"Sell oil for gold", Mahathir says (frm. Malaysiam PM) tell Saudi's

Sell oil for gold, Mahathir says
Monday, January 19, 2004 Posted: 0024 GMT ( 8:24 AM HKT)


JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) -- Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has told Saudi Arabians they should sell oil for gold, not U.S. dollars, to avoid being "short-changed" by a decline in the U.S. currency.

"The price of oil is $33, but the U.S. dollar has declined by 40 percent against the euro so you're effectively getting $20," Mahathir told an economic conference in Saudi Arabia's Red Sea city of Jeddah on Sunday. "So you're being short-changed."

Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, has justified higher world oil prices by saying they are necessary to compensate for the slide in the U.S. currency.

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/01/18/saudi.mahathir.reut/

OPEC has been talking about going to the Euro...but the gold idea...is a new twist.

I thought I'd heard something about a gold-backed oil currency being talked about a few months ago.

euro...so use gold and make more money as your "reserve currency" increases in value.

he must have confidence / knowledge of curreny devaluation "globally" to make such a statement -- or he is just talking

:

Before throwing praise his way. Some would say that his screws are not tightened all the way.

I don't think he was praising him, just pointing out that it would be
a smart move to have the US pay for oil with something that has just a
little more substance then the US dollar.

The fact is that if you were selling a commodity to a country, and that country's currency was falling short, you'd think about trying
to get the value of what you were selling.

As for his screws being loose, that's subject to personnal viewpoints.
I think he's a little whacked, but if I were the Saudis I would take
the suggestion seriously.

Sure sounds like praise to me. As for the merits of his suggestion, I have no comment one way or the other.

although he was a dishonest, brutal and manipulative dictator. It's a shame that much of his intelligence is poisoned by his toxic attitude toward democracy and the west.

Just my opinion, but it could have been aggravated by growing up in an Islamic country that had been under British colonial rule for decades.

but won't be good for gas consuming U.S. - SUV drivers ...
:smoke: ...

snip>

The Islamic Gold Dinar has been in the works now for a number of years. It is used in a number of Islamic countries already but thus far its use remains small. It could soon be gaining wider usage as it is being promoted widely for Muslims to exchange their paper currency for the Islamic Gold Dinar. There are a number of Dubai-based mints and mints in other Islamic countries producing gold dinars as well as silver dinars. Malaysia adopted the currency in mid-2003 and a number of other Islamic countries are slated to join this year. It is the intention of the Islamic countries to use the Islamic Gold Dinar to replace the US Dollar for commercial transactions between their countries.

snip>

http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_04/chapmand011904.html

Yes, I know this is from a gold bug site but the question is "Has Malaysia put its money where its mouth is?". If so, and from this column it appears to be so, is this a glimpse of the future? One more thing we can thank dimson for.

To a discussion a few days ago. This was a snippet of information about the next OPEC meeting. There are a lot of signs that something may happen, I have read lots of general articles recently about the subject ( No references other than those in the link ), and IMHO I think something IS in the pipeline ( please excuse the pun.).

As well as the link below, I recommend searching DU for the keywords "dollar oil opec" from the last 3 days. There are 6 more related threads or posts.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1025778

He has been discussing the dinar, and some other related economic proposals wih several countries.

Most Americans have no idea who he is, and most who do are familiar only with his recent tendency to insert Tourette-like absurdities into very substantial speeches.

The brainfarts are the only part that get western media coverage.

Back in 1945-47, the US actually paid for Saudi Arabian oil with gold "coins" that were minted specificially for that purpose. Behold the "Saudi Arabian" ("ARAMCO") gold 4 pounds coin of 1945-47:

http://www.bernama.com/oicsummit/speechr.php?id=35&cat=BI

SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER OF MALAYSIA THE HON DATO SERI DR MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD AT THE OPENING OF THE TENTH SESSION OF THE ISLAMIC SUMMIT CONFERENCE AT PUTRAJAYA CONVENTION CENTRE, PUTRAJAYA, MALAYSIA ON THURSDAY, 16 OCTOBER 2003 AT 10.00 A.M.

