The number of Malaysians arrested for links to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has risen to 12 in the last couple of days. And now, the boys in blue have another person in their crosshairs: Indian actor-turned-politician Seeman.
 
It’s not quite clear how semen Seeman is linked to the folks who’ve been picked up so far, but Bukit Aman counter terrorism boss Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay says the Tamil Nadu politician is a frequent visitor to Malaysia and has close ties to LTTE “elements” here.
 
Seeman’s certainly a supporter of slain LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. And he may well travel here frequently. But whether these things make him a security threat is something the cops will have to determine. What you should know though, is the dude has been arrested numerous times before in his native India for his hardline views on the LTTE and has been previously denied entry to the United States and deported from Canada. And one other point – the dude's not very popular back home. His party lost all the seats it contested in the last election. 

Much has been written since the first LTTE-linked arrests about how sympathising with the plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka is not the same as supporting terror and killings, and Ayob, for one, agrees. However, the man’s standing firm that the LTTE is a terror organisation (defunct, though it may be) and supporting such a group is a crime. End of story. (Incidentally, Ayob doesn’t seem to think supporting ISIS is a crime, but more on that in the next story.)

Ayob yesterday revealed that huge financial transactions have been carried out here, in attempts to reactivate the LTTE. More worrying were his claims that the LTTE had branches in every state here and that two of the people arrested so far had been planning lone wolf terror attacks in Malaysia. 
 
BTW, PM Mahathir Mohamad’s maintaining that police have stuck to SOP in their investigations and it was the cops' decision, not his or Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s, to go after all the DAP politicians who’ve been picked up so far.

That’s great if it’s true, of course. The police should always be free from political control. However, let’s not forget that Maddey’s attempted to wash his hands in much the same way before when discussing Sodomy I and Ops Lalang.
 
All that's happened over the course of the last few days does make us wonder whether there is truth in the assertion that the probe is all part of a larger narrative that's already seen Perlis mufti Asri Zainul Abidin call the DAP a "national threat" and PAS demand the tabling of a white paper.

Watch this space, folks. It should be getting even more interesting.

It’s not the first time he’s talked about it. However, back in March, the figure was just 13. It’s more than tripled since then, but hey, don’t worry, Ayob Khan says. Bringing back Malaysians who went to Syria to fight for ISIS isn’t gonna be too bad. Reason? Our home-based terrorists are worse!
 
Ayob's logic may be baffling to anyone who isn’t, well, Ayob, but that’s the deal right now. And despite the fact that many countries have chosen not to rescue their citizens who’re stranded at detention camps in Syria, our authorities are working to repatriate the Malaysians there.
 
Here’s something to consider tough – what if we just bring home the families of ISIS fighters?
 
The United Nations has repeatedly said nations should work towards bringing home those citizens who aren’t being held for purposes of prosecution and it has a point. The wives and kids (some of them babies) of ISIS fighters don’t deserve to be left to die.

And so if rescuing innocents is what our authorities are focusing on, then good. It’s our moral duty to save them.
 
However, any plan to repatriate the fighters themselves – those people who chose to leave Malaysia to join a group that brutally slaughtered hundreds if not thousands – should be approached with extreme caution. Especially too since what we may effectively be doing is just making it easier for them to get to their next travel destination – Mindanao in the Southern Philippines, the site of the so-called “new caliphate”.

(NOTE: The latest reports say that at least 800 women and children linked to ISIS have fled a camp in northeast Syria following an offensive against Kurdish forces there. And with the situation getting more dire by the hour, what this may mean is that it getting our people out of Syria isn’t likely to happen without rescuers risking and possibly losing their lives.) 

Saudara Lim Guan Eng may think he's quite clever, boasting about how well his second Budget as Finance Minister was received. In fairness, it did offer quite a bit of positivity, which economists say will help boost market sentiments. Yes, even if Najib Razak and PAS don’t agree.
 
The Malay Mail and Bloomberg have pretty great, easy-to-read breakdowns of winners and losers and what the government’s RM297 billion allocation will mean for the common man and we’d really recommend checking them out. (And if you’re too lazy to read, just watch this two-minute video lah. If you're REALLY lazy, go download the podcast of this morning's BFM segments, which offer great insight into the whats and wherefores of Budget 2020.)

Highs and lows and analyses aside, we do, wanna train the spotlight on a couple of things from Friday’s budget, and first up, are the initiatives announced to increase the participation of women in the workforce.
 
There are a few great monetary incentives, yeah. And the government's also assured better procedures for handling harassment complaints. But what we think is coolest of all is the promise of 90 days of maternity leave.

Unfortunately, while we and rights groups, like the Women’s Aid Organisation, are on the same page, there're some folks, like shoe designer Christy Ng, who feel 90 days away from work after having a baby is much too long for a mum. Reason being women may be “out of touch” when they return to their jobs. 

Needless to say, the entrepreneur’s been roundly (and rightly) slammed by Malaysians, including Deputy Women, Community and Family Development Minister Hannah Yeoh with Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran adding that any company that doesn't abide by the maternity leave rule will face action. So basically, suck on that, Christy! The rule's going head, whether you like it or not.
 
One other point we’d like to highlight from Saudara Lim's Budget is the lowering of the threshold for non-landed properties foreigners are allowed to buy, from RM1 million to RM600k.

This has come in for a bit of criticism since it was announced, however, the idea behind it is actually simple: there’s a glut of condos and apartments which haven’t been purchased. So lowering the minimum price for foreign purchases will actually help developers get rid of their stock, so to speak.
 
It’s a short term solution, of course. But what the rule should do in the time that it's in force (from Jan 1 to Dec 31, 2020) is clear the overhang. Also - this is an important point: the rule won’t apply to new property, so there’s no need to worry about foreigners making beelines for your dream home.

There wasn’t a whole lot of action this past weekend. However, there're a few bit and bobs (ahem) we should highlight.

• Former IGP Musa Hassan became the butt of jokes online when he tweeted a 10-month old about story about Osama Bin Laden from that bastion of credible journalism, The Onion. What’s worse, the ex-top cop refused to budge when it was pointed out to him that he’d made a boo boo and that The Onion peddles satire, not news.
• A report quoting “government and industry sources” claims India is looking to restrict the imports of some Malaysian products, including palm oil following PM Maddey’s statements on Kashmir. The PM, however, says Malaysia has not received any official word on the matter from India.
• Malaysian superhero Lee Chong Wei has contributed RM2 million to the National Sports Council and the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) to aid with preparations for the Tokyo Olympics. Steady lah, Chong Wei.
• Nine kids were among 16 people hurt when hydrogen balloons exploded at an Education Ministry event in Putrajaya on Saturday. The incident has resulted in calls to ban the use of hydrogen in balloons at public events.
• This is just sick! A man suspected of killing his wife and stepson and dismembering them led cops to his house where severed heads were discovered on the roof.