Deputy Foreign Minister Datuk Marzuki Yahya had claimed to have a bachelor’s degree from UK-based Cambridge University via a distance learning programme.

But after an activist lodged a police report, he admitted last Wednesday (Feb 6) his degree was actually from Cambridge International University, a suspected degree mill in the United States.

Other leaders from the ruling Pakatan Harapan coalition have since been accused of possessing dubious academic qualifications.

The scandal is embarrassing for the Pakatan coalition that has always claimed to be a government of high integrity.

Penang Institute political scientist Wong Chin Huat said, “Those in clear-cut cases like Marzuki should resign, others should come clean on their academic qualifications.

“Commendably, Mat Sabu and Zuraida have been upfront that they don’t have the degrees erroneously associated with them by others.

“It’s okay to not have a degree; we don’t need all politicians to be technocrats. (But) it’s not okay to have fake degrees.

“If those like Marzuki stay on, they will be hurting the reputation of their government, Pakatan and their own party. If they can’t put the country and people first, at least they should put their party first.

“And if they can’t put their party (first) … their party leaders must put their party before these individuals and have them removed,” he said.

Marzuki, who is facing calls by the opposition Umno party for his resignation, said he will leave it to Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to decide his fate.

The revelation of Marzuki’s “dubious” academic qualifications led Malaysians to begin independently checking those of other Pakatan leaders.

Zuraida found herself in the spotlight last Saturday (Feb 9) after Twitter user Don Juan deRyezal said he was unable to find her name in the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) degree verification portal.

She later said she had “never claimed or held myself to be a graduate of NUS”.

Mohamad moved to dismiss rumours that he had faked a degree in culinary arts from Malaysia’s Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), saying he had actually been expelled as a student.

Osman refused to address the issue when asked if his degree from Universiti Putra Malaysia was fake.

Yong, who claimed to hold a Master’s in Business Administration from Akamai University, said the issue surrounding him was an attempt by rivals to gain political mileage.

However, media reports suggested that Akamai University is an alleged degree mill in Hawaii.

When Pakatan was in the opposition, it had called out several Barisan Nasional leaders, including former deputy foreign minister A. Kohillan Pillay and deputy foreign minister Datuk Seri Richard Riot, for allegedly holding fake degrees or qualifications from dubious institutes.

The scandal surrounding Pakatan leaders could possibly damage the ruling coalition further as there is already widespread unhappiness among the Malays.

A recent survey by pollster Ilham Centre found that 59.5% of 2,614 Malay respondents did not approve of the government’s performance in the first five months after last May’s general election. Malays make up about 50.1% of Malaysia’s population.

The ceremony is held each year in eastern Tboung Khmum province after the crop harvest to commemorate the country’s proud fishing history, said local chief Uch Yoeun.

The event — held in Choam Korvean commune, about 250 kilometres (155 miles) from the capital Phnom Penh — attracts hundreds of farmers from surrounding villages.

They carry weaved baskets of different shapes, eager to try their hand at trapping the freshwater catfish and snakehead fish in the muddy Boeung Kroam lake.

“It has been a tradition since our ancestors’ time,” Uch Yoeun told AFP, adding that only one rule applies in this mass fishing event.

“We only allow traditional fishing tools to be used.”

Authorities guarded Boeung Kroam lake for more than a month before the event — to prevent illegal fishing and ensure there would be enough to catch at Sunday’s event.

It kicked off in the early morning with hundreds of villagers racing to the lake, sporting straw hats and traditional scarves to shield themselves from the blazing sun.

The mood was light-hearted and many opted to grill the morning’s catch by the lake over a smoldering fire.

But for villagers who had attended the event for several years, the day’s haul proved disappointing. “Before, there were bigger fish,” said Chin Khoung, 50. “Now the fish are small and there’s less (of them).”

The Southeast Asian country, which boasts the mighty Mekong river and its many tributaries, is heavily reliant on fish as a major source of protein for its population.

About 40 percent of the population depend on fishing for their livelihoods.

But fish stocks have declined in recent years due to hydropower dams built upstream in Cambodia and neighbouring countries, and the increase of illegal fishing methods, said Om Savath, who heads the Fisheries Action Coalition Team (FACT), which promotes sustainable resource management.

Using techniques like electrocution, “they can catch a lot of fish in a short time, but it is disastrous in the long term,” Savath said.

The fish-catching ceremony in Choam Krovean is important because it helps to “raise awareness in communities about the use of family methods in fishing,” he said.

