Lee family feud rekindled in Singapore

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his estranged brother Lee Hsien Yang have taken opposite sides in a defamation lawsuit against a local activist

When Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong sued a government critic this month for defamation, it’s unlikely he expected the lawsuit to draw attention to the still lingering enmities of a bitter family feud that pits him against his siblings.

Leong Sze Hian, a financial adviser and rights activist, filed a defense and counterclaim against Lee on December 26, arguing that the premier’s libel suit over his Facebook post of a news article alleging Lee’s complicity in a financial scandal in neighboring Malaysia is an “abuse of the process of the court.”

Leong launched a crowdfunding campaign in late December aimed at raising S$10,000 (US$7,314) for his legal defense. The first person to donate: Lee Hsien Yang, the prime minister’s estranged younger brother.

Lee was quoted in local media saying that he contributed a “meaningful sum” to Leong’s campaign without specifying the amount. When reporters asked him about the move, he merely replied without elaborating, “Surely it needs no explanation?”

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a writer and journalist with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.

Honeymoon wanes on Mahathir’s ‘New Malaysia’

Opinion polls show premier's popularity is falling fast as supporters begin to sense his newly elected government won't be able to keep all its campaign vows

From the political earthquake of May’s general election that toppled long-serving prime minister Najib Razak, to the wheels of justice turning on a globe-spanning corruption scandal, 2018 has been momentous a year for Malaysia. Few have been as directly affected by fast-moving events than veteran politician Anwar Ibrahim, who was only months ago languishing in a jail cell on a politicized sodomy conviction.

He is now prime-minister-in-waiting and expected to take the reins of power when incumbent leader Mahathir Mohamad steps down within the next two years. In a recent article, Anwar was quoted referring to Malaysia’s expectation-defying election and political transition as an example of “democratic disruption” and a “hopeful outlier to a global trend towards populist nationalism.”

Supporters have heralded the downfall of the once-dominant United Malays National Organization (UMNO) and the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition it led as the beginning of a “New Malaysia.” But while the ending of an decades-long era initially brought euphoria, disillusionment is already on the rise as cracks begin to show within the ruling Pakatan Harapan coalition.

Public approval of Mahathir’s performance has plunged nearly 20% since June, according to Invoke Malaysia, a non-profit pollster founded by Rafizi Ramli, vice president of Anwar’s party, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR). Support from respondents across all ethnic groups has fallen, leaving the premier with a 53% approval rating, down from a 72% high.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a writer and journalist with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.

Malaysia puts Goldman Sachs in the dock

Wall Street investment bank says it will 'vigorously contest' criminal charges brought by Malaysia over bond offerings for scandal-plagued 1MDB fund

Malaysian authorities filed criminal charges against three subsidiaries of Goldman Sachs this week in connection with the US investment bank’s involvement in a sprawling scandal that saw billions embezzled from state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). The move has shaken confidence in the Wall Street firm.

While past controversies have seen the bank pay hefty legal settlements when its employees became subject to criminal charges and investigation, the charges filed by Malaysia’s Attorney General Tommy Thomas on December 17 are believed to represent the first time the New York bank has been directly blamed for wrongdoing.

Tim Leissner, an ex-managing director at Goldman who was once the bank’s Southeast Asia chairman, and Ng Chong Hwa, a former bank employee, were also charged alongside 1MDB’s former general counsel Jasmine Loo Ai Swan and fugitive Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, who authorities regard as a central player in the scandal.

In a media statement, Thomas accused bank employees of conspiring with Low to bribe Malaysian state officials and claimed Goldman made false and misleading statements in order to dishonestly misappropriate US$2.7 billion from the proceeds of three bond issuances in 2012 and 2013 that raised $6.5 billion for 1MDB.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a writer and journalist with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.

1MDB dragnet closes in on Najib, Goldman Sachs

Legal wheels are turning fast in Malaysia and US to jail the ex-premier and hold the American investment bank responsible for money laundering and fraud worth billions of dollars

Prosecutors in Malaysia filed yet another round of new graft charges against disgraced former prime minister Najib Razak this week after investigators questioned him and Arul Kanda Kandasamy, a former chief executive at 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), over allegations of tampering with a 2016 government audit of the graft-linked state fund.

