Jeffrey to quit PKR on Thursday

Kuching
Wednesday, 15th Dec 2010

I believe with Dr Jeffrey Departure, PKR Chances to Wrest Sbah from BN will reduce...

On 7 October 2006 A large gathering was held in Tambunan, Sabah, to herald the entry of Dr Jeffrey Gapari Kitingan into Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR).
But according to the source, Dr Jeffrey will announcing his departure from PKR, a departure that will affect PKR chances to wrest Sabah from BN by tomorrow.


Phone lines in Sabah are burning up with speculations that Sabah PKR strongman, Jeffrey Kitingan, will be quitting the party.

Party insiders are expecting the former PKR vice-president to announce his departure from the beleaguered party on Thursday, the day he returns from his two-month vacation from politics.

Jeffrey is scheduled to hold a press conference the same day at a restaurant in Penampang.

Jeffrey's aide, Philip Among, said his boss was holding the press conference "to explain his political destiny and the future of his struggle".

"He will also announce the setting up of a movement," Among added.

Among, who quit PKR weeks ago, is facilitating Thursday's press conference at the restaurant which was booked for the function. Scores of Jeffrey's ardent supporters are expected to show up.

Weeks of speculation that Jeffrey would follow in the footsteps of Zaid Ibrahim, who quit PKR not so long ago, culminated in a burst of text messages saying that he would leave on Thursday.

Jeffrey, when approached, remained tight-lipped. Both his lieutenants Danial John Jambun and Mozes Michael Iking, who were suspended from PKR for their involvement in the aborted attempt to register a PKR-breakaway party last year, also refused to talk on Jeffrey's move.

Rumour has it that Jeffrey may lead a political party and work with a Sarawak-based party and AKIM, the peninsular-based party to be headed by Zaid.

Jeffrey's disenchantment with PKR stemmed from, among others, the party's failure to leave Sabah leadership issues to Sabahans, lack of commitment from the PKR leaders to the 20-point Malaysia Agreement and Borneonisation.

Jeffrey has been politically rootless since the ouster of the Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) government led by his elder brother Joseph Pairin Kitingan in 1994 by the current Umno-led Barisan Nasional coalition government.

He joined and left in quick succession several newly-formed political parties following the fall of PBS.

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AGI IDUP AGI NGELABAN

Idris Jala Formula: Formula For the Rich But Suffering For Poor Rural Sarawakians

Kuching
Sunday, 12th December 2010

Just wonder from whom this guy learned economic. Immediately after he took the leadership of  MAS,  he retrenched the staff and sold  MAS assets, and as a result MAS made profits ( in ACCOUNT Only) after in the red for few finacial years. What he did to MAS has impressed the incompetent BN laeders, and he was hired  to lead PEMANDU.After less than 3 years with PEMANDU he had increased the price of items from petrol to sugar in order to balance the BN deficit budget...But in the process he caused the people in the rural areas especially in Sarawak suffering. Being a Sarawakian, I am proud of him BUT for NOTHING!

Idris Jala Contribution to the Malaysians especially Rural Sarawakians

Rakyat will have to pay another 58 sen per litre for fuel consumption under Sarawak super intelligent strategiest named Datuk Seri Idris Jala, the same guy who made Malaysia Airline fare beyond lower income imagination.
Sentosa State Assemblyman, Chong Chieng Jen told a press conference said the idea is squeezing the people dry.
“The recent fuel and gas hike is already giving the people a lot of problems and to pay up another 58 sen per litre is literally ‘killing’ them,” he said.
He said although the 2nd Finance Minister said the tax would not be imposed so soon, Chong said it will be when Barisan Nasional (BN) won the next general election.
Citing an example that the Government after increasing RON 97 said they would not increase RON 95 but it was increased twice this year, once in July and now on December 1st.
Idris Jala, he said is very good in getting people to pay up by using all sort of fancy names.

“When he took over MAS, the price fare was increased by 20%. It was not in the name of the fare but the consumers have to fork out extras for administration fees, fuel charges and so on,” he said. “Now, by not increasing the fuel prices in which they are actually increasing it, he decided to name it’ fuel consumption tax,” he added.

