Malaysia hydropower meeting to open amid controversy

AFP 

This file photo shows a general view of the Bakun Hydroelectric Dam on the Balui River, west of Belaga, in Malaysia’s Sarawak state, on September 21, 2011. The world hydroelectric industry’s decision to meet in Sarawak where dams have uprooted rainforests and native peoples is drawing bitter fire from environmental and tribal groups.

The world hydroelectric industry’s decision to meet in a Malaysian state where dams have uprooted rainforests and native peoples is drawing bitter fire from environmental and tribal groups.

The International Hydropower Association’s (IHA) four-day biennial meeting to push “sustainable hydropower” opens Tuesday in Kuching, the languid capital of Sarawak state on Borneo island, and a highly contentious choice.

International Hydropower Association Delegates Told “Sack Sjotveit”!

Sarawak Report

Complicit in Corruption – the dossier on Sarawak Energy CEO Torstein Dale Sjotveit

An investigation by the Swiss NGO the Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) has revealed that Sarawak Energy’s Nowegian Chief Executive has handed more than US$220 million worth of contracts to companies controlled by the Taib family.

BMF therefore slams Torstein Dale Sjotveit as being “complicit” in Sarawak’s political corruption and has demanded he be sacked.

The release of the damning information in a report entitled “Complicit in Corruption – Taib’s Norwegian Power Man” comes at a high profile and sensitive moment, on the eve of the International Hydropower Association’s Conference in Kuching this week.

Singapore – friend or foe?

Mariam Mokhtar

The greatest fear of the Singapore government is a Malaysia that is better governed and less corrupt. The extraordinary events in Malaysia over the past few years, plus the courageous stand of her citizens in the last few days, has been closely monitored from across the causeway.

If the infection spreads, the pent up feelings of Singaporeans may be unleashed. The two nations have a shared history.

Singapore may be a first world nation, but when it comes to an outpouring of feelings, the Singaporeans still look up to their cousins in Malaysia.

Sarawak’s RM4.9b bonds banker Goldman Sachs facilitating corruption, says Global Witness

ZURAIRI AR

Taib was cast into the international spotlight after Global Witness released a video documentary alleging the state Barisan Nasional chief to have received millions of ringgit in kickbacks over land deals.

Goldman Sachs Inc has been flayed for underwriting RM4.87 billion (US$1.6 billion) in bonds for Sarawak’s energy corridor projects and ignoring alleged corruption in the East Malaysian state by activist group Global Witness.

However, the global investment banker has denied any mistakes in underwriting bonds for the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) project, which won it the ‘Bank of the Year 2012’ award by International Financing Review Asia for “breaking with tradition to win new business in difficult conditions”.

Smoking Gun! The Company That Links Taib To The Hong Kong Timber Kickback Scandal

Sarawak Report

The name of the company is Natalite Investment Limited and it is based in Hong Kong.

We can now reveal, after extensive investigations into the papers of Ross Boyert, the former manager of Taib’s US property company Sakti International, how Natalite Investment Ltd links the Chief Minister to the Japanese timber kickback scandal, which he has consistently denied.

Natalite Investment Ltd is one of a web of companies originally ‘owned’ by one Shea Kin Kwok, who came to fame in 2007 as the ‘owner’ of Regent Star, the company that was receiving millions in kickbacks from Japanese shipping companies in Sarawak.

Sungai Asap – BN’s Final Betrayal..

Sarawak Report

Floating church – one of the buildings that the tragic natives of Bakun have tried to save from their flooded communities..

Sarawak Report has received secret maps revealing that a planned BN announcement of land allocations for the displaced families of Sungai Asap is merely a sham.

The maps show that the 32,000 hectares that BN are proposing to offer in a pre-election gambit to win back votes are in fact gazetted as Pesu-Pelong Protected Forest Area and already belongs to other communities!

The region comprises the established Native Customary Rights Lands of three Kayan communities and also, it is believed, of one Punan community.

Tycoon dodges millions in land tax

Mark Baker

One of Asia’s richest tycoons has avoided tax on tens of millions of dollars in profits from Australian property deals over the past two decades.

