KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's self-styled Bomoh King of the World plans to contest in the upcoming general election, the Harian Metro tabloid reported on Monday (April 16).
Ibrahim Mat Zin is holding a news conference on Tuesday to announce his intention to stand in both a Parliament and State Assembly seat in Perak state, according to a circular issued by an aide seen by the newspaper.
The circular said the press meeting will be held in Ipoh at 2pm on Tuesday, with media representatives allowed into the meeting room to meet the self-styled shaman only if they have valid media passes.
Ibrahim, 67, was catapulted into the global limelight and raised mocking laughter worldwide in 2014 when, in all seriousness, he claimed that he could find the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 plane using coconuts, a 'flying' carpet and bamboo binoculars.
He conducted two rituals at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport to supposedly locate the missing flight, to no avail.
And early last year, amid tensions between Malaysia and North Korea following the February assassination of Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korea's leader, Ibrahim conducted a ritual claiming this would protect Malaysia from being attacked by the East Asian state.
A viral video showed him and three assistants ankle-deep in water with two coconuts, a pair of sticks used as binoculars, five bamboo cannons, a carpet, and a bowl of seawater.
He was charged in April last year in the Syariah Court over his "unIslamic" rituals, and claimed later that they were pure drama.
He also said that he has repented for mocking Islam.
The plan to contest the elections won't be the first time that Ibrahim had dipped his toes into politics.
In April 2013, before the May 5 polling day, a video showed him predicting that the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition would lose to the opposition alliance Pakatan Rakyat.
After a ritual, he declared, as quoted by Free Malaysia Today news site then: "Today I have seen through mysticism that on May 5 the opposition party will win 65 per cent! Barisan will not win."
The video ended abruptly.
Pakatan did win 51 per cent of the popular vote to BN's 47 per cent.
But BN won 133 parliamentary seats to Pakatan's 89 seats. – The Straits Times/Asia News Network
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