Big Bullies in Sarawak

By Apang

The road leading from Jalan Puncak Borneo into Kampong Bengoh, about 1 hour’s drive away from Kuching used to be a good road. It was tar-sealed and serving the villagers well with their mainly cars.

In case you wonder where it is, Kampong Bengoh is also where the infamous water reservoir dam is being constructed to supply water to Kuching until 2030. Bengoh Dam will flood three villages – Kampong Sait, Bojong Pain and Rejoi – but all four villages, plus Kampong Semban, will be wiped out of the map before the dam is built. But only if the villagers allowed that to be. Their hundreds of years of Bidayuh history (together with the heritage or cultural value, if we care) will be gone if they were uprooted to the proposed Medan Tun Razak Resettlement Scheme few kilometers away from where they are now.

In addition to these kampongs, the road also serves Kampong Danu, another Bidayuh village. However, the section from Kampong Bengoh to Kampong Danu was still a gravel road.

With the construction work beginning late 2008, heavy machineries and trucks began plying this basically rural feeder road. What is puzzling is not the road being damaged severely – tar-sealed road now resembles war zones with two sections narrowed when the road foundation literally slides due to the weight of the trucks passing by while the gravel-section of the road between Kampong Bengoh and Kampong Danu is now a muddy road after a downpour – but how it is being left at such devastating state for so many months and with no government intervention.

There is a primary school serving the Bengoh and Danu folks while the once peaceful Bengoh village has since been overwhelmed by outsiders. Danu is physically out of sight of the dam-building area. The dam sub-contractor has their mainland China workers living in the area while their exploited Bangladeshi and Indonesian cheap labor are grouped onto site-accommodation.

The outsider is huge while the villagers are tiny indeed!

Just who are the biggies?

Not funny that there is no typical signboard of “Project Kerajaan Barisan Nasional” can be seen anywhere though. Perhaps it can’t be there now because the dam is being built by a China company while the majority of workers are migrants. Then top it all, the Malaysian Rakyat is the pay master.

Back to the road conditions.

The pictures here tell you more than any words can be written here. But what is not visible is the danger that villagers face nowadays. But then the villagers are mere small people, not important enough for the Barisan Nasional government. In fact they are collectively so small that together, they will still not be able to vote out the Barisan Nasional sitting Assemblyperson, least of all the government.

As for the company, not the actual dam builder of course, but the one which was awarded the contract. It is the mighty Naim Cendera. It is, after all, headed by the Sarawak Chief Minister’s first cousin, Hamed Sepawi. This same cousin also is in several more companies and at least four public-listed giants – Naim Cendera Holdings Berhad (Chairman), Ta Ann Holdings Berhad (Executive Chairman), Sarawak Energy Berhad (Chairman) and Sarawak Plantations Berhad (Executive Director). So the personnel and the company are huge, politically and financially.

The company information of the big four tells of them being real huge indeed. There are several huge shareholders as the various sections from the companies’ annual reports as filed with the Kuala Lumpur Stocked Exchange indicate. Some are known individuals, like Sarawak Plantation Berhad Director Umang Nangku Jabu, whom Sarawakians can relate to the Jabu name, being the daughter of Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister, Alfred Jabu. Then there is also the former Sarawak State Secretary and brother-in-law of Sarawak Chief Minister, Aziz, who is in Sarawak Energy Berhad. But there are others who are not so known, yet.

This piece starts of with the known Hamed Sepawi.

Individuals and Companies are real huge

Sarawak Plantation Berhad (as per 2007 annual report)

Ta Ann Holdings Berhad  (As per 2008 annual report)

Naim Cendera Holdings Berhad (As per 2007 Annual Report)

Sarawak Energy Berhad (As per 2008 Annual Report)

So how big are the biggies?

Let’s just leave all the other names aside, for now, while we just focus on one name – Hamed Sepawi. It is not that others are not worth sharing – on the contrary as there is another biggie who is worth knowing, but that is for later.

As a family member of the Sarawak Chief Minister, he is very well connected, right to the top. Being Chief Minister and the Minister in charged of resources, in which lands are but one, and rights to log is another, Ta Ann is the logging, timber and plantation arm of Hamed Sepawi. He holds 20,102,152 direct and 54,409,460 indirect shares in Ta Ann, totaling 74,511,612 shares or 34.74% of the company. At the close of the market on 30 April 2009, Taann was worth RM3.30 per share, thus valuing Hamed Sepawi at RM245,888,319.6

The once Sarawak Land Development Board plantation company has since been privatized as Sarawak Plantations Berhad. At the end of year 2007, Hamed Sepawi held 81,623,424 shares, having sold 45,844,326 in the same year. Taking the 30 April 2009 market price close at RM2 per share, Hamed Sepawi was worth RM163,246,848 in the company.

In Naim Cendera, the properties and construction businesses, Hamed Sepawi holds 12,150,000 direct and 27,992,700 indirect shares in the company. That totals 40,142,700. At the close of the 30 April 2009 market, its share was at RM1.50 per share, thus making Hamed Sepawi worth RM60,214,050.

Last but not least, Hamed Sepawi has 800,000 of shares with 500,000 in option in Sarawak Energy Berhad. The corporatised Sesco is now under the Sarawak Energy Berhad which is a public listed company. This is also the developers of the recently announced 12 hydro dams over Sarawak. Let’s just assume the option has not been exercised and at the 30 April 2009 market price close of RM2.01 per share, it is a cool RM1,608,000.

In total, Mr Hamed Sepawi is worth a total of RM470,957,217  just from this four known public listed companies. Other non-listed companies known to be under Hamed Sepawi include those in the oil and gas industry, another big industry. It is also known that Mr Hamed Sepawi is involved in the wiring up of Sarawak in the telecommunication industry too.

So can we conservatively say he is worth at least RM500 million?

Wow, Mr. “Half a Billion” in Malaysia.

So big is huge indeed. As for the village folks and those few who were tricked into accepting some form of compensation, which combined to be mere RM1-2 millions, it is tiny when compared to just Mr Hamed Sepawi.

No wonder the roads into Kampong Bengoh and Danu stay as damaged as they are.

p/s: Hornbill Unleashed invites readers to email us at hueditor@gmail.com with leads and or other specific information on individuals involved in the above and other companies so that we know more concretely about the Sarawak biggies.

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