Malaysia

Ashlyn Anderson, Rachel Brown, Lincoln Davidson, Lauren Dickey, Ariella Rotenberg, and Ayumi Teraoka look at the top stories in Asia this week. 1. Malaysian protestors call for prime minister to step down. Tens of thousands of protesters demonstrated in Kuala Lumpur last weekend, saying that Prime Minister Najib Razak is unfit to govern following allegations that he took $700 million from a government development fund. They were joined by former prime minister and one-time Najib ally Mahathir Mohamad. The demonstrations were organized by Bersih, a coalition of NGOs that has demonstrated for years against the Najib government, calling for greater transparency and less corruption in elections. Previous Bersih rallies, which drew crowds much larger than this week’s demonstrations, have been shut down by police wielding tear gas and water cannons; this weekend’s protest, though declared illegal, was allowed to continue. 2. Millions of workers signal opposition to Modi’s labor reforms. Spurred by government proposals for labor reform, 150 million workers in India turned out for a nationwide strike. Workers from banks, mines, factories, construction, and transportation joined the cause, which led to an estimated $3.7 billion in economic losses—mostly due to stranded exports at ports. The strike was called by ten trade unions, and marks the sixteenth nationwide strike since the first round of economic liberalization measures in 1991. The labor reform proposal sought to simplify India’s labor laws while offering to raise the minimum wage to appease the unions. Although the trade unions have called the largely peaceful strike a “grand success,” government and industry constituents shrugged off the “partial” losses. 3. Japan’s darkest day. Over the past forty years, more Japanese youth have taken their own lives on September 1 than on any other day of the year. Data provided by the Cabinet Office of Japan came to light when a librarian in Kawasaki tweeted a call to use public libraries as spaces of “refuge” for those who were “thinking of choosing death over school in September.” This news illustrated how social media can be a double-edged sword—while there have been many cases in which social media was used for bullying, this case highlights social media’s ability to reach those in need of help. The large number of youth suicides has been a serious issue for Japan, which ranks fifth in the number of suicides among OECD countries and the second among Asian countries after South Korea. Last year, for the first time, the most common cause of death of those aged ten to nineteen in Japan was suicide, and the fastest growing suicide demographic was young men aged twenty-two to forty-four. 4. World War II victory parade in China. Yesterday, China held a lavish parade in Beijing to commemorate the seventieth anniversary of its victory over Japan in World War II and to display its military might. In total, forty thousand people were present in Tiananmen Square, among them twenty-three heads of state and government leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Republic of Korea President Park Geun-hye. The most noteworthy announcement of the event came from President Xi Jinping, who declared that the People’s Liberation Army would be cut by three hundred thousand personnel by 2017. The reduction allows China to redirect spending to weapons systems and focus on expanding the navy and air force, analysts said today. The parade served as a platform for China to showcase its increasingly potent ballistic missile arsenal, including one such weapon that could potentially destroy a U.S. aircraft carrier. Chinese citizens themselves had mixed reactions to the parade, although thanks to censors hard at work over social and conventional media, the public image of the day remained intact. 5. Bangkok bombing suspects arrested. Thai authorities arrested three suspects this week in connection to the bombing of Bangkok’s Erawan Shrine on August 17, which killed 20 people.  One of the suspects, Kamarudeng Saho, is a Thai Muslim, while the other two are foreigners identified as Yusufu Meerailee and Adem Karadak. Eight arrest warrants have been issued, including one for a Turkish man. One of the foreign men was arrested while trying to cross the Thai-Cambodian border and is believed to be an ethnic Uighur from China’s Xinjiang region, although his passport has not yet been authenticated. In the Bangkok apartment where the other foreign man was arrested, police found fake Turkish passports and bomb-making supplies.  Members of the Thai junta had long been adamant that the attack was not a case of international terrorism, but officials admitted for the first time this week that there may be a connection between the Bangkok bombing and the issue of Uighur migrants in Thailand. In early July, Thailand returned to China 109 Uighurs who had travelled to Thailand en route to Turkey. The Chinese government has often linked Uighur migrants to terrorism, and if a connection is found with the Bangkok attack this may strengthen their claims. Bonus: War criminal popsicles. As China celebrates the seventieth anniversary of its victory in World War II, one ice cream chain in Shanghai has taken the festivities to a new extreme by offering an ice cream popsicle shaped in the likeness of Japanese war criminal Hideki Tojo. The store, Iceason, has pushed its product on the Chinese market through a “10,000 people together eat the Japanese war criminal” advertising campaign. If the nationalist sentiment isn’t enough, the 3D-printed ice cream also comes in five flavors—vanilla, blueberry, mocha, mango, and tiramisu—for 30 yuan (around $4.70).

