KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s king has intervened to stabilize the government following Monday’s shock resignation of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.
King Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shahis conducting personal interviews with 222 members of parliament at his palace in an unprecedented move.
He does not have any political power under Malaysia’s constitutional monarchy system, but will be able to deduce from the interviews which lawmaker has the most support in parliament to become prime minister.
“Let me do the duties, I hope we will find the best solution for the country,” King Abdullah told the media.Rumors of a power transition began to swirl over the weekend when MP Azim Ali held separate meetings with Mahathir, as well as with opposition parties Barisan Nasional and the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS).
The exit of 11 MPs from the People’s Justice Party (PKR) and the Malaysian United Indigenous Party (BERSATU) from the Pakatan Harapan coalition, as well as Mahathir's resignation, led to the breakup of the alliance and left Malaysia without a government as it no longer commanded a majority.
Mahathir, who was appointed interim prime minister by the king, returned to office on Tuesday to chart the next course of action for the new government coalition.
The Comptroller of the Royal Household Ahmad Fadil Shamsuddin said all MPs would be invited for a personal interview by the monarch.
“The interview will be brief, within two to three minutes,” Shamsuddin said, adding that the whole process would be overseen by the chief secretary to the government, Mohammed Zuki bin Ali.
Ninety MPs travelled to the palace on Tuesday afternoon for the interview, with the remaining scheduled to meet the king on Wednesday.
“We will be transparent about the processes to avoid any media speculation,” Shamsuddin said.
The royal intervention was viewed as the right move for Malaysia at such a critical juncture, according to one expert.
“It is perhaps the best way for the king to determine whether the prime minister has the support of the majority of the MPs,” Adib Zalkapli, director of BowerGroupAsia, told Arab News. “The Pakatan Harapan coalition has collapsed and the king is exercising his majesty’s powers in the formation of the new government,” Zalkapli said.
One of the most intriguing aspects of the upheaval and horsetrading is the apparent isolation of Anwar Ibrahim, Mahathir’s anointed successor and prime-minister-in-waiting.
Anwar had teamed up with his former nemesis Mahathir ahead of the 2018 elections to oust the government of Najib Razak but said on Sunday he had been betrayed by his coalition partners.
Mahathir on Tuesday met leaders from the PKR, BERSATU, the United Malays National Organisation, PAS and others.
The political whirlwind has led to uncertainty in Putrajaya, Malaysia’s administrative center. One civil servant, who chose not to be named, told Arab News: “Unfortunately, I don’t really know much about what’s happening. We are all waiting for news as well.”
Political scientist Prof. Shamsul Amri Baharuddin, from the National University of Malaysia, said that the interim period would be a boon for Mahathir and his long-held agenda to bring back a Malay, ethnic-led plural society nation.
"Before this, since 1987, he has continuously split the Malays. Now he unites them at the end of his life, before the next general elections,” he told Arab News.
Mahathir’s resignation sent shockwaves through the country’s economy, with the stock exchange tumbling to its lowest point in 10 years.
The upheaval also means that the economic stimulus package which was supposed to be unveiled by the now-dissolved government this week has been put on hold, effectively leaving the country in limbo as far as major decision-making is concerned.
“I think his (the king’s) immediate role is to stabilise the government – to send a message that it is business as usual and that a new, stable government could be formed as soon as possible,” Zalkapli said, adding that a large number of MPs wanted the uncertainty to end soon. “Common sense will prevail.”
Malaysian king intervenes after Mahathir's resignation
https://arab.news/26csg
Malaysian king intervenes after Mahathir's resignation
- Mahathir on Tuesday met leaders from the PKR, BERSATU, the United Malays National Organisation, PAS and others
Moroccan man guilty of murdering man in UK in revenge for Gaza
After his arrest, he told detectives he had committed the acts because of the conflict in Gaza, and in revenge for Israel killing innocent children
LONDON: A Moroccan man who stabbed to death a passer-by in the street in northeast England in what he later told police was revenge for Israeli action in Gaza was found guilty of murder on Thursday.
