Abu Bekir – How Much is He Worth?!

This post is also available in: Iban, Malay

'Abused' - Abu Bekir's first wife is suing for a RM 400 million divorce!

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!

According to expert divorce lawyers consulted by Sarawak Report, a wife in her position would be entitled to aim for 30% of a couple’s wealth, which makes Abu Bekir, aged 48, a comfortable billionaire. According to Kuching lawyer Desmond Kho:

“The RM400 million claim is by far the highest ever recorded and claimed by a Sarawakian. This should make Bekir one of the richest men in Malaysia. I’m sure the wife’s lawyer must have assessed Bekir’s wealth to come up with the quotation”.

The revelation could not have come at a more awkward time for the Mahmud family, just the day after Taib had parachuted him in to contest BN’s supposedly safe seat of Sadong Jaya. Over the coming days before the actual election the constituents were supposed to be treated to a staged introduction to their new candidate, who would doubtless have become Taib’s planned successor. Even the Prime Minister Najib Razak was to visit the area on his behalf this March 19th. However, now these voters will have rather more information than anticipated upon which to judge their new candidate!

Bad character?

Wife number 2 is a Russian widow

Shanaz, who is the sister of the well-known jazz singer Sheila Majid and seems widely liked, says that Abu Bekir subjected her to ‘physical and mental torture’. According to reports she has accused her husband of punching her head, face and eyes; kicking her in the ribs; and throttling her. She also claims he verbally abused her with foul words. The accusations are uncannily similar to the reports against Abu Bekir’s brother Sulaiman, who publicly attacked a girlfriend in a bar in KL.

The couple, who married in 1992 and have a 17 year old son, have not been intimate since 2001. Shanaz claims that since 1999, her husband rarely came home and could not be advised, was difficult to contact and was very sociable with other women. After he married a second wife, a young, blond Russian woman he ceased to treat her fairly.

Assets

However, it is Abu Bekir’s assets and the small matter of how he came to acquire them that will be of equal interest to Sarawakians contemplating the suitability of this candidate for office. Shahnaz refers to several homes and claims Bekir owns thousands of hectares in Sarawak, which will come as little surprise to readers of Sarawak Report. She also reveals that he owns seven luxury cars that include Lamborghini, Ferrari, Bentley and Maserati. According to Abu Bekirs first wife, their joint assets include shares in 15 different companies including Cahaya Mata Sarawak and Sarawak Cable Bhd as well as savings in Employees Provident Fund and Amanah Saham Bumiputera units.

Abu Bekir (left) Posing as the jet-setter in a magazine article about personal jets.

Sarawak Report has examined just some of the assets his wife refers to.

CMS

It is a well-known fact that Abu Bekir is a key Director and the largest shareholder in CMS along with his brother Sulaiman. CMS is a supposedly public company made up of assets taken from the State of Sarawak through the decisions of the Chief Minister. However a huge chunk of the shares are owned by members of Taib’s family.

CMS - a Taib Mahmud family company

The latest available Annual Report is for 2009 and it still registers the Chief Ministers’s own late wife Laila as the biggest individual shareholder (although it is believed her two sons have now inherited the shares between them). How Mrs Taib, who never appeared to be engaged in business and who did not bring any money to the marriage, managed to accumulate such a vast shareholding has never been explained to the public or to the ordinary shareholders of CMS!

Father and son celebrate SCORE - the contracts they will be able to award their companies from the state through this will make them even richer still!

Abu Bekir and his brother Sulaiman are the next biggest shareholders and all four children of Taib control Majaharta, which is listed as the largest shareholder! Each share is currently worth comfortably over 3 ringgit, which a lady with an MBA in finance can easily tot up to a rough calculation of RM 150 million.

The Chief Minister channels numerous public contracts through CMS, thus ensuring that those shares remain a healthy price. Just one of the lucrative and high-profile contracts the Chief Minister has awarded his family in this way was the recently completed Borneo Convention Centre, at which BN held its political rally last weekend. Taib’s policies of ‘Progress and Development’ directly benefit CMS in this way. The more mega-projects he commissions the better his family does, with SCORE being the latest cash cow development programme!

As the Malaysian Stock Exchange, Bursa Malaysia’s, news excitedly put it last month:

“Stoked by news flow on potential project flows in SCORE and the award of a road project, CMS’s share price surged 80% last year, outperforming the construction stocks under our coverage which rose 36% on average. This year marks the implementation of Phase 2 of SCORE. Various road and infrastructure projects under the 10MP and the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) have yet to be implemented. Execution will be a key theme for this year, backed by the 10MP’s RM4.6 billion budget for Sarawak”. Feb 16th 2011

Some of the land companies controlled by Titanium Management, which has also received enormous state contracts thanks to Daddy, Taib Mahmud.

The Taibs could never be accused of putting all their eggs in one basket! Abu Bekir’s company Titanium Management has been awarded enormous tracts of land by the State of Sarawak in recent years, all for a mysterious ‘Payment in Kind’! A host of subsidiary companies, also controlled out of the offices of Titanium, have also been awarded vast areas as well, for no discernable payment.

Sarawak Report has calculated that over 70,000 hectares, an area greater than the size of Singapore, has been handed to Abut Bekir thanks to decisions by his father as the Minister in charge of resources.

As a spate of angry law suits has made plain, many of these territories actually belonged to other people! The Chief Minister has attempted to over-ride Native Customary Land Rights in recent amendments to the legislation, however these amendments are being over-ruled in the courts. Just last week Abu Bekir’s company Polar Horizon, which had served eviction notices on several Iban native customary landowners, was forced into retreat after PKR’s See Chee Howe took them to court and the case was publicised on Radio Free Sarawak and elsewhere. Abu Bekir’s henchmen have verbally assured the villagers that the eviction attempt will no longer go ahead, although nothing yet has been received in writing.

Indeed, given the growing number of setbacks regarding these land disputes, perhaps Datin Shanaz will have to consider revising down some of her calculations on the worth of the land titles which she has demanded that her husband present in court!

Foreign Properties

Commercial Skyscraper – Ottawa’s ‘Xerox Tower’ Complex. Sun Life and Adobe are some of the companies to rent space in this prestige property in Ottawa

Mahmud Abu Bekir Taib was also of course one of the original Directors and a founder of Sakto Corporation, which now owns millions of US dollars worth of property in Canada.

He managed to set up the company with his sister Jamilah and Uncle Onn Mahmud, when he just a college student aged 20! In its first year the company invested $7 million in purchasing 400 residential units in Ottawa. The company now owns hundreds of millions of dollars worth of office and retail space, as well as some swish residential blocks. Later, he was one of the founding Directors and Shareholders of the sister company Sakti International set up in the US in 1987. Mahmud Abu Bekir Taib acted as the President of the company until it was later handed over to his younger brother Sulaiman Taib, who was studying at university in San Francisco. The property in Sakti and its related companies are worth in the region of a million dollars as well.