Like any Southeast Asian economy whose trade with China is a major foundation of growth, Malaysia was bound to suffer as the Chinese economy staggered and Chinese stock markets plunged. Malaysia is China’s largest trading partner in Southeast Asia, and Malaysia-China two-way trade topped $100 billion in 2014. But Malaysia now faces economic challenges far beyond the impact of the slowdown in the Chinese economy, as well as international investors’ apparent growing fear of emerging markets. Malaysia’s own stock market has plummeted this summer, and the Malaysian ringgit is reaching lows against the dollar not seen in nearly two decades---since the time of the Asian financial crisis. As John Berthelsen of Asia Sentinel noted earlier this week: Malaysia’s central bank is clearly losing the battle to defend its national currency, the ringgit, which fell to RM4.2275:US$1 on Aug. 24 before recovering slightly on Bank Negara [central bank] buying...The Swiss bank UBS last Friday, Aug. 21, issued an alert saying the magnitude and speed of the currency’s decline ‘exceeded our bearish expectations,’ falling 24 percent against the US dollar over the past year. Malaysia’s economy has suffered on several fronts. For one, although the Malaysian government joined negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, the slow movement on that deal, and the slow pace of completing the ASEAN Economic Community, may have made some investors rethink their commitments to Malaysia. Since Malaysia’s workforce is no longer competitive, in terms of labor costs, with that of neighboring nations like Vietnam or Bangladesh, the completion of these trade deals is important for Kuala Lumpur to attract investment; foreign investment into Malaysia fell by nearly fifty percent year-on-year through the first half of 2015. The low global price of oil also has hurt Malaysia, a major exporter of oil and gas. Most damaging, however, Malaysia’s months of political turmoil have unsettled both domestic and foreign investors, shaken confidence in the country’s leadership, and led to worries about the independence of Malaysia’s central bank. The continued public battle between Prime Minister Najib tun Razak and former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has weakened Najib’s ability to lead, as have the swirling rumors and alleged investigations into state fund 1MDB and the supposed transfer of over $600 million into the personal offshore accounts of Najib. Najib has never fully denied the transfer of these funds, but his allies have stated that the money did not come from 1MDB and that Najib was just holding the funds for his party to use, not for him to use on himself. Meanwhile, last month Najib dismissed several top Cabinet members, including the attorney general, in what some Malaysian commentators have argued was an attempt to neuter any investigations into the funds transfer. The government also has launched a crackdown on dissent, including jailing anti-government protesters last week and attempting to pursue criminal charges against media outlets that have reported stories about 1MDB and the government. Reform groups and opposition politicians have continued to call for street protests, adding to uncertainty over Malaysia’s future; some reports have suggested that the opposition and a group of politicians from the governing coalition might hold a no confidence vote in parliament. The crackdown on dissent seems to have further unsettled markets, and possibly sparked greater capital flight from Malaysia, a country already plagued by high levels of capital flight. Antigovernment protests are still planned for later this week. Some Malaysian commentators fear that the government’s crackdown will extend to the respected head of the central bank, Zeti Akhtar Ahmad. Central bank investigators apparently have been in the lead of probes into 1MDB and the Najib government, and may have been the sources for the many recent news articles about 1MDB and alleged irregularities in the fund. Although the head of the central bank has vowed that she is not going anywhere, and is protected by law from direct removal by the prime minister, Malaysia’s politics have become so contentious and unpredictable that even the central bank head’s position is not fully secure.

Since early July, when the Wall Street Journal and the Sarawak Report, an investigative website focusing on Malaysia, both reported that embattled Malaysian state fund 1MDB had allegedly transferred funds into the personal accounts of Prime Minister Najib tun Razak, Malaysia’s normally placid politics have exploded. Along with a battle within the ruling coalition between the prime minister and supports of longtime former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Najib is now apparently fending off challenges from some top leaders within the governing coalition. Even Najib’s own brother, a respected banker, appears to be distancing himself from the prime minister. After Najib’s administration in late July shuttered a Malaysian publication that has published articles investigating 1MDB, Najib’s brother defended the freedom of the local press, implicitly criticizing his brother. For months, Malaysians have learned---through stories in international publications and an investigation into 1MDB by a group of Malaysian state agencies---about the alleged problems within the state wealth fund. These problems allegedly included theft of monies from the fund for personal use, use of the fund for a string of poor investments, use of the fund to prop up state companies and fund the governing coalition’s campaign, and other irregularities. Mahathir, who either genuinely was appalled by reports of 1MDB’s waste and Najib’s wealth, or wanted to maneuver his own allies into the leadership (or some combination of the two reasons), has for months been attacking Najib online and at public events. In April, Mahathir wrote on his blog, “There are many things about his [Najib’s] personal behavior that I thought were not right … including he and his wife’s lavish lifestyle.” Still, Najib’s popularity with the public remained relatively strong before the Wall Street Journal and Sarawak Report stories, in part possibly because Malaysians seem to have a high tolerance for government scandals. The country, for instance, ranked 50th in the world on Transparency International’s 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index. The Journal and Sarawak Report stories, though, were the first to follow the money trail directly to the prime minister and his family. The Journal’s story, using documents that may have been leaked to the media, reported that nearly $700 million in deposits, which allegedly came through 1MDB as well as a holding company in the British Virgin Islands, had been made to personal bank accounts with Najib’s name on them. The stories of payments into Najib’s personal accounts from 1MDB may be too much for the Malaysian public to stomach, which is why several of the prime minister’s current and former deputies have come out against him in just the past month. For instance, Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin harshly criticized how Najib has handled the 1MDB allegations, and on Malaysian social media, a tidal wave of comments is calling for Najib to resign. In all likelihood, the threat of a revolt by his own deputies was the reason why, during the last week of July, Najib sacked the Malaysian attorney general and the deputy prime minister, Muhyiddin Yassin---a move that, to Najib’s critics, only solidified their belief that Najib was desperately trying to hide something. Najib replaced the sacked ministers with some of his most loyal supporters. Shortly before the sacking, Asia Sentinel reported, the attorney general, Gani Patail, “was poised to charge Najib with corruption,” which would have been a devastating blow to the prime minister’s future. Meanwhile, Asia Sentinel reported Akhil Bulat, the head of the Special Branch of the Malaysian police, also had become critical of Najib and probably would have gone along with a case against him. In a move that shocked Malaysians, shortly after the sacking Malaysia’s anti-corruption commission announced that the prime minister had indeed received a payment of nearly $700 million into his personal accounts, but that the money was a donation from a supporter in the Middle East to fund the governing coalition’s political campaigns. Thus, the anti-corruption commission claimed, there was nothing illegal or unusual about the donation. Najib was supposedly holding the money in his personal accounts in trust for his party. The identity of the supposed donor has not been revealed, and many Malaysians were skeptical that the money was either a campaign donation or that it came from a foreign source, rather than from 1MDB. “This claim that Arabs donated billions [to Najib’s campaign] is what people describe as hogwash … Certainly I don’t believe it and neither can the majority of Malaysians," wrote Mahathir on his blog. For more on Malaysia’s leadership crisis and its implications for Malaysia’s foreign policy, you can read my latest article in World Politics Review. 

