4/09/2025

THURSDAY | SEPT 4, 2025

7

Acting Thai premier moves to dissolve parliament

Implement anti-scam measures, Meta told SINGAPORE: Police here have ordered Meta to implement anti scam measures against advertisements, accounts, profiles and business pages impersonating key government office holders on its social media network Facebook to combat scams. The company could be fined up to S$1 million (RM3.28 million) if it fails to comply as part of the first such order under the Online Criminal Harms Act, which came into force in February last year. “We are issuing (the order) to Meta because Facebook is the top platform used by scammers for such scams, and police have assessed that more decisive action is required,” Minister of State for Home Affairs Goh Pei Ming said in a speech yesterday. Meta did not respond to a request for comment. In August, the Home Affairs Ministry found that more than a third of all e-commerce scams reported last year were perpetrated on Facebook. It also rated Facebook Marketplace as the weakest among six e-commerce marketplaces in terms of anti-scam features deployed. Police statistics released in August showed that scams that involved the impersonation of government officials almost tripled to 1,762 cases in the first half of last year, from 589 cases in the same period a year ago. A total of S$126.5 million was lost to this type of scam in the same period, up 88% from the S$67.2 million lost a year ago. – Reuters YAMUNA BREACHES DANGER MARK NEW DELHI: Widespread flooding has hit several parts of northern India, officials said, with more thunderstorms forecast as 10,000 people were evacuated from river banks in Delhi. The Central Water Commission said the swollen Yamuna had breached its danger mark on Tuesday in Delhi. Media reported that nearly 10,000 people had been evacuated to relief camps set up along the main highways as a precautionary measure for those living in low-lying areas. – Reuters PRABOWO FLOATS SEA WALL PLAN JAKARTA: President Prabowo Subianto and President Xi Jinping discussed a plan to build a wall along the northern coastline of Java, which Jakarta calls the Giant Sea Wall project. Prabowo made a surprise attendance at China’s military parade. Prabowo’s government has previously said the wall project would take 15 to 20 years to build with a total cost of US$80 billion (RM338 billion). – Reuters

BANGKOK: The leader of Thailand’s Bhumjaithai Party said yesterday he had enough votes to become prime minister after winning over the biggest group in parliament, as the ruling party moved to block his path by petitioning the king to approve a snap election. There has been a dramatic scramble for power in Thailand since Friday’s sacking of Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra by a court, with Pheu Thai, the long dominant ruling party of the Shinawatra political dynasty, clinging on desperately to avert a humiliating fall from grace. Pheu Thai, the populist political juggernaut that won five of the past six elections, has been struggling to firm up a fragile coalition that has been haemorrhaging support as Bhumjaithai, a smaller renegade party that quit the alliance in June, embarked on a spree of dealmaking to challenge for the premiership. Days of political deadlock looked to have been broken early yesterday when the progressive opposition People’s Party, which holds nearly a third of lower house seats, announced it would back Bhumjaithai’s leader, Anutin Charnvirakul, in return for his promise to dissolve parliament within four months. “We know that the formation of this government that will proceed from now on, we know that the People’s Party has cooperated and made sacrifices in finding a solution for Thailand during a period of crises,” Anutin told reporters. The prime minister’s dismissal for an ethics violation was the latest twist in a tumultuous, two-decade grudge match among Thailand’s rival elites. o Ruling party seeks snap polls

Anutin (right) and Kla Tham Party adviser Thammanat Prompao read an agreement during a press conference, as the People’s Party announced it will back the Bhumjaithai Party to form a government. – REUTERSPIC

establishment platform but was blocked from power by conservative lawmakers allied with the royalist military. The People’s Party will not join Anutin’s government, but has guaranteed him support of its 143 lawmakers, which would help him pass the required threshold of 247 votes, or half of the lower house, to become prime minister. People’s Party leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut said the decision to side with Bhumjaithai was to prevent interference by powerful interests outside of politics, or the return of a coalition government that was not fit to rule again. A parliamentary vote on a new prime minister could take place on Friday, he said. – Reuters The Alliance, a coalition of women led civil society groups, had called off a planned protest on Monday citing the risk of a violent response by authorities. “We want to show that protests are mostly peaceful,” said 30-year-old Rizky Ananda, who was demonstrating against violence against people, and women in particular, as well as wasteful government spending. “If the government said protests were treasonous, it should be questionable.” President Prabowo Subianto has said the military and police would stand firm against violence, and said on Sunday that some of the unrest bore the signs of terrorism and treason. The National Commission on Human Rights was investigating how the security forces handled the protests, commissioner Anis Hidayah told journalists on Tuesday. – Reuters

royal prerogative,” he said of the endorsement required by King Maha Vajiralongkorn. However, there are conflicting opinions among law experts in Thailand, as to whether a caretaker government has the authority to seek house dissolution. Anutin, 58, a former health minister, who campaigned successfully to decriminalise cannabis, said he would lead a minority government that would stay in power for only four months until a new election could be called. He said his coalition included seven parties and groups comprising 146 parliamentary seats. The decisive player will be the hugely popular opposition People’s Party, whose predecessor won the 2023 election on an anti

Paetongtarn was the sixth premier from or backed by the Shinawatra family to be ousted by the military or judiciary and the second in the space of a year. Pheu Thai, founded and driven from behind the scenes by tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra, sought to head off Anutin’s gambit by petitioning the monarch to approve the dissolution of parliament. The party argued it was necessary to end the political impasse and stabilise a troubled economy. “The situation right now shows how the democratic system has been twisted,” said Pheu Thai’s Phumtham Wechayachai, the acting prime minister. “We decided to hand power back to the people to decide. But this is a

BR I E F S

Indonesian women join protests JAKARTA: Hundreds of women dressed in pink joined protests in Indonesia’s capital yesterday against lawmakers’ perks and police brutality, brandishing brooms as a symbol of their calls for reform, while the president flew to China for a military parade.

The women carried signs with slogans such as“reform the police”and “your sweet promises cause diabetes”, as well as the brooms which protest organiser, The Alliance of Indonesian Women, said symbolised a need to “sweep the state’s dirt ... and the repressiveness of security forces”. The protests that began in Jakarta last week have rocked the world’s third-largest democracy, with the demonstrations escalating after a police vehicle hit and killed a motorcycle taxi driver on Thursday night. Rights groups say 10 people have died in the protests, which have also sparked some looting and rioting.

Women raring to ‘clean up’ in Jakarta yesterday. – REUTERSPIC