Malaysia’s royal houses elect Sultan Ibrahim as new king

Though the vote for head monarch is held by ballot, appointments to the role follow a rotation held since the country’s independence from British colonial rule in 1957. (REUTERS)
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Updated 27 October 2023
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Malaysia’s royal houses elect Sultan Ibrahim as new king

  • King plays a ceremonial role in Malaysia’s day-to-day affairs
  • Country’s royalty has a lineage dating back to the 15th century

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s royalty on Friday elected Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar to be the new king, as the country’s current monarch steps down next year.

Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy with a unique system where the post of king rotates between the heads of its nine Islamic royal Malay houses every five years.

Sultan Ibrahim, 64, of the southern Johor state, was picked as the Muslim-majority nation’s 17th king after a special meeting was held this morning between the nine rulers, a palace official said in a statement.

“I inform that the Conference of Rulers ... have agreed to declare that His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim, Sultan of Johor Darul Ta’zim has been elected as His Majesty the 17th Yang di-Pertuan Agong,” Keeper of the Rulers’ Seal Syed Danial Syed Ahmad said.

Sultan Ibrahim’s reign will last five years from Jan. 31, 2024. He will replace Al-Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah of Pahang as the country’s new Yang di-Pertuan Agong or “He Who is Made Lord.”

Al-Sultan Abdullah, who will end his rule as supreme monarch on Jan. 30, ascended to the throne in 2019 when Sultan Muhammad V of Kelantan abdicated after just two years as head of state.

It was the first time a Malaysian king abdicated, with no official reason given for the resignation.

Syed Danial also said Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah of Perak was elected as the deputy king, whose role encompasses the functions of the head monarch when he is away from office.

Though the vote for head monarch is held by ballot, appointments to the role follow a rotation held since the country’s independence from British colonial rule in 1957.

“The Conference of Rulers — consistent of nine Malay rulers — will offer to the state ruler first on the list, although the said ruler can refuse,” BowerGroupAsia director Hafidzi Razali told Arab News.

“In the instance of refusal, the Conference will offer (the post) to the next state on the list.”

The influential Sultan Ibrahim of Johor is the ruler of Malaysia’s southernmost peninsular state which borders Singapore by a causeway.

Holding significant business interests, he has shares in major Malaysian firms and commands his own private army, the only state allowed to do so.

A motorcycle enthusiast, he leads an annual motor vehicle tour of the state, taking him and his entourage through a public visit of Johor’s 10 districts.

Malaysia’s kings play a largely ceremonial role in the country’s day-to-day affairs as executive power rests with the prime minister.

They can appoint a lawmaker who holds a parliamentary majority as the country’s premier and exercise certain discretionary powers during a national crisis.

“The king serves as the final arbiter and point of reference,” Hafidzi said.

After a five-day political impasse in November, following an election that led to a hung parliament, Al-Sultan Abdullah named Anwar Ibrahim as the country’s prime minister.

He had met with several lawmakers including Anwar and his rival Muhyiddin Yassin before making the decision.

Malaysia’s kings also have the power to pardon convicts and are the country’s symbolic heads of Islam. Portraits of the king and his queen are placed in government buildings.

Sultan Ibrahim in his new role was “expected to place a strong emphasis on political stability, inter-race cohesion, unity, and pro-business or investment environment,” Hafidzi said.

“His role symbolizes the historical legacy of the Malay sultanates, as well as representing the guardianship of the special relationship between the monarchy, the Malay race and Islam.”

Malaysia’s royalty has a lineage that dates back to the 15th century, and it commands great respect from the country’s population of 33 million, especially from the Muslim, ethnic-Malay majority.