As, Sarawak Report has been able to reveal, a secret share deal means that half the shares Abu Bekir owns in Sakti are actually held in trust for his father Abdul Taib Mahmud! Abu Bekir has been laughably presented as a major businessman and maker of money since the tender age of 20, on the basis that his father could never have legitimately have earned such wealth to have given to him. However, Taib has never offered an explanation as to why these shares were held in trust for him by his children and brothers, giving him an over all 50% interest in the company!

Sarawak Cable

A businessman or a business heir hoping to become a political heir?

This company, which was incorporated in the 1990s, lay dormant until 2008 when it suddenly sprang into life with the acquisition of Universal Cable (Sarawak) Sdn Bhd, which manufactures cables. Abu Bekir Taib is the Chairman and owns 36% of the shares, while his Dad’s cousin, Hamid Sepawi, owns 20%. The latest share price, from when these shares were last traded in November, shows them valued at RM1.29. We therefore calculate that Abu Bekir’s 43 million or so shares are worth around RM55 million.

Things should continue to go well for the company as the state has just invested heavily in a project with them! In November 2010 they were awarded a transmission line job worth RM98.68 million by Sarawak Energy Bhd as part of a joint venture with Sinohydro!

Abu Bekir will at least have no trouble convincing his voters that he is rich and powerful, which is the normal approach of BN politicians wishing to secure support. He may even follow in his father’s footsteps by offering to pay constituents a few hundred ringgit each for their votes. But those voters should think hard about where Abu Bekir got his money and whether it was from land and state properties that rightfully belonged to them in the first place. If so, they should consider whether they should actually be voting to get those assets back to the people where they belong!

Taib’s Balingian is the Epicentre of his Land Grab Corruption – Exclusive Expose !

Wednesday, March 16th, 2011 GMT

This post is also available in: Iban, Malay

Taib brings 'development' to his constituency in Balingian!

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, his immediate family or to key business cronies and nominees (people known to act as his regular proxy).

These pictures, taken during a tour of investigation just last week, resemble the aftermath of a tsunami – but it has been a tsunami of greed unleashed by one old man and his small army of cronies upon the people in his own backyard. His own voters!

Everything for me – nothing for you

This was his land - he got nothing for it!

Taib has masked his land grabs by pretending he is benefiting the people through ‘progress’ and ‘modernisation’. He lectures them to ‘be patient’, while at the same time he impatiently tears out anything of worth from the lands where they have lived for generations.

On the spot researchers have confirmed to Sarawak Report that the only people who have been receiving compensation for the lands taken are the state-appointed headmen, who are now paid not to represent their longhouse folk, but to keep them compliant.

These individuals have been offered a pitiful RM 250 ringgit per acre for their communities’ Native Customary Rights Lands - the rest of the people have received nothing for the loss of their traditional territories and livelihoods.

One 80 year old Iban has testified to his family having lived five generations on his land, clearing the trees and growing up fruit orchards. These were all swept away without compensation. In one case the plantation company was narrowly prevented from bulldozing a longhouse into the ground. Local people say they have lodged reports to the police, but that as ever such complaints are ignored.

Blantant exploitation - Empire Plantation offers a paltry RM 250 per acre to a local headman for his community's land. Also, while he is forced to 'relinquish all rights', Empire only 'tentatively' agree to pay up!

Needless to say RM 250 is a pitiful amount compared to the real worth of the wood and oil palm concessions on these lands, which is demonstrated later in this article by the vast sums which have been paid to Taib family members by the public companies which acquired them.

Enrich my family and pay off my business partners in the name of ‘development’!

Sarawak Report’s investigations into the disposal of the lands in Taib’s area of Balingian and Mukah have revealed a quite staggering level of graft. Shoddy attempts have been made to conceal the amount of money made by family members out of most of these concessions, but we have been able to trace the links and provide damming evidence of Taib family corruption.

Some of the concessions handed out by Taib in his own constituency. Palmlyn and Golden Star-Ace went to brother Arip, Green Ace, Saradu, Miracle Harvest to sister Raziah, SLDB/Sarawak Plantation, Kub Sepadu to cousin Hamid Sepawi, Empire Plantations to son of Hamid Bugo (political crony) and Chiong family, Rinwood to the crony Hii family.... and much more

Lands taken by Arip Mahmud and also Taib himself through Mesti Bersatu

Just one example is the large chunk of Balingian, around 34,000 hectares, handed out in the early 2000s to Taib’s closest sibling at that time, the late Arip Mahmud. We have identified 7 massive plots in the land registry, which were all handed to companies clearly managed out of the Lanco Plantation office, belonging to Arip.

Lanco Plantation Sdn Bhd is based at 458/459, Sublot 62, Padungan Road Kuching. The Manager is Patrick Embol and the company’s lawyer is Lim Jit Meng. We have clear testimony that Hamni bid Juni and Haji Anwar Susadd bin Razli were nominees of Arip Mahmud, as is evidenced by the fact that they gave the same address to the Land Registry as Lanco Plantations! (extract from the Land Survey Department’s Land Registry below):

These companies are all clearly controlled by Lanco Plantations in which the Chief Minister himself owns a substatial stake!

Despite the attempts to disguise the handouts to Lanco by using separate company names, the connections are easily spotted in the land register. Palmlyn and Hariyama both share the same address as Lanco and Manager Patrick Embol’s number is the contact given for Rajah Mutiara Sdn Bhd. Lim Jit Meng is the same lawyer who acquired two plantations in Pulau Bruit on behalf of Arip Mahmud (Eastern Eden and Poh Zhen) netting a profit of RM 40 million for Arip and the Chief Minster in a re-sale 12 days later!

Details of Lanco Plantation's address as registered at Malaysia's on-line Registry of Companies shows that it is the same as the company concessions shown in the Sarawak Land Registry above. The shareholders of Lanco also include Mesti Bersatu in which the Chief Minister has a personal shareholding. How much more proof are the defender's of Taib Mahmud expecting to get?!

All of the above companies were soon ‘hot-potatoed’ on to companies owned by the internationally notorious timber tycoon and Taib crony, Tiong Hiew King. Some went to public companies, giving an idea of the profits made by the Mahmuds on these transactions, although others went into Tiong’s private companies where the transactions remain secret.

In the case of Hariyama, which grabbed 10,600 hectares of what appears to have been the Retus Protected Forest Reserve, we can see that Arip Mahmud negotiated the deal for RM 6.8 million on 24th February 2003 and then sold it on to Tiong’s Jaya Tiasa for RM 23.5 million four days later on 28th February 2003 for a cool RM 17 million profit (details available in Jaya Taisa 2004 Annual Report and stock market announcement below). The family also hold shares in Jaya Tiasa and so can continue to profit from the on-going exploitation of the area through oil palm plantation.

