Taib's Son Sulaiman: A Boy Racer for Chief Minister?

Sarawak Report

Sulaiman Abdul Rahman Taib wanted to buy out Bugatti, makers of the world’s most expensive cars, to add to the family’s ‘hundred businesses’, according to one of his close college friends. However, his Dad, Abdul Taib Mahmud, described as ‘Malaysian Monarchy’ by Rahman’s pal, was less enthusiastic.

The Chief Minister, who clearly controls the family purse strings, vetoed the plan. It had taken Rahman a week to get an audience with his Dad in order to discuss the idea.

The disclosures about Rahman Taib (as he was known in the US) come in an on-line article for the Bugatti Review by Kevin C Limjoco, who was a college friend of Rahman’s in San Francisco and a member of his fast set in the States. Taib’s younger son clearly acted the part of a multi-millionaire playboy during his period in San Francisco, according to this and other reports, and was a notorious fast car fanatic. Conversely, business associates say he failed to show any business acumen when put in charge of the Taib property company in the US, Sakti International.

A playboy with violent passions

The article in the on-line ‘Bugatti Review’ gives a telling insight into how the Taib family are regarded by onlookers abroad, namely as jett-setting multi-millionaires akin to Arab Princes or Sultans of Brunei. On one occasion, it is known that in a fit of passion, young Rahman even smashed up one of his classic cars, a million dollar Bugatti, with a fire extinguisher. However, his father clearly forgave the incident as he subsequently recalled his son to Sarawak, where he inherited his father’s seat in the Federal Parliament and was recently appointed Deputy Tourism Minister, a job he has now mysteriously abandoned.

Worryingly, there seems no recognition in Taib circles abroad that in fact the Chief Minister of Sarawak is merely a salaried employee of the State, on a modest income and subject to regular elections to office. The concept of the Chief Minister as a ‘Godfather’ figure behind a hundred businesses is even more disturbing, not least because it is undoubtedly true.

As the political figure in charge of governing Sarawak, Abdul Taib Mahmud has no right to be involved in business ventures, primarily because this would clash with his official duties and create conflicts of interest. It is for this reason that Taib has always maintained the facade of a family active in business. Now that we know that he is indeed in control of the money and keeps his family at his beck and call, he should openly declare his activities and publicise all his interests immediately.

A suitable successor?

Despite his playboy record, youthful Sulaiman Abdul Rahman Taib has often been touted as a likely successor to his ailing and aged father. Thus, while Taib Mahmud has started to visibly crumble in the face of recent political failures and exposure for political corruption, the Taib political circles are clearly looking at immediate family to succeed, as if Sarawak were indeed a Monarchy to be passed from father to son, rather than a democratic state of Malaysia, which is its official status. It is this attitude that is likely to turn a normal political handover into a succession crisis for Sarawak.