Malaysia
ASEAN leaders hold summit with Myanmar’s general shut out
Southeast Asian leaders are meeting this week for their annual summit where Myanmar’s top general, whose forces seized power in February and shattered one of Asia’s most phenomenal democratic transitions, has been shut out for refusing to take steps to end the deadly violence.
Myanmar defiantly protested the exclusion of Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who currently heads its government and ruling military council, from the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Brunei, which currently leads the 10-nation bloc, will host the three-day meetings starting Tuesday by video due to coronavirus concerns. The talks will be joined by President Joe Biden and the leaders of China and Russia, and are expected to spotlight Myanmar’s worsening crisis and the pandemic as well as security and economic issues.
ASEAN’s unprecedented sanctioning of Myanmar strayed from its bedrock principles of non-interference in each other’s domestic affairs and deciding by consensus, meaning just one member can effectively shoot down a group decision. Myanmar cited the violation of those principles enshrined in the group’s charter in rejecting the decision to bar its military leader from the summit.
Read:ASEAN downgrades Myanmar presence in summit in major rebuke
But the regional group has few other options as the general’s intransigence further risked tainting its image as a diplomatic refuge for some of the most intractable tyrants in Asia.
A senior ASEAN diplomat, who joined an Oct. 15 emergency meeting where the foreign ministers decided to rebuff Myanmar, said those two principles bind but “will not paralyze” the bloc. The diplomat called ASEAN’s more forceful response “a paradigm shift” but added its conservative principles would likely stay.
“In serious cases like this, when the integrity and credibility of ASEAN is at stake, ASEAN member states or even the leaders and the ministers have that latitude to act,” said the diplomat, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of a lack of authority to discuss the issues publicly.
Instead of Myanmar’s top general, the country’s highest-ranking veteran diplomat, Chan Aye, was invited to the summit as the country’s “non-political” representative, the diplomat said. It remains unclear if Chan Aye will attend.
Myanmar’s military-appointed foreign minister joined the online emergency meeting two weeks ago. It was held in a calm manner, although some ministers bluntly expressed their opposition to the Feb. 1 military takeover that ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, which overwhelmingly won last November’s vote. Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan declared that his government still recognizes Suu Kyi and ousted President Win Myint, both of whom have been detained, as Myanmar’s legitimate leaders, according to the diplomat.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah, a staunch critic of the military’s seizure of power, told his ASEAN counterparts that the principle of non-interference cannot be used “as a shield to avoid issues being addressed” given that the Myanmar crisis has alarmed the region. In a separate online forum last week, he suggested officials and others “do some soul-searching” for ASEAN “on the possibility of moving away from the principle of non-interference toward `constructive engagement’ or `non-indifference.’”
ASEAN has been under intense international pressure to take steps to help end the violence that has left an estimated 1,100 civilians dead since the army took power and locked up Suu Kyi and others, igniting widespread peaceful protests and armed resistance. U.N. special envoy Christine Schraner Burgener warned last week that Myanmar “will go in the direction of a failed state” if violent conflicts between the military, civilians and ethnic minorities spiral out of control and the democratic setback was not resolved peacefully.
Suu Kyi’s party won in a landslide victory in 2015 after more than five decades of military rule. But the military remained powerful and contested her National League for Democracy party’s win in last November elections as fraudulent.
Read: Urgent action needed to end catastrophe in Myanmar: UN report
ASEAN has not recognized the military leadership although Myanmar remains a member.
The group “must take a bolder step to speak up against non-democratic overthrow of democratically elected government and crimes against humanity against the Myanmar people,” said Alexander Arifianto, an Indonesian expert on regional politics at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. “ASEAN needs to reform its decision-making process.”
ASEAN leaders agreed on a five-point contingency plan in an emergency meeting in April in Indonesia that was attended by Min Aung Hlaing. They called for an immediate end to the violence and the start of a dialogue to be mediated by a special ASEAN envoy, who should be allowed to meet all parties. But the military later repeatedly refused to allow the envoy to meet Suu Kyi and other political detainees in an impasse that is testing the regional bloc.
ASEAN admitted Myanmar in 1997 despite intense opposition from the U.S. and European countries, which then cited its military junta’s record of suppressing democracy and human rights. The other members of the bloc are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
National 5G rollout: Malaysia hands Ericsson 10-year deal
The Malaysian government's 5G wholesale network operator Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) has struck a 10-year partnership deal with Swedish telco equipment vendor Ericsson to drive its nationwide deployment of the next-generation wireless cellular technology.
