Malaysia rejects indigenous rights at the UN |
- Malaysia rejects indigenous rights at the UN
- Flight MH 370 Continues To Shine An Unwelcome Spotlight On BN
- Flight MH370 Exposes BN Weaknesses Worldwide
- Mega-Dams Create Economic Disaster Says Top Study
- What The Wider World Thinks About Governor Taib
- Najib Re-brands Malaysia!
| Malaysia rejects indigenous rights at the UN Posted: 14 Mar 2014 01:54 AM PDT  Malaysia has rejected a suggestion at the United Nations that the UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Rights should be allowed to visit the country and evaluate the treatment of the Orang Ulu. This was one of many recommendations which Malaysia has rejected since its Periodic Review (UPR) at the United Nations in October. The UPR is a process which involves a review of the human rights records of all 193 UN Member States. It provides an opportunity for all States to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries. In an appalling response regarding the rights of Malaysia's indigenous communities, the Malaysian Government has rejected the following recommendations made by the Governments of Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.  Indigenous communities have long fought illegal logging in Malaysia.
 Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Rights Ms. Victoria Tauli-Corpez will not be able to visit Malaysia. In contradiction to their usual rhetoric, the Malaysian Government have stated that they will not comply with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples or ensure that Native Customary Rights (NCR) are protected. The Malaysian Government has justified their response to these recommendations by stating that:
The report to which the Government refers to was originally leaked by Sarawak Report and took months before it was officially released. In the report Malaysia's human rights commission SUHAKAM lambasted the Government on count after count over its conduct over native land rights. It concluded that the indigenous people of the region have been "forced to become Coolies in their own lands" by the actions of the Land Custody and Development Authority (LCDA). By rejecting these recommendations, the Malaysian Government have made their opinion on the rights of Malaysia's indigenous communities shockingly clear. For the full United Nations declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples please follow this link – http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/DRIPS_en.pdf Sign up to receive regular updates from Sarawak Report |
| Flight MH 370 Continues To Shine An Unwelcome Spotlight On BN Posted: 13 Mar 2014 05:23 AM PDT   Foreign newspapers are trying to summarise the confusing and conflicting information for their readers The growing criticism of the world media in the light of the Malaysian Government's inept responses to the shocking disappearance of Malaysian Airlines 370 six days ago has prompted an unwelcome analysis of BN's political system. After all, the catastrophe came the very day after the disgraceful conviction of the opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim for 'sodomy', thanks to an extraordinary appeal by the prosecution against an earlier acquittal. Just days before that a similar legal persecution of another opposition voice, Karpal Singh, for 'sedition' had also ended in a dubious conviction. Both these convictions, involving long terms of imprisonment, are easily seen by the rest of the world for what they are, which is blatant political persecution by a threatened regime.  Hishammuddin Hussein – like so many prominent figures in the crisis, the western media has noted that the Malaysian Defence Minister's main qualification for office seems to be his family connections (son of ex- Prime Minister) Without the impact of Flight MH 370 however, the world searchlight would not have swung so decisively in the direction of Malaysia and there would have been little examination of these and other issues by the wider media and public opinion. In fact, as the New York Times points out in its own excellent analysis of BN's political weaknesses (below), Malaysia has got away with posing as a relatively functioning state, thanks to the oil and natural resources, which are largely extracted from the suffering states of Sabah and Sarawak. Oil money has also funded expensive PR in the west, providing a sanitised image of a regime that practices discrimination, favouritism and corruption at world-beating levels and which poses as a democracy, while practicing shocking levels of vote rigging and bribery at every election.  Price of chickens? Prime Minister Najib Razak (son of an ex-Prime Minister) chose to focus on a domestic PR stunt, despite being centre stage of a major world crisis. In the latest major assessment the New York Times (below) has summarised the world's new perception of Malaysia and BN in the light of the Flight MH 370 debacle. It will take some PR effort to turn this new perception of Malaysia around.
