As the fall-out continues from our previous expose into Najib’s step-son’s foray into the movie industry, along with a house buying spree in the United States, friends of Riza Aziz are rushing to his support. However, their comments so far are likely only to make things worse….
The wife of the PM, Rosmah Mansor, is apparently advocating that every Malaysian school child should be shown the newly released Leonardo di Caprio film, The Wolf of Wall Street, in order to warn them against greed and immorality.
Hundreds rallied in different cities across Sarawak this week to mark International Human Rights Day. The show of colour and the peaceful nature of the protest were both very typical. But, if strongman Taib Mahmud still bothers about what his people think, it should have worried him.
A popular Canadian satirical magazine has set its sights on Canada’s ‘richest woman’, Jamilah Taib. Frank Magazine is known for its scathing, if light-hearted, tone and it does not spare the Chief Minister’s daughter and her Canadian husband Sean Murray. In particular, it examines the evidence that their wealth is based on Taib’s plundering of
Just days after the Chief Minister announced in the State Parliament that he would “not pay a sen more” to the Penan of Murum we can reveal how Sarawak Energy officials BRIBED the blockading families to give up their protests! At the same time they BLACKMAILED them with threats….
A major advertising campaign is getting underway to entice British tourists to Malaysia. But, over the coming months Sarawak Report will be pointing out that it is a shocking con. Because, it is luring tourists with false images of the Borneo Jungle!
Question No 2 in the Frequently Asked Questions guide about their Modular Housing by Cayha Mata Sarawak Berhad (CMS) has an unequivocal reply. In response to “What guarantees are given to the customer?” it answers “The structural integrity of the system is fully guaranteed and customers are furnished with a ten (10) year warranty”. Such claims
Once again local people in Sarawak have been forced to come out and protest against a greedy and un-regulated land grab. Once again a place of great natural beauty and enormous scientific importance is under threat. And once again it is the greedy Taib family who are behind the raid on one of Sarawak’s most
Sarawak Report has investigated how members of the Taib family started cashing-in on the Bandar Samariang project, straight after the Chief Minister had placed the vast 5,200 acre site into the hands of his own company CMS. The rip off has caused untold misery to poor house buyers, who have been left with sub-standard homes
The Taib family company CMS proudly boasts of its “vast land bank” in its annual reports and has started selling off chunks for tens of millions in Kuching. Commercial centres and grand housing estates are also being developed in two key areas, Bandar Samariang, where CMS has 5,200 acres, valued around half a billion
Shocking disrespect towards one of Sarawak’s most treasured historical figures has come to light, with this image of a Rajah Brooke memorial cross, plucked from its position outside the Governor’s Mansion in Kuching and dumped in a junk heap. The white marble cross had stood in front of the Astana, as a memorial to three
This weekend the government religious department, Jakim, which operates out of the Prime Minister’s own office, issued a sermon to be read in all mosques condemning “liberal forces” on the internet, which it alleged were plotting to undermine Islam. Sarawak contributes a major proportion of the cost of this bloated Prime Minister’s Department and it
The term ‘Dayak’ has been pronounced a non-word by state ordinance, on the basis that the tribal people of Sarawak should no longer be encouraged to think of themselves as a nation, but only as groups to be divided and ruled. Yet, how else to collectively describe the native people, who are surrendering up their
Do we believe what the Penan Penghulu said he told Sarawak Energy’s Torstein Sjotveit: “Once you get back to Kuching or Kuala Lumpur you can tell the Chief Minister or the Prime Minister bring all your soldiers and weapons and kill all the Penan of this area”. … then you can go ahead and build
Sarawak Energy made a great presentation to the United Nations in Geneva last month, boasting about their plans to resettle the Penan, after forcing them from their homeland in Murum to make way for the latest controversial dam project. It seemed they were going to be moved from a deprived existence (true, especially since Taib
On November 7th, the Norwegian head of Sarawak Energy took great care to make his accusations against the Penan tribespeople at the Murum Dam blockade as public as possible, by insisting on broadcasting them in full on our site. In an email to the Swiss NGO BMF, which he copied into our comments section, he
Sarawak Report can reveal that Sarawak’s biggest on-going crime mystery has a relative answer. That is to say, the Serian District Police Chief, Mohd Jamali Umi, turns out to be a close relative of the Planning Minister Awang Tengah, who controls one of the companies controversially logging the area of Melikin. Numerous insiders have now confirmed
The story that the Sarawak’s Journalist Association did not get when they were taken on their Sarawak Energy (SEB) sponsored tour of Murum is appearing prominently in European papers this weekend. France’s top Paper, Le Monde features the Murum native blockade (which the Sarawak journalists called abandoned) in a long article about the destruction caused
Hours after the armed arrest of 8 of his relatives, including two young teenage boys, the people of Sarawak will be stunned at the amazing bravery of one young Penan boy at the Murum Dam blockade. He is very young. Sarawak Report has been told his name is Peter Senang and is age is just
We have no pictures of today’s arrest of Penan natives at the Murum Dam blockade, because two boys trying to take photographs were themselves arrested for recording the event. The youngest, Tingang Lingok, is believed to be around 13 years old. The two teenagers are now among 8 Penan who have been jailed at the police
