Latest news with #nepotism
Malay Mail
2 days ago
- Business
- Malay Mail
PKR Youth chief calls for clear nepotism definition, insists Nurul Izzah earned post through votes rather than Anwar's influence
KUALA LUMPUR, May 31 – PKR Youth chief Muhammad Kamil Abdul Munim has urged the party to clarify the meaning of nepotism, after Nurul Izzah Anwar's victory in the party's recent internal election. Kamil, who also serves as Anwar's political secretary in the Finance Ministry, said if family ties alone constituted nepotism, then many political parties would be equally guilty, not just PKR. 'All parties, without exception, have this. So, it's unfair to label only this case as nepotism while ignoring others. This is a malicious propaganda campaign meant to smear PKR,' he was quoted saying by Malaysiakini. 'The continuous nepotism attacks against PKR are mischievous attempts by political rivals, especially the opposition, to create negative perceptions.' Kamil said that true nepotism involves misuse of power for personal gain, such as awarding contracts or posts to relatives or cronies, which was not the case here. He stressed that Nurul Izzah was chosen by party members through an open election, not installed by Anwar or the party leadership, highlighting her long record of activism and public service. 'Nurul Izzah has been active from the start. She fought for justice, ran in elections, received public support, became an MP, and was elected and supported by party members, all through democratic processes,' he told the news outfit. Nurul Izzah recently won the deputy president post, defeating incumbent Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli. Her father, Anwar, is the party president. 'I think the nepotism issue is outdated. It was played decades ago, then faded,' he reportedly said. 'Now with this election, it's being raised again. This is nothing more than an attempt to create a negative perception among the public.'
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
PKR Youth chief calls for clear nepotism definition, insists Nurul Izzah earned post through votes rather than Anwar's influence
KUALA LUMPUR, May 31 – PKR Youth chief Muhammad Kamil Abdul Munim has urged the party to clarify the meaning of nepotism, after Nurul Izzah Anwar's victory in the party's recent internal election. Kamil, who also serves as Anwar's political secretary in the Finance Ministry, said if family ties alone constituted nepotism, then many political parties would be equally guilty, not just PKR. 'All parties, without exception, have this. So, it's unfair to label only this case as nepotism while ignoring others. This is a malicious propaganda campaign meant to smear PKR,' he was quoted saying by Malaysiakini. 'The continuous nepotism attacks against PKR are mischievous attempts by political rivals, especially the opposition, to create negative perceptions.' Kamil said that true nepotism involves misuse of power for personal gain, such as awarding contracts or posts to relatives or cronies, which was not the case here. He stressed that Nurul Izzah was chosen by party members through an open election, not installed by Anwar or the party leadership, highlighting her long record of activism and public service. 'Nurul Izzah has been active from the start. She fought for justice, ran in elections, received public support, became an MP, and was elected and supported by party members, all through democratic processes,' he told the news outfit. Nurul Izzah recently won the deputy president post, defeating incumbent Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli. Her father, Anwar, is the party president. 'I think the nepotism issue is outdated. It was played decades ago, then faded,' he reportedly said. 'Now with this election, it's being raised again. This is nothing more than an attempt to create a negative perception among the public.'
