Malaysia’s Negeri Sembilan state heads to the polls on Saturday, but a growing portion of its young workers – and their votes – are based elsewhere. Leaving home was never Ammar Idlan Hassan’s long-term plan, but better pay and stronger career prospects eventually drew the 27-year-old project engineer away from Seremban, the state capital. He now lives in Gelang Patah, a border town in Johor, from which he commutes to Singapore for work. “The pay is the most obvious reason for the majority of us...
Malaysian police have received a report against Perikatan Nasional election director Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor over remarks allegedly made during a speech while campaigning for the Negeri Sembilan election. Negeri Sembilan police chief Alzafny Ahmad said the report was lodged by a 40-year-old man at the Bandar Seri Jempol police station on Friday. “The complainant was unhappy with a news report published by an online portal regarding a speech by the Kedah chief minister,” he said in a statement...
We have selected seven stories from the SCMP’s coverage of Asia over the past week that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Malaysia’s US$500 million warship set for delivery, minus the missiles Malaysia’s navy is preparing to take delivery of a warship fully equipped for anti-submarine, anti-air and electronic warfare – everything, that is, except a way to sink an enemy ship. 2. Did fear of...
Negeri Sembilan’s bid to turn itself into Malaysia’s next hi-tech industrial hub is heading into an unusual political stress test, as a royal dispute spills into a snap election on August 1. The vote matters not because existing semiconductor and aerospace projects are expected to flee but because it could slow future commitments, reshape the state’s policy environment and sharpen wider uncertainty over the prospect of a snap national poll, analysts say. Long regarded as an affordable base for...
Red, blue and yellow flags crowded the roads into Johor Bahru before dawn on Saturday, lashed to lamp posts, flyovers and roadside trees after a campaign in which Malaysia’s governing allies spent two weeks trying to cut each other down. The campaign ended at 11.59pm on Friday, silencing the loudspeakers and convoys that had criss-crossed the state since late June. At 8am, the contest moved to 1,076 polling centres, where about 2.72 million Johoreans were eligible to choose a new state...
Knife-edge state polls in Johor and Negeri Sembilan may reconfigure Malaysian politics, as a regrouped Malay nationalist right seeks big wins to pressure Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim into calling an early election. Barisan Nasional (BN), the Malay-led bloc, is going head-to-head against Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) in the ballots to be held this month and next, in a move by a key government coalition member that could destabilise the prime minister’s fragile administration from within. Analysts...
Malaysia’s Johor election has opened a new front in the country’s long-running racial politics, after former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad and Islamist party PAS urged voters to put “Malay-Muslim political power” ahead of party loyalty in one of the country’s most closely watched state polls. The southern state, which borders Singapore and sits at the centre of Malaysia’s cross-border growth plans, is also a stronghold for the United Malays National Organisation. The Barisan Nasional (BN)...