New 1MDB suits set to sink Najib’s comeback

Malaysian ex-premier faces more legal trouble in 1MDB civil suits that also aim at JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank and PetroSaudi

Synonymous with one of the world’s greatest financial heists, Malaysia’s now-defunct state fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) is ramping up its pursuit of stolen assets with new legal action against foreign financial institutions and individuals like former premier Najib Razak and fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho.

1MDB and its former subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd filed 22 civil suits seeking over US$23 billion at courts in Kuala Lumpur earlier this month, marking a new phase of efforts by Malaysia to recover funds lost to the globe-spanning embezzlement scandal.

An unnamed source told The Edge business daily, which on May 10 initially reported the filing of the suits, the moves were a sign that Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and his ruling Perikatan Nasional (PN) are serious about pursuing wrongdoers linked to the scheme amid public restlessness with the slow pace of various 1MDB-linked criminal cases.

The litigation will also act to deepen an already wide rift within Muhyiddin’s governing coalition, which derives crucial support from graft-ensnared allies of Najib, who is increasingly at risk of losing his political rights to stand as a candidate in future elections pending court decisions.

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 Covid-19 success springs a leak

City-state imposes new lockdown-like measures to curb clusters linked to India's highly contagious viral variant

After months of reporting nearly zero daily Covid-19 community infections, Singapore is moving swiftly to curb a resurgence of locally transmitted cases linked to India’s highly contagious B1617 variant, with lockdown-like curbs on social gatherings and public activities coming into effect from today (May 16).

The new measures are the strictest since the partial lockdown, or “circuit breaker”, that brought the city-state to a standstill last April and May. The sharp spike in community cases does, however, look set to burst a long-planned air travel bubble with Hong Kong that was set to open on May 26.

Singapore’s return to near-lockdown conditions has also raised questions as to whether high-profile events showcasing the city-state’s virus-quelling resilience will proceed as scheduled, with the Shangri-La Dialogue slated to be held in-person in early June and the Davos-based World Economic Forum (WEF) in August.

Limits on social gatherings and household visitors have been reduced from five people to two people under the new measures, which are set to last four weeks until June 13. Working from home will be the default option for office-based personnel, while dining at restaurants, hawker centers and food courts is prohibited.

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 locks down to preempt India-like crisis

PM Muhyiddin announces third nationwide lockdown as cases soar, health system buckles and new variants take lethal hold

Malaysia is set to begin its third nationwide lockdown following its deadliest week on record since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced that the entire country will be placed under movement control order (MCO) restrictions from May 12 to June 7 during a televised address on Monday.

“There are now Covid-19 variants that are more infectious while the capacity of the public health system is becoming more critical. There are also weaknesses in Covid-19 protocol compliance by some. These factors demand that the government take drastic action,” said the premier, who in March had previously ruled out imposing a third MCO.

Health experts say inadequate early detection testing is to blame for the surge of increasingly severe coronavirus cases nationwide, which has intensive care units (ICU) across the country at full or near-capacity, a situation that threatens to tilt towards an India-like health crisis.

The country’s most recent seven-week lockdown, enacted from January to March to combat a deadly third wave that began last year, saw daily cases initially taper down but then surge again by early April. The disease’s effective reproduction number (Rt) has been above 1.0 for more than a month consecutively, pointing to exponential recent growth.

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 soft-pedals reopening amid new outbreak

New cases threaten to delay Hong Kong travel bubble and dent city-state's image as a safe and resilient business hub

A small but growing number of Covid-19 cases linked to India’s highly contagious virus variant has rattled Singapore, forcing the government to tighten social distancing measures and step up border curbs that could delay the opening of a travel bubble with Hong Kong and postpone planned major in-person events.

Initially set to launch on May 26 after a previous delay due to rising cases in Hong Kong, Singapore has said it will “review” the travel bubble scheme. It’s not clear if new, longer quarantine requirements will scupper other planned conferences and events, including the Shangri La Dialogue, that aim to showcase the city-state as a safe and resilient business hub.

At least 40 new cases have been linked to a cluster at one of Singapore’s biggest hospitals after a fully vaccinated 46-year-old nurse working there tested positive for Covid-19 on April 28. The case marked Singapore’s first-ever cluster at a hospital and is now the largest of nine active clusters.

At least 10 of the recent cases have been linked to India’s B1617 variant, underscoring the mounting risks posed by viral mutations that could prove to be more transmissible and more vaccine-resistant than earlier strains of the coronavirus. Ten unlinked community cases have also been reported over the last week.

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.

ASEAN diplomacy buys time for the Tatmadaw

Extraordinary ASEAN summit on Myanmar's coup crisis so far appears to have failed to curb the military's violence

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders met over the weekend in what was the first concerted international effort to deescalate the deadly political crisis in Myanmar. Though points of consensus were reached at the April 24 meeting in Jakarta, there are so far no discernable signs of change on the ground.

The summit marked the first international trip taken by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, chairman of the State Administration Council (SAC), since seizing power in a February 1 coup d’etat. Turmoil has since engulfed the Southeast Asian nation, with over 750 people killed and more than 3,300 jailed in an internationally condemned crackdown.

“In Jakarta, ASEAN received a commitment personally from the Tatmadaw’s chief to halt all violence. From now on, the situation on the ground would serve as a barometer whether the Tatmadaw means what they said,” said Kavi Chongkittavorn, a senior fellow at Chulalongkorn University’s Institute of Security and International Studies in Bangkok.

At least three people have been killed by Myanmar’s security forces since Saturday’s summit, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) monitoring group and national media reports. Moreover, a statement on ASEAN meeting from the SAC signaled it is already walking back its relevant commitments until “the situation returns to stability.”

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.

