Justice served: Najib is finally going to jail

Ex-Malaysian premier’s final appeal of his corruption conviction is rejected, making him Kajang Prison’s newest inmate

In a historic unanimous ruling, Malaysia’s Federal Court on Tuesday (August 23) upheld former prime minister Najib Razak’s guilty conviction and a 12-year jail sentence on charges related to a multi-billion dollar corruption scandal at state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), sealing the 69-year-old’s fate as Kajang Prison’s newest inmate.

Najib, who simultaneously served as prime minister and finance minister from 2009-18, was found guilty in July 2020 of criminal breach of trust, abuse of power and money laundering for illegally receiving US$10 million from SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB. An appellate court last year upheld the guilty verdict along with a $46.7 million fine, prompting him to appeal again to the nation’s highest court.

“This is a very historic moment for Malaysia,” said James Chin, professor of Asian Studies at the University of Tasmania. “It is the first time in Malaysian history that a former prime minister has been jailed for corruption. There was a lot of suspicion that the judiciary would be influenced by the political class in this case, but the result is an affirmation of the leadership of the judiciary.”

Rejecting his request for a stay of sentence, a five-person bench led by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat dismissed the ex-premier’s final appeal after Najib’s legal team, which was replaced just three weeks before his appeal began on August 15, declined to present their case in court, citing insufficient time to prepare their arguments due to the purported complexity of the case.

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.

Bellwether Singapore buffeted by global headwinds

Post-Covid economic recovery is already losing steam as Prime Minister Lee warns of ‘more storms and turbulence’ to come

Consumer prices in Singapore are at a 13-year high and are projected to rise higher as the notoriously pricey city-state, a bellwether for global economic growth trends, grapples with imported inflation, heightened geopolitical risks and fears its major trading partners are slowing down or headed for recession.

Since easing most pandemic-related restrictions in early April, the Southeast Asian financial hub has shown relative economic resilience with rebounding aviation and tourism sectors and a rising Singapore dollar trading at record levels against most major currencies.But more Singaporeans are now tightening their belts in the face of costlier services, food, fuel, retail goods and utilities.

The city-state has also revised down its full-year economic forecast, with expected gross domestic product (GDP) growth whittled down to between 3-4% from a previous range of 3-5%. Trade officials announced the revised range on August 11, citing a weaker external demand outlook and significant downside risks to the global economy amid concerns over persistent inflation.

Singapore’s government, meanwhile, has acknowledged that the cost of living is at the top of people’s minds while offering a sobering outlook on the economy. In a televised address on August 8, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that Singapore’s outlook has “clouded considerably” due to global economic challenges while warning of “more storms and turbulence” to come.

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.

UMNO’s grand plan for taking back Malaysia

UMNO info chief tells Asia Times party must overhaul race-based affirmative action policies and take a ‘moderate path’ to reclaim power

If the resurgent United Malays National Organization (UMNO) has any hope of restoring its traditional position at the apex of national politics, the party must win over ethnic non-Malays and the urban constituencies where they reside. That’s according to UMNO information chief Shahril Hamdan, 36, who spoke exclusively to Asia Times in a wide-ranging interview.

His view would likely be disputed by party conservatives who advocate a narrower platform championing the rights and state-sanctioned economic privileges of ethnic Malays, the majority population in Malaysia. But electoral arithmetic, Shahril argues, demands that the country is run “in a way that is relatable not just to the conservative base but to broader Malaysia.”

“UMNO in the past had managed to get support from urban, non-Malay constituencies. For UMNO’s survival, that has to come back because political urbanization is a one-way street and all the maps indicate that if we ever want to go back to some form of majoritarian dominance, we need urban support and non-Malay support, at least a significant minority of it,” he said.

The trouble for UMNO is that few voters, particularly those within urban areas, are actively clamoring to return to a time when the UMNO-led Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition governed with a supermajority. But what the electorate would likely agree on is the need for renewed stability after three years of uncharacteristic political dysfunction.