Indian man awakes on funeral pyre

Updated 5 sec ago
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Indian man awakes on funeral pyre

  • Doctors sent Rohitash Kumar, 25, to mortuary instead of doing postmortem after he fell ill
  • Kumar was rushed to hospital on Friday for treatment but was confirmed dead later

JAIPUR: An Indian man awoke on a funeral pyre moments before it was to be set on fire after a doctor skipped a postmortem, medical officials said Saturday.
Rohitash Kumar, 25, who had speaking and hearing difficulties, had fallen sick and was taken to a hospital in Jhunjhunu in the western state of Rajasthan on Thursday.
Indian media reported he had had an epileptic seizure, and a doctor declared him dead on arrival at the hospital.
But instead of the required postmortem to ascertain the cause of death, doctors sent him to the mortuary, and then to be burned according to Hindu rites.
D. Singh, chief medical officer of the hospital, told AFP that a doctor had “prepared the postmortem report without actually doing the postmortem, and the body was then sent for cremation.”
Singh said that “shortly before the pyre was to be lit, Rohitash’s body started movements,” adding that “he was alive and was breathing.”
Kumar was rushed to hospital for a second time, but was confirmed dead on Friday during treatment.
Authorities have suspended the services of three doctors and the police have launched an investigation.


NATO chief discusses ‘global security’ with Trump

Updated 6 min 19 sec ago
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NATO chief discusses ‘global security’ with Trump

  • NATO allies say keeping Kyiv in the fight against Moscow is key to both European and American security

Brussels: NATO chief Mark Rutte held talks with US President-elect Donald Trump in Florida on the “global security issues facing the alliance,” a spokeswoman said Saturday.
The meeting took place on Friday in Palm Beach, NATO’s Farah Dakhlallah said in a statement.
In his first term Trump aggressively pushed Europe to step up defense spending and questioned the fairness of the NATO transatlantic alliance.
The former Dutch prime minister had said he wanted to meet Trump two days after Trump was elected on November 5, and discuss the threat of increasingly warming ties between North Korea and Russia.
Trump’s thumping victory to return to the US presidency has set nerves jangling in Europe that he could pull the plug on vital Washington military aid for Ukraine.
NATO allies say keeping Kyiv in the fight against Moscow is key to both European and American security.
“What we see more and more is that North Korea, Iran, China and of course Russia are working together, working together against Ukraine,” Rutte said recently at a European leaders’ meeting in Budapest.
“At the same time, Russia has to pay for this, and one of the things they are doing is delivering technology to North Korea,” which he warned was threatening to the “mainland of the US (and) continental Europe.”
“I look forward to sitting down with Donald Trump to discuss how we can face these threats collectively,” Rutte said.


Indian man awakes on funeral pyre

Updated 18 min 25 sec ago
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Indian man awakes on funeral pyre

JAIPUR, India: An Indian man awoke on a funeral pyre moments before it was to be set on fire after a doctor skipped a postmortem, medical officials said Saturday.
Rohitash Kumar, 25, who had speaking and hearing difficulties, had fallen sick and was taken to a hospital in Jhunjhunu in the western state of Rajasthan on Thursday.
Indian media reported he had had an epileptic seizure, and a doctor declared him dead on arrival at the hospital.
But instead of the required postmortem to ascertain the cause of death, doctors sent him to the mortuary, and then to be burned according to Hindu rites.
D. Singh, chief medical officer of the hospital, told AFP that a doctor had “prepared the postmortem report without actually doing the postmortem, and the body was then sent for cremation.”
Singh said that “shortly before the pyre was to be lit, Rohitash’s body started movements,” adding that “he was alive and was breathing.”
Kumar was rushed to hospital for a second time, but was confirmed dead on Friday during treatment.
Authorities have suspended the services of three doctors and the police have launched an investigation.


Fighting between armed sectarian groups in restive northwestern Pakistan kills at least 33 people

Updated 37 min 49 sec ago
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Fighting between armed sectarian groups in restive northwestern Pakistan kills at least 33 people

  • Senior police officer said Saturday armed men torched shops, houses and government property overnight
  • Although the two groups generally live together peacefully, tensions remain, especially in Kurram