Chong said if the government is serious about helping the people, they should not allow its cronies and other huge companies to enjoy the subsidised fuel.

“It should be the little people, lower income group who should be taken care of, not the rich and famous,” he added.

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AGI IDUP AGI NGELABAN

Singapore Opinion On Malaysia's Leaders : Najib Opportunist and BN Politician Incompetent

Kuching
Sunday, 12th December 2010

Malaysia’s improved ties with Singapore could be in jeopardy after the republic’s senior government officials reportedly said “Malaysia’s decline” is fuelled by incompetent politicians.

These officials were also less than complimentary about Malaysia’s prime ministers, past and present, with one of them calling Datuk Seri Najib Razak “an opportunist”

Their comments were contained in leaked US State Department cables and are likely to put pressure on the rollercoaster relations which both countries have had over decades.

The cables, obtained by WikiLeaks and published in The Sunday Age, disclose discussions between senior US officials and their Singapore counterparts Peter Ho, Bilahari Kausikan and Tommy Koh.

All three Singaporeans gave damning assessments of Malaysia. The discussions between the Singaporean and US officials took place in 2008 and 2009.

In September 2008, Kausikan, a senior foreign affairs official, told the US Deputy Secretary of Defense for East Asia David Sedney that the “situation in neighbouring Malaysia is confused and dangerous”, fuelled by “a distinct possibility of racial conflict” that could see ethnic Chinese “flee” Malaysia and “overwhelm” Singapore.

A Comparison : Singapore and Malaysia Cabinet Ministers. Please see Muhyiddin Qualification

“A lack of competent leadership is a real problem for Malaysia,” said Kausikan, citing the need for Datuk Seri Najib Razak to prevail politically in order to avoid prosecution in connection with the murder of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu.

“Najib has his neck on the line in connection with a high-profile murder case,” noted Kausikan.

A few months earlier, Peter Ho told another US official: “The political knives will be out for Abdullah (Ahmad Badawi’s) son-in-law, Khairy Jamaluddin, whom nobody likes because he got where he is through family ties...”

Khairy is now the Umno Youth chief but has not been given an administrative post in Najib’s government despite being seen as one of the shrewder politicians in the country.

“As for Najib Razak, he is an opportunist. Although he has not been critical of Singapore, he will not hesitate to go in that direction if it is expedient for him to do so. Najib’s political fortunes continue to be haunted by the murder scandal,” Ho had reportedly said.

The leaked cables will give ammunition to hawks in the Malaysian government and Umno who believe that it is unproductive to have good relations with Singapore, whom they describe as calculative and condescending.

The Najib administration has attempted to keep the relationship on an even keel and even untangled a long-standing dispute over Malaysian-owned railway land in the republic.

This breakthrough was made despite opposition by some quarters in the ruling party.

Both governments have agreed to set up a joint-venture company by December 31 to develop land parcels swapped for the prized railway land that cuts through the island state.

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AGI IDUP AGI NGELABAN

Taib Mahmud Plundering of Sarawak : Pulau Bruit Continued

Kuching
Wednesday, 8th December 2010

Revelations after revelations have been made by Sarawak Report but until now,  MACC has still not taking any action against the most corrupt and the longest serving Chief Minister in the world. What is Naijb waiting For? Is he waiting for this old man no longer in power? Or after he dies? 
Only God Knows...

Certain people in high places are given to alleging that the facts which have been published in Sarawak Report may not be true. Yet, the allegations we have published have been verifiable and documented.

Likewise, available to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission in the government’s own register of companies, is the following irrefutable information. The company Mesti Bersatu is a major shareholder in Delta Padi Sdn Bhd, a venture that has caused shocking devastation on the mainly Melanau island of Pulau Bruit.

