King grants audience to KK Mart founder, does not want socks issue prolonged
His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim, King of Malaysia, consented to grant an audience to KK Mart founder Datuk Seri Chai Kee Kan on Wednesday (April 3). His Majesty later issued a statement, saying that this is the last time he would have to stress on the socks issue involving the supermarket.
PETALING JAYA: His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim, King of Malaysia, wants the controversial socks issue not to be prolonged.
His Majesty, who granted an audience to the founder and executive chairman of KK Supermart & Superstore Sdn Bhd, Datuk Seri Dr Chai Kee Kan, reiterated that no party should take advantage of this matter, including inciting others.
“I do not want this issue to be prolonged,” Sultan Ibrahim decreed to the Royal Press Office.
During the 15-minute audience at Istana Negara, Chai sought His Majesty’s forgiveness and apologised to the King over the sale of socks with the word “Allah” printed on them.
Chai also apologised to the Muslim community.
His Majesty also warned all parties, including KK Super Mart, to be more careful regarding products being sold, especially imported goods, to avoid the issue from recurring.
“All parties must be more responsible. This should not happen again. I hope this is the last time I have to stress on this,” His Majesty decreed.
The chain has been mired in controversy since March 13 after the controversial socks were discovered in the Bandar Sunway outlet.
Chai and his wife, Datin Seri Loh Siew Mui, have been charged with two counts of intentionally wounding the religious sensitivities of Muslims over the distribution and sale of the socks.
The couple had pleaded not guilty.
Anger towards KK Super Mart over the issue has led to three firebombing attempts on the convenience store’s outlets in Perak, Pahang and Sarawak.
Following the incident, the Prime Minister ordered the police not to compromise and for action to be taken against those who commit such acts.
Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim also warned that racial and religious must not be used to disrupt order in the country.
Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Razarudin Husain has vowed that stern action would be taken against those who vandalise KK Super Mart and that investigations were ongoing to identify the perpetrators, warning the public against taking matters into their own hands.
At least 133 people were killed and over 145 injured when as many as five gunmen, armed with automatic weapons, entered the Crocus City Hall and opened fire on concertgoers, who were there to see the popular Soviet-era rock band Picnic.
Hours after the attack, the Islamic State Khorasan Province, known as ISKP or ISIS-K, the Afghan affiliate of ISIS, claimed responsibility for the attack through the group’s Amaq news agency.
The New Arab looks into what ISIS-K are and why they are targeting Russia.
What is the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISIS-K)?
Khorasan is the historical name for the region between central and West Asia, including Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and parts of northeastern Iran.
ISIS-K emerged in eastern Afghanistan in 2015 during the Taliban insurgency against the US-led coalition and the emergence of ISIS in its “caliphate” form in Iraq and Syria.
The group formed from defectors of the Taliban, dissident Salafi-Jihadists suppressed during Taliban rule, and militants from Pakistan and Uzbekistan. It launched attacks not only on US forces and their allies in Afghanistan but also the Taliban and saw anyone who opposed its particular Salafi-jihadist worldview as a legitimate target.
This situation has persisted, with the Taliban—having taken control of Afghanistan after the US withdrawal in 2021—and ISIS-K remaining in conflict. But the Taliban has struggled to suppress the group, with Afghanistan becoming a safe haven for ISIS-K and its ideological reach and networks expanding.
This has coincided with a general uptick in ISIS activity around the world, most notably in Iraq and Syria.
Since its inception, ISIS-K has also launched several attacks outside Afghanistan, most recently the twin bombings in Kerman in Iran last January that killed just under 100 people.
Why is ISIS-K targeting Russia?
ISIS-K has opposed the Russian government for years but experts who follow the group's activities say that it only began to re-focused its attentions on Russia since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“ISIS-K has been fixated on Russia for the past two years, frequently criticising Putin in its propaganda,” said Colin Clarke of the Soufan Center, a Washington-based research group.
Michael Kugelman of the Washington, DC-based Wilson Centre said ISIS-K “sees Russia as being complicit in activities that regularly oppress Muslims”.
More specifically, ISIS-K has used Putin’s brutal military intervention in Syria on behalf of the regime of Bashar al-Assad to justify its attacks on Russia. Though ISIS more often than not fought Syria’s moderate rebels rather than the Assad regime, ISIS-K has used Russia’s intervention in Syria as a recruitment tool.
