US

Baseless, says Anwar of claim Hamas members trained in Malaysia

SEREMBAN: Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has rubbished claims by eight US lawmakers that Hamas members trained in Malaysia and that the federal government “welcomed terrorists while targeting Jews”.

“It’s baseless,” he told reporters here today.

The eight US lawmakers, who had earlier called on Washington to review its security and economic ties with Malaysia over Putrajaya’s policy barring Israeli citizens from entering the country, had based their claim on a report by an Israeli counter-terrorism research institute.

US categorises Hamas as a terrorist organisation.

Anwar said he had even informed US president Donald Trump of his meeting with a Hamas leader.

“There’s nothing unusual about it (relationship with Hamas),” he said.

In May 2024, Anwar met with Ismail Haniyeh during a working trip to Qatar, where he conveyed his condolences to Ismail over the loss of several of his family members killed in an Israeli airstrike in April.

The government in 2015 denied claims by Shin Bet, Israel’s secret service, that Malaysia was used as a training ground for Palestine students to attack Israeli assets.

Then deputy home minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said such claims were not only “ridiculous” but aimed at creating reasons to oppose Malaysia, a strategy often used against countries that Israel disliked. - FMT 22 July 2026

US nominates career diplomat Joshua Harris as envoy to Malaysia

PETALING JAYA: The US has nominated career diplomat Joshua Harris to serve as its next ambassador to Malaysia.

Harris’s name was submitted in a list of nominations sent to the Senate yesterday for confirmation.

Harris, from Maryland, is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service and currently holds the rank of minister-counsellor.

He has served as deputy chief of mission and frequently charge d’affaires at the US embassy in Tripoli, Libya, and the Libya External Office in Tunis, Tunisia.

Harris also served as the policy director to the special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis), and the director for Iraq at the National Security Council.

Additionally, he served as deputy assistant secretary of state and director of the Office of Maghreb Affairs in the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.

His other foreign assignments have included stints in Ljubljana, Slovenia; Baghdad, Iraq; Tripoli, Libya; and Zagreb, Croatia.

Harris is a graduate of Georgetown University’s Edmund A Walsh School of Foreign Service and the London School of Economics and Political Science.

The US envoy position has been vacant since former envoy Edgard D Kagan’s tenure ended in February.

Before Harris, conservative commentator and author Nick Adams was nominated as the US ambassador to succeed Kagan, but was, however, dropped in February.

David Gamble is currently serving as the charge d’affaires at the US enbassy. - FMT 22 July 2026

Gerakan

8 years after leaving BN, Gerakan has come full circle with almost nothing to show for

FRESH from a devastating electoral defeat in 2018, Gerakan walked out of Barisan Nasional (BN) with much fanfare.

It felt that the coalition had lost its way and promised to re-build itself as an “independent” force. But in 2021, the Chinese-majority party joined the PAS-dominated Perikatan Nasional (PN).

Now, with the posturing from its PN allies like PAS, Gerakan seems to be one step away from being back in the BN orbit – but in a much worse position than when it had stormed out of the coalition.

This is all attributed to the machinations of Gerakan’s big brother in PN, PAS, which seems to be cozying up to UMNO-led BN as part of its “Malay Unity” agenda, especially in the run-up to the Johor state polls on July 11.

In fact, PN is contesting in only 33 of the 56 seats in the Johor assembly when the coalition had stood in all of them in the 2022 state polls.

To make matters worse, Gerakan is not fielding any candidates for the polls this time around although it stood in eight seats four years ago.

PAS deputy president Datuk Seri Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man has even openly asked its supporters to back BN in seats where the coalition faces Pakatan Harapan (PH) in straight fights.

By sitting out of the polls, Gerakan has not just paved the way for a BN-PH straight fight. It has also averted a split in Malay votes and boosted chances of BN candidates given the community’s general disdain for PH, especially the DAP.

Taken together, these developments point to a strategy that is likely to make BN the main beneficiary after the last ballot paper is counted on July 11.

The truth is, Gerakan is now a pale shadow of what it once was. It has spent the better part of the last eight years becoming increasingly irrelevant compared with its heydays when it ruled Penang.

