☕️ Explained: How to steal an election

1. MARKET SUMMARY

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE

8.48 mil positions in the economic sector have been filled as of the third quarter of this year (3Q2022), based on data from the latest employment statistics released by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM). There are still 191,3000 vacancies across all sectors.

700 charging stations for electric vehicles have been set up nationwide so far. The government aims to set up 10,000 stations by 2025 under the Low Carbon Mobility Blueprint 2021-2030. Tenaga Nasional Bhd expects the country to have 18,000 charging stations by 2030 to cater to more than half a million (estimate: 524.4k) battery vehicles on the road.

Not only humans were killed in the Russia-Ukraine conflict but also dolphins. Scientists estimated that there were more than 700 deaths recorded on the coast of the countries in the Black Sea where military activities increased due to the war. Dead dolphins were found with burn marks from bombs or mines. Noise could affect dolphins as they have an acute sense of hearing, causing them to be disoriented and increasing the risk of them being stranded onshore or caught in fishermen’s net.

“There’s only so much fortune a man really needs. The rest is just for showing off.”

- Forrest Gump, football and ping pong star, war hero, national celebrity, shrimp boat captain, college graduate with honors, and billionaire in the classic “Forrest Gump” movie

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

Kelana Jaya LRT Line Fiasco

1. 16 LRT stations had to be closed for a weekRapid Rail Sdn Bhd (RapidRail), a subsidiary of Prasarana Malaysia Berhad, announced the closure of 16 stations for a week until Nov 15 — unprecedented — for safety reasons and the time needed to identify the cause of the service disruption. According to RapidRail, the disruption to the electronic components of the Automatic Train Control System (ATC) on the Kelana Jaya LRT line service had yet to be identified.

2. Caretaker Transport Minister apologised but brushed aside his responsibilityWee Ka Siong apologised to the public for the inconvenience caused after missing a good part of yesterday. Wee said the matter is not entirely under his purview because the Ministry of Finance owns Prasarana. Wee quipped that there is an interim solution to operate the trains — operate them manually, but Prasarana didn’t have the confidence to do that.

3. Former transport ministers didn’t hold back

   1. Ong Tee Keat, who served as a transport minister between March 2008 and June 2010, said the incident could have been avoided through regular and thorough monitoring of the system.

   2. Anthony Loke, the transport minister between May 2018 and June 2020, said the Transport Ministry should have all the power to direct what Prasarana should do and called Wee’s excuse lame.

4. Selangor state government to the rescue!20 Smart Selangor buses will be deployed by Selangor to ferry commuters affected by the temporary suspension of operations at the 16 LRT stations. The state will be coordinating with RapidKL.

5. #RakyatJagaRakyat trends on Twitter — an effort by KL commuters to transport one another to their workplaces for the next few days.

If you have been impacted and want the management team of Prasarana to resign, you can sign a petition here.

GE15 Updates

1. Caretaker PM Ismail Sabri Yaakob fights back against the “1 vote KJ = 1 vote for Zahid” rhetoric by stating the obvious — voting for Pakatan Harapan (PH) would mean voting for its component DAP. It is called a coalition for a reason. A vote for Perikatan Nasional is also a vote for PAS. A vote for Barisan Nasional is also a vote for corruption because of Najib Razak.

2. Sungai Buloh candidate Khairy Jamaluddin said he aspires to lead the country and become the prime minister. However, he added he needs a win at “Sungai Buloh” first.

3. Selangor and Negri Sembilan state governments declare Nov 18 as a state holiday to allow people to vote for GE15 the following day.

4. Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA) chairman Mahathir Mohamad admitted the coalition had not been well received in a few constituencies. The former PM said voters do not understand the movement but added the coalition is making efforts to enlighten the voters.

5. Tambun candidate and Pakatan Harapan’s leader Anwar Ibrahim finally reveals his net assets — RM11.18 mil — with most of them in real estate properties.

Shorts

1. Several parts of Klang were hit by flash floods yesterday, with residents reporting flood waters had entered their homes. A flood gauge reading in Johan Setia showed a water level of 27cm — indicating a “warning” level. Anything above 30cm is considered a “danger” level.

2. MTrustee Bhd, the trustee of Capitaland Malaysia Trust (CLMT), proposes the acquisition of Queensbay Mall in Penang for RM990.5 mil. The acquisition will be financed by a private placement with the issuance of new CLMT units to raise gross proceeds of up to 50% of the price and bank borrowings for the remainder. CLMT also owns Gurney Plaza in Penang.

