According to an announcement by Inspector-General of Police Razarudin Husain on late Friday, the 36-year-old Israeli was heavily armed, in the possession of a bag containing six handguns and 200 bullets. He is believed to have entered the country from the UAE on 12 March, using what authorities say was a fake French passport.

“He entered Malaysia on March 12 using a French passport, was arrested on March 27 and will be remanded until March 31 for further investigation,” Husain told reporters without naming the suspect. “During the probe, he handed us his Israeli passport.”

Husain said the police are investigating the possibility that the man could be a member of Israeli intelligence, though the suspect claimed he had entered Malaysia to look for another Israeli citizen due to a family dispute.

“However, we do not fully trust this narrative as we suspect there may be another agenda,” Husain said, adding that the detained man had moved between several hotels during his time in Malaysia.

Yesterday Reuters reported that three Malaysians, including a married couple, were arrested on Friday and have been remanded for seven days on suspicion of supplying weapons and acting as a driver to the Israeli suspect. A pistol was also retrieved from a car belonging to the couple, he said.

Malaysian authorities have been put on high alert following the man’s arrest, with security beefed up for Malaysia’s king, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and other high-level figures, the agency reported, noting that the Muslim-majority country has been a staunch supporter of the Palestinians and a vocal critic of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

Although the Israeli suspect remains unnamed, the Times of Israel, citing Hebrew media reported that the suspect is an Israeli mobster Shalom Avitan, who is an associate of the Musli brothers crime family. Avitan was reportedly en route to assassinate Eran Haya, head of a rival crime family. The two syndicates have been engaged in a violent feud for months.

According to Channel 12, Avitan’s home, in Tel Aviv’s upscale Bavli neighborhood, was the target of several grenades tossed by Haya’s men in mid-March, around when Haya was said to have entered Malaysia.

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During their talks near Kuala Lumpur, Kishida, who traveled to Malaysia on Saturday on the second leg of his three-day trip that also included a visit to the Philippines, said he and Anwar also affirmed cooperation over energy, including ensuring a stable supply of liquefied natural gas to Japan.

Kishida’s tour was intended to lay the groundwork for a special summit involving leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, scheduled to be held in Tokyo in December to commemorate 50 years of their friendship and cooperation.

He told Anwar he hopes to come up with a “new vision of cooperation” at the summit, and the Malaysian leader expressed optimism on the future of Japan-ASEAN relations, according to the Japanese government.

While tensions remain high between China, Malaysia and some other ASEAN nations over the South China Sea due to overlapping territorial claims, topics discussed between the two leaders included Japan’s new defense equipment support framework for countries that share values such as democracy and human rights.

“We agreed to accelerate adjustments toward the implementation of the OSA,” Kishida told a joint press announcement with Anwar, referring to the grant program, called official security assistance.

Japan has designated four Asia-Pacific countries — Bangladesh, Fiji, Malaysia and the Philippines — as OSA recipients, earmarking 2 billion yen ($13 million) for the fiscal year through March 2024.

Kishida expressed “deep concern” over unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force in the East and South China seas, and he and Anwar affirmed their commitment to close cooperation in addressing the issue, according to the Japanese government.

China has built artificial islands with military infrastructure in regional waters in recent years. The communist nation has also repeatedly sent its coast guard vessels around the Tokyo-controlled Senkaku Islands, claimed by Beijing, in the East China Sea.

With Malaysia located at a key sea lane connecting the Indian and Pacific oceans, the two leaders agreed to promote joint training between the Japanese Self-Defense Forces and the Malaysian military, as well as between their coast guard agencies.

The Japanese leader also highlighted the importance of securing a stable supply of LNG from Malaysia, as his resource-poor nation seeks to diversify material imports amid the energy crisis following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022.

Kishida and Anwar also agreed to promote trade and investment, alongside agreeing to cooperate in the field of education, with Japan’s public University of Tsukuba set to establish a branch campus in Malaysia in September next year.