Its biggest “achievement” since leaving BN is one state assembly seat in Kedah – the Kulim state seat by the party’s secretary-general Wong Chia Zhen – which was won under the PN banner and followed by an EXCO appointment in a PAS-led state government.

It was less a testament to Gerakan’s political revival than to PAS’ willingness to carve out a seat for its junior partner.

Beyond that, Gerakan has struggled to justify why it exists as a separate political party. The party’s decline has been symbolised by its president Datuk Dominic Lau Hoe Chai.

His ill-fated contest in Penang in 2023 where even PAS grassroots openly rejected him, exposed Gerakan’s lack of standing within its own coalition.

It was difficult to escape the impression that Gerakan had become little more than a passenger riding on the strength of more senior partners.

Now with the latest political developments, the party, sometimes lampooned as “Gelakan” (“a joke” in Malay), seems to be back where it started.

Only this time, it returns with neither influence nor bargaining power, only massive loss in public goodwill and a president with a tail between his legs. – Jonathan Liew, FocusM June 30, 2026

UMNO

The cycle turns once more

SOME may or may not have noticed that a cavalier air permeates every announcement by UMNO leaders of their party’s intention to go it alone in the coming state and federal elections.

Without doubt, it is meant to be heroic, if not stoic.

It can be simply deduced that the earnestness stemmed from the realisation that the party’s current post-electoral pact with Pakatan Harapan (PH) is still rejected not only by the Malay majority, but even by its own supporters.

This is despite having been in the alliance for more than three years and accompanied by efforts to convince their supporters that the PH, Prime Minister (PM) Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, and the DAP had been misrepresented and are not what they had been portrayed to be.

Obviously, these efforts had failed and to ensure survival and hoping for a better showing after the dismal performance in the last election, UMNO leaders seemed to accept that these could only be achieved if they could convince UMNO supporters and the Malay electorate that they are not in any way allied to the PH, Anwar and the DAP.

It is pretty straightforward at this point. Sever ties with PH and the rest, convince the voters and enter the polls without the baggage that proved to be more than capable of dragging UMNO down.

Inevitably, though not in so many words, by declaring to enter the polls without them, UMNO had agreed with what the Opposition parties had said about the PH, Anwar and the DAP — that they are no good for the Malays and the nation.

Actually, UMNO had been saying this all along, though it went a tad silent during the union, except on some irregular intervals when a party renegade decides to raise an issue with the allies.

Even when the renegade speaks up against the PH and the rest, there are always doubts about his candour and that it was part of a political strategy to keep reminding the electorate that they are still Malay leaders and for the Malay interest.

With the Johor state assembly dissolved and the polls to be held soon, UMNO leaders declared that UMNO/Barisan Nasional (BN) will be going it alone and contesting in all 56 seats.

Somewhat scripted to some, PH leaders expressed anger and disappointment, while the lower-tiered leaders and supporters, the ones without much sway, reminded UMNO that they are enjoying government positions courtesy of PH and should resign if they had any morals.

It stopped there and was never raised by PH leaders with sway and neither did any of the UMNO leaders choose to address the insult and prove their integrity.

The PH leaders were equally cavalier. Declaring that they too would contest in all the seats contested by UMNO/BN.

While the degree of earnestness on the part of the PH, in declaring it had untied itself from UMNO in Johor, is less compared with the latter’s, the trajectory is similar when it comes to what it represents to its supporters.

Simply put, if UMNO is keen to disassociate itself with the PH to regain and retain support from the Malays, PH’s distancing itself reflected the allergy felt by their supporters towards UMNO.

In summation, the whole drama has come full circle — what it was in the run-up to the 15th general election (GE15) in late 2022.

Some may choose not to be reminded but UMNO’s campaign in that poll centred heavily on “No Anwar, No DAP” while PH’s was “No UMNO, No Zahid” (Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi — UMNO president who was facing 47 corruption-related cases).

On UMNO’s part, the aversion towards Anwar and the DAP was given divine decree when Ahmad Zahid reportedly uttered the Islamic oath of not working with Anwar and the DAP and if he/UMNO did, they would be damned.

