2024

Our Heartfelt Thanks To Malaysian Supporters

Thanks to the support and contributions from ordinary Malaysians Sarawak Report has now paid the RM300 thousand debt awarded to the wife of the Sultan of Terengganu having been misidentified for an action by her royal sister in law…….

Sabah Forestry Department Complaints – Clarification Required

Sabah Forestry Department has complained that Sarawak Report’s articles are “false”. However, all they have done so far is to confirm our key allegations. Clarification is therefore sorely needed (and no SR did NOT say export taxes were not paid, we queried why diseased timber is being exported)…..

Illegal Logging In Sabah! (By The State Government)

The courts have ordered that the state government must cease logging the Sipitang forest until the outcome of a review of its compulsory acquisition of the area. Yet, in defiance of the ruling, the Yayasan controlled timber operation is working as fast as it can to strip out more wood……..

Wife Of Sultan Makes Her Demand For Cash

The wife of the Sultan of Terengganu has issued her demand for the cash awarded to her by the Malaysian courts of RM435,000 against this site and both a printer and distributor in KL whose businesses would be threatened if unable to pay……

No Disaster Relief For The Victims Of GPS Logging!

In mainland Malaysia when flooding strikes the federal and state governments rally to help the stricken victims. However, five days after Long Panai was submerged in Mulu, Baram the Sarawak State Government and local GPS representatives appear to have done nothing and have yet to show their face……

Keep Malaysia’s Independent Publishers In Business

The pro-democracy NGO Engage has generously supported this site, as well as the publishing house Gerabudaya and printing house Violin, who were all sued for a hundred million ringgit each by the Sultanah of Terrenganu. We are now only RM150,000 short of our total target……

Borneoland’s Illegal Workers – How Come No Action Against Hii Family?

The ITTO (International Tropical Timber Organisation) and Sarawak Forestry Department have turned a deaf ear to complaints by NGOs and native communities about illegitimate logging in the conservation zone – the Penan Peace Park in Baram – funded by international donations and supposedly sponsored by both bodies. Last week the Immigration Dept raided the logging camp that turns out to have been operated by the state government crony Hii family and found at least 10 illegal immigrants working illegally ….

Sarawak’s Lip Service Only Eco-policies

Local people are being thrown off their agricultural land in order to allegedly expand national parks while, at the same time, genuine forest pledged for conservation is still being left open to timber raiders. As ever, the Sarawak State Government is at the service of the logging tycoons whilst playing only lip service to the desperate current battle to save our human habitat…..

Malaysia’s Deputy Environment Minister Still Profits From Logging Native Lands – With Special Exemptions Also?

The Deputy Minister for the Environment cum timber tycoon, Huang Tiong Sii, said he was giving up his directorships of logging firms but not his controlling shareholdings on assuming office. Now, natives in Belaga whose customary rights lands are being logged by a company without notice or their agreement have discovered Huang’s company vehicles are involved in the operation which appears to have received special dispensations from the Forestry Department ……….

More Log Jams – Time To Investigate And Fine Negligent Timber Companies!

Unless GPS investigates these terrifying and dangerous incidents with the severity they deserve, deter those responsible with appropriate fines, and indeed the removal of their timber licences, local people can conclude this government cares not a jot about them but only about the huge ‘donations’ that flow back into their party from these concessions…..

New Logging Licences For Cronies Whilst Natives Get Kicked Off Their Farms?

It is not the companies who have made billions out of the forests and plantations (yet bafflingly failed to turn sufficient profits to pay much tax) who are being squeezed to extend the forest base. Quite the opposite.  It is the poorest of the poor who first lost their hunting grounds to logging and are now losing their agricultural plots to ‘reforestation’……

Time For Transparency In Sarawak

The Sarawak premier practices government by news announcement. Yet, self-serving announcements without proper transparency, access to the full facts or public scrutiny represent the stuff of totalitarian rule. Time and again the reality on the ground has proven to be the opposite of those newspaper claims. If the state wants clean investment and to join the clean energy race then it needs to clean up its act and implement open government…….

How Come Sarawak’s JPN Continues To Block Indigenous ID Rights?

Whatever autonomies Malaysia’s federal government may feel obliged to offer the North Borneo states in return for their political support, the human rights of the denizens of Malaysia are its responsibility. If state governments are neglecting those rights by denying statehood the national government should take action…….

Kuwaiti Supreme Court Upholds Sentences Against 1MDB Conspirators

Sheikh Sabah Jaber Al-Mubarak, the son of the Kuwait prime minister of the time, was first exposed as a co-conspirator of Jho Low by Sarawak Report in 2020. Last week the highest court upheld his ten year prison term along with that of his business partner and friend of Jho Low, Hamad Al Wazan, and lawyer Saud Abdelmohsan……

Malaysia’s Rainforest Threat Is Focused On Sarawak

According to the latest report by the Malaysian environmental group RimbaWatch, the vast majority of remaining rainforest under grave threat from timber concessions is based in Sarawak – where the ruling party are pushing harder than ever for autonomy to pursue their cash ambitions. The report released last week identifies that of 3.2 million hectares

Pincer Movement To Seize PetroSaudi’s Frozen Assets

1MDB has made its move to recover the $1.83 billion lost in the 1MDB joint venture with PetroSaudi. Success would appear to rely on a civil action that includes the white shoe law firm White & Case as defendants in the case. However, there is competition afoot from an continuing case in the United States to recover the bulk of the PetroSaudi assets made from Venezuela …..

