Singapore drops the mask in new post-pandemic push

City-state lifting various Covid controls and travel restrictions in ‘decisive’ move to live with the virus

With a high majority of its population fully vaccinated and nearly all eligible given a booster, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced on Thursday (March 24) a major easing of strict virus control measures in a “decisive step forward towards living with Covid-19.”

Gatherings of up to 10 people, up from a limit of five currently, will be permitted and the wearing of masks outdoors will be optional from March 29 in the most significant relaxation of rules in place for nearly two years. The city-state will also allow vaccinated travelers to enter the city-state without quarantine from April under a new travel framework.

In a televised speech, Lee said the country’s healthcare system remained resilient through a now-subsiding wave of transmission driven by the Omicron variant. While stopping short of a complete opening up, the premier said Singapore had to weigh the continued costs of stringent safety measures on businesses, the economy and society.

For many in the island nation, the announcement couldn’t have come soon enough. Although public compliance with protracted virus curbs has never ebbed, months of back-and-forth adjustments to restrictions have brought a palpable sense of fatigue as well as confusion over what “living with Covid-19” actually means.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

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

Malaysia’s game of thrones conspiring against Ismail

UMNO heavyweights are agitating for snap polls that could bring an early end to the accidental premier’s tenure

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob is facing renewed pressure to call an early general election from his rivals within the ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO) and its grassroots supporters after the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition it leads clinched an emphatic victory at the recent Johor state election.

Winning 40 out of 56 seats in the Johor state assembly, the results surpassed the BN’s own target of a two-thirds majority and follow an earlier landslide victory in Melaka’s bellwether state polls in November. But in an ironic twist, some analysts argue that the biggest winner of the March 12 Johor election wasn’t even a candidate.

Criminally convicted former prime minister Najib Razak has emerged as the BN’s star campaigner, attracting crowds on the election trail and winning plaudits from party leadership for his success as a vote-getter. The ex-premier emerged as the political face of the coalition’s resounding win in Johor, just as he did in Melaka five months ago.

Time is of the essence for Najib and his key ally, UMNO president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. Both politicians face prison time on graft and money laundering charges and are agitating for snap polls to capitalize on the BN’s political momentum. Their ultimate aim, say analysts, is to get ahead of the courts by foisting a sympathetic member of their faction into the premiership.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

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

Goldman’s top execs off scot-free at 1MDB trial

Lawyers insist ex-Goldman banker Roger Ng is a ‘fall guy’ for higher level complicity in the multi-billion dollar scandal

Often described as one of the largest financial heists in history, the now-infamous money laundering and bribery scandal involving state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB, saw billions looted from public coffers. The only Malaysian to be tried overseas over the scandal, meanwhile, adamantly insists he is a “fall guy.”

Since the February 14 opening of his trial at the US Eastern District Court of New York, lawyers for 49-year-old Roger Ng, the former head of investment banking at Goldman Sachs Malaysia, have described their client as a scapegoat for companywide failures at the Wall Street bank that enabled massive fraud.

Ng, or his birth name Ng Chong Hwa, has pleaded not guilty and denies accusations of bribing foreign officials, circumventing Goldman’s internal compliance rules, laundering portions of the US$6.5 billion raised by the bank for 1MDB through three bond issuances in 2012 and 2013, and allegedly pocketing about $35 million in the process.

Legal experts and close observers of 1MDB proceedings say Ng faces an uphill battle in proving his innocence since prosecutors will likely show the jury incriminating emails, online chats and financial records showing he benefited from the scheme. But much still hinges on the question of Goldman’s institutional culpability in 1MDB’s fraudulent dealings.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

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