Has BN the moral authority to govern Negeri Sembilan?

Has BN the moral authority to govern Negeri Sembilan?


4 hours ago
Minderjeet Kaur


Can menteri besar Ismail Lasim form a government?

Yang Dipertuan Besar Tuanku Muhriz Tuanku Munawir’s recent dismissal of the entire executive council has left Negeri Sembilan in limbo.

Menteri besar Ismail Lasim has been left to run the administration alone, relying on civil servants to keep the machinery of government moving.


At the Aug 1 state election, Barisan Nasional won 18 of the 36 state assembly seats on offer, one short of an outright simple majority—and was only propped up by support from PAS.

Initially, Jalaluddin Alias—the man who led Umno’s withdrawal of support for the previous administration—was tipped to take over as MB. However, it was Ismail who was sworn in, with Jalaluddin overlooked even for a seat on the 10-man exco lineup.


Ismail himself has been mired in controversy.

Soon after pledging his allegiance to Tuanku Muhriz, he signed a proclamation seeking the ruler’s removal, then disavowed it on grounds of coercion, before affirming it again—this time unanimously with the rest of his exco.

That last act was enough for the entire exco to be sacked on grounds of disloyalty to the ruler, leaving Ismail the last man standing.

Ismail may have survived the cull, but was his own conduct proper? Does he still have the moral authority to remain menteri besar?


Even if he clings to office, Ismail cannot form a functioning exco. His entire 10-man team has already betrayed the ruler and been sacked. Surely, they cannot be reappointed.

With Jalaluddin presumably not in contention, Ismail is left to choose from the assemblymen he originally bypassed. But do Negeri Sembilan voters deserve a government of second-choice leaders?


Previous legitimacy crises

Malaysia has faced constitutional turmoil before.


In 1977, Kelantan plunged into crisis when PAS clashed with Umno, prompting an emergency and suspension of the state assembly. In 2009, Perak’s defections sparked a bitter legal battle over who commanded the confidence of the house.

In both cases, governance collapsed when legitimacy was in doubt.

So what of Negeri Sembilan today? Who will debate land policies, laws, and budgets? Who will table motions, approve bills, and scrutinize expenditure? Who will raise constituency issues on behalf of voters?


Time to face the truth

The reality is stark. BN, despite its numbers, has no clear path to government and stability. In any case, Negeri Sembilan’s people deserve better.

The time for political games is over.

Either dissolve the assembly and return the mandate to the people, or accept that only a unity government can salvage what remains of Negeri Sembilan’s dignity.

Anything less would be a betrayal of the state and its citizens.



The writer is a senior journalist at FMT’s English Desk.

 

Israeli barrier cuts off water to West Bank Palestinians before elections

Residents of Ras al-Ahmar say Israeli restrictions have cut access to water, animal feed, healthcare, as military barrier reshapes Jordan Valley.

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Residents of Ras al-Ahmar, a rural Bedouin community, were forced to carry goods at night on donkeys, away from the eyes of Israeli soldiers and settlers [Moath Ghannam/Al Jazeera]

By Fayha Shalash

Published On 2 Oct 20262 Oct 2026

Saeed Ayed* watches over his livestock herd. The animals are starving and parched due to a two-week-long Israeli siege on the Ras al-Ahmar Bedouin community in the occupied West Bank’s Jordan Valley.

Access to the community has been blocked since mid-September, as Israeli forces continue building a barrier through Palestinian land in the area, including a road for military patrols, trenches and embankments.

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Since the road closures began, movement for Palestinians has been severely restricted. They are forced to move around at night, transporting water, fodder and milk via donkeys under the cover of darkness to avoid detection by Israeli soldiers and settlers.

Ayed told Al Jazeera that no water had entered the community over the past three days after Israeli forces sealed the access points residents had been using to bring in supplies.

“The situation is dire. We are completely besieged, and the livestock cannot survive without water and food for this long,” Ayed said. “We own 15,000 head of livestock, and we fear they will perish because of the siege.”

Ras al-Ahmar is a 300-person village home to around 50 families who have lived off livestock and herding since the 1970s. Ayed said that Israeli settler attacks – part of a wider pogrom against Palestinians across the West Bank – had intensified since February, accusing settlers of trying to force residents out to seize their land.

“We have faced livestock theft, attacks on our dwellings, beatings of residents and vandalism of our homes. This was happening almost daily, yet we refused to leave. Now, they are completely besieging us to force us out,” he added.

The greatest challenge facing residents is restricted access to medical care as a result of the siege, a particular concern for the elderly.

Disease is also rampant among livestock, particularly newborn animals. And with veterinary teams unable to reach the area and treat the animals, deaths have been reported.

