Morning Brief

Yoon Suk-Yeol, who is a member of the People Power Party and former prosecutor, has won the neck-to-neck Presidential race against ruling Democratic Party member and ex-mayor and lawyer Lee Jae-myung with a less than 1 percent margin. Jonathan Berkshire Miller, Senior Fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs tells us what to expect from his reign. Image credit: EPA-EFE See omnystudio...

The government has made revisions to the negative list with only nightclubs to remain closed during this transition to endemicity, as nightclubs are thought to be at high risk for the transmission of Covid-19. But nightclubs have remained closed since the beginning of lockdowns in March 2020. How should nightclubs navigate through this? Jeremy Lim, Vice-President of Persatuan Pemilik Restoran dan...

Warisan is contesting 6 seats in the Johor state elections on its own. Will this east Malaysian party make headway and what does the party stand for? YB Suhaimi Salleh, Johor Chief of Warisan, tells us. Image credit: Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It was reported in the press, that the Government may be considering a U-turn over its proposed SWN (Single Wholesale Network) model. Alexander Wong, Managing Editor at SoyaCincau chimes in on which model will be better for Malaysian consumers and does a U-turn delay a rollout of 5G services in the country? Image credit: Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

PKR will be contesting in 20 seats in the upcoming election in Johor, which is the largest number of seats in the Pakatan Harapan coalition. But why the breakaway in logo usage and is cohesion really a matter of concern? We speak to Johor’s PKR Chairman, YB Syed Ibrahim to understand it all. Image credit: Facebook.com/Parti Keadilan Rakyat See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As the country segues to the endemic phase on 1st of April, There will only be one SOP but 9 guidelines. Dr Vinod Balasubramaniam, senior lecturer and co-lead at the Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine & Health Sciences gives us his views on this important transition. Image credit: Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the start of the Ukraine war, President Vladimir Putin ratcheted tensions by threatening to use nuclear weapons. Should this threat be taken seriously, and how should the West be reaping? Pavel Povdig, Senior Researcher in the WMD Programme at UNIDIR, lets us into this opaque world of nuclear arms. Image credit: Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Will Johoreans once again vote for DAP in the upcoming state elections? Or are the voters going to choose stability over change? Johor DAP Chief, Liew Chin Tong, tells us. Image credit: Twitter.com/DAP Malaysia See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Pejuang is contesting 42 seats in the Johor state elections, with an ambitious target of securing more than 30 seats. Although headed by a political legend, can this minnow party make headway in a crowded race? Datuk Dr Shahruddin Md Salleh, Johor Chief of Pejuang tells us the party's campaign strategy. Image credit: EPA-EFE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Malaysia’s rental market has long been viewed as lacking proper regulation to safeguard both tenants and landlords. The absence of specific rules on rental tenancy means that contract law becomes the default means of settling disputes, but is a Residential Tenancy Act, the solution? Siva Shanker, CEO of Estate Agency, Rahim & Co gives us his view. Image credit: Shutterstock.com See omnystudio....

Russia has become the world's most heavily sanctioned country following international response to its invasion of Ukraine. What has the impact been on the economy thus far, and what options do Russian authorities have to cushion the fall-out? We discuss this with economist Tatiana Orlova. Image credit: Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

MCA will be looking to redeem the party in this Johor elections and they are contesting in 15 seats. One of their agenda is to lessen the economic burden of people in Johor but how will MCA carry this out and has it accurately judged the mood of the people? Dr. Pamela Yong, Deputy Secretary General of MCA, shares their strategies with us. Image Credit: Gwoeii/Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.c...

Ahmad Nawfal Mahfodz, PAS candidate for Parit Yaani, shares with us PAS's strategy to wrest more seats from its current one seat as the Johor state election looms. Image credit: Harris Hamdan/Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As we celebrate International Woman's day, we examine the effectiveness of policies In Malaysia to empower and elevate the role of women in society. Anis Farid, Research and Advocacy Officer at the Women's Aid Organisation, gives us a channel check on this. Image credit: Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the National People’s Congress (NPC) convening in Beijing, we ask Peiqian Liu, China Economist from NatWest Markets, whether China's GDP growth target of 5.5% for 2022 is too optimistic? Image credit: Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Anne Abraham, the Chairperson and Founder of LeadWomen, tells us about women representation in leadership roles and also about what needs to be done to encourage more women participation in top positions in the corporate world. Image credit: Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The game changer for Johor elections will be UNDI18 and automatic voter registration which was gazetted last year. 700,000 new voters aged 18 will add to the electoral role but how will they vote and will they turn up? Ben Suffian, Programme Director at Merdeka Center, gives us his views. Image Credit: Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Johor, the birthplace of UMNO, will see a very crowded field of candidates and political parties in the state elections. But is it to UMNO's advantage? Dato’ Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki, Youth Chief of UMNO, tells us whilst giving us a clue of their campaign strategy. Image Credit: Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There stakes are high for Perikatan Nasional and its anchor party Bersatu in the Johor state elections. With erstwhile allies Umno in competition for dominance of the state, can Bersatu put up a good showing? We speak to the Bersatu candidate for Larkin, Zulkifli Bujang, on his foray into politics and what Bersatu stands to offer to the constituents of Johor. Image Credit: EPA-EFE See omnystudio.c...

The proposed amendments to the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act, also known as Act 342, ignited public backlash when it was first tabled in December over the disproportionate penalties for healthcare violations, among other changes. We speak to CodeBlue's Boo Su-Lyn on why penalizing the public for healthcare violations is ineffective, as well as the significance of the proposed T...

The Australian economy rebounded strongly in the last quarter of 2021 with an expansion of 3.4% of GDP, but will the coming months turn cloudy for this lucky country with geopolitical risks from the Russia Ukraine crisis and severe floods affecting parts of Australia? Catherine Birch, Senior Economist of ANZ Research tells us more. Image Credit: Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for pri...

All eyes will be on political newcomer MUDA as they make their debut in the Johor state elections. MUDA is contesting 7 seats in the Johor state elections, including going head-to-head with PKR in Larkin. We check in with VP Zaidel Baharuddin on the progress of their campaign and expectations for the polls. Image Credit: Twitter.com/Syed Saddiq See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A survey conducted by business consultancy Forrester revealed that Malaysian businesses were losing momentum in digital transformation, despite the pandemic accelerating the shift to digitalization. How might this impact ambitions to become a high-income nation by 2030 built on the digital economy? We speak to principal analyst Achim Granzen on the findings of the survey and what policy areas...

Asian rivals India and China often find themselves on opposing ends of the geopolitical table, but they both abstained from voting at the United Nations on the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Political expert Dr. Pradeep Taneja contrasts the positions of the two countries. Image Credit: YashSD/Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPF CEO, Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah has recommended that Malaysia implement a living wage as that would raise the EPF savings rate. But what would be the challenges of implementing this? Firdaos Rosli, Chief Economist at MARC Ratings tells us while weighing in on the decision by Bank Negara Malaysia to keep the OPR at 1.75%. Image Credit: Shutterstock.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy inform...