As news reports are beginning to show, Australia is beginning to get a true picture of Taib Mahmud and his behaviour in Sarawak.
TV scenes of rowdy loggers disrupting and breaking up a local meeting in a town hall in Huonville, Tasmania will not go down well [..].
Sarawak Report has received an exclusive dossier of photographs showing the full extent of the violence and anger that has broken out in the normally quiet, law-abiding communities of Tebedu, Serian. The trouble broke out a fortnight ago, as Taib’s logging raid on this valuable area of remaingin virgin jungle got under way. Village headmen
Recently we spoke to one of Taib’s key business partners in strict confidence. He explained to us what he described as the 10 main income streams that have turned the Chief Minister into a multi-billionaire over the past 30 years. In the process he gave us a fascinating insight into the business practices of Abdul
Businessmen in Bintulu have been eying the opportunity of acquiring the vast area of the Central District occupied by the old airport. This is public land, of course, and so its disposal comes under the control of the Chief Minster, because (outrageously) he is also the Planning and Resources Minister and Finance Minister and the man who
Another Mahmud brother, another land grabber! Taib was hardly going to leave his brother Ali out of the party. After all Mohammad Ali bin Mahmud, is also slaving away as a State YB for Muara Tuang and a stalwart of Taib’s PBB (part of BN). However, Ali has clearly been anxious to disguise his involvement in the land grabs. Could
There is a sprinkling of Sarawakian women who have gone into the plantation business according to the land records. One can’t help noticing how well-connected they are! For example Datin Thersa Toyat, who is a relative of the Chief Minister. Theresa is also married to the former State Secretary and CEO of the company managing SCORE (Taib’s pet development
Judging from his performance as Chairman of Salcra, it would be unwise to hire Deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu to run a fruit stall, let alone place the livelihoods of tens of thousands of families under his control. The man has clearly squandered hundreds of millions of ringgit. Yet, as he refuses to provide even the most
BN bloggers have been boasting that the State Secretary, Mohamid Morshidi bin Abdul Ghani, got a letter into the UK’s Sunday Times newspaper claiming “the rainforest is not devastated” and that “logging licences are awarded after due process and are not in the personal gift of the Chief Minister”. However, we can reveal Ghani’s own family are among the state’s top land-grabbers!
Many have questioned in our comments why Taib’s political colleagues allow his corruption to continue? Our researches through the land registry are starting to provide the answer. Most of his political cronies, who occupy the top ministerial jobs, have themselves been major benefactors of the Chief Minister’s largess over state lands. In recent years they have
With just days to go before the election the Mahmud family are still coining in money from land handed to them by the Chief Minister. On February 18th, the Malaysia Stock Exchange announced a RM 21 million purchase of 80% of a company that was been given a stake in a 5,000 hectare plantation in the Baram
Taib’s advisors would do well to rein in their boss’s sudden enthusiasm for media interviews. He is not doing well at all! At the start of the week, he contradicted his son-in-law, Hisham (Sean) Murray’s denials that he was involved in the family’s international property empire, by admitting he had started it with his own money. Now he has implied that his cousin Hamid Sepawi has been misleading
Sarawak Report has made the decision to release the full database of the Land and Survey Department’s recent transactions on rural lands. For some weeks we have been researching the confidential data, only to discover that of the more than one thousand plots of rural land that have been acquired by the state, the vast bulk have
Taib Mahmud promised development, but has delivered disaster in his own constituency of Balingian. Scores of communities are at this moment reeling from the shock of the present wave of ‘development devastation’ in areas that were in many cases Reserve Forest lands.
Now, shockingly, our research into the companies behind the destruction shows that in every case the profits can be traced directly back to Taib […]
The wave of protests and disgust against the destructive regime of Taib Mahmud in Sarawak is continuing and it has gained further attention in the international media. There have been demonstrations outside properties owned by the Taibs in the UK, Canada and the US and now it has been announced that further protests are planned
It must have seemed a good idea at the time for young Abu Bekir to have married a lady with an MBA in Finance. They even placed her on the Board of the family firm CMS. However, it means Datin Sri Shahnaz Majid, who is now suing him for divorce, is particularly qualified to give an estimate of the worth of Taib’s son – and she is after him for RM400 million! [….]
