keanwong

1MDB: Malaysia drops charges against Wolf of Wall Street producer Riza Aziz, producer of the Wolf of Wall Street, was caught up in the 1MDB state fund scandal.

etc www.bbc.com/news/world-a...

How the Sarawak Report Broke Malaysia’s 1MDB Scandal When Clare Rewcastle Brown founded the Sarawak Report in 2010, it was designed to highlight issues affecting indigenous communities in Malaysia, but it soon became instrumental in breaking what the US...

and a movie made off loot$ from Malaysia's klepto heist known as 1MDB scandal, which consumed so many of us then til now... gijn.org/stories/how-...

Trump seeks peace ceremony spotlight at ASEAN summit Trump wants to preside over a Thailand-Cambodia peace deal ceremony — and Chinese officials aren’t welcome.

'peacemaker-in-chief': "The White House is conditioning Trump’s attendance at the Oct. 26-28 ASEAN meeting on the Malaysian government agreeing to allow Trump to preside over a ceremonial signing of a peace deal between Cambodia and Thailand on the summit sidelines" www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

yes that was a ...damp squib, not quite a shocker. tbf those shops haven't recovered from demise of classic oz-chinese diner at the other corner

At Art Gallery NSW: reading from Fierceland, Omar Musa performs a passage at packed hall

there's always post-launch repast, tapi nasi enak dari padang bukan borneo

out at last: #OmarMusa Borneo novel, so fine & authentic, his imposter-syndrome musing may be book's patriarch too, always a step ahead of stifling post-colonial legacies. In uncertain nations, everyone's cosplaying, imposters abound because the feels triumph, the vibe swamps inconvenient facts...

cuppa @ bar italia on norton st

birthdaydrinks: unraveling authenticity in desperately ambitious era of influencers, sophistry, genocide & that climate emergency, in handy stroll w. #markmordue

How Trump’s billionaire mate is reshaping America Larry Ellison has long been overshadowed by tech luminaries such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. Not any more.

showmanship... or just learning from seAsia 🙃 “Trump is knocking off one by one all the late-night TV show hosts, but at the same time the actual ownership of the networks is changing as well ... There’s a sort of conservativisation taking place of big US media.” www.smh.com.au/business/com...

Jimmy Kimmel show pulled by ABC in the US over Charlie Kirk assassination remarks President Donald Trump celebrated after the Disney-owned network said it would stop airing the veteran late-night comic’s show.

like an ersatz outake from a Godfather movie, or nusantara nous... "We can do this the easy way or the hard way.. These companies can find ways to change conduct and take actions on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.” www.smh.com.au/world/north-...

Mass protest and the two worlds of Indonesian politics - New Mandala A subculture of street protest survives beyond Jokowi

"..protest& opposition to Suharto had spread on campuses,the middle class, among urban poor, laying the groundwork for 1998. Today, the dynamics are similar, 2025 didn't come out of nowhere. Instead, they're at least 5th wave of youth-led mass protest since 2019."
www.newmandala.org/mass-protest...

Hussam al-Masri, the Reuters journalist killed by Israeli fire on Monday while operating a live video feed at Gaza's Nasser Hospital, reported on the war's civilian suffering while living in a tent and struggling to find food for his family.

"In this era of information deluge and weaponisation, where much is not what it seems and facts are optional, banning books and febrile campaigns against legacy media may be sideshows of a looming bigger opera." go.unimelb.edu.au/3q9p ..in part of @mariaressa.bsky.social event @rappler.bsky.social

YouTube video by Al Jazeera English How the Dutch manipulated the narrative of colonising Indonesia | Featured Documentary

and also this, from another angle again youtu.be/lRVk9tMFEJI

Sydney Morning Herald front page, 16 Aug 1945

finding such weariness, hope and optimism for the #paxamericana to come, in these historic front pages of a newspaper i'd worked for decades later, as the ends close in on themselves and the centre doesn't hold

our alumni chats blowup more... “I believe Chancellor Bishop is hostile and arrogant to staff. The previous VC Brian Schmidt kept the chancellor’s behaviour in check. Council's dysfunctional and toxic under the current regime, elected council members are afraid.” www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

the 21st-century Leni will do better heroic framing? www.latimes.com/politics/sto...

