‘Crazy rich’ Chinese making headaches for Singapore

Singapore is a big beneficiary of China’s rising capital flight but not all of the footloose funds are desirable or clean

Deng Xiaoping, China’s former liberalizing premier who opened the once-closed nation to the outside world, once famously quipped that “if you open the window for fresh air, you have to expect some flies to blow in.” It’s a maxim proving true in Singapore as the city-state welcomes a growing number of footloose, high-net-worth Chinese only to discover that not all of their capital is clean.

For China, 2023 was supposed to be a year of economic revival. Instead, Asia’s biggest economy has seen its biggest capital flight in years, an outflux pushing wealthy Chinese nationals to Singapore as an emigration safe haven amid sluggish growth, a regulatory crackdown on private enterprise and ever-expanding societal controls at home.

The inrush of Chinese money is being keenly felt in Singapore, regarded as the so-called “Switzerland of Asia” for its political neutrality and open banking facilities. High-net-worth individuals from mainland China and Hong Kong are believed to have contributed to record capital inflows into the city-state in the past two years.

That, in turn, has contributed to soaring property and rental prices that helped drive inflation to a 14-year high earlier this year. Meanwhile, anecdotes and images of “crazy rich” Chinese emigres flaunting their wealth in tough times have gone viral, with the outward displays of affluence rubbing many in Singapore the wrong way.

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.

Defying the US, Anwar bellows support for Hamas

Malaysian leader defies threat of US sanctions while grandstanding for populist effect; he may be targeted by Israel’s Mossad intelligence

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s vocal support for the Palestinian cause could blow back on Malaysia as the United States tables legislation to sever funding for Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups through economic and financial sanctions on their foreign supporters.

Anwar’s administration has played up its resistance to US and Western pressure to review its stance on Hamas, which Malaysia has refused to condemn or label as a terrorist organization. Malaysian police, meanwhile, have warned of possible economic sabotage, espionage and even security threats to the premier allegedly emanating from Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad.

The Muslim-majority nation has long stood in solidarity with Palestine and long rejected diplomatic relations with Israel even as certain Arab nations have recently pursued normalization with Tel Aviv. Putrajaya views Hamas as the legitimately elected government of Gaza, according to Anwar, owing to its victory at 2006 parliamentary polls. Hamas members are known to reside in Malaysia to work or attend university and have been alleged targets of Israel’s spy agency.

But Anwar’s unflinching stance is just as much about local politics as he seeks to curry favor with Muslim ethnic Malays who represent a national majority and are thus crucial to his government’s survival and potential re-election.

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.

Beyond the yen, ringgit’s free fall the one to watch

Malaysia’s currency is Asia’s second-worst performer this year, a sell-off the central bank insists is unjustified given underlying fundamentals

Malaysia’s central bank is under pressure to steady the flagging national currency, the ringgit, which in recent days fell to new multi-decade lows against the US greenback and neighboring Singapore dollar.

Analysts say Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) now faces a trade-off between raising rates and stifling an already sagging domestic economy or posing risks to financial stability by failing to act. Malaysia’s offshore borrowings, widely denominated in US dollars, amounted to 30 billion ringgit ($6.2 billion) as of August 2023.

Like other emerging market currencies, the ringgit has depreciated this year against a strong US dollar. But the extent of the slide – now the worst performer in Asia after the Japanese yen – has, according to BNM Governor Abdul Rasheed Abdul Ghaffour, belied Malaysia’s otherwise strong economic fundamentals and resilient banking sector.

“We are not in a crisis. It is different from what we experienced in the past,” Abdul Rasheed told reporters earlier this week, referring to the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis when the ringgit hit a benchmark low of 4.88 ringgit to the US dollar in March 1998.

The currency has in recent days tumbled to its lowest levels since, slipping to 4.79 to the US dollar on October 23 and hovering at 4.77 at the time of publication.

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.

Singapore’s economy in a geopolitical squeezebox

City-state averts recession but languid growth would take a new inflationary hit if Gaza war spikes global oil prices

After narrowly avoiding a technical recession earlier this year, recent data shows better-than-expected but still sluggish growth in Singapore. But the city-state’s trade-reliant economy could decelerate for the remainder of this year and even into 2024 if the United States and Chinese economies underperform baseline forecasts, say analysts.