Ahmed Alid, 45, who had sought asylum in Britain, killed his 70-year-old victim after approaching him from behind on a road in Hartlepool the early hours of Oct. 15 last year, having previously attacked his housemate with two knives, prosecutors said.
After his arrest, he told detectives he had committed the acts because of the conflict in Gaza, and in revenge for Israel killing innocent children, blaming Britain for creating Israel, Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.
Alid said if he had had a machine gun, and more weapons, he would have killed more people.
“By his own admission, Ahmed Alid would have killed more people on that day if he had been able to,” Nick Price, Head of the CPS Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said in a statement.
“Whatever his views were on the conflict in Gaza, this was a man who chose to attack two innocent people with a knife, and the consequences were devastating.”
Alid had first used two knives to attack his sleeping housemate, to whom he had become aggressive after learning of his conversion to Christianity, stabbing him six times while shouting “Allahu Akbar,” or “god is greatest,” the CPS said.
The 32-year-old housemate, one of five asylum seekers who shared the property, managed to fight him off and another occupant came to his aid. Alid left the house with one of the knives and walked toward the center of Hartlepool.
He passed Terence Carney on the opposite side of the road before circling back and attacking him from behind, stabbing him six times in the chest, abdomen and back. Carney died shortly after police arrived.
Following his interview with police, he attacked the two female detectives, with one suffering injuries to her shoulder and wrist.
He was found guilty at Teeside Crown Court of murder, attempted murder and two counts of assaulting an emergency worker. He will be sentenced on May 17, when the judge will decide if his actions were related to terrorism.
India dismisses US human rights report as ‘deeply biased’
- Report found “significant” abuses in India’s Manipur state and attacks on minorities, dissenters
- India’s foreign ministry spokesperson says New Delhi does not attach any “value” to the report
NEW DELHI: New Delhi said on Thursday it does not attach any value to a US State Department report critical of human rights in India, and called it deeply biased.
The annual human rights assessment released earlier this week found “significant” abuses in India’s northeastern Manipur state last year and attacks on minorities, journalists and dissenting voices in the rest of the country.
Asked about it, Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jasiwal told journalists on Thursday that the report “as per our understanding, is deeply biased and reflects a very poor understanding of India.”
“We attach no value to it and urge you to also do the same,” Jaiswal said.
Responding to a question about the growing protests on US university campuses against Israel’s offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 33,000 people, Jaiswal said that “there has to be the right balance between freedom of expression, sense of responsibility and public safety and order.”
He added that “democracies in particular should display this understanding in regard to other fellow democracies, after all we are all judged by what we do at home and not what we say abroad.”
While India and the US have a tight partnership, and Washington wants New Delhi to be a strategic counterweight to China, the relationship has encountered some minor bumps recently.
In March New Delhi dismissed US concerns over the implementation of a contentious Indian citizenship law, calling them “misplaced” and “unwarranted,” and objected to a US State Department official’s remarks over the arrest of a key opposition leader.
Last year Washington accused Indian agents of being involved in a failed assassination plot against a Sikh separatist leader in the US, and warned New Delhi about it.
India has said it has launched an investigation into Washington’s accusations but there has not been any update about the investigation’s status or findings.
Sweden to send NATO troops to Latvia next year: PM
- The Swedish troop contribution was the first to be announced since the Scandinavian country joined NATO in March
- The battalion would be comprised of around 400 to 500 troops
STOCKHOLM: Sweden will next year contribute a reduced battalion to NATO forces in Latvia to help support the Baltic state following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Thursday.
The Swedish troop contribution was the first to be announced since the Scandinavian country joined NATO in March.
Kristersson had in January announced that Sweden would likely send a battalion to take part in NATO’s permanent multinational mission in Latvia, dubbed the Enhanced Forward Presence, aimed at boosting defense capacity in the region.