By THOMAS FULLER March 12, 2014SEPANG, Malaysia — Malaysia's governing elite has clung to power without interruption since independence from Britain almost six decades ago through a combination of tight control of information, intimidation of the opposition and, until recently, robust economic growth. But worldwide bafflement at the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has challenged the country's paternalistic political culture and exposed its coddled leaders to the withering judgments of critics from around the world. Civilian and military leaders on Wednesday revealed that they had known for the past four days, but did not publicly disclose, that military radar had picked up signals of what may have been the missing aircraft. It appeared to be flying on a westerly course sharply off its intended flight path to Beijing. If the radar readings were from the missing plane, it could mean a radical reinterpretation of where it ended up. And it was only under a barrage of intense questioning on Wednesday from a room packed with reporters who had arrived from many countries that officials acknowledged that the last recorded radar plot point showed the jet flying in the direction of the Indian Ocean — and at a cruising altitude, suggesting it could have flown much farther.
Malaysia's defense minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, faced many questions at a news conference Wednesday. That raised the question of why the information had not been released earlier. "The world is finally feeling the frustration that we've been experiencing for years," said Lee Ee May, a management consultant and a former aide to a Malaysian opposition politician. Ms. Lee said she was embarrassed when the country's defense minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, the scion of a powerful political family, rejected a reporter's assertion on Wednesday that the search for the airplane had been disordered. "It's only confusion if you want it to be seen to be confusion," Mr. Hishammuddin said at a news conference that unfolded before an international audience. Relatively free from natural disasters and other calamities, Malaysia has had little experience with handling a crisis on this scale. It is also an ethnically polarized society where talent often does not rise to the top of government because of patronage politics within the ruling party and a system of ethnic preferences that discourages or blocks the country's minorities, mainly ethnic Chinese and Indians, from government service. Ethnic Malays, who make up about half of the population, hold nearly all top government positions and receive a host of government preferences because of their status as "sons of the soil." Authoritarian laws have helped keep the governing party, the United Malays National Organization, in power — and an ascendant opposition in check. The day before Flight 370 disappeared, the leader of the opposition, Anwar Ibrahim, was sentenced to five years under a sodomy law that is almost never enforced. Critics called the case an effort to block the opposition's rise at a time when the governing party's popularity is waning. Then on Tuesday, a court convicted Karpal Singh, another opposition politician, of sedition, a law enacted in colonial times. "We call it persecution, not prosecution," said Ambiga Sreenevasan, a lawyer and the former head of the Malaysian Bar Council. The government is accustomed to getting its way, and the crisis surrounding the missing plane is holding officials accountable in ways unfamiliar to them, Ms. Ambiga said. "Malaysians have come to accept that their leaders don't answer questions," she said. "When you are not seriously challenged in any meaningful way, of course you get complacent and comfortable." For a relatively prosperous country of 30 million people that is less well known internationally than neighboring countries like Thailand and Singapore, the government's confused efforts at finding the missing jetliner are an awkward and undesired appearance on the world stage. The crisis has led to introspection about why the government has appeared uncoordinated and unable to pin down seemingly basic facts about the missing flight. Officials insisted for three days that baggage was removed from the flight before takeoff when five passengers did not board. But the country's chief of police on Tuesday said that was false: Everyone who checked in boarded the plane, he said. No explanation was given for the conflicting accounts. Ibrahim Suffian, the director of the Merdeka Center, an independent polling company, said the response to the crisis had underlined a lack of precision both in government and in the society over all. "There's a tolerance for a lack of attentiveness to detail," he said. "You have a tendency of not asking so much and not expecting so much." The crisis also highlighted a lack of competence in government that Mr. Ibrahim said was related to a deference to authority and reluctance to take initiative. "There's always been a kind of wait-for-instructions-from-the-top attitude," he said. Yet amid the criticism of the rescue efforts there was also an acknowledgment that the plane's disappearance was so unusual that perhaps no government would be fully prepared for it. "This is almost a unique situation," said Ramon Navaratnam, a Harvard-trained economist and a former Malaysian senior civil servant. "Anyone would be caught off guard." For now, the Malaysian authorities are stuck in the unenviable position of hearing many questions but having few answers. "They have never faced pressure to perform like this," said Ms. Lee, the management consultant. "But now international eyes are on them, and they have nowhere to hide." Sign up to receive regular updates from Sarawak Report |
| Flight MH370 Exposes BN Weaknesses Worldwide Posted: 12 Mar 2014 07:46 AM PDT  This post is also available in: Iban, Malay  False leads have brought more agony for bereaved. Malaysians are used to suffering under third rate leaders, promoted because of family not merit, and they are used to incompetence (or worse) being ignored or covered up by a compliant media. However, others are not. As the days have rolled by since the disappearance of Flight MH370, more and more countries with citizens on board have been left in askance over the apparent ineptness of the people supposedly running Malaysia and their crony civil service. Today, this matter has finally taken centre stage in the international news coverage as exasperated onlookers and overseas officials have finally given expression to the issue. Malaysia itself has become the media story and it is not coming out at all well from it. The US's Bloomberg News led the way with an article called "Malaysia Failing to Manage Crisis Exposes Leadership Limit". In the article it points out that a fundamental weakness of the country has been the complacency of a 50 year old regime that has got used to being able to control its own publicity:
The writers then pin point what has been the major problem with Malaysia's handling of the crisis so far, which has been a combination of lack of transparency, when transparency was required, with appalling and unnecessary open gaffs by senior people who should know better.