Onn Mahmud – brother of the billionaire chief minister of Sarawak – has used an elaborate global financial network to export his earnings from a portfolio of Sydney commercial and residential properties worth an estimated $100 million.

In one deal, Mr Onn sold an apartment development site in Sydney’s Potts Point for $15.5 million in 2007 – realising a profit of $10.8 million. A former senior business associate of Mr Onn said no capital gains tax was paid on the deal and all of the proceeds were transferred to a trust based in the Cayman Islands tax haven.

Sarawak CM’s brother avoids millions in Oz land tax, says newspaper

MI

Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman and Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin wave Barisan Nasional flags during a pre-election campaign in Keningau in Sabah, February 22, 2013.

The Sarawak chief minister’s brother, Onn Mahmud, has been using the Cayman Islands tax haven to avoid tax on millions of dollars in profits from property deals there over the past 20 years, Australia’s The Age reported today.

The daily reported that Onn used an elaborate global financial network to export his earnings from a portfolio of Sydney commercial and residential properties worth an estimated A$100 million (RM311.8 million). A recent report also said many Malaysian tycoons and politicians have offshore accounts in the tax havens.

Onn Mahmud Is Flushed Out In Australia!

Sarawak Report

Crooked behaviour from Sarawak’s ‘leading family’ shames anyone who votes for them.

Australia’s respected Sunday paper The Age is bristling with headlines about Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s brother Onn today.

“Tycoon dodges millions in land tax”, “Dubious dealings” and “Catch him if you can, the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia’s second richest man” are the titles for a series of detailed exposes about Onn, who was Taib’s key business nominee for several years, before being exposed as the recipient of millions in kickbacks from Japanese timber exporters.

ROSMAH AGAIN! Najib under fire after wife fails to pay 2 AES traffic summonses

Alaa Soleiman

Rosmah Mansor, the controversial wife of embattled Prime Minister Najib Razak, has been caught red-handed! According to data from the Road Transport Department, the self-styled First Lady of Malaysia has not paid two traffic summonses issued under her husband’s unpopular Automated Enforcement System.

“Lo and behold, we have been lucky. Her name popped out when we did our checks! It is a clear double standard when the wife of the PM doesn’t pay the AES summonses. If the PM is so serious and confident that such a system is so good for road safety and for the public, he must ensure that every single one of the people closest to him must abide by AES,” PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli told a press conference on Wednesday.

Taib Panics And Offers Headmen A Living Wage!

Sarawak Report

Inside his Rolls Royce – fear is opening Taib’s tight purse….

What better sign of BN’s panic that they may lose this election than the frantic handouts and sudden promises of ‘projects’ that we have been seeing this week?

In 2008 the average election bribe that BN paid to poor rural folk per vote was a mere RM10.  Yet this week the timber tycoon MP Tiong Thai King was going round offering a fat RM1,000 each!

So, now people are starting to learn what these politicians can really afford and why it pays to stand up to the bullies in BN.

NCR lifeline for Sarawak’s natives

Keruah Usit

Sarawak’s maverick land rights lawyers, state PKR chief Baru Bian and his vice-chairperson See Chee How, have proposed a new model of land development for long-suffering native customary rights (NCR) landowners.

The NCR defence team, assisted by younger lawyers such as Simon Siah, Desmond Kho and Chua Kuan Ching, have won an increasing number of court cases filed by disenfranchised indigenous communities.

There are more than 200 such cases awaiting disposal in the High Court, some pending for a decade. The plaintiffs challenging the Abdul Taib Mahmud state administration are diverse: Malays in Sempadi, Bidayuh in Bengoh, Iban in Saratok, Kenyah in Long Geng, Penan in Long Lamai, Kelabit in Ulu Limbang, Berawan in Mulu and Lun Bawang in Ba’kelalan.

‘Taib is resorting to blackmail, bribery’

Joseph Tawie

Announcement of generous salary increments to local Sarawak community leaders days before the general election has upset the state opposition.

Sarawak opposition fears that the generous salary increases announced by Chief Minister Taib Mahmud could affect the results of the May 5 general election in the state.

Accusing Taib of bribery, Sarawak PKR vice- president See Chee How said: “This is really a corrupt practice committed by Barisan Nasional.

