M’sia Day marred by whiff of graft, clamour for secession

Keruah Usit

Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud has been shaken by the recent announcement of a probe by the German government into his financial deals with Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest bank.

Three European environmentalist and human rights NGOs hadtriggered the investigation by writing to Chancellor Angela Merkel, urging her to freeze the Taib family’s assets in Germany.

The NGOs – the Bruno Manser Fund, Society for Threatened Peoples and Rainforest Rescue – alleged Deutsche Bank provides a respectable front for company assets owned by Taib and his family in North America.

“Deutsche Bank International’s Jersey and Cayman branches are administering the Jersey-based Sogo Holdings Ltd, through which several illicit Taib family assets in the US are held,” the NGOs claimed in a joint statement. “In Malaysia, Deutsche Bank is running joint ventures with Cahya Mata Sarawak (CMS), the Taib family’s business flagship, under the names of K&N Kenanga Holdings and Kenanga Deutsche Futures.”

Deutsche Bank has offices in Kuala Lumpur and Labuan. The bank has been seeking to expand its private banking network to rope in ever wealthier multimillionaires such as Taib. This is despite the bank struggling with a US government lawsuit accusing it of having misled investors, and with a British Serious Fraud Office investigation into its alleged misrepresentation of asset-backed securities.

Taib, Premier Najib Razak and Deutsche Bank have not commented on the German government’s investigation into alleged money-laundering: it appearsTaib and Najib continue to hope that the German and Swiss financial regulators’ attentions will simply blow over.

Taib postpones Baram dam

At home, Taib has also been stirred by local protests into suspending plans to build the ambitious Baram dam. Kayan, Kenyah and Penan locals angrily opposed his plans for forced resettlement of some 20,000 natives for the construction of the dam.

Taib’s spokesperson, and second minister at Taib’s omnipotent natural resources and planning ministry, Awang Tengah Hassan (right), announced last Friday that the government would first build the Baleh hydroelectric power (HEP) dam, upstream from the notorious Bakun dam in central Sarawak, before taking on the Baram dam.

“The beauty (sic) of the Baleh HEP is that it would not affect the livelihood of many people, making it easier to implement as very little resettlement would be involved,” he gushed, according to a local daily.

Awang Tengah conceded that building the Baram dam would require extra social studies, in apparent reference to the lack of any meaningful social impact assessment (SIA) or environmental impact assessment (EIA) on the Baram dam.

The EIA and SIA, required by law for each of the twelve mammoth HEP dams planned by Taib’s administration, are all jealously guarded secrets. Local environmentalists say these studies were conducted over two decades ago, and were simply airbrushed to provide impetus to these ‘mega projects’.

The Baram dam was destined to be another windfall for loggers granted access to the vacated native lands, and construction companies awarded contracts for the dam. CMS, and other companies owned by members of Taib’s family, have already prospered from past dam contracts.

But Taib must have been unnerved by an open revolt, including scathing condemnation by grassroots NGOs such as the Orang Ulu National Association, Borneo Resources Institute Malaysia, Baram People’s Protection Committee, Sahabat Alam Malaysia, Sarawak Indigenous Lawyers’ Alliance, Sarawak Native Customary Land Rights Network (TAHABAS) and the pan-Malaysian Natives’ Network (Jaringan Orang AsalSeMalaysia).

The natives’ protests were even covered in the supine local press.

Sarawakian NGO activists say the deferment of the Baram dam has more to do with the proximity of the upcoming 13th parliamentary election, than with any official concern over social impact niceties.

Taib needs the rural vote to deliver as many seats as possible for Barisan Nasional (BN) from the 31 being contested, in order for BN to continue to allow him a free hand in his personal fiefdom of Sarawak – a demand he is confident of satisfying.

Demands for Sarawakian independence

Malaysia Day on Sept 16 this year will, as is the case every year, see a resurgence of calls for Sarawak’s secession from the Malaysian federation. The facelessness of the Internet has encouraged growing numbers of political commentators to express their frustration with the lopsided socio-economic disparities between Sarawak and the peninsula.

These demands for Sarawakian independence have traditionally been considered a seditious offence. The secessionist sentiment certainly strikes a chord in the hearts of many Sarawakians, though they hesitate to express it openly.

Yet the fact remains that few, if any, Sarawakians would have the stomach to take up arms for this secessionist sentiment. Since the primary urge of any nation is to conserve and expand its territory, any open secession movement would inevitably be met with armed force.

Over the past four decades, local Sarawakian BN strongmen Abdul Rahman Ya’kub and his nephew Taib have been heavily reliant on federal force and logistical support to remain in power.

Abdul Rahman (right), Taib’s predecessor, was installed as Sarawak’s third chief minister in 1970 by Abdul Razak Hussein, Malaysia’s second prime minister. Razak had earlier removed the popular, but eventually outmanoeuvred, Stephen Kalong Ningkan, Sarawak’s first chief minister, in 1966, replacing him briefly with a seat-warmer, Tawi Sli.

Local political blog Hornbill Unleashedoutlined the history of those frantic days of musical chairs in Sarawak’s top office in 1966.

“The Supreme Court declared Ningkan’s dismissal unconstitutional. Acting PM Razak rushed to Kuching and tried to arrange a quick no-confidence vote. Ningkan managed to block that, so Razak declared a state of emergency. My, how easy. Then Razak changed the federal constitution, and sacked Ningkan for good. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

Can modern day secessionists still believe Sarawakian (or Sabahan) independence can be achieved? An effective and clean local state leadership, elusive until now, is an obvious prerequisite, but clearly lacking among the inept BN leaders groomed by Taib.

Perhaps the younger leaders from the state opposition DAP and PKR can persuade urban voters to give them a chance, now that Pakatan have promised Sarawakians 20 percent petroleum royalties, instead of the current measly 5 percent, and greater political autonomy.

Economic benefits aside, a genuine two-coalition democracy at federal level would certainly provide greater political openness. This would then offer opportunities to improve the competitiveness and quality of local leadership, and reverse some of BN’s propaganda and political brainwashing of rural Sarawakians, aimed at keeping them subservient to BN.

Taib’s era is coming to an end, after more than 30 years at the helm. His sons are ill equipped to continue the mini-dynasty established by Taib and his uncle Abdul Rahman. There is no love, nor respect, lost between Taib and Najib, since they appear to consider each other a liability.

Taib faces growing pressure from local opponents because of his boundless appetite for land acquisition, and now he faces corruption investigations in Europe.

But in the run-up to this Malaysia Day in 2011, it is still far from certain whether Sarawakians will be able to grasp this opportunity of a weakened Taib, to make a fresh start, and seek a kingmaker’s influence in a two-coalition federal system – or remain on the margins.

KERUAH USIT is a human rights activist – ‘anak Sarawak, bangsa Malaysia’. This weekly column is an effort to provide a voice for marginalised Malaysians. Keruah Usit can be contacted atkeruah_usit@yahoo.com