☕️ Tengku Zafrul to join PKR?

1. MARKET SUMMARY 📈

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE 🔢

RM14 mil - the annual loss incurred in operating the ferry service in Penang. Ticket revenue is only able to cover 35% of the operational costs. One of the factors contributing to the losses is the high cost of diesel, which is purchased at market prices and the lack of diesel subsidy for ferry service, a key public service in Penang. On top of that, each ferry incurs a cost of RM2 mil annually for the cost of annual inspections, maintenance and insurance premiums. From Jan to Oct 2024, 1.76 mil pedestrian passengers and 615,789 two-wheeled vehicles had used the ferry service.

289,161 students with learning disabilities were registered as persons with disabilities (OKU) from Jan to Oct 2024, an increase from 262,283 that were registered in 2023. The increase in registrations is deemed encouraging according to Women, Family and Community Development Minister Nancy Shukri as it reflects more parental awareness towards signs of their children’s disabilities, which is key to eliminating stigma associated with children with disabilities. Despite this increase, the number of registered OKU people in the country was still relatively low as many OKUs or their families do not know how to register as an OKU.

Flying globally is going to get more expensive in 2025, according to American Express Global Business Travel Group Inc forecast. Routes in Asia and Australasia, among the last regions to unwind pandemic curbs, are set to rise close to 14%. The key factors drivers pushing up airfares include rising wages, and staffing shortages, especially with the ongoing labour disputes in North America and the cost of fuel amid ongoing geopolitical tensions. Routes between Europe and Asia will likely see a 6.6% jump, driven largely with higher costs associated with avoiding Russian airspace.

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3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

Tengku Zafrul to cycle his way to PKR?
PM Anwar Ibrahim confirmed the rumours that there had been initial discussions to induct International Trade Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz into PKR from UMNO. Why does Tengku Zafrul want to enter PKR, you may ask? Zafrul’s ministerial role is set to end in December 2025 due to the term limit of his senatorship, which prevents reappointment. So, allegedly the plan is to introduce Zafrul as a new PKR member where Zafrul will contest in a by-election for a Selangor State Assembly seat and appoint him as the new Selangor Menteri Besar. The current Selangor Menteri Besar on the other, Amirudin Shari is allegedly set to be given a ministerial role at the Federal level as he is also the current Gombak MP.

In response to the rumour that one of their own will be switching sides, UMNO President cum Deputy PM Ahmad Zahid Hamidi issued a statement that lambasted any party members who were willing to abandon the party’s struggle to achieve personal interests. Zahid even added that UMNO prioritises loyalists over the ones who are intelligent but lack passion for the party. UMNO secretary-general Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki on the other hand said that party hopping amongst the members of the Unity Government is a red line that should not be crossed as it could jeopardise the stability of the coalition.

Is Zafrul worth the trouble? Your guess is no better than mine. Politically, he never won any seats, both on state and federal levels, with the most recent one where he lost narrowly to PH’s Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad in GE15 for the Kuala Selangor seat. However, on the administrative side, Zafrul is a survivor, having been a Finance Minister, both under former PM Muhyiddin Yassin and ex-PM Ismail Sabri and now an International Trade Minister under PM Anwar Ibrahim. The man himself, Tengku Zafrul is expected to issue an official statement on the rumours soon.

Business

• Dyson is facing a deja vu as the UK Court of Appeal stated that the 24 workers from Nepal and Bangladesh who claimed that they were subjected to forced labour at a Malaysian factory while making parts for British vacuum cleaner manufacturer Dyson, can now sue the company in London’s court. Previously, the UK High Court turned down the lawsuit by the workers stating that the workers could only sue in Malaysia. The lawsuit, illustrates that the workers were subject to unlawful wage deductions and beatings for not meeting their KPIs when they were working for ATA Industrial, Dyson’s contractor in Malaysia.

• The new Kuching International Airport (KIA) is speculated to be located off the coast of Tanjung Embang, on a man-made island that will also be integrated with the soon-to-be constructed Tanjung Embang Deep Sea Port. Despite the new KIA is still in the proposal stage, we cannot overlook the resemblance it has with the current Kansai International Airport in Japan, which is also built on a man-made island. Kansai International Airport was constructed in 1998 with a USD14 bil price tag. Check it out here.

• Telekom Malaysia has introduced a new revenue stream that provides data-center-like service for the average consumers, dubbed GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS). GPUaaS is a cloud computing service model that provides access to high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs) over the internet where users can rent GPU resources on a pay-as-you-use basis. Telekom Group CEO Amar Huzaimi Md Deris stated that the company has secured an undisclosed international customer for the new service.

• Macquarie Asset Management Pty Ltd is in the race to acquire Axiata Group Bhd’s 63%-owned telco infra unit, edotco Group Sdn Bhd, in a deal that could value edotco at a whopping USD3.5 bil. edotco manages over 55,000 telecom towers in Asia. At the moment, Macquarie is actively pursuing merger & acquisitions (M&A) deals as recently the company acquired Hanam data centre in Seoul for USD663 mil and sold off Australian data-centre operator AirTrunk for USD16.1 bil.

Malaysia is the world champion for FIFAe World Cup
Malaysia, represented by the ‘Minbappe’ team, has won the prestigious FIFAe World Cup, for the mobile category, beating off Morocco in the tournament’s final in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Malaysia brought home RM88,000 in prize money and the bragging rights as the first ASEAN country to win the tournament. Our neighbour, Indonesia has also emerged winner for the console category, brushing off Brazil in the final round. Malaysia is one of the twelve countries that won titles for the FIFAe World Cup, since its inception in 2004. May Malaysia properly win the World Cup, one fine day in the future.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

Sex Crimes

• ABC News loses and has to pay Trump USD15 mil in defamation case
  ABC News will now pay USD15mil to Donald Trump to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by the US President-elect , after its star anchor George Stephanopoulos falsely said in a broadcast that he had been found “liable for rape” in a civil case filed in 2023.