Sarawak Report has received news of a critical development in the Murum Dam blockade, which has now been maintained for several weeks by Penan tribespeople forced from their homes by rising waters Around a hundred of the men, women and children have broken away from the original site, where they were being penned in
Sarawak Report can reveal that four head gangsters, who were caught after the discovery of an enormous illegal arms cache at the disputed logging and plantation concessions at Melikin, were freed by police on instructions from ministers! Since their release there has been a further series of vicious attacks on local people, whom the
When he is not tearing down tropical trees in Sarawak, the chief officer of Sarawak Energy has his home in a very smart, leafy suburb of Oslo in Norway, known as Baerum. Last week, appalled at the latest round of mega-projects handed out by this hired Norwegian to companies owned by his boss, the autocratic
Over the past few days news has come through from both of the main Baram Dam construction sites that Sarawak Energy (SEB) has beaten a retreat. However, the local blockades, which are being manned by surrounding communities, remain in place to ward off further moves by the state owned company to re-start the dam building
Nick Wright, Sarawak Energy’s Australian Vice-President in charge of Resettlement, Corporate Social Responsibility and Community Consultation, made a surprise appearance in Geneva this week. It turned out that his mission was to present a highly sanitised report to the United Nations, praising his company’s treatment of the natives affected by the state’s mega-dam plans. The
It has emerged that many of the families forced from their longhouses at Murum have found there is no replacement housing for them after all, in the half-built resettlement areas they have been bundled into by Sarawak Energy. Visitors last week spoke to families in Tegulang, all of whom had been given supposed vouchers for
Sarawak Energy’s Datuk Torstein Dale Sjotveit and his bosses in the Sarawak State Government have alleged that the anti-Murum Dam blockaders are being incited by NGOs and have painted a picture of trouble-making locals. In fact, there has been very little genuine news or information from the distant and isolated dam site, which has been
Once again Norway’s massive public pension fund has reviewed its investments in Sarawak and blacklisted two more unethical companies, both closely linked to Chief Minister Taib Mahmud. Having vetoed Samling Global because of its destructive and illegal practices back in 2010, the so-called ‘Oil Fund’, which is the world’s largest institutional investor, has now produced detailed
So, Taib Mahmud has yet another business in Sarawak, despite all his protests to the contrary, and it is even named after him. Pehin Sri Heritage Sdn Bhd has featured on a list of 49 Malaysian companies identified in court by his former daughter in law Shanaz Taib, who is seeking a financial settlement from
This weekend campaigners in Sarawak and Malaysia signal the start of a month of international awareness action about the global warming crisis. They are focusing their concern on the “insane” mega dams policy of Sarawak. In a statement, supported by numerous Malaysian NGOs, the group have lambasted Taib’s ill-conceived and outdated policy of building of up to
Taib Mahmud has complained that Sarawak is in the ‘media spotlight’ after years of ‘obscurity’. But, thanks to that obscurity and his own media blackout, gangsterism has been allowed to flourish unreported against the native people of the state. For years these organised thugs have waged systematic violence against rural communities, in order to enforce the
At the weekend Taib Mahmud bemoaned that the recent ‘spotlight of publicity’ on Sarawak has created negative perceptions of his government. So, clearly he wants no further light shone on the disgraceful treatment of the Penan at the Murum Dam site. The tribe are still holding out in protest against his authoritarian command to start
A flurry of denials poured out last week in response to this site’s reporting on the questionable assignment of projects by the Ministry of Islamic Affairs. In particular, the Majlis Islam Sarawak (Sarawak Islamic Council) issued a 5 page rebuttal, selecting what it identified as nine issues raised in the report and then apparently
Native people of Murum say they are being bothered by a foreign troublemaker and have lodged a police report against him. Torstein Dale Sjotveit is a Norwegian, who yesterday caused complaints after shouting in the faces of Penan indigenous people, whom he is ejecting from their ancient homelands. It is also alleged that he berated
As news comes in of a weekend when Sarawak Energy started flooding the Murum Dam in the absence of any agreement with the native people, many of whom are still blockading the site, we publish the Bruno Manser Fund announcement (below) that they are nominating the company for the Davos “Public Eye Award” for the
Following our report earlier this week that the Minister for Islamic Affairs and Chairman of the Baitulmal Fund had awarded a mega-building project to his own company, the opposition PKR party has reported Daud Abdul Rahman to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission. The opposition DAP party has also gone public to repeat its demands that the Tabang
The Malaysian NGO Suaram has made a representation to the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Rights, which highlights the ill-treatment of the natives of Sarawak. The oral representation by Nalini Elumalai, the Executive Director of Suaram, called for the Rapporteur, James Anaya to be allowed to personally visit East Malaysia to evaluate the abuses
The Assistant Minister for Islamic Affairs, Daud Abdul Rahman, presides over all the money collected and distributed by Muslims in the state, through his role as Chairman of the Baitulmal Board (Tabung Baitulmal Sarawak/ TBS). These funds include the obligatory Zakat, raised from the faithful in order to help the poor and needy. However, much
Leading politicians in Sarawak seem addicted to showing off how kind they are by handing out money and cheques to the poor and downtrodden in society Scarcely a day goes by when newspapers do not feature a “very poor person” receiving this ‘benevolence’ from smug and very wealthy individuals, who want the world to see how ‘generous’ they are.
