KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's King Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah said on Wednesday (Jun 16) that parliamentary sittings should reconvene as soon as possible, after he chaired a special rulers' conference.
A statement issued by the palace said: "After reviewing all the perspectives of the leaders of the political parties, the 2021 Independent Emergency Special Committee as well as briefings by experts from government agencies, His Majesty expressed the view that parliamentary sessions should be held as soon as possible."
It added: "This is to enable the emergency ordinances and the national recovery plan to be debated by the members of the House of Representatives."
According to the statement, the king expressed hope that the COVID-19 outbreak could be curbed immediately and that vaccination was the only "exit strategy" to control the spread of the pandemic.
"In this regard, His Majesty expressed the view that the government must act decisively to simplify bureaucracy andspeed up the vaccination process for the people so that the goal of herd immunity of 80 per cent can be achieved as soon as possible," it added.
The statement also highlighted that Sultan Abdullah expressed the view that there was a need for "a stable and strong government administration" able to function effectively in dealing with the pandemic.
"His Majesty is fully aware of the role of parliament as an important platform for elected representatives to convene and discuss various issues, especially those related to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic," it said.
"Members of the Dewan Rakyat can discuss the allocation of government expenditure to help people in need and revive the national economy," the statement added.
The special conference on Wednesday was held after the king met with 18 key leaders of Malaysian political parties and the Special Independent Committee on Emergency 2021.
The king first declared a state of emergency on Jan 12 to curb the spread of COVID-19. The emergency was scheduled to last until Aug 1 or earlier depending on the state of coronavirus infections.
Since it was declared, federal parliamentary sessions and state legislative assemblies have not sat. No elections were held during this period.
The state of emergency allows the king to proclaim several emergency ordinances on matters related to private hospital assets; temporary ownership of land, buildings or moveable properties of private hospitals; or to request to use the resources of private hospitals to treat patients.
The government can also seek a more inclusive involvement from the private sector including private healthcare facilities to help ease the burden of government agencies, especially public hospitals.
The suspension of parliament was seen as a move that helped Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin avoid an immediate challenge to his razor-thin majority in the august house.
KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian court on Wednesday (Jun 16) overturned an inquest verdict of "misadventure" in the death of a French-Irish teen who vanished in the jungle, replacing it with an "open" ruling in a victory for her family.
The initial verdict indicated that the death was accidental, but the new ruling suggests that there are still questions to be answered in the case and leaves open the possibility of criminal involvement.
The body of Nora Quoirin, a 15-year-old with learning difficulties, was discovered after a huge hunt through the rainforest following her disappearance from a resort outside Kuala Lumpur in 2019.
In January, a coroner handed down the misadventure ruling and said that no one else was involved.
But her London-based parents, who have dismissed authorities' claims that their daughter wandered into the jungle alone at night and believe she was abducted, said they were "utterly disappointed".
They lodged a challenge, seeking to have the ruling revised to an open verdict.
Judge Azizul Azmi Adnan ruled in their favour on Wednesday, telling the Seremban High Court that "in the interests of justice" the misadventure verdict should be overturned and substituted with an open ruling.
"There was no credible evidence to support any other verdict," he added.
Malaysian police have stuck to their version of events - that the teenager clambered out of a window of the family's holiday chalet and wandered off, and insist there was no sign of foul play.
But her mother, Meabh, has said she believes that someone could have placed her body in the spot where it was found, in a stream in the jungle not far from the resort.
The teenager disappeared a day after her family checked into the Dusun Resort, triggering a 10-day hunt involving helicopters, sniffer dogs and hundreds of rescuers.
An autopsy concluded that she likely died of starvation and internal bleeding.
The coroner said that the teenager had been left disoriented by the long journey from Britain to Malaysia, likely leading her to wander off, and that there was no sign that she was murdered or sexually assaulted.
But during the inquest, the teen's parents said they heard mysterious "muffled noises" coming from the accommodation the night of the schoolgirl's disappearance, fuelling their belief that she was snatched.
