☕️ Which PM has the highest political appointees?

1. MARKET SUMMARY 📈

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE 🔢

A total of 2,575 emergency calls related to fallen trees were received by the Fire and Rescue Department across Malaysia between January and July this year. Selangor reported the most incidents with 441 cases, followed by Perak with 321 and Sarawak with 264. The incidents resulted in eight deaths, 27 injuries, and 37 successful rescues. Last year, the department received 4,825 calls nationwide concerning fallen trees. As we head into the monsoon season, please be careful of your surroundings!

Children’s eyesight is steadily declining, with 1 in 3 now short-sighted or struggling to see things in the distance, according to a global analysis. The study suggests that Covid lockdowns worsened the situation by increasing screen time and reducing outdoor activities. Myopia has become a growing health concern, predicted to affect millions more children by 2050, with Asia seeing the highest rates — 85% of children in Japan, 73% in South Korea, and over 40% in China and Russia. The prevalence of short-sightedness has tripled since 1990, now impacting 36% of children.

Women now account for 29% of executive-level C-suite positions (in the US), a significant rise from 17% in 2015, according to new research by McKinsey and Lean In. The study, conducted across 281 organisations employing 10 mil people, also highlights increases in women's representation in VP and senior VP roles, with rises of 7% and 6%, respectively, over the past decade. These figures mark notable progress in gender equity at top leadership levels.

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

Police Gone Wild

Got the reference above? 

IGP Razarudin Husain stated that out of the 31 individuals who tested positive for drugs during a raid at an entertainment outlet in Sungai Petani, Kedah, a dozen of them were policemen. All the police personnel arrested during the raid conducted by the Bukit Aman Integrity and Standards Compliance Department (JIPS) will be suspended immediately. JIPS is the ‘police that will police the police’ and their role is perfectly illustrated in the movie ‘Sheriff’ directed by Syafiq Yusof.

In another separate event last month, in a very ballsy move, a police sergeant hosted a private party at a district police headquarters, to be exact - in the lounge of the Anti-Vice, Anti-Gambling and Secret Society Suppression Division (D7). Out of the five individuals caught in the act, there were two policemen, a local woman and two Indonesian women. The Shah Alam Integrity Division botched the social gathering after conducting a surprise inspection during the wee hours past midnight.

Putrajaya still practices political appointments. Reformasi or reformati?
The Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) revealed that political appointment is still a norm, even in the current Madani Government, with a total of 95 political appointments to federal statutory bodies (FSBs) and government-linked companies (GLCs). UMNO is the biggest beneficiary of political appointments, bagging 22 appointments, almost tallying the sum of political appointees from PKR (17) and Amanah (7). However, the number is way lower than the political appointments made by former PM Ismail Sabri (273 appointments) and former PM Muhyiddin Yassin (186 appointments). Former PM Najib Razak still holds the record for the highest political appointments made with an astounding 301 appointees.

Moving forward, IDEAS senior research manager Alissa Marianne Rode presented a few recommendations to ensure the statutory bodies and GLCs operate towards their objectives and not to certain political interests. Among the recommendations: 

• Regulatory reforms to strengthen governance, including standards to prevent conflicts of interest, institutionalised procedures for board appointments, and the mandatory publishing of annual reports;

• Appointments should also require independent and nonpartisan vetting and selection processes and parliamentary oversight.

While talking about appointments to statutory bodies and GLCs, ex Tik Tok Malaysia’s Head of Public Policy, Anuar Fariz Fadzil has been appointed as the CEO of the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC). He used to serve at Celcom Axiata, Axiata Group Berhad and was the aide to the MITI Minister, during the earlier phase of his career. So, one less GLC position filled with political appointees.

Shorts

• A Firefly flight bound for Penang had to make an emergency U-turn back to the Subang Airport, just 15 minutes into the flight, due to the presence of smoke in the cabin. Firefly is a low-cost airline subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines. The bad luck that Malaysia Airlines is suffering is never-ending. Watch the incident here.

• The east coast of Peninsular Malaysia is going to experience Sunway Lagoon-ish water splash but in a bad way as according to MetMalaysia, the Northeast Monsoon will bring heavy rain in Kelantan, Terengganu, and Pahang between November and December. From December to January, the heavy rain will move to Johor, Sabah and Sarawak. Not hoping for flooding *touch wood* but if it does happen, please prepare an emergency pack for your family and always be aware of announcements from the authorities. Refer here to create your own emergency pack.

• Sarawak is set to create its own Khazanah Nasional by considering consolidating its state assets, businesses and investment arms into the newly set up RM8 bil entity dubbed  Sarawak Sovereign Wealth and Future Fund (SSWFF). At the moment, Sarawak Inc is the official Sarawak state investment branch. If this move is materialised, entities such as Petros and Sarawak Energy will be under one roof.