Dear Prime Minister – As you know, Malaysia voted in favour of the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on Indigenous Rights (UNDRIP) and is a signatory to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. Malaysia is also a member of the International Finance Corporation (formulator of the World Bank’s sustainability framework) and Sarawak Energy is
Sarawak Energy adopted a familiar tactic towards the renewal of the blockade at Murum by the indigenous Penan people at the weekend. They patronised them, by complaining that they had been “instigated” by un-named NGOs. Over the past days there have been reports that scores of the indigenous tribes people have again brought the construction
Over and again Chief Minister Taib Mahmud pulls arbitrary figures from his imagination to deny his destruction of Sarawak. Flunkeys line up to agree with him. For example, not so long ago the dotty old dictator pronounced that 70% of Sarawak remains untouched virgin jungle and that most of the rest of the state is
Following information passed to Sarawak’s DAP by Sarawak Report, the party is considering reporting Torstein Sjotveit, the Norwegian CEO of Sarawak Energy, to Malaysia’s Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). For some months already the party has raised concerns about Sarawak Energy (SEB)’s suspicious preferences towards the company Sarawak Cable Bhd when awarding contracts. Sarawak Energy (SEB) is
As the flood waters prepare to rise at Sarawak’s latest dam site in Murum, highly disturbing evidence has been passed to Sarawak Report concerning the use of indentured labour (a form of illegal slavery) on the project. Thousands of Chinese, Burmese, Bagladeshi and Pakistani workers were imported to build the dam, in what was pristine
Just days after an election marred by bribery and ballot rigging, Sarawak’s Chief Minister made his first move to set the tone of his conduct as BN’s ‘kingmaker’. He tripled the salaries for state YBs and ministers. The effect was to bump up his own salary as Chief Minister from RM13,000 a month to RM39,000.
Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud clearly thinks it is his human right to do exactly what he likes. To question or oppose him or refuse to comply is simply an outrageous violation of his right to do as he pleases. He has taken vast territories, destroyed the world’s most precious forests and rivers and presumably
This past month saw Taib Mahmud’s 50th anniversary of uninterrupted public office. Thirty three of those years have been spent as Chief Minister of the State of Sarawak. He has chosen this symbolic moment to make various remarks acknowledging the ‘lack of progress’ achieved by the Dayak people during that time. Yet, cheekily, he suggests
Concerns have been mounting over the millions of dollars being paid out by the Australian government to the company Ta Ann, owned by the fabulously wealthy cousin and business proxy of the Chief Minister, Hamed Sepawi. The amount paid out so far in incentives first to locate in Tasmania; then to surrender previously agreed logging
Polling stations in known opposition areas were slammed shut mid-morning across Baram on the day of the Federal Election, it has been revealed, leaving queues of outraged voters unable to cast their votes. This was just one of the methods by which officials gained a wafer thin majority for BN in a region that has
All religions are intended to civilise us, which makes it all the more of an affront when people do the most uncivilised things in the name of religion, like attacking other people or indeed attempting to deny them their legitimate rights to their own form of faith. For these reasons that minority of aggressive people,
Last Week Taib Mahmud issued a notice to gazette the remaining 18 islands in the Bakun reservoir lake as a National Park. He will probably be putting himself up for an environmental award for doing so. But what a pity he did not gazette the region back in 1998, before the company Pacific Chemicals comprehensively logged
Sarawak Report would like to draw the attention of the United States financial regulators to what has emerged as an exceedingly large and unusual payment made during a recent off-shore bond transaction, conducted by one of its major banks.
