Yesterday
I learned that Taib likes his buildings painted yellow and always wears
something yellow – even if it be but his underwear. Yellow was the colour
of royalty in India. Yellow became and remains the colour of royalty in the
Peninsula. Does Taib have
pretensions to royalty?
I thought of royalty because I had read news reports that the Conference of Rulers met
this week. I wondered if timber was on their meeting agenda.
I wondered about
timber because when Dr Mahathir (now Tun) began his mission to clip the wings
of the royals, he revealed long-withheld information about the royals’ thirst
for a share in the timber resources of Malaysia. According to Professor Mark
Gillen of the Faculty of Law of the University of Victoria in Canada, the
royal thirst for timber concessions was made public on 15th and 18th
December 1992 by the New Straits Times and The Star newspapers.
I wondered about
timber because that has been the route to riches for Taib – as documented in
the meticulously researched book Money
Logging: On the Trail of the Asian Timber Mafia by Dr. Lukas Straumann, a
professional historian and Executive Director of the Switzerland based Bruno Manser Fund.
Money is in the title for a reason.
Money is in the title for a reason.
Taib’s wealth is
enormous. On the occasion of 77 year old Taib’s elevation from Chief Minister
to Governor of Sarawak, The
Diplomat wrote this about Taib’s wealth:
“Pak Uban or the ‘white haired uncle’ – and his family
have amassed a fortune worth $20 billion or more, and established business
tentacles through 400 companies into the tiniest reaches of the state and
around the world that will ensure his clan continues to thrive long after his
retirement on Friday.”
The Constitution of
Malaysia grants to state governments – not the Federal government, not the
Sultans – the authority over land and natural resources. Thus the Chief
Minister (Menteri Besar), the head of the state government, has the power to determine
how land will be used and by whom.
Taib became Chief
Minister in 1981, the year Dr Mahathir became Prime Minister. Dr M had many
enemies in Umno, in the peninsula. The last thing he needed was a rebellion by the
Sarawakians, the “fixed deposit” which kept him in office. Taib turned Mahathir’s
insecurity to his advantage.
For a fee, Taib delivered
the ‘Sarawak stability’ Mahathir needed. His fee was to reign unchecked, like an
old-time royal.
A hallmark of Taib’s
reign was his abolishment, in 1985, of the forestry ministry. He replaced it
with the ministry of resources planning and appointed himself its head. This
gave him the sole prerogative to grant concessions and plantation licenses.
Dr Straumann points
out the result of Taib’s manoeuvre: “Exploitation of all of Sarawak – worth billions
of dollars – depended on just one person, with no checks and balances, no
transparency and no public accountability.” (Page 119)
As I said earlier, it
is public knowledge that Taib and his family are worth USD 20 billion or more. Dr
Straussman goes further: he names the companies which are the vessels of Taib’s
wealth.
The first to appear
in his list is Sakto real estate company (Canada, 1983) incorporated two years
after Taib became Chief Minister; next is Sakti real estate company (California,
1987); then the reverse takeover of state construction company, Cahaya Mata
Sarawak (1993); then Ridgeford Properties (London, 1996); then purchase of RHB
bank, Malaysia’s fourth largest bank (2001).
The list and its webs
and intrigues are long. Suffice to say that by 2011 “The Taib family had a
financial interest in over 400 companies in 25 countries and offshore financial
centres.” (Page 303)
The book reads like a
thriller. Few readers will detect that it’s a translation of a work first published
in German. I hope the publishers are working on a Malay translation.
The Federal
government and the State legislature allowed Taib to act like a sovereign. He
rewarded those who supported him. He punished those who did not. There are hordes
of examples in the book. I’ll just mention one.
Taib turned against
his Uncle Rahman Ya’kub, who had brought him into politics and had stepped into
the role of Governor to make way for him. The extent of Taib’s vindictive
agenda was displayed for all as an example of what would happen to anyone who
would resist this Adelaide University trained lawyer.
This quote shows the
climate of fear Taib created; it also exhibits Dr Straumann’s readable style:
“Taib was “aggrieved and hell-bent on taking revenge,
and everyone has been particularly afraid of him since that time,” reports one
of Rahman’s former golf partners. “Whenever Rahman appeared on the golf course
in Miri, suddenly there was not a soul left to be seen there. Nobody wanted to
be spotted by Taib’s spies on the golf course at the same time as Rahman.” Any
business people who had had dealings with Rahman lost their public contracts
and were shut out of lucrative deals. Politicians and civil servants suspected
of supporting Taib’s uncle were side-lined. “In those days, I used to play golf
with Rahman frequently, but in the end I had to stop. My son asked me to; he
was afraid of losing his government job.”” (Page 121)
Money
Logging is not only meticulously researched; it is thoughtful and
comprehensive. It discusses the ridiculous projects spawned to consume the
electricity to be generated by Taib’s dams. It describes the injustices done to
the natives. It exposes many who contributed to Taib’s “success.”
Even the FBI of the
USA and ministries of the Canadian government are implicated, as are banks and
countries such as Hong Kong and China. Money Logging is as insightful and
explosive a book as Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times by Barry Wain.
The Rulers Conference
is attended by the Rulers together with their Chief Ministers. I wonder if the
man in yellow from Sarawak attended. I wonder what the Rulers and Chief
Ministers think of Taib Mahmud. I hear Michael Douglas saying “Greed is good”
and Edmund Burke saying “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is
for good men to do nothing.” Who will prevail?
Source: http://write2rest.blogspot.com/2014/11/exposing-taib-mahmud-sovereign-of.html
