Taib did not get the response that he wanted from the Swiss Government yesterday. But he did buy some time. In answer to questions from MP Maya Graf in the Bern Federal Parliament, the Swiss Finance Minister, Evelyn Widmer Schlum, fell back on traditional Swiss secrecy!
For the first time in 30 years Abdul Taib Mahmud has cancelled the traditional press conference, normally held at the Wisma Bapa Malaysia after the weekly Cabinet meeting. Even more astonishing, the journalists were barred from the building, as if they were unwanted intruders [..]
In a dramatic move, a group of NGOs have today called on the Malaysian Attorney General and the Commissioner of Police to arrest Abdul Taib Mahmud! A letter drawn up by the Bruno Manser Fund and signed by a number of Malaysian and international NGOs, including Greenpeace, requests [..]
Sean (Hisham) Murray, husband of Taib’s daughter Jamilah, appears to have unwittingly exposed his wife’s illegal dual nationality! Under BN’s own strict laws, Malaysians are not allowed two passports and they have to surrender their Malay nationality if they take citizenship elsewhere.
Once again Taib’s dirty tricks against Sarawak Report and Radio Free Sarawak have spectacularly backfired! In the past few hours it has emerged that the Chief Minister, along with his son-in-law, Sean Murray, was one of the clients who hired Bell Pottinger to alter Wikipedia entries about themselves, their companies, Sarawak… and, of course,Sarawak Report/Radio Free Sarawak! [..]
The campaign to expose the corruption behind the deforestation and land grabs in Sarawak has received a top TV billing on Canada’s Global News station. During a prime-time slot aired on Saturday night’s 16X9 programme, investigative reporter Sean O’Shea focused on the massive property portfolio that has been developed in Ottawa, London and the US under the name of Jamilah Taib, the Chief Minister’s oldest daughter [..]
It is time the forces of law and order came to the assistance of the Penan people, who are bravely continuing to resist the illegal destruction of Sarawak’s rainforest by Taib Mahmud’s logging cronies. Instead they are helping the loggers tear down Penan blockades to protect their native lands
New research by Sarawak Report has produced further proof that Taib’s claim that he “does no business in Sarawak” is shockingly untrue. To the contrary, we can name him as the ‘Godfather’ who blatantly controls most of the shares in Sarawak’s largest public company, Cahya Mata Sarawak (CMS) [..]
Taib Mahmud is betraying big weaknesses with his useless attempts to shut up questions in Parliament about his family corruption and then to have those questions removed from the official records [..]
Chief Minister Taib Mahmud and PM Najib Razak have been trumpeting their economic policies in the light of plaudits given by an outfit called the Oxford Business Group. However, the Editorial Director of these reports is none other than a former Editor of the UK’s most ridiculed porn rag, the Daily Sport, which closed earlier this year[..]
The UK media regulator, Ofcom, has now announced that it too will launch an investigation into the activities of FBC Media and its association with the Malaysian Government, Sarawak and other regimes with public profile problems. The announcement comes at the same time as confirmation by the British Foreign Office that it has launched a money laundering investigation into Taib’s assets in the UK.[..]
The BBC has confessed to numerous transgressions of its editorial standards by a number of programmes commissioned from FBC Media about Sarawak and Malaysia. In a report published today by its governing body, the BBC Trust, the Corporation admitted that the programmes, which were acquired by the BBC for ‘low or nominal cost’ from independent producers [..]
Sarawak Report has uncovered shocking documents, which detail a deliberate and orchestrated campaign by the Malaysian Oil Palm giant, Sime Darby, to court and seduce one of the world’s most celebrated economists into becoming an ‘Ambassador’ for the company[…]
As the saga of Taib and Najib’s global image-building continues to unravel, we can reveal that they not only shared their PR advisors with the notorious dictator of Kazakhstan, but also with the even more horrendous regime of Uzbekistan, where dissidents are boiled alive!
