You’re reading The Malaysianist, a newsletter on money and power. Fuel up with a monthly, annual or founding member plan.

P.S. The founding member tier doesn’t have a ceiling; you can go as high as you want — it’s the ultimate supporter badge that comes with an annual report.

It’ll also grant you access to Brainjam with bangers such as this 👇🏽

And, yes, you can upgrade subscription tiers at any time.

Subscribe now

Mulling a group purchase for family, friends and colleagues? I’ve got you. Group subscriptions come with discounts, too.

Get 20% off a group subscription

Last month, I wrote that an investment into Care Concierge, involving the EPF and Gobi Partners, had collapsed at the eleventh hour after close to a year of talks, according to sources.

Turns out the deal simply stalled.

Read more

• A brief follow-up on KWAP’s eFishery investment

• Malaysia’s barrier-less toll project gets cracking

• And chatter I had over the week on SMEs

You’re reading The Malaysianist, a newsletter on money and power. Fuel up with a monthly, annual or founding member plan.

P.S. The founding member tier doesn’t have a ceiling; you can go as high as you want — it’s the ultimate supporter badge that comes with an annual report.

It’ll also grant you access to Brainjam with bangers such as this 👇🏽

And, yes, you can upgrade subscription tiers at any time.

Subscribe now

Mulling a group purchase for family, friends and colleagues? I’ve got you. Group subscriptions come with discounts, too.

Get 20% off a group subscription

KWAP officials had a busy week, with the MACC questioning investment staff.

But just two things today, since a lot has already been said.

Read more

I’ll probably get to that in the next newsletter, if there’s anything follow-up-worthy.

But, there’s a bigger issue that deserves the PM’s explanation: the board change at MMC Port Holdings.

You’re reading The Malaysianist, a newsletter on money and power. Fuel up with a monthly, annual or founding member plan.

P.S. The founding member tier doesn’t have a ceiling; you can go as high as you want — it’s the ultimate supporter badge that comes with an annual report.

It’ll also grant you access to Brainjam with bangers such as this 👇🏽

And, yes, you can upgrade subscription tiers at any time.

Subscribe now

Mulling a group purchase for family, friends and colleagues? I’ve got you. Group subscriptions come with discounts, too.

Get 20% off a group subscription

Reuters reported last week, citing an internal memo, that Syed Mokhtar Albukhary’s MMC Port had appointed Sultan Ahmed Sulayem as executive chairman.

Read more

1. eFishery hits Parliament, and why KWAP’s loss need closure.

2. Balaji threatens to pack up and leave. But will he be missed?

You’re reading The Malaysianist, a newsletter on money and power. Fuel up with a monthly, annual or founding member plan.

P.S. The founding member tier doesn’t have a ceiling; you can go as high as you want — it’s the ultimate supporter badge that comes with an annual report.

It’ll also grant you access to Brainjam with bangers such as this 👇🏽

And, yes, you can upgrade subscription tiers at any time.

Subscribe now

Mulling a group purchase for family, friends and colleagues? I’ve got you. Group subscriptions come with discounts, too.

Get 20% off a group subscription

As I write this, I’m chuckling that it took us a whole year to get “excited” about the eFishery scandal.

It was among the biggest stories of late 2024.

But, in typical Malaysian fashion, for months only a small group of us wrote about it, to a relatively small audience, until it surfaced again this week.

(The timing for this faux public outrage is certainly the looming general election.)

On Wednesday, Subang MP Wong Chen asked Finance Minister (and PM) Anwar Ibrahim about KWAP’s investment in the failed startup.

Anwar’s reply didn’t spell out much, beyond that KWAP had been the victim of an orchestrated fraud.

The civil servants’ pension fund said it had reviewed the investment and taken the necessary steps to remedy things, including mulling legal action to claw back its money.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) is now investigating, while Anwar said he’ll be addressing the Dewan Negara (Senate) today.

Now, when the parliamentary reply was published, some local media houses ran with “duped” in the headline.

That’s a pretty interesting word choice and also a good talking point for today’s newsletter.

Was KWAP duped into investing in eFishery?

Read more

You’re reading The Malaysianist, a newsletter on money and power. Fuel up with a monthly, annual or founding member plan.

P.S. The founding member tier doesn’t have a ceiling; you can go as high as you want — it’s the ultimate supporter badge that comes with an annual report.

