These two stories on James Packer and Crown Casino's China debacle when read together suggest that the Chinese Government intends for Macau to be the destination for Chinese and other gamblers, and that the gambling revenues and profits should all remain in China.
Consequently there is no need for James Packer ,Crown and their Barangaroo facility.
Left unexplained in all this is Packer's exit from Melco which owns the Macau casino operations .It does seem as if the sale to his stake in Melco was forced.
A forced ext from the Chinese market would not surprise anyone familiar with the Chinese practise of acquiring businesses that have proven to be successful, often by force.
James Packer and his Crown gambling and entertainment empire have bet big, for more than a decade on China, and its VIP gamblers. These high rollers have fuelled Crown's booming businesses in Asia and Australia.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I have made many, many mistakes in my life, but investing in China is not one of them." James Packer, March 14, 2013
But one night in October last year, all that was turned on its head.
"They said it felt like they were suspects of a murder investigation or a drug bust. That was just how sudden and forceful the raids were."Reporter
Fifteen Crown employees and a number of associates were swept into custody in a carefully co-ordinated series of raids across four cities in China.
"If you are referring to the Australian nationals who were detained by Chinese authorities a few days ago on suspicion of gambling activities... gambling is illegal in China."China's Foreign Ministry Spokesperson
Crown's operations had run headlong into China's biggest ever corruption crackdown, leaving its business model in disarray.
"This was a shot across the bows by the Chinese Government... of Crown, but it was a general warning to everybody else who was thinking about sending people to China to recruit Chinese high rollers to gamble in their casinos."Former Hong Kong Prosecutor
On Monday night Four Corners investigates what went wrong for Crown in China.
Reporter Marian Wilkinson pieces together the key characters and events in the lead up to the arrests.
"There was a certain arrogance... they wouldn't touch us because we are, frankly speaking, we are white guys."Casino Consultant
And explores what this means for Crown's casino business here in Australia, especially the multi-billion dollar Barangaroo project in Sydney, as the bottom falls out of their Chinese high roller market.
"If you've been going to Crown and you are phoned up by the local police and questioned on your movements and your past history of travel to Australia, you would be close to borderline suicidal if you were to make another trip to Australia. It's like putting big 'X' across your forehead."Casino Consultant
Crown Confidential, reported by Marian Wilkinson and presented by Sarah Ferguson, goes to air on Monday 6th March at 8.30pm EDT. It is replayed on Tuesday 7th March at 10.00am and Wednesday 8th at 11pm. It can also be seen on ABC News 24 on Saturday at 8.00pm AEST, ABC iview and at abc.net.au/4corners.
SARAH FERGUSON, PRESENTER: Welcome to Four Corners When James Packer took his big punt on the casino business his high-rolling father, Kerry, was sceptical.
But James defied the critics and made the Crown casino empire a shining success. That is, until October last year when 15 Crown staff in China were rounded up by Chinese police in dramatic late night raids.
Fourteen of those staff, including three Australians, are still under arrest.
Crown had developed a business model based on luring rich Chinese, known as VIP high rollers, to its casinos. But it was a risky business in a country where gambling and promoting gambling are illegal.
Since the arrests of its staff, Crown has been in turmoil, its Chairman and chief executive have resigned and its principal shareholder James Packer has seen revenue from Chinese high rollers plunge, raising questions about the future of Crown's new VIP casino at Barangaroo in Sydney.
Marian Wilkinson investigates how Crown's China gamble went wrong.
MARIAN WILKINSON, REPORTER: In the casino business, luck is everything. Until recently, James Packer looked like a lucky man - in business and in love.
ANNOUNCER: Mr James Packer and Mariah Carey! Leonardo Di Caprio! Mr Brett Ratner! Mr De Nero…Martin Scorsese, Mr Lawrence Ho and Mrs Sharon Ho.
MARIAN WILKINSON: With the help of his Hollywood friends and his influential Hong Kong business partner Lawrence Ho, Packer unveiled his third casino venture in the Chinese territory of Macau, just eighteen months ago. At the star studded casino launch, Packer sang the praises of the Chinese government.
JAMES PACKER, PRINCIPAL SHAREHOLDER, CROWN RESORTS LTD.: We believe in the long term, not the short term. We believe in the Chinese Government. And, if someone says to me, you know, what is the definition of good government? I'd say the government that raises the living standards of its population and on that basis, the Chinese Government has done an amazing job, perhaps a better job than any other government in the world.
MARIAN WILKINSON: Like James Packer, the new $4 billion Macau Casino looked like a winner.
ANNOUNCER: Three, and two, and one…please press down your circles. Congratulations, ladies and gentlemen, the official start of Studio City Macau.
MARIAN WILKINSON: But looks are deceptive. When Studio City opened, investors in Macau knew casino profits were plunging.
ANDREW SCOTT, PUBLISHER 'INSIDE ASIAN GAMING': it turned and it really went down so yes we were in the midst of, ah, many, many months of, ah, downturn at that stage and, ah, Macau came down about a third roughly from its peak. So yeah it was panic stations.
MARIAN WILKINSON: The downturn in Macau's profits was triggered by an unprecedented crackdown on money laundering and corruption launched by the Chinese President.
ANDREW SCOTT: everybody thought it would just be for six months or something like that but it hasn't been, the storm is still going today and, um, all credit to the president of China for doing it to be frank. Yes it hurt, it hurt, ah, the Macau gaming industry but it's transformed it is transforming China as a country. So, you know, if there's some collateral damage I don't think President Xi Jinping is too concerned about it.
MARIAN WILKINSON: When it reclaimed Macau, China let it flourish as its very own Las Vegas. The only place in China where its legal to put on a bet in a casino. As the high rollers poured in from the mainland, Macau became the richest, glitziest gambling den in the world. It also became, a massive money laundry.
PRESIDENT XI JINPING: The most serious threat to us, as the ruling party, is corruption… now we are making a landslide victory over corruption.
MARIAN WILKINSON: When President Xi Jinping launched his crackdown on corruption and illegal money outflows from China, few in the casino business realised the far reaching consequences for them.
STEVE VICKERS, CEO OF STEVE VICKERS AND ASSOCIATES: The corruption crackdown is unparalleled. I've been in Asia forty years, I've never seen anything on the scale as this sort of purge on a very large scale.
MARIAN WILKINSON: For a decade, James Packer's Crown group had bet billions of dollars on its strategy of luring wealthy Chinese VIP gamblers to its casinos in Asia and Australia. As Crown's principal shareholder, Packer confidently backed the strategy at every opportunity.
JAMES PACKER: Ladies and Gentlemen, I have made many many mistakes in my life, but investing in China is not one of them.
MARIAN WILKINSON: That strategy has been blown apart after police raided Crown's operations across China late last year. One of Australia's top public companies is now collateral damage in China's corruption crackdown.
KEVIN EGAN, HONG KONG BARRISTER: This was a shot across the bows by the Chinese government of the individual casino concerned, Crown, but it was a general warning to everybody else who was thinking about sending people to China to recruit Chinese high rollers to gamble in their casinos. If ah if you were caught, we'll make an example of you.
MARIAN WILKINSON: On the night of October 13, Chinese police launched a series of coordinated raids on the homes of Crown staff. It was a stunning police action against a foreign company in China. The raids were carefully planned and terrifying.
PHILIP WEN, FORMER FAIRFAX BEIJING CORRESPONDENT: They all occurred on the same night, across several major Chinese cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou. And the scenes that were described to me by family members that were present were quite remarkable.
They described ah teams of ah six or seven plain clothed ah police officers knocking on the door after midnight, um bursting through after the door was opened. And um basically they said it felt like they were um suspects of a murder investigation or a drug bust. You know, that was just how sudden and forceful the raids were. Pretty shortly after that they were, starting to basically confiscate or seize all these communications equipments, including laptops, computers, you know iPads, hard disk drives.
