More Japanese retire in Malaysia
Since last year’s earthquake, tsunami and resulting nuclear crisis it is quite understandable that some Japanese may question whether their homeland is a good place to grow old. Some are clearly deciding it isn’t and are taking advantage of a program started a few years ago called Malaysia My Second Home, or MM2H for short. Figures published last week show that Japanese have overtaken Iranians in buying second homes in Malaysia. The number of Japanese participating in the program more than doubled from 195 in 2010 to 423 last year. Chinese jumped to second place last year with 405 applications approved. The Iranians, who topped the list from 2008 to 2010, dropped to third place last year and are running in fourth place so far this year.
South Korea may resume tours
Shooting vacationing visitors is usually not a good way to promote tourism, and so it proved for North Korea in 2008 when a trigger- happy soldier killed a visiting South Korean housewife at the Mount Kumgang resort. The resort was financed by the South’s Hyundai Asan company and opened in 1998 as part of Seoul’s “sunshine policy” aimed at seducing the Pyongyang regime out of its belligerent isolationism. But with the best will in the world, Seoul could not ignore the murder of the housewife, and visits by southerners were suspended. Pyongyang, in typical fashion, responded by scrapping a deal with Hyundai and seizing its assets at the resort. But even though Pyongyang has always hated current South Korean President Lee Myung- bak, who is equally disdainful of his predecessors’ “sunshine policy,” there is talk of reopening tours to the Mount Kumgang resort. South Korea’s Unification Minister Yu Woo- Ik said last week the Seoul government will consider resuming the tours if Pyongyang gives a firm guarantee of the safety of tourists.
Gilani won’t be disqualified
The legal trials of Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani appear to have been overcome for the moment. In April, the Supreme Court found him in contempt for failing a court instruction to reopen corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari. Although the court exacted only the most minimal of penalties from Gilani — he was held in custody for a few minutes until the court rose — the question was left hanging of whether or not his conviction disqualified him from continuing as prime minister. First, the Speaker of the National Assembly Fehmida Mirza came to Gilani’s aid by refusing to forward the Supreme Court’s reference to the Election Commission of Pakistan. Then, last week, the National Assembly passed a resolution supporting the Speaker’s ruling and refusing to disqualify Gilani.