Malaysian officials say Najib ordered amendments to the audit report that removed a mention of fugitive Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho’s presence at a 1MDB board meeting, a figure both Malaysian and US authorities regard as a central player in the alleged theft of an estimated US$4.5 billion dollars from 1MDB between 2009 and 2014.

By amending the audit report before it was finalized, Najib had “secured protection from disciplinary, civil or criminal action related to 1MDB,” according to the charge-sheet read in court on December 12. He pled not guilty to an abuse of power charge, while Arul pled not guilty to abetting and engaging in a criminal conspiracy with the former premier.

Najib, 66, who was ousted in May after a coalition led by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad clinched a shock election victory, faces charges of graft, abuse of power and criminal breach of trust related to 1MDB. He has consistently denied wrongdoing and could spend the rest of his life behind bars if found guilty in a trial due to begin next year.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a writer and journalist with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.

Malaysia opens old and new wounds with Singapore

Air and sea disputes have stoked new tensions between the causeway neighbors, revisiting an earlier era of testy bilateral relations

Air and sea disputes have stoked new tensions between Malaysia and Singapore, driving ties between the neighbors to their lowest point since Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad notched a shock election victory in May this year.

Earlier this month, Singapore lodged a “strong protest” over Malaysia’s plans to extend the limits of a port in its southernmost state, Johor, claiming its territorial waters would be encroached upon. The wealthy city-state also accused Malaysian vessels of repeated intrusions, claims that Malaysia’s Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook has contested.

Loke has maintained that the altered port’s limits are in Malaysia’s territorial sea and do not encroach on any part of Singapore. The maritime boundary tiff comes as the two countries wrangle over another dispute involving control of a flight path that passes over Malaysian airspace to a small secondary airport in Singapore.

Malaysia informed its southern neighbor that it intends to take back control of the airspace, which Singapore has managed since 1974. Malaysia made the announcement after the city-state issued a new instrument landing system at its Seletar Airport without Malaysia’s consent, which Loke said would lead to height limits on building developments and affect shipping operations in Johor.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a writer and journalist with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.

Race, religion still rallying cries in ‘New Malaysia’

Ethno-nationalist opposition forces have pressed PM Mahathir Mohamad to backtrack on a commitment to end all forms of racial discrimination as the nation's ethnic politics intensify

Tens of thousands of Malay Muslims took to the streets of Kuala Lumpur on December 8 to oppose Malaysia’s adoption of a United Nations (UN) convention against racial discrimination amid fears that privileges enjoyed by the Malay majority and Islam’s status as the country’s official religion would be threatened.

When Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad addressed the UN General Assembly in September, he pledged that Malaysia would ratify all remaining core UN instruments related to the protection of human rights, including the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).

Although the nonagenarian premier admitted that ratification “would not be easy” owing to acute sensitives around race and religion in Muslim-majority Malaysia, the pledge was hailed both at home and abroad as an indication of the new Pakatan Harapan government’s commitment to human rights, reform and democratization.

Conservative ethno-nationalist and Islamist opposition parties, however, furiously took aim at the treaty and alleged, contrary to the facts, that it would threaten the special position of Malay Muslims, who account for around 60% of the population and are granted special status as bumiputera, or “sons of the soil”, in Article 153 of the country’s constitution.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a writer and journalist with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.

Singapore shakes as Lee looks to retire

The long-ruling People's Action Party's planned transition to a fourth generation of leaders has revealed top-level misgivings and shaky confidence in the pending succession

When Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced that he intended to retire to make way for a younger generation executive from his ruling People’s Action Party (PAP), speculation ran rampant over who would be tapped to succeed the long-time leader.

That question was answered with last week’s appointment of Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat as the PAP’s first assistant secretary-general, putting him on course to become the island republic’s fourth prime minister. The long-dominant PAP currently holds 82 of 89 elected seats in Singapore’s Parliament.

The 66-year-old Lee announced after the 2015 election that he will step down before he turns 70, though some think it could happen sooner with rising anticipation of a snap poll in 2019. Lee is expected to assume an overarching senior role as either “mentor minister” or “senior minister” when he eventually steps down from the premiership.

