Tablighi Jamaat, said it "has laid enormous emphasis on the need for individual believers to leave their comfort zones, go out into the world to face challenges and hardship, and to renounce all things worldly and materialistic."
In an Op-ed in The Straits Times of Singapore, Farish, an associate professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said the movement is largely benign.
"It has never sought out confrontation with other faith communities (as it largely confines its activities to other fellow Muslims) and it has never had any political ambitions (for it regards politics as something worldly and therefore a distraction from faith and love for God)," he wrote.
The Tablighi Jamaat movement is not limited to India and Malaysia.
It organizes an event each year, normally in January as was the case in 2020, on the Bishwa Ijtema ground about 18 miles north of Bangladesh's capital Dhaka.
Organizers claim the annual Bangladesh event draws more than 5 million Muslims and is second only to the Hajj in Mecca in terms of crowd size.
A much smaller event had been planned to run in Indonesia through Sunday, but was cancelled at the last minute on Thursday over COVID-19 concerns.
On Thursday, Tablighi Jamaat spokesman Ali Yubra Kamaruddin said about 8,000 pilgrims who had already arrived for Indonesia's gathering in South Sulawesi province were being quarantined.
"This need to travel – which some of the members described to me as being on a state of permanent pilgrimage – lies at the core of what the Tabligh is as a movement of faith renewal," Farish wrote.
"When the Tabligh was formed in northern India in the early part of the 20th century, it regarded the state of Muslims as abysmal. The founders of the movement argued that the faith of many Muslims had been weakened as a result of their attachment to all things worldly and materialistic, and they believed that one has to renounce attachments to worldly things in order to be truly free to believe sincerely."


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BENARNEWS- Malaysian soldiers will assist the police in enforcing a government order for people to stay at home, the nation's defense chief said Friday, as the king urged residents to cooperate with authorities amid confirmations that COVID-19 infections had surged past 1,000.
Kuala Lumpur ramped up its restrictions while authorities in neighboring Jakarta warned that 700,000 people were at risk of contracting the coronavirus in Indonesia, Southeast Asia's largest economy.
"The military will be deployed beginning this Sunday," Malaysian Defense Minister Ismail Sabri told reporters. "So, we are confident that with the help from the military, the control order would be enforced better."
The pandemic has so far killed more than 11,200 people and infected more than 259,000 others, according to data compiled by infectious-disease experts at Johns Hopkins University in the United States.
On Friday, Malaysia reported its third COVID-19 death, a 58-year-old man who attended a Muslim gathering held at the end of February at the Sri Petaling mosque outside Kuala Lumpur. One of its other two deaths was linked to the event.
About 16,000 people attended the gathering, which has emerged as a source of coronavirus infections in Brunei, Cambodia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. 

The Philippines, which has confirmed 230 cases and 18 deaths, has reported one death related to the religious meeting. Manila's health authorities there said they were tracking more than 200 Filipino Muslim elders who had traveled to the gathering.
King speaks
In a brief statement broadcast live on national television, Malaysian King Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah urged the public to obey the government's Movement Control Order imposed to address the pandemic.
"Do not leave home if there are no pressing matters; do not return to your hometown unless it is an emergency," he said.
"We are facing a serious threat from the outbreak of COVID-19," he said, urging citizens not to engage in panic-buying.
Malaysia has overtaken Japan to become the Asian country with the third highest number of cases, after China and South Korea, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
Health authorities in Kuala Lumpur confirmed 130 new infections on Friday, bringing the nation's tally to 1,030. They said more than 600 people, including 48 of the new cases, were linked to the Tablighi Jamaat gathering of Muslims from Feb. 27 to March 1.
Meanwhile, Indonesia on Friday spotlighted the pandemic's damage to the global economy, which is already in recession.
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati warned that the world's largest Muslim-majority nation could experience zero growth if the coronavirus outbreak is not contained quickly.
"If COVID-19 lasts more than three to six months, lockdowns are imposed and international trade falls and flights are reduced by 75 percent to 100 percent, economic growth could drop 2.5 percent to 0 percent," she told reporters.
Indonesia will re-allocate 62.3 trillion rupiah (U.S. $3.9 billion) from the 2020 budget to tackle the pandemic, Sri Mulyani said, underscoring that most of the funds will focus on health care and financial incentives for businesses.
President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said the government has started ramping up coronavirus testing on Friday.
"Rapid testing is being carried out today for the purpose of contact tracing. Health workers are going door-to-door to carry out tests," Jokowi told reporters.
The Health Ministry said the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases rose to 369 as of Friday, with fatalities at 32.
Seventeen people have fully recovered, ministry spokesman Achmad Yurianto said.
Yurianto said the ministry estimates that up to 700,000 people were most at risk of contracting the virus and the government was preparing 1 million testing kits.
"We are preparing mass testing for those who've had contact with people who have tested positive," he said. "But not everyone will be tested."
Jakarta Gov. Anies Baswedan declared the coronavirus outbreak an emergency on Friday.
"This emergency period will be in place for 14 days and can be extended depending on the situation," he said, as he ordered entertainment centers, nightspots and cinemas to be closed starting March 23 and announced temporary reductions in public transportation services.
The city administration already closed schools and theme parks this week and urged employees to allow people to work from home.
On Friday, the imam of the Istiqlal grand mosque in Jakarta announced that there would be no congregation prayers, including Friday services, for two weeks.
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Businesses hit
The pandemic has sent global financial markets into a tailspin, but Indonesia's mom-and-pop businesses have also been hit.
Joni Yanto, an app-based motorcycle taxi driver, told BenarNews that he had received only three orders to deliver food on Friday, but no passengers.
"Now most people only order food or groceries, while passengers are increasingly rare," Joni said.
Food and grocery deliveries take more time than driving people to specific destinations, according to Igun Wicaksono, chairman of the Motorcycle Taxi Association.
Igun said orders had fallen 50 percent since people in the greater Jakarta area began working from home as part of social distancing on Monday.
"Orders have dropped dramatically, especially during rush-hour or at night," Igun told BenarNews.
Bangladesh assigns army
As COVID-19 forced many countries to adopt tough measures, including lockdowns, Bangladesh officials decided to assign the army to help combat the pandemic.
The country, which has 20 confirmed cases of infections, announced its first coronavirus-related death on Wednesday.
Bangladeshi Health Minister Zahid Malik told reporters on Thursday that the army will be used to help impose lockdowns and build special quarantine facilities on the outskirts of Dhaka.
"We're planning to lock areas vulnerable as infection rates climb," Malik said.


