☕️ The next Chief Justice could be..

1. MARKET SUMMARY 📈

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE 🔢

The Road Transport Department found that 64% of commercial vehicle operators failed to meet mandatory safety requirements. This follows the nationwide Special Operation on Safety Audit System Guidelines, which audited 133 companies operating commercial vehicles. Only 48 passed. The 85 that failed comprised 43 lorry operators and 42 tour and express bus operators. Key violations include the failure to appoint occupational safety and health officers, the lack of GPS installations in all vehicles, and poor GPS monitoring practices, among others.

According to Bukit Aman Traffic Investigation and Enforcement Department Director Mohd Yusri Hassan Basri, driver behaviour and vehicle condition are the main causes behind the 203 bus-related accidents between January 2023 to May 2025. These accidents led to 39 deaths, 68 serious injuries, and 197 minor injuries. Other contributing factors include inexperience, poor bus handling skills, and driving while fatigued or under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Mechanical issues such as brake or steering failure, along with environmental factors such as poor road conditions were also listed as causes.

Deputy PM Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is also the Halal Industry Development Council chairman, said that the first phase of the Halal Industry Master Plan, covering 2023 to 2025, has recorded an implementation rate of 89.7%. This led to the halal industry contributing RM149 bil to Malaysia’s GDP, with halal exports reaching a value of RM61.8 bil. The halal ecosystem is also being strengthened through the expansion of halal parks. There are now 14 strategic parks nationwide spanning 200,000 acres, with a cumulative investment of RM3.8 bil as of the first quarter of 2025.

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3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

Health ministry explores partnerships to boost AI adoption
Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad said that his ministry is exploring partnerships to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) to solve key health challenges. Dzulkefly added that 156 health clinics have been equipped with a cloud-based content management system — as part of the AI-based digital reforms his ministry is implementing — allowing 70% of patients to be treated in less than 30 minutes. He also mentioned that the first phase of the Electronic Medical Record system has been completed, involving 5 mil prescriptions, 20 mil vaccination records and 1 mil dental records. The Health Minister also said that the MySejahtera app has been developed into a preventive health gateway and a national digital gateway. But wait a minute. Isn’t MySejahtera owned by Entomo Malaysia Sdn Bhd, which is fully owned by a Singapore-based company, Entomo Pte Ltd? And don’t get me started with Rakan KKM. Profits churned out from the ailing healthcare industry should be reinvested into the public healthcare sector.

In another related matter, Trade Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz announced that Putrajaya is mulling the creation of a new national blueprint for the healthcare industry. Not for the doctors’ and nurses’ side of the industry, but for the healthcare manufacturing side of the industry. In 2024 alone, Malaysia’s medical devices and pharmaceutical industries attracted RM2.13 bil in combined investments, creating over 2,700 high-value jobs.

Gamuda wins with contracts and go-aheads
Let’s start on a good note. Maybank Investment Bank (Maybank IB) stated that two companies - Gamuda Bhd and MN Holdings Bhd will likely benefit the most from RM10 bil worth of data centre contracts from Eco World Development Group Bhd and Sime Darby Property Bhd. Maybank IB advised that the two companies are options to watch for exposure to the high-growth data centre sector.

In another bit of Gamuda news, the firm takes another win as its 60%-owned subsidiary, SRS Consortium, was given the go-ahead from MRT Corp to start the first civil works package of the Penang LRT line project. The RM8.31 bil contract has suffered huge delays despite SRS Consortium being awarded the tender in January. The contract covers a 24km stretch from Komtar in George Town to Island A under the Penang South Island project, with 19 stations and supporting works.

Shorts

1. Khazanah to play big in the bond market
   Khazanah Nasional Bhd is considering raising up to RM2.12 bil from an exchangeable dollar bond sale to finance its overseas investments. The underlying assets of the bonds are not specified, but their equities in state-owned electricity firm Tenaga Nasional Bhd, Telekom Malaysia Bhd or CIMB Group Holdings Bhd may be floated. Khazanah owns about 21% of Tenaga, 20% of Telekom Malaysia and around 21% of CIMB. An exchangeable dollar bond is a type of hybrid debt security that can be converted into the shares of a company other than the issuing company.

2. Court of Appeal judge potential front-runner for Chief Justice post
   A new candidate for the Chief Justice role has emerged in the form of 62-year-old Court of Appeal judge Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh. Several sources from the legal fraternity described him as a fair judge and even PM Anwar Ibrahim has allegedly floated his name a few times. Before going to the judiciary branch, he was deputy home minister from March 2008 to April 2009, and was the Kuala Terengganu UMNO deputy chief in 2001. Among his key decisions was to order the police to complete the probe into Teoh Beng Hock’s death within six months last November.