Gross domestic product (GDP) rose 0.7% year-on-year in the July to September quarter according to according to advance estimates recently published by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI). On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted basis, the economy expanded by 1%, ahead of economists’ forecasts and faster than the tepid 0.1% growth in the preceding quarter.

In a policy statement on October 13, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the city-state’s central bank, cited “muted” growth prospects in the near term and expectations of full-year growth to come in “at the lower half” of the official forecast range of 0.5% to 1.5%. It added that growth in Singapore’s major trading partners should gradually pick up by the second half of next year.

Analysts at research firm BMI Research were less optimistic of a 2024 rebound in a research note reviewed by Asia Times. The independent monitor issued a downward revision to Singapore’s full-year growth forecast to 0.8% from 1.1% and sees a further deceleration to 0.5% in 2024, owing to slowdowns expected among Singapore’s major trade partners and fiscal consolidation.

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 Anwar wants more money from Goldman Sachs

Malaysian leader threatens new legal action against US bank amid claims previous $3.9 billion settlement for 1MDB-related losses was insufficient

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is upping the ante on efforts to renegotiate a controversial settlement with Goldman Sachs for its role in the multi-billion-dollar 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) financial scandal and extradite one of Goldman’s convicted former bankers.

“We have our position; we want some more money back,” Anwar said candidly at a regional forum in Singapore this month, asserting that Malaysia is not “some banana republic where one can plunder and leave.” The premier has since reiterated his vow to take a “tougher” stance, including potential new legal action over settlement disagreements, is not a bluff.

While many observers see merit in the Malaysian leader’s claim of being short-changed by Goldman, winning concessions from the Wall Street giant would also be a needed political win for Anwar, who has lost political ground to the ethnic Malay nationalist opposition bloc, Perikatan Nasional (PN), which approved the 2020 settlement when it led government.

According to Bloomberg, Anwar recently claimed that Goldman executives have made fresh overtures and struck a noticeably more conciliatory tone on the matter during his recent visit to New York last week for the United Nations General Assembly. But it is altogether unclear whether a quick resolution of the dispute is in the cards.

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: Zahid free today; Najib sprung tomorrow?

Politics over principle with discharge of deputy premier Zahid’s corruption cases as speculation rises jailed ex-PM Najib will be next

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is at risk of losing his progressive support base amid rising perceptions the leader is failing to live up to his anti-graft credentials. The perception shift comes as state prosecutors controversially dropped criminal charges against his deputy premier, sparking criticism that Anwar’s government is cracking down selectively on corruption.

Activists who had long supported Anwar’s reformist agenda were already peeved that his government has used laws that curb free speech and stifle dissent to appease and please politically powerful conservative forces. But Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s release from multiple graft charges marks to many the crossing of a political red line, one where Anwar has appeared to prioritize power over principle.

Indeed, many saw the move as the political price to be paid for securing support from Zahid’s scandal-tainted United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party and Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which are crucial to sustaining the government’s parliamentary majority.

Opposition lawmaker Wan Ahmad Fayhsal said the move marked the “collapse” of Anwar’s reformasi struggle. “Their raison d’etre for the past 25 years was all about good governance, anti-corruption,” he told Asia Times. “It has gone down the drain. They’ve sacrificed it all to save one man. This government might survive, but the infrastructure of their support is crumbling.”

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.

Tharman’s win may hasten Singapore’s PM succession

Tharman Shanmugaratnam’s election as president raises inconvenient questions for the ruling PAP but ultimately helps it

Tharman Shanmugaratnam, a former deputy prime minister seen as close to Singapore’s political establishment, clinched a landslide victory in the city-state’s first contested presidential election in more than a decade on Friday, comfortably beating two other candidates with a record 70.4% of the vote.

Though Singapore’s presidency is a largely ceremonial role as the non-partisan head of state, analysts widely viewed the contest as a barometer of support for the long-ruling People’s Action Party (PAP), to which Tharman, 66, had belonged for more than two decades before resigning from all party positions and posts in June to be eligible to contest the presidency.

Amid cost-of-living challenges and a slew of recent high-profile scandals implicating PAP leaders, the wide margin of victory for Tharman caught some analysts by surprise. The results have sparked debate as to whether they truly reflect unvarnished public support for the PAP, or are instead a reflection of Tharman’s formidable personal popularity.

