Author: Mastini Perwira

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 4 — Malaysians’ suspicion towards politicians was unabated last, with respondents in a recent Ipsos poll saying they were less likely to trust the group than a random person they encountered. According to the findings of pollster’s Trust in Professions survey, only 20 per cent of respondents said they considered politicians to be trustworthy, making the group the least trusted in the country. However, this was one basis point higher than the 2021 edition of the survey and above the global average of 14 per cent. “Politicians are still the least trusted in Malaysia and across the…

London (08/11 – 50) A U.S. development agency announced on Wednesday that it would lend $553 million to establish a deepwater shipping-container terminal at the Port of Colombo in Sri Lanka, expanding America’s effort to finance infrastructure around strategic parts of Asia. The loan package is tied to Adani Ports, part of a conglomerate closely linked with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India that is still wobbling from a short-seller’s attack in January. Adani will help develop the terminal with Sri Lankan partners. The money from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation resembles the kind of big-ticket deals that China’s…

Malaysia is working with its partners to drag Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), confirmed its Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir. “The Palestinian situation is already in the ICC investigation process,” he said, referring to an investigation into the Palestinian situation in March 2021 against alleged crimes committed by Israel since June 13, 2014. “Malaysia will always call and cooperate with the countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and like-minded countries so that the United Nations (UN) can refer the issue of Israeli atrocities not only to the ICC, but to the ICJ,”…

Paris (08/11 – 75) Sri Lanka’s economic and political crisis of 2022 left the country bankrupt. Ranil Wickremesinghe took over as President of Sri Lanka in July 2022 when the country was in the middle of its worst economic and political crisis since independence in 1948. His predecessor, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, had been forced out of power after facing mass protests prompted by 12-hour power cuts and persistent fuel and food shortages. The nation was bankrupt.Wickremesinghe brought in the International Monetary Fund and has focused on reaching macroeconomic stability and driving tough but much-needed structural reforms. Today, as Sri Lanka embarks…

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 12 (Reuters) – Malaysian lawmakers have approved legislation aimed at improving fiscal responsibility, as the government looks to better manage public funds, reduce debt, and boost accountability. The Southeast Asian country’s coffers have come under strain in recent years, following a multibillion-dollar financial scandal at state fund 1MDB and increased subsidy spending to tackle rising living costs. The new legislation, called the Public Finance And Fiscal Responsibility Law, sets out a series of targets to be achieved within three to five years, including lowering the fiscal deficit to 3% of gross domestic product (GDP) or less, and keeping debt…

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev have hailed Baku’s military victory in Nagorno-Karabakh as thousands of ethnic Armenians flee from the breakaway region into Armenia. Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory that is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but has an ethnic Armenian majority, were forced into a ceasefire last week after a 24-hour military operation by the much larger Azerbaijani military. Several days after the fighting, the first refugees arrived in Armenia on Sunday and 6,650 people have so far entered, Yerevan said on Monday. Valery Airapetyan, a Nagorno-Karabakh resident who spoke to Al Jazeera, was…

Toronto, Atlanta (22/10 – 66) A recent, and eminently reasonable, proposal to pause the military confrontation between Russia and Ukraine was presented by Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto during the 20th IISS Shangri-La Dialogue, held in Singapore on June 3, 2023. Minister Prabowo, a retired and much-decorated General, suggested the two sides declare a ceasefire, to be followed by the creation of a demilitarized zone on the battlefield. The proposed truce would be monitored by United Nations peacekeeping forces, followed by a UN-monitored referendum to determine which country the disputed territories should join. Most third-world participants – and those from…

The counterterrorism expert and author of “Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday Massacre: Lessons for the International Community” explains how religious extremism manifested in Sri Lanka’s deadliest terror attack. On April 21, 2019 – Easter Sunday – a coordinated series of bombings ripped through Sri Lanka, targeting churches and luxury hotels. Over 260 people were killed, making it the deadliest terrorist attack ever suffered by Sri Lanka. The attack has continued to resonate in Sri Lankan society and politics, as the public demands to untangle questions of responsibility: Why was the attack not prevented, and what can be done to stop the…

Malaysia is considered an emergent medical tourism hotspot in Asia, being progressively acknowledged as a destination of choice for medical and healthcare tourism. It ranks among the top alongside its Asian counterparts like India, Thailand, Singapore, and South Korea because of its high standard and relatively affordable care cost. After the country opened its borders in April 2022, it had 67,813 tourists seeking medical treatment almost seven-fold compared to the first quarter of the same year, according to the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC). The medical tourism sector in Malaysia is promoted by the government, assuring patients from around the world of…

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia needs to learn from China to leapfrog its economy, particularly in terms of technology innovations and manufacturing. The Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI) said that despite the slowdown in China’s economy affected by the property development and construction sectors, the country’s manufacturing and technology sectors are still doing very well. “Leapfrogging means that you do not continue to produce at the same level. You must try to upgrade technologically to produce by adopting automation as well as making digital arrangement. “We must do things differently and win the game at a higher level with higher…