Category: News

Selangor’s Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah wants the current Pakatan Harapan state government to complete its full term, says Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari.

In a statement, Amirudin said Sultan Sharafuddin wanted the current administration to focus on safeguarding the welfare of the people, rather than dissolving the state assembly to follow Parliament’s dissolution.

This means the election for state seats in Selangor will only be held next year.

It follows an audience the sultan granted Amirudin at Istana Bukit Kayangan this morning.

The menteri besar also said he briefed Sultan Sharafuddin on the state government’s preparations for possible floods as well as the Selangor state budget for 2023. He said the annual state budget will be tabled at the legislative assembly this year.

Parliament has been dissolved paving the way for the 15th general election (GE15), Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob has announced.

“In line with Article 40(2)(b) and Article 55(2) of the Federal Constitution, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong has approved my request to dissolve Parliament today, Monday, Oct 10, 2022,” Ismail said in a special address.

He added that the dates for nominations and polling will be decided by the Election Commission (EC).

He maintained that the decision to dissolve Parliament was to return the mandate to the people in view of the political instability in the country after three different administrations in the span of two and half years.

“The people’s mandate is a powerful antidote for the country to achieve political stability and elect a government that is firm, stable and respected after GE15,” he said.

Malaysia’s Law minister, Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar announced in a press statement that the government has agreed to abolish the mandatory death penalty, giving judges discretion in sentencing.

The Cabinet had also agreed for a further study to be carried out on the proposed substitute sentences for 11 offences carrying the mandatory death penalty.

Why it matters: Mandatory death sentence are imposed as the mandatory punishment for certain offences, meaning that judges are not able to consider the circumstances of the crime or of the defendant before sentencing.

The crimes punishable by death in Malaysia are:

• Murder
• Drug trafficking
• Treason
• Waging war against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (the King)
• Terrorism
• Kidnapping or abducting in order to murder
• Possession of Firearms
• Abetting Mutiny (Armed Forces)
• Hostage taking

There are still a total of 1,359 people were reported to be on death row as of November last year. About 70% of them under sentence of death have been convicted of drug trafficking under section 39(b) of the Dangerous of Drugs Act, 1952.

Under section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act, those in possession of 15 g or more heroin and morphine; 1,000 g or more opium (raw or prepared); 200 g or more cannabis; and 40 g or more cocaine will receive the mandatory death sentence.

What to watch: Despite the government announces the abolishment of mandatory death penalty, it is not yet official until the Parliament passes the legislative amendment.

The big picture: Death sentence is not totally abolished, but instead of mandatory, judges are given the discretion on whether to sentence it to the offenders or not.

The accused will be given a chance to defend themselves if they are innocent or the crime is not as heavy as to be sentenced to death.

Umno vice-president Ismail Sabri Yaakob was sworn in as Malaysia’s ninth prime minister on Saturday.

Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri is the country’s third premier since the historic 2018 elections, when the Umno-led Barisan Nasional coalition was voted out of power for the first time in 61 years.

Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah presided over the 9th Prime Minister’s oath-taking at 2.30pm on Saturday, five days after Tan Sri Mahiaddin Yassin resigned as Prime Minister.

Four senators, the members of Malaysia’s upper house, took their oath of office before the Senate President Rais Yatim at Dewan Negara today.

The four appointed Senators: Radzi Jidin is the Senior Minister of Education, and the Vice-President of BERSATU; serving his second term as Senator.

• John Ambrose is a Kadazan from Sabah and he is a member of BERSATU; serving his second term as Senator.
• Teo Eng Tee @ Teo Kok Chee is a former state assemblyman of Skudai, Johor and a member of GERAKAN; serving his second term as Senator.
• Bobbey Ah Fang Suan the newly appointed Senator is the former state assemblyman for Nabawan, Sabah and a member of BERSATU.

Note: The Dewan Negara consists of 70 members, which they are referred to as Senator.

• 26 of them are appointed to represent 13 different states (2 from each state).
• 44 are appointed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on the advice of the Prime Minister.

The Dewan Rakyat will be reopened for five days for a special sitting from 26 July until 2 August 2021, but only with an agenda of ‘briefings by the Ministers’.

Why it matters? Parliamentarians were expecting to debate on the National Recovery Plan (NRP), emergency ordinances and pandemic when the Parliament reopens.

What they’re saying? With the opposition and backbenchers not allowed to participate in the debate, this step have silenced the voices of the people, claim some of the Member of Parliaments.

• If a parliamentary sitting is being called just for (ministers) to give briefings for five days, just record a video and upload it to YouTube so we can watch, former Prime Minister Najib Razak posted on Facebook.
• We’ve been under lockdown for months yet (daily) cases have now exceeded 13,000. I’m paid by the rakyat, I must bring their voice. – Syed Saddiq, Muar MP.
• This means MPs can only ask ministers questions in Parliament from September. It must be nice to be a Perikatan Nasional (PN) minister, you don’t have to answer anyone for nine months. – Hannah Yeoh, Segambut MP.
• Pejuang will not attend the coming parliamentary sitting if debates and the party’s two motions are disallowed. – Former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohammad
• It’s just to cheat that a parliamentary sitting is being held. But not the way we think. They can issue a white paper. – Langkawi MP
• The role of check and balance by the Dewan Rakyat must be empowered, and not stopped. – Anwar Ibrahim, Port Dickson MP.

The special sitting from July 26 to July 29 and Aug 2 will be the first sitting since Parliament was suspended following the declaration of emergency on Jan 12.

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced that Operation Surge Capacity, a massive vaccination effort in the Klang Valley will be executed to reduce severe cases of Covid-19 infection.

Why it matters: The move will see daily doses of vaccines administered in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor go up significantly to ensure that some 6.1 million adults have access to at least one shot of the vaccine.

This involves the administration of the vaccine at a rate of 1.3 million doses until 25 July, 2021 and another 1.3 million doses between 26 July to 1 August 2021.

Current numbers: Up until 16 July, about 3.5 million adult population in Selangor and KL have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

Cooperation between the federal government and Selangor state government is crucial with the coordinating minister for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme, Khairy Jamaluddin decided together with Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari to appoint Bangi MP Ong Kian Ming as the coordinator for the Selangor state government.

The issue: The high increase in daily COVID-19 cases, especially in the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor is giving pressure for the COVID-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) to make thorough preparations to increase vaccination capacity and vaccination rate, especially in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor which are the epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Health Minister Dr Adham Baba made the news again at a talk in Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) where he mistakenly mentioned “Spanish fly” which he is suppose to mean “Spanish flu”.

The gaffe: In the video made viral by social media users, Dr Adham Baba can be heard saying that in 1916, the Spanish “fly” (instead of flu) had killed about a million people around the world and it happened for two years.

To make things worse, Spanish fly is commonly referred to as a sex stimulant.

Not the first time: He made Malaysians uproar during the early stages of the first Movement Control Order (MCO), when he advised the people to drink hot water in order to kill the COVID-19.

The Minister then made the news again when he mentioned that he had attended a World Health Organisation (WHO) conference call with 500 countries. Technically, we only have 195 countries in the whole world.