Extract of Bursa Malaysia announcement. The proof is all out there for people to see - don't say it isn't!

Likewise, there is clear evidence that the 5,000 hectare Palmlyn plantation, for which Arip was charged a mere RM 3 million premium on 12th February 2004, transferred on to another Tiong public company Subur Tiasa on 30th September 2004 for RM11.7 million, a sweet RM 9 million profit.

Extract from Subur Tiasa's on-line Annual Report 2004. People who say we have no proof are sadly lying.

Likewise Rajah Mutiara and Golden Star-Ace are now registered as being owned by private firms owned by Tiong’s Rimbunan Hijau Group. For this reason the price paid to the Mahmuds has not been openly recorded, however we can rest assured that more millions were earned by Sarawak’s wealthiest family.

Sister Raziah and the scandal of Sarawak Plantation

We should not forget the massive profits that have also been made by the Geneids, Taib’s sister Raziah and son in law, Robert, in Balingian. They have picked up 27,000 hectares of concessions in the region under the companies Miracle Harvest and Green Ace Resources, which the public company Kwantas took a 70% stake in after they received the concession. The concessions are now being sold on for substantial multi-million ringgit profits. Raziah was also handed Saradu Plantation by her brother, the Chief Minister, amounting to 5,000 hectares.

However, the scandal of Sarawak Plantation highlights another corruption at the heart of Taib’s government, which is his use of nominees and proxies to control the main businesses of the State of Sarawak and to privatise state assets into the hands of his own family. The Chief of these nominees are the two ‘businessmen’ Hamid Sepawi and Hasmi bin Hasnan.

Like Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum this useful couple appear as the Chairmen/ Shareholders of numerous key state ventures and ‘privatised’ ventures that receive contracts from Taib’s ministries. Sepawi is Taib’s own first cousin and Hasnan is an early protege he picked up in the Land Survey Department. These two men rocketed from obscurity to enviable positions as multi-business leaders, both featuring in the top 30 Malaysia rich list, after Taib took office in 1981. They appear as joint managers in a string of Taib-backed ventures – one of these is the scandalous Sarawak Plantations.

Privatised into his own family!

Sarawak Plantation Berhad’s own Company Profile makes clear that it was deliberately set up and then converted into a public company ”as the vehicle company for the privatisation of Sarawak Land Development Board’s (SLDB) assets”. This means that the company was handed vast areas of land that originally belonged to the state. http://www.spbgroup.com.my/about_us.htm

The profile goes on lay out just how vast these concessions are and its ambitious programme to develop more NCR lands:

“ SPB is one of the pioneer players in the oil palm industry in Sarawak. Currently SPB has a total land bank of 52,071 Ha of which 12,914 Ha is under the Native Customary Rights (NCR) scheme. SPB, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Sarawak Plantation Agriculture Development Sdn Bhd (SPAD), owns thirteen (13) oil palm estates with a total planted area of 26,000 Ha as at 31 December 2009.

Further, in response to the State Government’s policy on NCR land development, SPB, through its subsidiary, SPB Pelita Suai Sdn Bhd (SP Suai), has developed and fully planted 1,855 Ha of NCR land in Sarawak with oil palms.

In addition, two new subsidiaries, SPB Pelita Wak Pakan Sdn Bhd and SPB PELITA Mukah Sdn Bhd, have been incorporated to undertake the development of new NCR land with a total gross area of 10,786 Ha.”

Taib and his family are making no apologies for ‘developing’ as much NCR land as they can get their hands on! But the scandal of their profiteering could not be made plainer than in the shareholder information that is also publicly available for this ‘public’ company (see the same website). Both Hamid Sepawi and Hasmi bin Hasnan of course occupy key controlling positions in the company and so their shareholding has to be made clear under the law.

Directors' Shareholdings - Sarawak Plantations Berhad reveals that both Hamid Sepawi and Hasmi bin Hasnan own over 30% of the 'privatised' company each! Even Deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu's daughter gets a piece of the action, but not many public shareholders are thereofore benefiting from the profits of the State of Sarawak's former land bank!

Critics will be hard put to say there is no proof that over 60% of the State landbank of Sarawak, including vast areas of Taib’s own constituency (see the map above) has been ‘privatised’ into the hands of Tweedle Dum Sepawi and Tweedle Dee Hasnan, both widely derided as mere proxies for the old man himself. Does the Chief Minister confuse the representation of his constituents with the ownership of his constituency?

Not content with their indirect ownership of thousands of hectares of Balingian through Sarawak Plantation (at RM2.2 per share the mens’ shareholdings are valued at just under RM 200 million each), both men have their own separate plantations in the area according to the records in the Land Registry.

A bit for ourselves? Excerpt from the Land Survey Dept's land registry. Who says there is no proof?

Other cronies giving the local landowners problems

Villager Linggan Anak Ngabok and his longhouse have lost their entire living. Only the headman has been offered compensation - in order to betray them?

The companies giving the locals trouble in the latest land case to develop in Balingian are, however, a different set of concession-holders. Desacorp (in which the son of Taib’s political ally Hamid Bugo has shares) and the vast Empire Plantations, owned by the Wong family, who are key business cronies of the Chief Minister through their company WTK.

Four longhouses in Ulu Kenyana have have approached PKR leader Baru Bian to represent their case.

Linggam Anak Ngabok, from the Iban community of Rumah Randi in Kenyana, told us his problems began two years ago when Empire invaded his historic lands and destroyed the landscape, including all their fruit trees. The plantation-owners refused to acknowledge the rights of the villagers.

“When they held a meeting with the DO to discuss the matter they would not even let us enter. They only would accept to speak to the Pengulu and Tuan Rumah” he explained.

From Forest Reserve to this ……

The message back from the Pengulu was that “This is state land, so you cannot fight” say the villagers. But they know it is their land. They are also incensed that the BN appointed headmen were forced into decisions on their behalf and then received the miserable RM 250 per acre and not the people themselves.

The locals say that the key headmen have been handed shares in the plantations, giving them a further incentive to act against the interests of the people they are supposed to represent, who have not been given shares or compensation or even jobs in the scheme.

So much for all Taib’s talk of ‘modernisation’ bringing benefit to the ordinary folk. They say they used to live by selling the prized Arowana fish that lived in their river – it provided a good enough living. However, now that the oil palm plantation has moved in and muddied the river they say the fish have gone. The ordinary folk of the Chief Minster’s constituency of Balingian have been sidelined, ignored, left out and received nothing. They also know it. “To think we voted for BN at the last election laughed one of the residents of the moonscape of Kenyana. This time we will not. Definitely we will not”.

WE RELEASE THE LAND GRAB DATA !

Saturday, March 19th, 2011 GMT

This post is also available in: Iban, Malay

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 been handed on to close relatives or cronies of Taib Mahmud.