We can reveal that the husband of Taib’s eldest daughter, the Canadian, Hisham (Sean) Murray, has grabbed control of one of Kuching’s most lucrative property developments on the so-called Kuching Isthmus, a venture sponsored by the State Government. [..]
Sarawak Report can now add to growing questions in Britain about Tony Blair and his former PR advisors’ links with repressive regimes. We have learnt from exclusive sources that the former UK Prime Minister’s ex-Communications Chief, Alastair Campbell, is now advising Najib Razak on how to win the next election! [..]
Sarawak Report has learnt that FBC Media, the production company we exposed for taking nearly a hundred million ringgit to showcase Najib Razak, Taib Mahmud and other BN politicians and leaders from the palm oil business on its programmes, has gone under [..]
Taib’s foreign business partners are working hard to present a picture that all is well in Sarawak and to imply that there are no issues with the wood logged from the state or its plantation programmes. However, their statements have been undermined by a ruling in Holland this week[..]
Sarawak Report can disclose that the connections between Tasmania’s primary industries and the Chief Minister’s cousin, Hamed Sepawi, are far more extensive than previously publicised.
These worrying links not only threaten the integrity of old-growth forests back in Tasmania [..]
The Penan are the iconic people of the Sarawak jungle. Most communities had settled into villages and rural life of one form or another over the last hundred years, but the Penan steadfastly stuck to their nomadic ways. With just a few possessions, easily carried on their backs, they have had nothing to lose but the jungle they live from[..]
Taib Mahmud’s $5million dollar a year ‘Cyber-war Campaign’ has conceded a humiliating defeat, with the final demise of the site ‘Sarawak Reports'[…]
The Australian branch of the highly influential international environment organisation Greenpeace has stepped in to support the campaign to investigate Taib’s assets abroad.
Last week Ta Ann accused The Green Party in Tasmania of false advertising over logging in Sarawak.
But now advertisements promoting Ta Ann’s products as ‘Eco-wood’ have been challenged by a devastating expose of the company’s own role in Tasmania! [..]
Kevin Rudd, Australia’s former Premier and current Foreign Minister has issued a prompt and positive response to our request for an investigation into the Taib family’s foreign assets in that country [..]
The leader of the Australian Green Party, Senator Bob Brown, has invited the Editor of Sarawak Report to Hobart, in order to speak about corruption in Sarawak this week. The senator is a representative from Tasmania, where the Taib-linked company Ta Ann is involved in controversial logging operations. At a press conference this morning reporters were
Knowledge and concern about the timber corruption associated with Sarawak’s Chief Minister is now spreading to the UK. Last week his name was raised in the UK Parliament’s upper chamber, The House of Lords [..]
Prompted by the outburst of his own lawyers, Sarawak Report has now dug up further details about Hamid Sepawi’s dubious dealings over the plantation company Grand Perfect Sdn Bhd[..]
The Chief Minister’s cousin and business nominee, Hamed Sepawe, has exposed more of his own sleazy dealings as the result of an ill-judged, angry outburst against recent criticism [..]
The Federal Republic of Germany has become the latest country to announce that it is mounting corruption and money laundering investigations into Sarawak’s Chief Minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud. [..]
The climb down over the Baram Dam is very significant and everyone who has stood up in protest should accept credit. Others should take note that legitimate protest works![..]