Along with Russian intervention in Syria, the group also cites Russia’s destructive wars against Muslim-majority Chechnya as direct justifications for its hostility to Moscow.
Has ISIS-K attacked Russia before?
In 2022, as many as 10 people were killed when a suicide bomber targeted Russia’s embassy in Kabul, with ISIS-K claiming responsibility for the attack.
Earlier this month, Russia reported several incidents involving ISIS-K, with the FSB intelligence agency saying on 7 March it foiled an attack on a synagogue in Moscow.
The US said it had warned Russia of intelligence indicating an immediate threat posed by ISIS-K, with alleged plans for attacks on 'large gatherings' in Moscow. On Friday, a US official stated that Washington had intelligence confirming ISIS-K's claim of responsibility for the Crocus City Hall attack.
What has Russia’s reaction been?
Russia has said its security forces have arrested 11 suspects connected with the attack, while they are hunting for the rest. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said in an address to the Russian people that Ukraine is involved in the attack.
Given Russia continues to wage war on Ukraine, Putin’s regime may want to exploit the attack to place responsibility for it on Kyiv, even if it acknowledges ISIS-K’s involvement.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said four of the attack suspects had been trying to reach Ukraine and had “contacts” in the country. This excessive focus on Ukraine could leave Russia susceptible to more attacks by ISIS-K, as it fails to address the reasons why the group is targeting it.
Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president who now is deputy head of the security council, said that if Kyiv’s involvement in the attack on the concert hall is proved, all those involved “must be tracked down and killed without mercy, including officials of the state that committed such outrage”.
More than 133 people have been killed and 145 injured in a terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall music venue in the city of Krasnogorsk in the Moscow Region as of press time on Saturday. This is the first large-scale terrorist attack targeting civilians within Russia since the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and came within a week after Vladimir Putin won a reelection victory. Analysts said the terror attack will likely shock Russian people psychologically and put pressure on Kremlin to stablize the situation and calm the public.
Russian investigators announced on Thursday that they had evidence linking the gunmen responsible for the concert massacre to "Ukrainian nationalists." Experts believe that Russia is seeking to capitalize on the solidarity that has strengthened in the wake of the terrorist attack to accelerate progress on the battlefield, and increase leverage for future negotiations.
Umno has never been as vulnerable over the last 70-over years as it is today. It had been the only dominant and domineering political party Malaysia had experienced. Its hold over Malaysia and its power to rule as it wished and pleased used to be absolute and unchallenged.
Fortunately for Malaysia, all that has clearly changed for now. Umno only has 37 MPs out of the total of 222 or 16.7% of the august legislative chamber.
Glaringly, Umno’s grip on power is slipping. And it is desperate to cling on to power and reclaim its former eminence and dominance, come what may. It is so desperate that it has lost its balance, its rationality and its sanity; it is pushing for an early election that is vehemently opposed by all thinking and well-meaning Malaysians because the risks involved during the monsoon period can be horrendous.
Umno has thrived in creating fear among the Malays and planting suspicion in their minds that their future and fortune will be taken away by the non-Malays, especially the Chinese, if they don’t rally behind Umno. Another weapon it has used very effectively is religion. It has been drumming into the Malays that the Christians are about to Christianise Malaysia.
Umno has very successfully destroyed our unity and harmony that was the hallmark of our nation during the time of our beloved Tunku Abdul Rahman – the halcyon days of tolerance and accommodation.
All that goodwill and peace that united us in the past was destroyed and replaced with hatred, suspicion, greed, intolerance and selfishness. Peaceful Malaysia was buried, and a disunited and fractured Malaysia has been created in its place.
Umno is now determined to capture its former glory by assuming that an early election will reverse its misfortune and restore power in the hands of Umno.
Support the struggle to build a Malaysia based on Justice, Freedom, Solidarity:
Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Jeffrey Cheah AOTan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Jeffrey Cheah AO
Dear Malaysia - Wednesday, 31 Aug 2022
This year, we mark our 65th National Day and 59th Malaysia Day. I would like to take this opportunity to continue the conversation we started last year by penning some thoughts on our beloved nation.