This past week, the crisis in Malaysia’s governing coalition has only grown deeper, with the sacking of several prominent ministers in a scene that could remind one of the Nixon administration’s October, 1973 Saturday Night Massacre. As stories continued to emerge alleging improprieties in Malaysia’s state 1MDB fund, including the alleged deposit of funds into the personal accounts of Prime Minister Najib tun Razak, sentiment in the governing coalition about Najib appeared to be split. According to numerous media reports, the Deputy Prime Minister, Muhyiddin Yassin, had become increasingly critical of Najib. Muhyiddin had publicly urged the prime minister to offer a clear explanation of how monies from 1MDB were utilized by the government. In private, the deputy appeared to have gone farther in his critique of the prime minister. In one video clip that has surfaced and been reported by multiple Southeast Asian media outlets, Muhyiddin Yassin is seen talking with the chief minister of Kedah state and several other people. In the video, Muhyiddin Yassin relates “a supposed conversation he had with Prime Minister Najib Razak about funds going into his personal bank account,” according to Singapore’s Channel News Asia. Other leading members of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the dominant party in the governing coalition, also reportedly had begun questioning whether Najib could still lead. Then, early last week, Najib abruptly dismissed his deputy prime minister, as well as four other ministers. Najib replaced them with some of the prime minister’s most trusted loyalists. He also dismissed the attorney general, a longtime party loyalist who, according to several Malaysian journalists, had nonetheless been willing to pursue a thorough investigation into 1MDB and the prime minister. When he was dismissed, the attorney general had only three months left before he was due to retire. In the process of the reshuffle, the prime minister elevated four people from a parliamentary committee that was supposed to investigate the state fund. This maneuver may slow the work of the committee’s investigation. Although Najib’s actions may have removed the most imminent challenges to his power from within his cabinet, they are unlikely to stop the tension within the governing coalition. Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who has been publicly criticizing Najib for months, is likely to step up his attacks now; even after last week’s Cabinet reshuffle, Mahathir still has powerful allies within UMNO, including Mahathir’s son. Mahathir’s allies are likely to continue to put pressure on Najib, within the coalition, to step aside, especially if other media outlets produce further revelations about 1MDB. In addition, despite the removal of the attorney general, the potential weakening of the assets committee, and the dismissal of the deputy prime minister, Najib has not stopped all the investigations into 1MDB. According to Asia Sentinel, the respected central banker, Zeti Akhtar Aziz, continues to pursue a potentially explosive investigation into the dealings of the state fund. Some reports suggest the central bank has amassed a large pile of documents about 1MDB that might contain explosive information. Removing Zeti would be difficult, since the head of the central bank cannot be directly removed by the prime minister. Even if Najib could manage a way to get her removed, by working through Malaysia’s king, removing her would be a serious blow for the independence of Malaysia’s central bank, at a time when investors are already wary of the country and the ringgit has fallen to sixteen year lows against the U.S. dollar.

This is a post in a new series on the Development Channel,“This Week in Markets and Democracy.” Each week, CFR’s Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy Program will highlight noteworthy events and articles. Free Trade vs. Human Rights? Malaysia, TIP, and the TPP On Monday, the U.S. State Department released its Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, an annual guide to how countries measure up in combatting the $150 billion global trafficking industry. The TIP report is known for its tier-based ranking system: Tier 1 (best) to Tier 3 (worst). Already the State Department is getting flak from Congressional leaders and human rights advocates for its controversial upgrade of Malaysia–moved from Tier 3 to a Tier 2 ‘Watch List.’ The report justifies Malaysia’s rise due to an increasing number of trafficking investigations and a widespread public awareness campaign, but critics point to evidence that migrants are still “trafficked and abused with impunity.” Many believe the upgrade reflects political expediencies related to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, as the recently passed Trade Promotion Authority excludes Tier 3 countries from fast-tracked agreements. The controversy calls into question whether the TIP report prioritized politics over principles. Turkey Targets Kurds–Does Democracy Suffer? My colleague Steven Cook writes this week that the deepening U.S. and Turkish cooperation to fight ISIS creates a foreign policy “quagmire” for the United States. He worries that Turkey is using a U.S. military partnership as cover to target the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)–the Kurdish nationalist movement with a presence in both Iraq and Turkey. Viewing the PKK as a major political and security threat, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has detained hundreds of Kurds and blocked pro-Kurdish websites for “promoting terrorist propaganda.” Critics accuse Erdogan of exploiting anti-Kurdish sentiment to gain political advantage after his Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost its parliamentary majority in June’s elections. Though potentially a political winner for Erdogan in snap elections this fall, anti-Kurdish nationalism represents a step back for Turkey’s democratic progress. All this makes Turkey an uneasy partner for the United States and its own foreign policy goals. Cardin’s Anti-Corruption Agenda Before Congress recesses in August, Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking Democrat Ben Cardin is pushing two anti-corruption measures. The first–the bipartisan Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act–expands on a Russia-specific sanctions law (named for whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky) to make corruption a sanctionable offense globally. It allows the president to deny or revoke visas and freeze assets of foreign individuals responsible for “significant acts” of corruption and “gross” human rights violations. Championed by rights groups, the re-introduced bill made it through committee on Wednesday. Also this week, Senator Cardin called out the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for failing to implement section 1504 of Dodd-Frank, five years after the financial regulation passed. Known as the Cardin-Lugar amendment, 1504 requires extractives companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges to disclose payments made to foreign governments, allowing citizens and NGOs to track oil revenue from multinationals such as Exxon, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips. As the United States stalls, 30 other countries have adopted similar laws.

