Good morning. Here are our picks for today.

Key Highlights

  • MACC nabs minister’s aide

  • No sabotage in Double Six crash

  • Drubbing for PAS lawmaker

MACC nabs minister’s aide

The anti-corruption watchdog has detained a senior aide to Human Resources Minister V Sivakumar to facilitate investigations into graft allegations involving a migrant workers recruitment firm.

Sources told Malaysiakini that the aide could potentially influence approvals of hiring quotas from manpower agencies.

Sivakumar confirmed the arrest but declined to comment further since the matter is under investigation and appealed to all quarters not to speculate.

HIGHLIGHTS

Seven ongoing Datasonic contracts awarded without open tender
KINIGUIDE | Najib's royal pardon bid - how does it work?
Fearing govt collapse, Bersih calls for reforms soon

No sabotage in Double Six crash

The declassified federal investigation report on the 1976 plane crash that killed 11 people, including the then Sabah chief minister Fuad Stephens, found no elements of sabotage.

The report, which has been made public after 47 years, concluded that the most probable cause of the accident was the plane's centre of gravity being off balance.

Dissatisfied with the “simple” explanation, Upko deputy president Donald Peter Mojuntin urged Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to investigate the reasons for keeping the findings under wraps for so long.

Donald’s father, Peter Mojuntin, was among those killed.

HIGHLIGHTS

Kit Siang: 'Double Six Crash' report should never have been kept secret
UK lawyer rubbishes 'terrorist' label against alleged Sulu heir
MyKad seizure: Minister instructs fresh investigation

Drubbing for PAS lawmaker

PAS lawmaker Ismail Abd Muttalib courted flak for his questions in Parliament, which touched on skin colour for citizenship, communists and Chinese new villages, and if the DAP-controlled Penang government wanted to ban the Muslim call for prayer in the state.

Describing him as “narrow-minded”, Selangor state executive councillor Ng Sze Han criticised the Maran MP for implying that the inhabitants of the new villages had communist links.

On the other hand, Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy said Ismail can be charged under the Sedition Act.

He also compared him to the proponents of the Apartheid system in South Africa.

HIGHLIGHTS

Tycoon Lee denies financial woes, blames 'bankruptcy' on ex-employee
Leave for Shafee’s counterclaim over RM9.41m tax calculation denied
Najib's pardon: Silence before the storm, Leong says

Views that matter

Unity government ends if Najib walks free
By Wong Chin Huat
Seeing ourselves as creators, not merely consumers
By Rafizi Ramli 
Saifuddin deserves credit, too, for his swift action
By Francis Paul Siah

Other news that matter

  • The Kuching National Registration Department has issued cancer patient Lina Samuel with temporary identification documents amid a fresh probe into claims that an officer wrongfully seized her MyKad.

  • A total of 19,268 cases of domestic violence were reported between 2020 and 2022, according to police statistics.

  • The courts awarded families of custodial death victims a total of RM1.54 million across three separate civil suits between 2016 and 2022.

HIGHLIGHTS

PAS seeks to strike out Mujahid's defamation suit
Karangkraf founder accuses minister's bodyguard of pushing him
Royal pardon for Najib now up to Agong - Azalina