🇲🇾 Council of Rulers meets in Malaysia

Hello friends!

A look at maritime Southeast Asia today, sans the Philippines which is so busy we’ll check in tomorrow for a pre-SONA special. 

See you then!
Erin Cook

🇲🇾 Rulers come together

In an era of unusually active political movements on behalf of Malaysia’s monarchy, this week’s Conference of Rulers takes on a new meaning, writes Shannon Teoh for the Straits Times yesterday. The Conference involves all nine rulers across the country and will touch on topics of enormous significance, including a citizenship ruling that could leave thousands stateless as well as the appointment of a new judge, Teoh writes. 

This is, of course, still underway, but I cannot get enough of a rulers analysis and this is a great one. 

Flash your mind back to March this year when Malaysia erupted in outrage (and counter-outrage) over socks snapped at an outlet of convenience chain KK Mart. The socks, embroidered with ‘Allah,’ have been the focus of religious charges offences laid against both the chain and its supplier, Xin Jian Chang. Both were ordered to pay RM60,000 in fines this week at a Shah Alam court, Malaysiakini reported. 

“This case has attracted a lot of attention because it involves a religious issue… In future, (everyone should) be more sensitive about issues that involve the sensitivity of the Muslim community or any religion,” Shah Alam Sessions Court judge Muhamad Anas Mahadzir said, as per Straits Times.

As expected, former prime minister Najib Razak has filed an appeal against a ruling barring him from serving his remaining six years under house arrest not jail. It’ll be heard Oct. 7, Malaysiakini reports. 

🇮🇩 NU confronts rare scandal

Nahdlatul Ulama, the country’s largest Islamic organisation (which also makes it the world’s largest, I believe), has really gotten itself into a knot this week. A meeting earlier in the month between some members of NU’s youth wing and Israeli President Issac Herzog in Tel Aviv has forced the organisation onto the defensive, apologising to the public and promising that this meeting does not represent a change of heart.

Indonesia does not have formal relations with Israel and, while the government hasn’t been particularly fierce, there has been widespread support for Palestine in the community over generations. 

“We understand that this is something that crossed the line in the context of the current situation [between Israel and Palestine],” NU chairman Yahya Cholil Staquf said on Tuesday, as per the Jakarta Post. The meeting was not approved or sanctioned by the executive board, and the five NU activists involved will face sanctions from the NU Jakarta branch. 

“Perhaps this Israeli lobbyist believed that these kids could help them share Israel’s message [in Indonesia], but in reality, what can they do now with the backlash that followed?” he added. 

Incoming vice president, Gibran Rakabuming Raka has officially resigned from his post as mayor of Solo in anticipation of inauguration in October. “I have plenty of tasks to do before the inauguration day,” he told reporters on the way out the door, as per Jakarta Globe. He knocked back chatter that he was stepping down earlier than necessary to free him up to campaign for other candidates in the regional elections. Like his brother, perhaps?

It’s something Tenggara Strategics mulled over for the Jakarta Post. Gibran has been spotted out and about across Java, though he says it’s sharing policies of the incoming Prabowo Subianto. What has this analysis writer’s eyebrow raised though is that while it’s high-profile, it’s in stark contrast to who is actually involved in the transition. The eldest son of the incumbent president is reportedly sitting far away from the action. This line is key: ‘It’s safe to say that Gibran is struggling to prove he is on an equal footing with Prabowo in discussing matters related to the incoming government, regardless of his outward image as the embodiment of Jokowi’s influence in the next administration.’

Maybe it’s by design? Hmm, I don’t think so, but I’m also willing to entertain both that I am not privy to Istana intrigue and that we’re not on firm ground here and probably won’t be for some months yet. 

Further afield, the new capital of Nusantara is still experiencing major hiccups. The city is set to host its first-ever Independence Day celebrations on Aug. 17, but construction is lagging, the Jakarta Post reports. Poor weather has forced delays in securing water supply to the city and the development of solar power has only hit 10MW of a planned 50MW. 

The administration hopes new regulations allowing 95-year lease terms will help investor confidence, according to Bloomberg. ‘Pioneer businesses could be exempt from local city tariffs and may be allowed to pay for properties in instalments,’ the outlet reports of a government announcement last week. Land disputes are a major issue in the area with a Supreme Audit Agency report finding over 2,000 hectares of land surrounding the city is owned by parties other than the government. 

Former agriculture minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo goes down. He’s been sentenced to 10 years in prison for ‘corruption-related extortion, abuse of power and bribery involving ministry contracts with private vendors,’ the Associated Press reports. 

“The defendant has legally and convincingly been proven guilty of corruption. He wasn’t a good example as a public official, what he has done is counter the government’s efforts to fight corruption and enriched himself by corruption,” presiding Judge Rianto Adam Pontoh said. 

Officials from the ministry testified that ‘secretariats, directorates general and agencies within the ministry was required to give up 20% of their budgets to Limpo, as though they were indebted to him, and he threatened their jobs if they rejected his demands.’ 

AP notes he’s the sixth minister from Jokowi’s various cabinets to go down for corruption. 

🇸🇬 ISA notices about support of terrorism, not Palestine, government says

Singaporean authorities have slapped two people with Internal Security Act restriction notices, Straits Times reports this week. A 14-year-old unidentified male student and An’nadya An’nahari, a 33-year-old female former public servant, are alleged to have ‘self-radicalised’ since Oct. 7 last year. 

Neither can leave the country, move or change jobs without prior approval of the Internal Security Department. They also cannot use the internet. The government has stressed the interventions are not because the pair support Palestine, but because they hold beliefs that advocate for harm against non-Muslims and Israel. 

“Many of us sympathise with the Palestinian cause. I sympathise with the Palestinian cause. They should have their own country and not suffer like this. But sympathy for any foreign cause cannot mean we can support or allow terrorism. Action was taken against a young boy and An’nadya, not because they supported Palestine... Action was taken against the two of them because of their support for armed violence. And in the case of the young boy, because also that he was prepared to engage in armed violence himself,” Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam told media on Monday. 

He also flagged an increase in radicalisation among young people, noting that the teenager is among the youngest to receive an ISA order. 

Singapore doesn’t care that the US Department of Justice is cooling it on 1MDB architect and runaway, Jho Low. Local police say an Interpol Red Notice chasing his location and a provisional arrest is very much still in effect, Bloomberg reports. The outlet reminds that the city-state charged him in absentia all the way back in 2016. One day! 

An Interpol Red Notice seeking the location and provisional arrest of the financier, better known as Jho Low, remains in effect, the police said. Singapore charged Low in absentia and issued a warrant of arrest in 2016.

Oof, those key exports keep falling. June data shows non-oil domestic exports dropped a big 8.7 percent on a year earlier, which is wild since it fell only 0.7 percent in May. The Straits Times reports an earlier Bloomberg survey of economists expected a 1.3 percent decline. Yeesh! 

Antitrust klaxon! Grab’s move to buy up the island’s third-biggest taxi company will “significantly reduce” competition in Singapore, the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore said last week. Grab and Trans-cab have until the end of this week to reassure CCCS that it will do nothing of the sort or else the merger won’t go ahead, Nikkei Asia reports. 

“This ruling does not change our determination to do everything that we can to offer affordable, reliable transport options to passengers in Singapore,” Yee Wee Tang, Grab Singapore's managing director, said in a statement as per the outlet. Hmm.