• Selangor has become the second state, after Perlis, to declare that Global Ikhwan Services and Business Holdings (GISB) is a deviant organisation that practises ‘ajaran sesat’, the same teachings followed by the Darul Arqam group which was banned in 1993. As of now, 402 children have been rescued from welfare homes linked to GISB in raids conducted by the police nationwide.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

First ex-minister in Singapore to go to jail
S Iswaran, 62, has been sentenced to 12 months in prison for obstructing justice and receiving more than USD300,000 worth of gifts, marking the first time an ex-cabinet member in squeaky clean Singapore is jailed. Interestingly, the sentence handed down was more severe than the 6-7 months sought by the prosecution as the presiding judge deemed it as “manifestly inadequate” given the gravity of Iswaran’s offences and the impact of trust. 

Iswaran initially said he was innocent but pleaded guilty last week to the 5 charges, of which 2 were initially corruption-related but were amended to charges of receiving gifts while a public servant. The attorney general’s chambers said the amendments were made due to litigation risk involved in proving the corruption charges beyond a reasonable doubt. Can’t brain this logic. Don’t give Najib ideas. 

Iswaran was charged in July last year for taking kickbacks from Malaysian property tycoon Ong Beng Seng whilst Iswaran was an adviser to the Singapore Grand Prix’s steering committee, which Ong owns the rights to the race. Ong, 78, will be charged today. 

OpenAI’s USD6.6 bil funding - largest ever VC funding round
The ChatGPT creator announced that it raised USD6.6 bil in its latest funding round valuing it at USD157 bil post-money, bringing the total funding it raised to USD17.9 bil. It is said that this is the largest VC funding round of all time. OpenAI imposed a minimum ticket size of USD250 mil per investor with Microsoft returning to invest a little below USD1 bil (USD14 bil invested) and also counts SoftBank’s USD500 mil amongst its new investors. It also requested its investors to refrain, though not legally binding, from investing in 5 other AI companies: Amazon-backed Anthropic, Elon Musk’s xAI, OpenAI’s co-founder Ilya Sutskever’s new company, Safe Superintelligence (SSI), Perplexity and Glean. Funny enough, OpenAI’s chairman Bret Taylor said in a podcast that aired on Wednesday that he thinks that AI is in a bubble. 

For investors in this new round, it seems like they have money-back guarantee on their investment. OpenAI started out as a non-profit organisation and its for-profit division is currently governed by a nonprofit that caps investors’ returns. CEO Sam Altman signalled that it will move away from nonprofit governance and failing to do so in the next 2 years, investors can claw back their investments. 

Whilst we are on the topic of AI, the best-performing stock in the S&P500 so far this year isn’t AI posterchild Nvidia. It’s a nuclear utility company - Vistra Corp (view company here), which is up 216% year-to-date, soaring to a valuation of USD42 bil. Then again, all roads lead to AI - Vistra’s astronomical pump is attributed to immense power demand from AI-driven data centres around the US and as it operates in unregulated power markets, it’s not beholden to strict price controls. 

As for Nvidia, CEO Jensen Huang added some fuel to its rally this year as its stock jumped as much as 5% yesterday following his comments about the “insane” demand for its next-generation Blackwell GPU chips. 

Middle East - Quick Update

• Biden against Iranian nuclear strike
  Following Iran’s launch of 180 missiles at Israel, US President Joe Biden said he does not support any potential Israeli retaliatory action on Iranian nuclear sites. Instead, his administration is discussing possible Israeli strikes on Iran’s oil facilities. Support, no support, Israel has demonstrated many times to ignore what the US wants. Expect worst-case escalation. 

• Israel killed 22 innocent people to kill 1 Hamas figure
  Displaying a poor understanding of vocabulary once more, Israel said it targeted a Hamas “command and control centre” embedded inside the Gaza City in a “precise strike” that killed 22 people, including 13 children and 6 women as they had been targeting one local Hamas figure, but failed to comment who they were targeting. UNICEF reported that more than 50% of schools that are housing displaced people had been directly hit by the current war. 

Shorts

1. LVMH x F1
   The French luxury conglomerate and Liberty Media-owned Formula One announced a 10-year partnership starting next season and will include “hospitality, bespoke activations, limited editions and outstanding content”. LVMH owns brands such as Louis Vuitton, Moet Hennessy and TAG Heuer, which will be included in the partnership. More details of the partnership will be revealed come 2025 and there were no financial details included in the announcement. 

2. WWII-era bomb exploded near plane runway
   A WWII-era bomb exploded at a regional airport in southwest Japan, believed to be a US bombshell that was likely dropped during the war to stem “kamikaze” attacks. The explosion caused a crater 7 meters wide and 1 meter deep and nearly 90 flight cancellations. It was a close call for a plane as it was seen on footage taxiing nearby just 2 minutes before the explosion (watch incident here).

3. Google releases new search function by taking a video
   Point a camera, record a video, ask a question and get search results - Google has released this feature globally on both Android and iPhone, User has to enable “AI Overview” in their Google app. Google also introduced a rival tool to the music-identifying app Shazam (acquired by Apple in 2018).

5. FOR YOUR EYES 📺

1. I think I’ve shared it before, but there’s definitely no harm in sharing it again. The best book on personal finance hands down by Morgan Housel, touches on investment, risk, savings, wealth etc.

2. Weekend entertainment #1 - if you grew up with Street Fighter, this is exactly what we needed

3. Weekend entertainment #2 - real dogs vs robot dog