MOU sets basis for unprecedented working together Malaysia’s main opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan, has used the instability of the newly created coalition government of Ismail Sabri to obtain a role in influencing the composition of the country’s budget, that is unique in the country’s history. The gain by the opposition …
Populations of autocracies are invariably cynical about the financial behaviour of politicians. Each new revelation – such as those in the Pandora Papers just released about the King of Jordan, the President of Azerbaijan, the Prime Minister of Pakistan etc – comes as not the slightest surprise to the people …
31 August 2021 The online platform Facebook needs to act against those using it as a marketplace to advertise fake vaccine certificates. Cyrus Vance, New York’s District attorney, made the call when announcing that his force had cracked a ring promoting these documents. Vance was bringing charges against Jasmine Clifford …
As heart-breaking evidence of massacres by the Myanmar Junta hit our TV screens, international efforts to put pressure on these unelected military leaders are completely missing. This is largely because the regional body ASEAN is led by largely autocrat-led states who refuse to back a democratic alternative to the Myanmar military. So …
Terrorist financing in Afghanistan must now be key Western focus Western intelligence services will need to start to wake up to the numerous threats posed by Afghanistan’s Taliban, with an alacrity that they seemed woefully lacking while NATO was [reputedly] trying to build a democratic system in Kabul. Their immediate …
Introduction: Two routes forward: Two divergent routes present themselves to Malaysia’s politicians seeking to decide Malaysia’s new political direction, now that Muhyiddin Yassin and his extreme Bersatu government have handed in their cards. The first is broadly more of the same, an UMNO leader who can bring his party together, …
Phone and text scams have mushroomed during the pandemic. Messages such as those from fraudulent couriers that ask for administrative fees to deliver non-existent parcels surged by 83 per cent in the past year. This may sound a slightly esoteric form of fraud but it has been fueled by the …
Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, the Minister in charge of Malaysia’s vaccination programme, spoke to us on 23 July. This is update on the state of Malaysia’s vaccination programme. Malaysia Watch Could you tell us about Malaysia’s vaccination progress please? KJ: We hope to have 40% of the population fully vaccinated by …
COVID-19 business email compromise fraud Companies seeking to buy protective material against Covid have paid over €1 million to an African gang working on behalf of Romanian gangsters. The gang used bogus emails to persuade the companies to pay money upfront for goods that never arrived. On 10 August, 23 …
The details of an extraordinary deal for the sale of ventilators to Hungary have been revealed to journalists in Malaysia and Hungary. Under pressure of pandemic, the Malaysian businessman Vinod Sekhar sold at least 800 ventilators to the Government of Hungary for a figure close to $60m. It has been …
