Najib’s Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition last week suffered a shock defeat to an alliance of parties headed by elderly Mahathir Mohamad, ending the corruption-mired regime’s six decades in power.

Voters turned out en masse to oust Najib after he was accused of involvement in plundering huge sums from Malaysian sovereign fund 1MDB in a sophisticated fraud that is now being investigated in several countries.

The 92-year-old Mahathir — who ruled with an iron fist for two decades and came out of retirement to take on Najib — is now the world’s oldest elected leader.

Abdul Razak Idris — former intelligence and investigations director of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission — lodged reports with the body alleging Najib tried to stop the probe into losses at 1MDB.

The US State Department alleges that at least $4.5 billion dollars was looted from the fund, and funnelled to the United States where it was used to buy everything from artwork to high-end real estate and a luxury yacht.

Both Najib and 1MDB deny any wrongdoing and he was cleared by domestic investigations.

‘Swift Action’

The deputy chief commissioner of the anti-graft body, Azam Baki, confirmed to AFP that Abdul Razak had submitted complaints.

A copy of the complaints, seen by AFP, said that Najib was suspected on his own, or with the help of civil servants, of having tried to stop the 1MBD investigations.

He was also accused of halting a probe into a retirement fund.

“The reason I am lodging the reports today is so that the MACC can take swift action,” he was cited as saying by The Star newspaper.

He said some people were worried about him taking the “bold” step but added: “I’m already 69 years old. If I die, I die for the country.”

During Najib’s increasingly authoritarian rule, the anti-graft agency had targeted some of his most vocal critics.

Earlier, Mahathir arrived at his office in the administrative capital Putrayaja to officially get down to work, and held meetings with senior civil servants.

The Sultan of Brunei also visited the new premier.

Markets opened Monday for the first time since last week’s polls but did not fall as heavily as had been anticipated after Mahathir sought in a weekend speech to calm investors.

Stocks initially lost 2.7 percent but quickly won back ground and were 0.4 percent higher in early afternoon trade. Local currency the ringgit was also up slightly after earlier losing ground.

Early turbulence

But it has not been all smooth sailing since the historic win, with concerns over the slow formation of the cabinet as different parties in the winning alliance jostle for positions.

Mahathir appointed three ministers at the weekend despite previously having said he would name 10 cabinet members.

Jailed politician Anwar Ibrahim, Mahathir’s nemesis-turned-ally, issued a statement Sunday insisting his People’s Justice Party (PKR) still supported the new premier after a senior figure from his party said the cabinet appointments were made without their consultation.

Anwar, in jail on sodomy charges his supporters say are trumped up, is expected to be freed on Tuesday.

Mahathir also faced criticism for saying that a controversial law passed before the election that punishes “fake news” with up to six years in jail would be reviewed rather than revoked.

He announced Sunday that it would be given a clear definition but that there was a “limit” to press freedom, despite having pledged during the election campaign to abolish it.

At the weekend, Mahathir slapped Najib and his unpopular wife Rosmah Mansor with a travel ban as speculation mounted they were about to flee the country.

A young girl who was with the group survived the attack, police said as they revised their initial report that two suicide bombers had participated.

“There were four perpetrators riding two motorcycles who have been confirmed dead, their identity is still being verified,” said East Java police spokesman Frans Barung Mangera.

“A child who was with them, an eight-year-old girl… has been taken to the hospital.”

The suicide bombings on Sunday morning killed 14 people and injured 41 others.

“They are the perpetrators, not victims,” East Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Mahfud Arifin said on Monday as quoted by surya.co.id.

According to Mahfud, the family staying at the low-cost apartment had been planning an attack on an undisclosed target in Surabaya.

Police have identified the suspects as Anton Febrianto, 47, his wife Puspitasari, 47, and their four children, HR, 17, AB, 15, FS, 11, and GA, 10.

East Java Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Frans Barung Mangera said Anton was alive but had sustained severe injuries after the bomb prematurely went off, killing Puspitasari and their eldest son.

FS and GA also suffered severe injuries in the explosion; only AB was left unscathed.

“He [Anton] was holding a bomb trigger when officers arrived at the scene. Anton died after police officers decided to gun him down,” Frans said.

