By Farah Wahida:
A short film released by international NGO Global Witness documents the shady land deals in Sarawak, associating the state’s Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud and his relatives.
Posing as potential plantation buyers, the NGO’s investigative team discovered how Taib’s cousins and several other intermediaries have acquired thousands of hectares of forest land.
“This film proves for the first time what has long been suspected — that the small elite around Chief Minister Taib are systematically abusing the region’s people and natural resources to line their own pockets,” said Tom Picken, Forest Team Leader at Global Witness.
Specifically, the captured conversation of sisters Norlia and Fatimah Abdul Rahman — first cousins of the incumbent Chief Minister — revealed that the siblings are the owners of 5,000 hectares of land given to them by Taib for a nominal sum, and which they were planning to sell under their company, Ample Agro.
“Ample Agro belongs to my family, but my sisters, the four elder ones are in the company. The Land and Survey Department, they are the ones who issue this licence... Of course it’s from the CM’s directive but I can speak to the CM very easily,” said Fatimah.
“And you think he’ll agree?” asked the cover team.
“Yeah, he was the one who gave us the land. He’s my cousin [laughs]. His mother and my father are sisters and brothers, siblings. He’s my cousin so it’s quite easy,” claimed Fatimah.
Notably, this is not the first time that Sarawak’s government had been accused of profiting from the state’s natural resources. Bloomberg reported in 2009 on hundreds of legal cases lodged by Sarawak’s indigenous Dayak people, alleging seizures of their land without proper compensation.
The rapid destruction of the state’s virgin rainforests also attracted similar international attention. Based on a report from The Economist, Sarawak “has lost more than 90 percent of its ‘primary’ forests to logging, and has the fastest rate of deforestation in Asia.”
A short film released by international NGO Global Witness documents the shady land deals in Sarawak, associating the state’s Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud and his relatives.
Posing as potential plantation buyers, the NGO’s investigative team discovered how Taib’s cousins and several other intermediaries have acquired thousands of hectares of forest land.
“This film proves for the first time what has long been suspected — that the small elite around Chief Minister Taib are systematically abusing the region’s people and natural resources to line their own pockets,” said Tom Picken, Forest Team Leader at Global Witness.
Specifically, the captured conversation of sisters Norlia and Fatimah Abdul Rahman — first cousins of the incumbent Chief Minister — revealed that the siblings are the owners of 5,000 hectares of land given to them by Taib for a nominal sum, and which they were planning to sell under their company, Ample Agro.
“Ample Agro belongs to my family, but my sisters, the four elder ones are in the company. The Land and Survey Department, they are the ones who issue this licence... Of course it’s from the CM’s directive but I can speak to the CM very easily,” said Fatimah.
“And you think he’ll agree?” asked the cover team.
“Yeah, he was the one who gave us the land. He’s my cousin [laughs]. His mother and my father are sisters and brothers, siblings. He’s my cousin so it’s quite easy,” claimed Fatimah.
Notably, this is not the first time that Sarawak’s government had been accused of profiting from the state’s natural resources. Bloomberg reported in 2009 on hundreds of legal cases lodged by Sarawak’s indigenous Dayak people, alleging seizures of their land without proper compensation.
The rapid destruction of the state’s virgin rainforests also attracted similar international attention. Based on a report from The Economist, Sarawak “has lost more than 90 percent of its ‘primary’ forests to logging, and has the fastest rate of deforestation in Asia.”
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