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Najib administration believe the departure of the longest-serving chief minister will deflate opposition momentum in the east Malaysian state, which is almost as big as the entire Malay peninsula.
Call it the Najib paradox: the strength of his coalition depends largely upon on how weak he is as Prime Minister. The glue holds because he has no power over his partners.According to the DAP stalwart, Taib has “asked for a blank cheque” to continue as chief minister when he said he would stay to “groom a successor and form a new team” and9 najib shrugs off accusation with impunity; a second has no time for Cabinet meetings; a third dismisses a portfolio as people-centric as railways with the throwaway line that it does not represent her true identity. All the Prime Minister can do is smile and carry on. The smile is wearing thin.A fundamental equation has been quietly reversed Since power is central to umno schemes for the present and future, all parties have, by mutual consent, eliminated accountability from the algebra of governance to create a semblance of stability. Temperament and tantrum can coexist with venality and incompetence
Najib has no balls to demand Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud 'exit “You can’t try to force him as he knows how to turn the tables on you, as he had done in the past. Some political hopefuls tried to force him out but in the end, they ended up in political oblivion.”with his 29 Member of Parliament najib will have face altuntuya ghost Weakness is contagious. It tends to debilitate even those limbs of the body politic that are functioning normally barian minister have always known that they owe their jobs to party president. not to their voters , but they showed the requisite deference to the PM during ihia visit would be an asset on judgment day when the voter headed for the ballot box. This enormous strength has withered because no one expects najib to win in the next general elections.NAJIB admitted privatelyInstead, Power is never stagnant. It either consolidates around the leader, or ebbs. Those with longer plans for the future than the Prime Minister are establishing individual markers at the cost of collective cohesion Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak asked his Facebook friends, especially those who were young, to give him their full support and trust as the nation's prime minister to deliver a better future for Sarawak.
Saying he was delighted to meet 250 online friends from all over Sarawak for the first time, Najib added that young people should have idealism and expect fair and transparent governance.
"The government may not be perfect. But we try our best, as far as possible, to achieve a better governance and government so that the people are confident that it is here to protect the interest of every single citizen of the country," he said Saturday at the "Let's Meet and Communicate" (Mari Berjumpa Berhubung) session with his local Facebook friends here, who later joined him for breakfast at the face-to-face meeting.
Najib, who currently has upwards of 590,000 fans on Facebook and over 90,000 on Twitter, said it became increasingly important for him and other leaders in his administration to make their interaction meaningful with each Malaysian.
Having held two similar sessions at his official residence, Seri Perdana, in Putrajaya, he said leaders must seek out users of internet and other social networking sites, where the 'rakyat' or people could be found in growing numbers to engage them in dialogues.
"If you cannot come to me, I will go to you. I will try and meet with as many of my online friends as I travel across Malaysia," he said, adding that each and every one of his invited online friends supported and practised the 1Malaysia principle.
He described Saturday's gathering as one of the ways to engage with the people in new and innovative ways since taking up the government's leadership.
"I have also been interacting regularly on Twitter, so if you have been wondering, yes, it is really me replying to your tweets. I tweet in the morning before work, in between appointments and after work before I go to sleep," said the prime minister.
Where Sarawak was concerned, he said, the federal government was working closely with the state government to bring about more development plans, especially after the state election expected to be held soon.
While the government faced many challenges in bringing Sarawak on par with the peninsula, he said the state achieved the highest rate of development in the last two years alone.
"Sarawak is not a small state. I thought Pahang was a big state but to the local folks here 60km is a short distance, unlike in Perlis where the same distance would already be outside the state," he said.
Najib said in a working democracy, which worked with the people's participation, the government was committed to reform itself to reflect the people's aspirations.
Compared to countries such as Egypt and Libya, where democratic rights was a pivotal issue, he said Malaysia was different because it had a proven democratic system that was reflected through the ballot box.
Meanwhile, one of his Facebook friends from Betong, Grace Graa said, she was glad the prime minister utilised the new media to engage with the people as he understood what was going on in the people's minds.
"The face-to-face meeting was as good as the real thing," she said, adding that she hoped more of such gatherings would be held in Sarawak in the future. - Bernama
Sarawak must deny Barisan Nasional (BN) its two-thirds majority in the state assembly during next month’s polls if it wants to see the end of Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud’s 30 years as chief minister, said Lim Kit Siang today.
According to the DAP stalwart, Taib has “asked for a blank cheque” to continue as chief minister when he said he would stay to “groom a successor and form a new team”.
“These tasks may take him the entire term of the next government after he had dismally failed in the past 30 years to prepare for a succession,” the Ipoh Timur MP said.
Sarawak Report has made the decision to release the full database of the Land and Survey Department’s recent transactions on rural lands. For some weeks we have been researching the confidential data, only to discover that of the more than one thousand plots of rural land that have been acquired by the state, the vast bulk have been handed on to close relatives or cronies of Taib Mahmud.
This is a national scandal and deserves full exposure. So, we now invite readers and the press to scrutinise the land register for themselves and to identify what lands have been taken in their own areas – and by whom. It is time that Taib stopped hiding behind the laughable excuse that “there is no proof”!
