Readers discuss the cross-border effort targeting the syndicates behind Cambodia’s scam farms, Malaysia’s first fully home-grown EV, and the investigation into the Tai Po fire in Hong Kong
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Online scams are a defining transnational threat of our time. Across the world, families, businesses and governments are losing money, data and security to sophisticated cross-border criminal syndicates. In Southeast Asia, these networks have moved rapidly across borders, preying on citizens at home and abroad.
Cambodia is a victim of these crimes, not a beneficiary. Many compounds uncovered here were run by foreign criminals who trafficked workers from over 20 nations, including Cambodians, lured by fake job offers. They are confined, stripped of their passports, forced to work long hours, and threatened with violence if they refused to commit fraud. Such crimes drain billions from economies, traumatise victims and undermine trust in Asean’s vision of a secure, integrated digital economy.
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Cambodia has never tolerated such crimes. Under Prime Minister Hun Manet, the government is acting decisively to dismantle them. In July, the prime minister issued a nationwide directive requiring all governors, police, military, immigration and judicial authorities to treat cybercrime as a national security priority, with removal for those who fail to act.
Since then, Cambodia has launched operations to raid scam compounds, rescue trafficked victims, deport foreign criminals and arrest the ringleaders. Phnom Penh’s dedicated Anti-Scam Task Force and authorities across the country are dismantling financial and logistical networks that support organised crime.
Yet no country can confront this challenge alone. These syndicates operate like multinational corporations: their servers may be hosted in one country, ringleaders based in another, and illicit funds routed through multiple jurisdictions to evade detection.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations is responding. Member states have convened a Working Group on Anti-Online Scams to strengthen regional cooperation to combat scams. In September, Asean ministers adopted a declaration on cybercrime and online fraud and began drafting a regional action plan (2026-2035), elevating online scams alongside terrorism and piracy as top security threats. At the 46th Asean Inter-Parliamentary Assembly in Kuala Lumpur in the same month, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia co-sponsored a resolution calling for harmonised legislation, stronger oversight, improved victim protection, and better information-sharing across Asean legislatures.
Beyond Asean, Cambodia is strengthening cooperation with China, Japan, Australia, South Korea, the US, the UK, the EU and embassies across Asia. Joint efforts are rescuing victims, identifying ringleaders and disrupting financial flows.
Cambodia is confronting cybercrime head-on. We will continue to lead within Asean and call for deeper global cooperation. Cybercrime does not stop at our borders, neither should our resolve.
Suos Yara, chairman, Commission on Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and Information, National Assembly of the Kingdom of Cambodia
Malaysia’s home-grown EV deserves applause
There is a passage in Robert Frost’s poem where the traveller stands at a fork in the woods, contemplating two paths. One is worn smooth by countless footsteps; the other, “grassy and wanting wear”. The speaker chooses the latter, and that, he tells us, “has made all the difference”.
Malaysia witnessed its own crossroads moment earlier this month. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim unveiled the Perodua QV-E, billed as the first 100 per cent home-grown electric vehicle (EV).
The easy path was obvious. Proton’s e.Mas EVs are built on Geely platforms – proven technology, minimal risk. In an era when turnkey EV platforms are readily available, that choice would have surprised no one. Instead, Perodua started from scratch, co-developing a platform with Austria’s Magna Steyr. It invested US$180 million and over 100 local engineers.
There is a Malay proverb, genggam bara api, biar sampai jadi arang, or “hold the burning ember until it becomes coal”. Perodua held on, creating an ecosystem rather than importing one. In a culture that rewards safe bets, the company took the harder path because it believed Malaysians capable of more than assembling other people’s ideas.
Syed Alwee Alsagoff, Selangor, Malaysia
Hong Kong should look into fire’s chimney effect
Thank you for publishing the details of the building and the factors that may have contributed to a chimney effect that allowed the fire to spread quickly.
Multiple failures have been highlighted in this case, but from what I saw, the huge inferno shooting upwards could not have happened because of the netting or the foam boards alone. With an official probe now under way, I hope investigators will look into all aspects that contributed to such a chimney effect, including the design of the building.
It would appear that the fire spread to the public corridors and inside the flats through glass windows that were either broken or already open. The requirement in Hong Kong that kitchens and bathrooms must have a window should be reviewed. This requires the design of many light wells. If these light wells are full of combustible material at the bottom, there will always be a risk of fire.
Too many light wells will leave the corridors unprotected. I have worked in the building industry in America, mainland China and Hong Kong. Only Hong Kong had building designs like this. In the US and on the mainland, corridors are mostly in the interior core of the buildings and fully protected from the elements.
Franklin Tseng, Tsim Sha Tsui
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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.
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