Malaysia Edition: Anwar pays the price for poaching rivals | Religion and red tape stymie entertainment tourism - The Straits Times

Asian Insider: Malaysia Edition helps you connect the dots on the biggest stories playing out in Malaysia every week. Sign up here to get the newsletter in your inbox.

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In a bid to shore up support, Malaysia’s government this week watered down a controversial constitutional amendment that critics - including ruling lawmakers - had earlier warned would render thousands of abandoned children stateless. 

Just as it works to resolve this delicate issue, the temperature over socks printed with the word “Allah” has only risen.

Despite a slew of enforcement actions taken by authorities, including bringing legal charges against directors of both the convenience store chain and the socks supplier, as well as raids on several related shops (which found no offending socks), tensions have continued to simmer.

How these issues play out politically could be tested soon enough with the opposition Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia’s attempt to amend its constitution in hopes of triggering a by-election for the seats of defectors who pledged support for Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. 

But whether these votes happen or not, analysts believe that the move to welcome these turncoats will now backfire on the premier and his government.

Follow ST’s coverage as we continue to bring you the latest developments.

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Govt backs down after MPs and civil society condemn planned citizenship law changes

Critics said the original Bill would make stateless thousands of children born in Malaysia without clear citizenship.

READ MORE HERE

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Boycott calls and apologies amid uproar over socks with the word ‘Allah’

Apologies have been issued by KK Mart and the local vendor who supplied the socks.

READ MORE HERE

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PM Anwar wooed turncoats from rival party Bersatu – now he’s paying the price

The Malaysian PM’s government faces three possible outcomes, none likely to leave it politically unscathed.

READ MORE HERE

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Why Johor can be the Shenzhen of South-east Asia

The planned Johor-S’pore Special Economic Zone is promising, as long as policy changes are made, says the writer.

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Malaysia school canteens usually shut for Ramadan, but Anwar’s govt pushes back against conservatives

Mr Anwar says Malaysians can do better than bickering over shutting canteens and bak kut teh as national dish.

READ MORE HERE

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Red tape and religion: Malaysia missing out on hundreds of millions from entertainment tourism

Over $285 million in potential revenue was lost from scrapped concerts in 2023, experts estimated.

READ MORE HERE

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2024-03-27 04:37:46Z
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Ostrich captured after escaping Korean zoo, dodging traffic for an hour - CNA

SEOUL: An ostrich that escaped from a zoo in the South Korean town of Seongnam has been captured, local authorities said on Tuesday (Mar 26), after it spent an hour dodging vehicles in heavy traffic, surprising many drivers.

Witnesses posted pictures and video of the male ostrich named Tadori on social media, after he broke free from a zoo named Bug City and found himself trotting speedily past and across traffic, a local policeman said.

Police and a local fire department captured the bird using a net at a car park about 2.6km from the zoo, located about half an hour south of Seoul.

The four-year-old ostrich was safe and returned to the zoo in stable condition, zoo owner Choi Yun-joo told Reuters.

"His only friend, a female ostrich Tasooni, passed away about a month ago. Guess that has been tough on Tadori," Choi said.

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2024-03-27 02:10:00Z
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CNA Correspondent Podcast: Megaproject in Thailand - A bridge too far? - CNA

A 90km route that cuts across the narrowest part of Thailand in the south could turn the country into a maritime transit hub. At least that’s the hope of Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin. But locals are worried about the environmental and security risks the megaproject could pose.

CNA’s Teresa Tang and Jack Board discuss what’s at stake. 

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2024-03-26 23:35:24Z
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Baltimore bridge collapses after ship collision - CNA

It was not immediately clear if the Baltimore port operations were impacted due to the bridge collapse.

The port's private and public terminals handled 847,158 autos and light trucks in 2023, the most of any US port. The port also handles farm and construction machinery, sugar, gypsum and coal, according to a Maryland government website.

The 2.6km-long, four-lane bridge spans the Patapsco River southwest of municipal Baltimore.

