Johor launches vaccination programme for Malaysians who used to cross into Singapore daily in hopes of reopening border
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Johor ramps up vaccination in hopes of reopening border with Singapore
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RAJA’S RULE
Decolonisation and revolution long ago removed royal families from power in most of Asia, leaving Japan’s emperors as the last hereditary monarchs of much significance to periodically exert some subtle influence.
But the past year has seen the region’s most abundant class of royals – the rajas and sultans of the old Malay dynasties – exert unexpected power over the country’s fragmenting political parties.
Nine of the Malaysian states are constitutionally headed by traditional Malay rulers who meet every five years to elect a king, or Yang di-Pertuan Agong, as the national head of state.
On Monday July 26, the Malaysian Parliament resumed sitting after the longest suspension since 1969 due to the COVID-19 crisis which had allowed Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to avoid testing whether he actually had a majority. But the prime minister was aiming to avoid any votes which would test his fragile majority.
Shalan Jum at (left) and his customers at Pasar Pendekar Laut. Photo: Dr Serina Rahman
As the son of a fisherman, Shalan Jum’at has witnessed, all his life, how hard it was for his dad to earn a decent wage from their honest day’s work. Desiring to see the fishermen in Tanjung Kupang, Johor, earn a fair wage for their hard labour, Shalan started Pasar Pendekar Laut (Sea Warriors’ Market) at Gelang Patah, Johor, several years ago.
“I saw the struggles that my father and other fishermen had to go through just to put food on the table, only to be exploited by wealthy middlemen who would pay a pittance for the catch but resell it at high prices in markets in the city,” says the 35-year-old fisherman-turned-entrepreneur.