It’ll also grant you access to Brainjam with bangers such as this 👇🏽

And, yes, you can upgrade subscription tiers at any time.

Subscribe now

Mulling a group purchase for family, friends and colleagues? I’ve got you. Group subscriptions come with discounts, too.

Get 20% off a group subscription

Read more

The Home Ministry also issued a statement of its own, saying Immigration and the police were already on the ball.

But here’s something for you.

Nuseir Yassin, better known as Nas Daily, shot a promo video for Network School in Forest City.

He’s an Israeli citizen, and Malaysia bars Israeli passport holders from entry.

So, Nuseir got around that on a second passport, from Saint Kitts & Nevis, which he purchased.

This isn’t the first time the content creator entered Malaysia and back in 2022, our Immigration Department clarified that it wasn’t illegal for someone with dual citizenship to enter the country with a valid passport.

Nuseir has deleted his Network School promo video.

What’s funnier is the sudden or shocking alarm. Last year, an MP raised this but no one in federal or state governments seemed to bother.

Network School, meanwhile, has been functioning for months.

In fact, our esteemed Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo visited Network School in April and praised it, posting that what he saw “reaffirmed Malaysia’s position as a rising destination for global tech talent.”

He, too, deleted the post after receiving brickbats on social media.

You’re reading The Malaysianist, a newsletter on money and power. Fuel up with a monthly, annual or founding member plan.

P.S. The founding member tier doesn’t have a ceiling; you can go as high as you want — it’s the ultimate supporter badge that comes with an annual report.

It’ll also grant you access to Brainjam with bangers such as this 👇🏽

And, yes, you can upgrade subscription tiers at any time.

Subscribe now

Mulling a group purchase for family, friends and colleagues? I’ve got you. Group subscriptions come with discounts, too.

Get 20% off a group subscription

Two quick ones tonight:

1. PolicyStreet’s earliest backers were offered a buyout. And some of them voted on it. Their decision is today’s lead.

2. And a closer look at three bills — on the MCMC, the communications and multimedia act and freedom of information — that went through a first reading yesterday.

Read more

• Network School… again?!

• Johor polls post-mortem, and the federal lessons, if any.

• The JS-SEZ, through the lens of electoral boundaries.

You’re reading The Malaysianist, a newsletter on money and power. Fuel up with a monthly, annual or founding member plan.

P.S. The founding member tier doesn’t have a ceiling; you can go as high as you want — it’s the ultimate supporter badge that comes with an annual report.

It’ll also grant you access to Brainjam with bangers such as this 👇🏽

And, yes, you can upgrade subscription tiers at any time.

Subscribe now

Mulling a group purchase for family, friends and colleagues? I’ve got you. Group subscriptions come with discounts, too.

Get 20% off a group subscription

Balaji Srinivasan’s Network School is blowing up again after the founder posted a promo video in which participants said they were “on a man-made island near Singapore.”

That rubbed many the wrong way, because it’s in Forest City, Johor. And Johor is in Malaysia.

(In case you thought Johor was another country.)

Read more

You’re reading The Malaysianist, a newsletter on money and power. Fuel up with a monthly, annual or founding member plan.

P.S. The founding member tier doesn’t have a ceiling; you can go as high as you want — it’s the ultimate supporter badge that comes with an annual report.

It’ll also grant you access to Brainjam with bangers such as this 👇🏽

And, yes, you can upgrade subscription tiers at any time.

Subscribe now

Mulling a group purchase for family, friends and colleagues? I’ve got you. Group subscriptions come with discounts, too.

Get 20% off a group subscription

These days AI is everywhere. There’s even A(nwar) I(brahim).

The prime minister is getting an AI avatar of himself, so now you can have him (and his propaganda) 24/7.

I digress.

There are two kinds of AI companies these days.

The first builds the whole stack. These are the ones hiring researchers, buying chips, training models, and burning billions in cash for something sentient.

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, spent more than its entire revenue doing exactly this.

The second kind claims it is an AI company, either by appending “AI” to its name or riding on existing AI platforms.

Bursa’s ACE market has been the stage for a few of the second kind lately.

Read more

This is for readers in a time crunch. But, as always, the newsletter is best enjoyed right till the last full stop.

