☕️ What the - : Home confinement ≠ house arrest

1. MARKET SUMMARY 📈

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE 🔢

194th – That is Universiti Malaya’s (UM) new ranking in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2027. This marks the first time a Malaysian university has broken into the top 200 of the list. PM Anwar congratulated the university, saying that the ranking is a reflection of UM’s excellence in teaching and research. He added that the achievement also instilled confidence that local higher education institutions were capable of competing with leading universities worldwide. UM recorded an overall score of 59.5 points, with the next Malaysian university being Universiti Teknologi Petronas, which ranked 242nd with a score of 57.3 points. Full list can be viewed here.

160,886 – Proton sold that many units as of Sept 2026, beating its total sales volume of 157,976 units from 2025 in just nine months. Not only is this the earliest that sales have exceeded the 150,000-unit barrier since 2002, it also marks the highest volume achieved by Proton since its partnership with China’s Geely began in 2017. According to Proton deputy CEO Abdul Rashid Musa, this year also saw the company’s best third-quarter performance since 2009, with 60,540 units sold in the quarter. He shared that there are at least two more launches to come before the end of the year, with the export business targeting further growth in sales in overseas markets. Notably, 40,000 Proton e.Mas electrified vehicle (xEV) units have been delivered since sales began 20 months ago, with e.Mas models now accounting for 19.3% of Proton’s overall sales. This brings the group close to the government’s 2030 target for xEVs to account for 20% of industry sales.

48% – Sirim Bhd’s testing, certification, calibration, and training services rose 48% in a year, compared to a growth of 7% the previous year. This saw Sirim serving 28,700 customers during the year, while its training programmes reached nearly 25,000 industry personnel, including more than 23,000 Bumiputera entrepreneurs and workers. The higher demand resulted in Sirim’s order book more than doubling to RM28 mil from RM12.1 mil, with the firm stating that customer satisfaction remained above 90%. Sirim President and Group CEO Nik Sazali Nik Hussin said the increased demand reflected a growing need among Malaysian companies to demonstrate compliance with standards required to access domestic and international markets. Sirim is also automating and digitalising its services to shorten waiting times for companies, as a product that clears testing sooner will be able to launch, scale, and export sooner, he added. In 2026, Sirim was entrusted with RM474.39 mil in development funding across national programmes, including RM300 mil under the New Industrial Master Plan 2030 Industrial Development Fund.

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

Haze shuts schools as Singapore F1 nears
Worsening haze from wildfires in Indonesia has forced temporary school closures in Johor and pushed air quality across parts of Malaysia and Singapore into unhealthy levels. Around 200 schools, kindergartens and nurseries in Batu Pahat were ordered to close on Oct 7, while Kuala Lumpur recorded very unhealthy air and was ranked the world’s most polluted city that morning, according to IQAir. The haze is also raising concerns ahead of Singapore’s Formula One weekend. Air quality in three of Singapore’s five regions was unhealthy, although F1 said conditions were not yet at a level of concern. Singapore GP said it would work with the relevant agencies if the haze begins affecting visibility, public health or race operations.

The latest haze comes amid one of Indonesia’s worst wildfire seasons in years, worsened by dry conditions linked to El Niño. Hotspot numbers last month were the highest since 2015. Malaysia has already seen some disruption, with organisers of the Kuala Lumpur Standard Chartered Marathon cancelling its children’s race last week over health concerns while allowing the main events to continue.

Two more days of school shutdown in Johor
All schools in Johor will close for two days starting today (Thursday, Oct 8) due to the air quality. State Education and Information Committee Chairman Dr Muhammad Naqib Md Ghazali said the decision was made as a precautionary measure to safeguard the safety and health of students. He said during the closure, home-based teaching and learning (PdPR) would be implemented to ensure learning could continue. At this point, everywhere starts to look like Genting.

Home confinement ≠ house arrest
Home confinement granted through a royal pardon is not the same as house arrest under a specific law, Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution has clarified. In a written parliamentary reply, he said home confinement comes under the King’s constitutional power to grant pardons. Conditions covering movement, supervision and visitors are therefore set by the pardoning authority and implemented through separate standard operating procedures. The distinction applies to former Prime Minister Najib Razak, who was granted a conditional pardon last month, allowing him to serve the remainder of his SRC International sentence under home confinement until Aug 2028. However, the arrangement only takes effect after he pays the RM50 mil fine imposed on him. Najib has not yet settled the amount. Seeing a lot of contorting going on.