Using the capabilities of 5G and accelerating the deployment of Malaysia's nationwide 5G network and ecosystem, DNB will provide access and services to mobile service providers and others licenced by the regulators, to enable a world-class 5G experience and make Industry 4.0 a reality in Malaysia.
It aims to launch Malaysia's first 5G network in Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Cyberjaya in the initial phase. Ericsson's local presence and deployment expertise are key to meeting DNB's target of 80 per cent 5G nationwide population coverage by 2024.
Read: Huawei, partners release 5G White Paper
DNB Chief Executive Officer Ralph Marshall said: "DNB is committed to delivering the best technology and innovation opportunities for Malaysians, businesses and government to ensure that Malaysia takes its place at the forefront of the global digital economy. We identified Ericsson to offer the best next-generation 5G technology and professional services available to suit DNB's specific and unique requirements."
David Hägerbro, head of Ericsson Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, said: "5G is a platform for open innovation and is becoming the cornerstone upon which a country's competitiveness is built. Malaysia's and DNB's commitment to accelerating the deployment of 5G is to be congratulated, as it will speed up the adoption of 5G nationally, bridge the digital divide and transform the nation. 5G will help facilitate the government's ambition to promote Malaysians to become technology creators through the development of 5G applications and use cases."
DNB's exclusive partnership with Ericsson spans the delivery of energy-efficient Ericsson Radio System products and solutions, including Ericsson Spectrum Sharing, a software for wide-area 5G coverage. The scope also includes cloud native 5G Core and 5G Radio Access (RAN) nationwide.
Read: Planning to launch 5G by end of this year: Joy
Ericsson will also manage the unique requirements of a single wholesale network with its leading managed services offering Ericsson Operations Engine. The solution can enhance the performance of DNB's network using AI, automation and cognitive software to predict and prevent issues.
DNB supports the modernisation of Malaysia's mobile networks as part of the national digital infrastructure plan, Jalinan Digital Negara (Jendela), to ensure every Malaysian has quality internet connectivity.
Malaysia lifts entry restriction on travellers from Bangladesh
The government of Malaysia has lifted the entry restriction for foreign nationals from a number of countries, including Bangladesh, with immediate effect.
However, to curb further spread of COVID-19 , an entry into Malaysia may only be allowed, on a case-by-case basis upon obtaining a prior entry approval from the Immigration Department of Malaysia.
Read: UK removes Bangladesh from travel red list
The visitors need to have valid Malaysian visa and must be fully vaccinated (WHO approved vaccines) with a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR test result.
They will have to undergo mandatory quarantine in accordance with the latest ruling as issued by the Ministry of Health, Malaysia.
Malaysia pushes for solution to climate issues
Malaysian High Commissioner to Bangladesh and Chair of ASEAN Dhaka Committee (ADC) Haznah Md Hashim has highlighted the critical role of governments towards finding a sustainable solution to the climate change issues.
She said climate issues have a tremendous effect on countries all over the world, particularly those from the emerging economies.
"Therefore, a collective effort, in not just ASEAN but also countries like Bangladesh, is needed to ensure governments meet its obligation under the Paris Agreement," said the High Commissioner.
She was addressing a webinar on "Climate Change" on Thursday initiated by the High Commission of Malaysia to explore ideas and views as well as sharing of best practices on climate change.
Also read: Climate emergency demands policy shift to adaptation: Global leaders on COP26
Secretary General of the Ministry of Environment and Water, Malaysia (KASA) Dr Zaini Ujang and Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bangladesh, Md Mostafa Kamal were present as the chief guests.
Haji Haris Haji Othman, High Commissioner of Brunei Darussalam; Aung Kyaw Moe, Ambassador of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; Pham Viet Chien, Ambassador of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam; Makawadee Sumitmor, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Thailand; Hidayat Atjeh, Chargé d' Affaires of the Republic of Indonesia; Leo Marco C Vidal, Chargé d' Affaires of the Republic of the Philippines; Sheela Pillai, Head of Mission of the Singapore Consulate; senior officials, diplomats and experts from Bangladesh and ASEAN Member States.
The ADC was established in the year 2014 and is comprised of eight ASEAN Missions based in Dhaka.