Also documented and verifiable is the fact that the Sarawak government has handed large tracts of land in Sungai Lengan on Pulau Bruit at minimal cost (RM78,000 for 100 hectares) to Delta Padi Sdn Bhd to develop a rice project, for which laughable levels of compensation have been offered to the Native Customary Landowners of the area. Pristine Mangrove forests have been destroyed over the past four years and the waters of the region have been polluted. Environmentalists are concerned that the development is now illegally encroaching also on the National Park on the island.

Mesti Bersatu, which is such a large shareholder in this enterprise, belongs to the Chief Minister of Sarawak, Abdul Taib Mahmud and members of his family. His name is printed in black and white as a key shareholder in the Register of Companies for all to see. This means that as the Head of Government he has been handing the land and development opportunities to himself.

Mesti Bersatu’s two partners in Delta Padi are Taib’s business crony Hii Yu Peng and the organisation Pelita, which belongs to Sarawak’s Land Custody and Development Authority (LCDA), of which Chief Minister Taib Mahmud is also the Chairman! This is all in black and white – there can be no argument.

It should be observed that the Sarawak Government has given these grants of valuable land to Delta Padi thanks to specific decisions by the Planning & Resources Minister and, of course, the Chairman of the LCDA. These key decision-making positions when it comes to the granting of land are both occupied by the Chief Minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud. Therefore, Taib has particularly used his position of direct authority over these departments to hand himself cheap land, which he had alienated from the native people. This is a clear case of conflict of interest, abuse of power and corruption.

Not just public land but also public money has been channelled into the Chief Minister’s company

However, it has not just land that Taib has been handing to himself through to Delta Padi Sdn Bhd. Both state and federal government money is also evidently being poured into supporting the venture, of which he and his family are such major shareholders. These resources will have been made available thanks, of course, to the decisions of Sarawak’s Finance Minister. Sarawak’s Finance Minister is also Abdul Taib Mahmud. This is another clear case of conflict of interest, abuse of power and corruption.

In an announcement to the news agency Bernama in 2004, the Minister James Masing explained the Sarawak Government’s policy towards the project – a policy that is spearheaded by the Chief Minister, Finance Minister, Land & Resources Minister and Chairman of the LCDA, who are all Abdul Taib Mahmud. The report quotes Masing:

Since Sarawak is basically in its early stage of rice production, subsidy must be provided for it to succeed.” He [Masing] said his ministry would act as the main co-ordinator between the various state and federal agencies and ministries involved in order for it to succeed.

He said under Phase One of its proposed development, a sum of RM19 million was needed for its irrigation system and he hoped the Federal Ministry of Agriculture could make the fund available soon. Masing said it had been estimated that about RM75 million was needed for the granary overall development……….

On the Delta Padi Plantation, he said since its inception seven years ago, a sum of RM18 million had been spent in its development. It had also invested RM8 million on its own rice milling facility the biggest in the country …. Masing said the state government would assist Delta Padi in dealing with its main rat and bird problems and in looking for more markets for its rice. He urged the national rice board or BERNAS to lend a helping hand”. [James Masing, Bernama 18/10/2004]

Corruption 

The above information is all verifyable to the Malaysian Government and the MACC  through the Register of Companies, their own official documents and ministerial announcements.  The  government auditors will be well-placed also to assess just how much Federal and State money has in total been poured into helping Delta Padi develop the project, in which the Chief Minister and his family hold a such a major shareholder  interest.  In this context they might like to consider how little of those substantial millions ave been spent in assisting the desperately poor Melanau and Iban populations of the area who have lost their fishing and hunting grounds and are suffering flooding and pollution as a result of the degradations and plantations on their Native Customary Lands? 

So what is not true? 


Therefore Sarawak Report would like to enquire on what basis BN commentators are to suggest that our accusations might be untrue and on what basis the MACC is refusing to investigate the State of Sarawak’s Chief Minister for abusing his powers to enrich himself and his family? Perhaps it is because it would appear that the members of the BN party have a highly undeveloped understanding of what forms corrupt practice?  In an interview recorded last week, Taib’s political ally, YB Karim Hamza, attempted to justify the Sarawak State Government’s current White Paper proposals to clamp down on media outlets like Sarawak Report, with a series of statements that have caused hilarity throughout Malaysia and abroad. 