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Indonesia and Malaysia have decided to work together to defend their lifeline – the exports of palm oil– that has become a new target of the European Union.

On December 6, the European Union signed an agreement to fight global deforestation, naming palm oil production as one of the causes of large-scale deforestation.

The two Muslim countries meet more than 85 percent of global palm oil demand. Millions of farmers – most of them small landholders – depend on palm oil plantations to provide for their families.

The Southeast Asian neighbors and close allies will work to promote the commodity through the Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries,  Indonesian President Joko Widodo said on Monday.

Widodo’s comments came after a meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who is in Indonesia on his first foreign trip since taking office in November.

What are the EU measures about? 

When the regulation is adopted into law, it will oblige the EU’s 27 member states to cut imports of commodities that they believe are responsible for the destruction of forested areas, especially rainforests.

The plan is to stop suppliers from selling palm oil, cattle, soy, coffee, cocoa, timber, rubber and products made from these commodities, such as chocolate, leather and furniture, in the EU markets.

It is part of a broader EU effort to scale down the bloc’s carbon footprint. The argument goes that these commodities are increasingly being planted on farms, which have encroached onto forested regions.

Indonesia and Malaysia together account for more than 85 percent of the 
global palm oil supply. (AP Archive)

Does it ban all imports?  

No, it does not. As per the regulations, the companies involved in the trade of these commodities and related products must ensure that they haven’t been grown or produced on land that was deforested after December 2020.

This means a Malaysian farmer who has been harvesting palm oil in a deforested region before the cut-off date wouldn’t need to worry about the sale of his produce.

But then there’s the technicality of proving that these commodities are not violating the regulation. This part is tricky and will likely pile up a cost burden on small landholders, says the Malaysian Palm Oil Board.

Companies importing the commodities would have to undertake strict monitoring of the source of their products.

For instance, the suppliers have to collect the precise geographic coordinates of places where the commodities are produced.

The plan will go into effect 18 months after the law is adopted sometime this year.

Malaysian and Indonesian authorities say they already have strict rules and regulations to protect their forests.

Why are palm oil producers particularly angry? 

For a few years now, EU leaders have set their eyes on curbing the import of palm oil, which is mostly used as a biofuel.

When the proposal first surfaced in 2018, Malaysia criticized it severely, calling it “crop apartheid”. Kuala Lumpur’s angst was not without reason.

Rapeseed oil, which is produced in Europe, has the highest share in the production of biofuels. But rapeseed oil has been exempted from the strict regulations, which target palm oil, raising concerns about the EU’s discrimination.

On its part, the EU says it has based its decision on the impact of these commodities on deforestation.

“EU has classified palm oil feedstock as having a high risk to indirect land-use change (ILUC), compared to other vegetable oils like rapeseed and sunflower which are considered as a low-risk feedstock,” says a recent study on the impact of the EU import ban.

The EU plans to gradually phase out palm oil consumption as a biofuel and completely ban it by 2030.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, says it carried out a detailed survey, gathering 1.2 million responses from the public before introducing the regulation on deforestation-free products. This public consultation was the second most popular in the EU’s history.

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The agreement reached by the government’s pandemic task force on foreign workers has been hotly anticipated by vital sectors like palm oil plantations and rubber glove manufacturing, which rely on migrant labor.

“The Special Committee on Pandemic Management today agreed with the proposed standard operating procedures for the entry of foreign workers into Malaysia, especially to meet the needs of the plantation sector,” Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said in a statement.

Migrant worker quotas and entry dates for other industries are still being ironed out, he said.

Malaysia is reliant on some two million documented migrant workers to produce everything from gloves to iPhone parts.

Last month, the government said it would prioritize the return of 32,000 workers for the plantation sector to ease a severe labor crunch that hammered production for the world’s second-largest palm oil producer.

The rubber gloves industry had also appealed to the government to allow foreign workers to return to meet growing demand this year and next.