Taib’s PR people have pictured a foreign animal in their attempts to show how fond the Chief Minister is of saving Sarawak’s wildlife! The greedy timber tycoon, who has spent his 30 years in office tearing down the Borneo jungle, is now making a belated attempt to pose as a champion of the environment. But, this classic mistake has
The Leader of Australia’s Green Party, Senator Bob Brown from Tasmania, has issued a statement deploring the fact that the Taib family timber company Ta Ann has once again declared losses in the state […]
Secret US Government documents have stood up Sarawak Report’s allegations about corruption in Sarawak. A dossier of US Embassy dispatches to Washington, compiled by the Bruno Manser Foundation from the Wikileaks site, has now revealed that the United States Government has been well-informed about the extent of Taib Mahmud’s abuse of power in the state. The revelations raise fresh questions about the judgement of America’s top
New investigation into film maker that took millions from Malaysia By Ian Burrell One of America’s most prestigious magazines, the 154-year-old The Atlantic, has become the latest high-profile news organisation to launch an investigation into its relationship with a media company that was allocated millions of pounds by the Malaysian government. The Washington-based magazine and
The story of FBC Media has now hit the United States, where a number of media organisations, magazines and TV stations have had links with the company. The political blog site Politico has been following developments as our revelations started to hit in Malaysia and the UK today it reported that the magazine Atlantic Monthly, is also
Sarawak Report has received a copy of the actual letter and contract sent by FBC Media Chairman, Alan Friedman, to Chief Minister Taib Mahmud, outlining their illegal PR campaign. The total cost for FBC’s ‘Global Strategic Communications Proposal’ came to $5 million in the first year alone in a campaign designed to last at least 3 years. Sources close to BN have
FBC Media, in return for $5 million, had promised to radically boost Taib Mahmud’s international profile. In a personal letter to Taib the Chairman of FBC, Alan Friedman, guaranteed that he could provide promotional coverage on TV news shows, in newspapers and on-line. It was all illegal, of course, and at the taxpayer’s expense. But, when did corrupt practices ever bother the
The UK’s most respected and established Environmental magazine, The Ecologist, has this week turned its attention to Chief Minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud, with a major investigative article about his record in Sarawak. In a devastating analysis it outlines Taib’s corruption and his lies about what has happened to the Borneo jungle and its people. Even
Slowly but surely international attention has started to focus on Abdul Taib Mahmud and his corrupt businesses. Not only is Taib the single biggest force driving the destruction of the Borneo jungle, but his companies, such as Ta Ann, are causing damage and destruction in most of the world’s other remaining jungles, including Tasmania. Over the past two days
Sarawak Report has already exposed how BN’s leading political figures, including Najib Razak, Abdullah Badawi, Musa Hitam and Taib Mahmud, paid the UK production company FBC Media to illegally gain positive publicity on global TV news shows. We can now reveal an even darker side to this campaign. The same contracts also included a series of negative blogging campaigns targetted against BN’s political opponents. All
If CNN had acknowledged concerns about FBC Media’s spin operations and agreed to investigate the possible contamination of its programmes, because of its connections with that company’s President, John Defterios, criticism might have died down. However, unlike the BBC and CNBC, who have both launched investigations and suspended FBC Media programmes, CNN has leapt to a fairly
Sarawak Report can confirm that the BBC appointed a team a week ago to examine FBC Media’s activities. They had been alerted to the PR/Production company’s activities and were able to look at its website and other publicity material before FBC withdrew it after being approached by journalists on Thursday [..]
The global news broadcaster CNBC has axed its flagship business show World Business, following an exclusive expose earlier this week by Sarawak Report.[see previous story] We revealed how BN politicians, including the Prime Minister Najib Razak, Abdullah Badawi and Taib Mahmud have been paying the production company, the UK-based FBC Media, millions of ringgit of taxpayers’ money to
Taib is paying a crooked, British-based PR company $5 million (RM15 million) a year to conduct an illegal global media campaign against Sarawak Report. We expose FBC Media, a UK-based TV production company, which doubles as a “strategic communications” firm, for conducting an illicit media scam over the past decade. The outfit is secretly selling
Hateful anti-Islamic outpourings, including a crude mocking of the Prophet Mohammed, are just some of the very surprising views expressed by a member of the team of American bloggers, hired by PM Najib Razak and Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud to supposedly improve their images. One member of the team, named Caleb Howe, has indulged in
