‘Dams built to keep Taib’s CMS in business’

The opposition in Sarawak wants to know if social impact studies were or are being done on the proposed dams.

KUCHING: The opposition here claim that the real reason the state government is constructing 12 hydro-electric dams in Sarawak is to ensure a ‘guaranteed business’ for Cahaya Mata Sarawak (CMS), a company owned by Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud’s family members.

Making this allegation, Bandar Kuching MP Chong Chieng Jen said: “I think the whole thing about the state government going on foolhardily on these dam construction is to give a guaranteed business to CMS which is owned by Taib’s family members.

“These dam projects will need a lot of cement and building materials from CMS.”

“The second reason is that under the pretext of constructing the dams, they can go on uninhibited logging activities.

“Those are the real reasons for this foolhardiness,” he added.

Chong said CMS has since its inception in 1974 evolved from being a single product manufacturer of cement in Sarawak to a conglomerate with 40 companies under its wings.

The CMS conglomerate with more than 2,000 employees is involved in cement manufacturing, construction materials, trading, construction, road maintenance, property development, financial services, education and other services.

Chong was commenting on remarks made by the Barisan Nasional MP for Kapit, Alex Nanta Linggi in parliament.

Nanta had bemoaned that nothing had been done to help the people in and around the dams.

He said that the dams would bring billions of ringgit to the nation, state and the contractors at the expense of the local people.

Nanta had suggested that 5% of the funds that had been allocated to the construction of these dams should be channeled to help alleviate the miseries of the people who live within the vicinity of the dams.

Chong, who is Sarawak DAP secretary, agreed with Nantha.

“I fully agree with his statement. I was in Parliament and read the statement. Although the dams can generate three times electricity consumption of Sarawak, yet the villagers beside the dams have no electricity.

“That is the irony,” Chong said.

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‘Dams built to keep Taib’s CMS in business’
March 26, 2012 – FMT

6,000 Swiss sign anti-dam petition

KUCHING: Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian has thrown his support behind a global effort by environmental activists from Switzerland and Malaysia to protest to the United Nations against the Sarawak government’s plans to construct 12 hydro-electric dams.

Bian, who is the Ba’Kelalan assemblyman, was responding to the efforts of activists to handover a petition bearing 6,000 signatures to the Malaysian representative to the United Nations. The petition called for a halt to the dam plans.

Thanking the Swiss people for their support, Bian said: “We give 100% support to the efforts of both the international environmental activists and their Malaysian counter-parts to pressure the state government of Sarawak and Malaysia to halt the dam construction.

“The Pakatan Rakyat’s policy is to condemn the 12 dams construction. The Bakun dam itself is already enough as it has destroyed thousands of acres of native customary rights land, displaced thousands of native people and their homes.

“Therefore, any action or plan trying to stop the dam construction, we will give 100% support,” he said, pointing out that he would institute a legal action against the government for the construction of dams in Lawas and Limbang.

“I have been advised by the people to take legal action against the government over the two dams,” he added.

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6,000 Swiss sign anti-dam petition
March 16, 2012 – FMT

Sarawak ministers in RM70mil kickback allegation

While the furore against Sarawak agriculture assistant minister Mong Dagang’s instruction to cease welfare assistance to a disabled person is still boiling, whistleblower website Sarawak Report has raised another shocking allegation.

The website claims that Mong and his party president James Masing are involved in RM70 million kickback from a land development scheme in Mong’s constituency.

The allegation is based on a letter purportedly written by Mong on June 18, 1997, as the state assemblyperson of Bukit Begunan to Kho Chee Pheng of Megaruma Sdn Bhd, a company based in Kuching, asking for the kickback. (see bottom)

In the letter, first exposed in 2010 by a blogger, Mong (left) allegedly authorised Kho to “propose, organise and invite any potential investor(s) intending to establish and to develop on a joint venture basis with the landowners of oil palm plantation in the Kelingkang Range, (Bukit Begunan), Sri Aman, Sarawak”.

“I the undersigned hereby agree that the investor(s) will have to pay at least RM1,000 per acre and after deduction of the upfront to LCDA the balance will be divided 50 percent to the undersigned and 50 percent to Kho Chee Pheng,” stated the letter.

The Land Custody and Development Authority (LCDA) is a state-owned statutory body to facilitate land development in Sarawak, especially native land.

