A senior member of the Malaysian ruling Barisan Nasional coalition has quit over its alleged abuse of power and the mysterious death of an opposition leader’s aide. Former health minister Chua Jui Meng, 66, of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) — the second largest party in the Barisan Nasional — on Saturday joined opposition Anwar Ibrahim’s Keadilan party.
“Today I announce that I am resigning as a member of MCA. Now I announce I am joining PKR [Parti Keadilan Rakyat],” Chua said in a statement late on Saturday. Chua had been a member of the MCA for 33 years.
“We see the abuse of power in the use of the federal institutions to harass, persecute and prosecute the leader of the opposition,” he said, in reference to Anwar’s sodomy trial.
Anwar has rejected the sodomy allegations leveled by a former aide as a conspiracy to derail his plan to topple the government.
After seizing control of a third of seats in parliament, the Pakatan coalition is now vowing to unseat the Barisan Nasional coalition — which has ruled Malaysia for half a century — in the next general elections.
Chua in his speech also said that the sudden death of a young opposition political aide, Teoh Beng Hock, became the tipping point in his decision to join Keadilan.
“The tragic death of 30-year-old Teo Beng Hock is the consequence of one such institution going overboard in its action,” he said.
Teo, an assistant to a member of the state Cabinet in Selangor, which is ruled by the Pakatan Rakyat opposition alliance apparently plunged from the 14th floor of anti-corruption offices.
His body was found on Thursday sprawled on the roof of an adjacent building, after he had undergone questioning late into the night at the offices of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
China has built a land-based prototype nuclear reactor for a large surface warship, in the clearest sign yet Beijing is advancing toward producing the nation’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, according to a new analysis of satellite imagery and Chinese government documents provided to The Associated Press. There have long been rumors that China is planning to build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, but the research by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California is the first to confirm it is working on a nuclear-powered propulsion system for a carrier-sized surface warship. Why is China’s pursuit of nuclear-powered carriers significant? China’s navy is already
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) launched a week-long diplomatic blitz of South America on Thursday by inaugurating a massive deep-water port in Peru, a US$1.3 billion investment by Beijing as it seeks to expand trade and influence on the continent. With China’s demand for agricultural goods and metals from Latin America growing, Xi will participate in the APEC summit in Lima then head to the Group of 20 summit in Rio de Janeiro next week, where he will also make a state visit to Brazil. Xi and Peruvian President Dina Boluarte participated on Thursday by video link in the opening
IT’S A DEAL? Including the phrase ‘overlapping claims’ in a Chinese-Indonesian joint statement over the weekend puts Jakarta’s national interests at risk, critics say Indonesia yesterday said it does not recognize China’s claims over the South China Sea, despite signing a maritime development deal with Beijing, as some analysts warned the pact risked compromising its sovereign rights. Beijing has long clashed with Southeast Asian neighbors over the South China Sea, which it claims almost in its entirety, based on a “nine-dash line” on its maps that cuts into the exclusive economic zones (EEZ) of several countries. Joint agreements with China in the strategic waterway have been sensitive for years, with some nations wary of deals they fear could be interpreted as legitimizing Beijing’s vast claims. In 2016,
RSS