Baru Bian: Even Switzerland is probing Taib's asses, but not BN

The whistle-blower website, Sarawak Report, reported yesterday that the President of the Swiss Federation Micheline Calmy-Rey has forwarded information about Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s assets in Switzerland to its regulatory body FINMA (the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority) for investigation.

The Swiss President said that Switzerland takes extremely seriously the concerns that have been raised internationally about Taib’s alleged profiteering from timber corruption and are unhappy that such assets may have been invested in Switzerland.

For the President of a foreign country to acknowledge that her government has begun investigation into Taib Mahmud’s assets is indeed an indictment on the credibility of the Chief Minister.

It is also, no less, a huge blot that dents Malaysia’s image internationally which Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife, self-styled First Lady Rosmah Mansor, have been desperately trying to advance over the last year with their unending international PR exercises and tours to curry global favour.

For months now Chief Minister Taib Mahmud has stubbornly refused to respond to the numerous reports at the whistle-blower website alleging his corruption. The MACC, despite receiving a profusion of reports from the public and NGOs, has not been able to give us a clear answer on what it is doing about such reports.

It is now clear that silence is no more an option. It is incumbent upon the Chief Minister to respond to these reports publicly. The MACC must also stop hedging before it loses all credibility with the public. The Prime Minister cannot ignore the elephant in the room anymore.

Sarawak Report further states that Calmy-Rey also makes clear that under international money-laundering agreements it is up to the Malaysian Government to make a request to Switzerland to freeze potentially illegal assets. On the other hand the Swiss President specifically refers to the recent freezing of assets belonging to the leaders of Libya, Egypt and Tunisia, which have been possible under existing provisions of Swiss legislation.

In light of this international investigation, an implicit request by the Swiss authorities to freeze Taib’s assets and an appallingly embarrassing slur on our country Malaysia, will Prime Minister Najib Razak finally do the right thing or will he continue to fail to act?

The onus is now on Najib Razak to redeem Malaysia’s tarnished image abroad. I reiterate that elegant silence on the part of Taib and the MACC has ceased to be an option as Malaysia’s reputation is now in question and heavily at stake.

The public demands answers and they demand them now. More so we the people of Sarawak.

- Baru Bian is the chairman of PKR Sarawak and the asssemblyman for N70 Ba’ Kelalan.