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 Ismail is all talk on press freedom

Malaysian leader isn’t living up to his pledge to protect the press and uphold free expression

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob recently extended an olive branch to the media on National Journalists Day to reiterate his view that reporters should remain free to operate without any interference from outside parties, thereby ensuring their constitutionally-enshrined freedom of expression.

“I can give an assurance that the government has nothing to hide in the dissemination of information,” said Ismail, who claimed that ministries and agencies under his administration had always cooperated with and never obstructed media reporting, while also acknowledging the press as a “fourth estate” that contributes to national development.

While domestic media workers were Ismail’s intended audience, the premier’s remarks could also be interpreted as a response to Malaysia’s declining position on international press freedom rankings since the reformist Pakatan Harapan (PH) government’s collapse in 2020, which cut short its bid to rescind and amend laws that restrict and threaten the media.

To strengthen journalism in Malaysia, Ismail proposed during his May 29 speech the establishment of a study center to boost media professionalism and formation of a new journalist association, suggestions that media experts have pushed back against amid rising calls for Putrajaya to formalize instead the creation of an independent media council.

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.

Exclusive: UMNO’s No 2 thinks Najib should go to jail

Deputy party leader tells Asia Times that ex-premier must ‘pay his dues’ in prison for 1MDB-related corruption

Mohamad Hasan, deputy president of the United Malays National Organization and deputy chairman of its ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, described Malaysia as a “struggling” country led by a “backdoor” government in a wide-ranging exclusive interview with Asia Times.

Mohamad, or Tok Mat as he is popularly known, also claimed the root of the nation’s current malaise stems from his party’s failure to “tell the truth” about the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) financial scandal, adding that ex-premier Najib Razak should not expect special treatment from an UMNO-led government if he is eventually jailed on a slew of graft charges.

“The court is the place where you can prove whether you’re innocent or not. He didn’t prove it. He couldn’t prove it,” said Mohamad, cutting the figure of a maverick unafraid of speaking his mind. “Everybody has to pay their dues. But if we want to pardon, he (Najib) has to go through the process. He’ll have to go inside first.”

UMNO’s second-in-command went on to lament Malaysia’s purported failure to keep economic pace with its neighbors, stating that the formation of two successive governments “not out of a general election” but through parliamentary maneuvers had soured foreign investor sentiment and raised questions about the government’s democratic credibility.

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 guns for judge who convicted him

Graft probe into judge who convicted former Malaysian premier called intimidation campaign against judiciary

Malaysia’s highest court will soon reach its final and incontestable conclusion on whether to uphold former prime minister Najib Razak’s landmark corruption conviction, a ruling that will leave the influential ex-leader either firmly emboldened as he mounts a political comeback or forced to adjust to life in a jail cell.

Lawyers for the 68-year-old politician recently filed a last-ditch bid to nullify his conviction and 12-year prison sentence handed down in July 2020 over the misappropriation of 42 million ringgit (US$9.5 million) from SRC International, a now-defunct investment vehicle of the infamous 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) state fund.

Najib’s legal team contends that the judge who handed down the historic ruling, Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali, should be disqualified for a purported conflict of interest due to his previous stint as the general counsel of Maybank Group, a commercial lender to 1MDB that had played an advisory role in the establishment of SRC International.

A probe into the same sitting judge by the government’s anti-graft agency in response to unsubstantiated claims leveled by a fugitive blogger that Nazlan had pocketed stolen 1MDB funds has, meanwhile, shaken Malaysia’s legal fraternity and prompted the country’s chief justice to push back against “scurrilous attacks” leveled against the judiciary.

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.

Inflation politics a game of chicken in Malaysia

PM Ismail defying UMNO elder calls for snap polls due to the impact of runaway poultry and other food prices on voters

Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob has few vote-winning achievements to claim after less than a year in office, which suggests he has little to gain and plenty to lose by calling an early election of which graft-tainted party leaders of his United Malays National Organization (UMNO) are aggressively lobbying.

