Nasheman

India's largest selling Urdu weekly, now also in English

You are here: Home / Archives for Malaysia

Boat capsizes off Malaysia, drowning 13 Indonesians

by

Boat carrying about 30 people goes down as search-and-rescue operation hampered by rough seas.

A search-and-rescue operation was under way but it was hampered by high tides and choppy seas [Wallace Woon/EPA]

A search-and-rescue operation was under way but it was hampered by high tides and choppy seas [Wallace Woon/EPA]

by Al Jazeera

Malaysian police said 13 bodies, believed to be Indonesian migrants, were found washed ashore after their boat capsized in bad sea conditions.

The bodies of four men and nine women were discovered on a beach in southern Johor state by members of the public early on Tuesday, Rahmat Othman, the district police chief, said.

Authorities found an overturned wooden boat not far from the beach, which had probably capsized before dawn.

Rahmat said that the boat was believed to be carrying 30 to 35 people, most probably Indonesians trying to sneak into the country.

A search-and-rescue operation was under way but was hampered by high tides and choppy seas, he said.

Such tragedies are not uncommon in Malaysia. Many Indonesians are willing to risk their lives by travelling on boats believed to be old and unsafe to work in Malaysia illegally, or to return to their hometowns.

‘Sharia compliant’ airline takes off in Malaysia

by

No alcohol will be permitted and Halal food will be served on flights that airline says are open to all religions.

The new airline has 355 employees which includes 8 pilots and 50 cabin crew [EPA]

The new airline has 355 employees which includes 8 pilots and 50 cabin crew [EPA]

by Al Jazeera

Malaysia’s first “sharia-compliant” airline made its inaugural domestic flight over the weekend and it hopes to include international routes next year, a senior airline official said.

Rayani Air will initially serve the domestic routes in the predominantly Muslim northern states of Kedah and Kelantan, as well as the eastern states of Sabah and Sarawak, managing director Jaafar Zamhari told the DPA news agency on Tuesday.

The airline does not allow alcohol consumption on its flights and serves only halal food, Jaafar said.

Sharia is Islamic law based on the teachings of the Koran, and governs many day-to-day practices for observant Muslims.

“It is compulsory for our Muslim women cabin crew to wear hijab and for non-Muslim to wear a decent uniform,” he added.

Jaafar added there are also prayers and recitals before each flight departs.

The new airline has 355 employees, which includes 8 pilots and 50 cabin crew.

Rayani Air’s fleet consists of two Boeing 737-400 aircraft, he added.

The airline plans to expand its network in Asia next year and it is also planning to introduce destinations to Saudi Arabia for the Umrah and Hajj.

The idea for Rayani Air grew out of much-publicised complaints by conservative Muslims who believed that two major air disasters for the national Malaysia Airlines — Flight 370 that went missing in March 2014 and Flight 17 downed a few months later over Ukraine — were caused by Allah’s wrath.

Their solution: Airlines should adopt Islamic customs to avoid divine retribution.

“We are answering the call of many Malaysians who wanted an Islamic airline,” Zamhari told the AP news agency.

“We are not talking about being a holy airline or flying to holy destinations. We just want to provide an alternative to travelers, but we are open to all races and religions.”

Malaysia seeks help to widen MH370 search

by

Malaysia asks Indian Ocean islands around Reunion to search for plane debris after wing part confirmed from Boeing 777.

The wing flap was found on Wednesday on the French island of La Reunion [AP]

The wing flap was found on Wednesday on the French island of La Reunion [AP]

by Al Jazeera

Malaysia will seek help from territories near the Indian Ocean island where a suspected wing part from the missing Malaysia Airlines jet was discovered in an attempt to find more plane debris.

A new piece of debris, meanwhile, found on Sunday on the French island of Reunion did not belong to a plane, Malaysian Director General of Civil Aviation Azharuddin Abdul Rahman told news agencies AP and AFP, amid reports that a new part was found.

Rahman, who is in France for the analysis of the wing part, told AFP one item “was actually from a domestic ladder. It is not a door”.

And a source close to the investigation in Paris said “no object or debris likely to come from a plane” had been placed into evidence on Sunday.

Identified as from Boeing 777

Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai told AFP that civil aviation authorities were reaching out to their counterparts in other Indian Ocean territories to be on the lookout for further debris that could provide “more clues to the missing aircraft”.

He had confirmed in a statement that the wing part had been “officially identified” as from a Boeing 777 – making it likely that it was from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight, as MH370 is the only missing Boeing 777.

The identification was verified by French authorities together with Boeing, the US National Transportation Safety Board and a Malaysian team.

The wing flap was found on Wednesday on Reunion. It arrived on Saturday at a French military testing facility for analysis by experts.

Experts will try to establish whether the part comes specifically from Flight 370, which disappeared on March 8, 2014, while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, about two-thirds of whom were Chinese.

The experts are expected to start their inquiry on Wednesday. On Monday, an investigating judge will meet with Malaysian authorities and representatives of the French aviation investigative agency, known as the BEA.

Liow said Malaysia’s Department of Civil Aviation was reaching out to authorities in territories near Reunion to allow experts “to conduct more substantive analysis should there be more debris coming on to land, providing us [with] more clues to the missing aircraft”.

“I urge all parties to allow this crucial investigation process to take its course. I reiterate this is for the sake of the next of kin of the loved ones of MH370 who would be anxiously awaiting news and have suffered much over this time,” Liow said. “We will make an announcement once the verification process has been completed.”

