- Stop the racist politics of suspicion and hate in the country
- The 2013 election results: back to the drawing board for both coalitions
- Spewing a poisonous brew on the Chinese ‘Lack of Multiracial Spirit'
- Vote for a revolutionary kind of development
- Perlunya lebih ramai calon-calon wanita dalam PRU
- BN’s triple cocktail of Race, Hudud and Fear is not working
- Fiscal risks to Malaysia's polls
- Opposition will clinch popular vote in GE13
Bruno Manser Fund asking for global bank freeze on Taib assets
Written by CPI Tuesday, 25 September 2012 16:39
Commentary
The Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) is a well-connected international organization “committed to maintaining the threatened tropical rainforests with their rich plant and animal life, and to campaigning, in particular, for the rights of the peoples who inhabit the rainforests” with an especial focus on Sarawak.
One of the BMF principals – its eponymous founder Bruno Manser – was a Swiss activist who lived in Sarawak with the Penan between 1984 and 1990. He famously disappeared without trace in May 2000 after his last journey to the state.
The rich and infamous
BMF recently conducted an investigation into the wealth of Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud and his family. These family members include:
- Taib’s brother, Onn Mahmud who is rated the clan’s second richest after the Sarawak CM himself
- Taib’s elder son, Mahmud Abu Bekir Taib, who is being sued his pants off in the divorce court by his ex-wife (the sister of singer Sheila Majid)
- His Canada-based socialite daughter, Jamilah Taib Murray
- Another brother Tufail Mahmud
- Sister Raziah Mahmud
- Daughter Hanifah, and
- Son Sulaiman
Hamed Sepawi, founder of the Ta Ann timber conglomerate and Sarawak Energy chairman, is a first cousin of the Sarawak Chief Minister.
Malaysians incensed and agog
The BMF findings, which describe in detail the business activities and personal wealth of 20 members of the Taib family, have been given attentive coverage by our local internet media, though the mainstream and official media have responded with a deafening silence.
Malaysiakiniis a paid subscription news site but due to the huge public interest has made its story headlined ‘ Groundbreaking study details Taib’s US$21bil empire’ freely accessible.
Its reporting of the BMF “groundbreaking study” on the Taib family empire has been the most viewed story for three consecutive days and sparked a large number of (almost exclusively favourable) comments by Malaysiakini readers.
Malaysiakini further added that the revelation on Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud as the richest man in Malaysia “does not surprise the majority of Sarawakians”.
Another news portal Free Malaysia Today ran two stories (here and here) on the issue last week, prompting more than 1,000 of its readers to express their outrage against Taib’s obscene wealth by marking ‘Angry’ in the website’s interactive feedback column.
Rainforest devastated by political and timber mafia
The extraordinary Taib wealth is a subject of much interest – not only to those who have long called for an independent inquiry into its source – but also to the global environmental movement which has been monitoring the rape and pillage of the ancient Sarawak rainforest.
Borneo’s rainforest at 130 million years old is the oldest in the world. However in the mere blink of an eye (a timespan equivalent to Taib’s chief ministership), human greed and heavy logging has caused a most devastating deforestation.
It is the widespread international interest in this irreparable loss to the planet’s bio-diversity that will cause increasing pressure to mount on Sarawak and Malaysia.
At the same time, the accumulation of the Taib clan’s fabulous wealth has raised many allegations of corruption and abuse of power.
It is a speculation that resurfaced and intensified again recently when on Sept 20, BMF released its report on the occasion of a visit by Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities, Bernard Dompok, to the European Commission in Brussels.
While the report ‘The Taib timber mafia: Facts and figures on politically exposed persons from Sarawak, Malaysia’ became major stories in the alternative media, “the government-controlled print and electronic media have remained absolutely silent on the issue”, said BMF in an e-mail communication to its NGOs network.
On the back of the “tidal waves” created by its painstakingly researched ‘timber godfather’ report, BMF is asking governments and banks around the world to freeze the Taib family assets.
“The Taibs are being compared to the Suharto and Marcos clans who have also stolen billions from their countries ,” said BMF in their website.
Announcement
History series
Connect
Latest Articles
- Stop the racist politics of suspicion and hate in the country
- The 2013 election results: back to the drawing board for both coalitions
- Spewing a poisonous brew on the Chinese ‘Lack of Multiracial Spirit'
- Vote for a revolutionary kind of development
- Perlunya lebih ramai calon-calon wanita dalam PRU
- BN’s triple cocktail of Race, Hudud and Fear is not working
- Fiscal risks to Malaysia's polls
- Opposition will clinch popular vote in GE13
- Kenyataan akhbar oleh kumpulan warga prihatin tentang pilihan raya umum
- Vote to ensure a better Malaysia
- On Malaysia's debts and 'growth at all cost'
- Why Malays should no longer vote for UMNO/BN
- Lantai senget di medan pilihanraya
- PSM decision: Hopeful prelude to opposition avoiding three corner fights
- Hanya 10 peratus kerusi parlimen Malaysia dipegang oleh wanita
- Stealing the elections: Act One
- BN dan PR: Nyatakan langkah-langkah untuk memperbaiki kewangan dan hutang negara
- Hindraf blueprint – the micro view that masks the bigger problem
- Academics call upon Barisan and Pakatan to declare policy positions on national finance and debt
- Sampai bilakah bantuan jenama 1Malaysia akan diberi?
- Sin City – “the jurisdiction of choice by people like us”
- Keeping faith with Hindraf and Waytha Moorthy
- Malaysia's debt: the misleading debt-to-GDP ratio
- Strategic abstention as purposeful option in the coming GE
- Our meeting with the Prime Minister
- Malaysia has an evil side that bears watching
- Govt role in managing social system of multi-ethnic, multicultural society
- Is Malaysia’s electoral system ready for GE13
- Will other communities also start making similar demands?
- Hindraf critics are demonizing the victims
nothing less than a royal commission is needed to set the record straight on Taib and family and their accumulation of extraordinary wealth.
Mark my words - the RCI will come sooner or later. Even if Taib dies before the enquiry, its revelations and findings will follow him and be carved on his tombstone.