Thief Minister! Taib’s abuse of his position in Sarawak over more than
three decades has led to him becoming Malaysia’s richest individual, says BMF.
He is the man who cashed-in an entire jungle of valuable hard timber.
He is also the man who controls all the land titles for an area roughly
the size of England, a position which he has systematically abused to enrich
himself.
Sarawak Chief Minister, Taib Mahmud, is furthermore the gate-keeper for
all the state and federal contracts handed out in Sarawak and he has privatised
most of its key industries into his own family companies.
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Taib family line up – once
all poor now vastly rich, thanks to Taib’s illegal abuse of his position as
Chief Minister
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So it should come as little surprise that the latest audit on the Mahmud
family, conducted by the Swiss NGO the Bruno Manser Fund (BMF), has estimated
his wealth at a staggering USD15 billion.
It makes him Malaysia’s richest man, with his illegally gained assets
topping those of the ‘sugar king’ Robert Kuok, who leads the Forbes Rich List
for Malaysias with a mere USD12 billion.
BMF, which campaigns on environmental and indigenous issues in Sarawak,
makes clear that this is a conservative estimate of the Chief Minister’s
wealth, acquired through 30 years of systematic and documented plunder of
Sarawak’s wealth and natural resources.
The audit, which forms part of a report entitled “The Taib
Timber Mafia. Facts and Figures on Politically Exposed Persons from Sarawak,
Malaysia” was released today in Brussels to mark the visit of the Malaysian
Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities, Bernard Dompok, to the
European Commission.
Environmental organisations have protested against any timber agreements
with Malaysia until the corrupt and unrestrained logging practices are ended in
Sarawak and in Sabah.
“More money than I could ever spend”
The report describes Taib as “The Godfather of a family business empire”
with illicit assets in excess of USD20billion, of which his personal worth
forms at least USD15 billion and:
“..describes in detail the business activities and personal wealth of
twenty members of the Taib family, one of South East Asia’s most notorious
kleptocratic clans with business interests in Malaysia, Australia, Canada, Hong
Kong, the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries”. [BMF release]
The charity declares its audit has been drawn up after a comprehensive
analysis of the evidence now available relating to Taib and his family’s
business assets, land grabs, concessions and contracts.
Altogether, the assets of 20 members of the Chief Minister’s family are
analysed totalling a combined estimated wealth of USD21million. These members
include Taib’s four children, his siblings, cousin Hamed Sepawi and also his
two son-in-laws and brother-in-law, Robert Geneid, who have been absorbed into
the family concerns.
The report lends substance to Taib’s own boasts on the campaign trail at
last year’s state election that he has “more money than
I could ever spend”!
Time Najib took action!
This latest revelation raises yet again the issue of Prime Minister
Najib Razak’s failure to take action over this rogue Chief Minister, whose
greed and corruption has now reached legendary status even in Malaysia, where
political corruption is commonplace.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has acknowledged it has
opened an investigation into Taib, following numerous denunciations and also
numerous reports containing solid information on this site.
However, until it gets the political green light, it is sadly well-known
that the MACC lacks the independence to act.
The PM did try to encourage the failing 75 year old to step down before
the recent state election. However, Taib refused to quit out of a justifiable
fear that once removed from office he could be prosecuted.
A public promise was extracted that Taib would move soon after that
state election, but with a Federal Election, G13, now on the horizon there is
little sign he plans to make good the promise.