This is a national scandal and deserves full exposure. So, we now invite readers and the press to scrutinise the land register for themselves and to identify what lands have been taken in their own areas – and by whom. It is time that Taib stopped hiding behind the laughable excuse that “there is no proof”!

The scale of the larceny is shocking. The total of land titles handed out in recent years, as calculated by the Land and Survey Department’s own figures is a massive 1.5 million hectares. Much of this has recently involved the acquistion of Native Customary Lands, which has resulted in the recent spate of well over 200 landrights cases currently going through the courts – cases which Taib’s government is losing, emphasing the illegality of his actions. For this land the State of Sarawak also calculates that it has acquired a mere RM 734 million in premiums from the lucky people who received the titles. Set this against the current sale by Taib’s brother Onn Mahmud of a mere 30,000 acres (12,000 hectares), for which he is asking just under a billion ringgit! The profit from the timber cleared from these lands must have alone dwarfed these pathetic premiums.

The Interactive Land Map [best read on firefox or google chrome]

You are also invited to take part in our inter-active mapping project, whereby readers can pinpoint land grabs that are relevant or known to them and add them to our on-line annotated map of Sarawak.

Don’t worry it is easy! We have started it for you by marking out some of the land grabs that we have featured in earlier reports. You just plot the red blob and add the information. Shortly after your contribution will be added to the on-line information base for the benefit of fellow readers. You can click either on the MAP key to see the map or the DATA key to view the full information that we have released.

We have decided to embark on this project, because the information that we are presenting ought to be openly available in any democratic state. Instead, for the past 30 years Taib Mahmud has presided over a scandalous abuse of his people’s trust, by covertly stealing their lands for himself! Don’t say there is no proof, just look at the companies in the database and then find out who they belong to, or used to belong to at the time the land title was awarded. Often these companies were quickly sold on by friends and relatives after receiving the land titles from Taib for millions more than the ‘premium’ he had negotitated with them on behalf of the State he was elected to represent. This means money that should have gone to the people of Sarawak went to the Taibs and their cronies instead.

The Land and Survey Department's own recent totals, showing how many land titles it has 'sold', the total number of hectares and the premium received - a mere RM 730 million for a land mass about 20 times the size of Singapore!

Time for transparency

Any procedure involving the alienation of state or NCR lands to private parties, which has happened on a massive scale under Taib, should of course be an open process, so that everyone can see that there has been no corruption and that the best price has been gained for the people of Sarawak. However, Taib has done no such thing. As soon as he achieved the position of Chief Minister back in 1981 he moved swiftly to set up what he termed the Land Custody and Development Agency (Pelita) and put himself in charge of it as Chairman and as the Minister of Resources and Planning. This gave him control over the land.

Just one example - Youthful Elia Abas (daughter of Raziah Geneid and neice of Taib) is handed a 10,000 hectare plantation all to herself!

Within this department he has secretively sequestered lands from native communities and then equally secretively handed them on to whoever he likes – himself, his proxies, his brothers and sisters and nephews and nieces, as well as tranches for political allies and business cronies to keep them obedient to his wishes. If these transactions had been properly carried out with full transparency these deals could never have happened. However, Taib just conducted the deals himself behind closed doors! The term ‘Confidential/CONF’ can be seen all over the Land Registry, because Taib does not want the public to know how cheaply he handed these lands to his family and associates.

The data we are releasing gives details of the lands taken; the companies who took them and the price they paid, along with the dates of the 60 year leases. This information can be cross-referenced with company information and stock market and sales information that can nowadays be found on the internet. In this way communities can start to unlock the details of what has happened to their traditional lands.

Till now local people often had no idea that Taib had ‘alienated their land until the logging and plantation companies turned up on their doorsteps, often several years later. Now we invite all the people of Sarawak to check this data and find out if their areas have been already grabbed by one of the world’s richest families or their business associates.

Breakdown of a world class theft

Out of the hundreds of companies which have benefitted from the plunder of Sarawak’s lands we have identified scores already which are owned, or were originally owned by Mahmud family members, before being sold on to a thinly disguised third party owner – usually a crony of Taib. Below is a list of some of the companies that feature on the Land Register along with the Taib family members they are linked to. But, with your help, we hope to identify the rest before Taib finally meets his people once more at the polls in just three weeks’ time:

Polar Horizon, Titanium Management, Ukiran Mantap, Umpama Mantap, Radiant Lagoon, Premium Haven, Polar Towers, Polar Red, Log Oak Promotions, Future Atmosphere, Essential Straits, Dataran Aras, Celerity Design, Bella Magic – [ABU BEKIR TAIB – SON]

Miracle Harvest, Green Ace, Usaha Jasamaju, Mega Bumimas, World Sign Harvest, Quality Concrete, Emerald Discovery, Kenyalang Resources, Limbang Sinar Mas, Kumpulan Parabena, Miri Properties, Borsamulu Resort, Saradu Plantations – [RAZIAH MAHMUD/GENEID – SISTER]

Ikrar Bumi – [ELIA ABAS/GENEID – NEICE]

Achi Jaya Plantations – [ONN MAHMUD – BROTHER]

Eastern Eden, Poh Zhen, Palmlyn, Rajah Mutiara, Lanco Plantations, Hariyama, Golden Star-Ace, Senandang Masyhur [ARIP MAHMUD – BROTHER AND TAIB HIMSELF!]

Delta Padi – [TAIB HIMSELF]

Sarawak Plantations, Kub Sepadu, Multi Maximum, Mega Bumimas, Europalm – [HAMID SEPAWI – FIRST COUSIN/PROXY]

Masretus Oil Palm Plantation – [IBRAHIM MAHMUD – BROTHER]

Poliga Sdn Bhd [AHMAD BIN SU'UT - TAIB'S BOMOH]

Utahol, Herba Aromatics, Durafarm – [ALFRED JABU - DEPUTY CHIEF MINISTER]

Najib and Deputy Came to Sack Taib After Shock Polls – Exclusive!

Monday, March 21st, 2011 GMT

This post is also available in: Iban, Malay

Show of unity, but behind the scenes there is fighting!

Sarawak Report has received privileged information from BN insiders in KL, revealing that Najib Razak and Deputy PM, Muhyiddin Yassin, came to Sarawak not to support Taib, but to make him stand down!

This was the reason for the unprecedented dual visit of both the PM and the Deputy PM at the same time.

”One held the pistol and the other a dagger and said ‘it’s time to stand down. We are not going to compromise with you anymore, you have to announce your decision or that’s it!’”, recounted our source.

The 74 year old veteran of 30 years in office however did manage to negotiate a reprieve – on the basis that he would agree to call the election immediately and to leave office once a ‘transition period’ had established a suitable successor. Our sources told us that the Chief Minister, who has been refusing to stand down until he is secure that he can protect his wealth, has been infuriating BN colleagues in KL with his constant delays in holding the election. They were concerned he would hold out till the last moment, making a difficult situation worse.

