Full of class Ibrahim Ali calls MCA a "bloody fool party". "Basket!"

Written by Wong Choon Mei, Malaysia Chronicle

As usual, Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali blamed all and sundry for the avalanche of objections raised against his self-proposed and sponsored Ibrahin Ali Leadership Award for selected UiTM students, but reserved the crudest remarks such as "stupid and bloody fool party" for the MCA.

“What is MCA Youth secretary-general Chai Kim Sen's right to oppose? Who is he? What has this got anything to do with MCA? UiTM is for Malay and bumiputera students. So what? I don't care," Ibrahim told the Internet protocol television (IPTV) station e-TV program.

"Who cares? Where is the so-called human rights? Where is the democracy they are talking about? Democracy only for them? Human rights only for them? Basket! Put it on air, I don't care, I don't even lose one sen."

No votes for you, MCA

Trying to explain the fine line between language befittting a Member of Parliament, of which Ibrahim is one, and a sheer lack of finesse usually exhibited by the uncouth is perhaps too arduous a task.

Moreover, the 60-year Ibrahim may have motives other than anger to direct at the MCA, which is known to be UMNO's whipping boy.

Although the Pasir Mas MP denies it, most people believe he acts on behalf of UMNO, the ruling party and BN boss. Perkasa patron is Mahathir Mohamad, the former prime minister and ex-UMNO president. Most of Perkasa's members come from the right-wing section of the Malay nationalist party.

Indeed, Ibrahim made sure to hammer once again into MCA's consciousness that it could only win in 'mixed' constituencies and due to Malay support for UMNO, and not the Chinese community.

"If these members don't vote for MCA, what will happen?... I think it is a bloody fool party, stupid and bloody fool. So is it wrong? They all want to disturb, even the internal affairs of others, shameful lah, really, they are basket!” said the Malay-rights rabble-rouser known for his sledgehammer mouth.

Trying to shed his Clown image

Ibrahim had intended to gift his alma mater with the award so as to motivate young Malays to share his self-professed passion for the community. The award is meant to commend students with proven record of having “clear and consistent” principles in upholding their ethnicity. UiTM's student body is mostly Malay.

Ibrahim's critics also say he saw the Award as a way to overcome his own bad image and regain some credibility as a serious leader. It is not an exaggeration to say that most Malaysians see Ibrahim as a first-class Clown.

Nonetheless, in his venom against the hapless MCA, Ibrahim revealed the precise reasons why the greater objections to the Award had actually come from the Malay community itself, rather than the Chinese.

Malay leaders - old and young - raised a stink after news broke that UiTM had called for nominations. The strength of the objections and the insulting nature of many of the comments have embarrassed Ibrahim deeply, unceremoniously knocking him off his self-imagined hero's perch.

"The comments were clear. The Malays themselves call him a disgrace to his face. The UiTM management is having second thoughts because the reaction was so strong. If they decide to cancel the award, how malu (or shameful) for Ibrahim. So as usual, our friend must politicise the issue. He must find a place to throw the blame, so of course, the Chinese lah," PAS leader Hatta Ramli told Malaysia Chronicle.

No class

This was the crux of the objections against allowing Ibrahim to be endowed with such an honour, even though he is paying the RM5,000 annual cash prize from his own pocket.

Many Malays have said his behaviour, attitude and sheer bad-heartedness should be never be emulated or be aspired to by the young, unless the Malays wanted their own children to self-destruct.

However, Ibrahim explained away the protest from his own community as "jealousy".

He cited his "clean" record of activism over the past 30 years as justification for such an honour, which is likely to be rejected by the UiTM management when it meets to make the final decision on Friday.

“Because I'm too active, organising things sometimes in a big way, there are people who are jealous of me. Just for nothing, they are jealous of me. What the hell are these people talking about? The award is from me. I donate my own money just to give to any student who is credible, so what?" said Ibrahim.

“If they are not happy, they create their own award lah. Because this is all jealousy. You see, all these came from PAS and the opposition and they are shameful, have no class."

A victim of jealousy

Ibrahim also claimed a chaste background of never having been involved in any corruption or sex scandal. Yet, few politicians hold much respect for the dimunitive leader, who only climbed out of obscurity last year due to the controversy over the Allah issue.

