Former BN State Assemblyman, Lihan Jok, famously lectured his constituents that the Baram Dam was “a gift from God”.
But, who does Lihan Jok mean by God?
The Baram Dam is a man made project and it will destroy some of the last remaining areas of untouched beauty on God’s Earth.
So, by ‘God’ was Lihan Jok employing the term frequently used for his party boss,Taib Mahmud, who has been enthusiastically driving through this project?
Taib, who runs Sarawak like a mafia ‘Godfather’, and his BN YBs are all hoping, of course, that the Baram Dam will shower them with even more wealth than before.
How? Well, to build the Baram Dam Taib plans to borrow huge sums of money, which will be guaranteed by the State of Sarawak. This means that the foreign money lenders will know that ordinary taxpayers will be forced to pay back the money (plus interest) in future years.
Out of that borrowed money Taib can award his own companies, like CMS, huge contracts to get involved in building the dam.
He will also award nice contracts to companies owned by political cronies, whose job in return is to help him persuade the people to keep voting BN and to allow the dam to be built.
We suggest that one of these cronies is Lihan Jok and we remind Lihan’s people that it will be they who will have to find the money (or give up the timber or land) to pay back the cost of this billion ringgit dam!
Gifts from God to Lihan
Taib has never expected his BN YB’s to cheat their own people for free. He has handsomely rewarded them, thereby corrupting them and buying their absolute loyalty.
Thus, we can show that the former Baram Assemblyman Lihan and his family have already received some wonderful enriching gifts from the White Haired Godfather, who runs Sarawak like a personal business enterprise.
Our map, which was leaked from Sarawak’s secretive Forestry Department, in fact reveals no less than five highly valuable Belian Timber concessions have been handed to Lihan Jok’s wife, brother and another family member Peter Jok.
Belian is such an endangered wood, after so much ruthless logging by Taib’s cronies, that logging has been supposedly banned. There is also an export ban on the timber.
However, Taib evidently thinks that the laws that apply to others do not apply to himself and his political cronies.
Far from showing genuine concern for preserving Belian forest, the Chief Minister’s ban is all about keeping what is left for himself and his followers to cut down for themselves.
Do we think that he expects loyalty in return? Do we think that by giving Lihan Jok’s family such valuable Belian Timber Concessions Taib bought his YB at the expense of Sarawak’s environment and its people?
It surely looks very much that way!
So, when Lihan Jok claims that the Baram Dam is a gift from God and lectures the longhouse people to be patient for development, do we conclude that he is just doing Taib’s bidding in return for five Belian Timber concessions for his family and associates?
These concessions are B/T 9103, B/T 9105, B/T 9149, B/T 9153 as well as the
concession for Peter Jok Anyie B/T 3132.
Yet, despite his determination to promote the dam, Lihan found he got a rough time from his people. They widely refused to agree with his enthusiasm for flooding them from their lands and placing them in refugee camps like the 10,000 people from Bakun.
In the face of such protests the view in BN started to be that Lihan Jok was not doing a good enough job as MP!
He and Taib side-kick Len Talif Saleh were poorly received by protestors when they went to lecture his constituents about the benefits of the dam.
So it was that at the last election Jok stood down in favour of his nephew, Denis Ngau. Ngau only just won the seat, thanks to BN’s secretive funding of SNAP, which succeeded in dividing the opposition.
However, Lihan continues to support BN in the Baram area at every opportunity, just as his nephew continues to do so as well.
Other BN ‘Yes Men’
There are some other notable ‘Yes Men’ for BN in Baram, who can also be relied upon to come out and support the logging in their area and the planned Baram Dam.
These types have been rallying around to support the local Federal MP Jacob Sagan over the past few days, after we exposed him too for holding secret Belian concessions through his wife and for receiving lucrative state contracts.
According to the Taib controlled Borneo Post, these supporters have been cheering Sagan for all that he has supposedly done for his community and have been begging him to stay for re-election! [“Community Declares Support for Jacob Sagan, Borneo Post “].
One prominent such personality is Temenggong Pahang Deng Anyie, who is recorded at every event as representing his people in supporting BN and their timber cronies. Last year he was one of the prominent ‘community leaders’ recorded as thanking timber company KTS for their wonderful support of his community in Baram!
Given such services, is it any surprise that the Temenggong received a nice slice of the action in Lihan Jok’s other ‘gift from God’, a company that has corruptly received millions in state contracts.
Contracts to Lihan Jok – more gifts from God?
We refer to the company Setegap Jitra Sdn Bhd, which has received a string of nice contracts from the state amounting to a healthy RM15million!
No wonder Temenggong urges his community to continue to keep voting BN, support KTS and praise Jacob Sagan!
We can see what he gets out of it – but what do the people get out of it, when every state contract turns out merely to be a corrupt way of rewarding political yes men?
We now demand that Lihan Jok comes clean about all his business activities, because the former headmaster, turned Assemblyman, turned businessman has not been filing his accounts in the open manner which is required under the law.
There are no less than three companies registered at the same address as his company Setegap Jitra at Lot 319A, Ricemill Lane in Miri. The other two are Baram Wawasan Enterprises Sdn Bhd and Yutako Sdn Bhd. Yet not one of these three companies have registered who their Directors are, who their shareholders are or what they have borrowed.
We know that Setegap Jitra has received government contracts, but what are these other enterprises up to? Baram Wawasan, which is clearly linked to activity in Lihan Jok’s own former constituency, claims its business is the rafting and towing of logs, but which logs?
KTS logs?
Lihan Jok and the Temenggong are public figures and they should provide this information.
Likewise, Yutako Sdn Bhd admits its business is oil palm cultivation, but who is behind it? We assume it is Lihan Jok and Temenggong Pahang Deng Anyie, because the businesses share the same address.
So, these politicians need to inform the people exactly what further concessions they have been getting from their friends in BN. After all they never stop telling them to vote for BN!