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BENARNEWS- Malaysia will grant a six-month delay on most loan payments to ease economic suffering caused by the coronavirus outbreak, the Central Bank said Tuesday, as officials in neighboring countries took aggressive measures to mitigate the pandemic's expected financial impact.
In Indonesia, Southeast Asia's biggest economy, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said the government was preparing assistance packages to help cushion the negative effect of COVID-19.
"The automatic moratorium is applicable to loans and financing which are not in arrears exceeding 90 days," Malaysia's central bank, Bank Negara, said in a letter to bank CEOs and heads of the country's financial institutions.
The delay in repayment does not apply to credit card balances, the bank said. The new measures, to take effect from April 1, would assist borrowers experiencing financial constraints, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), it said.
"Banking institutions should provide individuals and SME borrowers with adequate information on how the suspended loan ... will be treated during the moratorium period," Bank Negara said.
More than 18,200 people have died and at least 407,000 others have been infected worldwide, according to the latest data compiled by disease experts at Johns Hopkins University in the United States.
With 106 new cases and one more death reported Tuesday, for a total of 1,624 infections and 15 deaths, Malaysia remained the country with the third-highest caseload in Asia, behind China and South Korea.
Health ministry officials said almost 1,000 of Malaysia's total cases were connected to a gathering at a mosque near Kuala Lumpur last month. About 16,000 people from more than two dozen countries joined the four-day event organized by the India-headquartered Tablighi Jamaat missionary movement.
At least eight of Malaysia's coronavirus fatalities were linked to the religious gathering, health ministry officials said.
Neighbors impose economic measures
To limit the pandemic's swift turn from a health crisis to a financial calamity, Malaysia's neighbors, including Indonesia and Thailand, have also implemented a raft of economic measures.
Indonesian President Widodo said his government would provide a 10 trillion rupiah (U.S. $607 million) infusion of cash aid to help those who have lost their jobs or daily income as a result of the outbreak. The aid will be delivered through the so-called Pre-Employment Card, he said.
"Every holder of the Pre-Employment Card will be given an incentive of 1 million rupiah ($62) per month for three to four months," Jokowi told reporters.
The president urged provincial governments to start collecting data on those eligible for the assistance, as he also announced subsidies on basic staples for low-income families, and a temporary waiver on income tax for workers in the manufacturing sector.
The government will also help small and medium-sized businesses by relaxing lending restrictions, Jokowi said.
He said interest on monthly installments would be suspended for a year for app-based taxi drivers who bought their vehicles on credit, and lenders would not be allowed to repossess the vehicles if the debtors were behind on their payments.
Indonesia reported 107 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, bringing the number of confirmed infections to 686, with 55 deaths.
Thai stimulus package
Meanwhile on Tuesday, Thai Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak, announced a stimulus package of about 117 billion baht ($3.5 billion) to help blunt the nation's economic losses from the pandemic.
About 3 million people without social security funds would each receive 15,000 baht ($458) in handouts over three months and be offered a 10,000-baht ($305) in soft loans, while workers with social security funds would be paid half of their salaries for up to six months, he said.
Small firms will also have access to soft financing, which have lenient terms, such as extended grace periods, officials said.
Earlier this month, the Thai government approved a package of measures, including soft loans for small and medium-sized businesses. Authorities said the move was expected to inject at least 373 billion baht into the economy after the pandemic devastated the nation's tourism sector.
Bangladesh's garments sector faces 'extreme uncertainty'
The pandemic's impact has hit Bangladesh's all-important garment industry especially hard.
As many as 843 factories reported that 697 million pieces of orders, valued at $2.2 billion, had been cancelled, authorities said.
Rubana Huq, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), said the scrapped orders would impact about 1.4 million workers in the sector, which is the country's top foreign currency earner.
"We are going through extreme uncertainty," Huq said in a video message to the association's members.
Bangladesh, the world's biggest garment exporter after China, has only reported 39 coronavirus infections with four deaths as of Tuesday, but the ready-made garment industry accounts for about 13 percent of the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Huq said she had asked the German government to urge its buyers to continue using Bangladesh as their source for ready-made garments.
She said she made the request in a letter sent to Gerd Müller, Germany's federal minister for economic cooperation, as global buyers kept cancelling or suspending shipments of garments.
"Let the production go on," Huq also wrote in a letter to retailers. "I urge you all to kindly steer through this crisis together."
But on Tuesday, Bangladeshi labor leaders urged factory owners to allow garment workers to take paid holidays to avoid getting infected with the coronavirus.
Dhaka had earlier announced that it would observe a general holiday starting March 26 until April 4, but labor leaders said they expected factories to remain open.
"People around the world are in a panic situation, no doubt about that," Mahbubur Rahman Ismail, coordinator for the labor group Garment Sramik Odhikar Andolan, told BenarNews.
"The decision of the BGMEA to keep factories open will ultimately push workers towards death, spreading pandemic," he said