MARIAN WILKINSON: The raids rolled out in four Chinese cities. Fifteen Crown staff and a number of associates, were taken into custody. They are understood to include: Crown's Vice President in China, Alfread Gomez, a Malaysian citizen. Two dual Australian Chinese nationals, Jerry Xuan and Jenny Pan. And Chinese staff, Jenny Jiang and David Dai Bin. In a coup for Chinese police, they caught one of Crown's top Australian executives, Jason O'Connor, on route to Shanghai airport.
PHILIP WEN: he heads up the um VIP ah program, so his, main job is to um, you know, attract ah these high value high rollers ah to Crown's um casinos to gamble.
MARIAN WILKINSON: Four Corners understands O'Connor was in Shanghai to meet face to face with Chinese VIP customers. He was tipped off about the raids by local staff and made a dash for the airport.
PHILIP WEN: He made quite a dramatic um escape, you know, on his company chauffeured car, you know, going to the airport to Shanghai. But he was never ah, never able to board the plane.
MARIAN WILKINSON: Four Corners has been told within an hour of the first raids, Crown's offices in Asia and Australia triggered emergency protocols and began deleting data about Chinese customers. But Crown could do nothing to stop Chinese police taking its staff, including O'Connor, to a Shanghai detention centre for questioning.
PETER HUMPHREY, FORMER DETAINEE OF CHINA: They always do this in the middle of the night because it it maximises the um the sort of crushing feeling that this prisoner now has. You know this sense of humiliation, defeat, um shock ah ma- is maximised in this way so that when they start getting interrogated again the following day they're in a state of breakdown already.
MARIAN WILKINSON: Peter Humphrey knows what the Crown staff almost certainly endured. Humphrey and his wife were thrown into a Shanghai detention centre three years ago when they were swept up in a Chinese investigation into a British company.
PETER HUMPHREY: It was an absolutely traumatic experience and I'm sad to say that these Australians and Chinese who were working for for Crown Casinos will have most certainly gone through that kind of experience. Many of them would have been thrown into a cell like that in the middle of the night just like I was.
MARIAN WILKINSON: Interrogation is commonly used on detainees, says Humphrey.
PETER HUMPHREY: Well they have an interrogation wing at this detention centre. So they'll be led out of their cell, put in handcuffs, they're forced to squat when they exit the cell; you have to squat in front of the officers. They'll be led down a corridor and across a a rusty sort of iron bridge which connects two wings of the building into the interrogation block and in that block there are interrogation cells and the typical cell has a small rostrum at one side under the window and it has a a metal cage in the middle. This cage is made of steel. You know it's it's a silvery steel cage, inside the cage is an iron chair with a bar that locks across your lap so what will happen to these prisoners is that they'll be taken into that cage, put in that cage, they'll be locked in that chair, they'll also have the handcuffs on, they'll be sitting like that and then there'll be two or three policemen PSB men up on that rostrum. One of them will be typing on a laptop, another may be receiving guidance and instructions through an earpiece from someone who you never see so they'll be questioned ah in that particularly in that style, locked in a cage, guys up on the rostrum um no lawyer present.
MARIAN WILKINSON: The aim, he says will be to get the Crown staff to confess to a crime.
PETER HUMPHREY: I think that the whole ah eco system of the detention centre environment is set up in such a way to put so much duress on you in many ways; physical, psychological, emotional. Um that is all intended to make you crumple um and confess because you you know y-you're left to think of that the only way out of here is by confessing.
MARIAN WILKINSON: In Canberra, the detention of the Crown staff in China sparked an immediate crisis for Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop.
REPORTER: Minister, can you tell me about the circumstances in which they are being held?
JULIE BISHOP, MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND TRADE: Our consular officials have visited the Shanghai detention centre - it is adequate but it is a detention centre, somewhat like a prison, so the conditions are adequate but it is not comfortable at all. They are being looked after and they are in good health.
REPORTER: Minister, have you spoken directly to James Packer about this, and what's been the nature of that discussion?
JULIE BISHOP: I've been in contact with Mr Packer.
REPORTER: Do you have any detail about what the allegations that are against…
JULIE BISHOP: We don't have those details. There have been reports that it is related to gambling, the casinos evidently, but beyond that we don't have any specific details.
MARIAN WILKINSON: In Beijing China's Foreign Ministry confirmed the bad news for Crown.
CHINESE OFFICIAL: This is not a diplomatic issue, if you are referring to what happened a few days ago that everyone is concerned about - the Australian nationals who were detained by Chinese authorities on suspicion of gambling activities. I advise you to check with the Shanghai police for further details about the investigation,the activities have they been involved in, and their current condition. But I think gambling is illegal in China.
MARIAN WILKINSON: Gambling is illegal in mainland China. It's also illegal to promote gambling or arrange for more than ten people to travel to a foreign casino to gamble. But in the chase to woo rich Chinese gamblers or VIPs, many foreign casinos like Crown have been side stepping this law. They say their staff in China are not promoting gambling, they're promoting tourism in their luxury hotel resorts in Australia, the US and Macau.
BEN LEE, MACAU CASINO CONSULTANT: The usual façade is that they go in to market the resorts. They're there to promote the resort, the end destination um however, once that individual person is within China they are ensconced in a room, private room with a target client ah have no doubt, that the topic is when would you like to come to ah our casino, how much would you like to play and ah do we need to give you credit in order to encourage you to come and play.
MARIAN WILKINSON: Whether Crown broke the law in its efforts to lure rich mainland gamblers to its casinos will be decided by the Chinese authorities. But lawyers for some of Crown's minority shareholders seeking to launch a class action, claim the company knew its marketing in China was highly risky and failed to disclose this to the market.
JULIAN SCHIMMEL, MAURICE BLACKBURN LAWYERS: What we understand is that Crown was seeking to ah market ah engage in marketing of its gambling operations in mainland China. Ah now ah gambling itself and also the marketing of gambling is illegal as we understand it in mainland China so what we understand is that ah there was a risk of Chinese law enforcement er that might flow from Crown's attempts to lure ah Chinese VIPs to its casinos in Australia.
MARIAN WILKINSON: To understand what went wrong for Packer's China strategy you first need to understand why it looked like a great idea. Before Studio City, Packer's joint venture with Lawrence Ho, Melco Crown Entertainment, launched two very profitable casinos in Macau, City of Dreams and Altira. They were managed by Ho's company. They were pitched to wealthy Chinese men on the mainland.
By 2012, Macau was booming and Melco Crown's profits soaring. Packer was convinced Crown was on a winning streak and bet the future of the company on Chinese VIP gamblers.
JAMES PACKER: Crown's 33.6 percent interest in Melco-Crown Entertainment has been a major financial success for us and the investment has now grown in size to be one of the largest Australian joint venture partnerships operating inside China. And Melco Crown driven by a surging Chinese tourist market is continuing to expand in Macau and now throughout Asia, with major investments in new hotels and attractions.
ANDREW SCOTT: It was interesting we had a decade, um, of twenty percent on average, year on year growth so when that happens as a businessman you tend to feel like God so you just keep, you know, it was just happy days, everything was booming.
MARIAN WILKINSON: While Macau's casinos encourage mass market tourists from China, the key to their succees is their VIP rooms. These are private rooms in the casinos. Here wealthy Chinese gamblers can discretely bet a fortune in Hong Kong dollars on a hand of baccarat.
TONY TONG, VICE CHAIR, MACAU GAMING INFORMATION ASSOCIATION: Ah well if you go to any Macau ah VIP room a typical minimum bet starts from three thousand or five thousand. Ah but that's just a minimum bet. And ah I I know many of the VIPs ah for one trip they they would ah spend millions, sometimes tens of millions, or up to hundreds of millions, in the VIP ah in in in playing baccarat in the VIP rooms. Yeah.