Wives, brother, own nominee firm

The letter named three companies one of which was to be used for the joint venture, as well as three nominees to be registered with the company chosen for the enterprise.

The companies named are Noble Reserves Sdn Bhd, Noble Resources Sdn Bhd and Noble Rewards Sdn Bhd while the nominees are Bawang Ak Dem, Leyta Kupa and Henry Yan Masing.

James (centre in photo) is also Sarawak Senior Minister for Land Development and president of PRS.

The Sarawak Report claimed that Bawang is Mong’s wife, Leyta is the wife of James’ private secretary Wilson Ugak, and Henry is James’ brother.

The website also published a document from the Companies Commission of Malaysia, showing the three nominees as major shareholders of Noble Reserves Sdn Bhd, one of the firms listed in the letter.

Should the payment of RM1,000 per acre come about, the total commission may go up to RM70 million as the letter stated that the plantation area was “approximately 70,000 acres” with investors having to pay “at least RM1,000 per acre”.

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Sarawak ministers in RM70mil kickback allegation
Mar 8, 2012 – Malaysiakini

Voters are towkays, ministers are servants!

Sarawak senior minister James Masing’s support for a fellow minister’s directive to revoke aid to a disabled man has further fuelled the controversy.

Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president James Masing has come under fire for supporting Assistant Minister Mong Dagang’s action in revoking government aid to a disabled man for backing the opposition.

Dagang, who is the Assistant Agriculture Minister (Research and Marketing), is also PRS vice-president.

Masing told voters to “follow a rule of life – jangan lawan towkay [don't fight the bosses]” following Dagang’s directive to cancel the aid to the disabled man.

Sarawak PKR vice-chairman See Chee How said that Masing deserved the severest condemnation for showing such arrogance.

“One would have expected Masing, as a senior minister, to control the damage inflicted on the Barisan Nasional government in the wake of Dagang’s action.”

Masing is State Land Development Minister.

“Instead, he has made matters worse by challenging the most fundamental ideal of a democracy – a government is ‘of the people, by the people and for the people’.

“His callous remark that the people should not go against the government because the government is boss (towkay) reflects terribly on the BN leadership,” said See, who is also Batu Lintang assemblyman.

He was commenting on Masing’s statement in defence of Dagang’s controversial directive in a local daily.

Arrogant Masing

Masing was quoted as saying that “in any organisation, including political parties, we cannot go against our boss. That is the golden rule in life which we must observe”.

Dagang had written a letter to the assistant director of agriculture ordering him to stop all subsidies and welfare allowance to Frusis Lebi, who is deformed in both hands and legs, because he is a strong supporter of the opposition.

Since last October, Lebi did not receive the subsidies and the allowance.

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‘Ministers are towkays, voters are servants’
March 7, 2012 – Hornbill Unleashed

With Bakun, Sarawak has a power glut

After spending RM7 BILLION to build the Bakun dam, Sarawak now finds that it has a power glut. Its peak electricity demand is only 1,000MW – less than half the installed capacity of the dam of 2,400 MW. But somebody is making good money selling the timber from the forest and building the dam. It is so profitable that they have started building the Murum dam and have plans for a total of 12 dams!! Goddamn!

It doesn’t matter whether Sarawak or Malaysia need the power, they just cut down the forests and sell the timber and get paid for building the dams – the more the better. No wonder the Bakun dam has been labelled a “monument of corruption” by Transparency International due to huge profits made by companies close to the family of Sarawak’s CM.

Watch the Al Jazeera report on the Bakun dam below.

Row over Malaysia’s hydropower plans

Scandal of SALCO – How Taib Plans To Make Billions From Bakun!

Displaced families, who have received so little compensation from Bakun, may be interested to learn how Taib and his own family are planning to make billions for themselves out of the hydro-electric dam, based on an investment of just RM2.00!

We can reveal that SALCO (Sarawak Aluminium Company Sdn Bhd), the company that has been handed a licence to build a vast smelter in Simalaju, powered by cheap electricity from the dam, is secretively entirely owned by the Taib family company, CMS.

So far, they have only issued two shares for the company, worth a mere one ringgit each!

Scandalous SALCO scam!