Ashlyn Anderson, Lincoln Davidson, Lauren Dickey, Darcie Draudt, William Piekos, and Ariella Rotenberg look at the top stories in Asia today. 1. China conducts live fire drills in the South China Sea. More than one hundred naval vessels, dozens of aircraft, and units from China’s information warfare forces and missile corps participated in the live fire exercises Tuesday, which one Australian expert called a “needlessly excessive show of force.” China’s military responded to critics by saying the exercises were intended to practice integrating information warfare systems with traditional forces, a major part of China’s military doctrine in recent years. Hoping to reassure regional allies concerned about China’s continued dredging and growing military presence in the disputed area, the United States has increased routine surveillance flights in the region in recent weeks. On Thursday, China’s Defense Ministry spokesperson criticized these moves and warned the United States to stop “militarizing” the South China Sea. 2. Malaysian prime minister shakes up cabinet. Prime Minister Najib Razak removed his deputy premier, four ministers, and a deputy minister, as he continues to be buffeted by accusations of corruption. Early this month, a Wall Street Journal report indicated that around $700 million was deposited into Najib’s personal accounts from a state investment fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), that he heads. Deputy Premier Muhyiddin Yassin recently disparaged the handling of the debt-laden 1MDB, raised questions over the suspension of The Edge newspaper, and asked Najib to step down from the 1MDB. Amidst the shakeup, the attorney general, who said he had documents concerning Najib and 1MDB, was removed from his post. In addition, the chair of the parliamentary committee investigating the 1MDB allegations was promoted, forcing him to resign and suspending the inquiry until October. 3. India executes 1993 Mumbai bombing conspirator. On Thursday, Yakub Abdul Razak Memon was executed by hanging for his involvement in a 1993 terrorist attack that killed more than 250 people. The execution occurred following the Indian Supreme Court’s rejection of a last-minute appeal the previous night. Memon was sentenced in 2007 as the primary planner behind targeting a dozen locations including the Bombay Stock Exchange. Among the eleven suspects in the case, Memon was the only to receive the death penalty. The bombers sought to avenge Muslims who died in a riot after hard-line Hindu groups demolished a mosque in the city of Ayodhya in 1992. The execution has fueled scrutiny of the death penalty in India, which is falling out of favor. 4. South Korea declares end to MERS outbreak. This past Tuesday, South Korean Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn declared a “de facto” end to the Middle East Respiratory Virus (MERS) outbreak in South Korea. Tuesday’s announcement was early in comparison to World Health Organization (WHO) standards, as it marked only twenty-three days since the last confirmed case. The WHO requires twenty-eight days without a new infection for a country to be in the clear—twice the incubation period of the virus. MERS has claimed thirty-six lives and infected a total of 186 individuals in South Korea since May 20, when a man who had visited the Middle East brought the virus back to South Korea. 5. Animal sacrifice banned in Nepal festival. Nepalese temple authorities have announced they will end a centuries-old Hindu tradition of mass animal slaughter that takes place twice each decade as part of the Gadhimai festival. In past years, pilgrims have sacrificed an estimated five hundred thousand buffaloes, goats, and chickens to the Hindu goddess Gadhimai in hopes of a better life. Animal rights activists have tried to end the slaughter for the last decade, including asking the Indian Supreme Court to slow the cross-border transportation of sacrificial animals. The next Gadhimai festival, scheduled for 2019, will be a “momentous celebration of life” without the animal bloodshed, activists said. Bonus: Chinese investor selling pet alpaca to recoup stock market losses. As the Chinese markets have taken a tumble in recent weeks, one speculator in Kunming named Fang said he has been forced to part with his beloved pet alpaca, which he purchased two years ago. While Fang sees the alpaca as a part of the family, he said he didn’t have any choice but to sell the animal after losing all of his savings in the recent market downturn. Fang is asking $16,000 for the alpaca, but has so far been unable to find a buyer. Alpacas are a popular meme on the Chinese Internet, where they are sometimes referred to as “grass mud horses,” a term coined by Chinese netizens to circumvent censorship of profanity.

The past week has almost surely been the most challenging of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib tun Razak’s career. Late last week both the Wall Street Journal and the Sarawak Report, an investigative reporting website about Malaysia, reported that a group of companies linked to debt-ridden state fund 1Malaysian Development Bhd. (1MDB) had made deposits into Najib’s bank accounts. The WSJ further alleged that the biggest deposit into Najib’s account was worth $620 million, and that one of the other deposits was worth over $60 million. The prime minister’s office denies the charges, and some Malaysian media have reported that Najib plans to sue the WSJ for criminal defamation. 1MDB’s leaders also denied the reports, saying they had never transferred any money to the prime minister. 1MDB was already being investigated by the central bank, a parliamentary committee, and the police after running up debts of over $11 billion and needing multiple cash infusions to stay afloat. Still, over the weekend other top members of the government did not exactly rally around Najib. Some senior members of the governing coalition defended the prime minister, calling the allegations baseless. But not all came to Najib’s side, and the new charges against Najib come at a time when he and his allies appear to be struggling to gain control of the governing coalition following a public challenge to Najib by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and Mahathir’s allies. “These allegations are serious because they can affect the credibility and integrity of Najib as PM and the leader of the government," Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said in a statement. The deputy prime minister also called on the government to investigate the allegations made in the WSJ report. Opposition politicians, meanwhile, called for Najib to immediately stand down as prime minister while a completely independent investigation is conducted into the charges made in the WSJ and Sarawak Report’s stories. Lost amidst the WSJ and Sarawak Report stories, Najib’s response, and the political in-fighting in the governing coalition is the fact that these revelations suggest Malaysian politics are more open than many previously believed. After all, the WSJ’s report emerged after investigations into the 1MDB fund by government investigators, apparently including investigators from the anticorruption commission, the police, and the central bank. These investigators acted even though the anticorruption agency comes under the purview of the Ministry of Finance, and Najib is the minister of finance, as well as the prime minister; and the investigation occurred even though the governing coalition wields vast political power, having ruled Malaysia since independence. Then, on Sunday Malaysia’s attorney general revealed that authorities had raided three firms allegedly linked to the payments discussed in the WSJ article. To be sure, someone leaked documents from the investigation to the media, and without these media reports it is possible that these charges would have never come to light. Still, in a country where, according to Human Rights Watch, the government acts with impunity, persecutes opposition voices, and controls most levers of power, the fact that these stories even emerged suggests that Malaysian political discourse is becoming far more open than it was even a decade ago.