The jihadists overran large parts of the country and neighbouring Iraq in 2014, but various military offensives have since reduced that territory to a patch on the Iraqi border.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), supported by a US-led coalition, announced a final push to retake the jihadist pocket late Saturday, after a pause of more than a week to allow civilians to flee.

An SDF field commander said his fighters were battling their way forwards on Sunday morning.

“There are heavy clashes at the moment. We have launched an assault and the fighters are advancing,” he told AFP.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor group said coalition planes and artillery bombarded jihadist positions.

“The battle is ongoing. There were heavy clashes this morning, with landmines going off,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Britain-based Observatory.

The SDF launched an offensive to expel IS from the oil-rich eastern province of Deir Ezzor in September.

The Kurdish-led alliance has since whittled down jihadist-held territory to a scrap of just four square kilometres (one square mile) between the Euphrates and the Iraqi border.

Up to 600 jihadists could still remain inside, most of them foreigners, according to SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali.

But he added the extremist group’s elusive leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was likely not in the pocket.

“We do not think he is in Syria,” Bali said, without adding any details about the whereabouts of the man who declared a cross-border IS “caliphate” in 2014.

– Decimated ‘caliphate’ –

On the Iraqi side of the border, French members of the coalition on Saturday stood ready to pour fury on any IS diehards seeking to escape.

Dozens of 155-mm shells were lined up ready to be loaded onto three green-and-black Caesar gun-howitzers with a range of 40 kilometres (25 miles).

Coalition deputy commander Christopher Ghika on Friday said Iraqi forces had sealed the border into their country.

At the height of their rule, the jihadists imposed their brutal interpretation of Islamic law on a territory roughly the size of Britain.

But separate military offensives in both countries, including by the SDF, have since retaken the vast bulk of that “caliphate”.

On Saturday, Bali said he expected the battle for the last patch of IS territory to be over in days.

The jihadists however retain a presence in Syria’s vast Badia desert, and have claimed a series of deadly attacks by sleeper cells in SDF-held areas.

Since December, more than 37,000 people, mostly wives and children of jihadist fighters, have fled out into SDF-held areas, the Observatory says.

That figure includes some 3,400 suspected jihadists detained by the SDF, according to the monitor, which relies on sources inside Syria for its information.

The SDF holds hundreds of foreigners accused of belonging to the extremist group in its custody, as well as members of their families.

They have urged Western governments to repatriate their nationals, but politicians abroad have been reluctant.

– US withdrawal –

Relatives at home fear alleged foreign jihadists may end up facing tough justice in Iraq instead, where Human Rights Watch warned they could face “torture and unfair trials”.

The issue of jihadist repatriation has come into sharper focus since the United States in December announced its military withdrawal from Syria.

That announcement has seen the Kurds warn they may struggle to keep jihadists in jail, and pushed them to seek a new ally in the Damascus regime to prevent a long threatened Turkish offensive.

While the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) have been a key US ally in the fight against IS, Ankara views them as “terrorists”.

Syria’s Kurds have largely stayed out of the country’s civil war, instead building semi-autonomous institutions in northern and northeastern regions they control.

Syria’s conflict has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions since erupting eight years ago after a brutal crackdown of anti-government protests.

Rebels and jihadists seized large parts of the country in the first years of the war.

But President Bashar al-Assad’s regime has made a military comeback with Russian military support since 2015, and now holds almost two-thirds of the country.

SDF-held areas make up a third of the whole country, and Damascus has repeatedly said it would eventually see them revert to government control.

Marketing manager S. Sophie, 33, recalls feeling angry when a police outrider stopped his motorcycle abruptly in front of her, pointed at her and then to the side, gesturing for her to move.

“He blew his whistle while looking so angry. I felt confused at first because I didn’t know what he wanted.

“He kept repeating his gestures but I couldn’t move because there were other cars in my way.”

“It’s like they do not care if you hit the divider or other cars because they keep wanting motorists to move to the side,” she says.

Concurring, a bank executive, Lily, says she felt the practice was rather dangerous because other drivers have to switch lanes fast or slow down to allow the convoy to go ahead first.

“This is especially if the roads are busy at that time. Accidents could easily happen,” she adds.

Post graduate student Mohd Amin Ishak, 27, remembers feeling put off by the outriders as they seemed impatient when motorists did not move fast enough.

“But sometimes, there is hardly space to move.

“I respect and understand that such officials have to attend important events and must be on time.

“However, if they had allocated enough time to travel, they wouldn’t have to forcefully wade through a sea of cars during a jam,” he says.

He hopes leaders will consider public safety first above all else.

An engineer, who wishes to be known only as Wong, says he was stunned to find out that one mayor had opted to use outriders even when he was not travelling on official business.