24. We are now 1.3 billion strong. We have the biggest oil reserve in the world. We have great wealth. We are not as ignorant as the Jahilliah who embraced Islam. We are familiar with the workings of the world's economy and finances. We control 57 out of the 180 countries in the world. Our votes can make or break international organisations....

40. We may not be able to do that. We may not be able to unite all the 1.3 billion Muslims. We may not be able to get all the Muslim Governments to act in concert. But even if we can get a third of the ummah and a third of the Muslim states to act together, we can already do something. Remember that the Prophet did not have many followers when he went to Madinah. But he united the Ansars and the Muhajirins and eventually he became strong enough to defend Islam.

41. Apart from the partial unity that we need, we must take stock of our assets. I have already mentioned our numbers and our oil wealth. In today's world we wield a lot of political, economic and financial clout, enough to make up for our weakness in military terms.


http://www.minesite.com/archives/features_archive/2002/Aug-2002/dinar210802.htm

Western World Would Be Unwise To Ignore Proposal For Gold Dinar Currency Among Islamic Countries

Just before the Organisation of Islamic Conference which is due to take place in Kuala Lumpur in October 2003 a number of Muslim countries, led by Malaysia, propose to introduce an electronic unit of value called a gold dinar to settle bilateral trade among themselves. The plan will be rubbished by members of the Bush administration who were brought up from birth to believe in the power of the almighty dollar, but the White House should reflect on the fact that there are 1.3 billion Muslims in the world and very few of them share America’s view of the dollar. Moreover Asia was developing as an economic power house in its own right until the financial crisis of 1997/8 and many leaders in these countries believe that they were destabilised by an overly strong dollar.

http://www.moneyfiles.org/goldwar.html

Back in the heady days of the 70s oil embargoes, hostages & rising gold prices I recall a rumour going around that South Africa was paying Iran in gold for oil. Never attributed much to it at that time, but that maneuver, even if it wasn't true, could be an early precursor of what may be unfolding upon us now, twenty+ years later.

I find it notable that the 9-11 terrorists hit our financial centers in the heart of New York. It was a terrible and horrific event, make no mistake about that. If the intent was to make a statement in opposition to Yankee imperialism, they did that, for sure! But, if Osama and his family have such considerable influence with the Saudis why does the Saudi Central Bank, and other Islamic central banks continue to hold dollar reserves? Granted, we don't have an answer for that.
However, if all the Islamic countries, in keeping with muslim edicts, begin to settle their national accounts in gold - watch out! Be cautioned that the US Insider propagandists and their NY bank co-conspirators will be pointing the Homeland Security squads at the American gold owners as furnishing aid and comfort to our enemies!

Worse, if they begin to demand gold for their oil, WE'RE BROKE!

Osama might have been just a warm-up! We would not be surprised to begin seeing an increase of social unrest in these pro-gold Islamic countries as the gold cabal does its darndest to bring down regimes that are gold friendly.

on edit missed a couple of links.

Here's a picture (they kept saying it was limited to e-dinar in the beginning)


http://www.minesite.com/archives/features_archive/2003/Aug-2003/malaysiandinar010803.htm

Launch Of Malaysian Gold Dinars Pave Way ForTheir Role As A Bilateral Trading Currency.


The long promised Malaysian gold dinar is going to be launched in August. It can then be bought by the public in two sizes, the dinar and the quarter dinar, at prices of M$181 and M$51 which is equivalent to around £8 and £30 each. Later on half dinar, 2 dinar and 4 dinar coins will be made available. Great for collectors and investors, it is worth noting that the larger the coin the better leverage to the gold price as the premium is going to be only M$10 which is just under £2, whatever the value of the coin. In fact these coins are not envisaged as a currency at this stage, though the chairman of the Malaysian Islamic Chamber of Commerce in Kuala Lumpur, Tan Sri Elyas Omar, told an International Convention on the Gold Dinar last month that he believed it could be used as an instrument for international trade.