The scale of the larceny is shocking. The total of land titles handed out in recent years, as calculated by the Land and Survey Department’s own figures is a massive 1.5 million hectares. Much of this has recently involved the acquistion of Native Customary Lands, which has resulted in the recent spate of well over 200 landrights cases currently going through the courts – cases which Taib’s government is losing, emphasing the illegality of his actions. For this land the State of Sarawak also calculates that it has acquired a mere RM 734 million in premiums from the lucky people who received the titles. Set this against the current sale by Taib’s brother Onn Mahmud of a mere 30,000 acres (12,000 hectares), for which he is asking just under a billion ringgit! The profit from the timber cleared from these lands must have alone dwarfed these pathetic premiums.
You are also invited to take part in our inter-active mapping project, whereby readers can pinpoint land grabs that are relevant or known to them and add them to our on-line annotated map of Sarawak.
Don’t worry it is easy! We have started it for you by marking out some of the land grabs that we have featured in earlier reports. You just plot the red blob and add the information. Shortly after your contribution will be added to the on-line information base for the benefit of fellow readers.
We have decided to embark on this project, because the information that we are presenting ought to be openly available in any democratic state. Instead, for the past 30 years Taib Mahmud has presided over a scandalous abuse of his people’s trust, by covertly stealing their lands for himself! Don’t say there is no proof, just look at the companies in the database and then find out who they belong to, or used to belong to at the time the land title was awarded. Often these companies were quickly sold on by friends and relatives after receiving the land titles from Taib for millions more than the ‘premium’ he had negotitated with them on behalf of the State he was elected to represent. This means money that should have gone to the people of Sarawak went to the Taibs and their cronies instead.
The Land and Survey Department's own recent totals, showing how many land titles it has 'sold', the total number of hectares and the premium received - a mere RM 730 million for a land mass about 20 times the size of Singapore!
Time for transparency
Any procedure involving the alienation of state or NCR lands to private parties, which has happened on a massive scale under Taib, should of course be an open process, so that everyone can see that there has been no corruption and that the best price has been gained for the people of Sarawak. However, Taib has done no such thing. As soon as he achieved the position of Chief Minister back in 1981 he moved swiftly to set up what he termed the Land Custody and Development Agency (Pelita) and put himself in charge of it as Chairman and as the Minister of Resources and Planning. This gave him control over the land.
Just one example - Youthful Elia Abas (daughter of Raziah Geneid and neice of Taib) is handed a 10,000 hectare plantation all to herself!
Within this department he has secretively sequestered lands from native communities and then equally secretively handed them on to whoever he likes – himself, his proxies, his brothers and sisters and nephews and nieces, as well as tranches for political allies and business cronies to keep them obedient to his wishes. If these transactions had been properly carried out with full transparency these deals could never have happened. However, Taib just conducted the deals himself behind closed doors! The term ‘Confidential/CONF’ can be seen all over the Land Registry, because Taib does not want the public to know how cheaply he handed these lands to his family and associates.
The data we are releasing gives details of the lands taken; the companies who took them and the price they paid, along with the dates of the 60 year leases. This information can be cross-referenced with company information and stock market and sales information that can nowadays be found on the internet. In this way communities can start to unlock the details of what has happened to their traditional lands.
Till now local people often had no idea that Taib had ‘alienated their land until the logging and plantation companies turned up on their doorsteps, often several years later. Now we invite all the people of Sarawak to check this data and find out if their areas have been already grabbed by one of the world’s richest families or their business associates.
Breakdown of a world class theft
Out of the hundreds of companies which have benefitted from the plunder of Sarawak’s lands we have identified scores already which are owned, or were originally owned by Mahmud family members, before being sold on to a thinly disguised third party owner – usually a crony of Taib. Below is a list of some of the companies that feature on the Land Register along with the Taib family members they are linked to. But, with your help, we hope to identify the rest before Taib finally meets his people once more at the polls in just three weeks’ time:
Polar Horizon, Titanium Management, Ukiran Mantap, Umpama Mantap, Radiant Lagoon, Premium Haven, Polar Towers, Polar Red, Log Oak Promotions, Future Atmosphere, Essential Straits, Dataran Aras, Celerity Design, Bella Magic – [ABU BEKIR TAIB – SON]
Miracle Harvest, Green Ace, Usaha Jasamaju, Mega Bumimas, World Sign Harvest, Quality Concrete, Emerald Discovery, Kenyalang Resources, Limbang Sinar Mas, Kumpulan Parabena, Miri Properties, Borsamulu Resort, Saradu Plantations – [RAZIAH MAHMUD/GENEID – SISTER]
Ikrar Bumi – [ELIA ABAS/GENEID – NEICE]
Achi Jaya Plantations – [ONN MAHMUD – BROTHER]
Eastern Eden, Poh Zhen, Palmlyn, Rajah Mutiara, Lanco Plantations, Hariyama, Golden Star-Ace, Senandang Masyhur [ARIP MAHMUD – BROTHER AND TAIB HIMSELF!]
Delta Padi – [TAIB HIMSELF]
Sarawak Plantations, Kub Sepadu, Multi Maximum, Mega Bumimas, Europalm – [HAMID SEPAWI – FIRST COUSIN/PROXY]
Masretus Oil Palm Plantation – [IBRAHIM MAHMUD – BROTHER]
Poliga Sdn Bhd [AHMAD BIN SU'UT - TAIB'S BOMOH]
Utahol, Herba Aromatics sdn bhd, Durafarm Sdn Bhd – [Alfred Jabu - Deputy Chief Minister]
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