External News

LONDON: Boris Johnson will make an offer to the European Union (EU) over post-Brexit free trade but if it rejects that gambit then Britain will leave the bloc without a deal on Oct 31, the man in charge of his campaign to be prime minister said today.

“With Boris, what he’s actually said clearly is: ‘We’re not going to go back and renegotiate’,” Johnson’s campaign chairman, Iain Duncan Smith, told Sky News.

“What we’re going to do is we will put a different offer down and say to them: ‘Look, we want to get to free trade. Now we can either start talking about that now if you are serious and you want to have a process that means we don’t end up … with tariffs etcetera after the 31st – if that’s what you want, the EU, then we are prepared to talk,” Duncan Smith said.

“But if all you are interested in doing is saying: ‘All you can have is this deal’, then the answer is: we will be prepared to leave on the 31st.”

KUALA LUMPUR, July 2 — The Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) should privately brief MPs on what the government’s proposed asset declaration entails, Tan Sri Abu Kassim Mohamed suggested today.

The director-general of the National Governance, Integrity and Anti-Corruption Centre (GIACC) said he will raise the issue with Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Seri Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof.

“I may have some discussion with Speaker on this. I may recommend the MACC have a special briefing on the procedures and justification of asset declaration with all lawmakers.

“So they can raise concerns and have a Question-and-Answer session in a closed-door discussion rather than in the open,” he told reporters in Parliament.

Yesterday, the lower House of Parliament approved a motion making it compulsory for all federal lawmakers to declare their assets to the MACC.

Failure to comply will result in the respective MP being disciplined by the Parliament’s Select Committee on Rights and Privileges.

Those making false declarations will face prosecution under Section 3, Act 783 (Statutory Declaration) and Section 193 of the Penal Code, which carries a jail term not exceeding three years or a fine.

Abu Kassim further clarified that the declaration is part of the process to increase transparency among politicians.

He added that Malaysia had already ratified the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, which recommends MPs declare their assets to ensure transparency and accountability.

However, when asked regarding some government MPs who have not declared their assets, Abu Kassim said it could be because some lawmakers had only recently switched their political allegiances to Pakatan Harapan, adding that one was only just sworn in.

He added such MPs need some time to declare their assets.

Abu Kassim also said the MACC is only a custodian of the report, in response to allegations by Opposition MPs that the government is using the anti-graft body to “fish” for their personal wealth.

“At the moment, the MACC is only the custodian of the report. I was informed and told that the MACC was in the midst of drafting a law about it, and how to make it more effective. We have to wait for the MACC’s proposal,” he said.

Nike withdrew a shoe displaying an early version of the American flag after former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick warned the design was associated with slavery, US media reported on Monday.

Nike had unveiled the Air Max 1 USA featuring an American Revolution-era design known as the Betsy Ross flag imprinted on its heel to coincide with the United States’s July 4 independence day.

The Wall Street Journal reported the US sportswear giant pulled the shoe following objections from Kaepernick, a Nike endorser who led kneeling protests during the national anthems of NFL games in 2016 to protest racial inequality and social injustice.

Kaepernick said the design featuring 13 white stars in a circle was offensive because it was associated with a period of slavery, which was legal in the US after independence from Britain.

White supremacist groups hostile to diversity have also recently appropriated the design, the newspaper said.

Nike shipped the shoes to retailers but then asked for them back, and had taken the design off its website, the Journal reported.

“Nike has chosen not to release the Air Max 1 Quick Strike Fourth of July as it featured the old version of the American flag,” a Nike spokesman told the Journal.

The price of a few pairs available on an online shoe reseller rose to as much as US$2,000 following the publication of the Journal’s article, the newspaper said.

Kaepernick and former San Francisco 49ers safety Eric Reid settled collusion lawsuits against the NFL earlier this year for less than US$10 million over claims team owners had plotted to keep them from playing.

KUALA LUMPUR, July 2 — Pakatan Harapan’s plan to lower the legal voting age to 18 must be studied thoroughly to ensure the reform does not backfire in the future, Umno lawmaker Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said today.

The Sembrong MP said with the strong social media influence on the younger generation, the government needs to ensure the youth would be able to get sufficient valid information.

“I have no strong feelings about it but I am just concerned with the influence of social media… if it can be managed so that when they do vote, they will vote with informed information and not take what is on social as it is, then I think they would be responsible enough to vote.

“I am not saying that our children and youth are not responsible but there are new tools now that can influence [them] emotionally.

“If the repercussions to reduce the voting age backfire then it’s too late for us. I hope whoever is proposing it conducts a thorough study,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby here.

Hishammuddin said the ruling party has to be able to convince the Opposition lawmakers on the proposal in order to get the two-thirds majority vote in the August House.

“They have to convince you. On my side, it is just my personal view,” he said.

The plan to change the legal voting age is scheduled to be tabled in the current Parliament sitting, which requires two-thirds parliamentary majority.

The “Undi 18” movement has been working hard to educate the public on the need to accept teenagers as important and equal partners of the country’s democratic process of voting.