Author: Murni Yakoob

Frankfurt, Paris (14/4 – 40) Relations between Russia and NATO have reached boiling point due the recent event: the claim that Serbia and Russia want to refight Kosovo; the closure of the border by Finland; and the statement by the President of France, Emanuel Macron, on March, 14. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov, in a series of posts on social media, claimed that NATO, the EU, and the US government were targeting Kosovo and Serbia and destroying the relationship. Never mind a coalition with Italy and Russia, this is just another pipedream of Radio…

Dubai (27/2) Tajikistan’s existential project to build the colossal 335-meter-high Roghun hydropower dam is proceeding apace, but costs are spiralling, and to a level that is making it hard to see where the government is going to find the funds needed to finish the work. To complicate matters for Dushanbe, this is happening against the backdrop of calls from environmental watchdogs for international development lenders to pause the allocation of any future funds to Tajikistan pending a fresh assessment of the project. The extent of the budget overshoot is striking In a press conference on February 16, Finance Minister Faiziddin…

Infighting over the succession and growing frustration in the regions could shatter the stability that the Tajik president has been building for so many years. Next year will mark thirty years of Emomali Rahmon’s presidency in Tajikistan, now the only country in Central Asia that has not seen a change of leadership since the early 1990s. Unsurprisingly, there have been rumors of an imminent transition of power for a decade. The name of the successor is no secret: it’s Rahmon’s son, thirty-six-year-old Rustam Emomali. But there is no consensus within the president’s large family over the succession. Some of the…

Malaysia’s government can’t rule out whether a local charity funneled millions of dollars to Hamas, according to officials familiar with the matter, as it probes the group for allegedly supporting a conservative Islamist organization in the Southeast Asian nation. Malaysia’s anti-graft body on Oct. 17 froze as many as 41 bank accounts of the Aman Palestin Berhad charity organization, which contained nearly $15 million, over the alleged misuse of public donations. It also raided the charity’s office as part of an investigation regarding offenses under money laundering and terrorist financing laws. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has been the staunchest advocate of the Palestinian cause…

Copenhagen (13/11 – 37.5) When Ranil Wickremesinghe took over as Sri Lanka’s president in July after a popular uprising ousted his predecessor, the South Asian island nation was engulfed in its worst economic meltdown in 75 years. Since then, President Wickremesinghe has managed to a keep a lid on mass protests, improve supplies of essentials and on Monday, secured a nearly $3 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that opens the door to restructuring about $58 billion of debt and receive funding from other lenders. He has done that despite a deeply unpopular government, his own party commanding just one…

Copenhagen (14/11 – 40) The massive mobilization and sustained pressure jolted the Sri Lankan presidency of the previously all-powerful Gotabaya Rajapaksa, prompted mass resignations from the government at the time, and solidified existing spaces and created new spaces for dissent and discussions on much-needed reforms. Sri Lanka is facing an exceptional political and economic crisis that has sparked months-long protests across the country. The new leadership under President Ranil Wickremesinghe struggles with the economic situation and seemingly failed to uphold basic human rights and pursue accountability for grave crimes towards the people of Sri Lanka. Despite troubling trends of authoritarianism,…

Toronto, Alaska (16/11 – 50) Our lives are being maneuvered and we are being manipulated by unelected, insidious forces, toward objectives not necessarily in the people’s interest. Now that the so-called “pandemic”, declared by the mysterious self-appointed World Health Organization, and followed obediently by governments everywhere, has been decreed “finished”, we should devote a moment to introspection, considering who is running the show and for whose benefit, as governments gaily abdicated their vested responsibility to govern. Pandemic is over? I hope they told those killer viruses who destroyed the population of Europe and North America. What? Oh, just 1% mortality?…

SHAH ALAM: The political stability enjoyed under the unity government over the past year has attracted many global industrial giants to invest in Malaysia, says Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Anwar, who is also the Finance Minister, said companies like Google, TikTok, Infineon Technologies AG, China’s automotive company Geely and Tesla have confidence in Malaysia’s capability because the country has clear policies. “I asked them what is special about Malaysia. Now, Alhamdullilah, the politics is stable. This political stability helps give confidence to them, there are clear policies, which is called clarity of policies. “It means they know, they…

Frankfurt (11/09 – 20) Two international human rights organizations have called on the Tajikistan government to immediately release jailed lawyer and human rights activist Manuchehr Kholiknazarov, as well as other activists and journalists. The International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR) and the international non-profit organization CIVICUS, which bills itself as “a global alliance aimed at strengthening the action of citizens and civil society around the world,” in their message published specially on the eve of Independence Day, September 8, focus on the fact that Tajik human rights activist and civil society activist Manuchehr Kholiknazarov was falsely sentenced to a long…

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 4 — The “Bangsa Malaysia” or “Malaysian nation” concept has been hampered by toxic racial politics especially when elections near, National Unity Minister Datuk Seri Aaron Ago Dagang said today. Highlighting the motto “Unity in Diversity”, the minister also said there was a need to defend and preserve the country’s diversity. Aaron said the government had carried out various efforts, but that there were still obstacles to Bangsa Malaysia that were mostly rooted in racial sentiments that were shadowing Malaysians. “The main challenge in realising Bangsa Malaysia is due to toxic racial politics played up by politicians.…