With Tuesday’s vote in the U.S. Senate to give President Obama fast track negotiating authority on trade deals, the president is likely to be able to help complete the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), with the United States in the deal, by the end of the year. With fast track authority completed, the United States will be positioned to resolve remaining bilateral hurdles with Japan, the key to moving forward with the TPP. Four Southeast Asian nations—Brunei, Singapore, Vietnam, and Malaysia—currently are negotiating to be part of the TPP. (The Philippines has expressed interest in joining the negotiations.) Singapore and Brunei were two of the founders of the predecessor to the TPP, long before the agreement was enlarged and the United States decided to join negotiations, and Vietnam decided to participate in TPP negotiations very early on. These four countries’ economies are extremely varied. Unlike a potential free trade deal involving the United States and countries in Europe, the TPP contains both developed and developing nations, including Vietnam, which has a GDP per capita of less than US$2,000. For Singapore and Brunei, joining the TPP negotiations was a no-brainer. These are countries with miniscule domestic markets, no significant agricultural sectors, and highly open economies. Singapore in particular is one of the most trade-dependent economies in the world; when the 2008-9 global financial crisis hit, Singapore’s economy suffered one of the worst contractions of any developed nation, though it eventually bounced back. And although the Singaporean population has in recent years become more skeptical of high immigration into the city-state, most Singaporeans understand that the city is dependent on trade, and there is little antitrade rhetoric in Singapore. Yet because Singapore is already so open, having been at the forefront of regional and bilateral Asian trade deals, it has less to gain from the TPP than a more closed economy like Vietnam. In fact, according to some analyses, Vietnam would benefit the most from the deal of any of the countries currently involved in negotiations. Vietnam would gain tariff-free access to U.S. and Japanese markets for its rice, seafood, textiles, and low-end manufactured goods. Vietnamese officials and academics also are convinced that more liberal members of the leadership in Hanoi see the TPP as a way to force the reduction of loss-making state enterprises and to open sectors of the Vietnamese economy. Hanoi used WTO accession in a similar fashion, to help push forward economic reforms. Although Vietnam has recovered from the slowdown in growth that began in the late 2000s, it has not returned to the same turbocharged growth rates it posted in the early 2000s, and bloated state enterprises remain a major drag on the economy. Because Vietnam is run by a highly repressive regime, it is very difficult to gauge public sentiment on any important issue. However, from anecdotal conversations with Vietnamese opinion leaders, there seems to be less of the sentiment that state enterprises must be preserved as national champions than exists among Chinese opinion leaders; Vietnam’s state companies, with a few exceptions, are not global giants like China’s biggest state firms. In addition, a recent Pew poll of Vietnamese suggests that the Vietnamese population views the TPP more favorably than people in any other country negotiating the deal—far more favorably than Americans view the TPP. Malaysian leaders, of all the four Southeast Asian nations, face the toughest test in negotiating the TPP and then convincing the Malaysian public to accept it. Vietnam is an authoritarian regime, as is tiny Brunei; in Singapore there is significant public support for trade. But Malaysia is a hybrid regime, and the Malaysian government has sold TPP to members of the ruling coalition—and conservative Malay supporters—in part by repeatedly assuring them that the government will essentially protect certain state enterprises and programs to support ethnic Malays, even if these protections violate the norms and rules of a free trade deal. With the ruling coalition having gained a relatively narrow victory in the 2013 elections, and now splintering amidst a public fight between Prime Minister Najib tun Razak and former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, it will be very difficult for Malaysian negotiators to return from TPP talks without securing these protections—which they are unlikely to obtain. Fortunately for Najib, the opposition also is in disarray, its unwieldy coalition split apart at the federal level over differences around religious and social issues. However, the opposition, and Malaysia’s vibrant online media, has raised questions about whether Malaysia has done a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of the deal before joining TPP negotiations. So, in addition to a group of conservative Malays skeptical of the TPP because of fears it will endanger pro-Malay affirmative action policies, the agreement may not have strong support among urban, liberal Malaysians—the bastion of the opposition. In the Pew poll, a large percentage of Malaysians simply said they did not know enough about the TPP to have an opinion, but the percentage of Malaysians who viewed the TPP favorably also was lower than in most other TPP nations. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Prime Minister Najib, fighting for his political life, has gone from voicing staunch support for the TPP to announcing that the government’s trade negotiators will only accept a deal “on our terms.”

Ashlyn Anderson, Lincoln Davidson, Lauren Dickey, Darcie Draudt, William Piekos, and Ariella Rotenberg look at the top stories in Asia today. 1. China’s ex-domestic security chief Zhou Yongkang to serve life sentence. The former Politburo Standing Committee member was convicted of abuse of power, accepting bribes, and revealing state secrets and sentenced to life in prison Thursday, just shy of a year after his arrest. While officials initially suggested Zhou’s trial would be open and transparent, it wasn’t, with Xinhua adopting the amusing terminology “non-public open trial” (in Chinese) to describe the proceedings. Zhou is the most senior Chinese official to be convicted of graft in PRC history, but this isn’t likely to be the end of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign (tigers beware!). Some have suggested that Zhou may have been escaped the death sentence because the leadership hopes to use him as leverage against other corrupt officials, further consolidating Xi’s hold on power. 2. MERS fatalities in South Korea reach eleven; President Park cancels U.S. visit. As of Friday, eleven South Koreans have died from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and the total number of people infected has reached 126. The fatalities have occurred in people with pre-existing medical conditions, such as cancer. Hospitals and schools are closing in response to the outbreak, and public panic has led to a measurable drop in spending at department stores and attendance to large public events like baseball games, amusement parks, and movie theaters. South Korean President Park Geun-hye was scheduled for a working visit to Washington next week, but amid mounting domestic criticism of her government’s handling of the outbreak on Wednesday she canceled the trip. The Park administration has previously faced criticism of her handling of the Sewol ferry disaster in April 2014. 3. Aung San Suu Kyi begins five-day visit to China. Myanmar’s opposition leader met with Chinese leaders, including President Xi Jinping, in Beijing in the hopes of building better ties with Naypyitaw’s most important neighbor and biggest trading partner. Relations have been strained in recent months by violence on the Myanmar-China border; government forces have been fighting ethnic Kokang rebels near the border with China’s Yunnan province. Though Myanmar’s democratic reforms have been lauded by the West, since Suu Kyi’s release from prison and rise as a politician, she has been largely silent on human rights issues, in particular the Rohingya migrant crisis. Human rights advocates hope that Suu Kyi will lobby for the release of Liu Xiaobo, a fellow Nobel Peace laureate and Chinese democratic activist who remains in prison. 4. Recovery in Nepal suffers setbacks from fresh tremors and landslides. Aftershocks from Nepal’s devastating April quake continue to inhibit recovery efforts. Now that it is monsoon season, Nepali citizens also worry about impending landslides that could prove more intense this year due to the recent earthquakes. This week, at least fifty-five people were killed, with scores still missing, in a dozen landslides in six villages caused by torrential rains in an area east of Kathmandu. Search-and-rescue efforts headed by security personnel and soldiers have been hindered by thick fog and intense weather, and authorities fear the death toll could rise. 5. Four nude climbers detained in Malaysia. Four backpackers who posed for nude photos on the top of Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia have been detained for public indecency. The four, who still remain in police custody, are a subgroup of the ten tourists from various Western countries who stripped naked for a photograph as a challenge to one another to see who could stand the cold longest without clothing. Although the photos were done in jest, many locals believe they are to blame for a 6.0-magnitude earthquake that left eighteen people dead on Mount Kinabalu last Friday. The locals believe the nudity offended the spirits of the mountain, which is considered sacred by various tribes in the area, and therefore drew the wrath of the mountain’s aki, or protectors. BONUS: Ai Weiwei holds—and attends—exhibition. The West’s second favorite Chinese dissident, who has been barred from leaving the country since he sparked the ire of the Chinese government in 2011, opened his first-ever solo exhibition in China this week. He was even allowed to attend the exhibit, which avoided the overt political statements for which he’s become famous. The world-famous artist and ersatz metal musician rounded out his week by sitting down with hacker Jacob Appelbaum to stuff shredded NSA documents into toy pandas.

