FUNNY BUSINESS IN HONG KONG

Sarawak's timber has been shipped out over the past 30 years
- has the money been shipped in to Taib-linked bank accounts?

Corrupt Barisan Nasional : MACC Investigators have a headache in store for them when they turn to Hong Kong, such is the tangled web of Taib family shareholdings. 

However, delving into these business concerns will throw up some intriguing coincidences, as Sarawak Report’s own researches can already demonstrate.

We can also demonstrate how a number of Taib-linked companies are now owned or being managed out of the BVI by one of the Philippine’s top bankers Franciso C Sebastian, who started his career as a Financial Advisor in Hong Kong.  We suggest that investigations in Hong Kong hold the key to tracing the early development of Taib’s international web of global investments as the profits from felling Sarawak’s rainforests escaped abroad.

SURPRISE? WHAT SURPRISE?

Mounting pressure brings denials
from the Chief Minister

Corrupt Barisan Nasional : The Chief Minister has denied he has illegal foreign assets.  He previewed the statement, made today in the State Assembly, as a ‘surprise announcement’. 

Onlookers would have been surprised if he had announced his resignation, the honourable course of action, given official investigations now underway into his corruption and abuse of power.  However, few will have been surprised by his string of denials!

The actual nature of his ‘categorical’ denials were in fact rather confusing, however.  What exactly was he denying when he said:

“Let me state categorically that I have no secret Swiss bank account, nor assets or investments of any description. None whatsoever”.Taib in the DUN today.

Police report against Taib-linked coal plant

Corrupt Barisan Nasional - KUCHING: Angry villagers in the Rumah Bansan longhouse in Mukah have lodged a police report against the Mukah coal-fired power plant, which is linked to Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s family- owned conglomerate Cahaya Mata Sarawak (CMS).

In their report, the Ibans in the 13-door longhouse claimed that sea water entering their rivers during high tide had caused severe erosion and destruction to their crops and properties.

They claimed the land erosions were due to the construction of a cooling pond, which was meant to supply adequate water to cool the plant’s coal-powered generators.

Furious Hadi orders 1 million PAS members to attend Bersih

Corrupt Barisan Nasional : UMNO has had it easy for too long. So has the BN coalition it heads. Prime Minister Najib Razak has not been shy to bully his way through using the might of the government machinery and the institutions of authority to maintain his momentum.

But with the next general election on the way, the Pakatan Rakyat led by Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim is starting to show its long-held-back muscle. Leaders all three component parties PAS, PKR and DAP have declared their unreserved support for the Bersih 2.0 rally organised by 62 of the country's most established NGOs.

The rally is mean to be a citizens' march for democracy, culiminating with the delivery of a memorandum to the King, demanding free and fair elections. But Najib and his UMNO party believe that the march is a slap in the face to his leadership.