Taib Mahmud's worst nightmare is begining to unfold as planned protests in London and Ottawa against injustices to indigenous communities get underway.
KUCHING: As regimes fall and more disgruntled citizens rise against oppressors, Sarawak is seeing its own revolt against “corrupt” Chief Minister Taib Mahmud.
International human rights and environmental campaigners abroad are organising protests in London and Ottawa (Canada) against Taib’s plundering ways.
The campaigns are seen as a likely start to a series of protests against the injustices perpetrated against the indigenous communities in Sarawak and the massive raping of the Borneo rainforest.
The announcement of the protests comes on the back of the Swiss-based Bruno Manser Fund’s (BMF) latest revelation that Taib and his family’s wealth is directly linked to companies in eight countries around the world.
The BMF blacklist noted 13 companies in Malaysia alone with his own Cahaya Mata Sarawak (CMS) leading the pack. CMS allegedly holds a monopoly on projects in Sarawak
In Australia and Canada, Taib is linked to 10 and nine companies respectively. His other companies are in Hong Kong (seven), US (four), British Virgin Islands (three) and Jersey (one).
Campaigners in London and Ottawa are expected to flag these facts as they decry Taib’s land and development policies which have stripped dry its once rich rainforest and left its people landless and poor while he wallows in wealth.
It is now an internationally known fact that Sarawak is the the third poorest state in Malaysia despite being a oil and gas hub.
Both in London and Ottawa, campaigners are expected to hold their protests on Feb 28 in front of Taib-family-owned buildings.
In London, the protest, jointly led by Radio Free Sarawak deejay Peter John Jaban a native Sarawakian and online portal Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle Brown, will be held in front of the Ridgeford Properties Ltd building.
No protest in Miri
In Otawa, the protest will be held outside Sako Corporation. The Ottawa protest will be headed by Mutang Urud, an indigenous leader from Sarawak.
Mutang has been living in exile in Canada since the early 1990s.
He was arrested and placed in solitary confinement by the Taib government in February 1992 for running the Sarawak Indigenous Peoples’ Association (SIPA).
On Dec 10, 1992, Mutang spoke before the 47th UN General Assemly in New York about the plight of Sarawak’s indigenous peoples
Both Sako Corporation and Ridgeford Properties are listed in BMF’s blacklist of 49 companies linked to Taib.
BMF has also incidentally called on all eight governments to freeze Taib’s assets in these countries. - MORE
No comments:
Post a Comment