“He is finished” – the devastating evidence from BN’s secret polling!

The usual (illegal) promises of election handouts – RM200 million is promised to Serian! But even BN think the voters are past this tactic.

Our source confirms that the core problem for Taib is the evidence of a collapse of voter support, as shown by his own secret polling results. It is information BN have been desperate to keep hidden.

Despite the brave faces and continuing public declarations that Taib ‘cannot lose’, the federal hierarchy are now convinced that he will in fact lose badly in this election and may even lose his own seat.

Our contact, who is extremely well-connected and close to BN leading figures, says that Taib’s Information department has done extensive confidential polling in recent months. The sampling has involved at least 2,000 voters in each constituency and the results have been terrifying for BN:

“I have seen them [the results] with my own eyes. This election the PM and Deputy PM know that it is inevitable that Taib will lose”

We have been informed that the findings show that the Chief Minister’s own party PBB will lose ‘at least’ 14 of its 35 seats and that George Chan’s SUPP will lose 90% of its current votes, amounting to 10 out of its 12 seats! SPDP and PRS will also lose at least one seat each. “These seats are in the black not the grey area”, it was emphasised, meaning it was not a question of possibly losing the seats but rather they are definitely going to be lost. BN are resigned to the fact that the existing parties are going to lose at least 33 out of the 71 seats and that the outcome may be far worse than that.

BN's best projections are that they will lose their majority - but they fear a wipe-out!

Talk of opposition hopes of merely denying BN its two thirds majority in Sarawak now looks hopelessly outdated, according to these figures. The ruling coalition itself is resigned to being swept away by a tsunami of change and they blame Taib Mahmud for the loss of their “fixed deposit”.

“He knows the game is up. He has run out of ideas and run out of Bomohs”, was the angry sneer. “Whichever way he goes, he will lose. It is time”

The MACC is waiting till after the election!

Body language - Taib is pushed to the back as the anxious leaders from BN seek a new way forward without him.

Sarawak Report believes that it was approached with this confidential information by loyal BN supporters, despite our regular criticism of the coalition’s government of Sarawak, as part of a process of deliberate distancing by BN’ Federal leaders.

For years Taib has been the over-mighty tail that wagged the dog in Malaysia, but they are at last determined to bring him to heel now that he is weakened by growing unpopularity.

There is clearly also a real anger and disgust over the scale of Taib’s greed and kleptocracy, which has worsened BN’s already tarnished record on corruption. Indeed, we were informed that measures have already been taken to trace and secure some of Taib’s stolen assets abroad. Privately Taib’s federal colleagues are determined not to let him escape with the loot!

“He is finished. This is not a question of stepping down, this is a question of being sued for corruption. The MACC are waiting until after the election” Sarawak Report was told.

Taib’s exit plans have therefore been blocked it was confirmed, which has worsened the tension between Federal and Local governments. The Chief Minister’s original get-out strategy, mooted last year, was to accept appointment as Governor, thereby benefiting from a supposed immunity from prosecution. Najib refused. The resulting delay in the calling of the election as Taib searches for new options has caused the present crisis.

No safe exit for Taib

Clearly popular with Taib! Awang Tengah's new house is being built to impress - the 'future Chief Minister' is already big in the Planning Ministry and Taib hopes he will protect all his stolen land assets !

The Chief Minister’s current strategy is to ensure a pliant successor and he has been pushing KL to accept his protégé Awang Tengah, 2^nd Minister of Resources and Planning.

Tengah is in the middle of building a monstrous new residence in Kuching, a sure sign of favour from Taib and hardly in keeping with a politician’s salary! This is just the sort of typical display of wealth that has infuriated KL. They are pushing for their own candidate Abang Zohari, who has a reputation they say for modesty and honesty. Taib, however, is reputed to loath him.

The Federal visitors were equally unforgiving about Taib’s choice of candidates over the weekend, we are told. Taib had ten seats reserved for his own family in the list he was offering. Najib and his powerful Deputy told him to tear it up.

“The PM and Deputy PM not only told him to calm down and dissolve, but also to choose candidates that are acceptable to the people and not just his own flesh and blood. That list has to change. He can’t put in his sons and nieces and nephews – he only trusts his family”!

“Relations with KL are terrible now”

Najib, his powerful Deputy Muhyiddin Yassin, are unhappy to be stuck going into the election with the spent old men of Kuching and all their "baggage"!

So, they smiled for the cameras. But behind the façade we now know the picture is of absolute crisis within BN, at a time when they are loudly accusing the opposition of being divided on the brink of an election.

With local politicians in Sarawak keeping silent out of fear of Taib’s ruthless reputation, he is proving impossible for Najib to replace before the polls. However, BN have identified him as a loser, a loser they dislike and a loser they want to see made an example of.

With just three weeks to go now, KL are looking for a way out and for a new image free of Taib and all his “baggage”. But, after years of tolerating the thieving White Haired Rajah of Sarawak, they are going to have a hard time convincing disillusioned voters, however genuine their regrets!

Heirless’ Taib is afraid to step down

Mohd Ariff Sabri Aziz | February 23, 2011

Chief Minister Taib Mahmud is desperately in need of a political successor to safeguard his and his family's empire in Sarawak.

I have regular meetings with the someone whom I would like call the “Oracle of Syed Putra.” I first started penning my meetings with the Oracle way back in 2008 in my blog.

The “Oracle” is the alter ego of Tun Daim Zainudin. They grew up together. They knew each other’s siblings. They played together and did things normally done by the young and old alike. They were inseparable.

I already had an appointment with the Oracle, when I saw Daim’s picture in The China Press. I called M, the Oracle’s long-time personal assistant, and asked if he could get the Chinese report translated. There would have been a translated transcript for the Oracle. The Oracle must be a keeper of sorts for Daim. He is a treasure trove.

Anyway I got the translated copy on the day of my meeting with the Oracle.

Knowing that I can be fastidious about the written language, M quickly pointed out “that’s the English translation done by the Press people. That’s not the English of the Oracle or Tun Daim.”

I ran through the translated copy. It contained many things that I had written about in my blog sakmongkolak47 since I began my regular sitdowns with the “Oracle of Syed Putra”.

The Oracle once told me that Daim reads my blog.

Rosmah-link

Anyway, when my time came, I entered into the Oracle’s inner sanctum. I immediately asked about Sarawak.

Question: What is your take about Sarawak, O Oracle?

The Oracle: You know what’s the problem with Toib? (Incidentally, the Oracle has this peculiar way of pronouncing the name. The Oracle comes from Kedah. The way they pronounced Taib is Toib – the “T” is the “tho” of the Arabic alphabet. Hence “Taw-ib”.)

