More 'political appointments' terminated and 10 news from yesterday

KINI ROUNDUP | Here are key headlines you may have missed yesterday, in brief.

1. Labuan Port Authority chairperson Chan Foong Hin (photo, above), who is from the DAP, as well as local councillors and Village Community Management Council members in Perak are the latest to be told to vacate their posts following the change in government in February.

2. Perak Menteri Besar Ahmad Faizal Azumu said the termination of the Village Community Management Council (MPKK) members statewide should not be disputed as they are all political appointees.

3. G25 founding member Mohd Sheriff Mohd Kassim said Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin needs to clarify a cabinet member’s statement that his party’s MPs would be given GLC appointments, while former minister Rafidah Aziz said the appointments put reforms in ‘reverse gear’.

4. Veteran journalist A Kadir Jasin has accused Muhyiddin of taking full advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic to consolidate power in case of a no-confidence motion against him in Parliament.

5. Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak countered that it was Pakatan Harapan, not Perikatan Nasional, that had promised to end political appointments and reneged that promise.

6. The federal government has withdrawn its plan to allow barbers and optometry services to operate during the third phase of the movement control order.

7. The International Trade and Industry Ministry’s website for accepting applications for exemptions from the order’s restrictions has crashed. Casual users have been blamed for excessive traffic to the website.

8. More opposition MPs have raised concern over unexplained delays in distribution of food baskets for B40 income earners in their constituencies.

9. Former deputy education minister Teo Nie Ching has urged the government to tackle the digital divide to facilitate home-based learning, while Sepanggar MP Mohd Azis Jamman called on telecommunications companies to provide unlimited data for free.

10. Experience has shown that targeted testing for Covid-19 is more effective than mass screening, especially given the limited resources available, Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said.

11. While the number of people who have recovered from Covid-19 exceeded those who tested positive, a new cluster of infections have been discovered in Kuantan where the index case had travel history to Bali, Indonesia.