“This election is at least in part a referendum on the PAP. Of course, the caveat is that Tharman is more popular than his former party. I think that is undeniable,” said Walid Jumblatt Abdullah, an assistant professor in social sciences at Nanyang Technological University, in reference to Tharman’s past track record of delivering general-election landslides for the PAP in his Jurong constituency.

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.

An electoral season of distrust in Singapore

City-state’s presidential election is meant to be above the fray of party politics but the three-way race has been anything but

A three-way electoral contest for Singapore’s largely ceremonial presidency will come to a head when voters go to the polls on September 1. The race to clinch the non-partisan office has been notable for the emphasis that presidential contenders have placed on asserting their “independence” from the city-state’s long-ruling People’s Action Party (PAP).

The elected president exercises limited custodial powers as the head of state and is expected to remain above the political fray. Yet analysts have observed rising anti-establishment sentiment in the campaign, with rival candidates accusing one another of polarizing voters by attempting to politicize what is supposed to be a staid exercise in national unity.

Former deputy prime minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, 66, is widely regarded as the frontrunner and choice candidate of the PAP, which does not extend official endorsements as a matter of practice. Others in the race include Ng Kok Song, 75, the former chief investment officer at sovereign wealth fund GIC, and Tan Kin Lian, 75, a former chief executive of insurer NTUC Income.

“This election has largely been driven by strong candidates with rather disparate views on the role of the presidency, [with] some unfortunately [displaying] less understanding of the office of the presidency,” said Felix Tan, a political analyst at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) about policy changes advocated on the hustings which go beyond the president’s ambit.

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.

State polls highlight Anwar government weakness

Voters widely reject Anwar’s corruption-tainted UMNO coalition partner while ultraconservative PAS gains more grassroots ground

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s administration survived a key electoral test over the weekend, losing support to a conservative opposition bloc but maintaining its incumbency of state governments in midterm polls that nonetheless served as a sobering early referendum on his nine-month-old “unity” government.

The August 12 state elections resulted in a “3-3” outcome, meaning the Pakatan Harapan-led (PH) government and right-wing opposition alliance Perikatan Nasional (PN) each clinched three states out of the six that were up for election, with the latter making significant inroads nationwide in key Malay Muslim majority constituencies.

The results had broader implications, especially for the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition and its main party, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), which won only 19 of the 108 seats it contested. Analysts see the electoral drubbing as further proof of UMNO’s diminished role as a national political force after its previous six decades of uninterrupted rule.

Calls for reform within UMNO have resurfaced amid its lackluster performance, which saw the party’s share of seats across six states fall by more than half from 41 with no wins in Malay-majority Terengganu or Kedah. The dismal showing has stoked speculation that deputy premier Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, UMNO’s embattled president, could face a leadership challenge.

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.

Singapore hints at global chip market rebound

Trade data from bellwether city-state point to rebound from the worst of the global electronics downturn

June marked another dismal spell for Singapore’s manufacturing sector, with factory output falling 4.9% in the ninth consecutive month of contraction. But a shallower decline in electronics saw semiconductors and components revert to positive growth, stoking optimism that the global memory chip market is beginning to recover.

Data released by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) on July 26 showed electronics output contracting by 2.9% in June versus minus-23.7% in May. Though the numbers showed year-on-year declines for all clusters except transport engineering, electronic modules and components and semiconductors grew 7.5% and 3.1% year on year respectively.

The publication of Singapore’s factory results was coincident with an announcement by South Korea’s SK Hynix, the world’s second-biggest memory-chip maker, which said it saw early signs of the chip sector beginning to recover from a deep downturn amid robust demand for artificial-intelligence (AI) capacity, with rising interest in OpenAI’s ChatGPT seen as the main driver of demand.

“The worst of the global electronics downturn may be behind us,” said senior economists Chua Hak Bin and Brian Lee Shun Rong of Maybank Investment Banking Group. “A modest export boost from China’s reopening and possible stabilization in global electronics demand” could bring about a fourth-quarter manufacturing recovery in Singapore, they said in a research note sent to Asia Times.

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.

Flagging ringgit bodes ill for Malaysia’s Anwar

Local currency tumbles amid rising investor perceptions ‘unity’ government hasn’t kept its word on reforming the economy

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim began his tenure with a pledge to enact structural reforms and boost investor confidence in Malaysia. But after eight months on the job, the veteran politician is finding it hard to pull the Southeast Asian nation out of a years-long economic funk.

