Under Taib's rule the Penan have mounted countless blockades to stop their forest being destroyed. © A.Rain/N.Rain/Survival
SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL, March 24, 2011 - - Tribespeople in Sarawak, in the Malaysian part of Borneo, say the 30-year rule of Chief Minister Taib Mahmud has ‘raped’ their land, destroyed their rainforests and brought ‘hardship and suffering’.
Today, March 26, marks Taib Mahmud’s 30th anniversary as head of the rainforest state. Malaysia’s longest-serving Chief Minister, he has faced widespread and persistent allegations of corruption.
Taib Mahmud will face hotly contested elections on April 16. He has announced that he will retire after the polls, but observers are skeptical as no date has been given.
The Penan tribe have seen logging companies, licensed by Taib Mahmud’s government, devastate huge tracts of the forests they rely on.
One Penan woman told Survival International, ‘Our land and our river have been destroyed by the logging company, by the oil palm plantation. Everything has been destroyed – our sago, our fish, our river – all the jungle’s produce that we depend on has been destroyed. It brings hardship and suffering to our land.’
Sarawak’s tribespeople have condemned Taib Mahmud for razing their forests. A member of the Tring and Berawan tribes told Survival, ‘Taib has been in power for 30 years, and most of our forests, maybe 80%, have gone. They have been chopped down by Taib and his cronies. He is just raping the whole thing, and now indigenous people in Sarawak are really poor.’
Indigenous leader Jok Jau Evong said, ‘Taib thinks that Sarawak is his own property. The longer he stays on as Chief Minister, the more he thinks the state is his own to take.’
Taib Mahmud’s government does not respect the Penan’s hunter-gatherer lifestyle. He once said, ‘How can we have an equal society when you allow a small group of people to behave like animals in the jungle.... I owe it to the Penans to get them gradually into the mainstream so that they can be like any other Sarawakian.’
Many Penan have faced imprisonment for their opposition to the bulldozers.
Survival’s director Stephen Corry said, ‘Taib has sold the Penan’s future to the highest bidder. When he took power, their rainforest was largely intact. Now, they’re fighting to protect the last patches of forest.’
Notes to editors:
Thousands of Penan and other indigenous people will be unable to vote in the forthcoming elections, as they have not been issued with identity cards.
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Comments
Sign protests here
Taib and his family members have illegally acquired assets worth billions of dollars in Malaysia, Canada, the UK, Australia, the United States and other countries. All these assets should be restituted to the people of Sarawak, and the Taib family should be prosecuted for corruption, the abuse of public funds, fraud, money-laundering, tax evasion and other related crimes.
The Taibs are supported by international finance institutions in laundering the illegally acquired money and investing it worldwide.
You can sign petitions to freeze their assets and against timber corruption at
http://www.stop-timber-corruption.org/ and http://www.regenwald.org/mailalert/684/stoppt-die-taib-tropenholz-mafia.
Your mail to the latter address will be sent to influential people in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Great Britain, the USA, fiancial institutions on the British Virgin Islands and Jersey as well as anti-corruption authorities.
The Police, DUN, PBB, BN are supporting a Thug/Thief/Crook/Crimi
The Police, DUN, PBB, BN are supporting a Thug/Thief/Crook/Criminal of the highest degree. That’s how democratic & non-corrupt foreigners like me see it.
A criminal who for decades held multiple portfolios of Finance, Planning & Resources to plunder Sarawak left, right, centre, leaving bones to the people (endless timber concessions, vast oil palm plantations, development land; CMS, S’Wak Securities, Ta Ann, Archipelago Shipping, Naim, Bank Utama, STIDC, Forest Dept, Land & Survey, Bakun… to name a few).
Had this colossal ‘Curse’ not been in Sarawak, the roads, highways, schools, hospitals, amenities, environment & income levels would have been more akin to those of NZ & Australia.
The wealth of a State of 4 million people, worth mega-billions - stolen by a Family and a group of cronies. Daylight robberies, right under our noses. The wealth belongs to the people who voted Taib to serve them !
This is Sarawak’s super tragedy.
For Francis Siah, DAP, PKR, PAS: please record clearly and permanently the names of every one who harassed or intimidated you: Police officers, PBB ball-lickers, DUM members.
I dare them, speak a word, make a phone call, point a finger, or raise a hand. Their names will be recorded and sealed for future arrests, powerful vendettas and for posterity. Their days are numbered and their retribution will be swift and severe when the time comes.