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BENARNEWS- Rubber-glove producers in Malaysia urged the government Wednesday to exempt them from an extended nationwide lockdown, warning of "a chronic shortage" of the product as they struggle with reduced manpower amid surging worldwide demand from hospitals battling the coronavirus.
The Malaysian Rubber Gloves Manufacturers Association (MARGMA) – the world's largest maker of medical gloves – made the appeal as Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced that his government was extending the coronavirus lockdown until mid-April.
"It is the demand from the rest of the world that is going to be very challenging as there is the MCO, whereby rubber glove manufacturers are allowed to operate with just 50% of its original work force," the group said, using the acronym for the Movement Control Order, which had an initial cutoff point on March 31, but was extended until April 14.
"This will mean only half of the normal quantity of gloves to be produced and it could really cause a chronic shortage to the world," the association said.
Malaysia's rubber gloves makers had previously complained that the pandemic had also led to shutdowns of manufacturers of carton boxes, which made it difficult for MARGMA members to ship their products.
Earlier in the day, the nation's health authorities had confirmed 172 new cases of COVID-19 infections, bringing the Malaysian total to 1,796, with 17 deaths. The Muslim-majority nation remained the country with the third-highest caseload in Asia, behind China and South Korea.
The urgent need for more disposable gloves was underscored Tuesday when the United States lifted an order it imposed in September 2019 on Malaysian gloves maker WRP Asia Pacific Sdn. Berhad, which had faced allegations that its production involved forced-labor conditions.
Customs authorities blocked those products at the same time that clothes produced by an apparel manufacturer in China's Xinjiang region were suppressed from reaching the U.S. market.
To halt the COVID-19 transmission by preventing direct human contact, Prime Minister Muhyiddin said in a live televised address that he would prolong the nation's lockdown until April 14.
"The trend of new positive COVID-19 cases is still happening, and the trend is expected to continue for some time until it starts to decline," he said. "I was briefed by the National Security Council that we can see a higher number of new cases if we don't act quickly."
The impact of the initial lockdown imposed a week ago has quickly rippled through businesses, including the gloves manufacturers. MARGMA said its members' employees had been working overtime during the lockdown to produce gloves but with half of the normal workforce.
"Malaysia is using about 120 million pieces per year and this can be easily fulfilled and we have given assurance to the [minister of health] that there will be no shortage," the group's statement said. It said the manufacturers were continuing talks with the government to stave off the virus by allowing them to make gloves with full staff.
Malaysia is expected to deliver 225 billion pieces of medical gloves this year, which is about 65 percent of the total world requirement of 330 billion pieces, the statement said.
Denis Low, the association's president, said the lockdown could jeopardize the global effort to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
"We trust our government to be compassionate and that our prime minister and our ministers will want to assist to fight off this COVID-19 coronavirus that is affecting the world," he said in the statement, emphasizing that the overtime work as a result of reduced manpower would increase production costs by up to 30 percent.
No longer under forced labor
Meanwhile, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced on Tuesday that it had lifted its order blocking the entry of rubber gloves imported by WRP Asia Pacific over allegations that the Malaysian manufacturer had engaged in forced-labor conditions.
Under U.S. law, it is illegal to import goods made with forced labor, including the use of convicts and children. Customs authorities block the entry of such merchandise by using a Withhold Release Order (WRO).
"The WRO, which was initially levied against the company in September 2019, was revoked based on recent information obtained by CBP showing the company is no longer producing the rubber gloves under forced labor conditions," Brenda Smith, CBP's executive assistant commissioner, said in a statement.
"We are very pleased that this effort successfully mitigated a significant supply chain risk," she said.
When WRP Asia Pacific's products were blocked, customs officials also announced the use of WROs against garments produced by Hetian Taida Apparel Company in Xinjiang, saying its products were "produced with prison or forced labor."
Xinjiang is China's restive region where U.N. experts and activists say at least 1 million ethnic Uyghurs and other Muslims are held in detention centers where they are forced to work in "horrific" forced-labor conditions.
CBP, in its statement, underscored that it usually "receives allegations of forced labor from a variety of sources, including from the general public." Importers have the opportunity to either re-export the detained shipments at any time or to submit documents to challenge the CBP decision, it said.
In January 2019, Malaysia's Human Resources Ministry announced that the government would sue WRP Asia Pacific over allegations that the gloves company had withheld the salaries of its workers from Bangladesh and Nepal, which triggered a strike by about 2,000 employees.


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BENARNEWS- Two Southeast Asian countries are reporting coronavirus infections in the thousands, after Thailand crossed the 1,000 mark and Malaysia surpassed 2,000 on Thursday.
Elsewhere, the Indonesian president called on G20 member-states to lead efforts to combat COVID-19, while in Bangladesh, the most powerful industry group representing owners of garment factories agreed to close most of the plants during a two-week period.
The government has declared the next two weeks as a special national holiday during a countrywide shutdown that began Thursday, but is urging Bangladeshis to stay at home and avoid large gatherings amid the public health crisis stemming from the viral outbreak.
In Malaysia, members of the royal staff were among those affected by the coronavirus, leading the king and queen to quarantine for 14 days, officials said.
"The National Palace would like to inform that seven of its staff have been tested positive for COVID19. They are currently being treated at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital and health authorities are now working on tracing the cause of infection," the palace said in a statement.
COVID-19 tests on the king, Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, and the queen, Tunku Azizah Aminah Maimunah, were negative, according to the palace.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and members of his cabinet decided they would donate two months of their salaries to a national COVID-19 relief fund.
"This is to show the government's commitment in assisting those who truly are affected by the virus," the prime minister's office said in a statement.
The government would also institute a two-week lockdown in two locations in Johor, beginning Friday, after the state recorded 83 positive coronavirus cases, Malaysian Defense Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced.
The lockdown is to end on April 9 and will involve 3,570 people from 650 families. No one will be allowed to enter or leave the two areas and all businesses must be closed. 