Underscoring the sensitivity of the transition and certain misgivings over the drawn-out selection process, Goh Chok Tong – Lee’s still influential predecessor – described the transition as an “urgent challenge” in a Facebook post last December and called on the party’s “fourth generation” or “4G” leadership to select a successor within six to nine months.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a writer and journalist with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.

As US-China tussle and joust, Russia moves on SEAsia

From trade deals to arms sales to nuclear cooperation, Moscow is making its case as a third force competitor in the strategic region

When Russian President Vladimir Putin made his first-ever state visit to Singapore this month for the East Asia Summit (EAS) – a regional gathering never before attended by the Russian leader – observers saw the move as a signal of Moscow’s bid to play a larger role in regional affairs.

Despite a stronger emphasis on developing political and commercial ties with Asia-Pacific nations in recent years, Russia has largely focused on alignment with China and deepening relations with Japan, South Korea and India. The Kremlin has paid comparatively less attention on Southeast Asia, but there are signs that is now changing.

From new trade opportunities to arms purchases and diplomatic protection, members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) appear to broadly welcome greater political, economic and defense cooperation with Russia and its moves to step up participation in the region’s multilateral institutions.

Moscow, for its part, aims to win new markets for its defense industries and vast energy sector amid tightening sanctions leveled by the United States against individuals, entities and third parties for their dealings with the Russian military and targeted defense companies. US attempts to limit Russia’s arms exports could, however, meet resistance from regional buyers.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a writer and journalist with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.

Little Brunei welcomes China’s big helping hand

Chinese leader Xi Jinping's visit to the oil-rich sultanate highlighted Beijing's assistance to the nation's economic diversification plan to reduce reliance on hydrocarbons

Chinese President Xi Jinping made his first official visit to Brunei this week, a diplomatic tour that underscored blossoming bilateral ties as the oil-rich sultanate pursues economic diversification plans to reduce its oil dependency. The tiny Muslim majority nation has been a key recipient of multi-billion dollar investments for China-backed projects in recent years.

Xi’s visit represented the first by a Chinese leader to the country in 13 years. China’s big-ticket investments have recently become a source of controversy elsewhere in Southeast Asia, with rising complaints Beijing’s checkbook diplomacy ultimately aims to ensnare strategically important regional countries into sovereignty-eroding “debt traps” through lop-sided and often opaque financing deals.

With a heavy reliance on the energy sector and a population of just 420,000 situated on two territorial enclaves in Malaysian Borneo, some view Brunei as especially susceptible to a so-called Chinese debt trap. Yet there are few outward signs of unease or compelling indications to suggest the sultanate is being strong-armed into unfavorable deals.

Even as Brunei moves to strategically orientate itself as an important link in China’s US$1 trillion Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), it has simultaneously deepened its robust and long-standing defense ties with the United States, seen in recent joint naval drills in the South China Sea – where Brunei and China have competing claims to islets and atolls.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a writer and journalist with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.

America’s ‘Indo-Pacific’ lacks currency and resonance

US Vice President Mike Pence outlined at Asian summits a private sector-led counter to China's Belt and Road Initiative, but it's not clear yet the vision will have many takers

When regional leaders gathered in Singapore and Papua New Guinea for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summits, many expected the United States to elaborate upon its new “Indo-Pacific” development strategy for the region.

But what began as an opportunity for the US and China to advance their competing visions for the region’s future development and economic integration ended in acrimony, with officials of the 21-member Apec grouping unable to agree for the first time on a joint communiqué as Washington and Beijing clashed over the statement’s language.

While fissures over trade, investment and maritime security between the world’s two largest economies appear no closer to resolution after the summits, speeches by US Vice President Mike Pence provided more clarity into the US’ Indo-Pacific gambit, which was unveiled in August but has so far failed to gain traction with regional leaders.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo initially announced the strategy to include a US$113 million investment package for technology, energy and infrastructure that he called a “down-payment on a new era of US economic commitment to the region.” That new commitment was unveiled alongside US$300 million in new funding for security cooperation.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a writer and journalist with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.

