Ibrahim Mat Zin, or Raja Bomoh, has repented of his coconut-bearing ways – confesses that they were all for show.
The self-proclaimed world shaman VIP king didn't see the police coming to arrest him at 2.30am in Segamat, Johor. The octogenarianLet's take a look at some of his 'contributions' to the society, shall we?
Going coconuts over MH370
In March, the Shaman King came to the airport to conduct his rituals. The first involved him using bamboo shoots as binoculars while he looked into a fish trap in order to 'locate' the plane. The King said the plane was being held in a land inhabited by elves and he was doing everything he could to free the craft. (He would later say the plane was in a parallel realm, and that the passengers could still be alive.)
The next day, he brought several assistants who sat on a carpet, with one holding up the now infamous coconuts. The coconuts were meant to 'break the barrier in the land of the elves'. There was a comparison made by satire site, Pusat Aduan Haiwan 1Malaysia, between the VIP and P. Ramlee's comedy movie, Laksamana Do Re Mi.
His majesty's many magnificent acts
He claimed that he was a descendent of Datuk Maharajalela and was a fifth-generation decendant of a line of shamans. He also claimed to have helped many influential people and that his acts began when he was only 10. His other claims include:
1. Calling spirits from the tsunami that struck Malaysia's east coast in 2004.
2. Locating the bodies of the victims of the Highland Tower tragedy in 1993.
3. Weakening the black magic cast by Mona Fendy so that the judge would be able to conduct his case against her in 1996.
His other acts of protection
He most recently performed rituals to protect Malaysia from North Korea. He used coconuts (he's nuts for them) and meriam buluh in his rituals by the beach which "fences the air, earth, and water so that missiles will go missing and not reach Malaysia."
He also performed rituals outside the Institut Perubatan Forensik Negara at HKL, where he whipped out his bamboo shoots (no, that's not an euphamism), and used them as binoculars – once again, to protect the country.
Also, who can forget, his ritual using watermelons to rid Malaysia of hot weather in March of 2016. Is the media also partly responsible for his increasing efforts to test the laws of sanity? Maybe.
It was all just an act?
After being recently apprehended, he has since done a complete 180 and has renounced his Raja Bomoh title. He claimed that "someone" asked him to conduct the rituals but didn't seem to elaborate on who asked him to spew the garbage he has been saying for the past three years.Though he said he was sorry, he failed to take responsibility for his actions and instead claimed he was manipulated by a foreign figure that trained him and instructed his every move.
"All of it was drama, the shaking of the bamboo sticks. I couldn’t see anything inside it. I was told to shake the sticks. I took the coconuts as if they were bombs. I didn’t know what I did was wrong,” he told reporters at a press conference.
Jawi director Hj Abd Aziz bin Jusoh told The Star Online that Ibrahim was found guilty by the Kuala Lumpur Syariah Court on Tuesday for insulting Islam and causing people to have a negative perception of the religion.
He was investigated for conducting the aforementioned 'watermelon ritual'. Sure, watermelons are crossing the line, but bringing global media attention via magic carpet is a-okay.
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His reign of lunacy may have been short-lived but the damage he has done to our country's image is irreparable. Perhaps next time, when a man shows up at the airport, with bamboo shoot binoculars, maybe ignore him? Maybe don't give him the time of day, and perhaps, we can get back to things that actually matter.