Latest news with #PAS
Free Malaysia Today
10 hours ago
- Politics
- Free Malaysia Today
Isham backs PAS for PM post, says party cleanest on corruption
Former Umno man Isham Jalil has been seen aligning with the opposition, including speaking at a Perikatan Nasional rally in Kuala Lumpur on July 26. PETALING JAYA : Former Umno leader Isham Jalil has expressed his desire to work with PAS to help elevate one of the party's leaders to become the next prime minister, citing their credibility in combating corruption and money politics. In a video posted on Facebook, Isham said Malaysia continues to face issues such as the awarding of government projects to tycoons in exchange for kickbacks, a practice he claims contributed to Umno and Barisan Nasional's defeat in the 2018 general election. He said such practices persist under the current unity government and could only be resolved through a specific law on political funding. 'This requires a prime minister who is willing to fight and comes from a party with a clean record. When you look at PAS, they appear to have the least corruption issues,' he said. 'That is why I want to work with PAS and support one of their leaders as prime minister,' he added. However, he clarified that he is not a PAS member. Isham, a former Umno Supreme Council member, was sacked from the party in December 2023 following his criticism of the party, in particular, its cooperation with DAP as part of the unity government. Since then, he has been seen aligning with the opposition, including speaking at a Perikatan Nasional (PN) rally in Kuala Lumpur on July 26. The question of who should be PN's prime ministerial candidate in the next general election has long been a point of contention. In November last year, PAS spiritual leader Hashim Jasin denied that Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin had been confirmed as PN's official candidate, insisting that PAS should lead the coalition. Terengganu menteri besar Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar is among PAS leaders frequently mentioned as a potential candidate for the top post. However, several leaders from Bersatu and Gerakan have continued to back Muhyiddin as PN's choice for prime minister. On July 29, Hashim said PN would only decide on its prime ministerial candidate after successfully taking over the federal government.
The Sun
18 hours ago
- Politics
- The Sun
‘More M'sians taking up Singaporean citizenship'
KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 6,060 Malaysians renounced their citizenship to take up Singapore nationality as of June 30 this year, said Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail. He said the number of Malaysians giving up their citizenship and adopting Singaporean nationality had risen in recent years. Saifuddin Nasution added that there were 7,394 cases reported in 2015, 8,654 in 2016, 7,583 in 2017 and 7,665 in 2018. He said this in a written parliamentary reply to Kota Bharu MP Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan, who is also PAS secretary-general. Takiyuddin had asked for the total number of Malaysians who had applied for Singaporean citizenship from 2015 to 2025. Saifuddin Nasution said 16,930 citizenship renunciations were made last year, up from 11,500 in 2023. 'The figure in 2022 was 5,623, lower than the 7,956 recorded in 2021.' The highest annual total was in 2019, with 13,362 cases, which fell to 5,591 cases in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. According to Singapore's National Population and Talent Division, based on information published on Sept 24 last year, 23,472 individuals were granted Singapore citizenship in 2023. However, the number of new citizenships granted for 2024 has not yet been disclosed. From 2019 to 2023, the republic approved 22,400 citizenships per year, slightly more than average of 21,600 in the previous five years. According to a written reply on Jan 7 by Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam to then-Ang Mo Kio GRC MP Gan Thiam Poh, about 20% of the new citizenships granted were under the Family Ties Scheme to foreign spouses of Singapore citizens. Between 2019 and 2023, Singapore granted 111,890 citizenships in total.