Also read: UK Foreign Secretary reaffirms support for Bangladesh’s climate actions
They are the High Commission of Brunei Darussalam, Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia, High Commission of Malaysia, Embassy of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, Embassy of Republic of the Philippines, Consulate of the Republic of Singapore, Embassy of the Royal Thai Embassy, and Socialist Republic of Viet Nam.
The ADC chair is rotated every six months and is currently being chaired by Malaysia.
Bangladesh’s KL mission introduces special phone numbers for expats
Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur has introduced three dedicated mobile phone numbers to make its services easily available for the expatriate community.
All Bangladeshi expatriates living in Malaysia have been informed that the High Commission will take prompt action if any request/information is received through these calls.
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The phone numbers are - 0104303110 (Passport related), 0104303020 (Passport related) and 01126206701 (Labour & Welfare related).
Any expatriate Bangladeshi can call from Monday to Friday (9.00am-5.00 pm) to avail themselves of the services.
Bangladeshi expats in Malaysia urged to remain cautious about misinformation
Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur has urged the Bangladeshi expatriates in Malaysia to remain cautious about misinformation regarding its passport related services.
The Mission delivered record number of passports over the last six to seven months, it said.
The High Commission on Sunday said they are delivering passports through 36 post offices since April this year due to Covid-19 situation in Malaysia.
Read:Govt offers hope for returnee expats with Tk 427-cr rehabilitation project
The decision was taken considering the current Covid-19 situation and to deliver the passport related services to Bangladeshis’ doorstep without any hassle.
“Expatriates brothers and sisters are requested not to get panicked,” said the High Commission urging all to avoid spreading any news that might create unnecessary panic among the expatriate Bangladeshis in Malaysia.
PM congratulates new Malaysian counterpart Ismail Sabri
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Saturday congratulated her Malaysian counterpart Dato' Sri Ismail Sabri bin Yaakob on his assumption of office and conveyed to him the full support of her government as well as Bangladeshi people.
The trust and confidence that Malaysian people reposed in him throughout his political career are exemplary, Sheikh Hasina said in a felicitation message sent to the Malaysian prime minister.
She expressed confidence that Malaysia would further prosper and progress to its desired goals under Ismail Sabri's dynamic and visionary leadership.
Bangladesh and Malaysia enjoy an excellent bilateral relationship based on shared faith, fraternity, cooperation, and prosperity, Sheikh Hasina reiterated.
Both the countries are committed to strengthening and broadening the comprehensive and cooperative partnership in various areas such as education, human resources, trade, investment, tourism, manufacturing, and agriculture, in compliance with achieving shared benefit and win-win outcomes, she said.
Also read: UAE lauds Bangladeshi workers' contribution to its development
Sheikh Hasina expressed satisfaction with Malaysia as the country hosts a substantial number of Bangladeshi nationals in different sectors who contribute to Malaysia's development and the economic prosperity of Bangladesh.
READ: Maintain Bangladesh's current development pace: PM to secretaries
She looks forward to working closely with Ismail Sabri on mutual interests in the bilateral, regional, and global context for the mutual benefit of the two peoples.
Death rates soar in Southeast Asia as virus wave spreads
Indonesia has converted nearly its entire oxygen production to medical use just to meet the demand from COVID-19 patients struggling to breathe. Overflowing hospitals in Malaysia had to resort to treating patients on the floor. And in Myanmar’s largest city, graveyard workers have been laboring day and night to keep up with the grim demand for new cremations and burials.
Images of bodies burning in open-air pyres during the peak of the pandemic in India horrified the world in May, but in the last two weeks the three Southeast Asian nations have now all surpassed India’s peak per capita death rate as a new coronavirus wave, fueled by the virulent delta variant, tightens its grip on the region.
The deaths have followed record numbers of new cases being reported in countries across the region which have left health care systems struggling to cope and governments scrambling to implement new restrictions to try to slow the spread.
When Eric Lam tested positive for COVID-19 and was hospitalized on June 17 in the Malaysian state of Selangor, the center of the country’s outbreak, the corridors of the government facility were already crowded with patients on beds with no room left in the wards.
Read:India's deaths during pandemic 10X official toll
The situation was still better than in some other hospitals in Selangor, Malaysia’s richest and most populous state, where there were no free beds at all and patients were reportedly treated on floors or on stretchers. The government has since added more hospital beds and converted more wards for COVID-19 patients.