We live in a time of extreme uncertainty. Even as Malaysia and the world transition into the endemic phase, Covid-19 still poses a threat. Tensions between the United States and China have escalated, while the war in Ukraine has disrupted global supply chains.
Inflation is soaring and the widening income inequality is reversing decades of hard-earned progress.
Given these global headwinds, it is even more pertinent that we as Malaysians get our act together, fast, if we are to overcome these challenges
We have to take a hard look at where we are today, where we want to go and how we intend to get there.
Let me highlight some positive developments that have happened over the past 12 months.
For example, the historic memorandum of understanding (MoU) that was signed by the Prime Minister and the Pakatan Harapan opposition coalition is beginning to bear fruit in terms of reforming our political system.
The anti-party hopping law has been gazetted. A political financing bill will soon be tabled. Parliament is growing in independence as it plays its check-and-balance role.
But even more crucial is the out-of-the-box thinking that led to the MoU and introduced the concept of “compete and collaborate” into our political system. It provided a sense of stability that greatly helped the governance of the country. We need more such ideas in order to move forward.
The government did well to cushion the harshest impact of the rising cost of living for Malaysians, especially for those in the B40 category.
But it has come at a huge and, clearly, unsustainable cost: almost RM80bil in subsidies.
While these stop-gap measures have provided temporary aid, what we really need is a set of cohesive, coherent and coordinated long-term policies that can raise productivity levels and the rakyat’s income.
In the words of the late Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu, “There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they are falling in.”
However, like many of my fellow Malaysians, I worry that some in power appear to be more focused on politics, rather than policies.
We are all aware of the obstacles we face in trying to build a brighter, more progressive, more inclusive and more sustainable future for our country.
Let me share some of them. It is crucial that we acknowledge the pressing need to strengthen our national unity. Our diversity is a strength that enriches us as a nation, not something that divides us.
We must all do what we can to clean up the toxicity that influences our conversations on race, religion and culture.
And then, there is education. It is no secret that our education system needs a massive overhaul. Unless we urgently address this challenge, we will doom our children and our country to a future of poverty and misery.
In a globalised world, the competition our children face will come not just from the student at the next desk, but from far beyond our borders.
In this context, I am concerned to learn that the command of English among young Malaysians is on the decline.
Obviously, Bahasa Malaysia is our national language and we should know it, but we are a trading nation and English is the language of trade and commerce. A lack of fluency in English may well pose a major hurdle in our efforts to build a prosperous Malaysia.
In fact, the more languages we are fluent in, the more opportunities we can explore in this globalised world.
The perception is that corruption has now become endemic in this country. I do not need to go into specific details. You are all aware of the issues and the scandals. Unless we seriously root out corruption, we are in trouble.
Like how cancer attacks a body from within, corruption is a disease that can destroy a country and a society from the inside out.
Allowing corruption to go unchecked is like injecting poison into a body. Corruption is a two-way street involving a giver and a taker.
Battling it will require not only strong laws implemented without fear or favour, but also a change in mindset and culture among all of us. How exactly do we achieve this?
The recent decisions by the courts on corruption cases have sparked hope. The judiciary’s upholding of its institutional integrity is a huge step forward in this war against corruption.
Let us bear in mind that even as we address these political and socio-economic issues, we do so at a time when climate change threatens the very survival of humanity.
Implementing the sustainable development agenda is no longer an option, but an urgent imperative.
The path has already been charted for us. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, adopted by the United Nations in 2015, lay out a holistic and comprehensive roadmap.
But realising the 17 SDGs is not the role of governments alone.
It requires the commitment of every element of society – the private sector, academia, civil society and every single one of us.
We are all in this together.
Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Jeffrey Cheah AO
As a third-generation Malaysian of Chinese heritage who was raised in Pusing, Perak, and an entrepreneur who owes a great debt of gratitude to my country for the opportunities it has given me, I would like to share some thoughts on building a more progressive, inclusive and sustainable future for all under the Malaysian sun.
We wake up today marking our 64th National Day and, soon, will mark our 58th Malaysia Day on Sept 16.