and maybe unsurprisingly, the only regular oz uni conf on #malaysia has m'sian ambo open it as uni chiefs absent/"too busy" with fraught cuts meetings, as once-feted 'Asian Studies' does 'mergers'
/vanishing trix & anxious students around me wonder if they can graduate in time...

great list ... and i probably saw all but #10 live at that same place, with the Clowns' Louise so memorable against grumpy Ed in grim winter 🙃

Malaysia Helps Broker Thailand-Cambodia Ceasefire, Trump Claims Credit As "President Of Peace" | TRP White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for making the ceasefire happen.

and now for that Nobel Peace Prize, apparently .... www.therakyatpost.com/news/2025/07...

#BREAKING: IMMEDIATE AND UNCONDITIONAL CEASEFIRE BETWEEN THAILAND CAMBODIA AT MIDNIGHT

Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim announces breakthrough after talks between acting Thai PM Phumtham Wechayachai and Cambodia PM Hun Manet in Putrajaya.

Full speech below

‘Turun Anwar’ Rally a Wake-Up Call, Not a Threat, Says Klang MP KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 — The recent Turun Anwar rally, though modest in turnout, sends a strong signal of growing public dissatisfaction, particularly over unaddressed socio-economic grievances, said K...

While big #turunAnwar rally obscured PN opposition's fractious politix, “The solution isn't more one-off aid or last-minute announcements. What we need is structural reform & consistent, empathetic leadership that engages w. rakyat beyond election cycles & crises.” #madani hipz.my/turun-anwar-...

The Real Reasons for the Thai-Cambodia Conflict While long-standing border disputes explain some of the current violence between Thailand and Cambodia, the conflict’s escalation is primarily driven by Thai elites’ drive to consolidate military and…

banishing Thaksin's chaos 'for good' in military's checkmate of dangerous civilians, via @joshkurlantzick.bsky.social: "The conflict has allowed the military to stoke nationalism, and the leaked phone call, amidst this spike of nationalism, got rid of Paetongtarn..." www.cfr.org/blog/real-re...

Speaking Reassurance to Power, by Pankaj Mishra

"For all its claims to superior virtue, liberal America manifests very little courage & dignity it's expected from artists & thinkers in less fortunate societies, as hooded masked officials disappear students for the crime of writing school op-eds & liking soc-med posts"
harpers.org/archive/2025...

sydney harbour with bridge, opera hoise and city at dawn

dawn over the harbour, clouds still to clear, #nusantara dim and distant in #auspol imagination?

lots around me in KL just bored and insulted by a bad joke that mixes banal yet boorish oz with ersatz americana ...

Panel of Dr Niki Cheong, Dr Susan Philip, Dr Ann Lee, Fasyali Fadzly, Kam Raslan discussing the late playwright, satirist & writer Jit Murad at ASWARA KL

Deeply Malaysian chat, but can an uncertain nation well seared previously by Jit Murad's revealing, often satirical English-language theatre and social framings resonate with genZ religiosity, confused anti-secularism & Anglosphere-v-bahasa nusantara class disdain?

today's CP daily priority, as new US boorish ambo overshadows diminished Rubio, w. PMX walking hand-in-hand with WangYi. The sharp tabloid w. renowned visual verve does geopolitix succinctly, another pax americana moment of dying-in-ditch...

well, the Malaysian fo-po aide said to me today @ Asean summit, as Rubio & co troop in, that when 'only the best' will do... to slide _pax americana_ deeper into longkang (ditch)

Conflict preventions retraced over decades updated #Asean summit & ISIS M'sia via @rorymedcalf.bsky.social & ICG's Huong Le Thu w. urgent reviving of "mandate without breaking Asean mechanisms" incl "shared facts", poss roles for #auspol as 'creative partner' in region... w. extra resource$?

#auspol Foreign minister Penny Wong in KL for Asean summit week, during Malaysia's chairing year amid tariff wars and US Sec of State Rubio's a few blocks away...

Explaining a 'progressive patriotism' off @albomp.bsky.social Curtin speech, #auspol FM PennyWong charms Malaysians w. stout pts: "we must shape the region we want... we will keep prioritising this region, upholding the rules and norms that protect us", no US-China binaries in current turmoil