☕️ Weekend of wins: Unity government's by-election victory, civil servants' pay hike

1. MARKET SUMMARY 📈

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE 🔢

Great news for parents of students who have scored 10As in SPM — Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek announced in Parliament that 1,193 SPM 2023 candidates who scored 10As but had not yet received offers have been given an offer in early August. Next year, there shouldn’t be any hoo-ha about this. PM Anwar Ibrahim said his Cabinet agreed that all Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) students, regardless of background, who scored 10As and above will get a place in the matriculation programme from 2025 onwards.
Learn: Malaysian Matriculation Programme.

From 2015 to 2023, a Chinese crime group stole, cut up, and sold over 4,000 bodies to make bone grafts. They took the bodies from crematoriums and medical labs in different provinces. The bodies were then sent to a company called Shanxi Aorui Biomaterials in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province, for processing. This illegal activity made about RMB380 mil yuan (RM234.9 mil). Since the Paper, a state-owned online publication broke the scandal, around 80 people have been arrested. The story has sparked public outrage in China. However, the article was taken down and censors have also stifled discussion of the scandal on social media.

LPL's chief technical strategist, Adam Turnquist, highlights that the S&P 500 has historically shown an 83% accuracy rate in predicting the US presidential election outcome since 1928. Specifically, if the S&P 500 performs positively in the three months leading up to the election, the incumbent party has a strong chance (80%) of retaining the White House. Conversely, a negative return in this period has led to the incumbent party losing 89% of the time.

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

Unity Government (BN) won in Kelantan
Barisan Nasional, a component party under the Unity Government, has clinched victory in the Neggiri state seat by-election, beating Perikatan Nasional (PN) in a two-way fight with a comfortable 3,352 vote majority. Prior to BN candidate Azmawi Fikri’s win, Nenggiri has been a BN stronghold until PN swung the seat its way in 2022 with an 810-vote majority. The by-election in Nenggiri was triggered when its previous incumbent, Mohd Azizi Abu Naim declared his support for PM Anwar Ibrahim.

BN’s win in Nenggiri is not taken well by the defeated as PN’s director for the Nenggiri by-election, Annuar Musa accused that 2,000 people did not show up to the polling station due to claims of vote buying. The voter turnout for Nenggiri is 73.88%, which is quite high for a by-election. So Annuar, please stop coming up with excuses.

We have another by-election: Mahkota in Johor on Sep 28. UMNO Secretary-General Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said that BN will continue the same targeted and door-to-door campaign in this upcoming by-election. Asyraf said this approach was proven to be effective in the Nenggiri by-election where BN organised (small-scale) programs with 30 to 40 attendees at the homes of PAS voters, where they invited their own families. Pakatan Harapan has confirmed that the Unity Government will field a BN candidate.

No more slacking, says PM Anwar to public servants
After announcing the pay hike for public servants, a 15% salary adjustment for civil servants in the implementing, management and professional groups and 7% for those in top management, PM Anwar Ibrahim has called on civil servants to improve their quality of work. PM Anwar added that Malaysians will start to monitor the performance of the public servants and they can report to the appropriate parties if the public sees any slackers.

Every time Putrajaya announces anything, the domino effect will also be felt in other sectors. Human Resources Minister Steven Sim said that the proposal for a new minimum wage is expected to be presented at a Cabinet meeting next month. Sim previously stated that the government would review the minimum wage, which was last updated in May 2022, raising it from RM1,200 to RM1,500. There’s minimum wage, and there’s living wage - BNM in 2017 proposed a living wage of RM2,700 for single persons in urban areas. 

Elmina flight crash full report out - human error the cause
Based on the final report on the fatal plane crash in Bandar Elmina near Shah Alam, the Air Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) concluded that the crash was caused by a mixture of human errors — accidental action before the aircraft’s landing, wrong seating positions and lack of training. According to the report, it stated that the second-in-command (SIC) misunderstood the checklist to prepare for landing and deployed the lift dump spoilers, instead of just unlocking it. The mistake caused a sudden loss of lift, resulting in a catastrophic loss of control and the subsequent crash.

Another contributing factor is the pilot and SIC switched seats during the flight which may lead to ‘ineffective crew resource management and communication’. The SIC also had not received any formal training to operate this aircraft type and had not operated this aircraft type except for two other flights the day before. Ten people died when a Beechcarft 390 Premier I business jet crashed onto an expressway interchange near Elmina on 17 August 2023. Read the full report on the crash here.
Watch: A heart-breaking thread of plane crashes caught on video (warning - disturbing)

Palm oil: Forest preservation and no more orang utan diplomacy
Plantation Minister Johari Abdul Ghani said that Putrajaya decided to do a u-turn on the ‘orang utan diplomacy’ where Malaysian palm oil buyers will get an orang utan as a free gift. Johari stated that some conservation groups were against the idea when he announced the policy previously. According to WWF Malaysia, a census conducted between May 2014 and March 2017 recorded there were 10,000 to 15,000 orang utans in Sabah and some 2,000 in Sarawak.

Instead of shipping off orang utan to palm oil importing countries, Malaysia will instead focus on preserving the existing forest so that orang utan can roam freely in their own natural habitat. Johari added that Malaysia has pledged to halt new oil palm plantations in forest areas to support sustainability and maintain its current forest cover of 54%. Johari stated that palm fruits harvested from deforested areas will be barred from entering palm oil mills and palm oil mills that accepted the ‘forbidden’ fruit will be banned from exporting the finished products. Question is — how do they verify it? 