The military barrier – which Israel calls Crimson Thread and says it is needed for security – runs for roughly 20km (12 miles) through the northern Jordan Valley, with a width of up to 50 metres (165 feet).

Construction expanded early this year, including the digging of trenches and the bulldozing of agricultural land that damaged wells, water networks and greenhouses. The Israeli military seized nearly 115 hectares, 85 percent of which is privately owned Palestinian land, according to Kerem Navot, which monitors Israeli land policies in the West Bank.

Abdullah Bisharat, head of the village council of Ras al-Ahmar and Atuf, a nearby rural area also facing the military blockade, told Al Jazeera that the Israeli blockade has stopped 51 schoolchildren from attending classes for two weeks because vehicles can no longer reach them.

Israeli forces confiscated a tractor belonging to the village council on Sunday, detaining its driver as he was delivering animal fodder and water to Ras al-Ahmar, Bisharat said.

“We reached out to human rights organisations, but unfortunately no one was able to break the siege. Hundreds of people there are suffering, the majority of whom are women and children,” Bisharat added.

A trench dug by Israel around the rural Bedouin community of Ras al-Ahmar has restricted their movement [File: Moath Ghannam/Al Jazeera]

Broader context

The targeting of Bedouin and herding communities in the Jordan Valley is part of a mounting pressure campaign on residents to abandon their properties by restricting access to land and pastures. The tactics include settler violence, the demolition of structures and the closure of roads and access points.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has described Bedouin and herding communities as among the groups most vulnerable to displacement in the West Bank. Dozens of Palestinian communities across the West Bank have been entirely or partially displaced since 2023, when Israel began its genocide in Gaza and ramped up its attacks on the West Bank after the October 7 Hamas attack.

OCHA has reported that at least 130 Palestinian communities have experienced full or partial displacement since January 2023, with 48 communities completely displaced, including 12 from January to August.

According to OCHA, more than 2,500 Palestinians were displaced in 2026 due to settler attacks and related access restrictions, out of a total of more than 6,400 displaced since 2023.

As the Israeli elections – scheduled for October 27 – approach, Palestinian analysts and rights advocates argue that the measures being implemented on the ground are entrenching a new reality that may persist regardless of the next government.

Hassan Mleihat, chairman of the al-Baydar Organization for Defense of Bedouin Rights, told Al Jazeera that settlers appear to be rapidly intensifying measures aimed at displacing Bedouin communities in the lead-up to the elections.

Mleihat said that Israel’s objective was to expel as many Palestinians as possible and seize control of their land.

“The road being constructed near Ras al-Ahmar aims to dominate the area’s land under security pretexts and to isolate Palestinian communities into tiny geographical pockets, effectively confining their presence there,” he said.

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Latin America sees China as more positive global influence than US: Poll

Annual Latinobarometro survey finds views of China’s influence improving as perceptions of US influence worsen.

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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva shakes hands with Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Brazil [File: Adriano Machado/Reuters]

By AFP

Published On 2 Oct 20262 Oct 2026

China is perceived more positively as a global influence than the United States in Latin America, according to a new regional survey, in a first since the poll began in 1995.

The 2026 Latinobarometro survey published on Friday found that 65 percent of respondents in 17 countries saw China as a positive influence. That was compared with 57 percent who said the same of the US.

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Support for China has risen sharply since 2020, when 48 percent of respondents viewed its influence positively. The figure for the US has fallen from 60 percent over the same period.

Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic were the only countries surveyed where respondents viewed US influence more positively than China’s.

Latinobarometro, a Chile-based nonprofit organisation, conducts annual surveys across the region on issues including democracy, the economy, security and migration.

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The findings come during US President Donald Trump’s second term, as his administration has sought to strengthen Washington’s influence in Latin America, particularly through exercising more military might.

That has included conducting strikes on alleged drug smuggling boats in the region, which rights groups have decried as extrajudicial killings, and abducting Venezuela’s then-leader Nicolas Maduro in Brazil.

Trump has described his approach as the “Donroe Doctrine”.

Despite the findings on global influence, the US remained more popular than China when respondents were asked about their overall views of the two countries.

Some 63 percent of respondents said they had a favourable opinion of the US, compared with 58 percent for China. The US figure was down from 73 percent in 2024.

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The survey also asked respondents about the US military capture of Maduro.

A majority in all but one country, Argentina, approved of Maduro’s capture by US forces.

Views were more divided over what the operation meant for Venezuela, with 35 percent saying removing Maduro had benefitted the country and 28 percent saying it had harmed it.

Venezuelans were among the populations most likely to view US influence positively, according to the survey.

The 2026 survey was based on about 19,200 face-to-face interviews conducted in 17 countries between May 7 and June 17, with a margin of error of 1 percent.