A senior member of the Malaysian ruling Barisan Nasional coalition has quit over its alleged abuse of power and the mysterious death of an opposition leader’s aide. Former health minister Chua Jui Meng, 66, of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) — the second largest party in the Barisan Nasional — on Saturday joined opposition Anwar Ibrahim’s Keadilan party.
“Today I announce that I am resigning as a member of MCA. Now I announce I am joining PKR [Parti Keadilan Rakyat],” Chua said in a statement late on Saturday. Chua had been a member of the MCA for 33 years.
“We see the abuse of power in the use of the federal institutions to harass, persecute and prosecute the leader of the opposition,” he said, in reference to Anwar’s sodomy trial.
Anwar has rejected the sodomy allegations leveled by a former aide as a conspiracy to derail his plan to topple the government.
After seizing control of a third of seats in parliament, the Pakatan coalition is now vowing to unseat the Barisan Nasional coalition — which has ruled Malaysia for half a century — in the next general elections.
Chua in his speech also said that the sudden death of a young opposition political aide, Teoh Beng Hock, became the tipping point in his decision to join Keadilan.
“The tragic death of 30-year-old Teo Beng Hock is the consequence of one such institution going overboard in its action,” he said.
Teo, an assistant to a member of the state Cabinet in Selangor, which is ruled by the Pakatan Rakyat opposition alliance apparently plunged from the 14th floor of anti-corruption offices.
His body was found on Thursday sprawled on the roof of an adjacent building, after he had undergone questioning late into the night at the offices of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of