 Relatives left confused The quips by senior officials about 'Asian looking men' using European name passports and about 'evidence' that the plane had turned back on its own path have stood out as particularly irresponsible red herrings tossed out over the past few days, in what has clearly been a totally uncoordinated and undisciplined response to this disaster. To the rest of the international community it has seemed sorely unprofessional. The nations of the world have been sent chasing after terrorists and hijackers on the strength of such remarks and have indeed expanded their searches over great swathes of the planet, including the Indian Ocean, because of such ill-advised comments, which have later been disowned and denied by the people who apparently made them. As the first indications of debris are now apparently starting to appear in the sea, exactly at the spot the airplane lost contact the UK's Guardian Newspaper has also taken up the criticism of Malaysia.  Fishermen reported this debris to the Malaysian Maritime Agency, which dropped it during attempted salvage – 'boarding' was written on the apparent life raft. In their own headline entitled "Malaysia Airlines search mired in confusion over plane's final path – Vietnam cuts back efforts to find flight MH370, blaming Malaysia, amid swirl of contradictory statements by officials" the Guardian reports that international cooperation on the search is finally beginning to break down in response to Malaysia's mishandling of events:
Meanwhile, the BBC is leading on a denial by the PM's cousin/ come Transport Minister that there is any confusion over the whereabouts of the missing plane. Their headline "Malaysia Airlines plane search 'confusion' denied" is unfortunately designed to elicit guffaws from its readers, who well know the opposite is true. Over in the US TV news channel CNN put the matter succinctly enough in its own report:
It is quite heart rending that, on top of the agony of the tragedy itself, Malaysia should be earning such unwanted embarrassment.  Crucial to provide the best support possible to those affected Of course, it can be pointed out that any country facing such circumstances runs the risk of this kind of criticism, not all of which is necessarily deserved. However, BN have walked into more mishaps than most in handling this crisis, leaving the wider world with a much clearer understanding of the inadequacies of this outdated and clumsy regime, whose leaders have concentrated on little more than hanging on to power and making as much money as they can, for several decades too long in government. Last word goes to the New York Daily News, which shows how China and the United States have been united in this case by their joint frustration over Malaysian muddling:
It is a reminder to BN that being in government is not just about staying in power, it is about doing a job for the people. Allowing open and honest criticism, instead of stifling fee media and locking up critics for 'encouraging dissatisfaction with the government' is a vital first step towards doing a far better job than they are now. Sign up to receive regular updates from Sarawak Report |
| Mega-Dams Create Economic Disaster Says Top Study Posted: 11 Mar 2014 03:52 PM PDT  This post is also available in: Iban, Malay  Hoover Dam – gave water to Los Angeles… but destroyed the Colorado River system and huge areas of wild life. Mega-dams are always promoted as key agents of progress and prosperity by the governments and business interests supporting them. Taib Mahmud is no exception with his pet project SCORE, which involves building no less than 12 more mega-dams in Sarawak, starting with 5 in the next 12 months. However, a new study by Britain's prestigious Oxford University has concluded that these projects are nearly always economically disastrous for the countries involved. They cost huge sums of money that are rarely made back and they do enormous damage to the economy and the local and world environment in the process. All this before even considering the pain and misery caused to the communities affected by the flooding and destruction of the rivers concerned.
