“PRESSURE THE GOVERNMENT” Cheung, former CEO of Apple Daily’s parent company, Next Digital, said Lai gave him instructions to “use Apple Daily to call people to take to the streets, to demonstrate, and to pressure the government”. He told the court that the image of Lai “was all along veryContinue Reading
TOKYO: Japan welcomed a record number of visitors in December, official data showed on Wednesday (Jan 17), closing out a year of rapid recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of foreign visitors for business and leisure rose to 2.73 million last month from 2.44 million in November, data fromContinue Reading
Mr Bon said that the limited power of the IPCC makes it a challenge in winning over public support, but said that it may help if the remaining two members of the IPCC are from the civil society and those who work with communities.
“(Such people would be able to) understand the situation on the ground,” he said.
According to local media, the position of IPCC chairman will be taken up by former director-general of the implementation coordination unit of the Prime Minister’s Department (PMD) Zolkopli Dahlan.
The IPCC deputy chairman spot will be filled by former PMD advisory board chief director Mohamad Jazamuddin Ahmad Nawawi.
Other members of the commission include former senior director of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Tan Kang Sai, former Royal Malaysia Police logistics and technology department deputy director Shukri Abdullah and former national audit department (financial sector) director Martina @ Kartina Zamhari.
When questioned on Jan 10 over the decision to confirm five selected members first, Mr Saifuddin said that the ministry was still headhunting the right candidates with stellar records and appropriate expertise for the final two posts, according to Free Malaysia Today.
Dr Nik Ahmad noted that with the appointment of the five IPCC members, the commission can begin working on any complaints immediately.
However, with two spots yet to be filled in the commission, he said that the IPCC should appoint former judges as members in order to add credibility to the commission.
To improve public trust in the police, any IPCC recommendation to take stern action against police officers must be taken seriously by the police disciplinary committee, he said.
He added that the police must portray a friendly, clean, and progressive image.
“There are bad apples, and this is where the police must take stern action against the wayward officers,” he urged.
The controversial IPCC Bill was first tabled in August 2020 under the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government, following the “Sheraton Move” in February that year.
The “Sheraton Move” was a political manoeuvre which saw the fall of the previous Pakatan Harapan (PH) government that had proposed the IPCMC Bill in July 2019.
The IPCMC, unlike the IPCC, would have had the enforcement power to exert discipline authority over errant officers, according to the Malaysian Bar, a professional body tasked with regulating the legal profession.
The introduction of the IPCC Bill, in replacement of the IPCMC Bill, drew criticism from advocacy groups and cabinet members for failing to address police abuse of power.
The IPCC came into force on Jul 1. According to local media, Mr Saifuddin said in October last year that the process of selecting the seven commission members is underway.
He did not elaborate on why it had taken so long since the commission was first tabled to start the selection process.
BANGKOK: A Thai court sentenced a jailed activist lawyer to four years in prison on Wednesday (Jan 17) for royal insults from a 2021 social media post, his lawyer said, in one of the country’s high-profile lese-majeste cases. Human Rights lawyer Arnon Nampa, 39, has been serving a four-year sentenceContinue Reading
BEIJING: China’s position that it will not renounce the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control is aimed at foreign interference and a tiny number of separatists, the Chinese government said on Wednesday (Jan 17), adding it was willing to give wide space for “peaceful reunification”. Taiwan’s democraticallyContinue Reading
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will review bilateral agreements with 15 nations from which it sources labourers in a bid to address exploitative practices and manpower imbalances that have left thousands of migrant workers stranded without jobs, officials said. Since last year, thousands of migrants, mostly from Bangladesh and Nepal, have beenContinue Reading
Members of K-pop supergroup BTS RM and V have completed their basic military training in South Korea – and they’ve certainly done so in style, graduating as “elite trainees” under the 27th Recruit Training Regiment.
RM, whose real name is Kim Nam-joon, took to Instagram on Tuesday (Jan 16) to share photos of himself and fellow BTS member V, whose real name is Kim Tae-hyung, in their military uniforms. With the caption “Loyalty”, the post also included a picture the award he received.
The honour was only given to six out of 200 trainees for displaying exemplary skills during the five-week training period. The duo enlisted in the military on Dec 11 last year.
According to news agency Yonhap, RM and V’s training comprised basic combat and defense skills at the Korea Army Training Centre in Nonsan, located south of Seoul.
The two have earned the rank of private – and as elite trainees, they were rewarded vacation days.
BEIJING: China’s population fell for a second consecutive year in 2023, as a plunging birth rate and a wave of COVID-19 deaths when strict lockdowns ended accelerated a downturn that will have profound long-term effects on the economy’s growth potential.
The National Bureau of Statistics said the total number of people in China dropped by 2.75 million to 1.409 billion in 2023, a faster decline than in 2022, which was the first since 1961 during the Great Famine of the Mao Zedong era.
China experienced a dramatic nationwide COVID-19 surge early last year after three years of tight screening and quarantine measures kept the virus largely contained until authorities abruptly lifted curbs in December 2022.
The country’s birth rate has been plummeting for decades as a result of the one-child policy implemented from 1980 to 2015 and its rapid urbanisation during that period. As with earlier economic booms in Japan and South Korea, large populations moved from China’s rural farms into cities, where having children is more expensive.
Further denting appetite for baby-making in 2023, youth unemployment hit record highs, wages for many white-collar workers fell, and a crisis in the property sector, where more than two-thirds of household wealth is stored, intensified.
The fresh data adds to concerns that the world’s No 2 economy’s growth prospects are diminishing due to fewer workers and consumers, while the rising costs of elderly care and retirement benefits put more strain on indebted local governments.
India surpassed China as the world’s most populous nation last year, according to estimates by the United Nations, fuelling more debate over the merits of relocating some China-based supply chains to other markets, especially as geopolitical tensions rise between Beijing and Washington.
Long-term, UN experts see China’s population shrinking by 109 million by 2050, more than triple the decline of their previous forecast in 2019.
China’s retirement-age population, aged 60 and over, is expected to increase to more than 400 million by 2035 – more than the entire population of the United States – from about 280 million people currently.
The state-run Chinese Academy of Sciences sees the pension system running out of money by 2035.
China’s birth rate last year was 6.39 births per 1,000 people, down from a rate of 6.77 births in 2022 and marking the lowest birth rate on record. Japan’s rate was 6.3 births per 1,000 people in 2022, while South Korea’s was 4.9.
China’s 2023 rate of 7.87 deaths per 1,000 people, was up from a rate of 7.37 deaths in 2022, making it the highest since 1974 during the Cultural Revolution.
BEIJING: China’s economy grew 5.2 per cent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, official data showed on Wednesday (Jan 17), missing analysts’ expectations slightly but still ensuring Beijing met its annual growth target despite a shaky start to the year. Confounding most analysts’ expectations, the world’s second-largest economyContinue Reading
SEOUL: South Korea’s government said on Wednesday (Jan 17) it plans to implement a package of financial policies to support stock investors and small business owners squeezed by high-interest rates. The financial support measures come three months ahead of the country’s general elections and as the president holds a seriesContinue Reading