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Key Highlights
Forget football, check out the linguistic skills
Selangor’s royal parking saga
AGC still drilling into mining scandal
Forget football, check out the linguistic skills
The seven “heritage” players in the national football squad aren’t just nifty with their feet - they are apparently linguistic prodigies too. Unfortunately for them, Fifa was not impressed.
Despite being unable to speak Bahasa Malaysia, all seven somehow sailed through the language test for their citizenship applications.
This was among three damning allegations that surfaced in the Fifa appeals committee decision document.
The documents also cited a curious slip of the tongue by one of the players, Gabriel Felipe Arrocha, regarding his grandmother’s birthplace during his hearing.
According to Fifa, his exact words were: “My grandfather was born in Venezuela and my grandmother in Spain… I mean Malaysia, sorry.”
Fifa had obtained a copy of his grandmother's official birth certificate, which listed her birthplace as Spain.
The appeals committee noted that the birth certificate by FAM was almost identical to the original copy, save that the birthplace was recorded as Malacca.
All seven denied knowledge that their grandparents' birth documents were manipulated, and said any possible alterations would have been done after they submitted the papers to their agents.
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Selangor’s royal parking saga
After Malaysiakini reported that a Selangor royal family member is linked to a company awarded three concessions under the state’s street parking privatisation initiative, a PKR lawmaker is calling for clarity.
Petaling Jaya MP Lee Chean Chung said the state government must address questions over the "appropriateness" of any individual’s involvement, including royalty, in the Selangor Intelligent Parking (SIP) scheme.
“I believe the proper avenue is for the state government to provide a full and official clarification. This is the best way to avoid misunderstandings and to ensure that no party, including the royal institution, is subjected to unnecessary assumptions,” he said.
The state has defended its push to privatise public parking management.
State executive councillor Ng Suee Lim had argued that the scheme will allow local councils to collect “more revenue than before,” thanks to system efficiency, digitalisation, and centralised monitoring.
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AGC still drilling into mining scandal
After giving the impression that his Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) allies implicated in the Sabah mining scandal had been let off the hook, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim clarified that the case remains open.
“So far, these are criminal cases with no statute of limitations… so we need to be patient. Their cases have not been erased, not closed,” he told Parliament in response to an opposition lawmaker citing the scandal on his administration’s commitment to combating corruption.
Anwar explained that prosecutions against three individuals in connection with the case, including businessperson Albert Tei who exposed the scandal, occurred because the MACC and the Attorney-General’s Chambers found solid reasons and evidence, while other cases remain under investigation.
“I cannot direct prosecutions to proceed just because there is a video. This is sometimes how my statements are misrepresented,” he added.
The prime minister also rejected claims that his administration was protecting the assemblypersons implicated, noting that two of those charged are from coalition government parties.
“Will others be prosecuted later? I do not know. The point is, the cases have not been erased or closed. Based on the information I have, not yet,” he said.
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