“Such an increase of salaries of community leaders just before the general election can also affect the results of the general election. ”

‘MoU destroyed Hindraf’

B Nantha Kumar

Several Indian leaders have lashed out at Hindraf’s P Waythamoorthy for signing a pact with the BN.

Several Indian community leaders claim that the signing of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) yesterday between the Barisan Nasional and a faction of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) has successfully destroyed Hindraf and its objectives for the Indian community.

“The MoU was not signed in ink but with blood of thousands of Indians who were beaten up by police during the Hindraf rally in 2007,” said S Barathidasan, secretary of Malaysian Indian Progressive Association (Mipas).

Princess Jamilah In Business Exporting Hardwood From Sarawak To The USA!

Sarawak Report

Shipping out Sarawak’s timber

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 wife Leijla and his son Sulaiman.

MACC has no comment on Taib’s ‘naughty’ remark

Hazlan Zakaria

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) continues to maintain a wall of silence over criticism levelled against it by a chief minister that it has been “naughty and dishonest” in their investigation of the senior BN politician for alleged graft.

“I don’t want to comment on that,” said the commission’s investigation director Mustafar Ali (right) when approached by Malaysiakini on the sidelines of the Corporate Governance Symposium 2013 in Kuala Lumpur today.

BN faces formidable opposition

M. Jegathesan

BN now faces the fight of its life against Pakatan Rakyat led by Anwar Ibrahim.

Malaysia today announced a general election for May 5, setting a long-awaited date for polls tipped to be its closest ever as the long-ruling government seeks to hold off a surging opposition.

Speaking a week after Prime Minister Najib Razak dissolved Parliament, Election Commission chairman Aziz Yusof said the two-week official campaign period would kick off on April 20.

Corruption watchers

KJ John

Introduction

Legal compliance of rules and regulations is a major Malaysian problem in many areas and arenas of life. There are always two sides to this problem. One is our close-one-eye culture; the other is a conscious and intentional effort by rule-breakers to avoid compliance; for reasons beyond public knowledge.

Both of these form an ‘attitude of non-compliance’ which creates a culture of ‘tidak apa,’ or ‘kesian-lah,’ or ‘bagi-chance-lah;’ all of which reflects some forms of encouragement to show mercy or show grace over the human and natural mistakes made. The only problem is that, for the rule-breakers, it is their intention to break the rules for a personal agenda or private motives.

‘Sarawak gov’t should also apologise over video clip’

Dukau Papau

Sarawak PKR today demanded that not only Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud’s cousins should apologise for their demeaning and insulting remarks against the Dayak community, but also the state government for its cruel and mindless acts against the community.

Norlia and Fatimah, the daughters of former chief minister Abdul Rahman Yakub had insulted the Dayak community with their derogatory descriptions in a covertly recorded video by London-based Global Witness.

The two sisters were alleged to have uttered that the Dayaks are “squatters” living on state land and that they have “low intelligence” which allow them to be easily exploited by businessmen.

“Princess” Jamilah! – More On The Taib Royal Family

Sarawak Report

Furs and diamonds – do they make a Princess?

Sarawak Report can reveal that Taib’s eldest daughter, Jamilah, was dubbed “Princess Jamilah” while still at college in Canada, on account of her fabulous wealth.

Fellow students at the Ottawa’s Carlton University were so amazed at the teenager’s conspicuous wealth, her designer outfits and grand accommodation, that they jokingly gave her the royal title.

The disclosure, which was made to Sarawak Report by former student contemporaries of Jamilah, adds to the Taib family pretensions to royalty that just won’t go away.

Sarawak government bond in 2011 mispriced by RM480m

P. GUNASEGARAM

A Sarawak government 15-year bond issued in June 2011 was considerably mispriced to get as much as 20% or some RM480 million of the bond value of RM2.4 billion upfront, sources said. This mirrors similar mispricing in bonds issued by 1Malaysia Development Bhd or 1MDB.

KiniBiz reported the mispricing of 1MDB bonds by as much as RM4 billion in a series of articles last week.