While complaining that the reports on Taib’s wealth are not proven, Hamza’s simultaneously sought to justify it!   It would surely be “unfair” he argued for the Chief Minister not to be able to take up the “opportunities” provided by his office for example to buy “cheap land” if someone were to offer it to him? Hamza further articulated at length how public office is regarded by himself and fellow BN members not as an opportunity to serve the community, but as an opportunity to get into business at the same time and to make money from the “connections” that arise.  Mixing politics and business in such a way is essentially the dictionary definition of political corruption and Hamza has openly admitted to approving it. In the interview, which can be heard on Radio Free Sarawak via it’s website http://www.radiofreesarawak.org/  he frequently declares that it would not be “fair” if only businessmen and not politicians could be wealthy and “fly around in jets” and asserts that the families of politicians must of course be advantaged by using their resulting ‘network’ of connections.  He also slanderously implied that Prime Ministers in the UK and USA do the same and are “all filthy rich”. 

Since Abdul Taib Mahmud, who receives a modest official salary appropriate to the concept of public service, is clearly wealthy beyond imagination; since he puts endless government contracts the way of his family; since he demands large sums of money and shares from any business that seeks to gain a licence to operate in Sarawak and since he also flies around constantly in private jets, we can only conclude that the Chief Minister agrees one hundred percent with Hamza’s justifications of corruption. 

Favours to Delta Padi from Taib’s government departments 


It is clear that Mesti Bersatu’s involvement in the Delta Padi project forms one of the ‘business opportunities’ of the sort that YB Karim Hamza was referring to.  Crony business tycoon Hii Yu Peng evidently provided the Chief Minister with an ‘opportunity’ to take a stake in his venture to turn the Native Customary Rights Lands on the pristine island of Bruit into a paddy project. 


Mr Hii Yu Peng has of course put in most of the private capital into the venture, true to the pattern of all Taib’s dealings with local towkeys in search of land and licences, which he totally controls.  Indeed it is extremely unlikely that the Taib family company Mesti Bersatu has contributed a single penny to Delta Paddy in return for the quarter of all the shares that they have acquired. 
A further quarter of the shares are in the hands of the state agency Pelitia, most likely pending a suitable time for their ‘privatisation’ into the Taib family clutches, after the need for more state funding has passed (keep reading Sarawak Report for further evidence on this practice). 

In return for this private investment by Hii, the State Government and in particular the LCDA department of which Taib is Chairman, has granted an eye-watering level of ‘opportunities’ to Delta Padi.  These ‘opportunities’ also noticeably escalated in the aftermath of the incorporation of Mesti Bersatu in May 2007 and its involvement in the Delta Padi project. Sarawak Reports researches have now identified the following plots mainly in ulau Bruit, as having been handed to Delta:

(1)  3 plots in Sungai Lengan, Sibu (acquired 2005 – 2010) amounting to 100  hectares for a bargain  basement RM78,000 

(2) 6 plots in Batang Lebaan, Sibu (acquired 2007) amounting to 2,000 for  RM2.5 million 

(3) 2 plots in Sungai Buloh (acquired 1999) amounting to around 300 hectares  for nothing. 

(4) 4 plots in Serendeng Sarikei (acquired 2009 and 2010) amounting to 1,000 hectares for a give-away RM700,000 

(5) 2 plots in Tulai Meradong (acquired 2008) amounting to about 400  hectares for RM310,000

(6) 4 plots in Paloh (acquired 2000-2005) amounting to around 7,700 hectares between 1998-2008 for roughly RM 2.75 million

(7) 1 plot in Mukah (2008) of 5,000 hectares for RM 2.5 million.