Al Jazeera
3 days ago
- General
- Al Jazeera
From Hunter to Hoover: How clemency became a circus
The United States pardon system has been developing a bad name in recent months. It is an area where Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 of the Constitution gives the president essentially boundless authority: 'The President shall … have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.' Normally, though, aware of the controversial nature of unilaterally declaring that someone facing criminal charges should be freed, the president exercises this authority in the waning days of a term – there are 10 weeks after a November presidential election and the new president's inauguration in January, when the incumbent has either been voted out, or is headed into retirement. Either way, there are no re-election concerns. This is significant because victims are often upset when a lengthy legal process is erased by a stroke of the White House pen. President Joe Biden followed this pattern, issuing more commutations in his final days than any other chief executive in history. Consistent with his Catholic faith, he almost cleared federal death row, commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 condemned prisoners. But he courted the most dissent when he annulled the convictions of his son Hunter, before preemptively pardoning other family members for imagined offences for which they would likely never have faced trial. It was all tinged with nepotism, using his constitutional power for those close to him. On his heels came President Donald Trump. As with so many of his actions in his first 100 days, Trump was acting as if he were already running out of time. He had barely taken the oath of office before he issued 1,600 pardons to those said to be guilty of insurrection in the often-violent storming of the Capitol in 2021. Sure enough, this provoked outrage among some and was characterised by the chief of the Capitol Police as a 'slap in the face' to all his officers. Trump has since continued his spate of pardons. Some are fairly predictable: 21 of his recent grants concerned the FACE (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances) Act, a law that prohibits violence, intimidation, and interference with individuals seeking or providing reproductive health services – generally, then, people picketing abortion clinics. Here, he was courting the anti-abortion rights wing of MAGA. White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in a statement that Trump is 'always pleased to give well-deserving Americans a second chance, especially those who have been unfairly targeted and overly prosecuted by an unjust justice system'. As a principle, this is fair enough, but normally there must be some evidence of remorse and rehabilitation. This week, in contrast, he pardoned Scott Jenkins, a longtime supporter and former Sheriff who had been found guilty in 2024 of accepting more than $75,000 in bribes in exchange for making several businessmen into official law enforcement agents. 'Sheriff Scott Jenkins, his wife Patricia, and their family have been dragged through HELL,' Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social network. Yet Jenkins had merely been dragged through the US trial system, like millions of others, and he had not even turned himself in to start his sentence. Then there was the Reality TV couple, Todd and Julie Chrisley, convicted in 2022 for defrauding banks of more than $36m by submitting false bank statements and other records. They spent their ill-gotten gains on luxury cars and travel, and it is difficult to see what they did to merit special treatment. Which brings us to the latest case, that of Larry Hoover, the notorious founder of the Chicago Gangster Disciples, convicted of ordering the murder of a rival, along with a laundry list of other offences. Prosecutors did not even bother to bring many cases to trial. Indeed, at a hearing last year, a judge asked one of Hoover's lawyers: 'How many other murders is he responsible for?' Trump commuted his federal sentence, which is unlikely to achieve much more than to transfer him to the less pleasant Illinois prison, where he must serve 200 years on a state murder conviction. What does this achieve, and what was the president's motive for doing it? One particularly odd element of these pardons is that CBS News reports that many of the beneficiaries had not even made a formal application. Trump just reached out and acted on his own. In some instances, he seems to have been relying on what he saw on television. He has said he is considering clemency for those convicted in the 2020 conspiracy to kidnap Michigan's Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer and overthrow the state government. 'I did watch the trial,' he said. 'It looked to me like somewhat of a railroad job…' Even if it is currently sometimes corrupt, or simply arbitrary, I would not abolish the president's prerogative of mercy. I am in favour of considering second chances in all cases, for as a society we are much too punitive. But if citizens are to maintain any sense of respect for the judicial system, there should be a degree of consistency. Indeed, due process means that there is a process, and it should be followed. I filed a compelling 76,000 word clemency petition in the case of Aafia Siddiqui before Christmas, which Biden dismissed on January 20 without addressing any of the grounds – her innocence, the CIA's abduction of his children, the fact that she had been tortured in US custody, and the sexual abuse she faces in prison today. Then, this week, my octogenarian former death row client, Clarence Smith, passed away in federal prison. He had been denied compassionate release even though he was terminally ill, was again patently innocent and had proved himself to be a model prisoner: He had, in his forty-one years in the penitentiary, only been given one disciplinary punishment, for the heinous offence of making his prison bed before being told to do so. Let us therefore keep an eye on how the president's immense power is used (or abused), and perhaps consider imposing some rules of transparency upon him. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
