Good morning, here’s what you need to know today.
Key Highlights
Orang Asli deputy speaker
The standoff between Umno and Bersatu has given rise to a new opportunity – a potential Orang Asli deputy speaker.
Umno is set to nominate Cameron Highlands MP Ramli Mohd Nor as the new deputy speaker after Pontian MP Ahmad Maslan withdrew his candidacy.
Ahmad, who is also the Umno secretary-general, dropped out after it became apparent that he would be defeated without Bersatu’s support.
Bersatu had refused to budge against the ‘court cluster’ even though Ahmad managed to get his money laundering case dropped after paying an RM1.1 million compound.
Compared to Ahmad, Ramli is a political newbie, having risen to prominence after winning the Cameron Highlands by-election in 2019.
Prior to that, he was a retired senior police officer with no party affiliation.
The descendent of the Semai and Temiar tribe, the 63-year-old had already made history by becoming the first Orang Asli MP.
Ramli was among the group of Umno MPs who helped oust Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin as the prime minister.
HIGHLIGHTS
Secret recordings
It’s the season of political operatives releasing secret recordings against their opponents.
PAS has been grappling with an audio recording purportedly showing its Kuala Nerus MP Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali criticising party president Abdul Hadi Awang for favouring PN over BN.
For the record, Khairuddin was the only PAS minister to be dropped during the transition from Muhyiddin Yassin to Ismail Sabri Yaakob as prime minister.
PAS leaders have generally been coy about the incident. Its spiritual leader Hashim Jasin denied knowledge about the recording but said differences of opinion was normal.
Meanwhile, Sungai Udang assemblyperson Idris Haron, who plunged Malacca into a political crisis, was also hit by an alleged leaked audio recording.
The recording was purportedly between Idris and Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
In the recording, the man who appeared to sound like Idris railed against caretaker Malacca chief minister Sulaiman Md Ali and his alleged subservience to Malacca Umno chief Ab Rauf Yusoh.
The person on the other side of the line sought to convince ‘Idris’ not to go ahead with his plan to bring down the Malacca government or to cooperate with the DAP.
Idris maintained that he was not the person in the audio recording, stating that the person’s tone was “rude” to the prime minister.
HIGHLIGHTS
‘Datuk Seri’ and soap operas
The issue of misbehaving ‘Datuk’ and ‘Datuk Seri’ have been well documented.
Among them include the ‘hotpot datuk‘ incident where a drunk VIP assaulting a fellow restaurant patron and a “datuk seri” with purported underworld links beating up Rela members.
They are in the minority but have given people with honorific a bad name. Now, an MP is also worried that soap operas are also giving them a bad name.
Amanah’s Hulu Langat MP Hasanuddin Mohd Yunus raised concern in Parliament about soap operas’ portrayals of people with “Tan Sri” and “Datuk Sri”.
He complained that they were often presented as corrupt or having extramarital affairs.
HIGHLIGHTS
A daily glance at Covid-19
- 6,709 new cases yesterday (Oct 11), a record low since July.
- Another 93 deaths were reported, bringing the death toll to 27,422.
- Penang topped the chart with 26 deaths or 28 percent, followed by Sarawak (14) and Johor (8).
- A total of 1,214 people have died from Covid-19 this month.
What else is happening?
- The lifting of the interstate travel ban yesterday has not seen an exodus with ticket sales at bus terminals still relatively slow. However, they are expected to pick up over the weekend.
- The Dewan Rakyat approved a motion to increase the country’s debt ceiling from 60 percent to 65 percent of the gross domestic product as the government has had to rely more on borrowings during the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Bangi MP Ong Kian Ming, who was in Parliament, tested positive for Covid-19.
HIGHLIGHTS
What are people saying?