3. Siti Nurhaliza to perform in Indonesia
   Let’s end the week with a bit of entertainment news (ala ala Melodi gitu). Malaysia’s very own Dato’ Sri Siti Nurhaliza will be performing at Pestapora 2025 in Jakarta this September. She will also be the first Malaysian ever to grace the Pestapora stage since the festival began in 2022. A queen really moves in silence.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

Misbehaving monks and Ms Golf
Another scandal has erupted in Thailand’s Buddhist institution. Police have arrested a woman for allegedly engaging in sexual relations with monks and then using photos and videos of the acts to extort money from them. Ms Golf, as the police call her, is said to have had sex with at least nine monks, and the police believe that she had received around USD11.9 mil over the past 3 years. Investigators discovered over 80,000 photos and videos used for the blackmail in her possession, and she now faces multiple charges including extortion, money laundering and receiving stolen goods. This is not the first time that the Thai Buddhist institution, Thai Sangha, was rocked by scandal - in recent years, the Sangha has been plagued with allegations of monks engaging in sex offences and drug trafficking. This case has prompted the Sangha Supreme Council to form a special committee to review monastic regulations, with the police opening a hotline for people to report "misbehaving monks". The government is also pushing for harsher penalties - including fines and jail time - for monks who breach the monastic code.

MAGA questioning their election choices
Trump is calling his supporter base Make America Great Again (MAGA) as “weaklings” as the group continues to question the transparency of his government when it comes to the inquiry into the late high-profile socialite and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The President currently struggles to contain the MAGA base's suspicions that the administration is hiding details of Epstein’s crimes to protect the rich elite Epstein associated with, which included Trump himself. He called the Epstein case the “Jeffrey Epstein Hoax”, and said the FBI should investigate it as part of a criminal conspiracy against him. The MAGA also suspects that Epstein - who killed himself in 2019 while in federal custody – was murdered by powerful figures to cover up their roles in his sex crimes against children. It’s about time that you questioned your choice, MAGA. Besides his supporter base, other high-profile conservatives have also called for Trump to make public everything known about Epstein. Even his daughter-in-law, Fox News host Lara Trump, has said that she feels like the case needs more transparency.

Caught a Gen Z staring blankly at you?
The internet has gone viral with the “Gen Z stare” - a vacant, wide-eyed expression often accompanied by an awkward silence, often during retail and customer service interactions, or in painful workplace conversations. While some argue that it is some kind of workplace awkwardness among Gen Z due to underdeveloped soft skills, others are saying that it is simply a stare for “thought processing”, or to put it more bluntly, “processing stupidity”, as one netizen said. The discourse appears to take place between millennials and Gen Z, in which psychological experts are saying that it is a form of intergenerational criticism in the workplace or in life generally. Experts are also saying that the Gen Z stare could be a result of Gen Zers navigating the workplace for the first time and growing up online with a lack of real-life connections. Regardless of the root causes behind the stare, experts do suggest that it's crucial to equip young people with the communication skills they need to thrive in an in-person, multigenerational workforce. With respect to the workplace, it appears that nearly half of GenZers think they do not have adequate skills, such as communication and professionalism, and universities generally don't teach students about it. Won’t hurt if we all meet in the middle.

Shorts

1. USD1 bil big fish business for the Japanese

   Japanese trading house Mitsubishi Corp is going to acquire the salmon aquaculture operations from Norwegian company Grieg Seafood for USD1 bil, making Mitsubishi the second biggest salmon producer in the world. Mitsubishi will own the aquafarms located in Norway and Canada, and the acquisition will lead to an increase in annual output of salmon by over 20% to about 250,000. The firm aims to expand production to 280,000 per year. That’s a lot of salmon for the world.

2. Kissing your loved ones goodbye at the airport? Pay up

   Apparently, dropping off and kissing your loved ones goodbye at the airport is quite costly in the UK. In fact, according to a recent survey by the Royal Automobile Club (RAC), 11 out of 20 UK airports have raised these “kiss-and-fly” fees since last July, with some airports charging up to GBP7 to park for more or less 10 minutes. Industry representative Airports UK said that these charges are used to manage and reduce congestion, noise, carbon emissions and air pollution for local communities. London City airport was the only one on the list that charges no fee.

3. “Three-parent baby” solution for families with mitochondrial diseases

   Experts at Britain’s Newcastle University and Monash University in Australia have recently published the results of a new in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) technique that involves DNA from three people — the mother, the father, and a healthy donor — to make a baby that are free from genetic diseases. Eight healthy babies have been born from the procedure. While it is a huge milestone in fertility science, the procedure remains controversial and is not approved in many countries due to ethical concerns, including the destruction of human embryos and fears of creating “designer babies”. Nevertheless, experts argue that it is a life-changing solution for families struggling with devastating mitochondrial diseases. Read more about the findings here.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 📺

1. Here’s how the Malaysian population is projected to evolve in the coming decades according to the Department of Statistics (DoSM).

2. Stranger Things 5 (series finale) trailer is out. It will be released in 3 parts: Vol 1 (Nov 26), Vol 2 (Christmas) and finale on NYE. If you enjoy the song in the trailer, it is “Child in Time” by Deep Purple (they're coming to Malaysia this Nov).

Here’s how Middle Eastern people play golf. I would prefer this outcome too than a hole-in-one. Have a good weekend!

omiddjalili

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