Indonesia, not Malaysia.
There are approximately 20-30 earthquakes per day on the earth as big or bigger than this one in California. Any day you have a M7+ quake in the world, you're going to randomly have a bunch of 4.5 or so unrelatedquakes in other places in the world.
I'ts not that there's NO WAY they're related, it's just very unlikely because you don't need an exotic explanation for a 4.5 in California.
Well, I may sometimes disagree with you, but at least I’m listening.
No one is arguing that there is a direct connection between the faults there and here.
But the impulse of the quake over there has potential to disrupt something here.
In general, I would argue that any zone which is prone to a quake is at higher risk if another large or great quake happens somewheres else on the globe.
West end of a big plate take a big jump, why shouldn’t the east end of the same plate readjust? Japan started it. Or something even smaller.
Can’t remember if Indonesia’s on the Pac plate boundary or on an adjacent chip.
Still, I’d expect to see adjustments all around a given plate when one part of it releases a lot of energy. No proof, no facts, just a gut call.