As such, despite both sides reneging on their campaign promises of not aligning with each other, power is a great recipe for marriages of convenience and the coming together of strange bedfellows.

Nevertheless, the marriage needs to end when it becomes inconvenient, hence the display of separation and severance in the upcoming Johor polls.

The Negri Sembilan polls are now also next in line and a similar display of severance between UMNO/BN and PH can be expected to be played out to the hilt.

Malacca assembly’s expiry is also ending soon and it is expected to declare that it will hold its polls as soon as possible or simultaneously and again, the going-alone play will be presented and amplified.

Unfortunately, despite all the bravado of going solo at the state polls, it is still doubtful that it would be convincing and neither would it stand under scrutiny when the 16th Federal polls come into play.

Indeed, Ahmad Zahid had declared that UMNO/BN would go it alone in the Federal elections.

Except for the credulous, not many will buy that narrative, especially if details of “going alone” are dissected.

Firstly, UMNO/BN going alone is not as it was in the previous polls when it contested in seats which, if it won, would allow it to form the Government on its own or, in the worst case, with the support of smaller parties to help make up the numbers.

It meant that UMNO/BN is the leading party or coalition.

This time around, despite going in alone, it is not expected to contest in as many seats. In fact, speculations are in abundance that it will contest only a quarter of the available parliamentary seats.

And the seats it contests will be against its traditional foes — PAS and Bersatu — which seats are traditionally UMNO’s.

With a smaller number of seats and its opponents are going to be the current opposition, UMNO/BN is not entering the Federal polls to form the Government but rather to help form it.

Given that the seats it is contesting are against the Malay opposition parties, if it won most of the seats, it would deprive the Malay opposition of their seats and any bargaining power whatsoever.

Who would UMNO/BN then offer to align itself with to form the Government? Obviously, with those who have the numbers from the other side who did not contest with UMNO for the Malay votes and seats.

By then, voters would realise that the cavalier bravado and feigned earnestness are a crafted illusion.

Too late, the circle closes on cue.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of TMR editorial board. - 5 June 2026

Climate Change

Hotter days and warmer nights for Malaysia as climate change intensifies

MALAYSIA is facing a future of hotter days, warmer nights and increasingly frequent heatwaves as climate change accelerates across Southeast Asia, with experts warning that the country must prepare for more severe environmental and economic consequences.

What was once dismissed as seasonal heat is now emerging as a long-term climate trend.

Climatology and Climate Change expert at the National University of Malaysia, Professor Emeritus Dr Fredolin Tangang, said rising temperatures in Southeast Asia mirror the broader pattern of global warming, with the region approaching the critical 1.5°C warming threshold above pre-industrial levels.

According to him, over the past five to ten years, Southeast Asia has experienced temperature increases of around 0.3 to 0.4°C. This shows a consistent warming trend rather than a temporary fluctuation.

While countries such as Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar face more frequent heatwaves, Malaysia is not insulated from the effects.

Local weather patterns are influenced by climate systems such as El Niño, the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) and the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), but global warming remains a dominant factor.

The world is already experiencing unprecedented heat.  Fredolin said 2024 was the hottest year on record, with global temperatures reaching approximately 1.55°C above pre-industrial levels, while 2023 and 2025 ranked among the hottest years ever documented.

Although Malaysia naturally experiences a hot and humid tropical climate, current warming trends have moved beyond normal climatic variation.

“The increasingly prolonged and intense heatwaves indicate that the global climate system is becoming more unstable,” he said.

The primary driver remains greenhouse gas emissions, particularly carbon dioxide produced through fossil fuel combustion, deforestation and large-scale land-use changes.

Carbon dioxide concentrations have now reached around 420 parts per mil (ppm), far exceeding the natural range of 180 to 300 ppm over the past million years.

“The burning of fossil fuels and deforestation trap more heat in the Earth’s atmosphere. Around 91% of this excess heat is absorbed by the oceans, influencing regional temperatures and climate systems, including Southeast Asia,” Fredolin explained.

Malaysia is already witnessing these impacts. Data from the Malaysian Meteorological Department (METMalaysia) show that the nation’s average daily temperature is rising by approximately 0.19°C every decade.

