No entry for Americans!
So, the mighty United States has finally been added to the list of countries whose citizens are not allowed to enter Malaysia ’cos of Covid-19. And it’s not just the US too, as our authorities confirmed yesterday that any nation with more than 150,000 cases of infection will be on the list.
Meanwhile, a bunch of politicians said some pretty silly things yesterday, as did a top graft buster. Also, for the umpteenth time this year, residents in Selangor and Kualu Lumpur are experiencing water cuts because of river pollution.
Rais-ing to the occasion
That wily old codger Rais Yatim was elected Dewan Negara president after a rumoured four-way fight for the position didn’t materialise. Instead, the veteran politician saw himself in a one-on-one tussle with a Pakatan man and easily won the day.
Meanwhile, PM Muhyiddin Yassin is a popular man, apparently. So is his Perikatan coalition – but his own party, Bersatu, isn’t so much; DAP supremo Lim Guan Eng was, for a short while, barred from entering Sabah and immediately did what he does best, accuse the gomen; and, our Covid-19 numbers have again dipped into the single-digit realm.
You no come, please
There’s bad news for citizens of India, Indonesia and the Philippines. They won’t be allowed to enter Malaysia because of the prevalence of Covid-19 in their respective countries. And yes, that includes the non-citizen spouses of Malaysians.
In other news, PM Muhyiddin Yassin must be having a splitting headache cos Kedah, the state his party holds, will likely not be dissolving its legislative assembly if Parliament is dissolved in the near future.
We’ve also had a third Covid-19 death in four days; PAS is continuing to behave like a donkey with a brain injury; and, M. Indira Gandhi will finally get to meet our nation’s top cop over the daughter who has been missing for 11 years.
Can Malaysia afford the RMCO extension?
With no end in sight to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO) always looked likely to be extended. The big question though is whether Malaysia can see itself through to Dec 31.
In other news, Barisan Nasional wins big in Slim, durian farmers are raising a stink in Raub, and after a month with no Covid-19 fatalities, we suddenly have two! Oh, and by the way, even though celebrations this year were muted, we’d still like to wish you Selamat Hari Kebangsaan!
Guan Eng fires back
Pakatan Harapan and Lim Guan Eng have fired back at the Perikatan Nasional government over the 101 direct negotiation contracts the former signed during its 22-month tenure in Putrajaya. And what a broadside it was, as only a small percentage of the contracts appear to have actually been “new”.
Meanwhile, the Electoral Reform Committee has submitted its final report to PM Muhyiddin Yassin with 49 recommendations that will hopefully see the light of day soon, Perikatan is set to be officially launched on Monday, and the number of active Covid-19 cases has dropped.
Finance minister spills the beans
It was a big day in Parliament, or at least for Parliament related stuff, as a number of important things cropped up, the biggest of which was regarding the 101 direct negotiation contracts awarded by the Pakatan Harapan government during its short tenure. The full list of projects was finally released and folks, they contained some real doozies.
We also saw two significant bills being withdrawn, one of which drew criticism from an NGO and the Malaysian Bar, while there was some tension when a PAS MP made a rather odd claim about non-Muslim religions.
Rehab, not jail, for drug addicts
The government is looking at amending a law so that drug addicts are sent to rehabilitation centres and not prison. If it goes through, it could help mitigate the problem of overcrowding in prisons, save our tax money and put us on the path to taking a more humane approach to the handling the issue of drug addiction.
In other news, the bankruptcy threshold has been doubled, a fantastic move considering the problems we’re having with money thanks to the current pandemic; investigations have been launched into a former minister and the 101 direct negotiation deals the Pakatan gomen signed; foreigners will soon be allowed to attend mosques; and, our beloved supreme leader is said to be about to launch the country’s “newest” coalition in Sabah.
The 2019 Auditor-General’s Report is shocking!
While Auditor-General’s Reports are usually notable for their shocking tales of government mismanagement, the latest edition is particularly alarming on account of a revelation that soldiers’ lives were put at risk!
Also in the news, two former and current finance ministers face off over some 101 dubious deals, PM Muhyiddin Yassin is happy to let one of his ministers be investigated for breaching quarantine rules, and Parliament approves the government’s Covid-19 financing bill.
Bersatu moots multiracial move
Buoyed by the membership of Azmin Ali and his ex-PKR buddies, Bersatu is considering affording its associate non-Bumiputera members larger slices of the political pie. The big question though is whether the party’s potential metamorphosis from Umno 2.0 to PKR 2.0 will hurt or help it.
Elsewhere in today’s newsletter, Malaysians are up in arms over a Cabinet Covidiot’s paltry fine for breaching quarantine rules, a deputy minister finds himself in hot water for trying to get his son a cushy boardroom job, and the Health Ministry wants the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO) extended beyond Aug 31.
Covidiot in the Cabinet?
There’s much ado about a minister who allegedly broke Covid-19 quarantine regulations and attended several functions and meetings when he was supposed to have been isolated at home. He is now being investigated.
In other news, the man who alleged in a statutory declaration that he had been sodomised several times by a prominent opposition politician is claiming he was “manipulated” into signing the document; we could know today whether the Sabah elections will go on as planned; and yesterday, for the first time in a month, there were no local transmissions of Covid-19.