This finding by the world famous Said Business School is a slap in the face for Taib. Back in the summer of 2010 the former Chief Minister bankrolled a fancy symposium at the school to boost the credibility of his grandiose economic plans, most of which clearly benefit his own pocket but present little benefit for the people of Sarawak.  Protestors gathered outside Taib's showcase conferece at Said Business School, Oxford in 2010 On that occasion Taib flew two plane loads of Sarawak officials to Oxford to fill up the conference hall at the Said Business School, at taxpayers' expense not his own, naturally. Indeed, although the Said Business School have pointed out that most mega-dams end up as costly white elephants, there is one glaring economic incentive for leaders like Taib. For a very few, well-positioned people these massive projects present a brilliant opportunity to cream off an enormous slice of the public money passing through these ventures. Taib himself has already made billions out of Sarawak's existing dam projects and he stands to make several billions more out of the future dams he has in mind. For this reason alone mega-dam projects are always adored by greedy dictators. Once again Sarawak Report is able to say "don't take it from us", after all Taib accuses Sarawak Report and numerous NGOs of malicious lies. Here instead is a report by Britain's top news organisation the BBC on Oxford University's assessment of disastrous dams. The issue has also been reported by the US Huffington Post and numerous other international outlets.
11 March 2014 By Lauren Everitt San Francisco A new report from researchers at Oxford University argues that large dams are a risky investment – soaring past projected budgets, drowning emerging economies in debt and failing to deliver promised benefits. Do they ever really make sense? A peek over the edge of the Hoover Dam's 60-storey wall is enough to send shivers down anyone's spine. Constructed from enough concrete to pave a motorway from New York to San Francisco – this colossal barrier is touted as a symbol of man's mastery over nature and a marvel of 20th Century engineering. The dam was credited with helping jump-start America's economy after the Great Depression, reining in the flood-prone Colorado River and generating cheap hydroelectric power for arid south-western states. Even more miraculously, the Hoover Dam was completed two years ahead of schedule and roughly $15m (£9m) under budget. But for megadam critics, the Hoover Dam is an anomaly. The Oxford researchers reviewed 245 large dams – those with a wall height over 15m (49ft) – built between 1934 and 2007. They found that the dams ran 96% over their approved budgets on average – Brazil's Itaipu dam suffered a 240% overrun – and took an average of 8.2 years to build. In the vast majority of cases, they say, megadams are not economically viable. But after a two-decade lull, large dams are once again being trumpeted as a ticket to prosperity. Countries from China to Brazil, via Pakistan and Ethiopia, are rushing to erect them. With world electricity consumption expected to grow by more than 56% between 2010 and 2040, according to the 2013 International Energy Outlook report, hydropower is a tempting option. More than 90% of the world's renewable electricity comes from dams, according to the International Commission on Large Dams.
Andy Hughes of the British Dam Society points to Laos and Vietnam as shining examples of dam-building countries that have harnessed hydropower. "They're building dams, they're generating hydropower, and then they export that power to other countries, so it's a big cash crop for them," he says. But Bent Flyvbjerg, principal investigator for the Oxford University dam study, says dams "are not carbon neutral, and they're not greenhouse neutral". The vast quantities of concrete required to construct leave an enormous carbon footprint, he says. Furthermore flooded vegetation under the reservoirs produces methane, a greenhouse gas roughly 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide, he says. But also, his argument is not with dams as such, but with megadams. "We don't accept that it's a discussion of hydropower from large dams versus fossil fuels. We would like the discussion to be about hydropower from large dams versus hydropower from smaller hydropower projects," he says. Others, such as Peter Bosshard of environmental campaign group International Rivers, say climate change threatens to alter weather patterns in unpredictable ways. "So if you put all your energy eggs in one big dam, you're taking a big risk because you don't know what future rainfall patterns will be over time," he says. The cost of these behemoths is the main focus of the Oxford study. Flyvbjerg says he expects the $14.4bn (£8.7bn) price tag for Brazil's Belo Monte dam to surge to $27.4bn (£16.5bn), outweighing any benefits, and saddling the country with a mountain of debt.
