Sabah Bersatu 4D chess move

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Key Highlights

• Sabah Bersatu 4D chess move
  
  

• Top civil servant axed
  
  

• Sosma defended

Sabah Bersatu 4D chess move

The four Sabah MPs at risk of triggering anti-hopping laws, claim to have set in motion their departure from Bersatu way in advance.

Former law minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar was informed by sources that they and other GRS candidates had actually quit Bersatu in October - before the 15th general election.

This was confirmed by one GRS candidate, who said they had quietly joined the coalition as direct members - thus triggering a Bersatu rule that members can't be in two parties at once.

However, Bersatu Youth chief Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal is calling their bluff and posited that they may have backdated their GRS membership instead.

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Top civil servant axed

Public Service Department director-general Mohd Shafiq Abdullah was axed - albeit with his pension intact.

A civil service disciplinary board reportedly recommended his termination before the 15th general election.

In August, Shafiq got embroiled in controversy after an immigration officer, who was on duty as the Immigration Operations head at KLIA, alleged that Shafiq had hurled abusive remarks at him in public.

It's not clear if this is what ended up getting him fired.

Shafiq plans to sue the government over his termination.

Last week Treasury secretary-general Asri Hamidin was reportedly put on leave - and is set to be replaced.

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Sosma defended

Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail has defended the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma) and indicated no intention to review the law, which allows for detention without trial.

This is despite Pakatan Harapan - including Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim - saying in the past that the law was too harsh and in need of amendments.

Saifuddin Nasution's main argument is that Sosma detainees had to be charged or released after 28 days in custody.

However, this does not gel with complaints from family members of Sosma detainees, some of whom are allegedly still waiting for a trial date six months after first being detained under the security law.

Meanwhile, Saifuddin Nasution also said the Independent Police Conduct Commission (IPCC) will come into effect in June next year.

The IPCC in its current form is widely panned as a toothless and watered-down version of the Independent Police Complaints and Monitoring Commission - and has no authority to take action on errant cops.

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Views that matter

	Hamzah will be an effective mouthpiece for Hadi By S Thayaparan
	In education, no subjects are useless or irrelevant By Sharifah Munirah Alatas
	Whining our way through the battle for Malaysia’s soul By Martin Vengadesan

Other news that matter

• De facto Law and Institutional Reform Minister Azalina Othman Said is mulling amendments that would finally give the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) some teeth.
  
  

• The BN-led Malacca state government now has 26 out of 28 seats in the state legislature after Harapan's five assemblypersons allied with them.
  
  

• PN has named former footballer and ex-Kangar MP Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad as their candidate for Dewan Rakyat speaker.
  
  

• Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim filed a defamation suit against Kedah Menteri Besar Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor over an election campaign speech in Tambun.
  
  

• The Drug Control Authority granted conditional approval for Pfizer’s updated Covid-19 vaccines, paving the way for them to be rolled out as booster shots in Malaysia.

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