Malaysia does not yet have a general house arrest framework in force. Saifuddin said the government is still finalising the legislation, with the Attorney General’s Chambers reviewing the proposed legal framework. The plan would allow certain remand detainees to be considered for house arrest instead of being held in prison while awaiting trial.

Details such as CCTV monitoring, electronic ankle tags, visitor restrictions and other supervision requirements have not yet been finalised. Home confinement through a royal conditional pardon and statutory house arrest therefore remain two separate arrangements. We are all equal, but some are more equal than us all.

Five Malaysian women make Fortune power list
Five Malaysian business leaders have made Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Asia 2026 list, up from four last year. UOB Malaysia CEO Ng Wei Wei is the highest-ranked Malaysian at No. 85, moving up 10 places from 2025. She is joined by Berjaya Corp CEO Nerine Tan Sheik Ping at No. 91, Sunway Group Executive Deputy Chair Sarena Cheah at No. 92, Affin Bank Group CFO Joanne Rodrigues at No. 99 and Public Bank CFO Yik Sook Ling at No. 100. Tan, Cheah and Yik are new entrants this year. Kuok Hui Kwong, Chairman and Group CEO of Shangri-La Group, also appears on the wider list at No. 34. She became CEO in Aug 2025 after previously leading SCMP Group.

Fortune’s annual ranking features 100 women from across Asia and considers leadership, business performance, influence, innovation and wider impact. Mainland China had 18 honourees, followed by Hong Kong with 16 and Singapore with 12. Technology was the most represented sector with 16 executives, followed by banking with 14. View the list here.

The worst is over for glovemakers, maybe
Profit rebounds as demand recovers
Top Glove is heading into FY2027 with a stronger outlook after its FY2026 net profit nearly tripled to RM308 mil from about RM105 mil a year earlier. Revenue also rose 21% to RM4.23 bil, helped by a 28% increase in sales volume. The group expects FY2027 sales and profit growth to track global glove demand, which is growing at around 10%. Executive Chairman Dr Lim Wee Chai said the glove market is becoming more balanced, with supply still slightly ahead of demand but the gap much smaller than it was two or three years ago. Fewer new plants are coming onstream, while manufacturers are operating below full capacity. Top Glove expects the more balanced market to support a steadier recovery after the sharp swings seen during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Higher costs bring price increases
The stronger outlook comes with higher costs. A 30% increase in natural gas tariffs is expected to lift production costs by around USD0.50 to USD0.70 (RM2.04 to RM2.86) per 1,000 gloves, while higher crude oil prices are also pushing up raw material costs. To offset this, Top Glove has raised average selling prices by up to USD4 per 1,000 gloves for Oct and Nov.

The group said orders remain strong despite the price increases. It is also relying on energy-saving measures, automation and artificial intelligence to keep costs under control. Top Glove said energy use per 1,000 gloves has fallen by around 30% to 35% compared with 2019 levels. Competition from Chinese manufacturers remains, although the pricing gap between Malaysian and Chinese glove makers has narrowed considerably in recent years.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

Bid for the 2036 Olympics is heating up with Qatar and India
Qatar and India have joined the bid to host the 2036 Summer Olympics. There are now seven countries that have expressed interest: South Africa, Germany, Hungary, Turkiye, South Korea, Qatar and India. Other countries have until Oct 31 to declare an interest. Qatar hosted the 2022 football World Cup and the 2006 Asian Games, which Qatar will host again in 2030. Meanwhile, India intends to propose Ahmedabad, the key city of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat, to host the Olympics. The city will also play host to the upcoming Commonwealth Games.

For the next steps, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will draw up a shortlist of the interested parties and talk to them. However, the IOC has a big problem on its hands. Costs for the Olympics have tended to overrun. And that has gotten worse since 2008, according to a study from the University of Oxford. For example, the Paris 2024 Olympics cost overrun was 115%.

2028 Summer Olympics will be in Los Angeles, US, and 2032 will be in Brisbane, Australia.

Trump buying three California immigration detention facilities for USD950 mil
This anti-immigration policy is becoming more expensive. The Trump administration has agreed to pay USD950 mil (RM3.8 bil) to buy three California immigration detention facilities from GEO Group to give the federal government more direct control over the infrastructure behind its mass deportation campaign. The facilities have about 2,600 beds.