Singapore’s ASEAN tenure marked by crises and disputes

Regional grouping made certain cooperative strides under the city-state's revolving leadership, but its trade-promoting tenure was hobbled by a US move away from multilateralism

When Singapore took the reins last year of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (Asean) rotating leadership, the regional grouping’s credibility and relevance was at stake.

Amid rising geopolitical tensions, maritime disputes in the South China Sea and abuses in Myanmar against the Rohingya Muslim minority that the United Nations has said constitute crimes against humanity, consensus has been elusive on issues that are dividing the region.

One year on, despite progress in enhancing certain areas of cooperation, the question of how the 10-member grouping intends to foster greater unity, coherence and relevance is no less pertinent now than when the city-state formally took over the revolving chair from the Philippines last November.

The grouping’s member states – along with top officials from China, Russia, South Korea, Japan and the United States – convened in Singapore this week for the 33rd Asean Summit, where Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong gave perhaps his most frank assessment to date of US policy and the fractured state of multilateral cooperation.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a writer and journalist with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.

Mahathir leans to Japan and away from China

Malaysian leader has visited Tokyo thrice since winning power in May, a concentrated policy to reverse his predecessor government's perceived over-reliance on Beijing

“Malaysia is waiting to be your profit center,” declared Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad during his November 7 address to corporate figures and captains of industry at the Malaysia-Japan Economic Association forum in Tokyo.

Investors can expect Mahathir’s Pakatan Harapan government to uphold the rule of law in resolving disputes, said the 93-year-old premier, who also promised to remove obstacles to foreign investment in high technology and information technology-based industries in his country.

Economic ties aren’t the only area of cooperation tipped to expand as Malaysia-Japan relations blossom. Tokyo hopes Mahathir’s government will help persuade Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) members to support its push for freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, a key transport artery for oil and freight bound to and from Japan.

For Malaysia – whose scandal-plagued former premier Najib Razak controversially sought robust economic and security ties with China – deeper relations with Japan under a revitalized “Look East” policy are seen as a strategic hedge against Najib-era over-reliance on Beijing and its ambitious global development financing.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a writer and journalist with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.

Confidence test for Malaysia’s topsy-turvy finances

Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng told investors to expect 'pain and sacrifice' in the 2019 budget but a lack of actual belt-tightening will put pressure on the ringgit

Saddled with debt and liabilities exceeding 1 trillion ringgit (US$240.3 billion) and the risk of a credit rating downgrade, Malaysian Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng had forewarned investors to expect “pain and sacrifice” upon the release of the new Pakatan Harapan government’s inaugural budget.

Amid expectations of new taxes and austerity spending cuts, Lim quipped that he could end up as the most unpopular finance minister in the nation’s history. But when Malaysia’s six-month-old government announced its 2019 budget on November 2, there were no substantial spending cuts to be found.

Observers of Southeast Asia’s third-largest economy, who for months have waited for signs of fiscal clarity from Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s freshly installed government, now have a clearer picture after the unveiling of an expansionary budget that prioritizes institutional reform and will raise the national deficit to its highest level in five years.

All eyes were on Lim, a trained accountant and former chief minister of the state of Penang, as he stood to table the high-stakes budget in a closely-watched parliamentary address, a make or break opportunity for the newly minted finance minister to prove his mettle as detractors and naysayers have already started to question his management.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a writer and journalist with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.

Mahathir puts Saudi Arabia at a diplomatic arm’s length

Malaysian leader has reset ties with the Gulf kingdom, marking a shift away from the ultra-close ties cultivated by his predecessor Najib Razak

When news broke that US$681 million dollars had been transferred to the personal bank account of Malaysia’s then Prime Minister Najib Razak, investigators had already pieced together a trail linking the funds to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a sovereign fund now synonymous with one of the biggest heists in financial history.

Najib, however, had another explanation for where the millions came from: Saudi Arabia. For years, the now ex-premier denied any role in the massive embezzlement at 1MDB, claiming the funds found in his account were a “donation” from a Saudi prince offered in recognition for governing Malaysia according to “Islamic principles.”

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Adel Ahmed Al-Jubeir vouched for Najib in 2016 when asked about the so-called donation, saying it was “genuine” and “given with nothing expected in return.” He pointed out that the then Attorney General of Malaysia had “found no wrongdoing” during investigations and that he considered the matter closed.