He claimed that the gold dinar in such a role would benefit third world countries."When international trade is stable and export rates stabilise, the third world countries, especially those in the Asean region, could gain from this stability." He also said that the gold dinar could be used as a commodity and a currency exchange system against the backdrop of the current world crisis and the unstable commodity prices. Tan Sri Elyas Omar went on to claim that it could also help the economic development of third world countries including Islamic countries worldwide. This is the key to the interest now being shown by a number of countries in the idea of an Islamic gold dinar. Many resent their dependence on the dollar and all that it represents in terms of third world debt, US trade protectionism and military aggression.

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/democrat/news/local/7501009.htm
This one just worried me a bit as to what it might mean to privacy and gold ownership down the road

TAMPA - Two congressmen investigating terrorist financing said Monday that they are satisfied with efforts being made to crack down on how terrorists move money through the world's banking system, but that more needs to be done to reign in their use of gold, diamonds and other commodities....

And why so many resources and blood and treasure have been spent by US business interests over the decades to keep oil-rich nations under the thumbs of scumbag dollahos and wacko mullahs.

The west could care less what horrific pre-Islamic customs regarding women prevail here or there. What they do care about is the possibility of anything resembling self-rule or democratic governments that would certainly put the interests of their own people above those of US business interests, and would almost certainly include some form of Islamic economy, which has nothing to do with half literate mullahs or burkas or amputations

:evilgrin:

"Everybody should be careful before joining the WTO because it is not all positive. It can be very negative if you don't handle it properly," Mahathir said. "They try to impose their agenda without regard for some other countries."

What you state is as close to "true" as all evidence, taken together, postulates. Moreover, the world will no longer tolerate "imperial" endeavors, no matter how intimidating the bully. The neo-cons have thrown all progress into reverse gear. They were way too arrogant to believe they could simply wage some all out war in order to dominate the earth (and imagine their children singing and rejoicing,...as suggested by their wacked-out weirdo Perle). Geez, any rational person hits a wall when considering the neo-con loyalists aim to create even more earth-destroying weapons when they already have enough within their power to blow this round body out of the system. They are extreme fanatics,...and total loonies. Someone, PUH-LEASE, take out a petition to have them housed where they belong.

Have never been in the interests of American Imperial foreign policy, and have only been buzz words for replacing the old dictator with a new puppet.

Democracy is far too unpredictable. The people are fools and unwilling to make the "right" decisions to benefit the corporations which run this country.

Those dollar fat sheiks and half literate mullahs who are allowed to currently rule had better wake up and take notice to how the US treats Good Friends like Saddam and Noriaga when they become just a bit much of a burden, or are in the way.

last night. But you said it in way fewer words. I must watch and learn. ;)

This is a good idea for bringing down the dollar and snubbing the euro. Good for stunting the growth of the both of them.

no US President or Europeans EVER steps out of line.

Those freakin' the "pie-in-the-sky" neo-cons (liberals gone rotten) won't suffer nearly as much as the rest of us. But, they will take quite a hit. That's what they get for being power-hungry, ivory-white-tower, "masters of the universe" who think they can rule the world. Arrogant assw*pes.

I don't think so. Neoconservatism developed among right-wingers in reaction against 70s liberalism.

it doesn't have to be a surprise that some of them once called themselves socialist.

,...as the genesis of the neo-consersative "blossom" :puke:

In response to JFK's call for the "best and the brightest" Somewhere along the way they both turned to the dark side.

about the growing demand for private vehicles in Malaysia and elsewhere in the Asian third world. How would Mahathir reconcile rapidly increasing prices induced by requiring gold for their oil with the needs of his country and its neighbors for cheap fuel?