Frans said AB was the one who later took his younger siblings to the hospital.

“Currently, the two are being treated at the Bhayangkara Police Hospital in Surabaya,” Frans said, adding the bodies of Anton, Puspitasari and HR had been taken to the same hospital for an autopsy.

“We also seized several pieces of evidence, including packages presumed to be explosives,” he said.

According to the low-cost apartment’s administrative manager, Lidya Susanti, the family had been staying in Wonocolo since 2015. The parents had made a living by selling cakes.

The East Java Police said they were collecting evidence to find a link between Anton’s family and that of Dita Supriyanto, who were behind the suicide bombings at Saint Mary Immaculate Catholic Church (STMB), Surabaya Pantecostal Church (GPPS) and the Diponegoro Indonesian Christian Church (GKI).

The former US secretary of state, beaten by Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election marred by allegations of meddling by Moscow, said it was a concern for all political parties.

“I think Australians need to be for Australians, Americans need to be for Americans,” she told broadcaster ABC while on a speaking tour of the country.

“And whether it’s Russia in a secret way interfering with our election and producing more than 3,500 ads to try to confuse our electorate, to try to damage me, or the Chinese looking to try to influence policy, we should say no.

Clinton added: “I don’t care what side of the political aisle you might be on, in either Australia or the United States.

“We have an interest in making sure that decisions that are made by our governments are not the result of some kind of influence peddling by a foreign power.”

Australia has seen tensions with China rise recently over allegations of Beijing interference in domestic politics and using donations to gain access.

The claims infuriated China, which has attacked local media stories about infiltration as hysteria and paranoia.

Canberra and other regional capitals have also become increasingly alarmed at China’s push into the Pacific, which could upset the strategic balance in the region.

Clinton said despite deepening trade relations with China, democracies could not ignore foreign interference.

“Australia has a lot of interests with China, certainly your economy is intertwined with China,” she said.

“But I do think that Australia, along with other liberal democracies around the world, have got to take the threat of foreign interference seriously.”

Australia is undergoing wide-ranging reforms to espionage and foreign interference legislation, having singled out China as a focus of concern.

The decision followed an inquiry ordered by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull last year after reports that Australia’s spy agency had warned politicians about taking donations from two billionaires with links to China.

An Australian senator quit parliament in December over his relationship with a wealthy political donor associated with the Chinese Communist Party.

In a special announcement aired live on television, the Prime Minister also unveiled steps to boost investor and business confidence in Malaysia.

“The rakyat should not feel uneasy or suspicious about the Government’s intentions. The aim is to clean up our country and reduce the economic problems our country is facing,” said Dr Mahathir.

The Prime Minister gave an assurance that the Government was not out for political revenge.

Unveiling what he called was an anti-corruption movement, Dr Mahathir said all political donations to Pakatan Harapan parties or politicians must now require Cabinet approval.

He said people had donated money to Pakatan to fund their campaign in the general election but such funds were no longer needed.

He said those who still want to give gifts to members of the Government can only give items like food or flowers.

“We want to make sure early on that there will be no corruption in government,” he said.

The Prime Minister said the Government will also go after anyone who gives or receives bribes or does anything that can be classified as corruption.

He promised that action against all responsible including politicians or those in government.

Dr Mahathir said the Government will ensure that all its actions follow the law and regulations.

“We have to run this country through rule of law. We will impose our laws on everyone, regardless of whether they hold high positions. All will be subject to the law,” he said.

On the economy, Dr Mahathir said the Government wants to cut red tape as it does not want too many laws or regulations that can restrict the freedom to do business in the country.

“We want all parties to be able to do business more freely and easily,” he said.

He said that while Malaysia welcomed local and foreign direct investments (FDI), the FDI would be limited to bringing in capital and technology into the country and setting up of factories to produce goods for the local and export markets.

Dr Mahathir said foreign participation in big infrastructure projects will only be allowed if there is no expertise in Malaysia to carry out the project.

This is because local companies are capable of carrying out many types of infrastructure projects.

“We will ensure that all these (opportunities) are open to local companies,” he said.

He said such projects will all go through an open tender system.

Certain government officials will be tasked with probing awarded contracts if anything suspicious is found.