Adel now tells a different story. On a recent three-day visit to Malaysia, the first by Riyadh’s top diplomat since May elections returned Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to office, he admitted the millions received by Najib had “nothing to do with the Saudi government,” contradicting his earlier explanation which gave political cover to the ex-premier.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a writer and journalist with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.

Surge of hangings in Singapore while Malaysia shuns death penalty

Despite appeals, a Malaysian citizen ensnared in neighboring Singapore’s capital punishment regime was not spared; he was one of four executed this week

Given the circumstances, conjuring a smile couldn’t have been easy. Still, Prabu N. Pathmanathan, a 31-year-old Malaysian convicted of drug trafficking, put on his best face when it came time for his final photographs to be taken. Despite a Malaysian government appeal for leniency, he would be hanged just hours later at Changi Prison in Singapore.

The young Malaysian, sentenced to death for couriering 7.97 ounces of heroin into the city-state in 2014, was among at least six individuals executed in Singapore this month for drug offenses. His fate was sealed after the President’s Office of Singapore rejected two petitions lodged by family members and civil society groups requesting clemency.

Though the Singapore Prison Service does not routinely release information about imminent executions apart from figures released in its annual report, anti-death penalty activists claim that seven executions have taken place since the beginning of October, including four this week.

Asia Times could not independently verify the figure. The wealthy Southeast Asian city-state is known to have conducted a total of eight executions in 2017 and four in 2016. An uptick in the use of capital punishment in Singapore comes as neighboring Malaysia announced earlier this month that it would abolish the death penalty for all crimes.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a writer and journalist with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.

Anwar extends a hand of friendship to China

Malaysia’s heir apparent pushes cordial ties with Beijing amid differences over mega-projects and Uighur asylum-seekers

Fresh from a landslide by-election victory earlier this month that cemented his position as a ruling coalition lawmaker, veteran politician Anwar Ibrahim has stepped back into frontline politics and onto the world stage. The 71-year-old reform icon recently wrapped up a closely-watched three-day visit to China.

His trip comes amid speculation from certain quarters that Beijing has grown displeased over bilateral differences with Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s administration, which has undertaken a strategic recalibration of ties with the world’s second-largest economy since clinching a surprise victory in May’s general election.

US$23 billion worth of Chinese-backed projects, including a coast-to-coast rail link and two gas pipelines, have since been cancelled or deferred by the Malaysian government, which accuses former premier Najib Razak’s scandal-and-corruption-besieged administration of unscrupulous borrowing to fund those projects.

Malaysia allowed 11 ethnic Uighur Muslim detainees, natives of China’s western Xinjiang province, to travel to Turkey in a bid to seek asylum earlier this month, defying a months-old request from Beijing for their repatriation on security grounds. China’s Foreign Ministry reacted in strong terms, saying it “resolutely” opposed the move.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a writer and journalist with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.

Singapore and the EU fly the flag of free trade

At odds with US trade policy, Singapore and the European Union champion multilateralism with an eye toward a broader deal with Southeast Asian economies

Amid rising trade tensions between the two largest economies, the Asia-Europe Meeting Summit (ASEM) in Brussels last week saw leaders from both regions fly the so-called flag of free trade. Though there was no explicit mention of American trade policies in the meeting’s joint declaration, the spectre of unilateralism seemed to loom large over the proceedings.

It was here that Singapore and the European Union (EU) signed a landmark trade deal reputed to serve as the building blocks for a wider future trade pact with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). While sought for years, a trade deal linking the two regional organisations is still in the early stages of negotiations.

Negotiated for the better part of a decade, the EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (EUSFTA) is a bid to improve business ties with the wealthy city-state, the EU’s top trading partner in Southeast Asia. The agreement, expected to come into force next year, has been touted as a boost for Singapore’s companies and their exports.

The deal also held symbolic importance, with Singapore’s Prime Minister Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong framing the effort as a bid to shore up a multilateral system that has come under severe stress, owing to certain countries resorting to protectionist unilateral actions and even explicitly repudiating multilateral approaches and institutions.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a writer and journalist with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.