2016 IS GOING TO BE A HARD YEAR FOR MALAYSIANS

It is not the RM2.6 billion that these rich Arabs gave Najib that is going to bring the world to its knees. It is the hundreds of billions that they have been giving and are continuing to give to fund the war in the Middle East. This is what is going to determine what happens next year in 2016. And whatever happens in 2016 is not going to be good.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

2016 is going to be the year of the monkey. Monkeys are mischievous and full of trickery so we can expect a ‘naughty’ year ahead of us. Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has already warned that Malaysia stands to lose about RM30 billion next year due to the drop in the price of oil.

Some countries have announced that if the price of oil drops any further it is going to be very uneconomical to continue to produce oil because the production cost is going to be higher than the selling price. It would, therefore, be more viable to stop production and wait until the price goes up again.

Malaysia will need to go on an austerity drive like it once did in the mid-1980s during the time of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. The government will have to revisit Budget 2016 and see what it can cut from that budget. Certain projects may have to be scaled back or postponed like what the government did 30 years ago.

Anyway, that will be for Najib to figure out and that problem comes with the job. What Dr Mahathir did 30 years ago is he cut his coat according to the cloth. In other words, reduce spending and cut back or defer development projects. We really need to tighten our belts but maybe in a way this would be good. The government can then trim the fat without cutting into the bones and Malaysia will becomes leaner and hence much healthier.

Of course, Dr Mahathir and the anti-Najib forces are going to blame Najib for this. They are going to say he mismanaged the country. The fact that in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s Malaysia went through the same thing and that this is the fourth downturn cycle since Merdeka is going to be ignored. It is still going to be Najib’s fault. They might even pin the blame on 1MBD or the RM2.6 billion.

The European Union (EU) Resolution on the 1MDB scandal, among other matters, means that it has joined other global bodies including Transparency International and media as well as investigators from Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, UK and USA, to censure the Malaysian Government on the scandal, said Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim in a statement. (READ MORE HERE)

The impression being given is that the entire world is united against 1MDB and Najib. It appears like it is the only and most important issue in the world today. Actually, the 1MDB issue is not even mentioned in the world press. What is mentioned are the 20 million refugees from the Middle East who are trying to get into Europe and how the price of oil is collapsing for the same reason — the war in the Middle East region.

Europe is under attack in more ways than one. Some European countries are almost on war alert. So if the European Union really wants to do something it should tackle this problem rather than focus on 1MDB, which is not a threat to world security or to the world economy.

They are uptight about the RM2.6 billion that the Middle Eastern donors gave Najib. That RM2.6 billion is not threatening the peace and security of the entire world or is causing the collapse of the oil price or is threatening the economy of many countries, Malaysia included. It is the money that the Middle Eastern donors give to finance the war in the Middle East that is the real problem. Is the European Union not more concerned about this?

For years America’s allies in the Middle East such as Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, etc., have been funding the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Yes, for years, and it is a far greater figure than the RM2.6 billion that they gave Najib in 2013.

This was what one US intelligence report said:

A key component of ISIS’s support came from wealthy individuals in the Arab Gulf States of Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Sometimes the support came with the tacit nod of approval from those regimes; often, it took advantage of poor money laundering protections in those states, according to officials, experts, and leaders of the Syrian opposition, which is fighting ISIS as well as the regime.

“Everybody knows the money is going through Kuwait and that it’s coming from the Arab Gulf,” said Andrew Tabler, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “Kuwait’s banking system and its money changers have long been a huge problem because they are a major conduit for money to extremist groups in Syria and now Iraq.”

In 2014 the Iraqi Prime Minister openly accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar of funding ISIS. And this is what NBC reported:

A small but steady flow of money to ISIS from rich individuals in the Gulf continues, say current and former U.S. officials, with Qataris the biggest suppliers. These rich individuals have long served as “angel investors,” as one expert put it, for the most violent militants in the region, providing the “seed money” that helped launch ISIS and other jihadi groups.

No one in the U.S. government is putting a number on the current rate of donations, but former U.S. Navy Admiral and NATO Supreme Commander James Stavridis says the cash flow from private donors is significant now and was even more significant in the early fund-raising done by ISIS and al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, the al-Nusrah Front.

The U.S. believes ISIS is taking in about $1 million a day from all sources. The largest source of cash now, say U.S. officials, is oil smuggling along the Turkish border, with ISIS leaders willing to sell oil from conquered Syrian and Iraqi fields for as little as $25 a barrel, a quarter of the going world price.

Now you know why Russia and Turkey are at loggerheads. Russia accuses Turkey of buying this cheap oil and hence helping to push the price down. And that is why the price of oil is now $25 instead of $100. And because of that Malaysia is going to face problems next year when the country loses RM30 billion.

So this is the problem that the European Union should focus on, not focus on 1MDB. Apart from the low price of oil that is going to demolish the economy of many countries, there are the 20 million refugees who are going to flood Europe plus the tens of millions more over the next few years if the problem prolongs.

It is not the RM2.6 billion that these rich Arabs gave Najib that is going to bring the world to its knees. It is the hundreds of billions that they have been giving and are continuing to give to fund the war in the Middle East. This is what is going to determine what happens next year in 2016. And whatever happens in 2016 is not going to be good.

So tighten your seat belts, put your seat upright, put your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye, because we are going to crash land and crash land real hard at that.

Oh, by the way, Turkey is the best friend of Anwar Ibrahim so does Anwar have anything to say about this? Or is Anwar going to pin the entire blame on the Malaysian Prime Minister instead of the Turkish Prime Minister for helping to collapse the price of oil?