You’re reading The Malaysianist, a newsletter on money and power. Fuel up with a monthly, annual or founding member plan.

P.S. The founding member tier doesn’t have a ceiling; you can go as high as you want — it’s the ultimate supporter badge that comes with an annual report.

It’ll also grant you access to Brainjam with bangers such as this 👇🏽

And, yes, you can upgrade subscription tiers at any time.

Subscribe now

Mulling a group purchase for family, friends and colleagues? I’ve got you. Group subscriptions come with discounts, too.

Get 20% off a group subscription

I haven’t written on politics for a while. But with more than 2.7 million Johor voters heading to the polls tomorrow, why not?

The consensus is that Barisan Nasional (BN) will win with a supermajority.

Ong Kian Ming, the former DAP MP doing his psephology from the wilderness, floats 53 of 56 seats and a two-thirds smash.

Betting platform Polymarket gave BN roughly a 76% chance of taking the state, and on seats, sure, there’s some truth to that.

But a BN landslide?

Read more

• Indonesia loses its shine as Nadiem Makarim’s prison sentence spooks anyone with money in the archipelago.

• Brahmal takes the CTOS chair at time when the company’s share price is low.

• Maybank loves Foodie, but it isn’t a sign of confidence in new media.

You’re reading The Malaysianist, a newsletter on money and power. Fuel up with a monthly, annual or founding member plan.

P.S. The founding member tier doesn’t have a ceiling; you can go as high as you want — it’s the ultimate supporter badge that comes with an annual report.

It’ll also grant you access to Brainjam with bangers such as this 👇🏽

And, yes, you can upgrade subscription tiers at any time.

Subscribe now

Mulling a group purchase for family, friends and colleagues? I’ve got you. Group subscriptions come with discounts, too.

Get 20% off a group subscription

The biggest story last week had to be Nadiem Makarim’s prison sentence.

The former education minister was convicted over a 9.9 trillion rupiah (about US$600 million) programme to buy Chromebook laptops for schools.

The court found he abused his authority and steered the procurement toward Google’s ChromeOS, putting the state loss at around US$130 million.

Prosecutors noted that Google had invested in his Gojek, though Nadiem left the company in 2019 to become minister.

The judges didn’t find he pocketed a cent, but convicted him of abusing his authority and causing what they called “state losses.”

Nadiem is appealing.

The 10-year term rocked even Malaysia’s faithful tech community, with many believing he is a victim of political persecution.

Read more

P.S. The founding member tier doesn’t have a ceiling; you can go as high as you want — it’s the ultimate supporter badge that comes with an annual report.

It’ll also grant you access to Brainjam with bangers such as this 👇🏽

And, yes, you can upgrade subscription tiers at any time.

Subscribe now

Mulling a group purchase for family, friends and colleagues? I’ve got you. Group subscriptions come with discounts, too.

Get 20% off a group subscription

Malaysia is preparing to table its first law to govern artificial intelligence (AI), per a consultation document sighted by The Malaysianist.

The National AI Office (NAIO) recently produced a paper, marked “for discussion purposes only,” containing six fact sheets intended to gather public feedback.

Read more

Let’s get to it.

You’re reading The Malaysianist, a newsletter on money and power. Fuel up with a monthly, annual or founding member plan.

P.S. The founding member tier doesn’t have a ceiling; you can go as high as you want — it’s the ultimate supporter badge that comes with an annual report.

It’ll also grant you access to Brainjam with bangers such as this 👇🏽

And, yes, you can upgrade subscription tiers at any time.

Subscribe now

Mulling a group purchase for family, friends and colleagues? I’ve got you. Group subscriptions come with discounts, too.

Get 20% off a group subscription

Read more

We’re already in July. As I begin the third quarter, the business is in a weird state.

There are the usual cancellations and non-renewals.

But there are also newer subscribers, and those still maintaining their subscriptions (the real heroes).

Entrepreneurship has been a tough teacher.

When I drew a salary, there was a sense of entitlement. I ex…

Read more

Like clockwork.

This time triggered by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which on Wednesday published its report on the leap in health-insurance premiums.

Among the reasons? Private healthcare.

The report is a near 2,000-page volume. So there’s a lot to unpack.

Naturally doing that will mean I’d churn out a word salad.

I’m on a diet these days, so I’ll just break it up into bits and pieces.