More concerning is that minimum temperatures are rising faster than daytime highs, meaning nights are becoming warmer at a quicker pace.

METMalaysia director-general Mohd Hisham Mohd Anip said long-term average maximum temperatures have increased by 0.14°C per decade, while minimum temperatures have risen by 0.26°C.

“This proves that the warming taking place is no longer temporary,” he said.

Urbanisation is worsening the problem. Rapid development, deforestation and land-use changes have intensified the urban heat island effect, where concrete and asphalt trap heat while green spaces diminish.

The phenomenon is especially evident in Malaysia’s urban centres and west coast regions.

Station data show Subang recording temperature increases of about 0.37°C per decade, followed by Bayan Lepas at 0.35°C and Senai at 0.31°C.

The Klang Valley, Penang and Johor Bahru are among the areas most affected. Rising temperatures also bring consequences beyond discomfort.

Public health risks include heatstroke, dehydration and respiratory illnesses, while hotter and drier conditions heighten the risk of forest fires and haze.

The economic implications are equally significant. Hot weather and declining water supplies threaten agriculture, food security and labour productivity, particularly in construction, farming and logistics.

“Hot weather and reduced water supplies will affect agricultural output and the economy as a whole,” Fredolin warned.

Looking ahead, Malaysia is expected to experience longer and more frequent heatwaves.

METMalaysia defines a heatwave as temperatures exceeding 37°C for at least three consecutive days, while extreme heatwaves involve temperatures above 40°C.

So far, the country has crossed the 40°C mark only once — in Chuping, Perlis, on April 9, 1998.

By 2035, Malaysia’s average daily temperature is projected to reach around 27.7°C, about 0.53°C above the 1991–2020 average. Experts say adaptation can no longer wait.

Proposed measures include planting more trees, expanding green and water spaces in urban areas, and establishing cooling centres for vulnerable groups such as the elderly and children during extreme heat events.

The warning is clear: climate change is no longer a distant threat for Malaysia but an unfolding reality demanding urgent preparation and action. — FocusM May 24, 2026

AI

Rethinking digital trust in Malaysia’s AI era

This is no futuristic dystopia, but the reality of today’s workplace, where accountability is quietly dissolving into algorithms.

For decades, organisational trust was built on a simple principle: humans made decisions while systems merely carried out instructions, making it clear who acted, under what authority, and within which operational boundaries.

Today, that clarity is rapidly disappearing.

That model is now undergoing a profound transformation as artificial intelligence (AI) systems and autonomous agents become increasingly embedded across enterprises.

They are granted the ability to act on behalf of individuals and organisations — analysing data, initiating workflows, generating recommendations, and even executing operational decisions with minimal human intervention.

In this evolving environment, trust can no longer be anchored simply in knowing who clicked a button; instead, it must be fundamentally redefined and built on three essential pillars:

Who or what is authorised to perform actions.

What data and systems they are allowed to access.

How their activities are governed, monitored, and controlled.

Together, these pillars form what may be described as the AI Trust Triangle — focusing on identity, data security, and governance.

This represents a significant shift in how organisations approach trust — moving from trusting individuals in isolated moments, to trusting that systems, controls and policies are robust enough to prevent unintended, unauthorised or harmful outcomes, whether caused by humans or AI.

Identity: trust beyond human users

Identity and access management can no longer focus only on employees, vendors, contractors and business partners.

AI agents, digital assistants, machine‑learning systems and automated applications are now active participants in enterprise ecosystems and must be treated as such.

Each AI system must have a clearly defined, verifiable identity specifying what entity it represents, what functions it can perform, which systems and data it may access, and where those permissions originate.

Without this clarity, accountability becomes blurred, making it difficult to trace decisions, identify which model triggered an action, or confirm compliance with policies and regulations.

As actions can no longer be confidently attributed, institutional trust deteriorates rapidly. In Malaysia, this is especially critical as public and private sectors accelerate digital transformation under the national digital agenda.

With AI adoption rising in banking, healthcare, government services and critical infrastructure, robust digital identity frameworks are essential. Initiatives such as MyDigital ID and broader efforts to build trusted digital ecosystems show that identity has evolved from an IT concern into a matter of national trust.