  Turns out that he was actually “liable for sexual abuse” instead, which has a specific definition under New York law. The 2023 court case found that Trump sexually abused E Jean Carroll, a magazine columnist, in a dressing room at a department store in 1996. Judge Lewis Kaplan said that the jury's conclusion was that Ms Carroll had failed to prove that Trump raped her "within the narrow, technical meaning of a particular section of the New York Penal Law", so he is not “liable for rape”. He also noted that the definition of rape was "far narrower" than how rape is defined in common modern parlance, in some dictionaries and in criminal statutes elsewhere.

  As a result for the “defamation”, ABC News is required to pay the settlement as a charitable contribution to a "Presidential foundation and museum to be established by or for Plaintiff, as Presidents of the US have established in the past". The network also agreed to pay USD1 mil towards Trump's legal fees.

• Removing condom during intercourse is considered rape
  On the subject of rape, in the UK, turns out that when a man removes a condom during a consensual intercourse without informing his partner, it is considered as a rape, aka stealthing. Police in the UK said that stealthing is a slang word but the practice is legally considered rape, although prosecutions are rare due to under-reporting, as many do not realise it is an offence.

South Korea - Impeachment Round 2
President Yoon Suk-yeol has been impeached by the South Korean National Assembly, after a voting result of 204 to 85 by its members, the second such vote in 8 days. The impending impeachment came after his short-lived attempt to impose martial law that sent the nation into a political turmoil. The results were welcomed by thousands of protesters outside the chamber building.

With his impeachment, Yoon is automatically suspended from office while South Korea’s Constitutional Court deliberates his fate. Yoon accepted his fate and said that he will continue to do his” best for the nation until the end” as he fights his case. The Constitutional Court would have 180 days to rule on Yoon’s future. If it backs his removal, Yoon would become the second president in South Korean history to be successfully impeached.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo in the meantime will take over as interim president of South Korea.

Indonesia releases ‘Bali Nine’ Australian drug prisoners 19 years in jail
5 of the 9 members of the Australian “Bali Nine” drug ring finally returned to Australia yesterday, after serving a long 19 years in Indonesian jail. The case of the Bali Nine drew global attention in 2005, where they were arrested in Bali for an attempt to smuggle more than 8kg of heroin off the island. 2 members of the group, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed by a firing squad under the unforgiving Indonesian drug laws, despite repeated appeals from the Australian government, while the rest served time in jail. One of them died of cancer in 2018, and one was released in the same year after serving jail for 13 years.

Indonesia is infamous for its tough drug laws, which also includes death penalty for traffickers. In Bali, it is common for foreigners to be arrested for drug offences, giving its popular status as a holiday hotspot which attracts thousands of visitors every year. In November, a senior Indonesian minister said Jakarta aimed to return prisoners from Australia, France and the Philippines by the end of this year. France last month requested the return of its citizen, Serge Atlaoui, a welder arrested in 2005 in a drugs factory outside Jakarta. Earlier December, Indonesia signed an agreement with the Philippines for the return of Mary Jane Veloso who was arrested in 2010 after the suitcase she was carrying was found to be lined with 2.6 kg of heroin.

Read: Who were the Bali Nine?

Shorts

1. Mango founder Isak Andic dies in mountain accident

   Founder and owner of the evergreen apparel brand Mango, Isak Andic, has passed away at the age of 71 after he slipped and fell more than 100 metres from a cliff while hiking with relatives in the Montserrat caves near Barcelona on Saturday. Andic was born in Istanbul, Turkiye and moved with his family to the northeastern Spanish region of Catalonia in the 1960s, where he founded Mango in 1984 and now has presence in 120 markets, 15,500 employees and generated revenue of USD3.26 bil last year. He was worth a whopping USD 4.5 bil.

2. Prince Andrew back in the headlines over alleged Chinese spy relationship

   Already so tainted with scandal, including a friendship with US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Prince Andrew (brother of King Charles III) was hurled into a media scrutiny once again. In a recent court case, a close Chinese business associate of his was suspected by the British government to be a spy. The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that the Prince was investigated by MI5 for Chinese money given to him, while The Times said he had invited the businessman to the royal properties of Buckingham Palace, St James’s Palace and Windsor Castle. The Prince quickly issued a statement to the BBC and other media in which he said he had “ceased all contact” with the individual, described in court documents as his “close confidant”.

3. Indonesian eFishery board suspended its co-founders

   It was reported yesterday that Temasek-backed Indonesian unicorn eFishery’s board has suspended its co-founders, Gibran Huzaifah and Chrisna Aditya, following an investigation into alleged financial regularities at the company. Only a few months back, the Indonesian agritech giant was talking about its anticipation of an IPO after it gained traction following the successful raising of USD200 mil in Series D funding last year, which boosted the company’s valuation to USD1.4 bil. Khazanah avoided this bomb this time around - Khazanah initially announced that it would lead the Series D funding, but subsequently backed out.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 📺

Start the week with safety and survival tips

1. Doesn’t matter the speed of the car - so long it’s in motion, just wear the safety belts. Watch below the impact of a sudden stop even at tortoise 10 km/h.

2. Here’s how to get back up on your boat, during this flood season or whenever you are out boating.