Wong had met the mayor at a meeting. At one time, they went to visit several places for social purposes and not for business.

“To my shock, he actually used the city council’s enforcement officers as outriders to lead us and clear traffic with sirens blaring.”

“I don’t think he was entitled to do that. Traffic wasn’t even very heavy. I felt the mayor was probably trying to show off,” Wong recalls.

He agrees that fewer officials should be entitled to police escorts.

“Local council enforcement officers should be using their time to enforce by-laws. They shouldn’t be used to protect the mayor,” Wong adds.

Malaysian authorities impounded the Greek-flagged bulk carrier, the Pireas, and detained its crew after the collision Saturday with the Malaysian boat Polaris.

The neighbours have had testy relations since Malaysia evicted the island from the Malaysian Federation in 1965, ending a brief and stormy union of the former British colonies.

Ties have gone up and down over the years but have been shaky since Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohamad — who has long had a prickly relationship with Singapore — returned to the premiership with a shock election victory last year.Maritime tensions began rising late last year when Singapore accused Malaysia of extending its claims in the strait that separates the neighbours into what had long been accepted as the city-state’s territorial waters.

The city-state, one of the world’s busiest cargo ports, said Malaysian vessels were repeatedly encroaching into its waters — an accusation denied by Malaysia.

Both sides claimed that Saturday’s collision off Tuas, in western Singapore, had happened in their own waters. The accident did not cause any injuries or lead to an oil spill.

“The collision between MV Pireas and Malaysian government vessel Polaris took place in Singapore territorial waters,” a Singapore foreign ministry statement said.

“Singapore reiterates its call for Malaysia to withdraw its vessels from the area, as the persistent presence of its vessels clearly poses a threat to safety of navigation in the area,” the statement said, adding Malaysia would be responsible for any “untoward situations” that arise.

In a statement released earlier, Malaysia’s foreign ministry said: “Malaysia is committed to take appropriate measures to safeguard its territorial integrity, interests and safe navigation of vessels”.

Singapore maritime authorities said the incident happened as the Greek vessel was headed to a port in southern Malaysia, and it was allowed to continue its journey as the accident was not serious.

According to Malaysia’s foreign ministry, the boats communicated before the accident, and the Greek carrier had said it would steer clear of the Malaysian boat.

Tensions eased briefly last month when foreign ministers from both countries agreed during a meeting in Singapore to take steps to calm the maritime row, and a separate dispute over airspace.

With the number of non-Japanese schoolchildren increasing all over Japan, the need to improve Japanese-language education in schools has grown. Schools are exploring ways of teaching foreign students the Japanese language, an essential skill for learning activities in this country. This article is the first installment in a series on the topic.

In early January at Minami no Hoshi Elementary School in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, a Japanese language lesson was being given to a sixth-grade class. In addition to the homeroom teacher, another teacher was present: Masaru Inuzuka, who is in charge of the education of non-Japanese children.

“What left an impression?”

“How should it be presented?”

Inuzuka paraphrased the words of the homeroom teacher as he stood near two children, one from Brazil and the other from Vietnam. Inuzuka was assisting the two students, because although they understand everyday conversation, they are not yet very familiar with some expressions used in teaching and learning activities, such as “observation” and “conclusion.”

The school has a total of 425 students. There are 103 students from seven foreign countries, and 13 Japanese children with connections to another country, such as having a foreign parent. Of these 116 children, 61 require Japanese-language instruction.

At Minami no Hoshi, in addition to the support offered in their classrooms, children who require assistance in reading comprehension and composing Japanese text also receive instruction in a separate classroom.

There are two teachers in charge, including Inuzuka. They provide support without acting as the homeroom teacher. But while the Japanese being used is simple, it is beyond the comprehension of some of the students. As a result, the school has a permanent support staff member who can speak Portuguese. It also has temporary personnel who can speak Portuguese, Chinese, Spanish and Indonesian. They assist with the children’s learning one or two times a week by translating Japanese into their mother tongues.

As Inuzuka explains, “Without such support, the students would end up just sitting at their desks without understanding any of the lessons.”

With its flourishing automobile-related industry, Hamamatsu experienced a rapid increase in the number of foreigners coming from different countries in South America during the 1990s. Although this decreased after the 2008 Lehman shock, the city saw a subsequent increase in foreigners from different parts of Asia. Last May, there were a record 1,727 schoolchildren with foreign nationalities, representing 26 countries and regions. More than 80 percent of the city’s municipal elementary and junior high schools have such students enrolled.

