Posted on June 26, 2015
By John Berthelsen
Headline, Malaysia, Politics
Malaysia’s political establishment is using the arrest of Xavier Justo in Thailand to try derail questions over the ill-starred 1Malaysia Development Bhd Fund that go far beyond whether the whistle-blowing Swiss national did or did not steal and doctor documents and pass them to Sarawak Report, a critical blog run by a British reporter. The United…
Posted on June 24, 2015
By Our Correspondent
Headline, Malaysia, Politics
A Swiss businessman who allegedly leaked thousands of emails to the Sarawak Report has been arrested in Thailand at the behest of a controversial oil exploration company connected to the1MDB scandal in Malaysia. The Swiss national, Xavier Justo, has been held in Thailand for the past two days on charges of blackmail and extortion at…
Posted on June 23, 2015
By John Berthelsen
Headline, Malaysia, Politics
On June 17, the regular meeting of the United Malays National Organization’s Management Committee, chaired by UMNO Deputy President Muhyiddin Yassin, turned into a free-for-all, according a source in KL, with Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, the head of the party’s women’s wing, unloading bitterly on Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak. Shahrizat reportedly said Najib was wrecking…
Posted on June 16, 2015
By Our Correspondent
Headline, Malaysia, Politics
One of the keys that is playing a role in tipping over Malaysia’s political system into the bin and spawning the possible establishment of a new unity party, is the apparent emasculation of the Pakatan Rakyat coalition that built the biggest opposition successes since Malaysia became an independent country. The coalition was declared dead on…
Posted on June 16, 2015
By John Berthelsen
Headline, Malaysia, Politics
Banking executive Nazir Razak, the Malaysian prime minister’s brother, has been quietly meeting with business leaders in his UK headquarters and in Kuala Lumpur to attempt to form a well-funded new, nonpartisan political entity to reach out to all races and to end the divisive racial politics that have poisoned the atmosphere of the country.…
Posted on June 12, 2015
By John Berthelsen
Headline, Malaysia, Politics
With Malaysia’s national ruling coalition government virtually paralyzed by scandal, Prime Minister Najib’s opponents in his own party are said to be seeking to put together a unity government headed by onetime Finance Minister Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, 78, as prime minister. Razaleigh has not been a significant political force in Malaysia for 28 years. Reportedly,…
Posted on June 11, 2015
By Our Correspondent
Headline, Malaysia, Politics
Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, under relentless attack by former Premier Mahathir Mohamad, the man who championed his premiership in 2009, appears to be stumbling from crisis to crisis and facing growing discontent within his United Malays National Organization, the leading party in the ruling national coalition. Two of his lieutenants, his cousin, Hishammuddin…
Posted on June 1, 2015
By Our Correspondent
Headline, Malaysia, Politics
The Malaysian government, the 2015 leader of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, seems to believe that it has found a new way of protecting its territory against Chinese claims to almost all the sea and islands of the South China Sea: kowtow to China at every opportunity. In the past few days Putrajaya has…
Posted on May 20, 2015
By Our Correspondent
Headline, Malaysia, Politics
The resignation by Malaysia’s parliamentary speaker Amin Mulia, followed almost immediately by its withdrawal, is nonetheless an indication that unprecedented pressure is growing on Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak for an accounting on what appears to be disastrous mismanagement of a state investment fund and the eight-year-old mystery of the murdered Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaariibuu.…
Posted on May 11, 2015
By John Berthelsen
Headline, Malaysia, Politics
Earlier this year, scrambling for funds to make payment on its RM42 billion debt, the struggling 1Malaysia Development Bhd. turned to the government-backed Muslim pilgrim fund, which pays to send thousands of Malays on the haj to Mecca each year. 1MDB sold an acre and a half of land from the 70-acre land bank 1MDB…