Ashlyn Anderson, Lauren Dickey, Darcie Draudt, William Piekos, and Ariella Rotenberg look at the top stories in Asia today. 1. Death toll in India’s heat wave nears two thousand. Hospitals across India are struggling to meet the needs of victims of the most severe heatwave the country has seen in twenty years. With temperatures hovering above 110 degrees Fahrenheit for over a week, Indian citizens are anxiously waiting for monsoon rains to cool the smoldering air. Pictures of melting roads with swirled and distorted road markings illustrate the shocking intensity of the heat. Day workers, the homeless, and elderly people face severe danger, unable to take a day off from work or to find adequate shelter. Although heatwaves are not uncommon in India, climate change has led to more frequent and intense heatwaves in recent years. India’s Meteorological Department recorded temperatures just five degrees short of the nation’s record. 2. China confirms its first MERS case. On Friday, health authorities in Guangdong province announced first confirmed case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in a forty-four-year-old South Korean man who entered China by way of Hong Kong. MERS is similar to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus that spread throughout Asia in 2003; it is considered deadlier but less infectious than SARS. Authorities in China checked thirty-eight people who had been in close contact with the now-quarantined South Korean, who had crossed from Hong Kong by bus and stayed in a Chinese hotel before going to the hospital. The World Health Organization has confirmed ten people in South Korea have contracted MERS. The Korea Centers of Disease Control and Prevention traced the introduction of MERS to a sixty-eight-year-old South Korean man who had traveled to the Middle East this spring. 3. Rising tensions in the South China Sea. The United States took its most confrontational approach to date in the South China Sea last week, flying a U.S. Navy P8-A Poseidon intelligence-gathering plane over a series of contested reefs controlled by China. On top of that, the Navy invited Jim Scuitto, a CNN correspondent, to join and record the mission. China’s land reclamation and construction activities have been well documented over the past couple months, and Beijing has responded with accusations that the United States is provoking tensions over the South China Sea, and that China’s construction work is within China’s sovereign rights. The surveillance imagery revealed that China had positioned motorized artillery pieces on one of the artificial islands, stoking further suspicion that they will be militarized. 4. Mass graves on Malaysia border with Thailand exhumed, twelve policemen arrested. The Malaysian police announced on Monday that 139 shallow graves, some containing more than one body, had been discovered on the border with Thailand. Authorities believe the graves hold the dead bodies of migrants who were held for ransom in jungle camps by gangs of human traffickers. Twelve Malaysian police officers have been arrested so far in connection with the uncovered graves. The shallow graves on the Malaysian border lie in the same vicinity as camps over the border in Thailand, where the Thai authorities discovered graves containing upwards of two dozen bodies earlier this month. This particular border area of southern Thailand and northern Malaysia has been a major transit point for human traffickers bringing people to Southeast Asia by boat from Myanmar—many of them Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution. 5. UN calls for more aid to Nepal. The United Nations called on nations around the world this week to provide more food, aid, and shelter for the Nepalese as the one month anniversary passes since the 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the small nation. More than eight thousand people perished in the disaster and the UN has cited the need for relief more than reconstruction. As recent as one week ago, the U.S. military was still conducting rescue missions using army helicopters to access remote parts of the Himalayas where residents were still trapped from the quake. Bonus: Johnny Depp’s illegal dog smuggling operation. After illegally bringing his two Yorkshire terriers into Australia on a private jet, Johnny Depp now faces repercussions. An Australian senate committee was told that if the case goes to court, the famous actor could receive a sentence of up to ten years in prison or a maximum fine of $262,000 for breaking quarantine laws. The pilot could face up to two years for aiding Johnny in his criminal endeavors.

Since the end of 2014, Malaysians, normally living in one of the most stable countries in Asia, have witnessed an extraordinary political spectacle. Although the same ruling coalition has run Malaysia since independence five decades ago, 89-year-old former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad recently launched a fusillade of public attacks on the current prime minister, Najib Razak, his longtime political protégé. In articles and in speeches, Mahathir has accused Najib of allowing vast sums to disappear from 1MDB, a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund; of evading questions about the suspicious murder of a Mongolian translator who allegedly had information about corruption in Malaysia’s Defense Ministry; and of living a suspiciously lavish lifestyle despite decades as a public servant, among other charges. In early April, Mahathir publicly called for Najib to step down as prime minister. Najib has fought back hard, enlisting support from leading figures of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the dominant party in the governing coalition, while also taking to television to rebut Mahathir’s charges and using large public rallies to show that he retains public support. While Najib fights off Mahathir and his supporters, Najib’s government has launched one of the largest attacks on dissent in modern Malaysian history. In February, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was jailed for five years on sodomy charges, after a trial that Human Rights Watch called “politically motivated proceedings under an abusive and archaic law.” After giving a speech in parliament protesting her father’s treatment, Anwar’s daughter, herself an MP, was arrested and charged with sedition, even though in Malaysia politicians are supposed to be immune from such charges while speaking in the legislature. Meanwhile, the Malaysian security forces have in recent months arrested at least 35 civil society activists, journalists and opposition politicians on charges of sedition, a move that Amnesty International last month called  “troubling signs of an escalating crackdown on freedom of expression and assembly.” For more on my analysis of Malaysia’s political tensions, you can read my latest article for World Politics Review.