The city government checks the children’s Japanese proficiency when they enter or transfer to a new school, and provides Japanese-language instruction appropriate to their levels. Children who speak absolutely no Japanese are taught in separate classrooms in the schools where they are enrolled, starting from the basics, which are also based on the school rules: greetings, counting, how to express that they are feeling ill, and so on. If the children can speak a certain level of Japanese, they take part in standard classes while receiving support, or are taught in separate classrooms. In order to promote this kind of learning, the Hamamatsu Board of Education has gained the cooperation of three organizations and approximately 50 bilingual individuals this year.

There are also municipalities that bring such students together in one place to give them intensive Japanese-language lessons right from the outset. This year, the city of Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture, opened an initial support school for junior high school students in need of Japanese-language instruction.

The teachers speak in Japanese, while difficult words are translated by bilingual staff who can speak Portuguese, Tagalog and other languages. The students go to the initial support school four days a week and attend the school where they are enrolled one day a week. After continuing this pattern for eight weeks and learning to read and compose reasonably long texts, they return to the school where they are enrolled and continue to study there. Until last year, bilingual assistants were stationed at the schools at which the students were enrolled for rudimentary teaching. However, with the increase in the number of such students, the city has adopted a more efficient arrangement.

As Gunei Sato, a specially appointed professor of intercultural education at Meiji University, points out: “There is no single way to respond to these schoolchildren, who come from increasingly diverse backgrounds and whose numbers are increasing. The important thing is to secure people who are familiar with the Japanese education system, such as support staff who can speak these children’s mother tongues, and to create an arrangement that suits the realities of each local community, depending on the size of the municipality or the number of children requiring instruction.”Speech

The former prime minister and his cronies are accused of stealing $4.5 billion from Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1MDB in a mind-boggling fraud that stretched from Switzerland to the Seychelles.

The money was purportedly used to fund a global shopping spree — a $250-million super-yacht, high-end real estate, and Monet and Van Gogh artworks were among the items allegedly bought with cash plundered from public coffers.

The scandal ensnared celebrities, with the fraud’s suspected mastermind seen partying with Leonardo DiCaprio and Paris Hilton, while the new Malaysian government has accused Wall Street titan Goldman Sachs of stealing billions during its work with 1MDB.

Public revulsion at the graft allegations played a large part in the election defeat of Najib — who set up the fund — and a coalition that had ruled Malaysia uninterrupted since independence from Britain in 1957.

Since his shock poll loss in May, the 65-year-old has been arrested and hit with 42 charges linked to the scandal. He has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.

Far from keeping quiet, the aristocratic ex-leader has mounted a publicity blitz, seeking to present himself as a man of the people and constantly hurling jibes at the new government.

This week’s trial, starting Tuesday, centres on allegations that 42 million ringgit ($10.3 million) was transferred from SRC International, a former 1MDB unit, into Najib’s personal bank accounts.

The case involves three counts of money-laundering, three of criminal breach of trust — where someone is accused of dishonestly using something entrusted to them — and one of abuse of power. Najib has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

– Mounting allegations-

It is just one of several trials Najib is expected to face over 1MDB and involves a fraction of the total purportedly stolen from the fund, and the $681 million that allegedly ended up in his personal accounts.

But the start of the first trial is nevertheless a key moment, and may relieve pressure on the new government following criticism that it has been slow to act over 1MDB.

“It’s an important moment, albeit a very delayed one,” said Cynthia Gabriel, who was a member of a government committee set up to investigate the scandal.

“It is very critical for the new government to address and resolve past scandals,” added Gabriel, head of the non-profit The Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism.

The former leader and his defence team have portrayed the cases against him as revenge by the new government led by 93-year-old Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Najib’s mentor-turned-nemesis.

Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, Najib’s chief lawyer, labelled the upcoming trial “political”.

“If you give me a straight judge, a straight system of justice, and the witnesses are left to themselves without being coached, I’ll win this case,” he told AFP.

Trial dates have been set until the end of March and prosecutors are expected to call dozens of witnesses.

In recent weeks, Najib has transformed into an unlikely social media phenomenon, gaining a large number of followers online by attacking the new government’s policies and posting pictures of visits to homes where he talked to people about economic problems.

In the most bizarre episode, he posted a video of himself crooning a Malay-language version of the 1970s hit “Kiss and Say Goodbye” accompanied by backing singers, in which he accused the new government of having an “agenda of revenge and slander”.

It is a remarkable turnaround for a man who was regularly seen as out of touch with ordinary Malaysians during his nine years as prime minister.

Bridget Welsh, a Malaysia expert at John Cabot University, said that “the new image… is fabricated and not connected to his term in office”.

“I believe the trials will cause serious damage to Najib’s standing.”