If you take a huge salary and brag a lot about your “Power to Grow” Sarawak, then you ought not to make multi-million dollar cock-ups. Which is why last week’s state-wide power black out has surely left the credibility of Sarawak Energy’s Torstein Sjotveit damaged beyond resuscitation? It has become clear that the power supply from
Relations between the UK and Malaysia should naturally be warm. However, as Prime Minister Najib Razak makes his way towards the UK this week, David Cameron’s welcome party should concentrate on that friendship with the Malaysian people, rather than selfish financial opportunities. After all, Najib represents a discredited minority government, which everyone knows would have
This weekend the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) made clear that there is a huge amount of information pointing to the fact that it is Taib who is extremely “naughty and dishonest”. These are, of course, the words he famously used to describe the commission itself, when he was questioned about its investigations into his blatant
The State of Sarawak is just recovering from hours plunged in darkness, a situation that threatened countless lives. Sarawak Electricity boss Torstein Dale Sjotveit has now issued a personal apology, admitting the blackout was triggered by the new Bakun Dam hydro-electric plant, which is supposed to be powering through a dramatic modernisation programme. Since he is
As predicted, the great palm oil agri-businesses were quick to blame small-holders for the smog that has engulfed the region in past days. Doubtless, we can expect several small farmers to be rounded up and severely punished over the coming period. On this site the very first comment to our story on the smoky problem
In a surprise development the Taib family company Ta Ann has accepted a multi-million dollar settlement from the Australian Government, in order to give up major timber supplies in the state of Tasmania. The move is a stunning vindication for environmental campaigners in the state, who have suffered vilification and arrests for protesting against the logging
The tragedy of South East Asia’s wanton forest destruction has once again caught the attention of the rest of the world, mainly because it is inconveniencing the citizens of Singapore. Singapore smog is getting headlines in the UK and US, reminding all of the dreadful truth concealed behind the expensive branding of “Malaysia Truly Asia”.
In a shocking departure from normal practice one of BN’s top business cronies, Ananda Krishnan, has secured direct control of a series of Sarawak’s off-shore oil fields. It makes his private company Pexco “one of the largest acreage holders in Malaysia”, according to its own CEO. The astonishing development has placed the multi-billionaire (known for
Sarawak Report is flattered to note that the Chief Minister regards our occasional observations on his management of the State of Sarawak as tantamount to a significant threat. So much so, that he chose his post election speech to the State Assembly as a platform to rail against us and denounce this and our sister
In case readers of Sarawak Report failed to pick up on the assessment of Sarawak by one of the world’s top news agencies, Agence France Press, we reprint (below) how it was presented in the South China Morning Post. Taib had better accept that the international perception of his regime has finally wised up and
Against the background of rallies in KL, London’s Malaysian community crowded to see the Penang Chief Minister this weekend, who spoke to students from the LSE and then at a gala dinner in Kensington on Saturday night. The reason for his surprise visit? He was accompanying the Governor to see the world famous Kew Gardens!