MARIAN WILKINSON: In one trip?
TONY TONG: In one trip, yeah.
MARIAN WILKINSON: The VIP high rollers are brought to the casinos by agents who are called junket operators. Tony Tong is a lobbyist for the Macau junket operators and they are crucial to success of a big casino.
TONY TONG: So they need to have a relationship with a junket agent, ah who is responsible for ah you know serving, taking care of the ah VIP customer, and arranging the trip, ah making all the ah logistic arrangements, visa applications, hotel reservation. Sometimes private jets and entertainment activities.
MARIAN WILKINSON: What sort of entertainment are we talking about?
TONY TONG: Well anything that the VIP wants.
MARIAN WILKINSON: What the Chinese VIP gambler usually wants from the junket operator is a big line of credit, especially if they don't have assets outside the mainland. That's because China has strict currency controls to stop people taking more than $US50,000 a year out of the country without government approval.
TONY TONG: Most of the VIPs when they go to Macau they don't want to bring that much money so the majority of the VIP play is ah fuelled by ah credit.
MARIAN WILKINSON: The junket operators, Tong explains, are also responsible for collecting gambling debts if a Chinese VIP won't pay up. It's a fraught business because it's illegal to enforce gambling debts in mainland China.
TONY TONG: So ah they have to go through other means, ah which means ah basically ah making life difficult for the debtor, ah basically following the debtor and going to his company. Basically starts with more you know telephone calls and reminder calls. If you still don't get paid then you have to show up at the doorstep ah at his home or his business. And then ah, and hopefully you'll get some more progress. So ah normally every time when you send people to show up, normally they have ah something to collect.
MARIAN WILKINSON: And have there been cases where the junket operators have gone further than that? Has there been violence?
TONY TONG: Ah yeah. There are often cases in Macau, Hong Kong, even in mainland China that ah involves violence. Sometimes the collectors have to ah try to, in order to recover ah the debt, ah they have to go through pretty extreme means.
MARIAN WILKINSON: Like what?
TONY TONG: I think normally from what I heard, nobody wants to ah, you know, really hurt the ah debtor. Normally from what I heard, if you really do something bad it could harm your business, it could harm your chance to ah collect. I think it is the threat, the threat of violence that is more important than the violence itself.
MARIAN WILKINSON: David Green is a former adviser to the Macau government on casino regulation. He admits some junket operators have very dubious connections.
DAVID GREEN, FORMER ADVISER TO THE MACAU GOVERNMENT: Very occasionally there'll be reports of violence against ah people who left Macau owing gambling debts and that violence occurring on the mainland.
MARIAN WILKINSON: What sort of violence?
DAVID GREEN: Oh assault through murder. Kidnapping, ransom is always a means of getting paid. So ah yes ah very unpleasant ah tactics.
MARIAN WILKINSON: Macau has a long history of organised crime. Hong Kong Triad gangs held sway here in the 1990s before China reclaimed the territory from the Portuguese. Police intelligence reports in the US and Hong Kong say Triad members still have links to some of Macau's big junket operators.
STEVE VICKERS: Well I'm not going to name any given ones for, for obvious legal reasons but ah it is my firm belief that many of the junket operations have triad connections. Why? Because who's going to enforce a debt on the mainland? It's illegal to enforce that so what can ah there's no, there's no legal manner to reach into mainland China and enforce a debt so that's what they do. They can raise capital and move money. So triads remain associated with ah with junkets.
MARIAN WILKINSON: Steve Vickers is a corporate risk advisor who previously ran Hong Kong's police criminal intelligence unit. He believes the casino owners know about the Triad links to some junkets.
STEVE VICKERS: So I I think they're aware, I don't think they've ever been naïve and I do think they're making an effort to to improve the situation but the history of Macau is is murky and the involvement of the triads is, the triads has gone on for a very long time.
MARIAN WILKINSON: Crown's joint venture in Macau worked with several big junket operators accused of links to triads in police intelligence reports. One was the Neptune junket, which was publicly exposed for its triad connections three years ago. The Hong Kong courts have heard some extraordinary cases linking junket operators, money laundering and triads. But perhaps the most sensational was the case of the Hong Kong hair dresser who ended up owner of the British Football Club, Birmingham City. He'd been a huge gambler in the VIP rooms at a Macau casino. Hong Kong barrister, Kevin Egan, was part of that case and saw the evidence linking the Neptune group, with an alleged top Triad member.
KEVIN EGAN: This gentleman by the name of Cheung Chi-tai was one of the promoters of the Neptune junket. He ran it along with two others. And [ahem] he is alleged to have very serious triad connections, but he's never been charged with or convicted of triad offences. But if you ask anyone from the Organised Crime and Triad Bureau of the Hong Kong Police Force what his status was, they would say 'senior office bearer in a triad society'.
MARIAN WILKINSON: And he was involved in the junket operation?
KEVIN EGAN: He was- His name was on a great many cheques.
MARIAN WILKINSON: Neptune claims Cheung is no longer involved with the group. But Neptune's agents for years had junket agreements to bring Chinese VIPs to Australian casinos, including Crown Melbourne and Perth, and its rival Star Casino in Sydney.
MARIAN WILKINSON: Does it surprise you?
KEVIN EGAN: It doesn't because I think the bottom line is if you're not working through the junket operators then your casino will go out of business.
MARIAN WILKINSON: The big casinos like Crown, raked in the profits by using junket operators. But the big loser was China. Casinos became one of the conduits for huge amounts of capital to exit China in underground money flows. Corrupt Chinese officials and businessmen were using the VIP rooms to not only gamble ill gotten gains, but move money offshore.
STEVE VICKERS: Well up to about four years ago, at its height the Macau government recorded gaming revenues of 45 billion United States dollars. The harsh reality was because of the junket activity, the illicit side betting that was going on, you could probably multiply that by six. So that's a scale of um you know south, just a little south of 250 billion US dollars a year…so as a matter of economic national security, they need to crack down on those capital outflows. That's why it's a really serious issues.
MARIAN WILKINSON: Crown's Australian strategy became dominated by luring wealthy Chinese VIPs to its casinos in Melbourne and Perth. And Packer drove it from the top.
JAMES PACKER: I spent a lot of time in casinos as a kid with my dad, and I ended up thinking fuck this must be a good business.
MARIAN WILKINSON: In 2012 Packer proposed an ambitious new casino in Sydney built just for VIP high rollers - mainly from China. It won enthusiastic backing from the NSW Premier.
BARRY O'FARRELL, FORMER N.S.W. PREMIER: Yes he's put a proposal forward that is unique, that would see a six star hotel something the city doesn't have located at Barangaroo. And yes part of that proposal would be for this Asian high rollers room. This will be a VIP only gaming facility. There will not be poker machines.
MARIAN WILKINSON: The Barangaroo casino licence was granted with no public inquiry. The former head of the state casino regulator believes that was a mistake.
CHRIS SIDOTI, FORMER HEAD OF N.S.W. INDEPENDENT LIQUOR AND GAMING AUTHORITY: There was- there was no public tender process and there was no enquiry at any stage a- a public enquiry as to the public benefit involved in this.
MARIAN WILKINSON: Do you think there should've been?
CHRIS SIDOTI: I think there should've been, yes, ah. I think that casinos are big money spinners and operating a casino in most circumstances is like a license to print money. For that reason we need to know firstly that there is public interest or public benefit in having an additional casino in the first place. The parliamentary scrutiny was fast and it was to my mind relatively superficial. I don't think there was an appetite for thorough scrutiny, I think there was a wish simply to get the job done in terms of um having some basic level of examination and ah doing the deal.