They also criticised authorities for their response to their daughter's disappearance as too slow. Police have insisted that they conducted a comprehensive search.
The 5ha resort is next to a patch of thick jungle and in the foothills of a mountain range.
The teen had a condition known as holoprosencephaly, where the brain fails to develop normally. She had limited verbal communication and could only write a few words.
She attended a school for young people with learning difficulties.
SINGAPORE - A wanted French national and his family, who had made a transit in Singapore on Sunday (June 13), left Singapore on Tuesday, said the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
Mr Daillet Remy Vincent Christophe, his partner, Ms Bardet Leonie, and their three children were residing in Malaysia when they were arrested late last month for overstaying in Langkawi island.
During their transit in Singapore, the pregnant Ms Bardet had complained of discomfort. She was issued a special pass to enter Singapore and was taken to KK Women's and Children's Hospital on the advice of doctors at Changi Airport.
A spokesman for MHA said on Wednesday: "Daillet and the children remained in the transit hotel at Terminal 3. They were not allowed to enter Singapore as they were deportees from Malaysia for France. Bardet was subsequently discharged and reunited with Daillet and the children at the transit hotel."
On Monday, online portal theVibes.com reported that the five French nationals did not board Air France Flight 257 - a direct flight to Paris - which departed Changi at 10.35pm on Sunday.
Two of the three children, aged 17 and nine, are from Ms Bardet's former marriage. The youngest, aged two, is a child by the couple, said theVibes.com.
Mr Daillet had been illegally living in Langkawi for the last six years under a self-imposed exile, it added.
The portal also said an international arrest warrant was issued by Interpol on Mr Daillet for his alleged role in the abduction of an eight-year-old girl from her grandmother in France in April last year. She was later rescued by French and Swiss police in Switzerland.
The MHA said the five French nationals were not under the custody of the Singapore police at any point during their transit in Singapore.
Its spokesman said: "As they were transit passengers, they were under the care of the airline that they flew with. Daillet has since been required to continue with his journey to France on 15 June, 2021."
The airline acceded to Ms Bardet's request of having her and the three children continue their travel to France with Mr Daillet, the spokesman added.
KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's royal rulers have begun arriving at the national palace for a special meeting with the King on Wednesday (June 16) to discuss the country's Covid-19 crisis.
Over the last week, Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah had granted audiences to political party leaders across the divide to get their views on the government's handling of the outbreak during the ongoing state of emergency, which will expire in six weeks.
The King had met 18 political leaders face to face as well as in virtual sessions from June 9, said a statement issued by the Comptroller of the Royal Household, Datuk Indera Ahmad Fadil Shamsuddin, on Tuesday.
Aside from meeting political leaders, the King also granted an audience to the chairman of the Special Independent Committee on the Emergency, Tun Arifin Zakaria, at Istana Negara on Tuesday, it said.
Experts from various government agencies are scheduled to present briefings on matters related to health, security, politics and the economy during Wednesday's meeting at 2.30pm, which will be the second by the Malay rulers to discuss the pandemic, after one was held in October last year.
The state of emergency was declared amid a spike in Covid-19 cases in January. There have been calls for the emergency to be lifted due to the worsening Covid-19 health crisis.
The nation is currently under another lockdown after record highs in Covid-19 cases and deaths were reported in recent weeks.
Last Wednesday, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said he had pleaded with the constitutional monarch not to extend the state of emergency, as the move has not helped poorer Malaysians.
Opposition Democratic Action Party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, whose party has the most number of MPs, told reporters after his audience that the discussion with the King revolved around financial assistance for the people to see them through the outbreak.
As a potential solution to Malaysia's crisis, the country's longest-serving premier Mahathir Mohamad mooted the revival of a council that governed the nation after its deadly May 13, 1969, race riots in his audience with the King last Thursday.
