Malaysia urged by Swiss NGO to freeze late Sarawak governor Taib Mahmud’s assets

Bruno Manser Funds calls for a probe into Taib’s bank accounts and other assets before his family members can appropriate them
Named after a Swiss activist who vanished in Sarawak in 2005, BMF has spent years campaigning against Taib’s logging activities in the state

Malaysia

Hadi Azmi

Published: 7:53pm, 22 Feb 2024

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An environmental activism group named after a Swiss man who vanished in Sarawak in 2005 during a mission to defend an indigenous tribe from loggers has urged Malaysian authorities to freeze the assets of the late former Sarawak governor Taib Mahmud.

The Basel-based non-profit Bruno Manser Funds (BMF) was founded in 1991 by the Swiss rainforest campaigner and human-rights activist of the same name. It has spent years campaigning against Taib’s logging activities in Sarawak’s rainforest and wants Malaysia to reopen a probe into his wealth.

Taib, who died on Wednesday aged 87, had said over the years that the drive to establish vast palm oil plantations and infrastructure schemes was necessary for the renewal of the state on Borneo island.

Conservationists and forest dwellers say, however, that Taib’s economic measures caused millions of acres of rainforest to be wiped out, causing irreversible damage to Sarawak’s pristine natural environment.

In the process, the projects greatly boosted the fortunes of the vastly wealthy politician, who was estimated by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index to have assets worth over US$1 billion in the early 2010s.

Money squabbles loom over death of Malaysia’s Sarawak ex-governor Taib Mahmud

In a statement, BMF Executive Director Lukas Straumann urges the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to immediately freeze Taib’s personal bank accounts and other assets before his family members could appropriate them.

“We call on the MACC to reopen its investigation into Taib assets, which was closed in 2016 for political reasons”, Straumann said.

The Malaysian authorities need to get to the bottom of the “enormous wealth” of Taib and his family, Straumann added.

In 1999, Manser flew a motorised glider above Taib’s residence as part of a publicity stunt to highlight the governor’s environmentally devastating policies, which led to the arrest of the Swiss and subsequent deportation back to his country.

Manser returned in 2005 to Sarawak, where he disappeared and was later presumed dead.

Swiss rainforest campaigner and human-rights activist Bruno Manser (left) standing with Along Sega, headman of the Penan tribe (right) on March 29, 1999 in Kuching, capital of Sarawak. Photo: AP

The unresolved mystery has led to multiple speculations on his whereabouts - that he went into hiding with the indigenous nomadic Penan tribe which he had made his life mission to protect; was being imprisoned by Sarawak authorities, died as a result of natural dangers he faced in the jungle or was murdered by the loggers he opposed.

Between 1990 and 2009, Sarawak saw massive deforestation due to the conversion of forested areas into palm plantations, according to a joint study by a group of Malaysian and Japanese researchers and the Sarawak Forestry Department.

The forest shrank by half a million hectares in 2009 from 6 million hectares in 1990, the study showed. The period overlapped with the years of Taib’s stewardship of the state government.

Taib became Chief Minister of Malaysia’s largest subdivision in 1981 and stayed in office for 33 years until 2014 when he was promoted to the governor’s office, a move seen as shielding the ageing politician from legal repercussions.

His ascension to the office meant he was legally on par with that of the sultans in other states of Malaysia, which effectively granted him immunity.

Sarawak ex-governor Taib Mahmud dies as family tussles over his wealth

Amid longstanding speculation over his poor health, Taib was relieved from the governorship in late January.

His two sons have been embroiled in a legal suit against his widow Raghad Kurdi Taib involving the transfer of shares held by Taib in the conglomerate Cahaya Mata Sarawak (CMS) to her. In their lawsuit, the brothers questioned the authenticity of Taib’s signature on documents transferring ownership of his shares to Raghad.

On February 6, MACC chief Azam Baki said the commission had investigated Taib in previous years and that the Attorney General’s Chamber decided not to pursue the matter thereafter.

“The case has been forwarded to the Attorney General’s Chamber, and [they] have ordered no further action,” Azam said in a forum in Kuching, Sarawak.

Mystery deepens as wife of Sarawak ex-governor denies taking him from hospital

Azam’s comments were in response to a media query on claims made by his predecessor Mohd Shukri Abdull in 2018 that the MACC had opened 15 investigation papers on Taib.

BMF said CMS – Sarawak’s largest state-owned company – benefited from public contracts worth over 4.9 billion ringgit (US $1.4 billion), and this sum has been in the hands of Taib’s closest family members since the early 1990s.

Such deals were against Sarawak’s constitution, which barred the state’s Chief Minister and Governor from personal benefit in commercial enterprises, BMF added.