ADVICE NOTE: THIS STORY RAN IN SOME MAJOR UK NEWSPAPERS IN JULY (THE MAIL AND THE SUN). BUT IT TURNED OUT TO BE A “SILLY SEASON” SUMMER SPOOF. WE WERE TAKEN IN AND RE-RAN THE STORY. WE ARE KEEPING IT UP ON THE SITE FOR FUN AND TO INFORM ANYONE WONDERING WHAT HAPPENED TO THE STORY. MOST OF OUR
This morning, in distant Tasmania, an intrepid group of young protesters defied Taib’s family company Ta Ann. They boarded a boat laden with wood that Ta Ann had taken from their own primary jungle, climbed right to the top of a crane tower and chained themselves to it. And they wanted to make their message clear. They were
The Palace will surely be running an enquiry into the shockingly embarrassing faux pas on the part of the Queen when she met the Prime Minister Najib yesterday. How could Her Majesty have been allowed to make such an appalling blunder? There could not be a more glaringly bright garment in the royal wardrobe. Brilliant,
The flash crowd that turned up to boo Najib’s event at Mansion House (the official residence of the City of London’s Mayor) was larger than yesterday’s outside Downing Street. They had been joined by Amnesty International, who have spoken out about the treatment of the Bersih demonstrators at the weekend. Amnesty commands considerable respect in the UK. The Malaysian
When he allowed his forces to brutally attack thousands of peaceful marchers, who were calling for an end to corrupt practices over the weekend, Najib must surely have taken into account the effect on his international image? Millions of dollars worth of expensive PR, positioned press and TV interviews have been swept aside by scenes that show exactly how BN
The genteel nature of London’s Bersih sympathy rally was reflected in the smart leafy surroundings of Belgrave Square, where they collected just before midday outside the Malaysian High Commission, which was firmly shut. The polite gathering created a dignified splash of floral, Bersih yellow T-shirts (accompanied by cheeky bananas and balloons) against the green backdrop of London’s poshest private garden, which was
Sarawak Report can reveal that a key orchestrator behind the dirty tricks campaigns that have been waged against Anwar Ibrahim, Gordon Brown and Sarawak Report is a ginger-bearded American blogger named Josh Trevino. Trevino claims he was a speech-writer for George Bush and he is a founder of the popular Republican blog, Red State. His outspoken, far-right views have provoked controversy
Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim is being targeted by the same malicious on-line bloggers who have sought to defame former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and former US Ambassador John Malott. Research by Sarawak Report has identified clear evidence that the same team of paid writers have been working on a sustained campaign of deliberate vilification of Anwar,
The former British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has been caught up in a vicious defamation campaign run by right wing bloggers in the United States and then reproduced in Malaysia online. The bloggers have been hired by Chief Minister Taib Mahmud [..]
MACC Investigators have a headache in store for them when they turn to Hong Kong, such is the tangled web of Taib family shareholdings. However, delving into these business concerns will throw up some intriguing coincidences, as Sarawak Report’s own researches can already demonstrate. We can also demonstrate how a number of Taib-linked companies are now owned or being
The Chief Minister has denied he has illegal foreign assets. He previewed the statement, made today in the State Assembly, as a ‘surprise announcement’. Onlookers would have been surprised if he had announced his resignation, the honourable course of action, given official investigations now underway into his corruption and abuse of power. However, few will have been surprised by his string of denials![..]
The launching of an official investigation into Taib Mahmud by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has increased the pressure on the Chief Minister’s web of global investments. Anti-money laundering campaigners are now demanding action from Germany to freeze Taib’s assets held by the country’s largest bank Deustche Bank. This follows the Swiss Government’s announcement of its own investigation into the assets
PKR Sarawak Leader, Baru Bian, enters the State Parliament for the first time today with a new rallying cry. He has told Sarawak Report in an exclusive interview that it is time to mobilize grass roots support and to form an army of volunteers to build on the opposition’s progress at the State Election. In a clear appeal to the frustrated 45% of
Re-printed from original of 21/5/2011 In the run up to the recent election the Director of the Forestry Department, which is responsible for handing out Timber Licences, Len Talif Salleh, paraded before the cameras supporting the Chief Minister’s laughable claims that 70% of Sarawak’s forests remain “primary or intact”. Salleh posed as an ‘objective’ civil servant, the Director of
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 [..].