Controlling interest – SALCO is run out of the Taib building, Wisma Mahmud

Our revelation sheds light on a classic money-making scam, that is still in its early stages for the Chief Minister, but where the planned outcome is plain to see.

It depends on a blatant willingness by Taib to abuse his political influence, in order to divert public money into his own pocket.

At the centre of the ploy, is the company Sarawak Aluminium Company Sdn Bhd, which has always been officially presented as a ‘Joint Venture’ between the giant multinational, Rio Tinto Alcan and CMS, after the two companies signed a so-called Heads of Agreement in 2007 to explore the possibility of investing in the smelter project.

Government support – invaluable for a company with just RM2.00 investment!

In 2008 this supposed joint venture received a manufacturing licence from the Malaysian Federal Government’s Industrial Development Authority and it also established a Memorandum of Understanding to open negotiations with Sarawak’s energy authority, SEB, over access to the electricity.

Ever since, the planned SALCO aluminium smelter has been placed at the top of Taib’s proclaimed SCORE agenda for developing the potential of the Bakun Dam.

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Scandal of SALCO – How Taib Plans To Make Billions From Bakun!
February 16th, 2012 – Sarawak Report

British Virgin Islands to probe Taib-linked firms

The British Virgin Islands (BVI) is investigating into allegations that a number of its registered companies allegedly linked to Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud’s family are involved in money laundering.

BVI’s Financial Services Commission, in an email to Malaysiakini, said that the allegations, which was reported by the online website, “pose serious reputational risk” to the territory as an offshore financial centre.

“The commission in its efforts to protect the reputation of the British Virgin Islands as a premier and reputable financial centre, undertakes investigations into all complaints and allegations of BVI companies being linked or involved in any nefarious activities,” said Dwayne Thomas, the enforcement officer of the commission’s legal and enforcement division.

Thomas has asked for assistance in identifying the allegedly errant off-shore companies so that an investigation can be launched into their activities.

One of the major tasks of the Financial Services Commission in BVI – a British territory in the Caribbean – is to “detect financial crime and assist in the prosecution of such crime”. It is empowered to revoke licences of off-shore companies registered in the territory.

In an immediate response, Switzerland-based NGO Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) has yesterday provided the BVI authorities a list 10 off-shore companies linked to the Taib family.

Lukas Straumann, head of BMF, said that his organisation will “actively cooperate with the BVI investigators on this important matter of international concern”.

“The British Virgin Islands’ under-regulated offshore financial services and secrecy provisions have been used by the Taibs to launder millions of dollars of illicit funds in order to reinvest them in the property sector in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom,” said Straumann.

“We are calling on the BVI authorities to freeze all Taib family’s assets and to inform the public on the outcome of its investigations.”

Straumann also urged Malaysian prosecutors – in particular the attorney-general and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) – to follow BVI’s example in taking action on the matter.

“A registered letter, which we sent in December 2011 and was signed by 15 NGOs from eight countries calling on Malaysia’s authorities to arrest Taib and 13 family members, has been left unanswered,” he lamented.

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British Virgin Islands to probe Taib-linked firms
Feb 25, 2012 – Malaysiakini

The Rape of Sarawak

Environmental organization says Malaysia is destroying its rainforest, particularly in Sarawak, at a frantic pace

A Netherlands-based environmental organization, Wetlands International, is charging in a new report that Malaysia is destroying its tropical rainforest at a rate three times faster than the rest of Asia combined, particularly in the East Malaysian state of Sarawak, with the expectation that “expansion of oil palm plantations may lead to the complete loss of these vast, unique forests by the end of this decade.”

Sarawak’s chief minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud, has come in for international criticism on charges that he has sold off vast tracts of the state to international loggers to enrich his family. The Taib family has interests believed to be in the billions in Canada, the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom as well as in scores of companies in Malaysia, according to The Sarawak Report, a UK-based NGO.

Malaysia has been largely shielded from criticism by the world’s environmental organizations, who have concentrated their firepower on Indonesia. However according to the report, “Official government figures state that only 8 to -13 percent of Malaysia’s palm oil plantations were situated on carbon rich peat soils; 20 percent for Sarawak. Two studies; one conducted by global environmental organization Wetlands International and one by the remote sensing institute Sarvision show that a rapidly increasing proportion of Malaysian palm oil is produced on peat lands, leading to deforestation and degradation of organic soils. Wetlands International and Sarvision used satellite images combined with existing data and field surveys to complete the picture.