Malaysia detains hundreds of Rohingya Muslim migrants arriving on boats

by

At least 1,000 migrants, including many Rohingya Muslims, sent to detention centres after landing on island of Langkawi.

Rohingya Muslims

by Al Jazeera

Malaysian police say more than 1,000 migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh have been found “illegally” trying to enter the country at the popular resort island of Langkawi.

The 1,018 migrants, many thought to be members of Myanmar’s long-persecuted Rohingya Muslim community, landed on Langkawi late on Sunday night.

“The first capture by the police was made when a boat with the illegal immigrants was stranded at the beach in Langkawi, [and] the second capture was at Tanjung Biawak, Kuala Temonyong,” said Mohd Yusof Abdullah, commander of the Langkawi marine police.

“All the illegal immigrants that have been arrested will be sent to detention centres,” he added in a statement.

Police told the AP news agency that officers received a tip-off from a local fisherman that the boats were coming ashore.

Al Jazeera’s Karishma Vyas, reporting from Kuala Lumpur, said that the migrants were found in “very poor condition,” suffering from severe thirst and hunger.

The migrants were found a day after boats carrying about 500 members of Myanmar’s long-persecuted Rohingya community washed ashore in western Indonesia.

The men, women and children arrived on two separate boats, one carrying around 430 people and the other 70, said Steve Hamilton, deputy chief of mission at the International Organisation for Migration in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital.

Last week, the UN’s refugee agency said in a statement that an estimated 25,000 Rohingyas and Bangladeshis boarded people smugglers’ boats in the first three months of 2015, twice as many in the same months of 2014.

“Based on survivor accounts, we estimate that 300 people died at sea in the first quarter of 2015 as a result of starvation, dehydration and abuse by boat crews,” the statement said.

In the past weeks dozens of corpses , believed to be of Rohingya, were found in Thai jungles bordering Malaysia.

Rohingya Muslims have for decades suffered from state-sanctioned discrimination in Myanmar.

Attacks on the religious minority by Buddhist mobs in the last three years have sparked one of the biggest exoduses of boat people since the Vietnam War, sending 100,000 people fleeing, according to Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, which has monitored the movements of Rohingya for more than a decade.

Court upholds five-year jail term for Malaysia's Anwar Ibrahim

by

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s conviction for sodomy upheld in case his supporters claim was politically motivated.

Anwar Ibrahim

by Al Jazeera

Malaysia’s highest court has upheld opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s conviction on sodomy charges and his five-year prison sentence in a case he and his supporters have denounced as a fabrication.

The Federal Court’s judgement on Tuesday upheld a ruling by the Court of Appeal in March last year, which found the 67-year-old guilty of sodomising a former political aide.

Addressing the court, Anwar accused the panel of justices for taking part in a “political conspiracy” by Malaysia’s ruling regime.

“In bowing to the dictates of your political masters, you have become partners to the crime,” he said, according to the AFP news agency.

“You have chosen to be on the dark side.”

He shouted at the judges as they exited: “I will not be silenced! I will never surrender!”

A statement by the Malaysian government said on Tuesday: “The judges will have reached their verdict only after considering all the evidence in a balanced and objective manner. Malaysia has an independent judiciary, and there have been many rulings against senior government figures.”

Hee Loy Sian, a fellow MP from Anwar’s party, told Al Jazeera that the opposition People’s Justice Party will meet in a few hours to decide on its next steps following the judgment.

“I am very sad. It is sad for all of Malaysia. I was quite surprised. I thought Anwar would be freed today,” he said.

“It is an injustice. There are some political influences. There is no independence of the judiciary. It is a black history for Malaysia. How can the leader of the opposition be jailed?”

‘DNA evidence tainted’

Al Jazeera’s Sohail Rahman, reporting from the city of Putrajaya, said Anwar’s wife, who is also the president of the People’s Justice Party, cried at the court and asked for a private moment with her husband following the announcement of the verdict.

Rahman said Anwar’s lawyers had argued during the appeal hearing that DNA evidence against him was tainted, a claim rejected by the court.

Sodomy is illegal in Muslim-majority Malaysia where the offence carries a jail term of up to 20 years.

In a statement on Tuesday, Human Rights Watch, the US-based rights group, said that t he conviction of Anwar Ibrahim after seven years of politically motivated proceedings under an abusive and archaic law is a major setback for human rights in Malaysia .

Anwar had told Al Jazeera  he was optimistic ahead of the ruling: “I’m cautiously optimistic, but I’m also realistic. I’m mentally, spiritually and physically prepared to return to jail.”

He said going to jail would be a small price to pay in his “struggle for freedom and justice for all Malaysians”.

“Whether it’s five years or 10 it doesn’t matter to me anymore. I have to fight them, of course. They can give me 20 years. I don’t give a damn.”

Anwar was accused of sodomising a male aide in 2008, but was acquitted by the High Court in 2012.

However, the Appeals Court overturned the acquittal in March last year and sentenced him to five years in jail. He has said the charges were trumped up to kill his political career.

Many say that Anwar is the most potent threat to Prime Minister Najib Razak, whose party has ruled Malaysia since independence in 1957 but faces declining support.

Anwar previously was imprisoned for six years after being overthrown as deputy prime minister in 1998 on earlier charges of sodomising his former family driver and abusing his power. He was freed in 2004 after Malaysia’s top court quashed that sodomy conviction.

KNOW US

GET INVOLVED

PROMOTE

Archives