MARIAN WILKINSON: To realise Crown's ambitions, Packer and his CEO Rowen Craigie needed even more Chinese VIP gamblers to come to Australia.
MARIAN WILKINSON: Crown appointed a brash Taiwanese-American to re-energise its marketing push into China. He came with a reference from the head of the US casino giant, Caesars.
BEN LEE: Michael Chen is a very aggressive person, very ambitious. He has a very robust background, he came from Harvard. So Michael's a very, very smart and intelligent person,
MARIAN WILKINSON: Michael Chen supercharged the China operation. He even appeared with James Packer's mother, Ros, during the Sydney Symphony Orchestra's China tour, an event sponsored by Crown and supported by the Australian embassy. More controversially, he increased Crown's staff on the ground in China.
BEN LEE: He obviously had a very ambitious and very high target to meet ah to justify I suppose his appointment and he in turn went on a very expensive program to recruit ah just about anybody and everybody he can in terms of ah on the ground ah marketing experience. He went through Macau, Hong Kong, China, even down to Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore and recruited a very, very big team of people.
MARIAN WILKINSON: As part of its re-vamped efforts, Crown stepped up its business with junket operators from the mainland. One of the most important was a Chinese Australian national, Tom Zhou, from Hubei province.
PHILIP WEN: His Chinese name Zhou Jiuming is certainly a name that is well known in industry circles. You whisper his name and they'll tell you that he was one of the largest, if not the largest um junket provider or provider of, you know, who recommended mainland Chinese gamblers to Crown.
MARIAN WILKINSON: Zhou's success can be measured by his $15 million Toorak mansion and a spread of businesses and properties across Melbourne. His Hubei business partner, Tian Di, became another big junket operator for Crown.
PHILIP WEN: He was spending a lot of time in the VIP suites on the 29th floor at Crown. He'd be given the use of a VIP hotel suite for when he had, you know, guests in town.
MARIAN WILKINSON: Tian Di also spent up big on Melbourne property buying this Victorian stables and renaming it, the Nine Dragons. He entertained Chinese VIP high rollers here when they came to Crown in Melbourne.
PHILIP WEN: Crown would offer their private helicopter and fly people to and from the Nine Dragons um Racing Club landing right on the open grass field at Nine Dragons and creating quite a big scene. And that was exactly what the, you know, VIP clients from China just loved. You know, they loved being treated as kings and queens.
MARIAN WILKINSON: By 2015, Crown's aggressive drive for Chinese high rollers was on a collision course with President Xi's crackdown. After targeting Macau's casinos, some analysts believe Chinese authorities wanted to make an example of a foreign casino owner.
STEVE VICKERS: It would appear that the the the Chinese government suspected that people were continuing to wander around the mainland raising funds for, for off shore gaming and that the the crackdown was on and the capital outflow ah and the capital outflow situation was also on. Ah and I think ah killing a chicken in front of the monkey is probably what's actually occurred.
MARIAN WILKINSON: In China's high profile corruption trials, the names of VIP gamblers from Crown casinos began to surface. They included Liu Han, a high roller at Crown's Perth casino who invested heavily in the Australian mining industry. He was sentenced to death for murder, gun running and being head of a mafia gang. In another case Chen Haiju, a top Chinese airline executive jailed for life for corruption was revealed as a big gambler at Crown in Melbourne.
TONY TONG: I believe he mentioned Crown. He mentioned Australia, Las Vegas and London. He was on trial and he told about his story, how he got addicted with gambling, ah how he was ah ah invited to go to casinos, how he was offered free chips, how he won the money. And so I think it received ah ah a lot of ah media attention and probably received ah ah attention from the government investigators.
MARIAN WILKINSON: The deputy bureau chief at China's Ministry of Public Security issued a direct warning to foreign casinos marketing on the mainland.
CHINESE OFFICIAL: Neighbouring countries have casinos and they have set up offices in China to attract and drum up interest from Chinese citizens to go abroad and gamble. This will also be an area that we will crack down on.
MARIAN WILKINSON: Just months later, the Chinese police dramatically swooped on scores of Korean casino workers who were targeting VIP gamblers in China. It made headline news.
NEWSREADER: A number of employees of the Korean casino companies have been arrested in China. They will be charged with soliciting gambling and violating foreign exchange laws.
MARIAN WILKINSON: Industry players say this should have been a warning to Crown about its activities on the mainland.
ANDREW SCOTT: South Koreans were also promoting and promoting in an aggressive fashion and, you know, there were some arrests there which became a bit of an incident and, you know, the word was put out, an example was made, don't do this.
MARIAN WILKINSON: Crown sources told Four Corners a risk assessment was done for Crown's top management after the Korean arrests. Remarkably, it concluded those arrests did not signal a serious threat to Crown's staff in China.
BEN LEE: There was a certain arrogance and complacency in that well these are the Asians, you know, they were too aggressive, they were channelling funds, ah etc etc etc and you know, they wouldn't touch us because we are frankly speaking, we are white guys.
MARIAN WILKINSON: Four Corners has been told that Jason O'Connor, Crown's senior VIP executive, became increasingly anxious about travelling to China but felt under pressure to keep the business growing.
ANDREW SCOTT: He was there because he was told to go there, he was just doing his job, he was just doing his job. He wasn't, ah, a rogue employee, he wasn't doing anything he wasn't told to do, he was doing what his job required him to do.
MARIAN WILKINSON: Fourteen Crown staff are now under formal arrest in China waiting to see if they will be charged. One was released on bail. Junket operator, Tian Di, is also understood to have been detained but has since been released. Crown's China marketing guru, Michael Chen, was at home in Hong Kong the night of the raids. He's free but has been put on permanent leave by Crown. Crown's VIP marketing head, Jason O'Connor, a father of two, is among those under arrest and still in detention.
PETER HUMPHREY: I mean I understand that his family must be worried like hell. He won't know a lot about the legal process that is underway if we can call it a legal process; he won't know because they just don't tell you so you're left in a great state of anxiety while you're in that, in that cell.
MARIAN WILKINSON: Peter Humphrey was a corporate risk advisor in China as well as being a victim of the Chinese legal system. He is deeply pessimistic about Jason O'Connor's chances of a quick release.
PETER HUMPHREY: When people are arrested in China, 99.9 percent of these cases nobody gets out, nobody gets out. They will be charged, they will be convicted.
MARIAN WILKINSON: James Packer maintained a close friendship with Foreign Minister Julie Bishop as Crown pursued its China strategy. But since the arrests Bishop has said little publicly about the Australian detainees and there appears to be slim room for diplomatic intervention. The best hope for Crown and its staff is that Chinese authorities decide the case is weak and release them without charge.
DAVID GREEN: that would ah clean the slate in effect. So that's the best possible outcome. I think it's probably the least likely outcome. I think the fact these people have been in detention now since October last year would suggest to me that ah something's coming down the pipeline.
MARIAN WILKINSON: A trial and conviction of its staff in China would be a devastating blow for Crown. It should also trigger a review of Crown's casino licences in Australia, according to the former head of the NSW Liquor and Gaming Authority.
CHRIS SIDOTI: We would have to take into account the deficiencies in the Chinese legal system and the way in which they collect evidence and conduct the trial process, but if there are charges in China and if those charges result in convictions, in my view, that would place an authority like a regulatory body in Australia on notice and en- and- and require further enquiries to be made.
MARIAN WILKINSON: Crown's high powered board has been in disarray since the arrests. Long-time CEO Rowen Craigie resigned last month when Crown announced its VIP turnover had crashed by almost 45 percent. Four Corners has confirmed reports that some of Crown's top VIP clients in China have been brought in for questioning by police.