The local stock market saw foreign outflows of 4.19 billion ringgit (US$920 million) in the first half of 2023, with a benchmark gauge that is among the worst global performers so far this year. The Malaysian ringgit has likewise tumbled, making it among the worst performers in Asia’s currency markets.

On the other hand, Malaysia’s economy grew above market expectations at 5.6% in the first quarter of the year, during which approved foreign direct investment (FDI) reportedly rose 60% year-on-year to 71.4 billion ringgit. Inflation moderated to a one-year low with the consumer price index coming in at 2.8% in May compared to last year, its slowest monthly pace in 2023.

Yet cost-of-living pressures and political dissatisfaction persists, with economic headwinds and external cyclical factors weighing on the government ahead of state elections in August that are seen as an early referendum on Anwar’s “unity” government, a multi-party alliance that sits uneasily with the long-rivaled political camps’ grassroots support bases.

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.

Singapore winning on inflation, losing on growth

City-state contains price surge with aggressive exchange rate policy but likely slipped into a technical recession in the second quarter

Singapore’s central bank this week delivered a sobering economic assessment amid sluggish near-term growth prospects, ongoing inflationary challenges and predictions the economy is already in a technical recession. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) also emphasized that despite revising its 2023 headline inflation forecast downward, its battle against rising consumer prices is far from won.

The city-state’s trade-reliant economy faces mounting headwinds as external demand weakens amid a global economic slowdown. Earlier this year, there were certain hopes that a post-pandemic economic rebound in China would lift Singapore above its tepid current growth forecast of between 0.5% to 2.5%.

Those hopes have since faltered as China’s economic recovery loses steam, with fewer and fewer independent economists predicting Beijing will hit its 5% economic growth target for 2023. Singapore’s economy contracted in the first quarter, falling to -0.4% from the previous quarter’s growth of just 0.1%.

Economists believe that sluggish trade and industrial performance, driven partly by China’s faltering recovery, likely dragged Singapore into a technical recession in the second quarter, preliminary estimates for which are due later this month. 

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.

Najib looms large over Anwar’s first electoral test

Malaysian leader faces Faustian choice ahead of state elections his UMNO coalition partner believes could be won by setting jailed ex-PM free

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is intensifying efforts to appeal to Malay Muslim conservatives ahead of key state elections, a lurch to the right that risks alienating his ruling Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) multiracial and mainly liberal support base within his months-old “unity” government.

While the ethno-nationalist opposition bloc accuses the governing coalition of going soft on ethnic Malay rights and upholding Islam, progressives increasingly see Anwar as failing to walk the talk on clean governance and reform as his key political ally, graft-accused deputy premier Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, continues to agitate for the pardon of incarcerated ex-premier Najib Razak.

Zahid, president of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), had been a key target of PH’s anti-corruption messaging on the campaign trail ahead of November’s general election. Though the once-hegemonic party delivered its worst-ever result at the polls, Zahid himself emerged as a kingmaker after agreeing to partner with the party’s decades-old foes in an Anwar-led administration.

UMNO is the governing coalition’s sole ethnic Malay party, but it remains to be seen whether it can muster the support of the key demographic, who account for around 60% of Malaysia’s 33 million people, at state polls expected to be held in August. Having purged detractors, UMNO’s top leadership appears insistent that pardoning Najib for his corruption conviction is the ticket to electoral success.

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.

US-China handshake but no dialogue at Shangri-La

Superpower rivalry ran on high at Singapore defense forum where everyone agreed that armed confrontation would be catastrophic

United States-China tensions were on full display at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s premier security summit held in Singapore from June 2-4, with Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu refusing a formal meeting with his US counterpart even as he acknowledged the dangers of open confrontation between the two superpowers.

“It is undeniable that a severe conflict or confrontation between China and the US will be an unbearable disaster for the world,” said Li, who was appointed China’s highest-ranking defense official in March. He added in his June 4 speech that bilateral ties were at a “record low” and said the US needed to act with sincerity to prevent a further worsening of relations.

“Attempts to push for NATO-like [alliances] in the Asia-Pacific is a way of kidnapping regional countries and exaggerating conflicts and confrontations,” Li added, echoing long-held Chinese criticism of Washington’s efforts to establish alliances in the region as part of what it views as a containment strategy to thwart China’s geopolitical rise.