"During the lockdown, the welfare department will supply enough basic necessities to all households. The authorities will set up a medical base in the two areas and police and the military will be on duty to ensure the order is followed," Ismail said.
On Thursday, Malaysia saw its total number of COVID-19 cases jump by 235 to 2,031 and the death toll increase by four to 23 from the previous day, according to government figures.
Three of those who died had attended the Tablighi Jamaat missionary movement mass gathering at a mosque outside of Kuala Lumpur in late February. The gathering has been linked to hundreds of infections in Malaysia and other countries including Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam, according to reports.
Worldwide, more than 23,500 people have died and at least 521,000 have been infected, according to the latest data compiled by disease experts at Johns Hopkins University in the United States.
Thailand begins state of emergency
The Thai government implemented similar movement and travel restrictions on Thursday, the first day of the nation's state of emergency decreed by the prime minister. Authorities sealed off five Tambon (village clusters) in the Deep South's Narathiwat province, which borders Malaysia, because six people had tested positive for the coronavirus.
"I don't feel discomfort because we have been under an emergency decree for over 15 years," Narathiwat resident Nithima Lama told BenarNews. "But we need to stay at home at 8 p.m. and we will see how it's going tomorrow."
The predominantly Muslim Deep South, which has seen years of violence from a separatist insurgency, reported at least 99 people infected.
The overall number of COVID-19 cases increased by 111 since Wednesday to reach 1,045, while the death toll remained at four.
As the state of emergency began, the government set up 400 checkpoints across the nation to screen for COVID-19.
"When you get to a checkpoint please roll down the window and officers will if you are complying with safety advisories such as having a mask on. ... If they ask you to get out of your car for ease of inspection, please cooperate," said Lt. Gen. Piya Uthayo, national police bureau spokesman.

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Indonesian President Joko Widodo leads a family-only funeral procession for his mother, who died of cancer, in Solo, Central Java, before traveling to West Java to participate in a video conference of G-20 leaders on COVID-19, March 26, 2020. [Kusumasari Ayuningtyas/BenarNews]

Jokowi calls for G20 leadership
After bidding farewell to his mother at her funeral on Thursday, Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo traveled to the presidential palace in Bogor, West Java, to participate in a G20 video conference on dealing with COVID-19.
Jokowi called for leaders of 19 countries and the European Union, which are members of the G20 along with Indonesia, to lead efforts to combat the pandemic.
"For this reason, the G20 must actively lead efforts to find anti-virus and COVID-19 drugs, obviously with the WHO [World Health Organization]," Jokowi said in a statement posted on the official presidential site.
"We must prevent a global economic recession through coordinated fiscal and monetary policies, and expand and strengthen social safety nets, especially for small- and medium-sized enterprises," he said.
G20 members committed to contribute $5 trillion to the global economy to combat the COVID19 crisis, according to a statement released after the teleconference.
"Combatting this pandemic calls for a transparent, robust, coordinated, large-scale and science-based global response in the spirit of solidarity," the G20 said.
On Thursday, Indonesia saw its COVID-19 cases increase by 103 to 893, and deaths increase by 20 to 78. Three new provinces – West Sumatra, Aceh, and Central Sulawesi – reported their first confirmed cases, meaning the virus has spread to 27 of the country's 34 provinces, according to the Health Ministry.
Bangladesh shuts down
Dhaka was far less crowded on Thursday, the first day of a countrywide shutdown, as many highways were closed and mass transportation was limited. Bangladesh Highway Police said some trucks hauling supplies were allowed on the road.
While thousands left the city in the days leading up to the holiday, those who stayed in Dhaka appeared to be responding to the government's call to stay in their homes as markets had few shoppers.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) announced it would close its factories because of concerns around COVID-19.
Rubana Huq, the association's chief, sent a directive on Thursday to factory owners recommending they cease operations to slow spread of coronavirus. It is to run through April 4.
The directive came a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina delivered a nationally televised address pledging a 50 billion taka (U.S. $590 million) stimulus package for the export-oriented businesses to pay workers' wages.
The ready-made garment industry, the country's top earner from foreign exports, has been reeling economically during the COVID-19 crisis, with billions of dollars in contract orders cancelled by European and American buyers.
"The companies producing personal protective equipment (PPE) can keep their factories open," Huq said in her message to owners, while reminding owners they must ensure maximum safety and hygiene.
The move drew support from a labor leader.
"Considering the current situation, it's a positive decision to close the factories," Mahbubur Rahman Ismail, coordinator of the labor group Garment Sramik Odhikar Andolan, told BenarNews.
Despite the support, he expressed concern that Huq's message did not address workers' wages.


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BENARNEWS- Authorities in Indonesia and Malaysia are investigating to determine how many of their citizens may have been infected as part of a new of COVID-19 cluster emerging from a mass Muslim event in New Delhi.
More than 350 people who were removed from a religious center where the event took place in mid-March have been hospitalized, and at least 10 attendees have died after being infected with the coronavirus disease, according to an Agence France-Presse report. The Press Trust of India said around 8,000 people took part in the event.
Indonesians and Malaysians reportedly were among those attending the event hosted by the same Muslim missionary organization, Tablighi Jamaat, whose gathering in Malaysia in late February has been linked to hundreds of coronavirus cases in more than half a dozen countries.
"According to information we have, there are 1,456 Indonesian Tablighi members overseas, 731 of whom are in India," Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told a press conference in Jakarta on Tuesday.
The event in the Indian capital began on March 13, days before Delhi's chief minister banned gatherings of more than 50 people to prevent the spread of the virus, according to India Today. Hundreds of people refused to leave the building and got trapped inside after Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24 announced a three-week nationwide lockdown, which suspended transportation and non-essential movement.
It was not immediately clear whether any Indonesians had attended the New Delhi event or were among those trapped inside the building.
In Malaysia, Health Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah was asked if his countrymen had attended the gathering in India.
"True. We are investigating," he told reporters in Putrajaya on Tuesday. "

• bviously there is a high risk for them to attend these gatherings. So we are trying to get more information from our counterpart in India."
  In addition, authorities have identified 87 Malaysians who had traveled to attend a Tablighi Jamaat gathering in Sulawesi, Indonesia, that local officials cancelled at the last minute on March 18, but after 3,000 followers had already arrived.
  "We are tracing them as well," he said.
  The Indian and Indonesian events followed a Tablighi Jamaat mass gathering in Kuala Lumpur late last month at the Sri Petaling Mosque that drew about 16,000 people.
  The Malaysian government has reported that about half of its 2,766 COVID-19 cases were linked to the gathering. Officials in Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam confirmed cases linked to the gathering as well.
  Retno said many of the foreigners who planned to attend the event in Sulawesi, including some Malaysians, had returned to their homes while 97 were quarantined after three showed COVID-19 symptoms.
  
