IAmNotABritishExpat

Different people say different things. Those days (pre election) people were passing out craps just to bring down UMNO.

According to someone anonymous (from Singapore), he says Forest City is a strategic move by principal investors to lock tourism potential needed to sustain the viability of High Speed Railway (HSR). In other words, "in his opinion", Forest City is one of the most brilliant move by the certain investors to tap into huge money (financing) from wealthy ones.
What Dr M says today may not apply in years to come, he will be history by then, initially he underestimated the genius of UMNO strategists. Put plainly, Forest City was meant to support the viability of HSR. Visa is no big deal, those can be classified as investor visa, or even multiple-entry visa. Or even tourist visa staying in "hotel", the size of Forest City. No problem even for mainland China. The current politicians (members of parliment) were too dumb to figure that out. Well, just an opinion which begs to differ from the rest. What is obvious to him is just the stupidity of glamour seeking clowns (Bull Shxt PH think thanks) claiming to be wise. I tend to agree. It shows the wisdom of Bangsa Johor. I salute the Sultan!

RedApe

"Visa is no big deal, those can be classified as investor visa, or even multiple-entry visa. Or even tourist visa staying in "hotel", the size of Forest City. No problem even for mainland China. The current politicians (members of parliment) were too dumb to figure that out. Well, just an opinion which begs to differ from the rest."

Malaysian Federal government determines visa policy, and Federal Immigration (except Sabah and Sarawak) is also Federal. Feds could establish a policy that those on tourist visas can't buy property. Or deny visas to anyone that resides long-term (say > 30 days) or purchases a unit in a development that has more than, say, 50% non-citizen residents. Or one could set up a quota system. No more than 30% of the residents from any particular foreign nation. Johor has a lot less options than you seem to think.

eCdD

Sure, but if Putrajaya declares "war" on Johor this is a suicide game. All will lose and all will lose dramatically. My guess for the future is that everything will calm down after Dr M steps down

RedApe

700,000 foreign immigrants by 2050 seems like a lot and is serious. That's 20% of Johor's population.
A sense of scale- 40,000 MM2H applicants have received visas over the last 15 years. It would be the Federal Ministry that would be expected to handle the Visa applications.
To me it seems entirely reasonable that the Federal Government play a regulatory role. That's not a war...unless of course the Sultan demands the right to control immigration. I don't think Anwar (or any future government BN or Pakatan) would allow Johor to go ahead with such a project. There will be serious scaling down, in my opinion. Maybe by an order of magnitude.

IAmNotABritishExpat

Scaling down? Not quite!
"Raja Kamarul added that more than 93 per cent of Forest City homes have been sold to foreigners to date. " quoted here:
https://www.malaymail.com/s/1688926/...est-city-homes

As for immigration, it is international zone, akin to a massive cruise parking near a "jetty". No big deal for the Sultan, and by right, Johoreans, since the non-citizens are not entitled to own local land freely. Misinformation, I would say. MM2h families do not ncessarily stay at those place.

Some see Forest City as just another "Australia" shrinked to the size fitting the neighbourhood, Australians (international waters if you dont mind, or even "airspace" just like another airplane) could probably understand better in that context. Again, it just "hearsay" but sensible ones from anonymous Singapore friends.

regards

RedApe

Who granted the "international status"? Actually there is no such thing...it's received "duty free status", which Penang and Labuan had several years back. This status was issued by the Federal Government. But the area is still under Malaysian sovereignty...police, immigration, housing, education, etc. are all under the control of the Federal Government. It's not like a "Radio Caroline", "Radio Luxembourg" or some North Sea Pirate Radio Station. It's definitely not a transitory cruise ship.

Your thinking that forest city is in "International Waters" is an illusion. The boundary between Singapore and Malaysia is well established...and Forest City would have to be created on some distant reef in the South Chine see to even potentially constitute a site that fell into International Waters (Terra nullius, in International law). That would be well beyond Pedra Blanca...

In terra nullius ALL States have the right to fish, extract resources, overfly, lay cables, navigate through (including military shipping containing nuclear weapons), undertake research, etc. Are you actually claiming that Malaysia has eternally ceded these rights.

And precisely how are these residents of this massive stranded "tour boat" supposed to get to Gilligan's Island? By air-drop? Would they not have to come in and leave by Iskander? Would Singapore set up ferries and immigration/customs facilities for them? Would those ferries not have to transit established Malaysian waters?

"The standard definition for absolute sovereign rights is 20 miles from any established land area (including coastal islands) or - where there are two or more contending parties for those coastal waters, then the mid-point between them. The parties may modify these by treaty. The Convention on the High Seas was used as a foundation for the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, signed in 1982, which recognized Exclusive Economic Zones extending 200 nautical miles from the baseline, where coastal States have sovereign rights to the water column and sea floor as well as the natural resources found there.

"Some see Forest City as just another "Australia""

"Some"...who? What authority do they have? Singaporean friends? Is the Sultan of Johor creating a sovereign state...like Australia. A separate military, judiciary, police, oh...and don't forget coinage and postage stamps ;-) Who recognizes this state? Hearsay...I say bulldada. There's no legal authority for your statements...and I don't think Australians are daft enough to think that Forest City would be governmentally or politically similar to Australia.

If Singapore wants to create some land-fill area within its national waters and cede it to "international waters" then that's their business. But Forest City was definitely in Malaysian waters, and subject to Malaysian FEDERAL authority (which includes any termination of "duty free status" offered by a previous PM).

stij19

SushiFan

The snail mail is not very fast in Malaysia. So, likely you will see online that your application has been approved before you'll actually receive the approval letter.

stij19

SushiFan

I don't know whether you have to bring the original document which they will send you by snail mail. In my case was all paperwork handled by an agent: I didn't attend the visit to Putrajaya where the MM2H visa was put in my passport.

stepen

you need that original approval letter. threat it as gold, you might need it for 10 years to come.
first you need it when going to the bank to setup the fd.

IAmNotABritishExpat

I admit what I wrote is controversial and was based on hearsays, nothing authoritative. Sorry, everyone. Thank you Red Ape for catching me off-guard.

StillSearching

I was told in MM2H office in KL that approvals for the applications with the numbers above 37000 are suspended until they decide what office is going to handle the approvals.

If you receive MM2H in KL, you are allowed to live anywhere in Western Malaysia. Just keep in mind that Kuala Lumpur and Penang are very polluted because they started burning recycled plastic. Malaysia became the “trash can” for developed nations since a Chinese ban on waste imports from the beginning of this year. Plastic that is unsuitable for recycling is burnt, which releases toxic chemicals into the atmosphere. Or it ends up in a landfill, potentially contaminating soil and sources of water. The stench of burning plastic and fumes from nearly a dozen recycling factories wafts through the neighbourhood. The situation is getting worse, especially with more and more illegal plastic recycling factories. You can read about this in "Plastic waste industry worth RM30b" (in themalaysianreserve) and there is a good article in reuters "Swamped with plastic. Malaysia struggles as global waste piles up".

Epicurious

Interesting. Maybe there's a turf war going on between MoTaC and Home Affairs/Immigration, or maybe the new Govt is slow to make up its mind.

stij19