Li also struck a moderate tone, though, saying his country sought dialogue over confrontation and that the world was big enough for China and the US to grow and co-exist together. Reports suggest that Li declined a formal meeting with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in principle as he has been subject to US sanctions since 2018 for his role in procuring Russian military equipment.

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.

EU-Singapore in a deepening digital embrace

Two sides moving toward digital FTA to facilitate 6G adoption, AI governance and semiconductor supply chain resilience

Singapore hopes to begin negotiations on a digital free trade agreement with the European Union, one of its major trading partners, as soon as this year, building on a non-binding digital partnership agreed between the two sides in February, according to Singapore’s Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations S Iswaran.

Addressing a business outreach event on Monday (May 29), Iswaran said Singapore and the EU are in the process of identifying projects to pursue through the partnership, which aims to strengthen the interoperability of digital markets and policy frameworks between the two sides, with the ultimate goal of enabling consumers and businesses to transact online at a lower cost.

The principles established in the EU-Singapore Digital Partnership (EUSDP) represent “the first step towards a bilateral digital trade agreement between the EU and Singapore [that] will give our citizens and businesses the clarity and legal certainty they need to transact confidently in the digital economy,” said Iswaran, who is also Singapore’s transport minister.

“We look forward to launching negotiations on a digital trade agreement with the EU soon hopefully, during Sweden’s Presidency of the EU Council,” Iswaran added, potentially placing digital trade talks in the first half of 2023 when Stockholm serves as rotating council chair, building on an existing Singapore-EU bilateral free trade agreement that entered into force in November 2019.

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.

Anwar vs Mahathir, always and forever

Ex-premier sues incumbent in $32.4 million defamation suit over ill-gotten wealth quip as the nonagenerian struggles to stay politically relevant

Malaysia’s two-time former premier Mahathir Mohamad will be 98 years old in July, but neither his age nor diminishing influence has diminished his political maneuvering. The nonagenarian former leader has been in opposition to every prime minister that succeeded him, and it is little surprise he views the incumbent – his former protégé – as unfit to rule.

In recent months, Mahathir has labeled Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim as “oppressive” and accused his government of politically marginalizing the ethnic Malay majority. Mahathir also claims Anwar has pressured venue owners to cancel events promoting his “Malay People’s Proclamation”, a document in which the ex-premier lambasts corrupt Malay leaders and urges Malays to unite to “save” their race.

Most bitterly, Mahathir filed a US$32.4 million defamation lawsuit against Anwar this month after the latter implied that he had amassed personal wealth during his tenure as Malaysia’s longest-ruling premier from 1981 to 2003. Anwar has brushed aside a demand to apologize over the remark and reportedly claimed his predecessor’s wealth is an “open secret.”

Shunning calls to retire and serve as an elder statesman, Mahathir is now attempting to court Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS), an ultra-conservative Islamist party that was politically trampled under his first 22-year tenure, to build a united front against Anwar, who established a “unity” coalition government after a November election that transformed the political landscape.

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.

The dirty five laundering Russia’s oil

China, India, Singapore, Turkey and UAE are all providing Russia a helping hand in evading Western oil sanctions

Western nations have taken major steps to cut energy ties with Russia by cracking down on imports of seaborne crude oil and refined petroleum products while imposing a US$60 price cap on sales to non-Western countries in a bid to crimp the Kremlin’s ability to finance its war in Ukraine.

At the same time, nations that sanctioned Russian oil have dramatically increased imports of refined oil products from countries that have become the largest importers of Russian crude since Moscow invaded Ukraine last February, according to a recently released report by the Finland-based Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).

The organization tags five non-sanctioning countries – China, India, Turkey, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Singapore – as “launderers” of Russian oil, which is blended with non-Russian origin crude and re-exported globally, including to the very nations enforcing the price cap and embargo in what CREA describes as a “major loophole” in the sanctions regime.

Isaac Levi, an energy analyst at CREA and the report’s co-author, told Asia Times that the EU’s oil ban and price cap, imposed in December and February respectively, have cost Moscow an estimated 160 million euros (US$175.3 million) per day, but were cautiously designed to allow Russian oil flows onto global markets to keep prices down and avoid supply disruptions.

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.

Will Anwar help set Najib free?