  
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BENARNEWS- The World Bank on Tuesday slashed economic growth forecasts across Asia this year amid the coronavirus pandemic, predicting that Malaysia and Thailand would plunge into recession even in a best-case scenario.
In a worst-case scenario, Indonesia and the Philippines would join the two other Southeast Asian nations in economic contractions, the Washington-based bank said in its "East Asia and Pacific Economic Update," which warned that negative economic growth could push more people in the region into the poverty bracket.
"Developing economies in East Asia and the Pacific now face the prospect of a global financial shock and recession," the report said. "Several economies are expected to contract in 2020, which will lead to an increase in the poverty rate."
The World Bank sharply revised its GDP growth projection for Malaysia this year, from 4.5 to -0.1 percent and for Thailand from 2.9 to -3 percent. The last time Malaysia's economy contracted was in 2009. It posted growth of 4.3 percent last year, while Thailand grew 2.4 percent.
Thailand, which has declared a state of emergency to give the government new powers to deal with the virus crisis, has closed its borders to almost all foreigners. The Buddhist-majority country, which welcomed 39 million tourists last year, reported one death and 127 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, bringing its tally of infections to 1,651 with 10 fatalities.
Malaysia, which reported six deaths and 140 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, said its restrictions on movements imposed two weeks ago had suppressed major spikes in the COVID-19 infections.
"So far, we are succeeding with no spike of cases," the nation's health minister, Noor Hisham Abdullah, said on his Twitter page. "We have not lost the war against COVID-19, neither have we won the war yet."
With its latest COVID-19 cases, Malaysia's total number of infections rose to 2,766 with 43 fatalities.
The World Bank, calling for fast and decision action to contain the spread of COVID-19 infection, said that "significant economic pain seems unavoidable in all countries and the risk of financial instability is high, especially in countries with excessive private indebtedness."
"Given the unprecedented nature of the economic shock to each country, and the fact that it is also affecting all other countries in the region and beyond, an exceptional policy response is needed," the World Bank said.
In a worst-case scenario, the bank forecast Malaysia to contract by 4.6 percent and Thailand to shrink by 5 percent this year.
Delayed containment of the coronavirus could also impact growth in Indonesia, Southeast Asia's largest economy, the World Bank said, as it projected Jakarta's real GDP growth to weaken significantly to 2.1 percent in 2020 in a best-case scenario from 5 percent last year.
In a worst-case scenario, the bank said Indonesia might slip into recession, posting -3.5 percent growth this year.
"Indonesians with inadequate social protection who get sick or suffer income loss due to travel restrictions can fall into poverty," it said.
Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo declared a public health emergency over the pandemic on Tuesday as he rolled out an additional 405.1 trillion rupiah (U.S. $24.8 billion) to be spent on medical supplies and social safety net programs.
Jokowi said the new regulation that allows the government to increase spending to tackle the COVID-19 crisis will widen the 2020 budget deficit to as much as 5.07 percent of the gross domestic product.
Three weeks ago, Indonesia announced a 120 trillion rupiah ($8.1 billion) stimulus package, including tax breaks for companies and tax relief for manufacturing workers, to shore up confidence as the pandemic caused financial markets to tumble.
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati had warned that Indonesia's economy could slow to 4.7 percent this year if the virus outbreak slows global growth.
The World Bank also significantly lowered its growth forecast for the Philippines this year from 5.9 percent to 3 percent.
It said its marked reduction in growth outlook reflects the impact of the pandemic under a scenario where the current large-scale disruption of economic activities would extend for most of the year, before a partial recovery toward the year end.
"Growth outlook for 2020 is gloomy given the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the strict community quarantine that has taken place in Luzon since March 17, 2020," the World Bank said, referring to the nation's main island, which has been under an "enhanced community quarantine."
Philippine economic growth slowed in 2019 to its weakest pace in eight years, driven by an investment contraction and export growth deceleration, according to World Bank figures. In a worst-case scenario, the bank projected the Philippines to fall into recession this year, contracting 0.5 percent
Manila's health authorities on Tuesday confirmed 10 more coronavirus deaths, bringing the nation's toll to 88, with 2,084 infections.
Globally, 42,032 people have died and more than 855,000 others have been infected, according to the latest data compiled by disease experts at Johns Hopkins University in the United States


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Malaysia’s government announced Wednesday that it had started handing out more than 24 million face masks nationwide to help contain the coronavirus, as health authorities confirmed that COVID-19 infections had surged past 4,000.

Confirmed coronavirus infections have been reported in 212 countries and territories since China detected its first cases in December. As of Thursday, officials in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines have confirmed a cumulative total of 13,314 cases, with 517 deaths for the four Southeast Asian neighbors.

“A total of 24.6 million face masks are in the process of being distributed to the State Disaster Management Committee for distribution to the districts,” Defense Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said in a statement, underscoring a change in the global stance on the wearing of masks and face coverings as the latest step to try to slow the spread of coronavirus.