Coming to court 

The recent extension of the lands handed to the Delta Padi venture has now sparked a legal action by 8 Native Iban villages, who will be represented by the human rights lawyer and PKR leader of Sarawak Baru Bian.  Mr Bian will most likely be surprised to discover that he is to be challenging the Chief Minister himself in this civil case, as locals were misleadingly informed that the company behind the Delta Padi project was Rimbunam Hijau, presumably in a mishandled attempt to hide Taib’s involvement. Sarawak Report is wondering when such civil cases against the Chief Minister will finally give way to more appropriate criminal cases in the Federal Courts of Malaysia, given the evidence of this and numerous other cases of corruption by BN in Sarawak?

To all Sarawakians let's Pray to God so that this old man receive his earthly  punishment soonest.. 

Sarawak Report Reveals Another Land Grab by Taib Mahmud

Kuching
Sunday, 5th December 2010

Sarawak Report has been piecing together documentation that enables us to prove for the first time that the Chief Minister has conducted land thefts on a massive scale from the people of Sarawak. Using a number of sources, many of which Taib has shamefully attempted to keep secret, we are now unravelling detailed information showing the full extent of his seizures of Native Customary Rights Lands for himself and his family and also the extraordinary profits he has made at the expense of his people.

The corruption has been so extensive and the affects have been so devastating to so many Dayak communities and to the environment of Sarawak, that we are unable to cover this issue in just one article. Instead we will be examining our evidence over coming weeks and bringing you the results in a series of reports, which will look at the impact of Taib’s destructive greed on communities the length and breadth of the state.

Clear pattern emerges under ‘Thief’ Minister

Yet, already we can point to a clear pattern of activity or ’modus operandi’, through which Taib has abused his power by helping himself and his family to Dayak lands. In his joint role as Resources and Planning Minister the Chief Minister pushes a policy of ’alienating’ Native Customary Rights (NCR)Lands in the name of ’development’, a practice which was recently ruled illegal by the Federal High Court.

However, he has always worked hard to keep the private benefactors of this public policy hidden! The identity ofthe companies originally handed parcels of Dayak land by the state authorities and also the sums they have been charged ought to be public information, but they have always been treated as a top state secret, marked confidential in the Land Registry!

Sarawak Report can now confirm the perhaps unsurprising truth that very many of these companies directly belong to Taib’s family, or indeed himself, or to people he owes political or business favours . Our evidence also details how the standard practice is for the Chief Minister to hand over great parcels of land to companies owned by his siblings for rock bottom prices (or nothing at all) who in turn sell on these companies as quickly as possible (usually in a matter of days) to a crony business partner for a massive profit.

The Taib family member then often cements the deal by taking up shares or directorships in the new parent company (often under a proxy or hidden identity) so that they can continue to enjoy the profits of developing the land, but in a less obvious capacity. This ‘development’ almost invariably consists of stripping the area of its valuable timber and then planting palm oil plantations, leaving the destitute Dayakcommunities with nothing but very low paid jobs and usually laughable levels of compensation.

One shocking case in point

Sarawak Report has established that this scandalous activity has taken place in one of the most controversial current land grabs being sponsored by the State of Sarawak. The very poor Melanau population of Pulau Bruit near Sibu are one of the many communities to have suffered from this form of ‘development’, even though they are from the Chief Minister’s own race. The island till recently was a precious remaining area of fast disappearing lowland mangrove forest with a National Park of protected land. In 2004 the Chief Minister saw fit to ‘develop’ the area for yet more palm plantations, despite the growing international outcry over the destruction of Sarawak by palm plantations.

Therefore in May 2004 10,000 hectares of the island was handed to a company Eastern Eden Sdn Bhd and a further 5,000 to a company Poh Zhen. Of course the natives knew nothing of such decisions over their land until the palm plantation company came and started stripping the area of its pristine mangrove forests the following year and planting oil palm in its place. The company offered the locals just RM120 ringgit per hectare for their land - a total of just over a million ringgit to be shared by the entire community for all their native lands.

Encik Bahrum, one of the headmen, explains how he learnt about the development when he went to the jungle one day for forage for fish and food. A short way in he discovered that a vast area had been flattened. Bahrum, whose people have always lived in the area, said that the plantation company at first promised the locals that they were stripping the area to grow padi fields for the population, but in fact their whole region has been covered in oil palm. NGOs have told Sarawak Report that protesters have complained of harassment and arrest and many have ended taking the compensation feeling they have no choice.