Malaysian premier may need to set his self-proclaimed good governance principles aside for the sake of his government’s survival

Malaysia’s Anwar Ibrahim, a politician who went from prisoner to prime minister, must make a decision that will define his long-sought premiership. Will he collude with a graft-tainted coalition partner seen as launching scurrilous attacks on the judiciary in a bid to exonerate its jailed former leader – ex-prime minister Najib Razak – or will he abide by the principles of reform and good governance that he has long-claimed to uphold?

The question has unsettled reform-minded Malaysians who see the Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman as their last best hope of righting the wrongs of a political system that has for decades been riddled with corruption. Even when Anwar opted to join forces with his long-time nemesis the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) after November’s election, he was given the benefit of the doubt.

But to the dismay of many supporters of his “reformasi” cause, the 73-old-premier has stood by, seemingly reluctant to push back against his UMNO coalition partners agitating for their former leader’s freedom. While Najib’s fate is by no means Anwar’s decision alone, analysts see him wielding significant influence as a member of a committee evaluating his potential pardon.

Those in the jailed ex-premier’s inner circle say Anwar has more to gain than lose politically by acquiescing to UMNO’s demands. “The pardon just makes sense for Anwar’s political survival. And if he really wants to do the things he wants to do in terms of reforming the system, he needs that time and he needs that support,” said a source close to Najib who requested anonymity.

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.

Singapore stops tightening amid faltering growth

MAS latest central bank to hold policy settings steady due to fading global economic growth and US and European bank ills

Singapore’s central bank defied expectations that it would tighten monetary policy for a sixth time since October 2021, announcing on Friday (April 14) that it would keep its policy settings unchanged despite stubborn price pressures at a 14-year-high and amid advance estimates that first-quarter economic growth fell well short of expectations.

The bellwether city-state had been among the first countries to tighten in response to rising inflation, though the latest move suggests the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has grown more concerned about the darkening global growth outlook in the wake of recent turbulence that has shaken American and European banking sectors.

“Concerns of a growth slowdown seem to be outweighing inflation, despite elevated core inflation in recent months,” said senior economists Chua Hak Bin and Lee Ju Ye of Maybank Investment Banking Group. In a research note reviewed by Asia Times, the pair wrote they had expected a “final re-centering of the [policy] band up to its prevailing level given sticky and elevated core inflation.”

The MAS uses exchange rates, managed against a trade-weighted undisclosed basket of currencies from Singapore’s major trading partners, instead of interest rates as its primary policy tool to manage imported inflation. Pre-announcement polling from Reuters and Bloomberg had put analysts expecting no change to monetary policy at all in the clear minority.

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.

Anwar’s nonalignment pays off big in Beijing

Malaysian leader wins $38 billion worth of investment vows from China all the while maintaining his New Cold War neutrality

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has cast his recent maiden state visit to China as a major foreign policy win, securing a record 170 billion ringgit (US$38.6 billion) worth of investment commitments from Beijing all the while asserting his country is non-aligned in the escalating New Cold War pitting Washington versus Beijing.

The billions of dollars of investment promises were spread across 19 memoranda of understanding (MOUs) covering various areas including green energy, electric vehicles and the digital economy, as well as an agreement to expedite long-delayed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) infrastructure projects in Malaysia.

Anwar praised Chinese President Xi Jinping’s signature development initiative and called for its resumption in Malaysia following a three-year pandemic-caused lull. Previous Malaysian governments had suspended major China-funded projects such as the East Coast Rail Link and Trans-Sabah Gas Pipeline over corruption concerns, but they were eventually reinstated under renegotiated terms.

“Translating lofty ideals into practical reality, solidarity and cooperation is best exemplified in the realization of the Belt and Road Initiative,” Anwar waxed effusive in a speech at the Boao Forum for Asia held in China’s Hainan province on March 30. The forum is often referred to as the “Asian Davos” and is convened annually to promote regional economic integration.

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.

Singapore’s Lee family feud takes a bitter turn

Sibling squabble over deceased father's residence pushes premier's brother into exile, which may or may not thwart his run for the presidency 

The 18th-century poet Percy Bysshe Shelley famously told of a ruined statue depicting a once powerful king, its fragments buried in desolate desert sands. The vivid poem “Ozymandias” is often interpreted as a warning against the hubris of building monuments to one’s own greatness, as even the mightiest empires wane and eventually crumble.

The message is one that resonated with Singapore’s founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, whose relatives say he cited Shelley’s sonnet as he pondered his legacy. Prior to his death in March 2015 at age 91, the revered elder statesman publicly expressed his wish that his family’s five-bedroom residence at 38 Oxley Road be demolished after his passing.