Unlike PR opposition figures, who are getting arrested for questioning the conduct of the 5/5 election on behalf of the majority of the electorate, UMNO bloggers are still enjoying freedom of speech. However, judging from what some have been saying, Najib may need to shut them up too! Consider the Tweets put out by one
The US$1,700 entrance fee to Taib’s showcase dam building conference, which opened at the Borneo Convention Centre today, is well beyond the means of all the poor folk who stand to be affected by his catastrophic plans to swamp Sarawak. However, they gathered in protest outside and made their voices heard and their presence felt
Radio Free Sarawak received the highly prestigious Pioneer of Free Media Award from the International Press Institute at its annual conference in Amman last night. Accompanied by two London colleagues founder Clare Rewcastle Brown received the honour on behalf of the whole RFS team of Sarawak Malaysian producers and presenters. The award was established in
An investigation by the Swiss NGO the Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) has revealed that Sarawak Energy’s Nowegian Chief Executive has handed more than US$220 million worth of contracts to companies controlled by the Taib family. BMF therefore slams Torstein Dale Sjotveit as being “complicit” in Sarawak’s political corruption and has demanded he be sacked. The
The Chief Executive of Taib’s closely controlled Sarawak Energy Board, the Norwegian Torstein Dale Sjotveit, has been working hard to merit his extraordinary four million dollar a year salary. His principle job is to push through SCORE, which is the Chief Minister’s monstrous plan to build up to 50 dams in the state. It is
One of Britain’s most popular TV personalities, the bird expert Bill Oddie, has released a video condemning the disastrous logging of the Borneo Jungle in Sarawak and Sabah. In the video he singles out the international banking system for supporting individuals like Taib Mahmud and Musa Aman, who have been the prime forces in driving
BN should not expect Pakatan Rakyat to take their version of GE13 lying down. After all Pakatan represent the majority of the voters by a very substantial and convincing margin! Even after all the jiggery pokery with the electoral register, the bus loads of phantom voters, the mysterious additional ballot boxes that arrived during re-counts,
As hundreds of thousands rally in Malaysia to express their fury at BN’s stolen election, Sarawak Report has suffered a relatively unimportant level of theft. Stolen emails. In the latest ‘Black PR’ effort to try and discredit our work, it appears that hackers have been hired to attack our computers and then to maliciously distort
Evidence is pouring in about what happened on what is becoming known as Malaysia’s Black Sunday. It was the day when yet another opportunity for democracy was again snatched away by gangster tactics and primitive vote buying on the part of BN. The opposition has called for people to wear mourning black in recognition of
We warned the vote buyers of BN that they were in danger of exposure this year like never before. We said that an army of young Malaysians holding cameras, mobile phones and recorders as their weapons would be patrolling the streets ready to catch them in the act and post it on the Worldwide Web.
UMNO have admitted they are behind the chartered flights to bring ‘voters’ in from East Malaysia. They have attempted to say there is nothing wrong in it. But, stunning new footage, posted just hours before polling booths open, now indicates that some of those ‘voters’ are actually Nepalese plantation workers with foreign passports. The footage,
“Anwar poised for a comeback on the promise of leading ‘Malaysian Spring’”[UK Times]. “The second coming of Anwar Ibrahim. He rose to the top and then ended up in jail. Now Malaysia’s opposition leader stands on the verge of a remarkable election victory”[UK Independent] “Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia’s oppostion leader, stands tantalisingly close to seizing power
Today on International Press Freedom Day we are proud and delighted to proclaim that our colleagues on Radio Free Sarawak have won one of the world’s most prestigious journalism awards! The International Press Institute, which comprises a global network of leading journalists, editors, and media executives, has selected Radio Free Sarawak as the recipient of this year’s Free Media
Down at the airport is where it is happening with the Malaysian elections right now. Secret flights are heading out loaded with cash. Meanwhile overloaded chartered jets are flying in crowded with foreign workers, suspected of being dragooned into voting for BN. The rats are leaving the sinking ship, while the PM is still desperately trying to win this election “at any cost”..
If you were a respected leader of your Dayak community and a cheat came and asked you to betray your people in return for becoming a millionaire several times over, would you do it? Think about it. Put yourself in their shoes. Maybe you don’t blame the Linggi family or the Jabu family, because maybe
Plainly greed has so over-powered the Chief Minister that he has ceased to care about the blatant nature of his constant grabbing from Sarawak. The latest daylight raid was announced yesterday with the granting of the 4th big project in his so-called SCORE development master-plan. SCORE (Sarawak Corridor of ‘Renewable’ Energy) involves flooding much of
The name of the company is Natalite Investment Limited and it is based in Hong Kong. We can now reveal, after extensive investigations into the papers of Ross Boyert, the former manager of Taib’s US property company Sakti International, how Natalite Investment Ltd links the Chief Minister to the Japanese timber kickback scandal, which he
Sarawak Report has received secret maps revealing that a planned BN announcement of land allocations for the displaced families of Sungai Asap is merely a sham. The maps show that the 32,000 hectares that BN are proposing to offer in a pre-election gambit to win back votes are in fact gazetted as Pesu-Pelong Protected Forest Area
Australia’s respected Sunday paper The Age is bristling with headlines about Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s brother Onn today. “Tycoon dodges millions in land tax”, “Dubious dealings” and “Catch him if you can, the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia’s second richest man” are the titles for a series of detailed exposes about Onn, who was Taib’s key
As news pours in about the enormous scale of attempted vote-buying currently underway in Sarawak, we can reveal more horrifying details from the investigation by Malaysia’s human rights commission Suhakam. In particular, the criminal methods used by Taib’s government and cronies to prize away valuable lands from its native people. These methods include violence, coercion
What better sign of BN’s panic that they may lose this election than the frantic handouts and sudden promises of ‘projects’ that we have been seeing this week? In 2008 the average election bribe that BN paid to poor rural folk per vote was a mere RM10. Yet this week the timber tycoon MP Tiong
The TV ‘adventurer’ Ben Fogle has gone public to express his regret at having taken on a highly paid role for the Sarawak Government as their tourism ambassador. He now acknowledges, along with the rest of the world, that Taib Mahmud has turned this part of the Borneo Jungle into an environmental disaster zone, where
Taib once famously urged that it was important to keep the people of Sarawak poor, so that they would be grateful for small sums. This is particularly important to BN at election time, because it means they can continue their corrupt practice of buying votes for a few ringgit and then use the power this
Sarawak Report has received a leaked copy of a devastating official report on the treatment of the natives of Sabah and Sarawak, which BN has been trying to keep secret until after the election. In the report Malaysia’s human rights commission Suhakam has lambasted Taib’s State Government on count after count over its conduct over
Voters in constituencies contested by the wealthy Sng Chee Hua have been reported as perplexed, because they have received ‘Membership Cards’ for his Sarawak Workers Party (SWP) without realising they had joined. Some such recipients have expressed themselves as downright angry, because they are already members of other parties! So what has been going on?