BEN LEE: Well obviously if you have been going to Crown and you are phoned up by the local police and questioned on your movements and your past history of ah travel to Australia, you would be ah you would be close to borderline suicidal if you were to make another trip to Australia in a- in a short period of time. It's like putting big X across your forehead. Ah when the arrests first happened I- we projected that ah Crown's VIP or international business would be impacted by at least fifty per cent. I believe that ah projection ah is probably an understatement if anything.
MARIAN WILKINSON: The fall in VIP revenues is bad news for Packer's cherished Barangaroo casino in Sydney. Packer has announced he's returning to the Crown board after a year's absence, but he faces a mandatory probity inquiry by NSW regulators before that happens. He's backed his close confidante, John Alexander, as Crown's new executive chairman to steer the company through the continuing crisis.
PETER HUMPHREY: The Crown board has some serious responsibilities because the onus is very much on an employer to conduct its business as far as possible in accordance with the law. Now if there was a law in China that they were violating, then Crown is responsible. The employer also is responsible for drilling down into their employees' knowledge of laws, regulations, making sure that employees know what they need to do to be compliant at policing that compliant, making sure they are behaving in a compliant way. Did they fail to do that? Well they evidently did, they evidently did because it appears that their employees in some way or another either offended someone or, or broke a law and so that is very much the responsibility of Crown.
MARIAN WILKINSON: For now, Crown is folding on its big China bet, selling down its once prized assets in Macau and re-thinking it reliance on Chinese high rollers. For James Packer, luck, it seems, is not running his way.
The former Portuguese colony's efforts to reinvent itself with a half-size Eiffel Tower replica and Melco-Crown's Hollywood-themed resort Studio City are starting to pay off, according to local government data.
Macau has seen a surge in tourists from beyond China - a sign that growth in the world's biggest gambling hub next year will come from leisure players rather than the high-stakes Chinese gamblers it used to pursue.
Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg see gambling revenue rising 7 per cent in 2017 led by mass market players, after three consecutive years of declines. Visitor numbers from South Korea, Japan, and the US jumped in November, helping offset declining arrivals of mainland Chinese who make up two-thirds of Macau's 2.6 million visitors in the month, according to the city's Statistics and Census Service.
Macau's gaming industry has seen a nascent recovery in the northern hemisphere summer as Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Wynn Resorts opened tourist-friendly resorts after China's crackdown on corruption and illegal outflows scared off VIP players.
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Those efforts intensified in October, when Chinese authorities arrested 18 Crown employees for "gambling crimes" to deter its citizens from gambling overseas. The city is at the same time fending off regional challengers such as South Korea and the Philippines.
"There are definitely more reasons to come to Macau now versus two years ago, and that is the key reason why overnight visitation is growing faster than total visitation," said Nomura Holdings analyst Richard Huang. As more casinos open in Macau in the coming years, "we expect that to continue drive growth in the mass gaming segment," he said.
Melco Crown's $US3.2 billion Studio City casino resort in Macau touting Asia's highest ferris wheel: It seems the move from pure gambling to family entertainment is starting to pay off. Photo: Bloomberg
The Macau government is due to announce gross gaming revenue for December as early as January 1. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expect full-year gambling receipts of about 222.8 billion patacas ($38.8 billion), a decrease of 3.5 per cent, extending declines of 34 per cent in 2015 and 2.6 per cent in 2014, according to the median of ten estimates.
Visitors who stay at least a night in Macau, typically tourists, rose 10 per cent in November and accounted for 53 per cent of total arrivals, while same-day visitors fell 9.7 per cent, according to government data. Overnighters are also staying longer, at an average of 2.1 days.
James Packer sold down Crown's investment in Macau in early December, ceding control of Melco Crown's casinos to local billionaire Lawrence Ho. Photo: AP
Long way to go
"Without a doubt over past several months, Macau has felt busier than it has in a couple years," said Grant Govertsen, an analyst at Union Gaming Group. But while Macau's government is trying to become less reliant on gambling, there's still a long way to go before it becomes like the Las Vegas Strip, where non-gaming revenue makes up 62 per cent, compared with about 6 per cent in the Chinese city, he said.
"Does the fact that Macau has an Eiffel Tower now bring extra people to the market? Yes, but their main activity here will still be gaming," said Govertsen. Las Vegas Sands opened its $US2.9 billion ($4 billion) casino project in September featuring the Parisian landmark, about a year after Melco Crown Entertainment opened its Hollywood-themed Studio City that includes a Batman ride and a Ferris wheel shaped in a figure eight.
MGM China and SJM Holdings are also planning to open additional casino resorts in Macau next year. Macau casino shares have jumped this year in anticipation of the tourist-led recovery, with MGM China surging 52 per cent and Galaxy Entertainment Group advancing 36 per cent.
Still, Galaxy's billionaire chairman Lui Che-Woo said in an interview in September it was too early to say the worst is over for Macau, preferring to wait for more-sustained growth, backed by mainstream gamblers rather than VIPs.
Meanwhile, Melco Crown Chairman Lawrence Ho is setting his sights beyond Macau, as the fight for market share in the former Portuguese enclave heats up. The billionaire is taking greater control of Melco Crown after James Packer's Crown sold down its stake in the Macau casino operator.
"We are in a recovery. That recovery is not going to be the same as the recovery during the global financial crisis," Ho said in an interview last month, referring to Macau. "This time around, it's different. It's going to be more of a natural recovery."
Crown staged a massive retreat from its international operations in early December, exiting Macau and shelving plans to build a casino in Las Vegas, to reduce debt and focus on its casinos in Australia, led by the $2 billion high-stakes Barangaroo resort in Sydney.
Actually, presented without comment,the US Government's perception of the 1MDB issue.
Excerpt
Anti-Semitism
The country’s Jewish population was estimated to be between 100 and 200 persons. Anti-Semitism was a serious problem across the political spectrum and attracted wide support among segments of the population. A 2015 Anti-Defamation League survey found 61 percent of citizens held anti-Jewish attitudes. Government-owned newspapers and statements by current and former political officeholders sometimes blamed civil society activity on “Jewish plots” or “Jewish conspiracies.”
In March Deputy Minister of Agriculture Tajuddin Abdul Rahman, a leader of the ruling UMNO party, accused government critics of working with “media controlled by Jews” to bring down PM Najib
Malaysia is a federal constitutional monarchy. It has a parliamentary system of government selected through regular, multiparty elections and is headed by a prime minister. The king is the head of state and serves a largely ceremonial role; he serves a five-year term, and the kingship rotates among the sultans of the nine states with hereditary rulers. The United Malays National Organization (UMNO), together with a coalition of political parties known as the National Front (BN), has held power since independence in 1957. In the 2013 general election, the BN lost the popular vote to the opposition coalition but was re-elected in the country’s first-past-the-post system. The opposition and civil society organizations alleged electoral irregularities and systemic disadvantages for opposition groups due to lack of media access and gerrymandered districts favoring the ruling coalition.
Civilian authorities at times did not maintain effective control over security forces.
The most significant human rights problems included government restrictions on freedoms of speech and expression, press and media, assembly, and association. In the wake of a government financial scandal dating back to 2014, whistleblowers and critics faced censorship, police intimidation, investigation, and criminal charges. Print and broadcast media outlets self-censored news coverage of the scandal. Online media offered more independent and critical perspectives, but were often the target of legal action and harassment, leading one site to shut down. Restrictions on freedom of religion were also a significant concern--including bans on religious groups, restrictions on proselytizing, and prohibitions on the freedom to change one’s religion.
