Malaysia resolving red tape on land travel to Brunei border

PM says Brunei and Malaysia have set up a technical committee to resolve bureaucracy issues involving land travel to the Brunei border.

MIRI: Bureaucratic formalities involving land travel between Malaysia and Brunei will be resolved soon, says Prime Minister Najib Razak.

He said the Brunei government had in principle agreed to resolve the issue of bureaucracy along the common border with Malaysia and had set up a technical committee for the purpose.

“The technical committee is looking into facilitating land journeys without the need for passport checks,” he told reporters after launching eight packages of the Pan Borneo Highway for Sarawak, costing a total of RM12.5 billion, here today.

“This matter is being studied and we should be getting a final decision soon,” he added.

Najib said at present, Malaysians from Sabah and Sarawak and the people of Brunei had to go through eight Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) complexes.

He said this resulted in the passports of those frequently commuting between Sarawak, Sabah and Brunei, to be stamped as many as 16 times.

When asked about the construction of the five-kilometre Batang Lupar Bridge, Najib confirmed that the federal government was currently in discussions with the Sarawak government over the matter.

The bridge is slated to be built in 2018 as the cost of construction is to be shared by both governments.

“It is expected to cost RM1 billion, and when completed, will be the longest bridge in South East Asia,” he said.

He added that once the bridge was completed, Sarawak would have two highways which would benefit the people living along the coastline and interior of the state.

Najib also said the bridge would be part of the Sarawak coastal highway while the Pan Borneo Highway would connect those living in the interior areas.


Sumber - Free Malaysia Today

Burmese Troops Are ‘Squarely Responsible’ for Torching Rohingya Muslim Villages: Rights Group

Feliz Solomon

Some 21,000 Rohingya have fled across the border into Bangladesh with harrowing stories

The Burmese army has burned down more than 1,500 homes and other buildings in a systematic pattern of destruction targeting the country’s stateless Rohingya Muslims, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

In a statement released Tuesday, the watchdog said it had collected satellite images and interviews with refugees that directly implicate the army, which has consistently denied allegations of wrongdoing and instead blamed suspected Rohingya jihadists, claiming that they have been torching their own communities.

“The Burma government and military’s barrage of unsubstantiated claims that the Rohingya are burning down their own villages have now finally been exposed as the fraud that we suspected all along,” Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for HRW, tells TIME.

“Rather than continue this game of denials, the Burmese government should allow access to urgently needed humanitarian assistance, and permit U.N. investigators and the media into these areas to investigate how this human rights disaster has come about, and who needs to be held responsible,” he adds.

Armed military troops and police force travel in trucks through Maungdaw, in Rakhine state, on Oct. 14, 2016,
following a government announcement that terrorist groups were behind a series of attacks on security posts

The accusation is the latest of mounting claims that the Burmese army has carried out a disproportionate response to a deadly attack on security forces attributed to Muslim insurgents.

The Oct. 9 attack on three border security posts by a group of Rohingya militants who call themselves Harakah al-Yaqin triggered a military lockdown on the northern part of Arakan state, also called Rakhine, which lies along Burma’s western border near Bangladesh. Humanitarian aid has been suspended in the area and journalists have been barred as the Burmese army carries out what it calls “clearance operations.”

An estimated 21,000 civilians have since fled across the border into Bangladesh, where they have sought shelter in severely under-resourced refugee camps. Those who fled tell harrowing stories of being terrorized by the armed forces; one Rohingya woman told TIME that she watched her son being thrown into a fire and burned alive.

The U.N.’s human rights envoy for Burma, Yanghee Lee, has warned that evidence indicates the actions of Burmese security forces are “getting very close to what we would all agree are crimes against humanity.”

HRW says its collection of pictures and testimony reveal four new developments: the number of buildings destroyed is higher than previously thought at more than 1,500; the timing and locations of the alleged incidents of arson point to a path taken by troops as they advanced west across the area; the timing and nature of the arson attacks suggest that they were carried out as reprisal; and some of the images show Burmese troops present at the site of at least one major fire.

The Rohingya are a stateless Muslim minority numbering about 1.1 million, and are viewed as one of the world’s most persecuted peoples. They have seen their rights erode rapidly since communal riots in 2012 displaced more than 100,000 and ushered in a state of religious apartheid. Tens of thousands have fled to neighboring countries; those who remained are largely denied freedom of movement and access to basic services.

The crisis on Burma’s western border has put pressure on Burma’s de facto leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was swept to power by a landslide election win last year. Her party, the National League for Democracy, took power in April, the country’s first civilian government following nearly six decades of military dictatorship.

Suu Kyi’s failure to rein in the armed forces as they carried out counterterrorism operations in Arakan state has led some to question how much authority she actually has.


Sumber - TIME

Deepest Oil Cuts in World’s Top Market Didn’t Need OPEC Deal

by Perry Williams and Sharon Cho

• Production from China expected to fall by 200,000 b/d in 2017
• China cut more than level agreed by non-OPEC, excluding Russia

Malaysia and Brunei are doing their bit for the global pact to rebalance oil markets, but the biggest production cuts in Asia are coming from a country that didn’t sign up.