Ashlyn Anderson, Lauren Dickey, Darcie Draudt, William Piekos, and Ariella Rotenberg look at the top stories in Asia today. 1. U.S. Secretary of Defense wraps up inaugural visit to Northeast Asia. Recently confirmed Secretary of Defense Ash Carter arrived in East Asia this week, reinforcing the importance of the rebalance policy under his watch at the Pentagon. On his way to the region from Washington, Carter spoke at the McCain Institute at Arizona State University on Monday, where he underscored the importance of U.S. presence in the Asia-Pacific through both military strength and economic growth. Carter made specific and thorough reference to the role of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as  “good strategic sense” and a potential boon to U.S. exports of goods and services. At his three-day stop in Tokyo, Carter met with Defense Minister Gen Nakatani as part of the process to revise U.S.-Japan bilateral cooperation guidelines; Carter also warned against use of threat or force to change unilaterally the status quo of territories in the East China Sea. Other issues of note in the Japan visit included hearing requests from Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga to reduce U.S. presence in Okinawa and meeting with Prime Minister Abe to discuss defense guidelines. Carter then headed to Korea on Thursday for a two-day visit where he and President Park Geun-hye reaffirmed their hard stance on North Korea’s provocative behaviors. Notably, prior to Carter’s arrival to the region, which is currently the site of annual joint U.S.-ROK military exercises, North Korea fired a series of short-range missile tests. On Friday, following talks with President Park Geun-hye and Defense Minister Han Min-koo, Carter told reporters that the United States is not ready to discuss the controversial Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile system with South Korea. 2. Five feminist leaders remain in custody in China. Five women remain in the custody of Chinese authorities on charges of public disorder after being detained in the leadup to International Women’s Day on March 8. In China, authorities are permitted to hold detainees for thirty days without charge plus at additional seven days after filing the charge. On April 13, the case of these five women will reach the legal limit in China at which point the government must either release the protesters or “formally arrest” them—signaling a likely conviction for their crimes. These five women are core members of China’s feminist movement and have been known to stage dramatic and provocative protests. In one such demonstration, two of these prominent activists, Li Tingting and Wei Tingting, called attention to domestic violence by putting on white wedding gowns, splashing them with red paint, and marching through one of the most popular districts. The case of these five women has garnered international attention, including from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who has denounced the detention of these female activists as “inexcusable.” Chinese authorities have responded to the international opposition insisting that they are “handling the case in accordance with the law.” 3. Malaysian parliament passes Prevention of Terrorism Act. By a vote of seventy-nine to sixty—largely split between the ruling coalition and the opposition—the Malaysian government passed an anti-terrorism bill that it claims is needed to prevent Islamic extremists in particular militants aligned with the Islamic State, from gaining a foothold in Malaysia. Under the new legislation, which was approved only hours after the detention of seventeen suspected militants thought to be planning an attack on Kuala Lumpur, suspects can be held without trial for up to two years with indefinite extensions; in addition, decisions on detention will be made by a terrorism board, rather than the judiciary. The country’s sedition law, which prohibits government criticism and Najib had also pledged to repeal, remains in effect. Critics fear that the new legislation will limit freedom of expression and represent a significant backslide for human rights in Malaysia. In 2012, Prime Minister Najib Razak repealed the Internal Security Act, under which indefinite detention was originally codified.  4. India takes a stand on its pollution problem with a new transparency initiative. At a conference on the environment this week, Prime Minister Modi announced a national air quality index to monitor the air in ten of India’s major cities. India’s capital, New Delhi, recently surpassed Beijing as the most polluted city in the world. Furthermore, thirteen of the world’s top twenty most polluted cities are in India, according to the World Health Organization. Although citizens of India acknowledge the poor air quality in many places, the new index will create a color-coded warning system to help residents understand the full health impact of the pollution. Collecting and disseminating the air quality index data will hopefully help set the stage for pollution mitigation policies, such as limiting the driving of personal cars or incentivizing public transportation on days of high pollution. 5. China unveils plans for South China Sea. Over the last few weeks, satellite photographs have captured Chinese vessels dredging sand to transform Mischief Reef into an island in the South China Sea. In light of these developments, China sketched out plans for the disputed islands at a news conference in Beijing this week, saying the islands would be used for military defense as well as to provide civilian services to benefit other countries. Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, pointed out that “China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha [or Spratly] Islands and adjacent waters,” and that any developments in the disputed waters adhere to China’s path of peaceful development while supporting a “national defense policy that is defensive in nature.” Cautious that Chinese land reclamation and construction in disputed waters fuels regional anxiety, President Barack Obama has warned China not to “elbow aside” its Asian neighbors, a comment perceived by official Chinese press as a meddlesome United States “stirring up the waters and fishing for trouble.” Bonus: Indian monkeys snack on fiber-optic cables. Macaque monkeys have become an unlikely challenge to internet development in the holy city of Varanasi as they eat their way through fiber-optic cables across town. India is in the middle of launching an $18 billion plan to upgrade the country’s internet, a plan now threatened by hordes of presumably hungry monkeys living in temples across Varanasi. Considered sacred by locals and tourists, neither scaring away the monkeys nor relocating the temples is feasible; instead, perhaps engineers should stop making such delicious cables.