Suffering of the people

Bahrum says that his people are now desperately short of food, because the forest and fish have gone. They are also suffering polluted waters as a result of pesticides andfertilisers on the plantation. Few have received jobs. The ‘development’ is now spreading across the island and extending into Iban territories affecting 8 communities at Sungai Lengan. The NGO Sadia has alerted the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil that the logging also appears to be encroaching illegally into the National Park area on the island. The Ibans say that already their health and food supplies have been affected by the pollution of their waters by chemicals and that fish are dying and children are falling sick. No compensation has been offered to the Ibans.

Sadia and the law firm belonging to PKR opposition leader Baru Bian are now supporting the natives in a court case to protect their remaining lands and sue for proper compensation. But there will be little surprise that the community say they have had no such support from their local representative to the Federal Parliament Norah Binti Abdul Rahman. She also the Chief Executive of the Tanjun Manis ‘development’ project that is driving the destruction of the entire area and she happens to be the niece of Chief Minister, Taib Mahmud.

Norah and Taibtreated themselves in the summer to a state-funded visit to Oxford University in the UK (along with two plane loads of publicly funded officials) in order to promote their business projects in the region at notorious event hosted by the University’s Said Business School. Norah is seeking international funding for further logging and devastation in order to develop a ‘Halal food Hub’ in Malaysia’s Christian state.

Even less surprising has been Nora’s sudden recent announcement that a large sum of money is about to be spent on an infrastructure programme to bring roads, electricity and water to the people who have till now been totally neglected in the ‘development’ of their region and who have suffered the loss of their forest lands and fishing grounds. She is of course now looking for their support in the upcoming election, but whether the promises will be remembered after the election is over is another matter. Local people are advised to ignore the 60 ringgit bribes she will also offer and to continue to ignore her even if she ups the bribe money! It is their right to receive Norah’s bribe money and to vote for another party entirely.

We expose who really profits

This is because perhaps the most shocking aspect of this story is the part that has until now been kept most hidden. Our investigations have revealed just how much money Norah’s family has taken from the natives of Pulau Bruit. When the locals had sought the owners of the palm plantations who had been handed their land by Taib’s decision as Chief Minister and Planning and Resources Minister they learnt that the companies, Eastern Eden and Poh Zhen, belonged to Jaya Tiasa a subsidiary company of the vast timber company Ribunan Hijau, run by a key crony of the Chief Minister. Therefore, their representatives have been making their protests to this company.

However, Sarawak Report can now reveal that the original owners of these companies were Taib’s own brothers Arip and Ali Mahmud. They received the land grants from the government on 19th May 2004 paying RM 6 million for Eastern Eden plot of 10,000 hectares and RM 3 million for the Poh Zhen plot of 5,000 hectares. However, in just 12 days on 31st May they had sold on the companies to their crony tycoon Ribunan Hijau/Jaya Tiasa chief Tiong Choong for RM 33 million and RM 16 million! This represents a RM 40 million clean profit for the Taib family in a matter of 12 days!

Further, true to the pattern we have identified, the Aripfamily have continued to enjoy profitable ties with the company they sold out to. Sarawak Report has identified a large chunk of Jaya Tiasa shares continue to belong to the Arip family (he died in 2005). These shares were clearly handed to the family as an added ‘sweetner’ for the deal. This means that the Mahmud family continues to reap big profits from the palm oil plantations and the timber extraction from the lands that were stolen from the local communities on top of the fat profit they made from selling on land that Taib had handed to them well below market price.

More

Sarawak Report will be following the fortunes of the impoverished islanders of Palau Bruit as they campaign to save the little remaining area of their lands and to receive compensation. However, their tragic case is just one of hundreds of land grabs by the Chief Minister and his family across the State. We will be unveiling more about these outrages and the effect on the people of Sarawak in later reports.

This article is taken from Sarawak Report and republish in Bukittunggal for the benefit of all Sarawakian

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