Other human rights problems included deaths during police apprehension and while in custody; laws allowing detention without trial; caning as a form of punishment imposed by criminal and “sharia” (Islamic law) courts; restrictions on the rights of migrants, including migrant workers, refugees, and victims of human trafficking; official corruption; violence and discrimination against women; and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex persons. Longstanding government policies gave preference to ethnic Malays in many areas. The government restricted union and collective-bargaining activity, and government policies created vulnerabilities for child labor and forced labor problems, especially for migrant workers.
The government arrested and prosecuted some officials engaged in corruption, malfeasance, and human rights abuses, although civil society groups alleged continued impunity.
Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom from:
a. Arbitrary Deprivation of Life and other Unlawful or Politically Motivated Killings
There were reports the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings. In June the government disclosed there were 50 deaths in police custody from the beginning of 2013 through April, with only one death allegedly caused by the police. Civil society activists disputed this, claiming police were responsible for more of the deaths in custody.
In April a government commission found police culpable for the 2013 death of N. Dharmendran, and detailed efforts by police to cover up the case and alter evidence. In June a court acquitted the four police officers charged with the murder. Human rights organizations criticized the decision, and noted the rarity of successful prosecutions in death-in-custody cases.
b. Disappearance
There were no reports of politically motivated disappearances.
c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
No law specifically prohibits torture; however, laws that prohibit “committing grievous hurt” encompass torture. More than 60 offenses are subject to caning, and judges routinely mandated caning in response to crimes including kidnapping, rape, robbery, narcotics possession, criminal breach of trust, migrant smuggling, and immigration offenses.
Civil and criminal law exempt men older than 50 years, unless convicted of rape, and all women from caning. Male children between 10 and 18 years may receive a maximum of 10 strokes of a “light cane” in a public courtroom. The government revealed in a letter to a member of parliament that authorities caned 8,451 prisoners (5,968 foreigners and 2,483 citizens) in 2013.
Some states’ sharia laws--those governing family issues and certain crimes under Islam and that apply to all Muslims--also prescribe caning for certain offenses. Women are not exempt from caning under sharia, and national courts have not resolved issues involving conflicts among the constitution, the penal code, and sharia.
In January a human rights nongovernmental organization (NGO) released handwritten accounts by seven suspected terrorists held under investigatory detention alleging maltreatment, including beatings, sexual humiliation, and forced confessions. In July, R. Sri Sanjeevan, an activist working on police corruption and whom police arrested on extortion charges, said police blindfolded and beat him while denying him medical treatment.
Prison and Detention Center Conditions
Conditions in prisons and detention centers operated by the government’s Immigration Department were harsh.
Physical Conditions: Overcrowding in prisons and immigration detention centers, particularly in facilities near major cities, remained a serious problem.
Some prisoners and detainees died, including while in police holding cells. In May the government revealed that from the beginning of 2013 through April, 721 prisoners died in the country’s prisons, an average of 18 deaths per month. International media reported allegations of deaths in immigration detention centers, but official statistics were not available.
Administration: Authorities used caning in combination with imprisonment for some nonviolent offenders. Prisoners and detainees had freedom of religious observance provided religious practices did not derive from one of the sects of Islam the government bans as “deviant.” The law does not provide a process for prisoners to submit complaints to judicial authorities, but it allows judges to visit prisons to examine conditions and ask prisoners and prison officials about prison conditions. Authorities generally treated attorney-client communications as private and confidential.
Independent Monitoring: Authorities generally did not permit NGOs and media to monitor prison conditions. The government provided regular prison access to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and SUHAKAM, the government human rights commission, on a case-by-case basis. In 2015 the ICRC conducted 27 visits to seven prisons, seven immigration detention centers, and one temporary detention center, visiting 24,845 detainees.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) generally had access to registered refugees, asylum seekers, and unregistered persons of concern who may have claims to asylum and refugee status and who authorities held in immigration detention centers and prisons. This access, however, was not always timely.
d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention
Police may detain persons suspected of terrorism, organized crime, gang activity, and trafficking in drugs or persons without a warrant or judicial review for two-year terms, renewable indefinitely. Within seven days of the initial detention, however, police must present the case for detention to a public prosecutor. If the prosecutor agrees “sufficient evidence exists to justify” continued detention and further investigation, a fact-finding inquiry officer appointed by the minister of home affairs must report within 59 days to a detention board appointed by the king. The board may renew the detention order or impose an order to restrict--without trial or judicial review--a suspect’s place of residence, travel, access to communications facilities, and use of the internet for a maximum of five years. Details on the numbers of those detained or under restriction orders were not generally available.
The law allows investigative detention to prevent a criminal suspect from fleeing or destroying evidence during an investigation. Immigration law allows authorities to arrest and detain noncitizens for 30 days pending a deportation decision.
Some observers criticized other legal provisions that allow the identity of witnesses to be kept secret (inhibiting cross-examination of witnesses) and allow authorities to detain the accused after an acquittal in case the prosecution decides to appeal.
Investigation into use of deadly force by a police officer occurs only if the attorney general initiates the investigation or if he approves an application for an investigation by family members of the deceased. When the attorney general orders an official inquiry, a coroner’s court convenes, and the hearing is open to the public. In such cases the court generally issues an open verdict, which means there was no verdict and it would take no further action against police.
ROLE OF THE POLICE AND SECURITY APPARATUS
The Royal Malaysia Police force, with approximately 102,000 members, reports to the home affairs minister. The inspector general of police is responsible for organizing and administering the police force. The Ministry of Home Affairs also oversees immigration and border enforcement. State-level Islamic religious enforcement officers have authority to accompany police on raids or conduct their own raids of private premises and public establishments to enforce sharia, including bans on indecent dress, alcohol consumption, sale of restricted books, or close proximity to members of the opposite sex. Religious authorities at the state level administer sharia for civil and family law through Islamic courts and have jurisdiction for all Muslims. The Ministry of Home Affairs also oversees the People’s Volunteer Corps (RELA), a paramilitary civilian volunteer corps. NGOs remained concerned inadequate training left RELA members poorly equipped to perform their duties.
The government has some mechanisms to investigate and punish abuse and corruption, and SUHAKAM played a role in investigating alleged abuses committed by the security forces. NGOs and media reported that despite investigation into some incidents, security forces often acted with impunity.
Police officers are subject to trial by criminal and civil courts. Police representatives reported there were disciplinary actions against police officers, and punishments included suspension, dismissal, and demotion. Civil society groups and NGOs continued to call for establishment of an independent police complaints and misconduct commission. Government officials and police opposed the idea. Police training included human rights awareness in its courses. SUHAKAM also conducted human rights training and workshops for police and prison officials.
ARREST PROCEDURES AND TREATMENT OF DETAINEES
The law permits police to arrest and detain individuals for some offenses without a warrant. Although police generally observed legal provisions regarding arrest, NGOs reported the police practice of releasing suspects and then quickly re-arresting and holding them in continued investigative custody. Some NGOs asserted a police approach of “arrest first, investigate later” was prevalent, particularly in cases involving allegations of terrorism. By law an arrested person has the right to be informed of the grounds for arrest by the arresting police officer. To facilitate investigations police can remand an arrested person for 24 hours, which can be extended for up to 14 days by a court order under general criminal law provisions.
In June police arrested and re-arrested activist and police critic R. Sri Sanjeevan eight times during a two-month period under different allegations before finally detaining him under an anti-organized crime provision that allows for a 21-day detention period. He successfully challenged his remand order in court, and authorities freed him a few days later.
Bail is usually available for persons accused of crimes not punishable by life imprisonment or death. The amount and availability of bail is at the judge’s discretion. Persons granted bail usually must surrender their passports to the court.
Police must inform detainees of the right to contact family members and consult a lawyer of their choice. Nonetheless, police often denied detainees access to legal counsel and questioned suspects without allowing a lawyer to be present. Police justified this practice as necessary to prevent interference in investigations in progress, and the courts generally upheld the practice. On occasion police did not allow prompt access to family members.