What to watch for at ASEAN’s Myanmar summit

Regional bloc's extraordinary meeting on Myanmar's deteriorating crisis could hold the key between war and peace

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) holds an in-person summit in Jakarta today, the first concerted international effort to address the crisis in Myanmar. Regional leaders will reportedly try to persuade Myanmar’s junta to agree to a cessation of hostilities to allow international aid to be delivered to the turmoil-hit nation.

Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar’s junta chief and key engineer of the February 1 putsch, will controversially be in attendance, a move panned by critics who see the invitation to sit alongside other ASEAN leaders as tantamount to lending legitimacy to his democracy-suspending regime, particularly in light of the recent establishment of a parallel authority by pro-democracy forces.

Ousted elected lawmakers, leaders of anti-coup protests and ethnic minority organizations announced on April 16 a National Unity Government (NUG), which says it is the country’s legitimate interim authority. It has requested international recognition and called for an invitation to the ASEAN meeting in place of the junta leader, but to no avail.

Asia Times’ correspondent and Southeast Asia Insider editor Nile Bowie reported on expectations for the summit and what it could potentially achieve in light of Myanmar’s military rulers persistent brutality despite appeals from neighbors to refrain from violence. He shared his thoughts on the situation in this week’s Q&A.

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.

Do or die moment for ASEAN in Myanmar

Bloc's extraordinary Myanmar crisis meeting on April 24 could be the last diplomatic chance to prevent a regional catastrophe

When Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders meet in Jakarta to discuss the worsening political crisis in Myanmar on April 24, it will mark the first time that the regional organization holds a highest-level meeting to address a specific situation of concern involving one of its members.

Non-interference in domestic affairs has traditionally been one of ASEAN’s basic operating principles, along with decision-making by consensus. As such, Saturday’s summit is seen as a test of the grouping’s code of constraint as regional leaders find themselves under mounting pressure to engineer a workable, face-saving resolution before the crisis spirals further out of control.

To be sure, the situation in Myanmar is on a knife’s edge. Its ruling military junta has intensified a brutal campaign of suppression in defiance of world condemnation. The cycle of protests and bloody crackdowns has left at least 738 people dead, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) monitoring group.

Inflexible repression by the Tatmadaw, as Myanmar’s military is known, has pushed segments of the urban-based protest movement into using low-level guerrilla warfare tactics, while escalating hostilities with ethnic armed forces in the north and east threaten a wider war on multiple fronts in the country’s borderlands.

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 inches back toward ‘elder brother’ China

China-Malaysia ties are on renewed if not controversial upswing under PM Muhyiddin's beleaguered administration

On his first official visit to China as Malaysia’s foreign minister, Hishammuddin Hussein sought to exude a touch of personal charisma. In a live televised press conference on April 2, he referred to his Chinese counterpart Minister Wang Yi as “elder brother,” speaking in rehearsed Mandarin as he beamed with an ear-to-ear smile.

Appearing surprised by the remark and even visibly uncomfortable, Wang responded by saying: “We are brothers.” Chinese social media users widely interpreted Hishammuddin’s remark, which was broadcast on state media, as a show of Malaysia’s respect and deference to China.

Back at home, however, Hishammuddin was widely criticized for a perceived diplomatic faux pas. Against the backdrop of China’s increasingly assertive stance in the South China Sea, where the two countries have competing claims, the foreign minister was widely seen as kowtowing to Beijing.

For many Malaysians, the gaffe revived anxieties about rising Chinese influence in Southeast Asia and raised new questions about the country’s foreign policy direction under Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, with the two sides having officially committed to deepening cooperation in the post-Covid-19 era.

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 leadership succession back to square one

Questions swirl about who will be the next PM after Heng Swee Keat withdraws in major setback for the ruling PAP

Singapore’s leadership succession plans were thrown into disarray on Thursday (April 8) when Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat told a press conference he was taking himself out of the running to be the Southeast Asian city-state’s next prime minister after being chosen for the role less than three years ago.

Heng, 59, said he decided to step aside as leader of the People’s Action Party’s (PAP) fourth-generation, or “4G,” team to allow a younger person to lead the country once incumbent Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong retires. Heng cited his age, the governance challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the exacting demands of the top job.

“I do not want to take on any job which I cannot deliver,” Heng told reporters, adding that he had questioned whether he was the right person for the role and that his decision was taken after careful deliberation and discussion with his family. “I think it is better for someone who is younger, with a longer runway, to take on this job.”

Like a bolt out of the blue, the widely unexpected announcement took observers by surprise. After what many regarded as an indecisive and drawn-out selection process that resulted in Heng being chosen as the 4G’s leader and Lee’s designated successor in late 2018, the PAP now finds itself back at square one and facing uncomfortable questions.

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.

Singaporeans standing up to Lee’s libel lawfare

PM Lee's use of punitive defamation suits to stifle dissent comes back to bite as Singaporeans galvanize to pay convicted blogger's bills

Leong Sze Hian playfully describes himself as the first person ever to be sued for sharing a news story on Facebook with no accompanying comment.

The 67-year-old financial advisor, blogger and opposition politician is the latest critic to lose a punitive libel suit against Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who is widely seen as following in his national founder father Lee Kuan Yew’s footsteps in using lawsuits to stifle dissent.

The offending post came at a steep price. Last month, a court judge ordered Leong to pay the premier, the world’s highest-paid political leader, S$133,000 (US$98,867) in damages for defamation. Justice Aedit Abdullah found that Leong could not “reasonably claim that the defamatory words” in the link he shared “did not impugn [Lee’s] character.”

The article in question was published by Malaysian website The Coverage in November 2018, and falsely alleged that Lee was involved in financial fraud and working in cahoots with former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak to launder funds in the multi-billion dollar 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.

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.