Ibrahim has a chequered past and apart from his noisy speech is most famous for his party-hopping ways. He has been sacked from UMNO previously and even contested under the PAS banner for his current term as MP. He soon dumped PAS and is now an Independent in Parliament. Many in the political arena have given the nickname 'katak' or frog to poke fun at his quickness to switch allegiance.

But of course, Ibrahim doesn't see it that way. As far as he is concerned, it is him who is popular and the others who are "jealous" - another of his favourite terms to describe those who cross swords with him.

“When I was in Umno, when I cooperated with PAS, anywhere I go, not only those from opposition parties, even Umno friends are also jealous of me. I don't want to be popular, but it became that way so I become a victim of jealousy,” Ibrahim said.

Betting $4.8 billion on a U.S. default

By Annalyn Censky @CNNMoney

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- With its winners and losers, Wall Street is often likened to a big casino for obvious reasons. And even when it comes to a possible U.S. default next week, at least a few financial players are looking to cash in on such a bleak turn of events.

A small camp of investors are betting that the U.S. government will default on its debt, and they're putting $4.8 billion of their chips on the table.

In the event of a default, that's how much financial firms will have to pay out to investors who bought credit default swaps against the U.S. government, according to figures from the Depository Trust and Clearing Corp.

With only a week to go until the government breaches its debt ceiling, are these few investors likely to come away with the winnings of a lifetime?

Probably not, experts say.

"I think we're a long way away from considering this hypothetical [case]," said Otis Casey, director of credit research at Markit.

Debt ceiling: What happens if Congress doesn't raise it?

A credit default swap, or CDS, is basically an insurance contract against a default, and in this case, $4.8 billion is quite meager in comparison to what those on the other side of the bet are putting down.

Private investors -- including everyone from individual consumers to hedge funds to the Chinese government -- currently hold $9.3 trillion (with a T!) in Treasury bonds, and they're counting on Uncle Sam paying up when those contracts mature.

But if they're wrong to count on the "full faith and credit of the U.S. government" and the U.S. stops paying bondholders principal and interest, Treasury investors could lose some of those funds.

In contrast, the small group of CDS investors could demand payment from the investment banks that sold them their "insurance" contracts.

0:00 / 4:28 Debt debate puts job growth on 'pause'

Even then, the U.S. would have at least three days to make up for missed debt payments before banks would have to pay out to CDS holders, said Steven Kennedy, spokesman for the International Swaps and Derivatives Association.

CDS contracts typically have a three-day grace period, he said. Plus, even though 1,037 CDS contracts are currently held against the U.S. government, they all expire at varying deadlines. (CDS contracts typically cover a 5-year period.)

Debt ceiling fight: What a downgrade would mean

Kennedy also points out that even if a major ratings agency declared that a default had occurred, various criteria would still have to be met before what's known as a "credit event" occurred under the CDS terms.

The definitions of default by the rating agencies and under the CDS contracts are "two different animals" he said.

When considering CDS, a default happens only if the U.S. were to stop paying principal and interest to its bondholders, refuse to acknowledge its bond contracts or restructure its debt.

Even then, CDS holders would still have to jump through hoops to get paid. They would have to file for an official review from the ISDA Determinations Committee to determine whether a credit event has in fact occurred.

That board currently includes 15 of the world's largest financial firms, including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank and others -- which don't exactly have an interest in a U.S. default.

If a default actually happened, these banks would be dealing with bigger problems of their own -- including a financial crisis so massive it could quite possibly bring them down, said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

"Everyone is so heavily dependent on U.S. Treasuries that we would certainly see a Lehman-type freeze-up or even much worse," he said, likening credit default swaps against the U.S. government to taking out insurance against a nuclear bomb.

"Only a fool would think that this covered his financial bases," Baker said in a blog post.

The cost of buying a CDS swap protecting against a U.S. default was at a 0.6% premium Tuesday.

While that price has risen from 0.52% premium at the beginning of the month, it's still at a level that shows traders view Treasuries as a very safe bet, Casey said.

In contrast, it costs a 16.45% premium to insure against Greece's junk-rated debt.

US to Oppose Palestinian Recognition at UN

The United States has made clear it will oppose a possible Palestinian bid for state recognition at the United Nations this September. The Palestinians might seek such recognition because they are frustrated with the lack of progress in direct peace negotiations with Israel.