News.com.au
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
‘Using it to brag': The children of the rich and famous are dividing by jumping on a viral trend
The privileged offspring of the rich and famous have finally found a social media trend where they can flaunt their nepotism. Pretty much every week there is a new trend taking over TikTok, but the latest 'air ball' trend has caught the attention of nepo babies. It's pretty simple. An air ball is a basketball term for when a player shoots and misses, and Gen Zers are using the reference to make TikToks about when someone makes an assumption about them and completely misses the mark. It started out pretty wholesome. Someone might share a time when someone assumed they didn't run and then reveal a photo of them coming first in a marathon or a woman might reveal she'd told a man she worked in a hospital and he assumed she was a nurse, but the mic drop would be that she's a neurosurgeon. Then entered the nepo babies, who are using the trend, not to flex about their own achievements, but share when people haven't realised they're either from a famous or rich family. Ryan Phillippe and Reese Witherspoon's lookalike daughter, Ava, 25, took to social media and joined the trend. The 25-year-old took to social media and name-dropped, not just her famous mum, but her most famous movie. 'I told him my mum's a lawyer, and he said, 'Oh what firm does she work at?'' she wrote. Then she cut to a behind-the-scenes photo of her and her Oscar winning mum on the set of Legally Blonde, where Witherspoon plays a lawyer and wrote 'Holy-fricking air ball'. That clip has over 2 million views, and the most liked comment on the video is 'You won this trend,' with over 30,000 likes. Similarly, another famous offspring, Alianna Thiam, jumped on the trend and wrote, 'I told him my dad's in the music industry. He said, 'Oh, like a manager?' Then, the clip was cut to a photo to reveal that her dad is the musician Akon. 'Holy-freaking-air ball,' she wrote. Once again, the most liked comment on the clip is 'Pack it up everyone, she won,' with over 70,000 likes. Even the children of famous Aussies are getting into the trend. Madi Page wrote, 'I told him my dad works in the music and entertainment industry. 'He said, 'Oh, cute like a producer?'' Then she revealed her dad was Greg Page from The Wiggles. 'That's the flexiest flex I've seen. What's it like being the child of royalty?,' the most liked comment asked. It also isn't just the children of famous people embracing the trend, it's also the offspring of the incredibly wealthy and powerful. Greyson Abercrombie, 20, wrote on TikTok, 'Told her 'my parents own a clothing store' and she said 'oh so like a boutique?'' Then the video cuts to himself standing outside an Abercrombie store one of the largest retail chains in America. Similarly, Shayla Forbes-Luong shared online, 'Told him my family owns a magazine company, 'oh like a local paper?'' Then, the video cuts to a photo of Forbes Magazine, the magazine her great-grandfather co-founded, with the words 'air ball' written across the photo. The most liked comment on that video, which has 16 million views, reads, 'Okay, but did you guys see Akon's daughter do the trend? I'm living for these quiet nepotism babies.' It amassed over 200,000 likes. Popular fashion and culture Instagram account Diet Prada, which has over 3 million followers, posted about the trend and claimed it is proof that 'stealth wealth' is officially out and bragging is very much in. 'From old-money dynasties to household names, the app is suddenly crawling with twenty-somethings using the moment to humblebrag their family legacies,' the post reads. The post was divided, with some claiming it was fun to see people revealing their famous families and others finding it 'cringe' tone deaf. 'I kind of live for this' one wrote. 'Congrats on your parent's accomplishments very cool,' another mocked. 'As subtle as a gold Rolex flex, congratulations on being born I guess,' another claimed. 'These people have everything yet are so desperate for attention,' someone else said. 'I love this,' one praised. 'This makes me nauseous!' someone else revealed. 'Taking a trend where people proudly share their own accomplishments and using it to brag about your family's success that has nothing to do with you? Exactly the kind of tone-deaf behaviour I'd expect from nepo babes,' one snapped. 'As they SHOULD. Imagine hating someone because their successful parents decided to have kids,' someone else argued.
Bloomberg
5 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Malaysian Ministers Quit in Blow to Anwar's Government
Malaysia's Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli and Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad are leaving the cabinet, days after they were defeated in an internal party election that was marred by allegations of vote-rigging and nepotism. Rafizi and Nik Nazmi on May 23 failed to defend their positions as the deputy president and vice-president of the People's Justice Party, respectively, in its first internal polls since Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim formed the government in November 2022. Rafizi lost to Anwar's daughter, Nurul Izzah Anwar.