The law allows the detention of a material witness in a criminal case if that person is likely to flee.
Arbitrary Arrest: Authorities sometimes used their powers to intimidate and punish opponents of the government. In April police arrested and charged opposition Member of Parliament Rafizi Ramli with leaking state secrets after he released part of an audit report he claimed linked a continued government financial scandal to late payments to military veterans. Human rights organizations and the political opposition criticized the arrest as breaching parliamentary privileges and intimidating other elected representatives to silence. In November authorities sentenced Rafizi to 18 months in prison, although he remained free pending an appeal. Unless the sentence is overturned or reduced to less than 12 months, Rafizi will be disqualified from seeking re-election.
Pretrial Detention: Crowded and understaffed courts often resulted in lengthy pretrial detention, sometimes lasting several years. The International Center for Prison Studies reported that pretrial detainees made up approximately 26 percent of the prisoner population as of mid-2015.
Detainee’s Ability to Challenge Lawfulness of Detention before a Court: Detainees have the right to challenge their detention by filing a habeas corpus application. In July a lower court freed anticorruption campaigner R. Sri Sanjeevan, declaring his remand under an anti-organized crime law null and void.
e. Denial of Fair Public Trial
Three constitutional articles provide the basis for an independent judiciary; however, other constitutional provisions, legislation restricting judicial review, and additional factors limited judicial independence and strengthened executive influence over the judiciary.
Members of the bar, NGO representatives, and other observers expressed serious concern about significant limitations on judicial independence, citing a number of high-profile instances of arbitrary verdicts, selective prosecution, and preferential treatment of some litigants and lawyers.
In June, NGOs criticized the attorney general’s decision to lead the prosecution of opposition leader and Penang State Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, claiming a conflict of interest between the attorney-general’s role as legal adviser to the government and a public prosecutor would create the perception of a politically motivated trial.
TRIAL PROCEDURES
English common law is the basis for the civil legal system. The constitution states all persons are equal before the law and entitled to equal protection under the law. The law allows defendants a presumption of innocence until proven guilty. Judges conduct trials and render verdicts. Trials are public, although judges may order restrictions on press coverage. Defendants have the right to counsel at public expense if they face charges that carry the death penalty and may apply for a public defender in certain other cases.
According to the Malaysian Bar Council, defendants generally have adequate time and facilities to prepare a defense if they have the means to engage private counsel. Otherwise, defendants must rely on legal aid and the amount of time to prepare for trial is at the discretion of the judge. Authorities provide defendants free interpretation in Malay, Mandarin, Tamil, and some other commonly used dialects from the moment charged through all appeals. Strict rules of evidence apply in court; however, the government did not consistently make evidence available to defense counsel.
Defendants have the right to be present at their own trial, to confront witnesses against them, and present witnesses and evidence on their behalf, although judges sometimes disallowed witness testimony. Defendants may make statements for the record to an investigative agency prior to trial. Limited pretrial discovery in criminal cases impeded defendants’ ability to defend themselves. Attorneys must apply for a court order to obtain documents covered under the official secrecy laws.
Defendants may appeal court decisions to higher courts, but only if the appeal raises a question of law or if material circumstances raise a reasonable doubt regarding conviction or sentencing. The Bar Council claimed these restrictions were excessive.
Many NGOs complained women did not receive fair treatment from sharia courts, especially in cases of divorce and child custody (see section 6).
POLITICAL PRISONERS AND DETAINEES
Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim remained in prison, serving a five-year sentence for consensual sodomy, a charge many international observers and human rights organizations viewed as politically motivated. In December the federal court rejected his appeal to set aside his conviction and sentence.
CIVIL JUDICIAL PROCEDURES AND REMEDIES
Individuals or organizations may sue the government and officials in court for alleged violations of human rights. The structure of the civil judiciary mirrors that of the criminal courts. A large case backlog often resulted in delayed court-ordered relief for civil plaintiffs. The courts have increasingly encouraged the use of mediation and arbitration to speed settlements.
f. Arbitrary or Unlawful Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or Correspondence
Laws prohibit arbitrary interference with privacy rights; nevertheless, authorities sometimes infringed on citizens’ privacy rights. Certain provisions allow police to enter and search without a warrant the homes of persons suspected of threatening national security. Police also may confiscate evidence under these provisions. Police used this legal authority to search homes and offices; seize computers, books, and newspapers; monitor conversations; and take persons into custody without a warrant. The government monitored the internet and threatened to detain anyone sending or posting content the government deemed a threat to public order or security (see section 2.a.).
Islamic authorities may enter private premises without a warrant if they deem swift action necessary to catch Muslims suspected of engaging in offenses such as gambling, consumption of alcohol, and sexual relations outside marriage.
The government bans membership in unregistered political parties and organizations.
The government does not recognize marriages between Muslims and non-Muslims and considers children born of such unions illegitimate.
Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
a. Freedom of Speech and Press
The constitution provides for freedom of speech and press, although it also provides for restrictions “in the interest of the security of the Federation…[or] public order.” The government regularly enforced restrictions on freedom of expression by media, citing upholding Islam and the special status of ethnic Malays, protection of national security, public order, and friendly relations with other countries as reasons.
Freedom of Speech and Expression: The law prohibits sedition and public comment on issues defined as sensitive, including racial and religious matters or criticism of the king or ruling sultans. Sedition charges often stemmed from comments by vocal civil society or opposition leaders. Civil society groups claimed the government generally failed to investigate and prosecute similar “seditious” statements made by progovernment or pro-Malay persons.
In August judicial authorities sentenced an opposition leader to eight months in prison for a 2015 speech in which he called for the release of Anwar Ibrahim while suggesting politicians controlled the judiciary. The case was pending an appeal. Also in August a court found the president of a pro-Malay NGO guilty of sedition and fined him 2,000 Malaysian ringgit (RM) ($450) for an article he wrote calling the country’s ethnic Chinese citizens “intruders.”
Press and Media Freedoms: Political parties and individuals linked to the ruling coalition owned or controlled a majority of shares in almost all print and broadcast media, many of which were actively progovernment in their reporting. Online media outlets were more independent in their ownership and reporting but were often the target of legal action and harassment.
The government exerted control over news content, both in print and broadcast media; punished publishers of “malicious news,” and banned, restricted, or limited circulation of publications believed a threat to public order, morality, or national security. The government has the power to suspend publication for these reasons, and retained effective control over the licensing process. In February the government blocked popular online news outlet The Malaysian Insider for “violating national laws,” allegedly related to its reporting on a government financial scandal. The site closed a month later.
Authorities sometimes barred online media from covering government press conferences.
Violence and Harassment: Journalists were subject to harassment and intimidation due to their reporting. In April online news portal Malaysiakini recalled its journalist from covering state elections in Sarawak after she received online threats over an article she wrote reporting an elected official urged voters to choose the ruling coalition to ensure a Muslim continued to lead the religiously diverse state. Critics also lodged multiple police reports against the reporter and circulated her photo on social media, leading to concerns for her safety. In November a group of progovernment “Red Shirts” protesters gathered in front of Malaysiakini’s offices and threatened to “tear down parts of the building.”
Censorship or Content Restrictions: The government censored media, primarily print and broadcast media. In addition to controlling news content by banning or restricting publications believed to threaten public order, morality, or national security, the government prosecuted journalists for “malicious news,” took little or no action against persons or organizations that abused journalists, and limited circulation of some publications. The law requires a permit to own a printing press, and printers often were reluctant to print publications critical of the government due to fear of reprisal. The government refused to issue printing permits to some online media outlets that were critical of the government. Such policies, together with antidefamation laws, inhibited independent or investigative journalism and resulted in extensive self-censorship in the print and broadcast media.