The process of distributing four face masks per household has started in Peninsular Malaysia and would begin in Malaysian Borneo on Friday, Ismail said, adding that special air force flights would speed up shipments.

BENARNEWS- About 150 Cambodian migrant workers and students urged their government to allow them to return home from Malaysia where they were left stranded after Prime Minister Hun Sen refused to accept them, citing fears they could be infected with COVID-19.
Sobri Salleh, one of the students, told Radio Free Asia (RFA), a sister entity of BenarNews, that he and the others learned of Hun Sen's decision on Tuesday as they were prevented from boarding planes to Cambodia at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
Members of the group broke down and cried, he said, as many had already spent hundreds of U.S. dollars on their flights and packed up their lives in Malaysia – where authorities have confirmed 4,228 infections and 67 deaths – with the expectation of returning home for good.
"There are students, workers, and tourists – some of whose visas are about to expire," Sobri Salleh said.
"Many of the workers no longer have jobs [because of the economic impact of the outbreak], so they want to return home. If they can't go home, they won't have enough money to meet their needs [in Malaysia]."
Of the 150 Cambodians, about 10 refused to leave the airport until late Tuesday when officials from Cambodia's embassy met with them and asked them to leave. The embassy did not provide food for them and Sobri Salleh said he spent his own money to ensure everyone had something to eat.
Another student, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told RFA that she was willing to submit to a two-week quarantine if she is allowed to return home.
"In Malaysia now, there are no jobs – they are only helping their own people," she said.
RFA spoke with an official at the Cambodian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur who refused to comment about the situation, but the embassy later released a statement saying that the 10 people who refused to leave the airport have been provided temporary shelter until the issue is resolved. The embassy also asked Cambodians in Malaysia to "remain patient."
Hun Sen on Tuesday had told members of the media in Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh that he would not allow the 150 Cambodian nationals to return home from Malaysia because "we don't know who among them has COVID-19," referring to the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Dy Thehoya, senior program officer at Cambodian rights group the Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights, said the government should reconsider banning its citizens from returning to Cambodia, saying that they will face severe hardships if forced to stay in Malaysia.
"How much does the government need to spend to bring them home?" he asked.
"They pay taxes to the government, so when they are in trouble, the government should help them ... The government is obligated to protect its citizens. Most governments only ban foreigners [from entering], not their own citizens."


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BENARNEWS- The Malaysian and Bangladeshi governments on Friday extended curbs on people's movements to control surging coronavirus infections within their borders, as the global death toll linked to the pneumonia-like disease broke past 100,000 with almost 1.7 million confirmed cases.
Indonesia, Southeast Asia's most populous nation, meanwhile imposed a partial lockdown in the capital Jakarta and declared its toughest social-distancing rules to blunt the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Let me remind you that the war on COVID-19 is not yet over. The fight is still on," Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said in a nationally televised speech.
"We must be ready to face this situation for a considerably longer period of time," he said in announcing that the so-called Movement Control Order (MCO) would be extended until April 28. "It might continue on for several months before we are truly able to eradicate this outbreak 100 percent."
Malaysia reported three new deaths Friday, taking the nation's toll to 70, with 4,346 cases of infections.
Globally, almost 1.7 million confirmed cases have been recorded, with 101,526 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Resource Center. At least 177 countries have reported infections.
The MCO, which started on March 18, was initially scheduled to end on March 31 but was pushed back to April 14. Under the order, schools and nonessential businesses have been closed, with people being required to stay at home.
The prolonged movement restrictions have had negative ripple effects on business activities in South and Southeast Asia, but leaders have undertaken separate moves to cushion the pandemic's impact by preparing multibillion financial packages to stabilize their economies.
In his speech, Muhyiddin said several sectors of the economy would be re-opened in stages and a special cabinet panel would be formed to prepare a list of affected industries.
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Bangladesh prolongs 'public holiday'
In Dhaka, Bangladesh's government ordered citizens to stay at home on Friday evening, augmenting for a third time orders that restrict their movements as measures to protect the public from the virus.
The ministry of public administration issued a notification banning the movement of people after 6 p.m.
"We have extended the public holiday until April 25 to contain the spread of coronavirus," Farhad Hossain, state minister for public administration, told BenarNews, referring to the lockdown. "We have also restricted the movement of people between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. up to April 25."
He said people involved in providing emergency services, such as food, medicine, water and electricity, among others, would not be covered by the lockdown.
"We are not sure how long we need stay at home. Everything depends on the improvement of coronavirus situation," he said.
On Friday, Bangladeshi health authorities recorded the country's second-highest daily tally of coronavirus infections with 94 new cases, taking the national tally to 424. Officials said six new deaths pushed the death toll to 27.
"During the past 24 hours, 94 people were detected with COVID-19," Dr. Meerjady Sabrina Flora, the director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), told reporters.
Jakarta imposes partial lockdown; death toll tops 300
In Indonesia, authorities banned gatherings of more than five people and ordered residents to stay at home on Friday.
The Jakarta police department said it had mounted 33 checkpoints across the city of 10 million people to oversee the large-scale social restrictions, which will be in force for two weeks.
"This is to ensure that Jakarta residents comply with the rules," Jakarta Metropolitan Police spokesman Yusri Yunus said in a statement.
Jakarta Gov. Anies Baswedan said the measures included closures of schools, places of worship, and businesses, except for establishments providing essential goods and services, such as grocery stores, pharmacies and telecommunications.
"For the next two weeks, all Jakarta residents are expected to stay home, reduce or even eliminate outside activities," Anies said.
Restrictions include a ban on motorcycle taxis from carrying passengers and people from dining in restaurants. Violators could face fines of up to 100 million rupiah (U.S. $6,325), he said.
Indonesian health authorities reported 26 new coronavirus deaths, taking the nation's toll to 306, the highest toll for an Asian nation outside China.
More than half of the deaths and 3,512 infections are from Jakarta, the nation's COVID-19 epicenter, officials said.
On Thursday, Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo ordered all civil servants and security force members not to travel to their hometowns next month to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of Ramadan.
Jokowi said his government was evaluating whether to impose the prohibition on the rest of the nation. Indonesia employs about 4.4 million civil servants and 1.3 million police and soldiers, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics.
The central government has faced criticism on social media over its reporting of coronavirus deaths, with independent health analysts saying the number could be much higher.
More than 770 suspected coronavirus victims had been buried in Jakarta cemeteries under COVID-19 protocols requiring bodies to be wrapped in plastic, according to news service Agence France-Presse. That number is five times more than the official 142 dead in the Indonesian capital, AFP reported Friday.
Thai workers stranded in Malaysia
As a result of Kuala Lumpur's decision to extend its lockdown, about 100,000 Thai workers, most of them employed in eateries and the restaurant industry, would be required to remain in neighboring Malaysia, officials said Friday.
"They had intended to come back home right after the end of the original scheduled lockdown, but when it was extended until April that means their troubles were doubled," Mongkol Sinsomboon, the Thai Consul-General to Kota Bharu, told BenarNews. "They don't have jobs, no income, only expenses."
In Thailand's far south, Chonthan Sangpoom, vice director of the Southern Border Provinces Administration Center, said the workers were required to stay in Malaysia.
"Those workers in Malaysia must stay there until the borders are opened again," Chonthan told BenarNews.
Thai embassy officials and Thai volunteers in Malaysia said they were scrambling to gather basic relief supply for the stranded workers.
Thailand's cabinet early this week approved borrowing to fund U.S. $58 billion in financial packages to help the health sector combat COVID-19 and assist businesses bounce back from the economic shock inflicted by the pandemic.