PESHAWAR: Fighting between armed Sunni and Shiite groups in northwestern Pakistan killed at least 33 people and injured 25 others, a senior police officer from the region said Saturday.
The overnight violence was the latest to rock Kurram, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and comes days after a deadly gun ambush killed 42 people.
Shiite Muslims make up about 15 percent of the 240 million people in Sunni-majority Pakistan, which has a history of sectarian animosity between the communities.
Although the two groups generally live together peacefully, tensions remain, especially in Kurram.
The senior police officer said armed men in Bagan and Bacha Kot torched shops, houses and government property.
Intense gunfire was ongoing between the Alizai and Bagan tribes in the Lower Kurram area.
“Educational institutions in Kurram are closed due to the severe tension. Both sides are targeting each other with heavy and automatic weapons,” said the officer, who spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Videos shared with The Associated Press showed a market engulfed by fire and orange flames piercing the night sky. Gunfire can also be heard.
The location of Thursday’s attack was also targeted by armed men, who marched on the area.
Survivors of the gun ambush said assailants emerged from a vehicle and sprayed buses and cars with bullets. Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack and police have not identified a motive.
Dozens of people from the district’s Sunni and Shiite communities have been killed since July, when a land dispute erupted in Kurram that later turned into general sectarian violence.


Key UN committee adopts resolution paving the way for a first-ever treaty on crimes against humanity

Updated 23 November 2024
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Key UN committee adopts resolution paving the way for a first-ever treaty on crimes against humanity

  • The International Criminal Court was established to punish major perpetrators of war crimes
  • ICC has 124 countries that are parties to it

UNITED NATIONS: A key UN General Assembly committee adopted a resolution late Friday paving the way for negotiations on a first-ever treaty on preventing and punishing crimes against humanity after Russia dropped amendments that would have derailed the effort.
The resolution was approved by consensus by the assembly’s legal committee, which includes all 193-member UN nations, after tense last-minute negotiations between its supporters and Russia that dragged through the day.
There was loud applause when the chairman of the committee gaveled the resolution’s approval. It is virtually certain to be adopted when the General Assembly puts it to a final vote on Dec. 4.
“Today’s agreement to start up negotiations on a much-needed international treaty is a historic achievement that was a long time coming,” Richard Dicker, Human Rights Watch’s senior legal adviser for advocacy, told The Associated Press.
“It sends a crucial message that impunity for the kinds of crimes inflicted on civilians in Ethiopia, Sudan, Ukraine, southern Israel, Gaza and Myanmar will not go unheeded,” he said.
The resolution calls for a time-bound process with preparatory sessions in 2026 and 2027, and three-week negotiating sessions in 2028 and 2029 to finalize a treaty on crimes against humanity.
Dicker said Russia’s proposed amendments left in question whether treaty negotiations would have been completed.
Russia’s deputy UN ambassador Maria Zabolotskaya said Russia withdrew the amendments “in a spirit of compromise.” But she said Russia “dissociates itself from consensus.”
“This, of course, does not mean that we are not ready to work on this crucial convention,” Zabolotskaya told the committee.
The International Criminal Court was established to punish major perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide and it has 124 countries that are parties to it. The ICC says crimes against humanity are committed as part of a large-scale attack on civilians and it lists 15 forms including murder, rape, imprisonment, enforced disappearances, sexual slavery, torture and deportation.
But the ICC does not have jurisdiction over nearly 70 other countries.
There are global treaties that cover war crimes, genocide and torture — but there has been no specific treaty addressing crimes against humanity. And according to sponsors of the resolution, led by Mexico and Gambia and backed by 96 other countries, a new treaty will fill the gap.
Kelly Adams, legal adviser at the Global Justice Center, also called the resolution “a historic breakthrough” after many delays.
Pointing to “the proliferation of crimes against humanity around the world,” she expressed hope that a treaty will be “strong, progressive and survivor-centric.”
Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnes Callamard expressed disappointment that the timeline had been extended until 2029, but said, “What’s important is that this process will deliver a viable convention.”
“It is long overdue and all the more welcome at a time when too many states are intent on wrecking international law and universal standards,” she said. “It is a clear sign that states are ready to reinforce the international justice framework and clamp down on safe havens from investigation and prosecution for perpetrators of these heinous crimes.”
After the resolution’s adoption, Gambia’s Counselor Amadou Jaiteh, who had introduced it hours earlier, called its approval “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a difference,” to hope for a world without crimes against humanity, “and a world where voices of victims are heard louder than their perpetrators.”