Focus Malaysia
a day ago
- Politics
- Focus Malaysia
PAS Youth ‘cow' analogy against women sparks misogyny claims in foreign media
A PAS Youth leader has sparked outrage after likening women political leaders to cows, drawing criticism from across Malaysia's political spectrum. In a Facebook post, Muhammad Salman Al Farisi, Youth information chief for PAS' Maran branch, claimed that when a 'female cow' becomes leader, males 'only know how to graze', urging against elevating women in such roles. 'When a female cow is appointed as the leader, she decides everything, while the males around her only know how to graze the crops,' wrote Salman. 'That's why, if possible, we shouldn't be like cows that elevate their 'female' as their leader.' Perikatan Nasional women's chief Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin labelled the remarks 'sexist' and 'improper', while social media users condemned the statement as demeaning and un-Islamic. Critics noted PAS itself has five female MPs and several women state assembly members. 'That statement can be interpreted as being sexist,' Perikatan Nasional women's chief Mas Ermieyati said of the comments by her coalition colleague. 'Even though it came from a local-level leader, I find it to be not proper for him to issue a statement like that,' she was quoted as saying by the local news outlet. Salman defended the comment as a Malay-language 'animal simile', calling it a traditional and civilised form of satire. However, observers said the incident highlighted entrenched misogyny in Malaysian politics. PAS, rooted in Islamic fundamentalism and rural Malay nationalism, is no stranger to such controversies. Party president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang and other leaders have repeatedly used animal epithets against rivals, calling them dogs, monkeys, and pigs. — Aug 9, 2025 Main photo credit: SCMP
Focus Malaysia
2 days ago
- Politics
- Focus Malaysia
Kepong MP decries Home inister denying double standard in the handcuffing of 2 Sin Chew editors
DAP lawmaker Lim Lip Eng has openly expressed his utmost disappointment after the Madani government informed him that the remanding and handcuffing of two Sin Chew Daily editors by cops over the Jalur Gemilang blunder in April was in accordance with the law. 'My disappointment at this evasive response cannot be expressed in words,' he reacted to the parliamentary reply by Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail on Thursday (Aug 7) to his alleged double standards in the investigations process. 'Isn't this tantamount to being brave against the weak but afraid of the strong'? Has the principle of justice and human rights – that all human beings are equal before the law – simply disappears when the issue at hand involved race?' This came about as the perpetrators in two other 'flag blunder' cases that coincidentally occurred within a month period – that involving a PAS politician and the Education Ministry (MOE) – were not treated in similar manner. In stating that both Sin Chew Daily editors were probed under Section 3(1)(c) of the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act 1963; Section 4(1)(b) of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984; and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, Saifuddin had noted: 'The police carry out their duties professionally, independently without any political interference, at all times.' Recall that cops went ahead to detain both editors despite industry veteran in the likes of Datuk A. Kadir Jasin having urged to accept in good faith Sin Chew Daily's prompt apology on grounds that the mainstream Chinese media complied with journalistic ethics – and that the blunder was nothing more than an honest mistake. As if misfortunes have to come in pairs (Polish proverb), the MOE found itself having to apologise for a blunder in the design of the Jalur Gemilang printed in its Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia results analysis report barely a week later. In May, PAS secretary-general Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan acknowledged the incident involving the logo for the Himpunan Teguh Memimpin Terengganu (TMT 1.0) 2025 which depicted an incomplete national flag with incorrect star points and stripes. – Aug 9, 2025
Hindustan Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Moldova's election will test its resistance to Russia
