Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s announcement on Thursday that Malaysia will be repealing its much-hated Internal Security Act has led to renewed calls for Singapore to do the same.
Both of the countries have kept ISA rules on the books since British colonial days, allowing the governments to arrest and detain individuals without trial under limited circumstances.
But now, Malaysia’s plans to do away with the ISA are upping the pressure on Singapore to revise or scrap its rules, which are especially unpopular among dissidents and opposition groups in the wealthy city-state.
Southeast Asia Real Time provides analysis and insight into the region, which includes Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Brunei. Contact the editors at SEAsia@wsj.com.
A Malaysian court Thursday sentenced to death four men found guilty of murdering a cosmetics entrepreneur and her three employees in 2010 in a much-watched case that yet underscores little tolerance for violent crimes in the Southeast Asian country.
Philippine tourism officials are upset with bestselling-author Dan Brown's portrayal of Manila in "Inferno" as a city of poverty, pollution and child prostitution.
Two U.S.-based medical examiners on Wednesday dismissed theories that American researcher Shane Todd was murdered in Singapore, agreeing with the findings of the city-state’s pathologist that he died from “asphyxia due to hanging” in a suicide.
More than eight million residents and tourists in southern Thailand -– many of them in famous travel hubs such as Phuket, Hat Yai and Koh Samui –- were caught off guard by the country’s biggest-ever power blackout Tuesday night, plunging much of the region into darkness.
The family of an American engineer found hanged in the city-state last year has quit the city-state's inquiry into the cause of death, saying they have lost "confidence" in the process.