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.