The jailing of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim in February, though called “politically motivated proceedings under an abusive and archaic law” by Human Rights Watch, appeared to some Malaysian politicians and observers like a challenge to the country’s political opposition. With no one leader ready to completely replace Anwar, the opposition alliance, which has deep internal divisions over social and economic policy, seemed poised to fracture before the next election. In addition, supporters of the ruling coalition hoped Anwar’s jailing would help usher in a period of political stability. Malaysia has been buffeted since the May 2013 national elections, by increasing partisanship, in-fighting within the ruling coalition’s dominant United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party, a series of arrests of opposition activists, and revelations of potential scandals in the country’s 1MDB state fund, which allegedly has lost staggering amounts of money.  In addition, of course, state carrier Malaysia Airlines suffered two immense tragedies after one of its planes vanished shortly after leaving Malaysia and another plane was apparently shot down over Ukraine. The stability has not arrived, and the opposition does not (yet) seem to be disintegrating. Last week, about ten thousand Malaysians rallied in the streets of Kuala Lumpur to protest the verdict against Anwar and, more generally, to register their dissatisfaction with the government. The five year sentence may actually have made Anwar into a martyr, and helped opposition politicians put aside their divisions for now. What’s more, rather than ushering in a period of stability for the ruling coalition, the post-Anwar era has only brought continued turmoil in Malaysia.  As more and more information has leaked out about the 1MDB fund and it alleged problems, the state fund’s management has been challenged even more by opposition politicians, investors, journalists, and some in the ruling coalition. Malaysia’s Auditor General’s office has begun a probe into the 1MDB fund. Bloomberg recently reported that the fund, which has received a cash infusion from one of Malaysia’s wealthiest tycoons, still may have trouble servicing its debts. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Najib tun Razak appears to be battling to maintain his job against supporters in UMNO who are still loyal to former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, a man whom, though retired, retains enormous influence within the ruling coalition. Mahathir has turned harshly critical of Najib.  At a recent party meeting designed to show support for Najib, a group of influential party leaders---including Mahathir’s son, chief minister of the state of Kedah---simply did not show up. Now, this week, the Malaysian government has taken its tough tactics toward the opposition one step farther. On Monday, authorities arrested Anwar’s daughter, Nurul Izzah Anwar, on charges of sedition. Nurul Izzah Anwar, an MP in her own right and a potential future leader of the opposition alliance, was hit with the charges after she gave a speech in Malaysia’s parliament criticizing her father’s case and questioning the independence of the Malaysian judiciary, according to a report in Time. (According to Malaysian law, politicians are supposed to have immunity from prosecution over anything they say in Parliament, but this law seems to have been ignored in Nurul’s case.) Since the disputed May 2013 national elections, the government of Malaysia has increasingly used sedition laws to arrest opposition politicians and civil society activists.  Although Nurul has been freed on bail, it remains unclear whether the charges against her will be pressed, leading to a trial. At a press conference after being released, Nurul claimed that her arrest “is a clear sign that the government is desperate” and thus is targeting a broader range of opposition politicians beyond Anwar. She may be right that the government is desperate---although the desperation may not necessarily stem from the opposition’s activities but rather from fracturing within UMNO. Prime Minister Najib has been mostly silent about the Nurul arrest. Perhaps, given the attacks on him from within UMNO, the prime minister is focusing his energy simply on fighting off challenges from his own side.

Ashlyn Anderson, Lauren Dickey, Darcie Draudt, William Piekos, and Ariella Rotenberg look at the top stories in Asia today. 1. Australian prime minister announces new strategy to confront terrorism threat. Following the release of an official report on the terrorist attack in Sydney in December, Prime Minister Tony Abbott delivered an address at the Australian Federal Police headquarters announcing a new national counterterrorism strategy. A senior official will be appointed to oversee the new measures, which include tightening immigration, curbing the rights of Australians involved in terrorism, strengthening policing powers, and cracking down on hate speech. Abbott asserted that, “on all metrics, the threat to Australia is worsening,” pointing to recent arrests and ongoing serious investigations of terrorist suspects. His remarks provoked criticism from Muslim advocates and leaders who felt that Abbott was stigmatizing the entire Muslim community. 2. Hong Kong woman sentenced for abusing maid. Law Wan-tung, who was convicted of beating, starving, and threatening her Indonesian maid, was sentenced to six years in prison (as well as a small fine of less than US$2,000) for her crimes. The maximum sentence was seven years. In a statement, Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, the abuse victim, stated that she thought the sentence was too light and sends “the wrong signal to employers who mistreat or violate the rights of their domestic workers.” The case has brought to light the difficult conditions for domestic helpers in Hong Kong. As many as 300,000 women, mostly from Indonesia and the Philippines, work in Hong Kong, and are, by law, treated as second-class citizens. 3. Xi unveils his “Four Comprehensives.” Chinese President Xi Jinping revealed his new political theory to the world this week in front-page commentary and headline broadcast throughout state news outlets. The People’s Daily enumerated the Four Comprehensives as such: comprehensively build a moderately prosperous society; comprehensively deepen reform; comprehensively govern the nation according to law; and comprehensively strictly govern the Party. The last comprehensive, on Communist Party discipline, is seen as a reference to Xi’s antigraft efforts, which have been a hallmark of his first years in power. Xi’s slogan follows a long line of political slogans from China’s leaders, from Deng Xiaoping’s “Reform and Opening Up” to Jiang Zemin’s “Three Represents” to Hu Jintao’s “Scientific Outlook on Development.” 4. Anti-corruption court in Bangladesh issues arrest warrants for former prime minister. Begum Khaleda Zia, former prime minister and leader of the Bangladesh National Party (BNP), stands accused of embezzling $650,000 while serving as Bangladesh’s prime minister from 2001 to 2006. Zia has denied the charges, claiming they are politically motivated. The rivalry between Zia and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has characterized politics in Bangladesh for the past two decades. In January 2014, Zia called for her supporters to boycott the national elections; Hasina’s Awami League swept to power with more than half of the seats uncontested. Since January, on the one-year anniversary of the national elections described by the BNP as a farce, political protests by BNP supporters have led to more than one hundred deaths. Amid the ongoing violence, a Bangladesh-born American known for his blog about secularism in politics was hacked to death in Dhaka on Thursday. 5. Family of jailed Malaysian opposition leader files for royal pardon. After Malaysia’s highest court upheld a five-year prison sentence for opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on charges of sodomy earlier this month, the leader is now back in jail. Anwar has maintained the charge against him was politically motivated; his family claims he has been “tyrannized” and his health is at risk the longer he remains behind bars. Despite an initial denial from Anwar’s lawyers, family members are seeking a royal pardon that would allow him to retain his parliamentary seat. The petition for his pardon, however, will carry no weight in the Malaysian government if not signed by Anwar himself. Bonus: Mummy found inside of a Chinese Buddha statue. CT scans done by researchers at the Netherlands’ Meander Medical Center reveal a detailed view of the preserved remains of a Buddhist monk, estimated to have died in the twelfth century. The mummy is the only one of its kind ever found. The process of self-mummification was considered by some Buddhists to be a form of enlightenment and involves embalming prior to death, rather than posthumously as was done in Egypt. Correction: The Meander Medical Center is located in the Netherlands, not Norway as originally stated.