He (Taib Mahmud) wants to stay as long as possible because he hasn’t got a succession plan. He knows he is breeding an uprising in Sarawak. He wants the son to succeed. But the son seems to have lost all interest since the mother passed away.

You remember the Islamic Fashion Show in Monaco? It was bankrolled basically by Taib’s people. The whole soirée was financed by Taib. It was his way of getting into the good books of Rosmah (Mansor).

So he got some Sarawakian fashonista who talked to that Raja Shahreza (organiser) fellow who talked to Rosmah (Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s wife) and who talked to… and they all got to sing along with Prince Albert, the Playboy of Monaco.

And do you remember after that, the PM came back and urged all parties concerned to support Taib. Even though earlier, he thought it was time for the silver-haired one to go.

Now he’s trying to persuade Najib to hold simultaneous parliamentary and state elections. For that he sends his sister to bond up with Rosmah.

Everyone now seems to realise that it’s Rosmah who exerts paramount persuasive powers over the husband. And the husband is the PM of Malaysia.

Self-presevation

Taib’s reasoning is, if elections were to be held at the same time, the opposition’s forces and resources will be thinly spread. That way, he can be more certain Sarawak will prevail.

And by suggesting that the fortunes of the federal government are tied to how Taib performs in the state elections, Najib may just be persuaded.

Everyone knows that Najib has got this phobia. Tell some scare stories and he will wilt.

You know, TDZ (Daim) met up with this Taib feller. He tells the latter, it’s time to go. Mahathir has left. Ling (Liong Sik) has left. You may be overstaying. Taib tells Daim that he needs time to plan for a succession.

Why is the right succession important?

It’s essential for self-preservation. Taib practically owns the whole of Sarawak. If some wrong person were to get into office, can his interests be protected? Can the future of his children be guaranteed?

He needs someone who can guarantee safety over his interests and the future of his family.

Succession plan

I went on to the next question. It’s itching and eating me up.

Question: When do you think he will hold the Sarawak election? Will it be done concurrently?

(The Oracle): Not good. Better to have it done separately. Taib will lose many of the urban seats. The Chinese are not going to vote for the BN. Do you think the Chinese will get intimidated by Taib’s warnings that he won’t be able to help the Chinese? Certainly not.

The Chinese help themselves basically. The lesser you interfere, the better they like it. They can run a parallel economy, you know.

The best strategy for Najib is to carry out a containment policy. If Sarawak were to lose more state seats this time, let that losing trend be contained there. Don’t let them get over here in peninsula.

The biggest problem in Sarawak is Taib himself. He has stayed too long and accumulated too much resentment alongside the fabulous wealth that he has amassed. Sarawak can lose more seats based on the public revulsion of him alone.

It’s like the flow of current. You hold hands with a man about to be electrocuted, you get zapped too.

Najib will be ill advised if he holds the general election together with the Sarawak election.

Mohd Ariff Sabri Aziz, a former state assemblymen, is a columnist for Free Malaysia Today. He will, from time to time, share the Oracle’s wisdom with readers.

Sarawak: Shocking New Cases Of Violence Against Indigenous Peoples In Sarawak

HSBC-funded oil palm company hires gangsters to intimidate native landowners - Two native landowners critically hurt by timber company officials

BLD Plantation Bhd, a Malaysian oil palm company that counts HSBC Malaysia among its principal bankers, has hired over 100 armed thugs to intimidate native landowners who are opposed to the forceful "development" of their land into an oil palm plantation.

According to the Borneo Resources Institute Malaysia, around 100 armed gangsters had been brought in two buses from Sibu to Rumah Ranggong on 17 February in an attempt to intimidate the longhouse residents. The gangsters had brought along parangs (large knifes) and some explosives. Fearing for their safety, some of the longhouse residents reported the case to the police who arrested the gang leader and sent the rest away. The longhouse people had been defending their lands against an oil palm development by Niamas Istimewa, a BLD subsidiary. BLD plantation is part of the KTS group that is also active in Indonesia, China, Brazil and Australia.

In a separate, even more shocking case, two native landowners, Minggat Nyakin and Juan Minggat, were beaten up on 14 February at a timber log-pond in Sungai Rusa, Sarikei Division. According to Sarawak's indigenous peoples' network, TAHABAS, the two had been complaining against illegal logging on their native lands with the timber company manager. It appears that the illegal loggers are being protected by the police and the Sarawak authorities. The case is symptomatic for the culture of corruption and the lack of law enforcment in the Sarawak timber and plantation sector.

Source: Borneo Resources Institute Malaysia

Related Articles, Videos, Books, Or Other Items

• Sarawak: Politically-Connected Company Sends Thugs To Drive Natives Out Of Their Lands In Ulu Niah - Video Report
• Sarawak: The Black List Of Taib’s Secret Foreign Assets
• Sarawak: BLD Hired Armed Gangsters To Intimidate Rumah Ranggong Residents
• Sarawak: Bruno Manser Fund To Launch International Campaign Against Sarawak Timber Corruption
• Sarawak: Pantu NCR Land Owners Win Court Case Against Encroaching Oil Palm Company After 6 Year Struggle
• Sarawak: Malaysian Government Fears Anti-Taib Protests

Who Are The Aggressors?

22 February, 2011

By Lord Bobo

Arrested Gang Leader | Credit: BRIMAS

On the 18th Feb, 2011, 100 armed thugs camped at Rumah Ranggong, Sarawak with explosives & parangs, over a land dispute with an oil palm company. Now the villagers are being accused as the aggressors by the local press.

MIRI - Residents of Rumah Ranggong are disappointed with the news report from a local daily, the Borneo Post which portrayed them as the aggressors and are out to threaten the company, BLD Resources with the use of force.

On 20 February, the Sunday Post under the headline "Police finally move to diffuse standoff" was reported as saying that the longhouse residents were taking over the estate, illegally harvesting of (oil palm) fruits along the roadside and eventually seizing three tractors in order to harvest more fruits.

The report also stated that the longhouse residents allegedly threatened the workers of the company with bodily harm if the company continue to lodge police reports and because of that the report further state that the estate’s security personnel was inadequate and therefore are sending more men to beef up the security in the area.

Gangsters Camp or Security Personnel? | Credit: BRIMAS

Changgai anak Dali, the Chairman of the village security and development committee (JKKK) said that this report is a blatant lie.

"We never seized any tractors nor threatened the company," said Changgai.

"It is the company that brought along gangsters fully armed with machetes and explosives to intimidate and threatened our longhouse people," he said.

Explosives Found | Credit: BRIMAS

"Why should security personnel bring along with them home made explosives? Who is threatening whom here with force?" asked Changgai.

The report also lied when it said that the longhouse residents, through their trustees had signed an agreement of indemnity with the company for the equity of 30 percent in July 2009 when in actual fact the Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) between BLD, Sarawak Land Development Board (SLDB) and the native landowners of Rumah Ranggong and Rumah Belilie was signed in February 2001.