The UK-based NGO Global Witness has responded to Taib Mahmud’s bizarre offer to debate with them about the corruption and land grabbing under his regime in Sarawak. And their answer is “yes”. During an election period this will most likely leave opposition leaders like PKR’s Baru Bian and DAP’s Chong Chieng Jen somewhat amazed. Both
Taib Mahmud has vehemently denied that his Canadian daughter Jamilah and his other family members do business in Sarawak. However, we can show that for decades they have been exporting hardwood straight from the jungles of Sarawak to the USA! Also involved in the family export ring are Taib’s brothers Onn and Tufail, his late
BN are persisting in their childish attempts to shut up criticism by attacking this website and also the websites of Radio Free Sarawak and Radio Free Malaysia. They are also jamming the broadcasts of the two radio stations, but with patchy success. Although the three websites have been hit hard and repeatedly by so-called DDOS
Sarawak Report can reveal that Taib’s eldest daughter, Jamilah, was dubbed “Princess Jamilah” while still at college in Canada, on account of her fabulous wealth. Fellow students at the Ottawa’s Carlton University were so amazed at the teenager’s conspicuous wealth, her designer outfits and grand accommodation, that they jokingly gave her the royal title. The
BN have effectively acknowledged that they have to cheat in this election and cannot afford the opposition view point to be heard by voters. Over the weekend they have spent large sums of public money launching full-scale attacks on Radio Free Malaysia and Radio Free Sarawak. They have both attempted to jam their broadcasts and
A loss-making Taib family company with share capital of just half a million ringgit was granted almost RM2billion in loans last December by the Malaysia Development Bank (PBMB), which is run by the Ministry of Finance using public money. The astonishing revelation is made all the more shocking by the fact that the Sarawak Chief Minister
Sarawak top lawyer, Alvin Chong, handily detailed his favourite tips for evading tax and the law on camera the other day. He thought he was briefing a prospective client, who turned out to be an investigative reporter. Chong’s practices are known to be widespread in Sarawak, especially using “nominees” to hide the real identities of
Just days after a devastating Global Witness film confirmed Sarawak Report’s allegations about the corruption of billionaire Chief Minister Taib Mahmud, another top international organisation has substantiated our reports about the neighbouring Chief Minister, Musa Aman. The world renowned Reuters news agency has published an explosive analysis of timber corruption in Sabah, triggered by the
The people of Julau who saw themselves victimised on the devastating film expose by Global Witness last week have come out in fury to protest at the secret disposal of their Native Customary Rights lands to Taib’s family members. PKR front-runner in the area, Andy Wong, made a police report on the 23rd of March, followed
Mishcon de Reya, the London lawyers who represent Taib and his son-in-law Sean Murray and firms Sakto, Sakti and Ridgeford Properties, have been warned to “stop defending the corrupt” and to ditch their most controversial clients. In a statement issued today the Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) point out: “Mishcon de Reya’s relationship with the Taib
One of Britain’s top newspapers, The Independent, has reported that the adventure film maker Ben Fogle has just pulled out of his contract promoting Sarawak ‘eco-tourism’. In a front page story, followed by a double-page spread, the paper leads with the headline “How Sarawak Made A Monkey Out Of Ben Fogle”. Fogle had allowed himself to
Huang Lung Ong is the lawyer who was caught on video representing the Hii family in their attempt to sell the 32,000 hectares of forested land licensed for plantation under their company Billion Venture. Sarawak Report can now further reveal that this lawyer appeared to be withholding crucial evidence from his prospective buyer…
The people of Sarawak are still digesting the arrogance of the Abdul Rahman sisters, revealed in the Global Witness expose on the land grabs this week. Two of the eight sisters, who own companies given NCR land by their cousin the Chief Minister, explained in a secretly recorded interview how they consider their relationship with
The strain on Taib was there for all to see yesterday, after the corruption video exposing his family and his entire regime went viral. Speaking to journalists on camera yesterday a rambling Chief Minister attempted to appear jovial and easy-going, but his anger was barely concealed. First he tried to gag the Global Witness, in
For three years Sarawak Report has been detailing week in and week out the outrageous theft and destruction carried out by Taib Mahmud and his family against Sarawak and its people. We have been called liars and all our evidence (mostly obtained from public records) has been denied. Lawyers have been hired to accuse us;
Recent statements from new investors in OM Holdings have exposed the Chief Minister’s shocking lack of concern over polluting industries in the state. OM Holdings is the Bermuda based company, which Taib has invited to invest in a vast manganese smelting plant in Simalaju, in return for giving his own family company CMS a 20%