It opened in 1977 and carries more than 11 million vehicles a year, or about 31,000 a day.

It is a major part of the road network around Baltimore, an industrial city on the US East Coast next to the capital Washington.

The Maryland Transportation Authority told drivers to avoid the bridge, part of the I-695 interstate highway, which it called an "active scene".

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr both said they were aware of the incident and that rescue efforts were underway.

"Please pray for those impacted," Olszewski posted on X.

US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said on social media that he was in contact with the mayor of Baltimore and the governor of Maryland, and had offered federal help.

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2024-03-26 08:10:00Z
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Malaysia minimart executives charged over 'Allah' socks - CNA

KK Super Mart has apologised for the socks, saying it viewed the matter "seriously" and had taken action to stop the sale immediately.

Supplier Xin Jian Chang had also issued an apology, saying the "problematic socks were part of a larger shipment of 18,800 pairs ordered" from a company based in China.

It said there were "only five pairs of socks" that had the sensitive word.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Masri Mohamad Daud told reporters the next hearing will be on Apr 29. The five executives were freed on bail.

Islam is the official religion in Malaysia, and Malay-Muslims make up over two-thirds of the country's 34 million people.

Race and religion are thorny issues in the country which witnessed deadly racial riots in 1969.

Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar in his rebuke last week reminded Malaysians to ensure social harmony by refraining from discussing sensitive issues on religion, race and royalty.

He said errors regarding religion and race could not be allowed "whether intentional or not".

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2024-03-26 05:14:00Z
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No let-up in Gaza war despite UN ceasefire resolution - CNA

"OBSCENE DISTORTION"

In Rafah, Palestinians welcomed the UN vote and called for the United States to use its influence on Israel to secure a ceasefire.

Bilal Awad, 63, said Washington must "stand against an attack on Rafah, and support the return of the displaced to their cities".

Ihab al-Assar, 60, expressed hope that "Israel will comply" with the Security Council.

Israel has labelled its operations "precise operational activities" and said it has taken care to avoid harm to civilians, but aid agencies have voiced alarm about non-combatants caught up in the fighting.

Elsewhere in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said Monday it was battling militants around two hospitals and reported killing about 20 fighters around Al-Amal over the previous day in close-quarters combat and air strikes.

Palestinians living near Al-Shifa, the territory's main hospital, have reported corpses in the streets, constant bombardment and the rounding up of men who are stripped to their underwear and questioned.

Israel's military said it had detained about 500 militants "affiliated with" Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another militant group, during its operation at Al-Shifa.

The fighting came as an independent UN-appointed expert, Francesca Albanese, said there were "reasonable grounds to believe" Israel's actions in Gaza had met the threshold for "acts of genocide".

Israel rejected Albanese's report, due to be presented to the UN's Human Rights Council on Tuesday, as an "obscene inversion of reality".

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2024-03-26 05:34:34Z
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UN Security Council demands immediate Gaza ceasefire for first time as US abstains - CNA

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations Security Council on Monday (Mar 25) demanded an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages after the United States abstained from the vote.

The remaining 14 council members voted for the resolution, which was proposed by the 10 elected members of the body.

"The Palestinian people has suffered greatly. This bloodbath has continued for far too long. It is our obligation to put an end to this bloodbath, before it is too late," Algeria's UN Ambassador Amar Bendjama told the council after the vote.

Israeli army radio reported shortly before the council meeting started that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would cancel a planned delegation to Washington if the US did not veto the resolution.

Washington had been averse to the word ceasefire earlier in the nearly six-month-old war in the Gaza Strip and had used its veto power shield US ally Israel as it retaliated against Hamas for an Oct 7 attack that Israel says killed 1,200 people.

But amid growing global pressure for a truce in the war that has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians, the US abstained from the vote on Monday to allow the Security Council to demand an immediate ceasefire for the month of Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which ends in two weeks.

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2024-03-25 14:50:00Z
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