From mid-November, Malaysia will also allow certain international travelers to visit its tropical holiday island of Langkawi, reopening its borders to foreign tourists for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

The prime minister said Malaysia is targeting vaccinated, “high-yield” and “quality” tourists, indicating those that will spend money and help boost the economy. It was not immediately clear how such tourists would be targeted.

Tourists must show a negative COVID-19 result and vaccination certificate and have travel insurance of $80,000, he said.

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The 61-year-old politician from United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) took the oath of office before King Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah at the national palace.

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The announcement comes as Malaysia looks to boost public assistance measures amid fresh coronavirus lockdowns imposed this month.

The costs of retail fuel and cooking oil subsidies were set to increase sharply due to a global rise in commodity prices, Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz said in a statement.

“The government is prepared to bear the higher subsidy expenditure to preserve the people’s welfare and business viability, especially for small traders,” Tengku Zafrul said.

The government spent 6.32 billion ringgit and 2.16 billion ringgit in subsidies in 2019 and 2020 respectively, he said.

Last month, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced an additional $9.7 billion stimulus package, ahead of the latest round of lockdowns.

Daily infections and deaths in the Southeast Asian country rose to record levels in May, although cases have dipped in recent days.

On Saturday, Malaysia reported 5,793 new cases, bringing total infections to 652,204. Deaths totalled 3,768 as of Friday.

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The first phase of the lockdown will last from Jun 1 to Jun 14. This move was announced in a media statement posted on Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s Facebook page on Friday (May 28) night.

Only essential economic and service sectors listed by the National Security Council will be allowed to operate during Phase 1 of the lockdown, said the statement issued by Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

“This decision was made after taking into account the current situation of COVID-19 transmission in Malaysia with daily case numbers exceeding 8,000 and active cases exceeding 70,000,” the statement read.

More than 2,550 people in Malaysia have died from the disease.

The emergence of more virulent COVID-19 variants also influenced the National Security Council’s decision to implement the lockdown.

With the sharp rise in the daily number of COVID-19 cases, hospitals’ capacity to treat patients throughout the country are “becoming more limited”, the statement added.

If the phase 1 total lockdown is successful in reducing daily COVID-19 cases, the government will implement a four-week phase 2 lockdown by allowing the reopening of a few economic sectors that do not involve large gatherings.

Phase 2 lockdown will last four weeks.

“Once the phase 2 lockdown ends, the next step is phase 3, which is implementing a movement control order (MCO) similar to the current one in effect, where social activities are not allowed and nearly all economic sectors are allowed to operate subject to strict standard operating procedures and limited physical presence at workplaces,” the PMO said.

However, the decision to move from one phase to the next will be subject to the health ministry’s risk assessment and will be based on the daily caseloads and the hospitals’ capacity to treat COVID-19 patients.

The government will ensure the Malaysian public health system will not crumble and that support and assistance will be given to the health ministry to increase hospital capacity, said the PMO.

“The government will also increase the number of vaccine deliveries in the space of the next few weeks in the effort to develop herd immunity in the country.

“As a result of the government’s decision to execute full economic and social shutdown, the finance ministry will detail assistance packages for the people and affected economic sectors,” PMO stated, adding these would be announced in the very near future.

PMO’s announcement came as Malaysia set a COVID-19 case record for the fourth straight day with 8,290 new infections, bringing the national total past 549,000.

Sixty-one more COVID-19 fatalities, aged between 27 and 92 were reported, pushing Malaysia’s death toll to 2,552.

A nationwide MCO dubbed MCO 3.0 was reimposed in May, when all economic sectors were allowed to operate but people were encouraged to practise “self-lockdown”.

Amid calls for the government to impose a full lockdown as cases remained high, the government had announced tightened curbs that mandated more employees to work from home and business operating hours to be shortened.

Mr. Muhyiddin, in a May 23 interview, said that while a full lockdown would guarantee people’s safety, there is a risk that the economy could collapse.

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