Sarawak Report has received denials from the BBC that it has commissioned any of the material filmed by Ben Fogle in Sarawak. The trip, which was organised by a UK travel PR company, Hills Balfour, was paid for by the Sarawak State Government. However, much was made locally about the BBC’s supposed involvement. Fogle was
[Ben Fogle was a British ‘reality TV star’ some years back – we send him this open letter on his recent trip to Sarawak] Dear Ben Fogle, We have been watching your breathless reports in Hello Magazine, along with the various press releases and Twitter placements about your recent brave adventure into the jungles of Sarawak…
Malaysia and Sarawak and Sabah all gained democracy at the same time as independence. That means that the people are in charge and the politicians are named ‘servants’ of the people like they are in Britain and America and other democracies. These politicians have fixed salaries and should expect to be changed every few years
Taib loyalists are again confiding in Sarawak Report over details of alleged plans to seize control of politics in Sarawak, in order to topple the Chief Minister after the coming federal election..
American blogger Josh Trevino’s belated confessions about the more than one million ringgit he received from Malaysian PMs Abdul Badawi and Najib Razak to attack and slander the opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and others has left his former colleagues and bosses at FBC Media exposed. This includes the high-profile CNN anchorman John Defterios, who was
[Sarawak Report has recorded some of the material that was on the Malaysia Matters website, commissioned from Josh Trevino by BN, but which has now been removed from the web – see below] The strange, stupefying case of Anwar Ibrahim. 2 July 2008 By Joshua Trevino How strange can Anwar Ibrahim’s political career get? Back
Josh Trevino and his team of ‘poison bloggers’ based in the United States have now publicly confessed to their campaign of slander against Malaysian pro-democracy figures, which was commissioned by BN and originally exposed by Sarawak Report [more here]. However, we can demonstrate that this notorious American blogger has continued to lie and obscure the full truth,
On Sarawak Report. 6 Jul By Christopher Badeaux So I was ego-Googling and found that on Clare Rewcastle Brown’s vanity project site, Sarawak Report, I had somehow reached the level at which she cared to remark on me and on this site. I’m flattered. I’m also offended, but given the level of reaching in that
They pose as ordinary folk, describing themselves as “a fraternity of local bloggers each with their own unique and respective backgrounds”. However, we can reveal that a new network of pro-BN websites is actually a front run by a handful of paid journalists, who are secretly financed by Awang Tengah and organised by Taib’s
The pernicious influence of so-called ‘Money Politics’ in Sarawak has been fully exposed by the terrible story this week about how a secretary to the SUPP Minister, Francis Harden ak Holles, ruthlessly stole the small state allowance of a badly disabled constituent. The cruel and greedy woman had told Ho Tiong Hwa, from Jalan Kapitan, Sri
We can reveal that Najib Razak is still paying mega-bucks to Tony Blair’s PR people to try to make him look ‘cool’. The same team which was previously employed through the criticised agencies APCO and FBC Media are now secretly consulting on BN’s election campaign, to prolong the party’s controversial half century in government. Meanwhile,
One of the penalties of being a top timber tycoon is that your Chinese New Year celebrations are each year ruined by the arrival of Taib Mahmud, demanding his usual ‘Ang Pow’. This year as Taib makes his annual descent on Sibu the Chief Minister will be demanding double dues to pay for an election
As predicted by Sarawak Report, James Masing has been immediately taken to task by his BN boss for daring to say publicly that the 12 dams planned under SCORE are not necessary. Within hours of the appearance of the Land Development Minister’s explosive admissions during an interview with the international news agency AFP, Masing was
Was the Land Development Minister authorised yesterday when he confirmed all the criticisms about his Chief Minister’s mad dam projects and agreed with the opposition parties and campaigners that they aren’t all necessary? If so, can the Chief Minister immediately and officially confirm on behalf of the Sarawak State Government that his plans for 8
At the last Federal Election Taib did not bother to visit Baram. To him it was just a source of timber which he could exploit, handing vast logging concessions to his crony companies like Samling and to politicians he needed to control, while leaving the people destitute. One such politician was Jacob Sagan, the local
The pained expressions of these poor landowners from Beluru say it all. The Borneo Post described them as an “elated lot” as they were forced yesterday to parade before the cameras holding up monster cheques promoting ‘dividends’ from their oil palm ‘joint venture’. In fact their shame and humiliation is plain for all to see.
Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s Norwegian side-kick, Torstein Dale Sjotveit, is clearly worth every penny of his $4million plus salary each year. As the CEO of Sarawak Energy, he has proved happy to support and promote every plan the Chief Minister puts forward, even when it involves pouring public money into Taib’s own family companies (which
Many people feared at the time that the so-called 6P Malaysia programme was some kind of voter registration exercise, along the lines of the notorious Project IC in Sabah. Touted as a sudden amnesty by the BN government for illegal foreign workers, the programme (which lasted from July 2011-April 2012) allowed the immigrants to declare
As BN’s juddering coalition splutters and stutters towards the election, which it has been putting off but can no longer avoid, all the whispering is about revenge. Najib is getting the blame in UMNO for the falling poll ratings and party plotters have been talking about how to deal with him..
The Chief Minister’s cousin, Hamed Sepawi is one of Malaysia’s richest men. He has achieved this status due to the lavish handouts made to his various companies by the State of Sarawak, thanks to decisions by Taib himself. Hamed has received vast timber and plantation concessions and huge contracts, through Tan Ann, Sarawak Plantation, Naim
Radin Kadri Radin Budiman has done extremely well out of being a loyal BN ‘youth’ leader it seems, although at 47 years old he is plainly no spring chicken. He has become known as a vocal spokesman, who claims to speak for Sarawak’s youth, yet he sounds remarkably like a government mouthpiece. Likewise, although the swaggering
Sarawak Report has received an explosive dossier from sources close to Taib, detailing a powerful conspiracy to depose the Chief Minister at the next PBB Party Convention, due in May. The high-level defectors will maintain a pretence of unity during the coming federal election, expected in March, but have collected enough supporters to supplant Taib
The people of Sarawak face a theft of the utmost gravity and we urge them to take their future in their hands to save their oil and gas. It has been barely mentioned in the local media that huge new reserves of both oil and gas are being discovered on land and within Sarawak’s waters,
The Chief Minister has lost his cool and demanded the federal government adopt illegal means to jam the independent radio station, Radio Free Sarawak. At the same time, his political client, the leader of PRS James Masing, appeared even more heat up as he called for the military to be brought in to shut the
Taib’s cousin, the logging tycoon and key political figure Hamed Sepawi, has been booted out of the African country Liberia by a Presidential decree to halt corrupt and illegal logging. It makes for another blow to the Sarawak potentate’s international reputation, following condemnation this week in the Swiss Parliament. Sepawi’s company Perkapalan Damai Timar (PDT)
Swiss Federal MPs have united in a damning motion placed before Parliament, demanding their authorities freeze the Taib family’s assets in Switzerland, so that they can eventually be returned to the Sarawak people. The motion, signed by 22 MPs, likens Taib to the notorious African President Sani Abacha..
Inspired by news that half a million people had successfully made their point earlier in the day in the Merdeka Stadium and all over KL, a solid troupe of Malaysian nationals braved the cold snap to march from Trafalgar Square to Downing Street and then the Westminster Parliament today. They waved banners and flags, chanted
The mounting evidence about Malaysia’s world-beating levels of corruption has raised growing questions for those international companies which are risking their reputations by engaging with characters like Abdul Taib Mahmud. For example, DAP have once again drawn attention to the gaping Black Hole in Sarawak’s recently published public accounts. It represents RM11billion of public funds which have
The Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak, chose to make an interesting denial earlier today, in response to our report about the rumours which have been circulating, that he suffered a minor stroke. He was pleased to say that the reports are wrong and urged Malaysians not to read anything that has not been licensed and
Word is seeping out that the Prime Minister of Malaysia suffered a ‘minor stroke’ over the weekend. Given the scandals building around him, perhaps the pressure has started to tell? So far, Najib Razak has provided no substantial answers to the deadly accusations over the past couple of weeks, further linking him to the cover-up