Why Are Sarawakians’ Rights To Local Democracy Being Hijacked?

Once again this week, the online Radio Free Sarawak has had reason to cover abuses of what ought to be the democratic appointment of village headmen in rural Sarawak. These strong arm tactics have notably occurred in situations where the headman has stood up for his community against intrusions by logging or other commercial interests into their area…..

Power Of Engaging

The NGO Engage joined forces with press and freedom groups on Thursday to re-launch a fund to protect journalists and civil society campaigners from abusive and oppressive law suits designed to stifle public debate in Malaysia. Thomas Fann, the chairperson of Engage, reminded that the fund was originally launched in 2015 to support those who

UK House of Lords Committee Hears Evidence On Terengganu’s Jail Sentence Against SR Editor

The Terengganu Court has demanded Clare Rewcastle Brown should appear in person to make her appeal against a jail sentence that was passed against her in absentia after a trial she was never notified would take place for an alleged crime of defamation for which she is yet to be charged. Can Malaysia sentence you in your absence then challenge you to appear to appeal the sentence?……

Going ‘Green’ Requires Governance

Reports of illegal logging are rampant in Sarawak and time and again the response of the police, the forestry department, local officials and the state government is to do precisely nothing. Take for example this ongoing destruction by foreign workers for a mystery employer in Ulu Sebauh recorded just this week…..

Tarek’s Royal Trump Cards

“It was our money. If the Saudi government wanted to do it this way, so be it.” Obaid stuns the Swiss court with his claim that it was Saudi Arabia that had sanctioned Jho Low’s $150 million in kickbacks which were paid to him by Good Star Limited out of stolen 1MDB money…..

Log Jam, What Log Jam? – Sarawak’s Director Of Forests Should Consider His Position

As thousands of tons of timber have hurtled destructively down river in Kapit over the past few days, provoked by heavy rains, a troubling set of unconvincing denials and changing stories have issued from the Forestry Department. Is there a reluctance to acknowledge uncomfortable truths about logging in the vicinity of the ‘totally protected’ wildlife sanctuary up river from the site?………

Rainforest Tribunal – BMF’s Indictment on Taib Mahmud

In the wake of the final passing of Sarawak’s strongman, Abdul Taib Mahmud, the Swiss NGO have issued their own tribute in the form of a documentary about his deeds. The Rainforest Tribunal was made in answer to the defamation lawsuit issued by Taib’s family members who have objected to the NGO’s claims about the Governor’s unexplained wealth and how they benefitted…..

Boxes of CASH?!

As uncertainties fly amidst official silence and the leakage of extraordinary evidence and pictures, some of which are now confirmed, there is one clear demand that should be made FREEZE ALL TAIB ASSETS!….

Looks Like Najib’s ‘Pardon’ Just Backfired?

Did Najib and his lawyers shoot themselves in the foot by pulling their half-baked royal favour in advance of a far bigger sentence now in prospect over 1MDB? Despite the popular fury they will not be happy either. The all important waiver of guilt they had requested was rebuffed at the highest level, along with hopes of instant freedom……

Is Ragad On Her Way Out Of Town?

Someone seems to be making major moves to leave Demak Jaya, the private home of the now ex-Governor Taib Mahmud. With still no news of his state of health the question is who is leaving and who will remain?……..

Bye Bye Crocodile?

Is Sarawak entering a new era of hope for its people and environment with the departure of Taib Mahmud? One would like to think so… except there are some glaring issues…..

Backdoor Governor?

Whilst Governor Taib Mahmud has been unceremoniously replaced, his elderly former henchmen remain well entrenched and have sought to further strengthen their grip on power in Sarawak – all in the name of increasing ‘autonomy’ for the native people ….

PetroSaudi Trial Will Sit Awkwardly With Haythornthwaite Appointment To Head NatWest

Originally planned for February the much delayed prosecution of PetroSaudi’s directors over 1MDB is now scheduled to start on April 2nd in the Swiss courts. That’s just two weeks before the company’s former COO, Rick Haythornthwaite, is due to become the Chairman of one of the UK’s top banks. It should leave plenty of room for embarrassment as observers ask whether he was a complicit or merely an incompetent COO? ……

1MDB’s Early Players Are Finally Brought To Trial In Switzerland

Almost ten years after the world was alerted to the Heist of the Century Swiss prosecutors have finally brought to trial two nationals identified at the heart of the conspiracy by Sarawak Report. Whistleblower Xavier Justo has called it an opportunity to show the world that Switzerland is “no longer a harbour for stolen money”……..

Blair Should Be Wary Of Building On Borneo

The plans for an ‘eco-city’ at Nusantara on the island of Borneo is fraught with environmental risk of global significance. Enthusiasts must hesitate from rushing in the name of progress where scientific experts would fear to tread …..

Scroll to Top