TAIPEI: Taiwan on Thursday (Dec 21) accused China of “typical economic coercion” after Beijing announced the end of tariff cuts on some chemical imports from the island – saying Taipei violated a trade agreement – just ahead of Taiwanese elections next month. Taiwan’s Jan 13 presidential and parliamentary elections areContinue Reading
The current fare for a one-way ticket from Woodlands Checkpoint into Johor Bahru is RM17.80 (S$5) while it costs RM5 (S$1.40) to travel back to Singapore from the station in JB Sentral.
The train, also known as the Tebrau Shuttle, currently makes 31 trips daily – 18 from JB Sentral to Woodlands, and 13 from Woodlands to JB Sentral.
Just remember to arrive early. Gates close at Woodlands 20 minutes before departure while the gantries at JB Sentral shut 10 minutes before the train leaves.
Had a change in plans? Here’s a tip – you can cancel your ticket online for a partial refund.
Get a 75 per cent refund for cancellations made more than 72 hours before departure and 50 per cent for cancellations made within the three-day window.
The quickest way to handle payments is also via the platform’s KTM Wallet, which eliminates the need for multi-step security authentication when you are on the go.
Cross-border bus services are another pocket-friendly option – SBS Transit buses 160, 170 and 170X, as well as SMRT bus service 950.
Bus service 160 plies the route between Jurong Town Hall bus interchange and JB Sentral Bus Terminal.
Service 170 travels between Queen Street Terminal and Larkin Terminal in Johor Bahru, while 170X travels between Kranji MRT station and JB Sentral.
SMRT bus service 950 runs between Woodlands Temporary Bus Interchange and JB Sentral terminal.
More information on operating hours and arrival timings is available on the Land Transport Authority’s MyTransport.SG app or via the bus operators’ websites.
But if just crossing the Causeway is your main objective, any bus will do, including the bright yellow Causeway Link buses operated by Malaysia.
KUALA LUMPUR: Ethnic Malay interests remain front and centre in Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s Malaysia Madani. An uptick in ethnic polarisation and a poor showing by parties from Anwar’s unity government in Malay-majority seats in 2023’s state elections leave the administration under pressure to shore up Malay support.
To that end, the Malaysian government will be wheeling out a Bumiputera economic congress in January 2024 (Bumiputera, meaning “sons of the soil” in Malay, is an official term for Malays and indigenous ethnic communities).
Decades after the inception of the New Economic Policy affirmative action program and its various reincarnations, Anwar has flagged the need to review the use of Malay corporate equity as the yardstick of Bumiputera empowerment and move towards a “participation rate and … control of the Bumiputera economy (that are) more meaningful”.
This is a step in the right direction. Malaysia’s muddled Bumiputera empowerment plans and metrics are in dire need of change.
Championing Malay corporate equity is historically synonymous with Bumiputera empowerment. But the approach fails to empower the Malay majority and sidelines vulnerable communities while enriching the politically connected.
Yet the recent uproar over the arranged sale of Boustead Plantations (BPlant) – a Bumiputera government-linked company (or GLC, denoting part or whole state ownership) – to the primarily Malaysian Chinese-owned multinational company Kuala Lumpur Kepong suggests two things.
First, securing buy-in for non-equity metrics will be an uphill battle because of political sensitivities. Second, significant issues, such as the principal-agent problem in Bumiputera empowerment agendas, remain unaddressed.
The government extended financial lifelines to the Armed Forces Fund Board (LTAT) in October. LTAT is a government-linked investment company (GLIC) legally mandated to provide retirement earnings to Malaysia’s military personnel through profits generated via the GLCs in which it – or LTAT’s holding company Boustead Holdings – holds stakes.
The roster of GLCs includes BPlant, Boustead Naval Shipyards and Pharmaniaga – all of which have added to LTAT’s financial woes by underperforming, due to mismanagement and corruption.
Successive CEOs have undertaken asset fire-sales and divestments to alleviate LTAT’s debts and improve cash flow, most recently through BPlant’s sale to Kuala Lumpur Kepong. But this acquisition was cancelled at the last minute. While LTAT did not clarify why, several factors suggest that racial optics deterred the acquisition.
BEIJING: The cause of a wave of bitingly cold air that swept into China and rewrote seasonal records for low temperatures may lie further north – a potential weakening in the wall of fast-moving air currents that normally hold back blasts from the Arctic. With winds that triggered the highestContinue Reading
Each episode has been accompanied by a war of words. The Philippines has described China’s “unprovoked acts of coercion” as violating international law, damaging maritime assets and putting lives of Filipino crew at risk.
Beijing has said it’s applying “law enforcement activities” to deal with violations of “indisputable” Chinese sovereignty. This claim relies on what it calls “historic rights” to the South China Sea.
Depends on who you ask.
Back in 2009, China unveiled to the United Nations its “nine-dash” line laying claim to over 80 per cent of the South China Sea.
In addition to the Philippines, Southeast Asian countries Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei also claim parts of the vast ocean, which serves as a crucial maritime route for over US$3 trillion in annual global trade, and as a key source of both fishing and gas reserves.
After a 2012 standoff between the Philippines and China in Scarborough Shoal, Manila took the matter to arbitration in The Hague the next year.
The Philippines wants China to abide by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea or UNCLOS, which sets a country’s exclusive economic zone or EEZ at 200 nautical miles from a national landmass.
A historic 2016 arbitral tribunal ruling subsequently found that China’s claim had “no legal basis”. Beijing squarely rejected this as “null and void”.
MANILA: The Philippine defence minister rebuked China on Wednesday (Dec 20) for accusing his country of provoking tension and stirring trouble in the South China Sea, saying only Beijing believed what it was saying. “Truth and in fact, no country in the world, none, supports unequivocally their claim to theContinue Reading
DESPERATE CIVILIANS For almost three years, civilian People’s Defence Forces have been battling around the country to oust the junta which seized power in a 2021 coup. But the offensive launched by the TNLA and its allies – the Arakan Army (AA) and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) –Continue Reading
KUALA LUMPUR: Ships with the Israeli flag will not be allowed to dock in Malaysia with immediate effect, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced on Wednesday (Dec 20). Any vessels en route to Israel will also be banned from loading cargo at Malaysian ports. “These restrictions are a response to Israel’s actions thatContinue Reading
SINGAPORE: Tokyo’s Shibuya district has cancelled its New Year’s Eve countdown for the fourth year in a row due to concerns over “safety and security at the event”, which typically draws about 100,000 revellers. In an online notice, Shibuya Mayor Ken Hasebe said that the decision takes into consideration “theContinue Reading
Earthquakes are common in provinces such as Gansu, lying on the northeastern boundary of the tectonically active Qinghai-Tibetan plateau. China’s deadliest quake in recent decades was in 2008 when a magnitude-8.0 temblor struck Sichuan, killing nearly 70,000 people. The freezing cold would not be the only concern weighing on rescuersContinue Reading