Two Boxes of Parangs From The Camp Were Seized by Police | Credit: BRIMAS

On 21 February, the Borneo Post under the headline "Police to take action over alleged threat" again spun the story to paint the picture that the residents of Rumah Ranggong are the aggressors by saying that several longhouse folk had allegedly threatened to use force against the company.

"We want to put the story right here," said Changgai.

Deed of Rescission | Credit: BRIMAS

"In October 2008, a Deed of Rescission (see attached) was signed between SLDB and BLD without our knowledge to rescind the JVA because the State Government made a mistake in declaring our land as under native customary right (NCR) and now it is State Land," said Changgai.

"Because of this I was sued by BLD for trespassing in my own land and that triggered our land dispute where we filed a counter suit which is now undergoing trial at the Kuching High Court."

More Explosives Found & Seized | Credit: BRIMAS

"Last year we wrote a letter to BLD to demand our land back and also to settle our long overdue dividends from the project, but we received no response and that is when we decided to erect our blockade in January this year," explained Changgai.

The neighbouring residents of Rumah Belilie also erected a blockade to protest against BLD.

Last Friday, about 100 armed gangsters went to the outskirts of Rumah Ranggong native customary land boundary and made camp there in an attempt to intimidate and threaten the longhouse residents. A gang leader was arrested by police while the rest were told to leave by the police.

Released by:
Mark Bujang
Executive Director

For more information, please read:
1. Malaysia: Trial of Ibans from Rumah Ranggong started at Kuching High Court
2. Sarawak: Ulu Niah Natives Set Up Blockade Against Company For Not Keeping Promise
3. Sarawak: Ulu Niah Natives Erect Another Blockade Against Plantation Company
4. Thugs arrested after threatening longhouse folks [thestar.com.my]
5. Associations: All parties must learn from Niah standoff [thestar.com.my]
6. Near clashes between gangsters and natives [freemalaysiatoday.com]

EXCLUSIVE: Taib's secret foreign assets black list is online

Built with laundered timber corruption money: Taib towers in Ottawa, Canada

BASEL (SWITZERLAND) / KUCHING (MALAYSIA). The Bruno Manser Fund has today released a black list of companies related to the family of Abdul Taib Mahmud, the long-serving Chief Minister of the Malaysian state of Sarawak. The black list contains the names and company numbers of 49 companies in eight countries which are thought to be worth hundreds of millions, if not billions, of US dollars. A considerable number of the companies is active in the real estate and property sector.
The exclusive black list can be accessed under: stop-timber-corruption.org/resources

Taib Mahmud, who has been Chief Minister, Finance Minister and State Planning and Resources Minister of Sarawak since 1981, has an impressive track record of corruption and abuse of public funds. According to the Democratic Action Party (DAP), Taib has failed to account for a staggering 4.8 billion Malaysian ringgits (1.58 billion US dollars) of Sarawak state funds over the past three years alone. In 2007, the Tokyo tax authorities uncovered a massive corruption scheme that involved the payment of kickbacks to the Taib family. In return, nine Japanese shipping companies had received export licences to carry logs to Japan, Sarawak's largest timber export market.

The black list names 13 Malaysian companies, 10 Australian companies, 9 Canadian companies,7 Hong Kong companies, 4 US companies, 3 companies on the British Virgin Islands and 1 company in Jersey. Among the companies listed are Sakto, a significant Ottawa-based property developer, Ridgeford Properties, a London property company active in the high-end market, and Wallysons, the owners of the FBI Northwestern Regional Headquarters building in Seattle. Among the Malaysian companies, Cahya Mata Sarawak (CMS), the state's largest private company, and the Ta Ann logging group are most notable.

The black list's intention is to help the listed countries' anti-corruption and anti-money-laundering authorities identify and freeze illicit Taib assets in their countries. The list will be regularly updated.

(21 February 2011)

EXCLUSIVE: The black list of Taib’s secret foreign assets

EXCLUSIVE: The black list of Taib’s secret foreign assets

The following companies are, or have been, closely linked to the family of Abdul Taib Mahmud ("Taib"), who has been Chief Minister of Sarawak, Malaysia, since 1981. Taib's ill-gotten foreign and domestic assets are estimated to be worth hundreds of millions, if not billions, of US dollars.

The Bruno Manser Fund and thousands of supporters around the globe are urging the authorities of the below-mentioned countries to investigate the financial transactions of the black-listed companies under their respective anti-corruption and anti-money-laundering legislations and to freeze all Taib family assets for later restitution to the people of Sarawak.

Australia: Australian Universities International Alumni Convention Pty Ltd (ACN: 081942903); Donmastry Pty Ltd (ACN: 093 907 843); Geneid Holdings Pty Ltd (ACN: 087759751); Golborne Pty Ltd. (ACN: 061844148); Golden Sovereign Development Ltd (ACN 103 925 613); Kesuma Holdings Pty Ltd. (ACN 105540636); Newtop Holdings Pty Ltd (ACN: 066588225); Ostgro Australia Pty Ltd (ACN: 094721070); Sitehost Pty Ltd (ACN: 062312743); Valentine on George Pty Ltd (ACN: 105541562)

British Virgin Islands: Astar Properties Ltd. (201522); CMS Global (BVI) Ltd.; Tess Investments Ltd (203511)

Canada: Adelaide Ottawa Corporation (2028546); City Gate International Corporation (446027-8); Glowell Development Corporation (1545868); Preston Building Holding Corporation (2108122), Sakto Development Corporation Pte. Ltd. (155207-4), Sakto Corporation (340439-1), Sakto Management Services Corporation (655948-4), Tower One Holding Corporation (2028542), Tower Two Holding Corporation (2018543)

Hong Kong: Grand Shine Trading Ltd (0127665); Grand Will Ltd (0133932); Herolite Investment Ltd (129119); Natalite Investment Ltd (129502); Regent Star Company Ltd (0130318); Richfold Investment Ltd (0130308); Whittaker Company Ltd (0161304)

Jersey: Sogo Holdings Ltd (43148)

Malaysia: Achi Jaya Holdings Sdn Bhd; Borsarmulu Resort Sdn Bhd (213014-M); Cahya Mata
Sarawak Sdn Bhd (21076-T); K&N Kenanga Holdings Bhd; Kumpulan Parabena Sdn Bhd; Mesti
Bersatu Sdn Bhd (758849-V); Naim Holdings Berhad (585467-M); Sanyan Group; Sarawak
Aluminium Company (783974-K); Sarawak Energy Bhd.; Ta Ann Group; Titanium Management
Sdn Bhd; UBG Berhad (240931-X) United Kingdom: Ridgeford Consulting Ltd (5572163); Ridgeford Properties Ltd (3268801)

USA: Sakti International Corporation Inc.; Wallysons Inc (the owner of the FBI building in
Seattle!); W.A. Boylston Inc; W.A.Everett Inc.

