An investigative journalist remains defiant after Hezbollah supporters launched a hate campaign against him on social media.
Riad Kobaissi won a US award last week for exposing corruption in Lebanon.
In response, Hezbollah supporters launched an online smear campaign against Kobaissi accusing him of being a "foreign agent".
The Iran-backed party is a powerful player in Lebanon and one of its operatives has been convicted for the assassination of a former prime minister.
Kobaissi responded to his critics by posting a photograph of himself receiving the award from the US ambassador to Beirut.
“They’re mad? Let them be mad. Perhaps they should drink some herbal tea to calm their nerves,” he said, petting his dog in his Beirut home.
Kobaissi, 40, has become the face of the fight against corruption in a country where justice is often politicised. Members of Lebanon’s powerful elite have tried to disparage his work.
For years, Hezbollah and its supporters have launched co-ordinated media campaigns against Shiite personalities who do not support the group, such as Kobaissi. Now, supporters of the group are accusing him of being a foreign agent for accepting a US prize.
“So what if I got a prize from the US? Is America an enemy state?” said Kobaissi.
“Why should I care about what supporters of Lebanon’s ruling mafias think of me? Today the dollar is trading at 27,000 Lebanese pounds,” he said, pointing to the record low exchange rate of the local currency.
The Lebanese pound has lost more than 90 per cent of its value to the dollar since the onset of the crisis.
“How can they criticise me after what they’ve done to this country?”
He is the only Arab personality to have won the US Treasury’s prestigious Anti-corruption Champion award this year. The prize is part of President Joe Biden’s efforts to confront corruption and promote democracy around the world.
The US highlighted Kobaissi’s work uncovering corruption at the Beirut port years before the 2020 explosion as well as “gross corruption in the public sector.”
The international community and Lebanese activists have blamed the country’s economic free fall and the explosion at the port that killed hundreds of people last August on systemic corruption and neglect.
Many Lebanese see Kobaissi as a hero challenging a ruling elite that has run the country's economy into the ground.
He has uncovered corruption scandals ranging from high officials and politicians evading customs fees to multi-million-dollar offshore companies linked to Lebanon’s powerful central bank governor.
He hosts a weekly investigative show on Lebanese broadcaster Al Jadeed (New TV) that exposes the fortunes of the country's elite.
“Officials panic when they see me,” he said with a hint of pride.
He describes himself as a “controversial” journalist because he exposes the country's corrupt elite, often calling ministers and high officials live on TV to confront them about evidence of corruption.
During a live report exposing rampant corruption at the Beirut port in 2019, he dared Chief of Customs Badri Daher to confront him, taunting him with a catchphrase from the hit American series Breaking Bad.
“Badri, I am the one who knocks,” he said, eyes locked on the camera as he pounded his fist on the desk.
“You want to defend yourself, call.”
Mr Daher is now imprisoned as a suspect in the Beirut blast case.
In the two years since Lebanon’s economic meltdown, Kobaissi has become a figurehead of the country's 2019 mass anti-government protest movement, and the target of political attacks.
“I feel like a soldier on the frontline,” he said' “But I chose this job knowing the dangers.”
His investigative unit is composed of between five and seven journalists and camera crew, but he says many in Lebanon look to them and to their colleagues for the truth. Lebanese authorities failed to hold any high officials responsible two years into Lebanon's economic meltdown and one year after the Beirut port blast.
“Many Lebanese now look to us journalists for answers, not to the Lebanese state,” Kobaissi said.
“We are ruled by a talentless mafia.”
Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
German intelligence warnings
- 2002: "Hezbollah supporters feared becoming a target of security services because of the effects of [9/11] ... discussions on Hezbollah policy moved from mosques into smaller circles in private homes." Supporters in Germany: 800
- 2013: "Financial and logistical support from Germany for Hezbollah in Lebanon supports the armed struggle against Israel ... Hezbollah supporters in Germany hold back from actions that would gain publicity." Supporters in Germany: 950
- 2023: "It must be reckoned with that Hezbollah will continue to plan terrorist actions outside the Middle East against Israel or Israeli interests." Supporters in Germany: 1,250
Source: Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution
First Person
Richard Flanagan
Chatto & Windus
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Dubai Bling season three
Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5