A check by KiniBiz shows the Sarawak bond, arranged by Goldman Sachs, was issued in three tranches by Equisar Sdn Bhd, a unit of the Sarawak state government, for money to be used  for investments in strategic development projects in the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE), the Tanjung Manis Halal Hub and the development of the biotech sector.

Taib Family Company Loaned RM1.9 BILLION By Development Bank!

Sarawak Report

Sparkling profits – daughter Jamilah Taib (left) and sister Raziah Mahmud are two of the family shareholders in Kumpulan Parabena, parent company of KP Mukah Development

A loss-making Taib family company with share capital of just half a million ringgit was granted almost RM2billion in loans last December by the Malaysia Development Bank (PBMB), which is run by the Ministry of Finance using public money.

The astonishing revelation is made all the more shocking by the fact that the Sarawak Chief Minister himself has a substantial shareholding himself in the obscure company, KP Mukah Development, which only registers half million ringgit in assets.

Sack Taib or abolish MACC, Pakatan tells Najib

SYED JAYMAL ZAHIID AND MOHD FARHAN DARWIS 

Datuk Seri Najib Razak must force Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud to resign for refusing to cooperate with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) or dissolve the agency, Pakatan Rakyat (PR) lawmakers said today. 

The leaders pointed out that the MACC would be rendered pointless if politicians accused of graft could enjoy legal immunity and refuse to cooperate with the anti-graft authority at their whim.

“Caretaker Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak should show his commitment towards fighting corruption by either demanding the resignation of Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud or else abolish the MACC.

Declare offshore firms owned, Najib, cabinet urged

Mkini

BN chief Najib Abdul Razak and his caretaker cabinet ministers should all declare whether they or their family members own offshore companies, urged DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang.

This follows Malaysiakini’s exclusive report yesterday that some 1,500 Malaysians own offshore companies in Singapore and the British Virgin Islands (BVI), which are allegedly international tax havens.

Those named in the documents obtained by the Washington-based International Confederation of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) included ministers and family members of former ministers. 

Anwar vows to stop Mokhzani’s Petronas contract if Pakatan wins GE13

CLARA CHOOI

Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim pledged last night to revoke the recent multimillion ringgit Petronas contract awarded to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s son, saying this would be one of Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) first steps to end cronyism should it win federal power in Election 2013.

Speaking at a ceramah in Taman Semarak here, the opposition leader heaped criticism against his long-time arch nemesis for allegedly reaping the riches of the country’s national oil company for his family, namely his son Mokhzani.

“First, within 24 hours of Pakatan’s swearing in, we will drop the prices of fuel for the whole country,” he said to a crowd of over 1,000 people in the Hulu Perak district township.

Politicians among 1,500 who own offshore companies

Malaysiakini Team

Top Malaysian politicians, their family members and well-heeled associates are among those owning secretive offshore companies in Singapore and the British Virgin Islands, according to an explosive cache of leaked documents.

They include former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s son Mirzan, Federal Territories and Urban Well-being Minister Raja Nong Chik Zainal Abidin and Michael Chia, the alleged ‘bagman’ for Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman.

The files, which were obtained by Washington-based International Confederation of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and examined by Malaysiakini, show more than 1,500 Malaysians owning offshore companies in Singapore – dubbed as the new Switzerland – as well as the British Virgin Islands (BVI), an international tax haven.

Is Taib Mahmud above MACC, Najib?

DAP KIT

Party supremo Lim Kit Siang said the Sarawak chief minister’s response yesterday was a slap in the face for caretaker Prime Minister Najib Razak’s purported fight against corruption.Abdul Taib Mahmud’s claim he will not cooperate with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) probe against him shows he is not only above the MACC, but the prime minister as well, the DAP says.

Najib needed to act on the matter to prove his anti-corruption credentials that he promised to uphold in signing the Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M) Election Integrity Pledge on Feb 20, Lim said in a statement today.

Taib says Global Witness video expose was ‘sneaky’

ZURAIRI AR

Taib has said that he will not co-operate with the MACC regarding graft allegations against him.

Tan Sri Taib Mahmud has challenged Global Witness to debate him on the issue of illegal land deals in Sarawak, and accused the international environmental activist group of having a hidden agenda by visiting Malaysia’s biggest state in a “sneaky way”.

