BMF to expose Taib’s global empire next week

BMF, Malaysiakini

The Bruno Manser Fund plans to expose Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud’s alleged family business empire – spanning eight countries – next week.

The indigenous peoples’ advocacy organisation said it has already compiled a “blacklist” of 49 companies, which it claims was set up by Taib’s family worldwide and estimated to be worth at least several billion ringgit.

“The list will be published next week, and the authorities of these countries will be asked to freeze all Taib assets and to launch criminal investigations against the Taib family,” the BMF said in a statement.

The release of the list will be done in conjunction with the launch of their latest campaign on Monday to expose Taib’s alleged corruption done over the three decades he has held Sarawak’s chief ministership.

BMF said the campaign will focus on Sarawak’s logging activities as corruption in the industry – which they claim is perpetrated by Taib and his cronies – is a major driver of deforestation in Borneo.

“A campaign website, , will go online on Monday, 21 February, and will be regularly updated and equipped with features for an interactive campaign with public participation.”

Taib a ‘kleptocrat’

Calling Taib a ‘kleptocrat”, the Swiss-based body accused him of converting Sarawak into his family’s private estate by commanding far-reaching control over the state’s resources as chief minister, finance minister and state planning and resources minister.

With unlimited access to the state’s riches, Taib and his family allegedly transferred much of their ill-gotten gains overseas, at the expense of the natives who have long fought against the destructive logging and loss of their land to Taib and his cronies’ manoeuvring, said the organisation.

BMF has been fighting for Penan rights since it was founded in 1991 by Swiss activist Bruno Manser.

The enigmatic Manser (below, far left), last seen alive on May 25, 2000, was a thorn in Taib’s side since the mid 1980s, encouraging the Penans to set up blockades and oppose state-sponsored logging activities.

He spent six years,between 1984 to 1990, living with the Penans, evading arrest by local authorities.

He later slipped from under their noses to return to Switzerland to spread awareness of the Penans’ plight.

Among his most outrageous protest stunts was in 1999 when he landed on the roof of Abdul Taib’s residence in Kuching using a motorised hang glider.

He also published a book, “Voices from the Rainforest” in 1992 and later after he went missing, Basel-based publisher Christoph Merian Verlag in 2004 published in “Dairies from the Rainforest” in German, detailing the extensive notes, photographs and documents compiled by Manser.

On March 10, 2005, the courts in Basel declared Manser missing and presumed dead.