The new studies conclude that 20 percent of all Malaysian palm oil is produced on drained peat lands, with 44 percent produced on drained peat lands in Sarawak. “For recently established plantations, the percentage on forested peat swamps is even higher. “

According to the Wetlands International report, Malaysia is responsible for 45 percent of global palm oil production. The new plantations in Malaysia are almost all established in the State of Sarawak, the report indicated. Two thirds of the state’s peat lands were until recently covered by thick, biodiversity-rich rainforest.

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The Rape of Sarawak
22 February 2012 – Asia Sentinel

‘Najib, Taib must apologise for embarrassing us’

The fiasco involving government-hired UK consultants FBC Media and television networks BBC, CNN, and CNBC has compromised the integrity of our leaders, claims PKR.

KUCHING: Sarawak opposition has called on Najib Tun Razak and Taib Mahmud to resign following British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC) apology for allowing its widely viewed ‘World News’ programme to be used to air “ego-boasting” propaganda material paid for by the Malaysian government.

“Now that the shameful truth has come to light, we call upon the Prime Minister and Chief Minister to also apologise to the people for squandering our money in this delusional ego-boosting exercise.

“They should resign immediately if they possess even an ounce of integrity and self respect, ” said Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian.

He added that it was difficult to believe that Najib and Taib “do not realise that good reputation and respect are to be earned and cannot be bought even if one is wealthier than the Queen of England”.

Bian was commenting on BBC’s apology for airing public relations driven spins on Malaysia which were produced by UK-based FBC Media Ltd.

In August last year, BBC suspended all programming contracts from the FBC, after it was ‘confirmed’ that FBC had received payment to produce and air, as genuine content, at least four documentaries on Malaysia’s palm oil industry and its “treatment of the rainforest and indigenous people”.

BBC in a statement to UK daily The Independent had said that “FBC has now admitted to the BBC that it has worked for the Malaysian government” and received “almost £6 million” (RM28 million) from the Najib administration.

Bian said BBC’s apology was a result of the investigations by online portal Sarawak Report (SR).

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‘Najib, Taib must apologise for embarrassing us’
February 15, 2012 – FMT

‘All contracts on Isthmus went to Taib’s family’

Having given Taib Mahmud’s family 275 acres of land at Isthmus, the government then went on to ‘create’ a commercial value to the area.

KUCHING: Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s family-owned business, CMS Land Sdn Bhd, was given 275 acres of land in the Isthmus, eight km from Kuching, in 1998 and “to make the land more valuable”, the government built the Borneo Convention Centre (picture).

Revealing details of yet another “huge” land scandal in the Isthmus, Sarawak DAP secretary Chong Chieng Jen said: “CMS Land came into possession of 275 acres of land at the Isthmus in 1998 after it completed constructing a barrage under the Sarawak River Regulation Scheme.

“The government alienated the land as payment in kind for the construction of the barrage which cost RM150 million.

“In order to make the land more valuable, the government then built the Borneo Convention Centre (BCCK), which occupied a few acres of the land.

“The contract for the construction of BCCK which was worth RM200 million was given to CMS.

“After it was completed, BCCK was looked after by a management company whose directors are Taib’s sister Raziah and his son, Abu Bekir.”

But because BCCK alone would not boost the value of the land and its surroundings much, they roped in the Sarawak Electricity Supply Corporation (Sesco).

According to Chong, Sesco decided to build its second headquarters in the Isthmus in a two-acre site which it bought for RM10 million from CMS Land.

“Even in the centre of Kuching, we don’t have that price tag of RM5 million for an acre of land.

“As if that is not enough, the government started to build the second bridge from Kuching Port Authority to connect to the Isthmus so that there will be more outlets.

“The bridge was estimated to cost RM200 million, ” he said.

10 million new shares

Chong pointed out that it was now increasing obvious that the whole development “benefited” only Taib’s family.

“You can see the whole development including infrastructural development and buildings benefit one family, the chief minister’s family.

“I think this is not right, because the people pay taxes and they pay Sesco bills. The revenue to the state coffers should not be used to benefit one family,” he said.

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‘All contracts on Isthmus went to Taib’s family’
February 6, 2012 – FMT