Malaysia marked its 51st birthday yesterday with a mammoth parade that did little to mask the uncertainties a reborn opposition poses to the government’s uninterrupted hold on power since independence from Britain in 1957.
Thousands of people marched in the historic Merdeka (Freedom) Square, watched by Malaysia’s king and government leaders. Fighter planes and helicopters roamed the sky above.
But beneath the pomp and gala, Malaysia’s embattled government is heading into major political turbulence.
Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim says he is seeking to win over 30 defectors from the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition to form a new government by his self-imposed deadline of Sept. 16.
Anwar said on Saturday his opposition alliance would not use money or blackmail to woo defectors.
“The MPs can see the trend among the people who are demanding change,” he said. “That’s why they are keen to support a party that is fair to all races.”
Anwar’s Pakatan Rakyat alliance, which made unprecedented gains in March general elections, has 82 seats in the 222-seat parliament. It needs 30 more to win a simple majority.
Malaysia’s embattled prime minister appealed for the nation’s support in an independence day message yesterday.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi led the nation in celebrations with a firework display on Saturday night.
Abdullah, who has faced calls to quit from colleagues within his own party after failing to check the rise of the opposition, urged the country to remain united as it faced high inflation and a global slowdown.
“I am confident and believe that all the trials we are facing today can be overcome if we remain united and work together with firm determination,” he said. “A united people is the country’s strongest line of defense in facing any situation both internally and externally.”
“No one citizen is recognized as being of a higher position than another in this nation. This nation belongs to all of us. Whether we rise or fall depends on all of us,” he said.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
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