You’re reading The Malaysianist, a newsletter on money and power. Fuel up with a monthly, annual or founding member plan.

P.S. The founding member tier doesn’t have a ceiling; you can go as high as you want — it’s the ultimate supporter badge that comes with an annual report.

It’ll also grant you access to Brainjam with bangers such as this 👇🏽

And, yes, you can upgrade subscription tiers at any time.

Subscribe now

Mulling a group purchase for family, friends and colleagues? I’ve got you. Group subscriptions come with discounts, too.

Get 20% off a group subscription

Today's newsletter takes a stab at one of my favourite fat cats: government-linked hospitals and the conflict of interest they bring.

Read more

• SME Corp picks its two Dana Pemangkin managers, both names this newsletter flagged last month, into a market already crammed with state money chasing the same SMEs.

• An EPF-backed redemption at Involve Asia has sat unfinalised for months. What’s going on?

You’re reading The Malaysianist, a newsletter on money and power. Fuel up with a monthly, annual or founding member plan.

P.S. The founding member tier doesn’t have a ceiling; you can go as high as you want — it’s the ultimate supporter badge that comes with an annual report.

It’ll also grant you access to Brainjam with bangers such as this 👇🏽

And, yes, you can upgrade subscription tiers at any time.

Subscribe now

Mulling a group purchase for family, friends and colleagues? I’ve got you. Group subscriptions come with discounts, too.

Get 20% off a group subscription

Last Thursday, SME Corp named the two winners of its Dana Pemangkin initiative: Hartamodal, the venture arm of Tradeview Capital, and OSK Ventures International.

Both were on the shortlist of five I reported last month — the others being Mekar Capital, Cope Private Equity and Nexea — when I noted only two would get an allocation.

SME Corp said the pair were picked from 21 applicants, with the money split equally and the total still being finalised under the five-year 13th Malaysia Plan.

Everything else tallied.

It’s a PE/VC-style vehicle where the manager matches the government’s money one-to-one and invests it in Malaysian SMEs through equity, debt or hybrid instruments.

The government’s share doesn’t come in a lump sum though, but depends on the Treasury.

Annual allocations were tied to the federal budget tabled each October, SME Corp chief executive Rizal Nainy told The Edge when announcing the recipients.

Aside from the cash, finding SMEs worth backing will be tough, especially since that field is now overcrowded with other government-linked and private investors.

KWAP runs Dana Pemacu (PE) and Dana Perintis (VC), where recipients are already casting for the same fish.

In an earlier report, Navis, a Dana Pemacu recipient, tried and failed to land one.

Khazanah has its own mid-tier SME programme under Dana Impak, plus Jelawang Capital’s stable of VC managers.

Ekuinas invests in SMEs to fulfil its mandate of grooming good picks for the mothership, Permodalan Nasional Bhd.

The whole thing runs like a relay race where an agency nurtures an SME, then hands the baton to an institution for the takeover.

It’s taking off at the state level, too, especially Selangor.

The Tanjung Innovation Fund, due to launch in the third quarter this year, is pitched as the “hybrid” of private-equity rigour and venture-capital innovation that traditional SMEs supposedly can’t find elsewhere.

It’s backed by Selangor’s venture arm, Permodalan Negeri Selangor Bhd (PNSB), with The Hive and AxeHedge as co-general partners.

And private players such as Ikhlas, which I’ve reported is eyeing SMEs with newly launched, GLIC-backed funds, are crowding in too.

Read more

Two stories in today’s brief:

• Brahmal Vasudevan is reshaping a corner of old KL with some artsy stuff.

• PolicyStreet’s earliest backers have been offered a buyback of their shares at roughly a quarter of the latest valuation.

You’re reading The Malaysianist, a newsletter on money and power. Fuel up with a monthly, annual or founding member plan.

P.S. The founding member tier doesn’t have a ceiling; you can go as high as you want — it’s the ultimate supporter badge that comes with an annual report.

It’ll also grant you access to Brainjam with bangers such as this 👇🏽

And, yes, you can upgrade subscription tiers at any time.

Subscribe now

Mulling a group purchase for family, friends and colleagues? I’ve got you. Group subscriptions come with discounts, too.

Get 20% off a group subscription

Brahmal Vasudevan’s art ambitions are taking shape in the heart of old Kuala Lumpur.

