Asian Legal Review

Seated on the last row of the plane, Muhammed Junaid sensed something was amiss when Air India Express flight IX 1344 from Dubai was jerked around by strong winds as it approached the southern Indian city of Kozhikode late on Friday.After an aborted attempt, the aircraft swung around and touched down on the runway, said Junaid, who like many others on-board worked in the Middle East but was forced to return home when his salary halved because of the Covid-19 pandemic.But instead of slowing down…

Singapore’s daily coronavirus case count is set to dip significantly in the coming weeks, authorities say, turning a corner as the testing of some 300,000 migrant workers living in cramped dormitories – once the epicentre of the city state’s outbreak – is completed.From a peak of 1,426 new cases in one 24-hour period on April 20, Singapore now records between 200 and 400 new infections each day, on average. Occasional spikes, such as the 908 cases reported on Wednesday, have been caused by a…

Seven months ago, China was still the largest supplier of products for fashion companies in the United States, but its significant advantage over Vietnam has since evaporated because of the coronavirus and the decoupling tensions between the world’s two biggest economies. US apparel imports from China, by value, dropped from almost 30 per cent in 2019 to 20 per cent in the first half of 2020, now on par with Vietnam after the Southeast Asian nation improved its market share from 16 per cent…

The Malaysian elder statesman Mahathir Mohamad on Friday took another throw of the dice in the country’s relentless power struggle as he launched a new political party to contest elections against rivals who seized power from him in March. Mahathir, who has felled three prime ministers in seven decades and occupied the hot seat twice himself, said in a press conference the new Malay-centric party would not align itself with either of the country’s major political blocs – Prime Minister…

Former Malaysian finance minister Lim Guan Eng has been arrested following corruption investigations into a China-linked US$1.5 billion undersea tunnel project, the government said on Thursday.Lim, a key member of the Pakatan Harapan government ousted in March, will spend the night in detention before appearing in court on Friday to face corruption charges.In a brief statement, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) said Lim faced three separate arraignments on Friday, Monday and…

A video depicting Malaysian Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussein vaping during Parliamentary proceedings is making its rounds on social media.The video shows Hishammuddin sneaking a vape behind his face mask while his colleague, Transport Minister Dr Wee Ka Siong, is speaking during Parliamentary proceedings.The eight-second video is believed to have been taken on Monday, when Dr Wee was delivering his winding-up speech. Hishammuddin, however, apologised on Twitter and promised not to vape…

Malaysia on Wednesday warned that the South China Sea dispute that has emerged as a key proxy battle between the US and China could split the Asean bloc if countries gave in to the superpowers’ “narratives and pressure” over the row.The comments by Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussein came days after his ministry sent an unusually terse diplomatic note to the United Nations rejecting Beijing’s sweeping maritime claims as part of its “nine-dash line”.‘Only one aggressor here’: Australian rivals…

A migrant in Singapore who self-harmed and was pictured bloodied in a stairwell has heightened concerns over the mental health of thousands of low-paid workers confined to dormitories in the city state because of the coronavirus pandemic.In April, Singapore sealed off sprawling housing blocks where its vast population of mainly South Asian labourers live in crowded bunk rooms, in an effort to ring-fence a surge in virus cases among the workers.Singapore urged to consider migrant workers’ mental…

President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the Philippine navy not to join US-led military exercises in the South China Sea.“The president has a standing order … that we should not involve ourselves in naval exercises in the South China Sea, except in our national waters, [within] 12 miles of our shores,” defence secretary Delfin Lorenzana said on Monday.South China Sea: beware of US ‘sabotage’, Beijing warns Southeast AsiaLorenzana said the ban was aimed at keeping a lid on tensions in the area,…

Following Malaysia’s unusually strong rebuke last week of China’s “nine-dash line” claim in the South China Sea, the United States has reached out to the Southeast Asian nation’s immediate neighbours to reiterate American support for international law in the disputed waters.
Analysts said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s Monday calls to foreign ministers Vivian Balakrishnan of Singapore and Indonesia’s Retno Marsudi were in keeping with Washington’s bid to denounce Beijing’s expansive claims…