The largest single shareholder of Sarawak’s largest single company remains Laila Taib, according to the latest Annual Report recently produced by the publicly listed company! Laila Taib, the late wife of Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud, passed away over two years ago and the Chief Minister has subsequently re-married. Yet, her estate evidently still possesses a multi-million
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
In a fullsome letter to the Swiss-based NGO, the Bruno Manser Foundation, the President of the Swiss Federation Micheline Calmy-Rey has revealed that she has forwarded information about Taib Mahmud’s assets in Switzerland to the regulatory body FINMA (the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority) for investigation. Calmy-Rey (pictured left at the Davos World Economic Forum, which is hosted annually
BN is spending huge sums of money attempting to promote a democratic image worldwide. But, for free, the Pantai Damai assemblyman, Dr Abdul Rahman Junaidi, has undermined such careful PR with a series of outrageous statements. His remarks, which were faithfully reproduced in the BN mouthpiece, The Borneo Post, on April 28th under the title “It
[slideshow] Sarawak Report has obtained photographs of the tampered ballot boxes at the centre of the election controversy in Senadin. During an election which was swamped with tales of bribery and vote-rigging, the shenanigans surrounding this seat in the Miri region nevertheless stood out. The bemused PKR candidate, Dr Michael Teo, who appeared to be comfortably leading until
BN’s Joseph Mauh has been caught red-handed on a double election cheat. He not only promised a poor Headman RM 10,000 to gain his vote, but then the cheque bounced! In this way Mauh cheated his constituents twice. Firstly he cheated them of their right to a free vote by bribing the Headman, which is
A tiny cabal, like thieves in the night, hijacked the machinery of the state and denied the will of the people in Sarawak at the weekend. Like the perpetrators of a palace coup, a handful of family members, bomoh’s and loyalists mounted an outrageous and blatant rigging of the count. Then, immediately, in an unprecedented
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
Devastating information has come into the hands of Sarawak Report, which throws terrifying doubt over the safety of the Bakun Dam! Inside information, which includes documents, photographs and videos, has been passed over to us by former a Quality Controller, who says concerns about sloppy procedures and cost-cutting measures were ignored by the bosses at Sinohydro.
The once feared White Haired Rajah of Sarawak has lost his mental grasp and is under the control of his greedy brother-in-law, the Lebanese Australian Robert Geneid. Geneid manipulates Taib through his blond, botoxed Bomoh, Stella, who caused a sensation when she appeared at the Chief Minister’s nomination last week. She is none other than
As we all know, the guy who cheats is the guy who isn’t good enough. He is also lazy and morally lax. In the end – just not very impressive and definitely not a winner. The cheat, of course, always sits next to and tries to copy the person he admires most and whom he
A picture speaks a thousand words so we offer our readers a bit of a rest by posting one of George Chan addressing a BN rally last night in Miri, which is his constituency. We invite you to contrast it with our featured picture of the rally half an hour later just a few yards away for
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
It has been widespread gossip in Sarawak for well over a year. Now close family members have confirmed to Sarawak Report that the Chief Minister’s younger son, Rahman Sulaiman, is suffering from the disease AIDS. Like all right-minded people we sympathise with him and his family. No decent person these days would regard this widespread affliction as a stigma and many people from all walks of life are fighting the condition [..]
Last week, with shocking deceitfulness, Taib Mahmud announced in a video that he and his children have always avoided doing business in Sarawak: “I don’t want conflict of interests to haunt me all the time. If I do business inside the country, people will say I use my influence to enrich myself, so we did it outside the country.” But, haunt him we will for the very reasons he spelt out! […]
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!