Lam, 38, recalled once during his three weeks in the hospital hearing a machine beeping continuously for two hours before a nurse came to turn it off; he later learned the patient had died.
A variety of factors have contributed to the recent surge in the region, including people growing weary of the pandemic and letting precautions slip, low vaccination rates and the emergence of the delta variant of the virus, which was first detected in India, said Abhishek Rimal, the Asia-Pacific emergency health coordinator for the Red Cross, who is based in Malaysia.
“With the measures that countries are taking, if people follow the basics of washing the hands, wearing the masks, keeping distance and getting vaccinated, we will be seeing a decline in cases in the next couple of weeks from now,” he said.
So far, however, Malaysia’s national lockdown measures have not brought down the daily rate of infections. The country of some 32 million saw daily cases rise above 10,000 on July 13 for the first time and they have stayed there since.
The vaccination rate remains low but has been picking up, with nearly 15% of the population now fully inoculated and the government hoping to have a majority vaccinated by year’s end.
Doctors and nurses have been working tirelessly to try to keep up, and Lam was one of the fortunate ones.
After his condition initially deteriorated, he was put on a ventilator in an ICU unit filled to capacity and slowly recovered. He was discharged two weeks ago.
But he lost his father and brother-in-law to the virus, and another brother remains on a ventilator in the ICU.
“I feel I have been reborn and given a second chance to live,” he said.
With India’s massive population of nearly 1.4 billion people, its total number of COVID-19 fatalities remains higher than the countries in Southeast Asia. But India’s 7-day rolling average of COVID-19 deaths per million peaked at 3.04 in May, according to the online scientific publication Our World in Data, and continues to decline.
Indonesia, Myanmar, and Malaysia have been showing sharp increases since late June and their seven-day averages hit 4.17, 4.02 and 3.18 per million, respectively, on Thursday. Cambodia and Thailand have also seen strong increases in both coronavirus cases and deaths, but have thus far held the seven-day rate per million people to a lower 1.29 and 1.74, respectively.
Individual countries elsewhere have higher rates, but the increases are particularly alarming for a region that widely kept numbers low early in the pandemic.
With the Indian experience as a lesson, most countries have reacted relatively quickly with new restrictions to slow the virus, and to try to meet the needs of the burgeoning number of people hospitalized with severe illnesses, Rimal said.
“People in this region are cautious, because they have seen it right in front of them — 400,000 cases a day in India — and they really don’t want it to repeat here,” he said in a telephone interview from Kuala Lumpur.
Read:Vietnam puts southern region in lockdown as surge grows
But those measures take time to achieve the desired effect, and right now countries are struggling to cope.
Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous nation with some 270 million people, reported 1,383 deaths on Wednesday, its deadliest day since the start of the pandemic.
Daily cases through about mid-June had been about 8,000, but then began to spike and peaked last week with more than 50,000 new infections each day. Because Indonesia’s testing rate is low, the actual number of new cases is thought to be much higher.
As hospitals there began to run out of oxygen, the government stepped in and ordered manufacturers to shift most production from industrial purposes and dedicate 90% to medical oxygen, up from 25%.
Before the current crisis, the country needed 400 tons of oxygen for medical use per day; with the sharp rise in COVID-19 cases, daily use has increased fivefold to more than 2,000 tons, according to Deputy Health Minister Dante Saksono.
Though the production of oxygen is now sufficient, Lia Partakusuma, secretary general of Indonesia’s Hospital Association, said there were problems with distribution so some hospitals are still facing shortages.
In Indonesia, about 14% of of the population has had at least one vaccine dose, primarily China’s Sinovac.
There are growing concerns that Sinovac is less effective against the delta variant, however, and both Indonesia and Thailand are planning booster shots of other vaccines for their Sinovac-immunized health workers.
In Myanmar, the pandemic had taken backseat to the military’s power seizure in February, which set off a wave of protests and violent political conflict that devastated the public health system.
Only in recent weeks, as testing and reporting of COVID-19 cases has started recovering, has it become clear that a new wave of the virus beginning in mid-May is pushing cases and deaths rapidly higher.
Since the start of July its death rate has been climbing almost straight up, and both cases and fatalities are widely believed to be seriously underreported.