Dr Mahathir claimed the National Operations Council (Mageran), which was in charge for two years during the last national emergency until 1971, allowed Malaysia's second prime minister, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, to "solve political problems at the time" by bringing in opposition parties to form a wider Barisan Nasional (BN) ruling coalition that had a stronger majority.
Back then, Mageran was made up of a small group of political leaders and top civil servants that included the police and armed forces' chiefs. Dr Mahathir suggested including experts on the Covid-19 pandemic this time.
Pakatan Harapan has opposed the idea, while Umno has said that it is against extending the emergency.
Opponents of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin have also called for the resumption of Parliament, which last sat in December last year to pass this year's budget, so that the outbreak can be addressed.
The state of emergency suspends the requirement for Parliament to reconvene within six months of its last sitting and also ensures the Muhyiddin administration remains in power.
Tan Sri Muhyiddin on Tuesday unveiled a four-phase post-pandemic exit plan for Malaysia, ahead of the monarchs' special talks, projecting that Malaysia from September might gradually open up its economy, social sectors and also Parliament.
The country has failed to fully recover from a resurgent outbreak arising from Sabah state polls in September last year.
In late October, Malaysia was reporting some 1,200 Covid-19 cases a day. On Tuesday, it recorded 5,419 cases.
BEIJING/TAIPEI: China does not tolerate foreign forces intervening in Taiwan issues and has to make strong responses to such acts of "collusion", the government said on Wednesday (Jun 16) after the island reported the largest incursion to date of Chinese aircraft.
Twenty-eight Chinese air force aircraft, including fighters and nuclear-capable bombers, entered Taiwan's air defence identification zone (ADIZ) on Tuesday, the island's government said.
The incident came after the Group of Seven leaders issued a joint statement on Sunday scolding China for a series of issues and underscored the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, comments China condemned as "slander".
Asked at a news conference whether the military activity was related to the G7 statement, Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office, said it was Taiwan's government that was to blame for tensions. Beijing believes the island's government is working with foreign countries to seek formal independence.
"We will never tolerate attempts to seek independence or wanton intervention in the Taiwan issue by foreign forces, so we need to make a strong response to these acts of collusion," Ma said.
Democratically-ruled Taiwan has complained over the last few months of repeated missions by China's air force near the island, concentrated in the southwestern part of its air defence zone near the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands.
However, this time not only did the Chinese aircraft fly in an area close to the Pratas Islands, but the bombers and some of the fighters flew around the southern part of Taiwan near the bottom tip of the island, according to Taiwan's defence ministry.
The fly-by happened on the same day the US Navy said a carrier group had entered the disputed South China Sea.
A senior official familiar with Taiwan's security planning told Reuters that officials believed China was sending a message to the United States as the carrier group sailed through the Bashi Channel, which separates Taiwan from the Philippines and leads into the South China Sea.
"It's strategic intimidation of the US military. They wanted the United States to notice their capability and for them to restrain their behaviour."
Taiwan needs in particular to pay attention to the fact that China's military has started conducting drills in Taiwan's southeastern ADIZ, the source added.
This "to a certain degree was targeting our deployments in the east and increasing air defence pressure around our ADIZ", the source said.
Taiwan's east coast is home to two major air bases with hangers dug out of the side of mountains to provide protection in the event of a Chinese assault.
MELBOURNE: The news that China sent 16 military aircraft to the vicinity of disputed shoals in the South China Sea on the last day of May and prompted the latter to scramble fighter jets in response raised eyebrows among regional defence watchers.
This new development has also understandably set off discussions in Malaysia about its response to what was seen as a show of strength by the regional power.
Malaysia has framed the issue as one of an intrusion into Malaysian airspace by multiple Chinese government aircraft.
The Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) said in a news release on Tuesday (Jun 2) that 16 Xian Y-20 and Ilyushin Il-76 transport aircraft of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) approached to within 60 nautical miles (112 km) of Malaysia’s coast, flying at speeds of 290 knots (537 kmh) at between 23,000 and 27,000 ft in a tactical line astern formation.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussein also said his ministry will issue a diplomatic note of protest and request an explanation from the Chinese Ambassador from Malaysia to explain the “breach of Malaysian airspace and sovereignty”.