Taib Mahmud has been forced onto the defensive throughout the first first week of his election campaign, as he has fought to shake off allegations of landgrabs, corruption, nepotism and the siphoning out Sarawak’s wealth into foreign banks, businesses and property companies. His advisers had insisted that he face up and address these issues to restore his credibility with
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
At a time when people are struggling to cope with the rising electricity costs, Sarawak Report has established that the Chief Minister thieves electricity to keep down his own bills ! This astonishing information came to us from senior insiders, who are in a good position to know what is happening in Taib’s household. We have subsequently obtained corroborative
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
Taib finally waded into the ‘cyber-war’ this week – and ended up branding his son-in-law a liar! The septuagenarian is notoriously shy of interviews and has avoided TV appearances for years, but he has been under pressure to answer our findings on Sarawak Report […]
Sarawak Report has received explosive evidence from the heart of Barisan National in KL, revealing that a secret deal has been forged with SNAP, in a desperate attempt to destroy the opposition and maintain BN’s grip on Sarawak after the election. We have learnt that the deal, which involves Federal BN pouring money into the newly revived SNAP (Sarawak National Party,
Out of all the astonishing secrets that are now beginning to emerge during the dying days of Taib Mahmud’s regime, one of the most bizarre has been his reliance on a blonde female witch provided as his Bomoh by his sister Raziah! Taib has always been notorious for his consultation of black magic practitioners and
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 [..]
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
For nine months Sarawak Report has been looking for Farok Majeed, last heard of working out of Sydney for the Chief Minister’s brother Onn Mahmud. We have been unable to trace Mr Majeed since he disappeared in the middle of a court case in which he was suing Onn Mahmud for over $15 million Australian Dollars.
A breath-taking duplex penthouse with spectacular views in a top Sydney location. The press leaped on the story when this apartment sold for a record Aus$20 million in 2008. But who was the ‘undisclosed prominent businessman’ who had been able to afford Australia’s most expensive flat and who had sold it? What we can be certain
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 […]
For some weeks Sarawak Report has been attempting to question Adelaide University about the circumstances surrounding its decision to name a large chunk of its campus after the Sarawak Chief Minister. The ‘Taib Mahmud, Chief Minister of Sarawak Court’ was designated in honour of the controversial East Malaysian politician in 2008. It was described at the time
Hot on the heels of today’s scenes in Miri where George Chan was booed and heckled by onlookers at the wet market and later at a coffee shop, we have been given a flavour of why his consituents can’t stand the man! An angry reader from the Deputy Chief Minister’s home town has sent Sarawak Report pictures of Chan’s car and
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
In a recent online interview YB Peter Nansian, an Assistant Environment Minister in Taib’s cabinet and State Assemblyman for Tasik Biru, wrote “I went into politics to strive for the people..if you come to my area.. all the main roads and other infrastructure are already in place..I always think of how to further develop the area and
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! [….]
With breath-taking arrogance Taib has handed a huge area of land to a company controlled by his sister in his own constituency! Saradu Plantations was given 8,000 hectares in Balingian over the period 2004 – 2009. Most of the land was grabbed from a precious remaining forest reserve, Setuan Besar Forest Reserve, in the area near Bintulu. The rest of the
While Taib Mahmud used his BN party convention (staged at the new Borneo Convention Centre, which he corruptly hired his own family to build and manage) to lash out at the “liars and cowards”, who dare criticise his policies of ‘progress and development’, Sarawak Report took receipt of a tape, some interviews and photographs. The material shows the scavengers who scrounge their
In what can only be described as a stupid stunt, Sulaiman Taib has posted a picture of himself on Facebook, posing as ‘Death’ rests a symbolic hand on his shoulder!
The Chief Minister’s younger son, who likes to be called Rahman when in North America, appears to have been responding to the widespread rumours that have been flying around Kuching for months that he is indeed dead! […]
We filmed with the Boyerts and came to like and respect them. We now present that story as a tribute to their bravery in speaking out.