This was to avoid the cost of preserving the historic colonial-era bungalow and the risk that it would fall into disrepair, with the political patriarch having once remarked how he detested the way the homes of national figures such as India’s founding prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru were left in “shambles” when converted into memorial tourist attractions.

What exactly the late premier wanted and stipulated in his will is at the heart of an acrimonious nearly six-year dispute that has bitterly divided Singapore’s most prominent family, a family feud between siblings that has become part and parcel of the prosperous city-state’s increasingly partisan politics.

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.

Corruption tables turn on Muhyiddin in Malaysia

Ex-premier arrested on corruption charges in a move that could blow back on Anwar’s ‘unity’ government at coming state polls

Former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin is the latest Malaysian politician to face legal trouble and potential jail time after a court in Kuala Lumpur charged him with graft and embezzlement on March 10, a day after authorities arrested and questioned him over the alleged misuse of funds from a Covid-19 stimulus initiative.

The 76-year-old faces four counts of abuse of power involving 232.5 million ringgit (US$51.4 million) and two counts of money laundering of 195 million ringgit ($43.1 million), charges that are punishable by up to 20 years in prison and heavy fines. Muhyiddin has maintained his innocence and has described the charges as a political vendetta.

“This selective prosecution is a political ploy done with malicious intent,” the former premier told reporters after being charged, claiming the move intended to “suppress and destroy” the opposition Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition he leads. “It is aimed at embarrassing me by dragging me to court… Therefore, no matter what explanation I provide, I will still be charged,” Muhyiddin said.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had been investigating allegations that beneficiaries of an economic relief program for ethnic Malay contractors had funneled kickbacks to Muhyiddin’s Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) political party, funds that are suspected to have been used for PN’s well-funded general election campaign in November.

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 Sachs and Anwar in 1MDB settlement showdown

Malaysian premier pressing US investment bank to honor agreement guaranteeing the return of $1.4 billion of seized assets worldwide

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s three-month-old administration won a key legal victory last week when Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC) and its Aabar Investments PJS unit agreed to pay US$1.8 billion to settle a legal dispute linked to the sprawling 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB, scandal.

The two sides had been locked in proceedings at the London High Court since 2018, when Malaysia challenged the validity of an arbitration award that had been negotiated between 1MDB and IPIC a year earlier during the premiership of Najib Razak, with the then-government arguing that the 2017 settlement was procured by fraud.

Anwar recently called the settlement a “huge success” for Malaysia and heaped praise on the country’s civil servants for their negotiating prowess, remarking that the amount reclaimed had exceeded his expectations. The premier now hopes to claw back even more money in a separate 1MDB-related dispute with Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs.

In January, Anwar called on Goldman to honor a settlement agreement reached in July 2020 under which the US bank, which helped to raise $6.5 billion from three bonds for 1MDB in 2012 and 2013 that would later be misappropriated, agreed to pay $2.5 billion while guaranteeing the return of $1.4 billion of 1MDB assets seized by authorities around the world.

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.

Big spender Anwar buying political staying power

Malaysian leader’s record-breaking budget seeks to tax the rich, subsidize the poor and boost his popularity

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has unveiled the largest budget in his nation’s history replete with measures aimed at lowering the cost of living through subsidies and direct cash payments, even as his three-month-old administration claims to be trying to narrow the fiscal deficit.

The record 388.1 billion ringgit (US$87.5 billion) spending plan for 2023 was tabled in parliament by Anwar, who is also finance minister, on February 24 with a self-claimed emphasis on good governance and fiscal prudence. But with state polls due in July, the first electoral bellwether for the premier’s “unity government”, analysts and observers also see political dimensions to the budget.

With a projected slowdown in Malaysia’s export-driven economy, the supply bill’s ostensible focus is on shoring up economic resilience in the face of intensifying global headwinds. Economic growth is expected to moderate to 4.5% this year, down sharply from a stronger-than-expected 8.7% in 2022, the highest rate in two decades.

Whether or not Anwar, who came to power with support from former arch-rival the United Malaysia National Organization (UMNO) and others after November polls, can successfully navigate Malaysia’s economy through geopolitically precarious times will be key to his political staying power, say analysts, with the nation having gone through four premiers in as many years.

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.