At least Brazil's economy is robust. For many emerging economies, massive dams spell disaster, Flyvbjerg says. Some countries take out large loans – often in foreign currency, making them vulnerable to exchange rate fluctuations – and when dams don't deliver the promised benefits, these nations take a huge hit. "It's like a bull in a china store – these projects are way too big and way too risky to be taken on by the most fragile economies in the world," he says. Even when a dam project is overrunning and costs are soaring, governments are reluctant to scrap them he points out. "A dam is really a useless asset if it's not completely finished. Even if it's 99% finished, you can't use it – it's either on or it's not," Flyvbjerg says. But Andy Hughes says dams have many upsides. Critics should ask themselves a number of questions, he says: "How else would one generate power, how else would one give people clean water to drink, how else would one irrigate farms, how else would one treat sewage?"
And dams create employment. The Belo Monte hydroelectric dam project is projected to create work for an estimated 20,000 people He says they can play an important role in mitigating climate change. During drought conditions, the reservoirs provide drinking water and irrigation. During wetter periods they're key for flood protection. In fact, Hughes predicts an upswing in dam building after severe flooding across the UK in the winter just gone by. Julia Jones, an Oregon State University hydrologist, says this chimes with her study of dams in the Columbia River basin in the Pacific Northwest. "There's been a net increase in the availably of water during scarce times and the protection of places during flooding times, which is exactly what the dams were intended to create," she explains. "That suggests that there is resilience and that there may be capacity large enough to deal with future climate change." But it all depends on how big the impact of climate change is, she notes. The real benefit of dams may simply boil down to perspective, according to Jones. "It all depends on who's at the table," she says. "There has been a lot of controversy for half a century or more about the larger context in which these projects are constructed – that is, who loses their livelihoods, who gains from the construction of the dam and the environmental benefits and costs." For Hughes, it's more of a damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't trap. "My view is that dams can never win. If we build a dam, we get criticised, but once the dam is built people say, 'Well, what was all the fuss about? Isn't this a beautiful setting for walking around the lake and picnics?' But try and demolish a dam, and you get criticized for damaging that beautiful environment. So it's a no-win exercise, I'm afraid." A 19th Century dam disasterAs families slept, the raging torrent smashed into their homes, killing them instantly and washing away all but the faintest traces of scores of buildings. The body of one victim was reportedly found 18 miles downstream of his home while, in Malin Bridge alone, 102 people were killed, including 11 members of one family. The forgotten flood that deluged a city Debatable damsBelo Monte
Three Gorges
Diamer-Bhasha
Gigel Gibe III
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| What The Wider World Thinks About Governor Taib Posted: 09 Mar 2014 02:47 PM PDT In his final speech before taking over as Governor Taib Mahmud lingered on his poor reputation abroad, which is clearly troubling him. He tasked Malaysia's foreign envoys with the job of convincing outsiders that Sarawak is a model of good governance and then he complained about 'malicious' NGOs, who have nothing better to do with their time than tell 'complete lies' about his crimes of corruption. However, it is not just NGOs who have rumbled Taib. Foreign journalists who have looked into matters in Sarawak are equally critical and their message is reaching far and wide. The latest profile on the situation is from the established London magazine, The Diplomat. In its About Us section The Diplomat says: Below we reproduce what The Diplomat relayed to this prestigious readership about Abdul Taib Mahmud from Sarawak this week. Taib's envoys and PR people will have their work cut out. For 33 years Taib Mahmud has ruled the East Malaysian state of Sarawak as a personal fiefdom. He has more years at the helm than perhaps any other Southeast Asian leader, longer even than Hun Sen, who has ruled as prime minister of Cambodia for the most part since 1985. In the process, Taib – known as 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. As departing chief minister Taib, 77, said he remained optimistic that Sarawak would develop further with the potential to become the richest state in Malaysia by 2030 if its people continued to preserve their existing "strong unity and spirit of mutual co-operation." "Thank you for your support to me for the last 50 years and, especially in the last 30 years that I have been your chief minister," Taib said. "With our unity and co-operation, we can even perform beyond our expectations in pushing the state development to its highest level." It was a low key statement that played down his achievements and predictably ignored allegations of gross human rights and environmental violations. Tom Picken, Forest Campaign Leader at Global Witness, says that after decades of industrial logging and