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

Thailand gets a new Prime Minister 
After the removal of Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin on Wednesday, Thailand gets a new PM a few days later. This time, a woman with a prominent family name, Paetongtarn Shinawatra. Dubbed the youngest ever PM, Paetongtarn, 37, is the daughter of billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra who was ousted from the Thai government back in 2006. 
Read: Who is Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Thailand’s new, youngest PM?

Paetongtarn’s appointment was pretty smooth as her party and allies hold 314 out of 493 seats in parliament. The third person (the other being her aunt) from her family to take the country’s top job, Paetongtarn’s political career began in 2021 when she became chief of the Pheu Thai party’s Inclusion and Innovation Advisory Committee.

She is also the second Thai female PM after her aunt, Yingluck Shinawatra, who became prime minister in 2011 until she was removed by the Constitutional Court in 2014. Paetongtarn in her campaign for election last year, promised to lower Bangkok’s public transportation fares, expand healthcare coverage and double the minimum daily wage.

Her first term is set to challenge her with Thailand’s struggling economy, her party’s dwindling popularity and a possible rise of the opposition.

In a separate news, not long after her appointment, her father, former PM Thaksin Shinawatra received a royal pardon from the King, ending his sentence of eight years in prison for abuse of power and conflicts of interests during his time in office from 2001 to 2006.

Nepotism is (fill in the blank), but it is also “sweet”.

What do we know about Mpox so far?
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the virus Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, as a public health emergency earlier this week, after a massive outbreak in Africa in early August. As of today, there are countries outside the continent with confirmed cases of mpox: 1 in Sweden, 3 in Pakistan and 11 in Indonesia. Getting a little too close for comfort. 👀

WHO claims that the declaration’s objective is to increase awareness and better resource allocation in managing the disease globally, and is not intended to cause panic.

Mpox symptoms are milder than smallpox, such as fever, chills and body aches and typically lasts for 2-4 weeks. However, the infection can become serious and lead to death in severe cases. The virus spreads through the blood causing lesions on the skin and scabbing that are highly infectious. It spreads through close contact with infected persons or animals and via contaminated objects. The risks are higher in children, the elderly and the immuno-compromised.

Best practices for protection are personal hygiene and handwashing, as well as avoiding contact with infected persons, and seeking treatment immediately when symptoms appear. Although a chunk of the cases are concentrated in Africa for now, health officials have urged people to learn our lessons from COVID-19.

On the business front

1. PropertyGuru to be acquired by EQT Private Capital Asia

   PropertyGuru has scored big — it will be acquired by EQT AB in an all-cash USD 1.1 bil deal, where shareholders will receive USD 6.70 (RM29.70) a piece, a 7% premium to the firm’s last close on Thursday. The offer from EQT is a 52% premium to PropertyGuru’s last close on May 21, a day before Bloomberg News first reported a potential buyout by private equity firms TPG and KKR. KKR and TPG each hold a 29.58% and 26.52% stake in the Singaporean firm and are its top two shareholders.PropertyGuru was established in 2007 and provides online real estate search services in countries including Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore.
   A real good deal for PG shareholders considering the company generated only SGD150.1 mil in revenue and net loss of SGD15.3 mil in financial year 2023 (view financials here).

2. Revolut reaches a staggering USD45 bil valuation after share sale
   British’s fintech Revolut has been valued at USD 45 bil through a secondary share sale to new and existing investors, cementing its position as one of Europe’s most valuable fintechs, and making it worth more than some of Europe’s biggest banks. The share sale enables current employees to cash out some of their shares, even before an IPO. Founded in 2015, Revolut is one of a handful of financial services apps to have emerged in Britain in the last decade. It offers financial services via an app instead of traditional physical branches and was last valued at USD 33 bil in 2021 fundraising. In 2023, the company reported revenue of USD2.2 bil, up 95% year-on-year, and record profit before tax of USD545 mil.

Shorts:

1. Ceasefire deal is now in sight for Gaza

   Talks of ceasefire seem to be taking a promising turn as the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken travelled to the Middle East yesterday to continue the diplomatic push with Qatar and Egypt. The ceasefire talks were paused on Friday but are expected to resume this week with hopes for a conclusion in Cairo. An anonymous official said that there is a “consensus” among all of the participants so far and that they have made a lot of progress on a number of issue (unless Israel finds funny ways to hijack it). The Israel war on Gaza has taken the lives of more than 40,000 Palestinians of which 16,456 of them are children. A ceasefire is the only way to stop this madness now.

2. Spices from India failed quality tests and found unsafe for consumption

   The world’s biggest spice exporter MDH and Everest of India are now under scrutiny as nearly 12% of tested spice samples have failed to meet quality and safety standards, with its spices containing high levels of pesticide. Their spices are mostly exported to Europe, Asia and North America. The sampling was done by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India after several countries took steps over contamination risks in these 2 specific brands. India's domestic spice market was valued at USD 10.44 bil in 2022, while exports of spices and spice products were a record USD 4.46 bil in the fiscal year that ended in March.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 📺

Random curiosity - on clapping and chloroform

1. Actually, why do we clap?

2. Chloroform — how does it work and how long does it take to knock someone out? It isn’t as fast as in the movies.