Notice that I said “mark” and not “celebrate.” The reason is obvious: more than 15,000 Malaysian lives lost to Covid-19; more than 1.6 million of our Malaysian family infected; millions more reeling from the impact to their livelihoods; a rising number of Malaysians taking their own lives due largely to factors associated with the pandemic; schools closed; and lockdowns, masks and physical distancing.
And to add to our troubles, a political crisis that has witnessed Malaysia having three prime ministers in three years.
I do not need to dwell on the details. We are all only too aware of the grim reality.
Malaysia is at a tipping point, which some may even liken to what happened on May 13, 1969. However, while May 13 posed a threat to the very existence of what was a much younger Malaysia, the crisis sparked by the pandemic is of a very different nature.
The only similarity, in my view, is that once again it is up to us to decide on how we overcome the challenge – an opportunity to take a hard look at where we are today as a nation, where we want to go, and how we get there. In short, we need to have a national conversation within our Malaysian family based on civility and mutual respect.
My fellow MalaysiansLet’s begin with a discussion on how we can eradicate the virus of racism in our society. Let us acknowledge that Malaysia’s rich diversity of races, ethnicities, cultures, religions and even cuisines is a strength for us to leverage, not a barrier that divides us. Let us break down these walls between us.
In this respect, the one silver lining that gives me hope amidst these dark days is witnessing how Malaysians are rising above race and religious lines to help not just their neighbours but even total strangers in their time of need.That this outreach is driven largely by civil society groups comprising young people of all races indicates to me that perhaps the current generation is moving beyond the “us-versus-them” mentality that has dominated much of our lives over the past four decades or so.
Let us also use this opportunity to discuss the reforms we need to put in place to build the Malaysia that each and everyone of us wants. The post-May 13 blueprint may have served its purpose back then, although my personal opinion is that while the policies were drawn up with good intentions, the implementation went somewhat off-track soon after.
But that was a different time. We cannot overcome the challenges of the Digital Age using analogue mind-sets. We now have an opportunity to thoroughly re-examine the various factors that define our daily lives.
Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Jeffrey Cheah AO
They include, for instance, the economy: How do we promote an economy based on innovation, digital tools, competition and meritocracy, one where “know-how” matters more than “know who”?
Then there is education. It is obvious that our current education system is failing our children. We need to urgently re-examine how we teach, what we teach and even where we teach. In a globalised world, our children face competition not just from the student at the next desk, but from those far beyond our borders. If we do not prepare them correctly, we doom them and our country to a bleak and poverty-ridden future.
Let’s move on next to governance. Restoring the integrity of our institutions is of fundamental importance. I do not want to sound like an old uncle always talking about how much better it was in the old days. But the fact remains that there was a time when Malaysia was held in high esteem internationally for a judiciary noted for its independence and integrity, the efficiency of our civil service, the provision of public healthcare and a Parliament that sought to play its role as a check and balance on the Executive.
And then there is the issue of corruption. Need I say more? Unless we seriously root out corruption, we are in trouble. I am not naive enough to believe that we can eradicate corruption completely. No country has done so. But we must, at the very least, reduce it from a cancer in society to just a sore thumb.
Corruption, of course, is a two-way street involving a giver and a taker. Battling it will require not only strong laws implemented without fear or favour, but also a change in mind-set and culture among all of us. How exactly do we achieve this?
The recent accord reached between our Prime Minister and leaders of the Pakatan Harapan opposition on these issues, if followed through, offers hope that we may once again restore pride in our institutions and progress as a nation.
My fellow Malaysians
We began our journey in 1957 with hopes and aspirations. We suffered the tragedy of May 13 even before Malaysia had reached its teens. The nation matured in its adulthood in the years that followed. The country is now past its middle age – a time when hard-earned experience and wisdom can be our guide.
I believe that all of us as individuals must have a higher purpose in life. For me, that higher purpose is a commitment to nation-building and to giving back to society.
An optimist by nature, I have a deep faith this higher purpose is also shared by all of you and that together, we can overcome the challenges we face and build a Malaysia that our children can be proud of.
In this effort, we should all be guided by our Rukun Negara, which represents the soul of our nation.
As it says on our national motto: Bersekutu Bertambah Mutu. Loosely translated as “Unity is Strength.”
We are all in this together.
Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Jeffrey Cheah AO
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