The UK-based NGO Global Witness has responded to Taib Mahmud’s bizarre offer to debate with them about the corruption and land grabbing under his regime in Sarawak. And their answer is “yes”. During an election period this will most likely leave opposition leaders like PKR’s Baru Bian and DAP’s Chong Chieng Jen somewhat amazed. Both […]
Taib Mahmud has vehemently denied that his Canadian daughter Jamilah and his other family members do business in Sarawak. However, we can show that for decades they have been exporting hardwood straight from the jungles of Sarawak to the USA! Also involved in the family export ring are Taib’s brothers Onn and Tufail, his late
Sarawak top lawyer, Alvin Chong, handily detailed his favourite tips for evading tax and the law on camera the other day. He thought he was briefing a prospective client, who turned out to be an investigative reporter. Chong’s practices are known to be widespread in Sarawak, especially using “nominees” to hide the real identities of
The people of Julau who saw themselves victimised on the devastating film expose by Global Witness last week have come out in fury to protest at the secret disposal of their Native Customary Rights lands to Taib’s family members. PKR front-runner in the area, Andy Wong, made a police report on the 23rd of March, followed
One of Britain’s top newspapers, The Independent, has reported that the adventure film maker Ben Fogle has just pulled out of his contract promoting Sarawak ‘eco-tourism’. In a front page story, followed by a double-page spread, the paper leads with the headline “How Sarawak Made A Monkey Out Of Ben Fogle”. Fogle had allowed himself to
Huang Lung Ong is the lawyer who was caught on video representing the Hii family in their attempt to sell the 32,000 hectares of forested land licensed for plantation under their company Billion Venture. Sarawak Report can now further reveal that this lawyer appeared to be withholding crucial evidence from his prospective buyer…
The people of Sarawak are still digesting the arrogance of the Abdul Rahman sisters, revealed in the Global Witness expose on the land grabs this week. Two of the eight sisters, who own companies given NCR land by their cousin the Chief Minister, explained in a secretly recorded interview how they consider their relationship with
The strain on Taib was there for all to see yesterday, after the corruption video exposing his family and his entire regime went viral. Speaking to journalists on camera yesterday a rambling Chief Minister attempted to appear jovial and easy-going, but his anger was barely concealed. First he tried to gag the Global Witness, in
For three years Sarawak Report has been detailing week in and week out the outrageous theft and destruction carried out by Taib Mahmud and his family against Sarawak and its people. We have been called liars and all our evidence (mostly obtained from public records) has been denied. Lawyers have been hired to accuse us;
Recent statements from new investors in OM Holdings have exposed the Chief Minister’s shocking lack of concern over polluting industries in the state. OM Holdings is the Bermuda based company, which Taib has invited to invest in a vast manganese smelting plant in Simalaju, in return for giving his own family company CMS a 20%
[Ben Fogle was a British ‘reality TV star’ some years back – we send him this open letter on his recent trip to Sarawak] Dear Ben Fogle, We have been watching your breathless reports in Hello Magazine, along with the various press releases and Twitter placements about your recent brave adventure into the jungles of Sarawak…
Malaysia and Sarawak and Sabah all gained democracy at the same time as independence. That means that the people are in charge and the politicians are named ‘servants’ of the people like they are in Britain and America and other democracies. These politicians have fixed salaries and should expect to be changed every few years
One of the penalties of being a top timber tycoon is that your Chinese New Year celebrations are each year ruined by the arrival of Taib Mahmud, demanding his usual ‘Ang Pow’. This year as Taib makes his annual descent on Sibu the Chief Minister will be demanding double dues to pay for an election
The pained expressions of these poor landowners from Beluru say it all. The Borneo Post described them as an “elated lot” as they were forced yesterday to parade before the cameras holding up monster cheques promoting ‘dividends’ from their oil palm ‘joint venture’. In fact their shame and humiliation is plain for all to see.
The Chief Minister’s cousin, Hamed Sepawi is one of Malaysia’s richest men. He has achieved this status due to the lavish handouts made to his various companies by the State of Sarawak, thanks to decisions by Taib himself. Hamed has received vast timber and plantation concessions and huge contracts, through Tan Ann, Sarawak Plantation, Naim
Taib’s cousin, the logging tycoon and key political figure Hamed Sepawi, has been booted out of the African country Liberia by a Presidential decree to halt corrupt and illegal logging. It makes for another blow to the Sarawak potentate’s international reputation, following condemnation this week in the Swiss Parliament. Sepawi’s company Perkapalan Damai Timar (PDT)
The growing international understanding of Taib’s style of corrupted and kleptocratic (thieving) government is reflected in an opinion piece published this week by Australia’s Canberra Times. The article criticises the “destruction of the Borneo Rainforests” and Taib’s “Great Leap Forward” plans for 12 mega-dams: “There is method in the madness. As critics repeatedly point out,
Sarawak Report has learnt that campaigners can claim victory after statements yesterday by Hydro Tasmania boss, Roy Adair, pledging that the company is withdrawing from its guiding role over Taib’s mega-dam projects. Adair, who had till recently enthused over Hydro Tasmania’s partnership with Sarawak Energy’s programme of up to 50 dams to power Taib’s ambitious
Freedom of information requests in Australia have recently brought to light the full, unedited interview of SEB Board Member and spokesman, Idris Buang, by the TV programme Dateline, about Sarawak’s mega-dam plans. And his arrogant and incautious remarks, which disparage the native way of life of many of Sarawak’s indigenous tribes, have brought gasps of
NCR landowners in Sampadi have learnt the hard way how nothing can be trusted in the hands of BN, with party top dogs now fighting with each other to get hold of their lands. In July a group of 12 villagers from Kampung Gerunggang had decided to sell some of their NCR (Native Customary Rights)
The Taib family’s Australian company, Ta Ann Tasmania, is fuming because protestors held up their saw mills for some hours on Monday and again on Wednesday, by chaining themselves to the conveyor belts. Ta Ann’s spokesperson claimed that the world should be “outraged” and that the passive male and female protestors from the group Groundswell
The UK’s top selling paper the Daily Mail has also taken up the recent report condemning HSBC for bank-rolling Taib’s greedy destruction of Sarawak’s rain forests. The NGO Global Witness has released a major analysis showing how the bank, which claims to apply ‘green’ principles to its lending criteria, has nevertheless provided lending to such
Last year Mahmud made a big fuss, calling Sarawak Report liars for drawing attention to the fact that he has destroyed nearly all of Sarawak’s rainforest. We had said that less than 5% of the primary jungle remains and even that is now being cut down. But the Chief Minister went on record to deny it
A recent Dateline Australia programme, Last Frontier, addressed some issues of indisputable public interest and concern in both Tasmania and Sarawak. It examined policies in those countries that will affect the lives of tens of thousands of people and destroy some of the world’s remaining forest ecosystems. In short Dateline investigated the plans to flood
With his constituents in revolt over the theft of their lands and destruction of their bridge by loggers, State Assemblyman Snowdan Lawan made an obligatory visit to Balai Ringen yesterday. But, he then hid in the police station and refused to come out and speak to the protestors outside! “There were at least 200 people