During the final public discussion in the U.N. Security Council about the Israeli-Palestinian situation before the U.N. General Assembly meets in September, U.S. Deputy U.N. Ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo emphatically stated that Washington will not support any bid by the Palestinians for recognition.

“Let there be no doubt: symbolic actions to isolate Israel at the United Nations in September will not create an independent Palestinian state. The United States will not support unilateral campaigns at the United Nations in September or any other time," she said.

The United States is one of five veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council, and it is the 15-member council that recommends states for U.N. admission to the General Assembly for approval. Without that recommendation, a state cannot be admitted to the United Nations.

The Palestinians are considering going to the General Assembly first to try to achieve a two-thirds majority or more from the 193 nations, hoping to pressure the United States not to veto their request if they can muster broad international support.

Ambassador DiCarlo said there are no “short-cuts” to a two-state solution. She said a viable and sustainable peace can only be achieved through mutual agreement between the Palestinians and Israelis on outstanding issues.

But efforts to restart talks between the two parties have been stalled since late September following Israel’s refusal to extend a 10-month freeze on settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour seized on the settlement issue, saying that is the “biggest unilateral illegal action” and that the Palestinian bid for recognition is a very multi-lateral action.

“We thus continue to appeal for recognition of the State of Palestine based on the pre-1967 borders," he said. "We are convinced that the more than 120 bilateral recognitions of Palestine to date are each a reaffirmation of our inalienable right to self-determination and our natural and legal right to statehood and to be a part of the international community.”

But Israel’s U.N. envoy, Ron Prosor, said the split within the Palestinian leadership means even the most basic condition for statehood does not exist.

“The Palestinian Authority does not maintain effective control over all its territory, nor does it hold a monopoly on the use of force. The Hamas terrorist organization still maintains de facto control in Gaza,” said Prosor.

Later, the Palestinian envoy told reporters that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians inspired by the Arab Spring sweeping the region could take to the streets to peacefully demand their right to self-determination, a voice he did not think the international community could ignore.

Africa famine experts: 800,000 children may die

(AP) DADAAB, Kenya - Mihag Gedi Farah is 7 months old, and weighs as little as a newborn with the weathered skin of an old man.

His mother managed to get him to a field hospital in a Kenyan refugee camp after a weeklong odyssey, but the baby's anguished eyes, hollow cheeks and fragile limbs show just how severe Somalia's famine is becoming.

Officials have warned that 800,000 children could die across the Horn of Africa, and aid workers are rushing to bring help to dangerous and previously unreached regions of drought-ravaged Somalia.

U.N. races aid to Somalia famine victims

Mihag's sunken face brings new urgency to their efforts and raises concerns about how many children like him remain in Somalia, far from the feeding tubes and doctors at this Kenyan refugee camp.

His fragile skin crumples like thin leather under the pressure of his mother's hands, as she touches the hollows where a baby's chubby cheeks should be.

Sirat Amine, a nurse nutritionist with the International Rescue Committee, puts the little boy's odds of survival at just 50-50. Mihag weighs just 7 pounds, 8 ounces when a boy his age should weigh nearly three times that.

"We never tell the mother, of course, that their baby might not make it," the nurse says. "We try to give them hope."

Mihag is the youngest of seven children in his family. His mother brought him along with four of his siblings on the journey from Kismayo to northern Kenya after all their sheep and cattle died because of drought.

Like the tens of thousands of other Somalis fleeing starvation, the family traveled by foot, other times catching rides with passing trucks, cars or buses.

His mother, Asiah Dagane, isn't sure of her age but appears in her mid-30s. She sits at her baby's bedside with little to say: "In my mind I'm not well. My baby is sick. In my head I am also sick," she says softly.

The United Nations estimates that more 11 million people in East Africa are affected by the drought, with 3.7 million in Somalia among the worst-hit because of the ongoing civil war in the country.

Somalia's prolonged drought devolved into famine in part because neither the Somali government nor many aid agencies can fully operate in areas controlled by al Qaeda-linked militants, and the U.N. is set to declare all of southern Somalia a famine zone as of Aug. 1.