Despite these restrictions publications of opposition parties, social action groups, unions, internet news sites, and other private groups actively covered opposition parties and frequently printed views critical of government policies. Online media and blogs provided views and reported stories not featured in the mainstream press.
The government occasionally censored foreign magazines, foreign newspapers, and foreign-sourced television programming, most often due to sexual content.
The government’s restrictions on radio and television stations mirrored those on print media, and all also predominantly supported the government. News about the opposition in those fora remained restricted and biased. Television stations censored programming to follow government guidelines.
The government generally restricted remarks or publications, including books, it judged might incite racial or religious disharmony. The Ministry of Home Affairs maintained a list of 1,593 banned books. In September the government announced four new banned publications “prejudicial to public order,” including a report on torture in Malaysian prisons and a book criticizing the influence of Islam in the government.
Libel/Slander Laws: The law includes sections on civil and criminal defamation. Criminal defamation is punishable by a maximum of two years in jail, a fine, or both. True statements can be considered defamatory if they contravene the public good. The government used these laws, along with provisions against sedition, to punish and suppress publication of material critical of government officials and policies.
National Security: Authorities frequently cited laws protecting national security to restrict media distribution of material critical of government policies and public officials. In January the government blocked access to publishing platform Medium after it refused to remove an article hosted on its site about a financial corruption scandal involving the prime minister. The country’s internet regulator claimed the article would “undermine Malaysia’s social stability.”
Nongovernmental Impact: Progovernment NGOs sought to limit freedom of expression through criminal complaints of allegedly seditious speech. Progovernment NGOs also sometimes attempted to intimidate opposition groups through demonstrations. In September police detained the leader of a progovernment NGO that threatened counterdemonstrations and physical violence against the leader of free and fair election NGO coalition Bersih, after Bersih announced a November mass protest against Prime Minister (PM) Najib Razak.
INTERNET FREEDOM
The government generally maintained a policy of open and free access to the internet, but authorities monitored the internet for e-mail messages and blog postings deemed a threat to public security or order.
The government warned internet users to avoid offensive or indecent content and sensitive matters such as religion and race, and aggressively pursued charges against those criticizing Islam or the country’s royalty. In June a court sentenced a man to one year in prison after he pleaded guilty to insulting the Sultan of Johor on Facebook. In September an appeals court extended the man’s sentence to three years, to be served in a “reform school.”
Authorities also restricted internet freedom to combat dissenting views online. In January the government blocked two websites publishing documents alleging financial corruption at a state-owned development company, claiming the sites had published “false news,” which threatened national security. Local and international human rights groups claimed the law does not allow the government to block websites unilaterally and it must instead seek a court finding.
Sedition and criminal defamation laws led to some self-censorship by local internet content sources such as bloggers, news providers, and NGO activists.
The law requires certain internet and other network service providers to obtain a license, and permits punishment of the owner of a website or blog for allowing offensive racial, religious, or political content. By regarding users who post content as publishers, the government places the burden of proof on the user in these cases. NGOs and members of the public criticized the law, noting it could cause self-censorship due to liability concerns.
According to the World Bank, approximately 17 million persons (67 percent of the population) had access to the internet.
The following is provided without comment or conclusion and readers can determine for themselves where this information should lead. Having said that this writer will say that this bit of research has been prompted by the North Korean Government's almost defensive questioning of why the two women who are alleged to have administered some skin absorbent poison to Kim Jong-nam do not themselves appear to be adversely affected. Even yesterday:
The North Korean high-level delegation to Malaysia wants to know how the two women who had purportedly killed Kim Jong-nam using the highly toxic substance VX nerve agent could survive.
Kim, who was travelling using a North Korean passport under the name "Kim Chol", died on Feb 13 at KLIA2 after a chemical substance was used on him.
Citing “international chemical experts”, Ri Ton-il, former North Korean deputy ambassador to the United Nations, who is part of the delegation, in a press conference today, pointed out how the two women had used their bare hands to contain the material before applying it on the victim’s face.
“The world’s greatest question is again, the question of the two ladies – they are the ones who directly contained the liquid on the palms of their hands to apply to the face.
“They are the first ones to have contact with this material while the victim died - how did they survive?
This persistent line of questioning led this writer to look up the research on genetically modified chemicals which are said to be capable of attaching to persons of particular genetic traits. In this case the distinction is clearly between male and female, and there is in fact a very common and widely used product that can cause death in especially,males:
Death is the down side of genuine spanish fly, and the main reason it's much better to be sold a fraudulent dose than a genuine one. Even a minor overdose can lead to erections long enough to need medical intervention. Any more than that and people exhibit extreme abdominal pain, respiratory and heart problems, renal failure, bloody urine, convulsions, coma, and death. The key element to (Spansih fly )is a chemical called cantharidin.
Easy access and advanced research combined make modifications easy.It is not unlikely that the poison used on Kim Jong-nam was custom made for the purpose.
Spanish Fly is an aphrodisiac that you've probably heard of from frat house sex comedies of the 1980s. Supposedly it could be slipped into a drink to make ladies hot. It turns out it is not just a legend. This aphrodisiac does exist, but it only makes gentlemen (physically) hot. And it would also probably kill them.
The weirdest thing about spanish fly is that it actually exists. Even the name isn't entirely wrong, since it comes from a group of insects whose most well-known subspecies is called spanish flies. More generally they're called meloid beetles, or blister beetles. Wherever they are found they're used, occasionally, as aphrodisiacs. The key element to them is a chemical called cantharidin.
Cantharidin makes spanish fly metaphorically apt as an aphrodisiac, as well as practically possible. Cantharidin is why meloid beetles are also called blister beetles. It can blister skin, and is a harsh poison if ingested. Biologists believe that meloid beetles develop it in order to make themselves as unattractive to predators as possible. They secrete it as a milky fluid from the joints in their legs, and are always looking to stockpile more of it. When the insects mate, they do it in a seemingly businesslike way, with the male handing over a packet of sperm to the female, who will fertilize her eggs with it at her convenience. Females can discard packets that don't please them, and so to sweeten the deal, the males produce bonus packs of cantharidin, to allow females to cover the eggs with it and keep them safe from predators. This is called, by researchers studying the beetle, a nuptial gift. Perhaps observation of this process is what first turned people to the idea of the substance as an inducement to mating.
Cantharidin's prowess as an irritant had to be known by anyone who ever encountered the beetles. It has been used externally as a way to remove warts, moles, and tattoos. Ingestion, and even digestion, does not diminish its ability to irritate. As it makes its way out of the body, it irritates the lining of the urethra. In women, the irritation is externally unnoticeable. In men, it causes a great deal of swelling in the area. This translates into a long-lasting erection. Most likely, it is not a pleasant erection, but that didn't stop people in antiquity from giving small doses of cantharidin to bridegrooms, or taking a dose themselves in preparation for a special night. The poet and philosopher, Lucretius, is rumored to have died from an overdose of cantharidin from the meloid beetle.
Death is the down side of genuine spanish fly, and the main reason it's much better to be sold a fraudulent dose than a genuine one. Even a minor overdose can lead to erections long enough to need medical intervention. Any more than that and people exhibit extreme abdominal pain, respiratory and heart problems, renal failure, bloody urine, convulsions, coma, and death. Since there are, now, easier ways to medically induce erections, and because "spanish fly" has lost a great deal of credibility over the years, few adults get meloid poisoning these days. The cases that make medical journals are usually of infants, who are still at a stage where they will try to eat anything. The condition can be fatal, but is treatable if the sufferer comes in to the hospital. Still, if a Valentine's Day spent peeing blood at a hospital is not your idea of romance, stick to chocolates in a heart-shaped box.