plantation development just five percent of Sarawak's forests remain intact. "Mahmud has ruled the state for over three decades and controls all land allocation and forestry licensing," Picken once told The Diplomat. "He is widely understood to abuse this power to enrich his family and associates." A Global Witness investigation finalized two years ago into Taib and his family's financial interests produced an extraordinary video that included senior members of the clan offering detailed advice on costs and how to do business in the Malaysian state. The accusations were far from new and the findings hardly surprising. Allegations of corruption have blighted Taib's career as chief minister of Sarawak for decades. He was named as a key figure in an investigation by Swiss authorities into claims that UBS Bank was involved in laundering $90 million through illegal logging in the neighboring state of Sabah. A report by the Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) has warned of "cultural genocide" given plans by Taib to dam nearly all the rivers in Sarawak's interior, which will result in the destruction of the state's remaining rainforests amid infrastructure investments worth $105 billion over the next 16 years. The fund, a conservation group that campaigns out of Switzerland, also says Taib is worth $15 billion, with the combined worth of the top 20 members of his family at $21 billion. That valuation makes the Taibs the world's fifth richest family, after the Walton family of Walmart fame. Not surprisingly, Taib's preferred mode of transport is Rolls-Royce and private jet. By 2030, the BMF argued, the indigenous cultures of the Kelabit, Kenyah and Penan would be facing "extinction," with their lands cleared of forests for timber and dammed. Fifty dams are planned for Sarawak, a state already suffering from an oversupply of hydro-electricity. Chances are good that Taib will still be around to witness the results of his handiwork because he is not expected to fully retire. Despite the objections of civil society groups Taib is expected to take on the position of state governor, a predominantly ceremonial job but one that will keep him within the halls of power. "He will never willingly give up power as it would be too dangerous for him and threaten the business empire he has built up across Sarawak," said Clare Rewcastle Brown, a long-time critic of Taib and Editor of the Sarawak Report Website. She added retirement meant Taib was simply "moving upstairs," where he can maintain his influence over the Christian-majority state within Muslim-majority Malaysia, a role that has won him numerous fans among ruling politicians in Kuala Lumpur. His politicking ensured the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which has dominated Malaysian politics at the national level since independence, maintained its 57-year grip on power. Without Taib's influence and the 25 seats his party delivered at elections last year Prime Minister Najib Razak would have probably lost his job. But outside his political and family circles Taib remains a divisive and questionable figure. Fifty-five non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have launched a petition claiming it would be a "national disaster" if Taib was made governor – or Yang Di-Pertua – of Sarawak. "He had exploited the natural resources of Sarawak excessively for his personal gain," the NGOs said, adding his mega-dam construction projects were illogical and had impacted badly on the natural environment in the state. "The irony is that Sarawak remains one of the poorest states in Malaysia, despite being rich in various natural resources," the NGOs, which included human rights groups like Suranum and the youth wings of political parties, said in an open letter. They also noted that while Sarawak remained poor Taib had become one of the richest men in Malaysia. Taib is also under investigation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). Opposition politicians are calling on the authorities to extend their probe to include members of Taib's family, in particular his brother Onn Mahmud who has become embroiled in a kickback scandal in Japan dating back to 2007. "The investigation by the Tokyo Regional Tax Bureau has revealed that kickbacks were paid to a Hong Kong-based company, Regent Star Company Limited, which is owned by Onn," said Rafizi Ramli, strategy director for the opposition Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR). "The payments to Regent Star were made by the Japan shipping cartel, also known as the NFA (National Freight Agreement). The NFA had made annual payments to the Regent Star and attempted to claim the amount paid as a deductible business expense." Shortly after the calls for an extended probe into his family were made, the Swiss-based BMF announced it had lodged a report with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police offering new evidence implicating a financial link between Richfold Investments Ltd in Hong Kong and Sakto Development Corporation in Ottawa, a multi-million-dollar company run by Taib's daughter, Jamilah Taib Murray. Further investigations are pending. Whether Taib can overcome strong objections within his own state and hold onto both his political career and his family's massive fortune amid a barrage of legal assaults from home and abroad is a tough ask and the stuff of Hollywood movies. However, his 33-year legacy will forever be as legendary as it was shrouded by dirty deals and missing billions, which have made his family among the richest on the planet while consigning the indigenous of Sarawak to poverty. |