Pointing to thumping wins in recent state elections and an opposition coalition in disarray, UMNO president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi says the electoral time is right for the party to reclaim its traditional political dominance. But Ismail has countered that fast-rising food inflation and basic living costs mean snap polls should be delayed until prices stabilize.

Malaysia’s next general election must be called by the third quarter of 2023, but UMNO-led governments have in the past held early elections to capitalize on political popularity or favorable economic conditions. UMNO suffered a historic defeat in 2018 but returned to power through parliamentary maneuvers and is now eyeing a redemptive victory.

Ismail, however, is adamant that the next election should not be held until the country can curb inflation, telling Nikkei Asia in a recent interview that his government would “have to wait for the right time” to dissolve parliament and call new polls. “We are now facing a period of increasing inflation with high prices… do you think this is the right time?”

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.

Why ASEAN is giving Biden’s IPEF a chance

Indo-Pacific Economic Framework lacks clear market-opening measures but SE Asian nations are nonetheless keen to join

US President Joe Biden formally announced his administration’s Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) last week, with a dozen nations – including seven from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) – stepping forward to join negotiations to formalize the new and loosely defined economic pact.

Appraisals of the initiative have thus far been mixed, with critics saying the proposed framework doesn’t offer participating countries enough value to serve as an effective economic counterweight to China. Asia Times’ correspondent and Southeast Asia Insider editor Nile Bowie has followed the story closely and shared his assessment of the IPEF in this week’s Q&A.

Read the full interview 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.

Biden shrugs off ASEAN’s free trade mantra

Washington’s diplomacy with Southeast Asia sidestepped free trade agenda despite lobbying from regional leaders

US President Joe Biden hailed a “new era” in relations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) when its leaders visited Washington last week for a two-day summit aimed at strengthening strategic ties with a regional organization that in recent years has pursued deeper economic integration with China through trade and infrastructure projects.

While the two sides pledged to elevate their relationship to a “comprehensive strategic partnership” and the White House’s show of diplomatic initiative was warmly received, observers say the absence of a multilateral economic program that offers expanded market access has left Southeast Asian nations increasingly disappointed with the US over a lack of progress on trade issues.

Biden told the gathering of regional leaders that strengthening US ties with ASEAN is “at the very heart” of his foreign policy strategy. But absent an economic alternative to Beijing’s various big-ticket initiatives, the administration’s Indo-Pacific Strategy risks being viewed through the prism of security and what some regard as an effort to geopolitically contain China.

“The recent summit was a tick-box exercise for the US to show that it can walk and chew gum at the same time,” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist and professor at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University. “The US is evidently trying to raise its game in view of ASEAN-China ties, but Washington will need to do more if it is to be convincing to countries around the Indo-Pacific.”

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 squandering a palm oil price windfall

Malaysia should be a major beneficiary of sky-high global prices but acute labor shortages are limiting its upside

Indonesia’s controversial ban on palm oil exports has sent global edible oil prices soaring, creating a supply gap that Malaysia is in a pole position to fill. But ongoing labor shortages due to more than two years of Covid-19 border curbs have left the country ill-equipped to fully capitalize on a golden opportunity to expand its market share.

Zuraida Kamaruddin, Malaysia’s Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister, has nonetheless reassured markets that global demand would be met by raising production, promising new foreign worker arrivals in May and June after plans to add more labor have stalled for months. Malaysia and Indonesia jointly account for 85% of global palm oil output.

Apart from Indonesia’s haphazard export ban, enacted to tamp down soaring domestic prices, vegetable oil prices climbed to all-time highs in March after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupted sunflower oil shipments and drought in South America led to reduced soybean production in Brazil, the world’s biggest exporter of the oilseed.

Supply uncertainties have so far benefited Malaysian palm oil, with exports to the European Union, where the commodity had been increasingly shunned due to environmental and forced labor concerns, surging 48.3% in March compared with February, while exports to India, the world’s largest importer of edible oils, rose 20.8% in March.

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.