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BENARNEWS- The Malaysian prime minister on Monday banned Ramadan bazaars nationwide amid an extended movement control order (MCO) that runs through April 28 in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The government also reversed an earlier decision to allow barbershops, beauty salons and optometrists to open. In a live telecast on Monday, Senior Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the decisions were made by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.
"The government has listened to the views of the people. The government also sought the advice of the experts and non-governmental organizations on the matter," he said. "As such, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has decided that hair salons, beauty salons and optical shops in the whole country are not allowed to operate during the MCO period."
"The same goes for Ramadan bazaars. The PM's decision is that all forms of bazaars are not allowed in the whole country during the MCO," said Ismail, referring to Malaysia's partial lockdown.
The government instituted strict measures to contain the COVID-19 outbreak, starting with the MCO announced on March 18.
Extended for a second time last week, the MCO ordered government offices, private companies, factories, schools and non-essential services to close, allowing only essential services to continue. In addition, it ordered places of worship closed and did not allow for mass gatherings.
The blanket ban came after weeks of confusion over whether the bazaars would be allowed to open from the beginning of the Muslim holy month of fasting, which is expected to go from April 24 to May 23 in Malaysia.
On Friday, Muhyiddin hinted at the move by announcing that Muslims would have to make changes in welcoming the fasting month by not having Ramadan bazaars, special tarawih prayers at mosques and mass break fasts after the prayers.

"Ramadan is coming. We cannot go to the Ramadan bazaar to buy the food to break our fast, cannot go to the mosque to perform tarawih. So do it at home with the family," he said at the time.

He also hinted that those who live and work away from their families would not be able to travel to their hometowns to celebrate Eid al-Fitr at the end of the fasting.
"Even though it is hard for us to imagine, this is the reality that we will be facing," Muhyiddin said last week.
Malaysia recorded 134 new COVID-19 cases since Sunday, increasing the total to 4,817 and one new death, bringing the total to 77 since the coronavirus outbreak began.
Globally, more than 118,000 people have died and at least 1.9 million have been infected by COVID-19, according to the latest data compiled by disease experts at Johns Hopkins University in the United States.
States already banned bazaars
Seven Malaysian states – Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Terengganu, Sarawak, Penang, Malacca and Kedah – already announced their own bans ahead of the federal government decision.
Negeri Sembilan Chief Minister Aminuddin Harun – the first state to call off the bazaars – said public safety was more important than commerce.
"Traders should be more creative. We can't allow them to do business in the open air because we refuse to take risks. I hope everyone can be patient for now," he told reporters in Seremban.
In a Facebook posting on Monday, Federal Territory Minister Annuar Musa also announced the bazaar ban.
"After discussing with stakeholders, we unanimously agreed that this year there will be no Ramadan bazaars at all and yesterday (Sunday) a group of 100 traders and I agreed that whatever payments made will be carried forward to next year," he said.
"So next year you can trade without having to pay anything. Hopefully there won't be problems next year."
While announcing the ban, Annuar said he would host a meeting to discuss new concepts for the bazaars that most years attract thousands of people to hundreds of stands.
"So this Thursday, City Hall will table a ministerial-level committee meeting. I have presented this previously in a cabinet meeting – the concept but not in detail," he said.
Among the concepts to be discussed include whether a bazaar could be set up as a drive-through, and if so, what would be the layout and how many people would be allowed inside.
A different concept calls for a pack-and-pick operation allowing customers to order goods and pick them up at specified locations. Another discussion is to focus on food deliveries to customers.