This list has been established on 21 February 2011 and will be regularly updated.

For more information, please consult our campaign site http://www.stop-timber-corruption.org

People’s Call for Regime Change - Part 2

18 February, 2011

By NH Chan

Photo Credit: Wan Eijas

The People’s Judge continues his call to the young to use the tools of modern communication to effect change in Malaysia, pointing out how we are stuck with a government using 19th century British colonial laws to further repress us. Read Part 1 of this article here.

The Sedition Act as applied in this country

The sedition legislation is the most oppressive law ever devised by a colonial power to subjugate the natives by the colonialists who took over the land they had colonized. In this country the Sedition Act 1948 is typical of such colonialism - this word means ‘the practice of acquiring and controlling another country and occupying it’. If you read on you will know that this is the true picture of how our Sedition Act 1948 migrated from 1870 British India to Peninsular Malaya in 1948 when the country was a British protectorate except for Malacca and Penang which were colonies.

There is an excellent article in the Star, Wednesday, 9 February 2011, titled Sedition law’s overreach by Professor Shad Saleem Faruqi. It says:

Definition: Section 2 and 3(1) of the [Sedition Act 1948] state that any act, speech, words or publication are seditious if they have a tendency towards any of the following:

To bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against any Ruler or government.

Dissaffection does not mean absence of affection but refers to disloyalty, enmity and hostility: PP v Param Cumaraswamy [1986] 1 MLJ 526

Application of the law: In Param Cumaraswamy it was held that intention to incite to violence, tumult or public disorder is not a necessary ingredient of the crime.

As long as the words were intentionally published and they had a tendency to cause ill will, etc, the offence is complete.

The Professor also alluded to the acquittal of Mr Cumaraswamy:

But in PP v Param the defendant’s criticism of the Pardon’s Board for not applying uniform standards in considering applications for mercy was held not to constitute sedition.

I was the judge who tried Mr Param Cumaraswamy. At the conclusion of the trial, I acquitted him.

As pointed out by Professor Faruqi ‘As long as the words were intentionally published and they had a tendency to cause ill will, etc, the offence is’ established. I had to acquit Param Cumaraswamy because I made a finding of fact that the words when uttered by him, who is a mere lawyer without any following, could not possibly have any tendency ‘to bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against any Ruler or government’. The Public Prosecutor, who in this case was the Attorney-General - he was Abu Talib - did not appeal.

Source: Malaysiakini

Just think how repressive this law is. You can’t even say that the powers that be were practicing double standards. If Param had been tried before another judge he could have been convicted. For example, in Lim Guan Eng v PP [1998] 3 MLJ 14, HC & CA; [2000] 2 MLJ 577, FC an opposition leader who complained that justice was selectively administered was convicted of the sedition charge. Even members of Parliament can be convicted of sedition for words spoken in Parliament: see Mark Koding v PP [1982] 2 MLJ 120.

Mahathir when he was Prime Minister spoke in Parliament to remove the powers of the rulers yet nothing happened to him. But if anyone were to point out there is selective prosecution he can be charged for sedition and most probably he would be convicted.

At the end of his article, the Professor pointed out that:

The concept of sedition in Malaysia is much broader than in the UK, Ireland, India and Australia.

On ideal democratic standards, the law is open to many criticisms for its breadth and for its far-reaching implications on political life in the country.

For this reason it is ripe for review. Whether the technique for law reform will be legislative or judicial remains to be seen.

We are stuck in the 19th century

Source: Wikipedia | Alexander Bassano

The professor is quite right. The Sedition Act 1948 is an archaic piece of legislation. It migrated from 1870 British India to Peninsular Malaya in 1948 (Sabah in 1964 and Sarawak in 1969). While other countries of the Commonwealth, of which Malaysia is a member, have advanced into the modern age, in this country, time stood still. We are still back in the time of Sir James Stephen in 1870 British India. This was pointed out by Sinha CJ in Kader Nath v State of Bihar [1962] AIR, SC 955. In fact section 124A of the Indian Penal Code was the work of Stephen J.

Sir James Stephen was the judge (he was Mr Justice Stephen in England) whose definition of sedition appeared as Article 93 of the Digest of the Criminal Law. I said this before I called on Mr Cumaraswamy to enter on his defence, "Although it may appear to be in English case law that incitement to violence or inciting others to public disorders is an essential ingredient of sedition, it is not so in a criminal code which has as its model Stephen’s definition."

Article 93 of the Digest was used as the model for the crime of sedition in the Criminal Code of the Gold Coast.

So that when we look at section 124A of the Indian Penal Code or at the Criminal Code of the Gold Coast on Sedition, or our own Sedition Act, we are looking at the definition of sedition as apprehended by Sir James Stephen back in the year 1870. The English common law on sedition has developed separately from Stephen’s 1870 definition. As pointed out by Professor Faruqi other nations like the UK, Ireland, India and Australia have moved on to modern times. The modern law of sedition is no longer repressive in other countries but not so in Malaysia where our sedition law is the same law as applied to the colonies of Great Britain back in the year 1870. For us Malaysians we live in a retrograde - this word means moving backwards to a worse state - country where our clock had stopped in the year 1870.

Using the ability of the internet for change

Now, I trust you will realize that we Malaysians are in dire straits. Don’t you think it is time for us to move on to a better Malaysia. Like the people of Egypt we can use people’s power to change from tyranny to a true democracy. Use the power of your vote to unseat the oppressors.

We have been under their yoke for 53 years.Enough is enough!

Use facebook and twitter. Use your email and if every reader of this article emails it to his friends we will be able to persuade a whole generation of young people to vote out the BN and replace them with a new government.

It doesn’t matter that the new are inexperienced but at least we have a government of the people, by the people and for the people. It took the English peoples 700 years to get rid of their tyrannical kings. The American people took 250 years to get to where they are today.

I don’t think we will take that long because we are resilient and we have the benefit of hindsight. And above all we have our young people whose young minds will be able to meet the challenges ahead.

Read also:

• Sedition under the law of this country
• Sedition held unconstitutional
• LoyarBorak #1: Is Twitter Useless at Social Activism - Part 1 and Part 2

NH Chan, a much respected former Court of Appeal Judge, is a gavel of justice that has no hesitation in pounding on Federal Court judges with wooden desks for heads. Retired from the Judiciary to become the People’s Judge. Wrote the explosive "Judging The Judges", now in its 2nd edition as "How To Judge The Judges". Once famously hinted at a possible "case match" between lawyer and judge by remarking that "something is rotten in the state of Denmark" (see Ayer Molek Rubber Company Berhad & Ors v Insas Berhad & Anor [1995] 3 CLJ 359). We need more people like NH Chan. That’s why you should buy PASOC and his book.