This is WAR !
I tell them in no uncertain terms they will not escape accountability and justice for the crimes that are now being committed under Taib’s rotten regime. Egyptian President Mubarak & his sons have gone from palace to prison.
For Francis Siah & supporters, here are the contacts of Amnesty Int’l and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights at UN, get them involved early, get them in now:
http://www.amnesty.org.nz/contact-us
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Pages/WelcomePage.aspx
Alan Newman, NZ.
Re: Borneo tribes: 30-year regime ‘has destroyed everything’
Taib Mahmud and his family & cronies are challenged to answer these questions:
(Cronies include: Hamed Sepawie, Awang Tengah, Len Salleh, Nordin Mat Jais, Wahab Dollah, Rahman Yaakub, timber & oil palm tycoons….it goes on & on)
Were timber concessions all over Sarawak awarded by clear, public, gazette tenders for maximum returns to the State? Or just dished out to your cronies?
The RM$5-10billion yearly in timber exports in the last 40 years? Totaling RM$200-400billion.
The RM$2-9billion yearly in oil palm exports in the last 15 years? Totaling RM$30-135billion.
The numerous blocks of land snatched up for various crops & developments, worth billions of RM?
Isn’t your Cousin Hamed Sepawie (Sanyan, Naim, etc) in Malaysia’s Rich-list?
Aren’t the numerous projects awarded to your CMS group & cronies totalling billions?
Aren’t the resources & benefits fleeced, ‘sharked’ and swallowed by your family members & cronies?
Aren’t the dozens of companies under your vicious wings straddling the globe.?
How much shipping levies collected from timber export in the last 30 years?
The billions of RM worth of real estate in various countries grown from your honest salaries?
The death (likely murder) of Swiss activist Bruno Manser not connected to you?.
The mental, psychological & physical torture of your former Aide Ross Boyert for revelations, and his eventual death not caused by you?
The vote-buying & rigging of elections weren’t obvious?
No deception of the people for 3 decades through Gov’t controlled media?
This magnitude of you corruption & evil….is mind-boggling & astronomical. You & your cronies have stolen mega billions and caused the poverty and misery of millions of people.
You still have the cheek to continue lying. You should be tied to a tree for weeks, spat on, whipped, knifed, then drawn by horses and quartered.
Alan Newman, NZ.
Taib family one of South East Asia's largest corruption networks
NZ news: corrupt Malaysian loggers…Hamed Sepawie, Taib’s Cousin…concessions granted without public tender. Sepawie’s Naim is benefitting massively from state contracts, and Sarawak Energy is the state's power supply monopolist.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1108/S00199/wwf-asked-to-cut-ties-with-...
The Bruno Manser Fund and the Australian Greens leader, Senator Bob Brown, are calling on the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) to suspend its cooperation with the Malaysian Ta Ann group for its close association with the Taib family, one of South East Asia's largest corruption networks.
…close association with the Malaysian Taib family, one of South East Asia's largest corruption networks". Ta Ann is also mentioned for being "the major driver for high conservation value forest destruction" in Tasmania.
…the Taib family has damaged the tropical rainforests of Borneo in unprecedented ways and is responsible for the systematic disposession of Sarawak's indigenous communities.
Ta Ann is one of 49 companies blacklisted by the Bruno Manser Fund for its close links with the Taibs. The company is controlled by Hamed Sepawi, a cousin of the Sarawak Chief Minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud ("Taib") and by Wahab Dolah, a Member of the Malaysian Parliament for Taib's party, PBB.
"All these concessions have been granted by Ta Ann chairman Hamed Sepawi's cousin without public tender. Ta Ann's wealth is thus entirely based on corruption and its chairman continues to be one of Taib's closest business cronies and allies." Apart from chairing Ta Ann, Hamed Sepawi is also head of Naim Cendera, a construction company that is benefitting massively from Sarawak state contracts, and chairman of Sarawak Energy, the state's power supply monopolist.
Alan Newman, New Zealand.
Outrageous! Giant criminal should have been in jail years ago
Bill Gates & Warren Buffet give a chunk of their (self-made, hard-earned money) multi-billions to charity. They didn't even get a 'Sir' or 'Datuk'. Here you have a giant criminal rotten to the core, stealing from the state & people who elected him, and you honour him with 'Tan Sri, Datuk, Pehin, Patinggi, Abang....' Laughing Stock! Outrageous, disgrace. He should have been in jail years ago, and you are tolerating him day after day!