Data security: defining boundaries

AI systems’ effectiveness and reliability hinge on high-quality, appropriately scoped data access.

Excessive permissions or exposure to sensitive corporate, financial, or personal data can rapidly erode trust, even without breaches — the mere perception of visibility breeds unease among employees, regulators, and consumers.

In Malaysia, this is amplified by public distrust from high-profile data leaks, cybersecurity incidents, and governance issues with major digital platforms and databases.

As organisations increasingly adopt generative AI tools and intelligent automation, data security can no longer be viewed simply as protecting files or networks. Instead, it must focus on establishing clear, enforceable boundaries around:

What data AI systems can access

How that data may be used

The context in which it may be processed

Which departments, users or functions it supports.

To establish sustainable trust, organisations must adopt a far more disciplined approach to AI data governance by:

Identifying sensitive, regulated and high-risk data

Aligning access rights with role, purpose and operational context

Preventing AI systems from crossing functional or sensitivity boundaries

Applying least-privilege access principles consistently

Monitoring for anomalies, misuse or unexpected behaviour.

When these safeguards are properly implemented, AI adoption becomes significantly easier because users gain confidence that systems will operate within clearly defined and controlled limits.

Governance: making accountability explicit

If identity determines who or what can act, and what data security  can be accessed, governance ultimately determines how AI behaves.

In an AI‑driven organisation, governance must be deliberate, transparent and enforced, not assumed. It requires clear authorisation of AI tasks, mandated human oversight, explainable and auditable decisions, and continuous alignment with policies, regulations and risk.

Without it, even strong security can drift; with it, organisations gain transparency, accountability and confidence.

As Malaysia accelerates its transformation into a digitally driven nation, the digital ministry is taking decisive steps to position the country as a trusted, secure and globally competitive AI hub by 2030.

Through the National Artificial Intelligence Office (NAIO), Malaysia is developing a comprehensive AI governance framework and a landmark Artificial Intelligence Governance Bill targeted for tabling in Parliament in 2026.

Built on a progressive risk-based approach, the initiative reflects the government’s commitment to fostering innovation while safeguarding accountability, ethics and public trust.

The proposed framework aims to establish strong governance standards, incident reporting mechanisms and safeguards against emerging threats such as deepfakes, AI-enabled fraud and the misuse of autonomous systems, reinforcing Malaysia’s leadership in creating a safe, ethical and resilient AI ecosystem for the digital future.

In the AI era, speed won’t crown the winners. Triumph will go to organisations that deploy AI responsibly, transparently, and securely.

The real AI reckoning isn’t machines mimicking minds. It’s humans daring to trust the monsters we have built — or watching our digital empires collapse in betrayal. Will you engineer trust, or ignite the revolt? - FMT 15, May 2026

 

Murugason R Thangaratnam is a cybersecurity practitioner and an FMT reader.

Food

This war is affecting everyone’s food

THE US-IRAN war is not just spiking gas prices; it is systematically disrupting the global food system.

The concern about global food security is a clear-eyed assessment of a supply chain built on a fossil fuel foundation.

Modern agriculture is, for better or worse, the art of turning oil and gas into food. And the Persian Gulf is the epicentre of that transformation.

Roughly one-third of the world’s seaborne fertilizer trade passes through the Strait of Hormuz. 

The Gulf states are also critical suppliers of nitrogen fertilizers, which require natural gas as a feedstock, and phosphates, which require sulfur—from region’s petrochemical industry.

With the strait closed, this critical artery has been severed. The timing could not be more catastrophic.

Across the Northern Hemisphere—from America’s breadbasket to Europe’s farms—March is the month farmers buy fertilizer for spring application.

The supply isn’t just delayed but simply not coming. US farmers are facing a 25% shortfall in usual supplies.

Fertilizer accounts for up to 25% of a farmer’s production costs. When prices surge—as they have, —farmers face a brutal choice: pay crippling prices, ration application and accept lower yields, or switch to less input-intensive crops.

Any of these paths lead to a smaller harvest. According to the World Bank: when fertilizer prices spike, they stay “higher for longer,” and downstream food inflation inevitably follows.