“With little testing capacity, low numbers in the country vaccinated, widespread shortages of oxygen and other medical supplies, and an already beleaguered health care system under increasing strain, the situation is expected to get increasingly worse in the coming weeks and months,” said ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, a regional advocacy group.
“Meanwhile, the junta’s confiscation of oxygen, attacks on health care workers and facilities since the coup, and the lack of trust in any services they provide by the majority of the population, risks turning a crisis into a disaster.”
On Tuesday, the government reported 5,860 new cases and 286 new deaths. There are no solid figures on vaccinations, but from the number of doses that have been available, it’s thought that about 3% of the population could have received two shots.
Read:Covid-19: Government orders 66 crore vaccine doses worth RS 14,505 crore
Officials this week pushed back at social media postings that cemeteries in Yangon were overwhelmed and could not keep up with the number of dead, inadvertently confirming claims that hospitals were swamped and many people were dying at home.
Cho Tun Aung, head of the department that oversees the cemeteries told military-run Myawaddy TV news on Monday that 350 staff members had been working three shifts since July 8 to ensure proper cremations and burials of people at Yangon’s seven major cemeteries.
He said workers had cremated and buried more than 1,200 people on Sunday alone, including 1,065 who had died at home of COVID-19 and 169 who had died in hospitals.
“We are working in three shifts day and night to inter the dead,” he said. “It is clear that there is no problem like the posts on Facebook.”
Malaysia shuts vaccination center after 204 staff infected
Malaysia shut down a mass vaccination center in its worst-hit state Tuesday after more than 200 medical staff and volunteers tested positive for the coronavirus.
The closure was the first of a vaccination center and came as the country’s new confirmed infections breached five figures Tuesday, hitting a record 11,079.
Science Minister Khairy Jamaluddin stressed that swift government action had contained the cluster at the Ideal Convention Center in central Selangor state.
Khairy, who is in charge of the national immunization program, said he ordered the testing of all 453 workers at the center after two volunteers were confirmed to have the virus. Khairy said the 204 whose results were positive had low viral loads, meaning the amount of virus in their bodies was small.
Read:Immunized but banned: EU says not all COVID vaccines equal
This could be because 88% or 400 of the workers have already been vaccinated, he said.
The center was shut for deep sanitization and all its workers are being isolated. Khairy said it will reopen Wednesday with a new team of medical workers.
He urged people who were vaccinated at the center since Friday to isolate themselves for 10 days and be tested if they develop symptoms. He declined to say how many people had visited the center since Friday. It has the capacity to deliver up to 6,000 shots a day.
“This is the first time we had to shut down a (vaccination center) because of positive cases but we acted fast. By shutting it down today and by taking corrective measures ... we hope the disruption is only one day and that this will not hamper the vaccination process,” Khairy said.
Read: FDA adds warning about rare reaction to J&J COVID-19 vaccine
He said it would be safe to visit the center starting Wednesday for vaccinations.
Khairy said health measures at all other vaccination centers will be tightened, but didn’t order other workers to be tested.
Selangor, the country’s richest state bordering Kuala Lumpur, is the worst hit by the pandemic. It accounted for nearly half of Tuesday’s new cases, partly because of increased virus screening amid a tight lockdown.
The government has struggled to contain the pandemic, which has worsened despite a lockdown since June 1. Total confirmed cases have soared by 50% since June 1 to 855,949, while deaths have more than doubled to over 6,200.
Read: South Africa ramps up vaccine drive, too late for this surge
Hospitals especially in Selangor have been overwhelmed, with some patients reportedly being treated on the floor due to a lack of beds, and corpses piling up in mortuaries.
Vaccinations have picked up, with 11% of the population now fully inoculated. At least a quarter of the country’s 32 million people have received at least one dose of vaccine.
The daily vaccination rate surpassed 420,000 doses on Monday, the national Bernama news agency quoted Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin as saying,
He expressed confidence that the fast pace of vaccination would help stem the outbreak.
Bangladesh signs MoU with Malaysia on LNG supply
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Bangladesh and Malaysia on cooperation in the supply of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) was inked virtually on Tuesday.
Under this MoU, Petronas LNG Ltd and Global LNG Sdn Bhd of Malaysia and Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation (Petrobangla) of Bangladesh are the designated entities in the LNG supply.
Also read: Cabinet body okays 10 proposals including import of petroleum fuel, LNG