The Prime Minister said the Government will also investigate whether any companies were forced to give free shares to certain parties.

The Government will also investigate whether certain businesses were harassed by the Inland Revenue Board into paying more taxes than what was due.

“We need to know whether they were approached by the IRB and forced to pay more, with those failing to do so being blacklisted from going overseas, having their businesses raided or accounts frozen,” he said.

The US price for normalization — complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization — is one Pyongyang has never before been willing to pay, seeing nuclear weapons as the ultimate guarantee of the regime’s survival.

But both countries have been on charm offensives ahead of the summit June 12 in Singapore between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, the first ever between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader.

On Saturday, North Korea said it will destroy its nuclear test site later this month — a gesture Trump quickly hailed as “very smart and gracious.”

Pompeo, who has met twice with Kim, described him as well-informed and attuned to western media coverage, a leader “who knows his brief” and what he wants to achieve.

The secretary said he was “convinced” Kim shared US goals.

“We will have to provide security assurances, to be sure,” Pompeo said on Fox News Sunday. “This has been the trade-off that has been pending for 25 years. No president has ever put America in a position where the North Korean leadership thought that this was truly possible.”

“Our eyes are wide open with respect to the risks, but it is our fervent hope that Chairman Kim wants to make a strategic change,” he said.

If Kim makes such a change, he said, “President Trump is prepared to assure that there’s going to be a successful transition.”

Energy, infrastructure, meat

Pompeo dangled the prospect of a gusher of US investment in North Korea, with upgrades in energy, infrastructure, technology and agriculture, if a deal is struck.

“This will be Americans coming in…to help build out the energy grid — they need enormous amounts of electricity in North Korea; to work with them to develop infrastructure, all the things that the North Korean people need, the capacity for American agriculture to support North Korea so they can eat meat and have healthy lives,” he said.

“Those are the kind of things that, if we get what it is the President has demanded – the complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization of North Korea – that the American people will offer in spades.”

In a separate television interview, US National Security Advisor John Bolton cautioned, however, that denuclearization has to be accomplished “before the benefits start to flow.”

He said that means the elimination of North Korea uranium enrichment facilities and the dismantling of its nuclear weapons arsenal.

“North Korea has a very extensive program. It won’t be easy to do,” Bolton said on ABC’s “This Week.” “They’ll have to reveal all locations. Open inspections. The deconstruction of the nuclear weapons, I think, will be by the United States with perhaps assistance from others.”

He suggested that could be done at the US nuclear weapons facilities at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Bolton said the US side also will discuss not just North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs but its chemical and biological weapons arsenal as well.

“I don’t think the president has stars in his eyes,” Bolton said. “What we need to see from Kim Jong Un is that he and the entire North Korean regime have made a strategic decision that they’ll be better off without weapons of mass destruction.”

The summit will give Trump an early chance “to size Kim Jong Un up and see if the commitment is real,” he said.

Doctor Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on a two-visit to DR Congo, said the suspected new case was in Bikoro, at the centre of the latest Ebola outbreak in the country’s northwest, where so far 18 people have died.

It brings to 35 the number of reported cases, including two confirmed, according to the WHO tally.

The WHO is planning to begin a vaccination campaign in the area, near the border with the Republic of Congo, using an available stockpile of an experimental vaccine.

“The vaccines are going to arrive on Wednesday or Thursday. We have enough of them,” said Tedros, without specifying the number of doses.

After meeting with DR Congo President Joseph Kabila in Kinshasa, the WHO chief praised “the government’s very strong leadership” in responding to the health crisis and its “good coordination” with partners such as Unicef and Doctors without Borders (MSF).

On Friday the UN health agency had announced that it was preparing for all scenarios, including the “worst case scenario”, in the latest Ebola outbreak in DR Congo.

Tedros said he hoped for a “better result” in this ninth Ebola outbreak in the vast central African country since 1976, when the deadly viral disease was first identified by a Belgian-led team.

Ebola is one of the world’s most notorious diseases, being both highly infectious and extremely lethal.

The worst-ever Ebola outbreak started in December 2013 in southern Guinea before spreading to two neighbouring west African countries, Liberia and Sierra Leone, killing more than 11,300 people out of nearly 29,000 registered cases.