Aid organizations including the U.N. World Food Program have not been able to access areas under the control of the al-Shabab militants, who have killed humanitarian workers and banned the WFP.

The U.N. has said it will airlift emergency rations later this week in an effort to try and reach at least 175,000 of the 2.2 million Somalis who have not been helped yet.

The new feeding efforts in the four districts of southern Somalia near the border with Kenya and Ethiopia could begin by Thursday, slowing the flow of tens of thousands of people who have fled their homes in hope of reaching aid.

But the WFP hasn't operated there for more than two years, and must find and rehire former employees to help with distribution. Transportation is also a substantial obstacle, as land mines have severed key roads and a landing strip has fallen into disrepair.

Donations are also desperately needed to sustain the aid effort in the Horn of Africa: The U.N. wants to gather $1.6 billion in the next 12 months, with $300 million of that coming in the next three months.

On Wednesday, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said a coordination conference is due to be held Wednesday in the Kenyan capital.

Norway killings: Mysterious group called the Knights Templar

Scotland Yard’s domestic extremism unit is attempting to track down the anonymous members of the “European Military Order and Criminal Tribunal” of the Knights Templar.

By Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent

Oslo killer Anders Behring Breivik wrote that the group’s aim was to attempt to “seize political and military control of Western European multiculturalist regimes” and to “try, judge and punish Western European cultural Marxist or multiculturalist perpetrators for crimes committed against the indigenous peoples of Europe.”

Using the Latin phrase “pauperes commilitones christi templique solomonici” meaning the “poor fellow-soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon” the Knights Templar declared themselves “re-founded” in London in April 2002 by representatives from eight European countries, according to Breivik.

They declared they were a “pan-European nationalist military order” and a “military or criminal tribunal” which aimed to establish an “armed Indigenous Rights Organisation” and a “Crusader Movement” to fight Islamist jihadists.

At two separate meetings in London “as a security precaution”, the founding members met and established their 100 year plan to seize political power in Western European countries currently controlled by “anti-nationalists” and said their mantra “Martyrdom before Dhimmitude” [surrender to Islam]

Among those listed as attending by Breivik were an “English Protestant” described as the host, an “English Christian atheist” and others from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Greece and Russia.

Later in his “compendium” Breivik wrote that in April and May 2002, he was “one of two who are asked to create a compendium based on the information I have acquired from the other

founders during our sessions.”

“Everyone is using code names,” he added. “Mine is Sigurd (the Crusader) while my assigned mentor is referred to as Richard (the Lionhearted). I believe I’m the youngest one here.”

Breivik, who was 23 at the time, said he scribbled down more than 50 full pages of notes at the London meeting, much of them incorporated into his book.

“It was basically a detailed long term plan on how to seize power in Western Europe,” he said. “I did not fully comprehend at the time how privileged I was to be in the company of some of the most brilliant political and military tacticians of Europe.”

A second meeting also attended by British extremists was “like a training course for pioneer cell commanders,” he added.

Most of them were successful entrepreneurs, business or political leaders, some with families, most of them Christian conservatives but also some agnostics and even atheists, he added.

“We were not instructed to attack specific targets, quite the opposite. We were encouraged to rather use the information distributed to contribute to build and expand the so called ‘cultural conservative anti-Jihad movement,’

“Everyone was encouraged but at the end, it was their own decision how they decided to manifest their resistance... A large successful attack every 5-12 years was optimal depending on available forces,” he added.

Breivik said he had a “relatively close relationship” with an Englishman, who became his mentor.

“He was the one who first described the ‘perfect knight’ and had written the initial fundament for this compendium,” Breivik wrote.

“I was asked, not only once but twice, by my mentor- let’s call him Richard - to write a second edition of his compendium about the new European Knighthood.

“As such, I spent several years to create an economic platform which would allow me to study and write a second edition and as of now, I have spent more than three years completing this second edition.”

The original Knights Templar were founded during the Crusades of the 12th century and some of their lands in London were later rented to lawyers where two of the four Inns of Court for barristers are known as the Inner Temple and Middle Temple and where the Temple Church, formerly the location for Templar initiation ceremonies, still stands.

The Templars are also associated with the Freemasons, founded in London in the 18th century, and Breivik was himself a mason, he revealed in his diaries.