As of mid-Jul, the government has deported roughly 600,000 people, with ICE arresting more than 650,000 people. The administration is now planning to buy more of these facilities to hold immigrants awaiting deportation or the outcomes of court proceedings, and it also relies on private contractors like GEO Group and CoreCivic. Both private players said that they are planning to sell more properties to the government.

Where prison-ing is a business
GEO Group and CoreCivic are listed on the New York Stock Exchange. GEO Group has a market capitalisation of USD4.1 bil, and it provides services for government partners that include correctional and community re-entry services. CoreCivic has a market capitalisation of USD3.2 bil and develops and manages prisons and other correctional facilities.

Earlier in the year, ICE paid about USD1.5 bil for two detention facilities near San Diego that were owned by CoreCivic. However, there are some checks and balances. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, found that ICE has been moving ahead in buying without developing a comprehensive plan for how many beds it needs, where they should be located, or how the costs of different approaches compare over time. It said in a report that this could result in waste.

Conditions in these detention centres are allegedly bad, according to civil rights groups and former detainees. Here is one report by The New York Times:

Eight Singaporean civil servants referred to police over property purchases
Is it insider dealing? That’s a question that Singaporean authorities are asking as they refer eight Singaporean civil servants to the police over the suspected use of non-public information to buy properties near planned railway stations. Apparently, a research paper by a United States-based think tank, the National Bureau of Economic Research, found that civil servants were 60% more likely to buy homes near future Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) stations. However, the government said that a referral does not mean wrongdoing. The police will work to establish the facts first and follow due process. Singapore prides itself on its squeaky-clean image, with Transparency International ranking the island nation third in its annual Corruption Perceptions Index last year.

Shorts:

1. Thai government shuts down elderly care centre on abuse allegations and violations
   It sounds like a horror movie. Residents chained behind steel bars if they ‘behave uncontrollably’ and live in inhumane conditions. The difference is that this was in a care centre, not a prison. The Public Health Ministry investigated the Sothornchai Nursing Home in Tha Muang district, Thailand, on reports that its residents were being physically and mentally abused. Then, the authorities inspected the premises and revoked the centre's license. The centre had more than 100 residents, most aged between 18 and 59, with more than 90% found to be psychiatric patients. It violated two main laws for having 129 beds when it was only licensed to have 50, and for providing care to psychiatric patients despite being licensed only as a health facility. It also cited the use of restraints as a serious matter, with steel cages regarded as an unacceptable standard of psychiatric care.
   The owner of the Sothornchai Nursing Home, former nurse Ying “Maew” Pornsermsiri, would face legal action. Heartbreaking to watch the video.

2. Fort Hood shooter to be executed by firing squad
   Donald Trump has approved the death by firing squad of Nidal Malik Hassan. Nidal was a former Army officer who carried out a mass shooting at Fort Hood, an Army base in Texas, in 2009. He was a psychiatrist who walked into an Army processing centre and opened fire on fellow staff members. 13 people were killed while 32 others were wounded. He was convicted of the charges and said that he was trying to stop deployments to Afghanistan and the killing of fellow Muslims. However, the legal proceedings took a long time, as the US Army is averse to capital punishment. After 16 years of court, Trump gave approval to prepare for the execution. For context, the last military execution took place in 1961, when former soldier John Bennett was hanged for the rape of an 11-year-old girl.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 📺

Being a Woman is Not Easy

1. Safety comes first - not being nice.

2. “Girls shouldn’t have to carry the burden of staying safe” - @yiquan.uk. What to teach the boys. First, don’t outsource the blame to the ladies on what they are wearing.

3. Sexual violence is not an on-off thing, and does not happen in isolation. It’s cultivated. A model to describe how small jokes turn into rape - the Pyramid of Sexual Violence (often called the Rape Culture Pyramid).

4. ‘If don’t like, don’t want sexual advances, why no fight back? Why no scream, no fight, no resist?’. Logic doesn’t function when under threat. An interesting way to describe this shown in the video. Fight or flight is not only the body’s automatic reaction to fear - add freeze, flop and friend to the list. Learn more here.

A bit heavy today in this section. Stay safe ladies. Took a while to understand why it isn’t easy for women to relax, when it comes to their safety and surroundings.