He has also suggested links between Global Witness and opposition parties.

Alvin Chong’s ‘Tricks Of The Trade’ Shines Spotlight On Other Top Clients

Sarawak Report

Robbing you blind? Chong’s contempt for the indigenous people who have been cheated of their timber and land

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 owners of companies and concessions handed out by Taib.

Taib: I won’t cooperate with naughty, dishonest MACC

Hazlan Zakaria

Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud has today accused the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) investigation of himself for graft as “victimisation”, reserving his cooperation as he believes that they have been “naughty and dishonest”.

“They (MACC) don’t deserve my cooperation because they have been naughty… and they have not been honest,” he said when met after attending the BN supreme council meeting in Kuala Lumpur today.

However, he stressed that he is not afraid of being investigated by the anti-graft body.

Might as well dissolve MACC after Taib snub

The Malaysian Insider

Naughty seems to be the byword in Sarawak.

The long-serving state chief minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud used that word today to describe the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) for its investigations into alleged graft in timber land awards.

“They don’t deserve my cooperation because they have been naughty… and they have not been honest,” he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.

The MACC probe was launched after an environmental activist group released a video documentary alleging the state Barisan Nasional chief to have received millions of ringgit in kickbacks over land deals that have denuded the Borneo state.

Sabah and Sarawak rainforest graft focal point in GE13

Niluksi Koswanage, Reuters

The island of Borneo may be all that stands between Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and an unprecedented election defeat within weeks for his ruling coalition.

Borneo’s two Malaysian states – Sabah and Sarawak – have been a bastion of votes for the National Front coalition headed by Najib’s party, the United Malays National Organisation (Umno).

The two states, among Malaysia’s poorest despite vast natural resources, kept the National Front in power in 2008 even as a groundswell of support for the opposition deprived the government of its iron-clad two- thirds parliamentary majority.

That could start to change. Allegations of corruption in recent months have dogged the chief ministers of both Sabah and Sarawak, long-time rulers who hold vast sway over some of the world’s largest tracts of tropical forests.

‘Taib has written off 8 MP seats’

Joseph Tawie

The general election is no longer a battle between Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat, it’s about putting right that which is wrong, says DAP.

Sarawakians were today urged to vote for a two-party system and “end” once and for all the “political monopoly and hegemony” of Barisan Nasional.

Fuelled by Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s admission that BN could lose up to eight seats in Sarawak, state opposition DAP said a two-party system will be the “best legacy” Sarawakians could leave behind for their children.

Sarawak has 31 parliamentary seats and the opposition has made unprecedented inroads into BN’s rural “fixed deposits” and Chinese majority seats. They are confident of wresting at least 12 seats.

Sin City: ‘The jurisdiction of choice by people like us’

Tan Wah Piow

Singapore is “the jurisdiction of choice by people like us”. This boast by rogue lawyer Alvin Chong of Sarawak, caught on video by journalists from London-based Global Witness posing as investors interested in land deals, has gone viral.

The “people like us” presumably include the minions and their corrupt politicians in Asia, as well as tax dodgers and criminals who erstwhile had sheltered their ill-gotten wealth in Switzerland.

The stealth video exposes not just the rampant corruption in Sarawak, it also highlights how virgin forests are stolen from the people, and the arrogant contempt for the indigenous people by the perpetrators of such crimes. Viewers are universally shocked by the revelations.

From Global Witness to Eco Crime Watch: In The Palm of His Hand

The Editor

( Video Link inside ) As the controversial  Global Witness ‘sting’ video continues to gather steam in Sarawak, US online news channel Eco Crime Watch has broadcast a remarkable feature on alleged Taib corruption in the Malaysian state of Sarawak in Borneo.
Watch Episode 2 by US journalist Bill Paul, speaking to the Chief Minister of Sarawak Taib Mahmud, former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, founder of Sarawak Report and Radio Free Sarawak Clare Rewcastle and Bruno Manser Fonds Director Dr Lukas Straumann, at Crime Watch

Watch this Video on Hornbill Unleashed: In the Pum of His Hand