3. Fraser & Neave Holdings Bhd (F&N) wants to grow its dairy farm business with RM800 mil in capital expenditure (CAPEX) for the financial year ending Sept 30, 2023 (FY2023). By owning the upstream and downstream of the fresh milk business, F&N aims to lower the value chain cost per litre and compete with other Bursa-listed companies.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

Job firing an revenued slashing continue

• The rumour is confirmed - Facebook parent Meta has announced a mass layoff involving more than 11,000 workers (13% of its workforce). The company will cut discretionary spending to contain costs and extend its hiring freeze through Q1 2023. Zuck says he is “sorry” to those that are impacted. Read his memo here.

• Word is going around now that enterprise tech giant Salesforce is in the midst of slashing as many as 2,500 workers. In 2021, its headcount jumped from 57,000 to more than 73,000, partly driven by acquisitions, including the acquisition of Slack for USD27.7 bil. An activist investor Starboard recently took a stake in the company, adding further pressure to improve its financial performance. 

• TikTok announced during a virtual “all-hands” meeting that it is slashing its worldwide revenue target for 2022 by at least USD2 bil following a global slump in ad spending. Initially projecting USD12-14.5 bil in revenue, it has been revised lower, closer to USD10 bil. Its IPO is also unlikely to happen this year (we are less than two months away from year-end anyways).

The liquidity issue at FTX, one of the top 3 crypto exchanges by volume, has rattled the entire crypto market. What we know so far:

1. In a message sent to staff, CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) said the exchange saw USD6 bil of withdrawals in the past 72 hours before Tuesday morning. Net inflows/outflows average tens of millions of dollars daily, he added. 

2. Hours before FTX accepted Binance’s non-binding acquisition offer, SBF was actively seeking more than USD1 bil from “deep pockets” in Silicon Valley and Wall Street. As the day progressed, the hole grew to USD6 bil, leaving SBF no choice but to accept its rival’s offer.

3. Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek, a shareholder of FTX, says it is in talks with the company in the wake of Binance’s bailout offer. No further details were revealed. Temasek participated in FTX’s USD400 mil fundraising round in Jan 2022, which valued it at USD32 bil. The round also included SoftBank and various other prominent institutional investors (e.g. pension funds, VCs). If there’s any deal from Binance, it would be a fraction of this USD32 bil price tag - wipeout for investors. 

4. FTX’s financial troubles will have knock-on effects on the various sports sponsorship deals it has done in the past year with heavyweights such as basketball team Miami Heat (USD135 mil naming rights to its home arena), Mercedes Formula 1 team, NBA star Stephen Curry and NFL legend Tom Brady. 

5. Binance CEO CZ published his internal note to his team globally on the situation.

O&G industry underreported emissions, Sony’s plastic-free future

• Climate Trace, a project to measure the source of the proper levels of greenhouse emissions, published a new report showing that half of the 50 largest sources of greenhouse gas emitters were oil and gas fields and production facilities and emissions by this group is three times higher than their producers claim. At this rate, the world is getting further and further behind the 1.5-degree celsius target. 

• Sony will start phasing out the use of plastic packaging for small electronic items (i.e. <1kg) from next year and completely eliminate it by 2025. It will be replaced with the so-called ‘original blend material’ made from bamboo, used paper and squeezed sugarcane fibre. No time frame was set for eliminating the use of plastic for larger products like TVs. 

Shorts:

1. Elizabeth Holmes, once a high-flying entrepreneur behind Theranos, the blood testing startup, has been denied her request to seek a new trial and will be sentenced in the next 10 days. She was convicted for fraud and conspiracy charges and faces up to 20 years in jail. A documentary movie and a mini-series were made out of this saga. Watch: ‘The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley’ (movie) and ‘The Dropout’ (mini-series) trailers here and here.

2. UK police are sounding the alarm on the rise of 3D-printed guns that can be homemade and made out of plastic following one of the largest seizures of 3D-printed firearm components in the UK last month.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 👁👁

1. Aunty Karen from Segambut dissing BN’s Segambut candidate Daniel Ling — Watch till the end when she said, “When I talk about corruption, you want to go.”

2. Hannah Yeoh is sharing her experience with Ismail Sabri whilst she was the deputy minister.

1. Fahmi Reza (aka @kuasasiswa) explains in simple terms how to steal an election through gerrymandering.