“The government this morning gave Sweden’s armed forces the formal task of planning and preparing for the Swedish contribution of a reduced mechanized battalion to NATO’s forward land forces in Latvia,” Kristersson told reporters during a press conference with his Latvian counterpart Evika Silina.
He said the battalion, which will be in Latvia for six months, would be comprised of around 400 to 500 troops.
“Our aim is a force contribution, including CV 90s armored vehicles and Leopard 2 main battle tanks.”
“We’re planning for the deployment early next year after a parliament decision,” he said.
UK police make fourth arrest after migrant deaths off France
- NCA said it arrested an 18-year-old from Sudan late Wednesday on suspicion of facilitating illegal immigration and entering the UK illegally
- The latest arrest took place at Manston in Kent, southeast England, and the suspect was taken into custody for questioning
LONDON: UK police said Thursday that they had arrested another man after five migrants, including a child, died this week trying to cross the Channel from France.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) said it arrested an 18-year-old from Sudan late Wednesday on suspicion of facilitating illegal immigration and entering the UK illegally.
The arrest came as part of an investigation into the Channel small boat crossing which resulted in the deaths of five people on a French beach on Tuesday.
The NCA detained two Sudanese nationals aged 19 and 22, and a South Sudan national, also 22, on Tuesday and Wednesday, also on suspicion of facilitating illegal immigration and entering the UK illegally.
The 19-year-old has been released without charge, and is now being dealt with by immigration authorities, said the NCA.
The latest arrest took place at Manston in Kent, southeast England, and the suspect was taken into custody for questioning.
Three men, a woman and a seven-year-old girl lost their lives in the early hours of Tuesday in the sea near the northern French town of Wimereux.
They had been in a packed boat that set off before dawn but whose engine stopped a few hundred meters from the beach.
Several people then fell into the water. About 50 people were rescued and brought ashore but emergency services were unable to resuscitate the five.
Fifteen people have died this year trying to cross the busy shipping lane from northern France to southern England, according to an AFP tally.
That is already more than the 12 who died in the whole of last year.
Belgium summons Israeli ambassador over aid worker’s death
- Abdallah Nabhan, 33, along with his seven-year-old son, 65-year-old father, 35-year-old brother and six-year-old niece, were killed in Israel strike
- The airstrike hit the family home where 25 people were sheltering
BRUSSELS: Belgium said Thursday that it would summon Israel’s ambassador to explain the death in a Gaza airstrike of an aid worker with its Enabel development agency, as well as members of his family.
“Bombing civilian areas and populations is contrary to international law. I will summon the Israeli ambassador to condemn this unacceptable act and demand an explanation,” Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib said on X.
Enabel said in a statement that Abdallah Nabhan, 33, along with his seven-year-old son, 65-year-old father, 35-year-old brother and six-year-old niece, were killed “after an Israeli airstrike in the eastern part of the city of Rafah.”
An Enabel employee & his family have been killed in Gaza. We express our solidarity with his family & colleagues.
— Hadja Lahbib (@hadjalahbib) April 25, 2024
Bombing civilian areas & populations is contrary to international law. I will summon the Israeli ambassador to condemn this unacceptable act & demand an explanation.
The airstrike hit the family home where 25 people were sheltering, including people displaced by the Israeli military operation in Gaza, Enabel said.
It said that Nabhan, who had worked on a Belgian development project helping young people find jobs, and his family were on a list Israel had of people eligible to exit Gaza, but that they were killed before being granted permission to leave.
Enabel’s chief, Jean Van Wetter, called their deaths “yet another flagrant violation by Israel of international humanitarian law.”
The health ministry in Gaza, run by the Hamas militant group, says more than 34,000 people have died in the war being waged in the Palestinian territory, most of them women and children.
Israel is conducting airstrikes and ground operations there in retaliation for a Hamas attack on October 7 that killed around 1,170 people in Israel, according to an AFP tally of Israeli figures.
Belgium, which currently holds the EU presidency, is among the European countries most vocal in condemning Israel’s operation as disproportionately deadly for Palestinian civilians.
