Another resignation for Muhyiddin to deal with?
After the AG quit, it was only a matter of time before the other major Maddey Mohamad appointee, MACC head Latheefa Koya, would resign too. And so she did, according to various news organisations yesterday. It’s yet another consequence of the political turmoil we’ve been experiencing recently.
In other news, a former minister claims RM2 million is chump change for him; seven new provinces have been added to a travel ban and five new cases of Covid-19 have been detected; and, Latheefa is again in the news, this time testifying in court at Najib Razak’s trial.
I got chills… they’re multiplying
Apparently, the 26th person to have tested positive for Covid-19 here in Malaysia has directly infected 16 people and indirectly, another five. And another 180 of his direct contacts are awaiting results on tests on conducted on them. Talk about being a superman in the worst possible way.
Meanwhile, the political maelstrom we are in continues, with even a UK-based paper chiming in on what’s happening here, and getting a telling off for its troubles; and, an inquiry into the disappearances of a Christian convert from Islam and his Indonesian wife was told the couple had received death threats.
Big jump in Covid-19 cases in Malaysia
The Wuhan coronavirus continues to plague our shores, with seven new Covid-19 cases being reported yesterday. It’s the biggest jump in a single day – and we don’t even have a health minister now! It’s now 36 cases in Malaysia, following a global trend of rapidly escalating infections outside of China.
Meanwhile, just in: The first Parliament session for the year will convene on May 18 instead of March 9 as initially scheduled. BTL will have more on that tomorrow. In other news, our political imbroglio continues to hog the headlines, while we hear testimony from Jho Low himself (well, not in person) about his role (or lack thereof, he claims) in the billions we lost through SRC International and 1MDB.
And the losses keep piling up for Pakatan
The throne has been secured and Muhyiddin Yassin has his Oscar acceptance speech moment to prove it. However, the switch from New Malaysia to Moo Malaysia isn’t quite settled yet at state-level, with a number of Pakatan Harapan state governments on the brink of collapse.
In other news, Zahid Hamidi sneaks of court and gets caught playing hooky, a former minister and deputy test negative for Covid-19, and details emerge about what really led to Pakatan’s collapse.
Congrats, you got Moo-ned!
In the past week, we’ve had a PM, a PM-in-waiting, an interim PM and now a new PM. But while everybody expected the new PM to be the either the same guy as the old PM or even the PM-in-waiting (who may now never be PM), nobody thought it would actually be another guy who was once DPM.
So how exactly did Muhyiddin Yassin, the man whom few thought was eying the top job, become Malaysia’s 8th Prime Minister? And who got screwed in the process? Some may say it’s Mahathir, others may say it’s Anwar. But what most people seem to feel is that it’s us, the people, who got shafted.
And while it looks like it’s been settled, for better or worse, there may still be more drama to come, what with Pakatan Harapan and its allies looking to push forward a no-confidence vote in Parliament. Which means the ex-PM is still hoping to become the next PM.
Time for MPs to decide their own fate
So it looks like it’s back to Parliament we’ll go. Despite meeting almost every MP in the country, the Agong has been unable to decide who commands the majority in Parliament. And so, we’ll need to head to the August House to see where MPs’ loyalties lie. The only question is – will they be able to put this Humpty Dumpty of a political system together again?
But despite all these shenanigans, regular programming must go on – as it was with the economic stimulus package, born in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak, and announced yesterday. Let’s hope it works as intended, because god knows we could use the good news right now.
It’s been an insane few days, and we’re looking forward to letting our brains vegetate over the weekend. See you on Monday – it’s gonna be another interesting week!
A tale of two press conferences
It’s more or less official. It’s either Dr Mahathir Mohamad or Anwar Ibrahim. Maddey issued a nationally-televised statement yesterday saying he intended to form a non-partisan government which would put national interests first.
Meanwhile, the twice-ordained successor to Mahathir, Anwar, responded by saying Pakatan MPs had put him forward to the King as the next PM.
Right now, everything is still on a knife edge and the race is on between the septuagenarian and the nonagenarian to see who’ll be the next big boss.
And the winner is … Mahathir?
This whole Pakatan-No Pakatan thing is still the most talked about thing in town, and today almost the entire newsletter is devoted to it.
We look at the latest developments with an uneasy eye, and what looked like something which will drag on for a long time seemed to take a turn for the worse yesterday, with opposition parties BN and PAS now withdrawing support for PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad cos they don’t wanna work with DAP.
So enjoy today’s BTL, folks, as much as you can with the nonsense swirling around these days. Coz if you don’t laugh, then you just might cry.
WTF is going on in Malaysia right now??!?
First off – iklan sekejap. We added almost 200 new subscribers over the past couple of days. Welcome to our new readers, and a YUGE thank you to Daphne Iking, Revathy Mariappan, Alan Soon and Koh Aun Qi for plugging us on social media, and Erin Cook for saying nice things about us on your newsletter.
Anyway to the news! As things stand, Dr Mahathir, the 7th Malaysian PM – who was also the 4th PM – has resigned from office. However, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong has since made him caretaker PM (does that make him PM 7+ or PM 7S?), and there is a chance that we could even see the good doctor returning as the country’s 8th PM!
Confused? Well, we are too. Because let’s face it, NO ONE in Malaysia right now apart from the 7th/4th/caretaker PM a.k.a. Duli Yang Maha Mulia Dr Mahathir Mohamad really knows what the hell is going on.
Unlike our usual love notes to you, today’s newsletter focuses just on this one story. Because let’s face it, that’s the only thing on anybody’s lips right now. Please, please, please click on the icons below to share this on your social media and Whatsapp groups because with the deluge of news right now, context and clarity is more important than ever.
R.I.P. Pakatan Harapan
It’s not 100% certain yet … not until the Prime Minister gets the consent of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, and some sort of announcement is made. Nevertheless, the writing on the wall is crystal: Pakatan Harapan is dead and with it the dream of Malaysia Baru and Anwar Ibrahim’s hope of becoming the country’s eighth PM.
But why and how did this all happen, and what occurs next?
In other news – and let’s face it, everything else is way, way, way behind the No. 1 story today in terms of importance and priority – all 34 charges against the LTTE 12 get dropped, and the EPF announces modest dividends that most people seem okay with.