Read more

In this case it’s “Khazanah”, which I also used on Thursday.

So, the website will look a tad off.

But, sometimes the occasion calls for it.

Also “Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund” is a mouthful.

You’re reading The Malaysianist, a newsletter on money and power. Fuel up with a monthly, annual or founding member plan.

P.S. The founding member tier doesn’t have a ceiling; you can go as high as you want — it’s the ultimate supporter badge that comes with an annual report.

It’ll also grant you access to Brainjam with bangers such as this 👇🏽

And, yes, you can upgrade subscription tiers at any time.

Subscribe now

Mulling a group purchase for family, friends and colleagues? I’ve got you. Group subscriptions come with discounts, too.

Get 20% off a group subscription

The newsletter has grown to the point where I’m getting email requests1.

I have two in the inbox, and I’ll kill one right now.

A reader asked me to benchmark Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional against a group of similar funds and crunch the data to see whether our sovereign wealth fund is “stalling”.

This was after I published Thursday’s newsletter on Khazanah.

Here’s what I did and what I found:

Read more

P.S. The founding member tier doesn’t have a ceiling; you can go as high as you want — it’s the ultimate supporter badge that comes with an annual report.

It’ll also grant you access to Brainjam with bangers such as this 👇🏽

And, yes, you can upgrade subscription tiers at any time.

Subscribe now

Mulling a group purchase for family, friends and colleagues? I’ve got you. Group subscriptions come with discounts, too.

Get 20% off a group subscription

As we’re coming off a mid-week holiday, I guess the next best thing to do is… take a look at Khazanah Nasional.

The sovereign wealth fund released its annual eponymous report last week. I missed this as there were other fish to fry.

But since I have some spare time post-holiday, why not? I’m exaggerating on the “spare time”, of course.

True to form, the 2025 Khazanah Report provides positive headline figures. The last time the sovereign wealth fund reported a negative operating profit, was 2018.

So the trauma (and the lingerie jokes) that year are behind the fund and most probably forgotten.

But it’s becoming apparent that one segment under Khazanah’s investment isn’t firing the way it should.

And there’s something to said about the fund’s desire to play VC and early-stage patron.

Read more

P.S. The founding member tier doesn’t have a ceiling; you can go as high as you want — it’s the ultimate supporter badge that comes with an annual report.

It’ll also grant you access to Brainjam with bangers such as this 👇🏽

And, yes, you can upgrade subscription tiers at any time.

Subscribe now

Mulling a group purchase for family, friends and colleagues? I’ve got you. Group subscriptions come with discounts, too.

Get 20% off a group subscription

I was sweeping that latest edition of The Edge weekly over the weekend when one of its lead stories ran a headline announcing that Axiata’s Boost Holdings is set to gain a new shareholder.

Angkasa, the umbrella body for Malaysia’s cooperative sector, is tipped as the likely candidate.

Readers of this newsletter, and of my earlier work at Tech in Asia, will recognise this as old news.

I fleshed it out at the end of 2024, and again last year.

But the rehash of Angkasa wasn’t what caught my eye.

What I wanted to know was whether anything had actually improved since my initial scoop, particularly given some of the choice comments made at the time by Boost CEO Sheyantha Abeykoon.

Read more

We begin in Penang. Sort of.

You’re reading The Malaysianist, a newsletter on money and power. Fuel up with a monthly, annual or founding member plan.

P.S. The founding member tier doesn’t have a ceiling; you can go as high as you want — it’s the ultimate supporter badge that comes with an annual report.

It’ll also grant you access to Brainjam with bangers such as this 👇🏽

And, yes, you can upgrade subscription tiers at any time.

Subscribe now

Mulling a group purchase for family, friends and colleagues? I’ve got you. Group subscriptions come with discounts, too.

Get 20% off a group subscription

GreatAsic Technology on Tuesday announced a US$6.9 million pre-Series A investment led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India, the venture arm of Singapore’s Temasek Holdings.

Malaysian outfits — Ehsan Capital and Gobi Partners — were along for the ride, as well.

GreatAsic is seven months old but already making waves as it rides the government’s semiconductor policy.

More importantly, it’s one of the first three recipients of design tokens from UK-based chip designer Arm.

Here’s what’s under the GreatAsic hood:

Read more