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BENARNEWS- Authorities in Indonesia and Malaysia are investigating to determine how many of their citizens may have been infected as part of a new of COVID-19 cluster emerging from a mass Muslim event in New Delhi.
More than 350 people who were removed from a religious center where the event took place in mid-March have been hospitalized, and at least 10 attendees have died after being infected with the coronavirus disease, according to an Agence France-Presse report. The Press Trust of India said around 8,000 people took part in the event.
Indonesians and Malaysians reportedly were among those attending the event hosted by the same Muslim missionary organization, Tablighi Jamaat, whose gathering in Malaysia in late February has been linked to hundreds of coronavirus cases in more than half a dozen countries.
"According to information we have, there are 1,456 Indonesian Tablighi members overseas, 731 of whom are in India," Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told a press conference in Jakarta on Tuesday.
The event in the Indian capital began on March 13, days before Delhi's chief minister banned gatherings of more than 50 people to prevent the spread of the virus, according to India Today. Hundreds of people refused to leave the building and got trapped inside after Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24 announced a three-week nationwide lockdown, which suspended transportation and non-essential movement.
It was not immediately clear whether any Indonesians had attended the New Delhi event or were among those trapped inside the building.
In Malaysia, Health Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah was asked if his countrymen had attended the gathering in India.
"True. We are investigating," he told reporters in Putrajaya on Tuesday. "

• bviously there is a high risk for them to attend these gatherings. So we are trying to get more information from our counterpart in India."
  In addition, authorities have identified 87 Malaysians who had traveled to attend a Tablighi Jamaat gathering in Sulawesi, Indonesia, that local officials cancelled at the last minute on March 18, but after 3,000 followers had already arrived.
  "We are tracing them as well," he said.
  The Indian and Indonesian events followed a Tablighi Jamaat mass gathering in Kuala Lumpur late last month at the Sri Petaling Mosque that drew about 16,000 people.
  The Malaysian government has reported that about half of its 2,766 COVID-19 cases were linked to the gathering. Officials in Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam confirmed cases linked to the gathering as well.
  Retno said many of the foreigners who planned to attend the event in Sulawesi, including some Malaysians, had returned to their homes while 97 were quarantined after three showed COVID-19 symptoms.
  
  
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BENARNEWS- The World Bank on Tuesday slashed economic growth forecasts across Asia this year amid the coronavirus pandemic, predicting that Malaysia and Thailand would plunge into recession even in a best-case scenario.
In a worst-case scenario, Indonesia and the Philippines would join the two other Southeast Asian nations in economic contractions, the Washington-based bank said in its "East Asia and Pacific Economic Update," which warned that negative economic growth could push more people in the region into the poverty bracket.
"Developing economies in East Asia and the Pacific now face the prospect of a global financial shock and recession," the report said. "Several economies are expected to contract in 2020, which will lead to an increase in the poverty rate."
The World Bank sharply revised its GDP growth projection for Malaysia this year, from 4.5 to -0.1 percent and for Thailand from 2.9 to -3 percent. The last time Malaysia's economy contracted was in 2009. It posted growth of 4.3 percent last year, while Thailand grew 2.4 percent.
Thailand, which has declared a state of emergency to give the government new powers to deal with the virus crisis, has closed its borders to almost all foreigners. The Buddhist-majority country, which welcomed 39 million tourists last year, reported one death and 127 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, bringing its tally of infections to 1,651 with 10 fatalities.
Malaysia, which reported six deaths and 140 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, said its restrictions on movements imposed two weeks ago had suppressed major spikes in the COVID-19 infections.
"So far, we are succeeding with no spike of cases," the nation's health minister, Noor Hisham Abdullah, said on his Twitter page. "We have not lost the war against COVID-19, neither have we won the war yet."
With its latest COVID-19 cases, Malaysia's total number of infections rose to 2,766 with 43 fatalities.
The World Bank, calling for fast and decision action to contain the spread of COVID-19 infection, said that "significant economic pain seems unavoidable in all countries and the risk of financial instability is high, especially in countries with excessive private indebtedness."
"Given the unprecedented nature of the economic shock to each country, and the fact that it is also affecting all other countries in the region and beyond, an exceptional policy response is needed," the World Bank said.
In a worst-case scenario, the bank forecast Malaysia to contract by 4.6 percent and Thailand to shrink by 5 percent this year.
Delayed containment of the coronavirus could also impact growth in Indonesia, Southeast Asia's largest economy, the World Bank said, as it projected Jakarta's real GDP growth to weaken significantly to 2.1 percent in 2020 in a best-case scenario from 5 percent last year.
In a worst-case scenario, the bank said Indonesia might slip into recession, posting -3.5 percent growth this year.
"Indonesians with inadequate social protection who get sick or suffer income loss due to travel restrictions can fall into poverty," it said.
Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo declared a public health emergency over the pandemic on Tuesday as he rolled out an additional 405.1 trillion rupiah (U.S. $24.8 billion) to be spent on medical supplies and social safety net programs.
Jokowi said the new regulation that allows the government to increase spending to tackle the COVID-19 crisis will widen the 2020 budget deficit to as much as 5.07 percent of the gross domestic product.
Three weeks ago, Indonesia announced a 120 trillion rupiah ($8.1 billion) stimulus package, including tax breaks for companies and tax relief for manufacturing workers, to shore up confidence as the pandemic caused financial markets to tumble.
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati had warned that Indonesia's economy could slow to 4.7 percent this year if the virus outbreak slows global growth.
The World Bank also significantly lowered its growth forecast for the Philippines this year from 5.9 percent to 3 percent.
It said its marked reduction in growth outlook reflects the impact of the pandemic under a scenario where the current large-scale disruption of economic activities would extend for most of the year, before a partial recovery toward the year end.
"Growth outlook for 2020 is gloomy given the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the strict community quarantine that has taken place in Luzon since March 17, 2020," the World Bank said, referring to the nation's main island, which has been under an "enhanced community quarantine."
Philippine economic growth slowed in 2019 to its weakest pace in eight years, driven by an investment contraction and export growth deceleration, according to World Bank figures. In a worst-case scenario, the bank projected the Philippines to fall into recession this year, contracting 0.5 percent
Manila's health authorities on Tuesday confirmed 10 more coronavirus deaths, bringing the nation's toll to 88, with 2,084 infections.
Globally, 42,032 people have died and more than 855,000 others have been infected, according to the latest data compiled by disease experts at Johns Hopkins University in the United States.


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