This is the “hidden front” of the war, as the Council on Foreign Relations terms it—a slow-motion crisis where the effects of today’s shortages won’t be fully visible until the harvest is brought in months from now.

We are, in effect, sowing the seeds of next year’s food inflation today.

But the threat doesn’t end at the farm gate. Higher energy prices translate directly into higher costs for fuelling tractors, running irrigation, and powering food processing plants.

Logistics face soaring freight rates and insurance premiums. Even before food reaches a ship or a truck, the cost of packaging—from plastic wraps to storage containers, all derived from petrochemicals—is spiking.

Chemical giant BASF has already announced price increases of up to 20% for core plastic additives.

This creates a pincer movement on consumers. First-round effects hit packaging and transport, raising the cost of getting food to the supermarket.

Second-round effects, driven by the fertilizer shock, will gradually increase the cost of the food itself—grains, cooking oil, protein—as higher input costs work their way through the system.

As MBSB Research notes, margin risk is highest for companies with little pricing power, but the ultimate “loser” in this equation is always the consumer, facing a “broader cost reset”.

The pain will not be distributed equally. The World Food Programme (WFP) has already activated emergency response systems, warning that disruptions are imperilling millions in the Middle East, a region already grappling with fragile economies and conflict.

But the crisis will reach far beyond the immediate war zone. Countries like Egypt, historically the world’s largest wheat importer, are acutely vulnerable to any shock in global grain markets.

The war is a reminder that for countries heavily reliant on food imports—like the Gulf states themselves, which import over 90% of their rice, corn, and soybeans—food security is not a given; it’s a fragile construct dependent on peaceful seas.

We may not be spared either from the turmoil as we import much of our food.

There is a bitter historical irony here. The skyrocketing bread prices and food insecurity exacerbated by global wheat shortages in 2010-2011 were contributing factors to the Arab Spring.

Today, we risk a repeat performance on a wider stage, driven not by a confluence of weather events, but by a man-made conflict at a vital chokepoint.

As critics rightly point out, this crisis exposes a “systemic failure at the heart of our global food system”. 

Our reliance on a handful of volatile nations for critical inputs like fertilizer, and the “just-in-time” logic that leaves us with no strategic reserves, has created an edifice of extreme fragility.

Unlike oil, there is no strategic petroleum reserve for fertilizer. When the supply chain breaks, the system doesn’t just creak; it seizes.

The war in Iran is a stark illustration of how twenty-first-century conflict can weaponize not just bombs and bullets, but food, water, and the very inputs that sustain modern life.

The concern over global food security is not an overreaction. It is a recognition that the price of this war will be paid in full long after the last shot is fired, by farmers unable to plant, by families facing empty shelves, and by nations pushed to the brink by a hunger that was entirely man-made. —May 3, 2026

Professor Dato Dr Ahmad Ibrahim is an Adjunct Professor at the Ungku Aziz Centre for Development Studies, Universiti Malaya. 

BUDI95

BUDI95

As of April 1, 2026, the Malaysian government has reduced the monthly BUDI95 (Budi Madani RON95) subsidy quota from 300 litres to 200 litres due to rising global oil prices. The subsidised price remains at RM1.99 per litre. This temporary measure aims to manage high diesel costs, with additional aid provided to beneficiaries.

Latest BUDI95 News (April 2026):

• Quota Reduction: The monthly quota is reduced to 200 litres per month effective April 1, 2026, down from the previous 300 litres.
• Price Maintained: Despite the quota change, the subsidised price of RON95 remains at RM1.99 per litre for eligible recipients.
• Context for Change: The decision was made following a surge in global oil prices (Brent crude exceeding US$100/barrel), with the government tightening eligibility to manage subsidy costs while ensuring it covers the majority of users.
• Extra Aid: To aid with rising costs, a temporary additional RM100 assistance was announced for beneficiaries of BUDI Individu and BUDI Agri-Komoditi, bringing total aid to RM300 for April.
• Security Measures: Following reports of unauthorized usage, the Finance Ministry has emphasized strict monitoring of the subsidy scheme. 

This temporary reduction aims to manage the high price of fuel amidst a global energy crisis.