London kicked off the planned week of international protests against Taib’s 30th year in office this morning. They staged a show of disgust outside the Central London headquarters of the wealthy propety company that is linked to him, Ridgeford Properties. A good crowd of mixed Malaysians, Sarawakians and British sympathisers gathered to make their message plain. “30 years
The company Miracle Harvest Sdn Bhd, belonging to Raziah Mahmud, the sister of the Chief Minister, and her husband Robert Geneid, has certainly yielded some miraculous profits. They are particularly miraculous because the company has not yet started officially operating, according to Malaysia’s Register of Companies! Like so many of Razia’s land companies, Miracle Harvest, incorporated 15th June 2005, uses the business address
At the end of last year, during a ground breaking ceremony for the new Taman Tunku – Taman Jelita road in Miri, Taib Mahmud launched into his new big theme of condemning ‘envy’. As one onlooker recalls, the Chief Minister said “Sarawakians must reject politicians who perpetrate “anti-rich people” sentiments as this will only deter the state’s quest for greater progress” […]
The Chief Minister, Taib Mahmud clearly has no intention of allowing the democratic process to get in the way of his election chances. Sarawak Report has obtained exclusive video material showing how police were sent in to prevent the opposition PKR leader Baru Bian from addressing a peaceful gathering of people from his own constituency.
The shocking pictures of Minggat Anak Nyakin and his son Juan Anak Minggat speak volumes about the problems in Sarawak. The two men were viciously attacked on the night of February 14th by illegal loggers, who have been plundering their lands for years unhindered. Minggat was left for dead on the steps of the company manager’s office [….]
They were ignored by the government-controlled press, of course, and moved on by the police, but a remarkable group of protesters made their way from the distant Baram River to central K L last week. They were speaking up against Taib’s plans for the Baram Dam, which will destroy yet another huge swathe of Sarawak and displace tens of thousands more
[slideshow] When Sarawak’s Chief Minister, Taib Mahmud and his logging cronies strong-arm the longhouse communities out of their Native Customary Lands they always promise the same thing. They promise the people ‘progress and development’. Most of the local people have received nothing for their valuable wood and lands. Those who did get some compensation received just
Sarawak Report has uncovered astonishing information that the Chief Minister, Taib Mahmud, unknowingly risked his own death for months by flying in an unsafe plane! Tellingly, the reason he did not realise his peril was that he thought he knew better than the qualified experts and had put crony politicians in charge of the aircraft. […]
Abdul Taib Mahmud may be merely the Chief Minister of a single state of Malaysia on a modest official income, however he and his family boast a treasure trove of jewelry that even the wealthiest monarchs and sultans of the world would be proud to own. The many women of his family are always happy to flaunt this
Cheers to Elia Geneid (second right) the niece of Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud and daughter of his favourite sister Raziah Geneid. Except, of course, any other Muslim girl shown publicly waving a pint of beer or enjoying champagne such a fashion would risk a public lashing these days![…]
The Sarawak Government has been covering up a health scandal by deliberately concealing the true level of maternal deaths, according to exclusive information which has been made available to Sarawak Report. Concerned doctors and health professionals have been investigating the true level of inadequate health care provided in the state, which is the richest in terms
As the Chinese New Year celebrations get into their stride, inside sources have revealed how Abdul Taib Mahmud habitually exploits this annual opportunity to further squeeze his Chinese businesses cronies. We have received extraordinary accounts of how the Chief Minister tours the big houses of Miri and Sibu each year, usually accompanied by family and grandchildren, in order to accept huge cheques and bags of cash
As PM Najib Razak conducts his evaluation of BN’s record in Sarawak over this weekend, we recommend that he considers the shocking information revealed by our latest investigation into Taib’s Land Grabs. Over the past 3 years alone the Chief Minister has handed his own son, the fashion-dandy Mahmud Abu Bekir Taib, Native Customary Rights Lands totalling the area of
The profitability of the business of being a Bomoh has clearly been vastly under-estimated. Sarawak Report has now established that Taib’s spell-monger is in fact one of the wealthiest men in Sarawak! We can demonstrate that he personally owns hundreds of millions of ringgit of shares in one of the world’s biggest timber companies, Samling Global. Samling, which
We can confirm that more of the land that rightfully belongs to the natives of Sarawak has been grabbed by Taib’s cronies, this time as payment to one of his Bomoh’s, Ahmad bin Suut! Clearly the Chief Minister prefers to exploit the poor, rather than pay in his own hard cash for such black magic activities! The area concerned is in the Bidayuh
[By Our Guest Writer from Asian Tatler Magazine]
We all love to admire this well-connected socialite and businesswoman, Elia Abas/ Geneid! She may look like a barely-dressed party girl, but Elia was scarcely into her 20s by the time she had established herself as a major figure in the oil palm plantation business, with a series of multi-million ringgit concessions all to herself!