The RMAF news release added that the Chinese aircraft, which flew past Beting Patinggi Ali or Luconia Shoals and turning back in the vicinity of nearby James Shoal, did not respond when repeatedly hailed by Malaysian air traffic controllers.
After failing to identify the aircraft detected on radar, the RMAF scrambled its BAE Hawk 208 light combat jets from nearby Labuan to intercept and investigate.
The shoals are located off the coast of Sarawak and lie inside Malaysia’s 200 nm (370 km) Exclusive Economic Zone, although China also lays claim to both, which are within the “nine-dash line” which it uses to claim large swaths of the South China Sea.
Despite the RMAF calling the overflight a “serious matter that threatens national security”, there was technically nothing illegal about it.
The aircraft did not intrude into Malaysia’s territorial airspace and were in international airspace throughout the duration.
And while the large formation of aircraft did not make contact with Malaysian air traffic controllers as they flew in airspace under control of the Kota Kinabalu Flight Information Region (FIR), there are no requirements for military aircraft to comply with civilian aviation rules when operating in international airspace under International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) rules.
Beijing claims nearly all of the strategically vital South China Sea, including waters approaching the coasts of Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei. (Photo: AFP/Ted Aljibe)
The PLAAF aircraft were also not legally obligated to turn on their transponders that broadcast their identity and intentions. Air traffic controllers use this information to assist in managing the airspace under their control.
Although Malaysian civil aviation authorities exercise air traffic management and administer air traffic services within its assigned FIR on grounds of safety, countries do not have sovereignty over those areas.
Nevertheless, sending 16 military aircraft thousands of kilometres to fly over disputed shoals in the vicinity of a neighbouring country is unquestioningly an unfriendly and intended demonstration of presence and exercise in desensitisation, especially given the PLAAF aircraft flew directly towards the Malaysian coast before turning around.
In addition to cargo, these aircraft could also transport paratroopers, trucks or armoured vehicles in an invasion scenario.
This is not the first time PLAAF jets have approached Malaysia although this is the first time such a large aircraft force has been observed, making the recent overflight an even more noteworthy move.
This is despite a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Kuala Lumpur calling the exercise merely “routine flight training”. Judging from the aircraft type involved and their composition makes it likely to be a long-range airlift surge exercise to hone the PLAAF’s skills in undertaking large scale air transportation missions over long distances.
Within the same area, however, China and Malaysia have had maritime standoffs near Luconia Shoals where Chinese ships have harassed Malaysian drilling rigs and supply ships in November 2020.
Such incidents take place as often as once a week. While they rarely take place so close to the coast, “this is becoming quite normal”, Institute of Strategic and International Studies’ senior foreign policy analyst Shariman Lockman said last year, speaking to Voice of America.
The incident also gives an insight into how countries deal with unidentified aircraft approaching their airspace.
An H-6 bomber of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force flying near a Taiwan F-16 in a Feb 10, 2020, handout photo. (File photo: Reuters)
The RMAF said the first Chinese aircraft was detected in Singapore’s FIR (assigned by the ICAO and extends far into the South China Sea to almost near Palawan in the Philippines) at 11.53am on May 31.
It added that upon crossing into the Kota Kinabalu FIR, the unidentified aircraft were repeatedly asked to contact air traffic controllers.
When no response was forthcoming, Hawk 208 light combat jets from the RMAF’s Labuan-based 6 Squadron were scrambled to investigate the radar contacts, taking off at 1.33pm.
Judging from the map released by the RMAF which showed the boundary lines between FIRs and the speed of the Chinese jets, the elapsed time between PLAAF jets crossing into Kota Kinabalu FIR and the order to scramble could have been as quick as 20 minutes, assuming RMAF planes were placed on the highest alert status.