| Posted: 07 Mar 2014 02:30 PM PST  This post is also available in: Iban, Malay  Forced out of Selangor election race Hundreds of millions of ringgit of public money have been spent by BN on foreign public relations. All that money and effort has now been wasted by one simple decision to make a martyr of the opposition leader. The world can no longer be gulled that Malaysia is a modern, moderate democracy, because it is plain to see that it's the sort of place where the government locks up its political opponents whenever they become too threatening. The 50th centenary in office, making BN the world's longest lasting 'democratic' regime just reenforces that message to the world. And it doesn't help that the ruling clique has chosen a particularly distasteful and backwards-looking charge to pin upon their political target. It tells the civilised world everything it needs to know about the mentality of the people running Malaysia. Along with Anwar, wheelchair-bound septuagenarian Karpal Singh is also about to be jailed over a long-running charge of sedition. This is another out-dated law that BN has promised to abolish, but finds it too useful for attacking people who say discomforting things. Henceforth, the likes of Britain's David Cameron and Australia's Tony Abbott are going to find it a lot harder to justify their new enthusiasm for increasing ties and boosting trade with this 'neglected fellow democracy'. And those NGOS and human rights groups who have been patiently warning western governments that Malaysia's progress towards democracy is a BN sham have been handed vital ammunition on a plate. 'Independent judiciary'  Playing dirty – if BN thinks it might lose it cheats. The rule in Malaysia is that the higher up the judicial ladder the less independent are the judges. Today provided a simple case in point for outsiders. The outcome of a carefully deliberated original trial was over-turned in unseemly and unprecedented haste in a matter of hours. Malaysia's once proud legal profession have become on-lookers, while irregularities have become commonplace. How about the recent release after a period of just token imprisonment of the two still unidentified security officers, who murdered Altantouya Shaariibuu? She had claimed to be PM Najib Razak's lover, while acting as his interpreter for a scandalous defence submarine kickback deal. It is right to ask why these men, who abducted then blew up a young woman with army explosives, got only a couple of years when the Court of Appeal is now sentencing opposition leaders to three and five years for matters like alleged sedition and alleged homosexuality, which do not even rate as a crime in most countries? These are simple and obvious matters that the world will now be paying greater attention to when human rights defenders point them out. Indeed, by jailing Anwar Ibrahim Najib Razak is taking on an international movement on gay rights and he will see where that leads in terms of good PR in the sorts of countries where BN leaders like to invest their money ie America and Europe. Indecency and the Malaysian mind – Wolf of Wall Street  Sex movie that holds no bars – BN linked funding. BN's bizarre form of legal persecution against Anwar Ibrahim can only draw even further attention to the embarrassing hypocrisy of this party's elite. Consider the licentious content of the movie blockbuster unleashed by the PM's own step-son, Wolf of Wall Street! The movie shocked many in Hollywood and lost funding from mainstream studios, largely because of its indecency. Yet Riza Aziz stepped in and injected $100million dollars. Sodomy is one of the many sexual themes in that movie, combined with an unusual approach to ingesting drugs. What is treated as a joke in Riza's Hollywood money-spinner is no joke in Malaysia of course. It represents years of imprisonment under his step-father's hypocritically prudish and prejudiced regime. Corruption Malaysia's determination to make a martyr of its veteran political opposition leader will draw attention to some other revealing facts, glossed over by BN's expensive international PR drives. This country of some 22 million people rates Number 4 in terms of gross capital flight (illegal money), beaten only by countries with relatively huge populations i.e. China, Russia and India. That is a mighty telling state of affairs. The world financial markets are likewise looking askance at the extraordinary sums of money that Malaysia has recently been borrowing via irregular off-shore bond deals through 1 Malaysia Development Bhd, chaired by Najib. Much of this money seems now to have disappeared into off-shore accounts. The fact is Malaysia is a mess. BN have lost control over corruption and are only in power because they rigged the elections. The man who did win most votes is about to be forced into jail. Najib should view the precedents of other countries and resist provoking his population too far. Does this BN regime really want to drag Malaysia into conflict, just because it thinks it should have the right to rule for ever? Sign up to receive regular updates from Sarawak Report |
Flooded vegetation produces methane
Ethiopia's Nile dam could affect the river downstream, in Cairo
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