China, the world’s fifth-biggest producer last year, has reduced output by about 300,000 barrels a day this year, more than the combined cuts announced Saturday by non-OPEC countries, excluding Russia, as part of a deal coordinated with the producer group. The decline is expected to continue next year, with Chinese production shrinking as much as 200,000 barrels a day, according to consultant Energy Aspects Ltd.

“We’re seeing a natural decline in China oil production as fields are very mature and depletion rates are high,” said Virendra Chauhan, a Singapore-based oil analyst at industry consultant Energy Aspects Ltd. “The price level we had in last 12 to 18 months has incentivized imports over spending on domestic production.”

China’s output slumped as state-owned firms shut wells at mature fields that are too expensive to operate amid last year’s price crash. Production during the first 10 months of the year averaged about 4 million barrels a day, down about 7 percent from the same period last year, according to Bloomberg calculations based on National Bureau of Statistics data.

Malaysia and Brunei were the only Asian nations in the group of producers outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries that agreed to cut output by a combined 558,000 barrels a day starting Jan. 1. The region will use 32.88 million barrels a day of oil this year, accounting for more than a third of global consumption, according to data from the International Energy Agency. Daily demand is forecast to expand to 33.7 million barrels in 2017.

The deal, hammered out over the weekend in Vienna, is the first pact between the group and non-members in 15 years. While all individual country cuts are unclear, the non-OPEC reduction excluding Russia’s 300,000 barrels a day, as well as announced figures from Mexico, Oman and Azerbaijan, totals 83,000 barrels a day.

Morgan Stanley estimates Malaysia will reduce output by 20,000 barrels a day, while Brunei will lose 4,000 barrels a day. Both countries were celebrating holidays Monday and nobody responded to e-mails seeking comment sent to Brunei’s Energy and Industry Department, as well as Malaysia’s Ministry of Energy and state-run oil and gas company, Petroliam Nasional Bhd.

Oil prices surged as trading resumed Monday, rising as much as 6.6 percent in London to the highest intraday level since July 2015. Brent crude has climbed more than 20 percent since OPEC announced on Nov. 30 that it would cut production for the first time in eight years and was at $56.54 a barrel at 7:04 a.m. in New York.

“If all of these cuts are realized in the market, we could see prices potentially rise beyond $65 by May when the next OPEC meeting is convened,” said Sushant Gupta, director of Asia Pacific refining at Wood Mackenzie Ltd. in Singapore.

Output from Brunei, a country with a population of fewer than 500,000 people on the island of Borneo, peaked at 261,000 barrels a day in 1979, while Malaysia reached as high as 776,000 barrels a day in 2004, according to BP data. Wood Mackenzie estimates Brunei will pump 142,000 barrels a day this year and Malaysia at 664,000 barrels a day.

While the individual cuts are small, the combined reduction by OPEC and non-OPEC reductions could flip the oil market balance into deficit next year, according to Sanford C. Bernstein. The current surplus will slip into a 800,000 barrel a day deficit by the first half of 2017, Bernstein’s Neil Beveridge wrote in a research note Monday.


Sumber - Bloomberg

Fast-track federalism, Duterte urges Congress

By: Leila B. Salaverria

President Duterte asked Congress to fast-track moves to put in place a federal system of government in the country, stressing that this was the key to bringing peace in conflict-ridden Mindanao.

Mr. Duterte said he wants the federal system put in place during his term, given the trust placed on him by people from Mindanao.

He also reiterated his promise that he would step down even before his term ends to pave the way for this new system, but it must also have a strong President.

He said he had told Speaker Pantaleon “Bebot” Alvarez to put in place the federal system in two to three years.  Overhauling the system of government would require charter change.

“I told them, Bebot [Alvarez’ nickname], hurry it up. I told them if you finish it in two or three years, I will step down as President. You can have my word,” Mr. Duterte said in a speech at the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao local governance summit in Davao City.

The ball has to start rolling now, he added, because “the Moro people will not wait for another term of a President.”

“I am not an indispensable factor in this island. But what I’m saying … maybe not really golden but the most appropriate opportunity at this time of our generation, in our lives now, will be now,” he said.

He later said should he die before this is completed, it would be difficult to convince the people to back the idea.

He also assured the Moro people of Mindanao that his only desire was to give them their own territory.

He is not being controlled by any outside influence, he said.

“What you should understand from me, and believe me, what I want to happen is to give what is due to you, and that is semblance of your territory, your governance, and the happiness of the Moro people,” he said.

Mr. Duterte also said Mindanao has been suffering for decades because there seems to be no cohesive action on the part of the Moro people and the central government.

There have been several attempts to address the conflict in Mindanao, but these only proved to be divisive even among Moro groups, he added.

“I think the only acceptable arrangement as of today, this moment of our generation and of the lives of the Moro people is federalism. Other than that, there will be conflict,” he said.

The President also defended armed uprisings by Moro groups.

According to him, terrorism was not started by the people of Mindanao, but by the “colonialists” who “started the killing and the plunder of the land in Mindanao.”

“It’s just a reaction of a person who has been deprived of the most precious thing of Allah’s possessions and that is the land. What they refer to as Muslim rebellion or a Moro rampage is actually Moro nationalism, to put it correctly in the proper perspective,” he said.

He said the anger in the minds of the Moro was grounded in his nationalism, because his land was taken away from him.

“Just as you would call everybody here a Filipino nationalist who sticks to the interest of his own country,” he added.


Sumber - Inquirer News