This is for people outside Malaysia to understand the Network School kerfuffle that Balaji walked himself into like a juvey, though it may also be helpful to some clueless locals.
Network School : is basically a coworking space, cum tech incubator, run by a cryptobro who wrote a book on one of those run-of-the-mill "virtualised software thingy" projects, calling it a "network state" . Instead of a cryptocurrency governed by an decentalised NGO bank, the "thingy" is ostensibly a nationstate. What's a virtualised nationstate? Well presumably it merely does all the things any common nationstate does, minus having geospatial loci - that is, until it claims a rock somewhere, or buys one from anyone else.
The klutz move here is that Balaji ( regardless of any political connections ) explicitly used the copy ( word choice ) "tech zion", to describe this. He subsequently set up Network School in Malaysia, a nation that doesn't acknowledge the legal existence of Israel because ... for the most part, though of course not comprehensively, Malaysia's citizens hate the actions of the nationstate of Israel, and Malaysian politicians are more than happy to capitalise on this issue to rally support for themselves from time to time.
A klutz move. A complete, klutz move.
Following a mid-term election cycle, where every possible issue that could be used to attack the federal government party was hauled up from the marshes, this then became a hot issue. Network School is built on a literal swamp - an artificial island and ecological disaster that has its own fascinating history in the economic development of the state of Johor. Incidentally the Johor Sultan is Malaysia's current Agung ( rotational king ), and state investments are tied up in the buildings where Network School is located.
Malaysians are understandably ( given what I've told you about them so far, even if you don't empathise ), pissed. They're even taking offense at the fact that Network School's marketing copy referred to it as located on an artificial island near Singapore instead of explicitly in Malaysia. Balaji seemed to be digging his own PR grave a little deeper by speaking as a businessman in curt public statements, instead of as a face-saving collectivist Asian.
Where is all this going? Absolutely zero Malaysian political figures want to touch this with a ten-foot-pole, given the stakeholders involved. The Johor state government, and prince, have both pointed to the Federal government as the decider of foreign policy regarding any possible "Zionist infiltrators" which might be in Network School. The Prime Minister has haphazardly announced that while previously, Israeli passports are not recognised for entry to Malaysia, Malaysia now will actively seek to identify holders of Israeli passports regardless of their other passports, and deport them - with further warning that active IDF members will be imprisoned.
Klutz nuts, all around.