The man pictured in the party-buggy sitting next to the Deputy Chief Minister, Alfred Jabu, is a Greek called Achilleas Kallakis. This was in April 2008 and Kallakis was already a man with a criminal record. Back in 1995 he and a colleague, Alexander Williams, had been convicted in the UK of selling false Hong Kong passports for RM 100 thousand each and also
A series of sickening revelations have started to emerge about Kuching’s newly-opened ‘Heart Hospital’ at Kota Samarahan, following investigations by Sarawak Report. The Unit, which was opened to a fanfare last week by the Malaysian Prime Minister, has turned out to be the most expensive hospital ever built in Malaysia in terms of the cost per bed. Even so we have
Sarawak Report can reveal there are a number more converted YBs in Taib Mahmud’s BN State Government, who are seeking to conceal the fact from their Dayak constituents. The shy YBs include the Minister James Dawos, who is the representative of Mambong as well as Johnical Rayong who is the representative for Engkilili for SUPP. Both men
Sarawak report can reveal that a number of BN’s political state representatives have changed their religion and accepted new names. However, they are hiding the fact from their constituents! Among them are YB Efendi bin Abdullah, who is still publicly known by his original name of Sylvester Entrie. An angry Efendi Abdullah was challenged on the
Sarawak’s vast natural resources have been sucked dry, but still we learn that there is not enough money to hire a doctor for the new clinic in Belaga opened by the Prime Minister of Malaysia himself last week! The ten thousand displaced Bakun Dam refugees in Belaga must wonder why, since a tropical jungle the size of Singapore was cut down
Siphoning off Sarawak’s oil reserves Having stripped Sarawak’s forests bare it seems Taib‘s timber tycoons are moving in on its oil reserves. Insiders were alerted by a low-key Singapore stock market announcement on January 6th, saying that Rimbunan Hijau are expected to ‘inject’ more oil field assets into their subsidiary Rimbunan Hijau Petrogas. The suspicion is that these oil fields have been granted in
Taib Mahmud evidently considers it his personal duty to look after his entire family of brothers, sisters, cousins, in-laws, nieces, nephews and all the rest. By this he equally clearly thinks he should ensure that each and every one of them should become multi-millionaires, even if it is at the expense of the poverty-stricken Sarawakian people, whom he
We can reveal that Taib’s tycoon sister, Raziah Mahmud, has once again been seizing land from Sarawak’s people. And our investigations have exposed a clumsy cover-up that has lifted the lid on a massive land-grab that implicates the Chief Minister, Taib Mahmud himself. Raziah’s attempts to conceal her involvement in plans to replace Reserved Forest Lands at Ensengei with yet another vast
News is circulating in the Betong area that Deputy Chief Minster’s family has just cashed in on Native Lands handed to them by the State of Sarawak (thanks to his political ally the Chief Minister, who is also the Planning and Resources Minister and Chairman of the Land Custody and Development Authority). They are believed to have
Why should the marriage of a Head of State be treated as a whispered secret? We can now confirm that at last there will be an official recognition of the fact the Abdul Taib Mahmud has taken a new wife with an event in Kuching on Saturday 15th of this month. Presumably, it will be on this occasion that
BN and Sarawak’s Chief Minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud, have exhibited their concern about the growing tide of criticism engulfing their government by launching a series of lash-backs in the past 24 hours. On Thursday night they utilised the police to arrest two groups of high-profile NGOs within a few hours of each other. Both groups were threatened with charges of possessing seditious material, but were
