Malaysia's ruling party vowed to step up support for Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawai amid attacks by his predecessor, and pledged to tackle widespread frustrations over the continued lack of religious rights and poor wealth distribution.
The United Malays National Organization (UMNO) witnessed an outpouring of loyalty for Abdullah as top officials rebuffed former leader Mahathir Mohamad's derision of his successor's policies. They also rebuked the elder statesman's son for criticizing Abdullah's key speech at Malaysia's biggest political assembly, which ended on Friday.
Another emotionally charged topic for delegates at UMNO's five-day congress was the future of relations between the Malay Muslim majority and ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities.
Many officials warned minorities not to try to undermine the status of Islam and affirmative action policies that grant benefits to Malays.
Affirmative action policies instituted in 1970 -- following deadly race riots between Malays and Chinese -- gave Malays privileges in areas such as government jobs, housing, financial loans and contracts, but the program has also fueled discontent among the other ethnicities.
Abdullah urged all Malaysians to prevent any breakdown in ties.
Many UMNO delegates made speeches warning minority communities (mostly Buddhists, Christians and Hindus) not to anger Malays with demands concerning sensitive subjects such as Malaysia's Islamic legal system.
Other delegates voiced unhappiness over slow progress in helping Malays to catch up with the wealthier Chinese. Malays, who comprise some 60 percent of Malaysia's 26 million people, own only 18.9 percent of the equity in the country's stock market, the government said.
Malaysia is one of Southeast Asia's most peaceful and stable countries, and the administration promotes the country as a model of racial harmony.
Mahathir, who retired in 2003 after 22 years in power, did not attend the assembly because he was recuperating from a mild heart attack last week. But his son, Mukhriz Mahathir, suffered the party's ire for claiming that Abdullah's opening speech on Wednesday failed to respond convincingly to Mahathir's accusations that the leader is guilty of nepotism, corruption and general incompetence.
Mahathir's unflinching and repeated attacks against Abdullah during the past year have raised fears about possible fighting within the party since both politicians have staunch supporters.
KINGPIN: Marset allegedly laundered the proceeds of his drug enterprise by purchasing and sponsoring professional soccer teams and even put himself in the starting lineups Notorious Latin American narco trafficker Sebastian Marset, who eluded police for years, was handed over to US authorities after his arrest on Friday in Bolivia. Marset, a Uruguayan national who was on the US most-wanted list, was passed to agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration at Santa Cruz airport in Bolivia, then put on a US airplane, Bolivian state television showed. “The arrest and deportation were carried out pursuant to a court order issued by the US justice system,” Bolivian Minister of Government Marco Antonio Oviedo told reporters. The alleged kingpin was arrested in an upscale neighborhood of Santa
ACTIONABLE ADVICE: The majority of chatbots tested provided guidance on weapons, tactics and target selections, with Perplexity and Meta AI deemed to be the least safe From school shootings to synagogue bombings, leading artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots helped researchers plot violent attacks, according to a study published on Wednesday that highlighted the technology’s potential for real-world harm. Researchers from the nonprofit watchdog Center for Countering Digital Hate and CNN posed as 13-year-old boys in the US and Ireland to test 10 chatbots, including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Deepseek and Meta AI. Eight of the chatbots assisted the make-believe attackers in more than half the responses, providing advice on “locations to target” and “weapons to use” in an attack, the study said. The chatbots had become a “powerful accelerant for
SCANDAL: Other images discovered earlier show Andrew bent over a female and lying across the laps of a number of women, while Mandelson is pictured in his underpants A photograph of former British prince Andrew and veteran politician Peter Mandelson sitting in bathrobes alongside late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was unearthed on Friday in previously published documents. The image is believed to be the first known photograph of the two men with Epstein. They are currently engulfed in scandal in the UK over their ties to their mutual friend. The undated photograph, first reported by ITV News, shows King Charles III’s disgraced brother and former British ambassador to the US sitting barefoot outside on a wooden deck. They appear to have mugs with a US flag on them
FAKE NEWS? ‘When the government demands the press become a state mouthpiece under the threat of punishment, something has gone very wrong,’ a civic group said The top US broadcast regulator on Saturday threatened media outlets over negative coverage of the Middle East war, after US President Donald Trump slammed critical headlines from the “Fake News Media.” The US president since his first term has derided mainstream media as “fake news” and has sued major outlets over what he sees as unfair coverage. Brendan Carr, head of the US Federal Communications Commission — which oversees the nation’s radio, television and Internet media — said broadcasters risked losing their licenses over news coverage. “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will
RSS