An edited audio transcript published by a Malaysian aviation blog of the Malaysian air traffic controllers interacting with other commercial airliners and the RMAF interceptors in the lead up to and the aftermath of the intercept suggests that two Hawk 208s were involved, which is expected as fighter jets typically operate in pairs at a minimum during operational missions.
However, escalating a response to the point of sending interceptors to investigate contacts is not usually required.
If suspicious aircraft respond to air traffic control queries or do not appear to pose a threat to a country’s territory or enter its territorial airspace, they might not be pursued further.
This is also the case in Singapore, with the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) saying previously that it investigates “more than 350 suspicious air threats on any given year in order to protect Singapore’s skies".
This works out to an average of almost one per day. The RSAF has on occasion also needed to scramble interceptors when the occasion demanded it, such as when bomb threats were made on commercial flights that had departed from, or bound for, Singapore – like the most recent March 2019 case involving a Singapore Airlines flight from Mumbai.
The Aerostat provides 24/7 low-level radar coverage. (Photo: Jeremy Long)
Singapore’s challenge is compounded by the busy airspace in and around the island and the proximity of a number of foreign airports nearby, which reduce response times when it comes to unidentified aircraft.
It is a challenge for air traffic controllers to decide whether an aircraft already so close to Singapore’s airspace could be left alone or warrant further investigation.
Obviously, having to scramble fighter jets to intercept every single suspicious air contact international airspace will be an onerous task which will rapidly wear out aircraft and personnel. In addition to radio calls which can be ignored or scrambling fighter jets, countries also have the option of asking any nearby aircraft to assist in trying to identify the suspicious aircraft.
This is something Japan has come to realise. The country recently tightened its previously liberal criteria for scrambling fighter jets to intercept foreign military aircraft operating it its expansive Air Defence Identification Zone, with intercepts of what are mostly Chinese and Russian military aircraft dropping to 725 times in its 2020 fiscal year from 947 previously.
Last week’s overflight is yet another reminder of what is often referred to as the “global commons” and the need for nations to share the use of these in transparent, responsible manner.
It is however also a reminder of the security challenges confronting the region, with unresolved territorial disputes and overlapping claims never far from bubbling to the surface.
Mike Yeo is the Asia reporter for US-based defence publication Defense News.
SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has said the country's economy improved this year but called for measures to tackle the "tense" food situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and last year's typhoons, state media said on Wednesday (Jun 16).
Kim chaired a plenary meeting of the ruling Workers' Party's central committee on Tuesday to review progress on major policies and craft measures to resolve economic issues, according to the official KCNA news agency.
The committee set goals and tasks to achieve its new five-year economic plan outlined at its previous session in February, including increased food and metal production.
Kim said the overall economy had improved in the first half of the year, with the total industrial output growing 25 per cent from a year before, KCNA said.
But there was "a series of deviations" in the party's efforts to implement the plans due to several obstacles, he said, singling out tight food supplies.
"The people's food situation is now getting tense as the agricultural sector failed to fulfill its grain production plan due to the damage by typhoons last year," Kim said.
The party vowed to direct all efforts to farming this year and discuss ways to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, KCNA said.
Kim called for steps to minimise impacts of natural disasters as a lesson from last year and key to attain this year's goal.
In January, Kim said his previous five-year economic plan had failed in almost every sector, amid chronic power and food shortages exacerbated by sanctions, the pandemic and floods.
He also said the protracted pandemic required the party to step up efforts to provide food, clothing and housing for the people, KCNA said.
North Korea has not officially confirmed any COVID-19 cases, a claim questioned by Seoul officials. But the reclusive country has imposed strict anti-virus measures including border closures and domestic travel restrictions.
COVAX, a global initiative for sharing COVID-19 vaccines with poor countries, has said it will provide nearly 2 million doses to North Korea but the shipment has been delayed amid protracted consultations.