On August 1st a journalist who writes for an American celebrity-gossip site woke up to a nasty shock. The site had been cloned, and she appeared as the author of a fake story claiming that Maia Sandu, the president of Moldova—a country that most of the journalist's readers would have trouble locating—had spent $400,000 on 'illegally obtained sperm' from gay stars, including Elton John. Moldova will hold a parliamentary election on September 28th, and like many foes of Russia, Ms Sandu and her party are being targeted by disinformation campaigns. It was a textbook 'matryoshka', or Russian-doll, operation. Few see the cloned site itself, but the article is disseminated by networked accounts on social media, where its seeming origin in a foreign news source lends it credibility. Such stories are everywhere, says Vadim Pistrinciuc, a Moldovan political analyst: 'On Telegram, TikTok, Facebook, they have thousands of accounts.' Bot networks are supplemented by payments to local influencers. Saturated by such garbage, people sometimes end up believing it. More often, they become unsure whether any news is real. Speaking with The Economist, Ms Sandu lists such disinformation as one of ten types of electoral interference orchestrated by Russia. Another is vote-buying, which was rife during a presidential election and a referendum on joining the European Union last year. Also last year, a hundred or so Moldovans got paramilitary training from Russian instructors in Serbia and Bosnia. Russia's aim, Ms Sandu says, is to 'take control' of the part-Romanian-speaking, part-Russian-speaking country. In 2024 Moldova's government, led by Ms Sandu's Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS), opened accession negotiations with the EU. Should PAS lose the election, that process could be suspended. Last October's referendum passed with only 50.3% support, and the following month Ms Sandu required overwhelming support from Moldovan voters abroad to be re-elected to a second term. According to the country's intelligence services, vote-buying schemes in both elections were organised from Russia by Ilan Shor, a fugitive oligarch who was convicted for his role in the theft of $1bn from Moldova's banks in 2014. Polls (which are unreliable in Moldova) show PAS leading with over 35% of the vote, but it will probably lose its absolute majority in parliament. A pro-Russian government could come to power, or PAS may be forced into coalition with nominally pro-European parties whose leaders have had links with Russia in the past. These include Ion Ceban, mayor of Chisinau, the capital, who accuses Ms Sandu of calling everyone outside her party an agent of Russia's hybrid war. 'You could not do European integration if other parties in the coalition do not really support it,' says Ms Sandu. About a third of the electorate is strongly pro-European, says Mihai Mogildea, another political analyst. A third is pro-Russian, and the rest are moderately pro-European or somewhere in-between. But economics plays a role. If siding with Europe and resisting Russia are seen to entail higher gas and electricity prices, he says, many 'moderate pro-Europeans think 'no, no, no, I don't want this.'' In Copaceni, 100km north-west of Chisinau, men slam dominoes loudly in the village pub. Their views are a bewildering mix of contradictions. Nicolae, a pensioner, wants Moldova to join the EU, but thinks the union will collapse within three years—a familiar Russian propaganda line. 'All deputies are bandits,' says Simion, another pensioner. Then he adds: 'I want to be with both Europe and Russia,' another self-contradictory notion propagated by pro-Russian politicians. Maria, a retired teacher, is a staunch supporter of PAS. She says that during the presidential election a group of village women boasted openly about how much money they were paid to bribe others to vote for Mr Shor's party. After the election one of them was arrested, fined 'and got really scared'. Now the group are as 'meek as mice', she chortles. Another fugitive oligarch, Vlad Plahotniuc, was arrested in Athens on July 22nd. Before fleeing in 2019, Mr Plahotniuc spent several years as Moldova's unofficial leader: although nominally a mere MP, he in effect controlled all government institutions. He has been charged in connection with the $1bn bank fraud, though he denies having anything to do with it. According to the Insider, an investigative website, he recently travelled to Moscow to meet an adviser of Vladimir Putin. If Mr Plahotniuc were extradited to Moldova 'in handcuffs' before the election, it would undoubtedly help PAS, says Mr Mogildea. A decade ago, Ms Sandu was a plucky anti-corruption campaigner and opposition leader waging a quixotic struggle against Mr Plahotniuc and his fellow oligarchs. Today she is president and he is under arrest. It is an astonishing story, but that may not be enough to keep her party in power. Russia's mouthpieces, Ms Sandu says, are trying to scare Moldovans by claiming that PAS will ensnare the country in the war in Ukraine. In fact, she says, the opposite is true: electing pro-Russian parties would put Moldova at the disposal of Russia's war effort. It might also bring back the likes of Mr Shor and Mr Plahotniuc—and not in handcuffs. Editor's note (August 7th 2025): This article originally stated that Ms Sandu was narrowly re-elected. In fact Ms Sandu won a solid 55% of the vote. The Economist regrets the error. To stay on top of the biggest European stories, sign up to Café Europa, our weekly subscriber-only newsletter.
