Is There More Than Meets the Eye?

The IJM–Sunway Puzzle and a Corporate Intrigue Unfolding

Every so often, Corporate Malaysia produces a story that refuses to sit neatly within the usual boundaries of market logic. The proposed Sunway–IJM transaction appears to be one such case. 

On the surface, it is framed as a conventional consolidation move in construction and infrastructure. Beneath it, however, lies a convergence of political anxiety, market anomalies, whispered investigations, and institutional silence that raises an uncomfortable question: 

Is there more here than meets the eye?

The issue was reignited after UMNO’s recent General Assembly when UMNO Youth Chief Dr Akmal Saleh publicly voiced concerns over IJM. While his remarks were quickly interpreted through a racial or political lens—particularly anxieties over Sunway’s Chinese ownership and IJM’s strategic highway concessions—the substance of the concern deserves a more sober examination. 

Strip away the rhetoric, and what remains is not about ethnicity, but control, valuation, and accountability over national infrastructure assets.

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Petronas vs Petros: When “All Is Well” Masks a Deepening Federal–State Contest

Publicly, both Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Sarawak Premier Abang Johari Openg have been at pains to project stability and cooperation in relations between Petronas and Petroleum Sarawak Berhad (Petros). 

The official line has been consistent. Discussions are ongoing, misunderstandings will be resolved, and there is no crisis in federal–state relations. Within the oil and gas industry, however, the picture has been far less reassuring.

Industry insiders speak of tense, sometimes acrimonious meetings, strong words exchanged behind closed doors, and operational frictions that contradict the calm public narrative. Allegations have circulated — unverified but persistent — that Petronas operations in Sarawak, including facilities in Bintulu, have faced disruptions, and that work permits for Petronas personnel have been delayed or withheld. 

Whether fully accurate or not, these accounts underscore a reality that the dispute is no longer merely theoretical or political; it has begun to affect operational confidence.

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Not time yet for chest thumping

Light at the End of the Tunnel — But No Victory Lap for Madani Yet

For the first time in years, Malaysia feels investable again. 

The ringgit has strengthened, foreign capital is returning—albeit cautiously—Bursa Malaysia has clawed its way past 1,700 points, and macroeconomic panic has given way to guarded optimism. 

After the political chaos of 2018–2022 and the economic trauma of Covid-19, this alone is no small achievement.

Yet it would be premature—perhaps even dangerous—for the Madani government to engage in chest-pounding. Markets may be calmer, but they are not yet convinced. 

What we are witnessing is not a ringing endorsement of Anwar Ibrahim’s reform agenda, but a conditional reprieve: confidence in stability, not yet belief in transformation.

There is light at the end of the tunnel. But the tunnel is long, narrow, and politically treacherous.

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National Building, Transformasi, Reformasi … Deformasi?

Reformasi at a Critical Juncture: A Policy Brief for Malaysia’s Political Leadership

In his column “Parti Politik perlu baca isyarat rakyat, teroka jalan baru 2026” (Berita Harian, 2 January 2026), Dr Fauzi Shafie argues that Malaysian politics is approaching a decisive moment where elite narratives no longer align with popular anxieties. 

This essay extends that argument by situating reformasi within Malaysia’s longer historical evolution — nation-building, transformation, and now the risk of deformation — and frames the next two years as a narrow policy window that will determine whether reformasi matures or collapses into yet another institutional decay.

This is written not for mass mobilisation, but for policy elites and party leadership who shape state capacity, fiscal priorities, and reform sequencing.

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Something’s Gotta Give: Malaysia at a Political Deadlock

Using Marilyn Monroe’s unfinished film as a metaphor for a nation stuck between acts

Marilyn Monroe’s unfinished 1962 film Something’s Gotta Give has become a cultural metaphor for beautiful potential trapped in paralysis. Production stalled, tensions escalated, the old formula no longer worked, and the project collapsed before reinvention could occur. 

Malaysia’s contemporary politics feels eerily similar. The script is familiar, the actors well known, yet the plot refuses to move forward. Everyone senses that something has to give — but no one is willing to be the first to break the deadlock.

Malaysia today is not in crisis in the classical sense. The state still functions, elections occur, markets operate, and society remains broadly peaceful. 

Yet beneath the surface lies a persistent logjam: weak reform capacity, elite infighting, eroding public trust, and an economy caught between old rent-seeking structures and the demands of a more competitive, post-pandemic world. 

The political squabbles within PKR, PN, DAP, and UMNO/BN are not isolated dramas; they are symptoms of a system that has reached the limits of incrementalism.

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Will Hamzah take up the mantle as saviour of Malay Politics upon his return from Mekah today?

Hamzah Zainudin returns from Mekah today, and Malaysian politics pauses—briefly, dramatically, and perhaps unnecessarily—to ask a familiar question: is this the moment? 

In a political culture that has elevated airport arrivals, hospital discharges and umrah returns into moments of near-messianic anticipation, Hamzah’s homecoming is being watched like the final reel of a political thriller whose plot everyone claims to know but no one agrees on.

The speculation is simple, seductive, and dangerous: that upon his return, Hamzah will either give the green light—or slam the brakes—on a revived Muafakat Nasional, once again stitching UMNO and PAS together in the name of Malay unity, dignity, survival, or sheer desperation.

This renewed chatter is not happening in a vacuum. It is triggered by Dr Akmal Saleh’s call for UMNO to quit the Madani government—not via roof-hacking or backdoor acrobatics, but by assuming the noble posture of a “dignified opposition”. 

It is, on paper, a principled argument: UMNO cannot remain in a government allegedly crossing the 3R red lines, most notably the court’s rejection of the former Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s decree relating to Najib Razak’s sentence.

Behind that legal argument, however, sits a political truth too large to ignore: a significant segment of UMNO’s grassroots believes Najib is not merely convicted, but persecuted. Justice, to them, is no longer blind; it is selectively farsighted.

So the question is not whether Najib’s case matters—it clearly does—but whether it is a cause, or merely the latest excuse, for UMNO to escape a coalition that has become electorally radioactive among Malays.

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Maduro Out, Chevron In

If you squint hard enough, the capture of Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces looks less like a coup and more like a petrol-price policy wrapped in camouflage. 

Trump, never one to hide his priorities, seems to be saying: inflation is the enemy, oil is the cure, and Venezuela just happens to be sitting on the medicine cabinet. 

The Reuters report below gives the news; what follows is the uncomfortable, ironic, and occasionally absurd aftertaste.

Venezuela's Maduro in custody, Trump says US will run the country

By Susan Heavey and Jana Winter

January 4, 2026

Summary

• US launched attack on Venezuela, captured leader Maduro
• Trump says US to run Venezuela until a 'safe, proper and judicious transition'
• Trump says he is not afraid of putting 'boots on the ground'
• Maduro arrived in the US Saturday evening, hearing scheduled for Monday
• Global leaders urge adherence to international law, some criticize Maduro regime

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After Trump, truces and turmoil

World rings in 2026 under shadows of war, trade shocks 

The Star, Thursday 1 January 2026

SYDNEY: New Year's Eve revellers toasted the end of 2025 on Wednesday (Dec 31) waving goodbye to 12 months packed with Trump tariffs, a Gaza truce and vain hopes for peace in Ukraine.

It was one of the warmest years on record, the stifling heat stoking wildfires in Europe, droughts in Africa and deadly rains across South-East Asia.

There was a sombre tinge to celebrations in Australia's harbour city Sydney, the self-proclaimed "New Year's capital of the world".

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