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| Corruption in Sarawak has become a live issue in Tasmania |
The leader of the Australian Green Party, Senator
Bob Brown, has invited the Editor of Sarawak Report to Hobart, in order to
speak about corruption in Sarawak this week.
The
senator is a representative from Tasmania, where the Taib-linked company
Ta Ann is involved in controversial logging operations.
At a
press conference this morning reporters were given copies of a recent
letter sent to the Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, asking for
Taib family assets to be frozen in Australia and for a money laundering
investigation.
“We are very concerned that the Taib family might have laundered
and reinvested large corruption proceeds in Australia, namely through Taib’s
brother, Onn Mahmud, his Australian-born brother-in-law, Robert Geneid, and his
cousin, Abdul Hamed Sepawi, who is married to an Australian national and
is living in Australia” the letter reads.
“…..We
are thus formally asking the Australian government to launch an
investigation into the activities of the Malaysian potentate Abdul Taib
Mahmud, as well as his family members and associates, in Australia and to
freeze all Taib assets in Australia for later restitution to the people of
Sarawak”
The
letter was signed by PKR leader Baru Bian, the Director of the Bruno Manser
Foundation and the Editor of Sarawak Report.
Gillard
is yet to respond and this is the first time that the letter, has been made public.
However, the Swiss and German governments have already responded positively to
similar requests and have launched money laundering investigations into Taib
assets in their jurisdictions.
Time to freeze Taib family assets
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| Senator Bob Brown has asked for an investigation |
The Editor of Sarawak Report explained to the
Australian reporters that there is now clear and concrete evidence of massive
abuses of political power in Sarawak, with the Chief Minister using his
monopoly over the key offices of State to channel billions of ringgit
of public assets into his own private family firms.
When
Ta Ann first became established in Australia this situation might not yet
have been fully documented, but now the evidence is available Senator Bob Brown
urged that there should be an immediate review of the situation and the
suitability of Ta Ann as an investor.
The
Executive Chairman and largest shareholder of Ta Ann, Hamed Sepawi, is the
Chief Minister’s own cousin and a well-known beneficiary of Taib’s
largesse. His companies have received hundreds of thousands of hectares
of timber and plantation concessions, as well as numerous state
construction contracts, mainly handed to Naim Cendera, another company of which
he is Chairman and major shareholder.
All
were handed out by the Chief Minister, by-passing any proper tendering process.
“The
concern is that Ta Ann’s operations in Tasmania are being funded through the
money laundering of illegal profits made in the State of Sarawak” SR told
reporters.
Criminally corrupt
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| Sepawi portrayed in Ta Ann company literature - but his 'tree hugging' credentials are doubtful |
Ta Ann Tasmania, a subsidiary of the main
company of which Sepawi is a 22% shareholder, has sought to distance
itself from the controversies surrounding the land grabs in Sarawak and claims
that, since it is not directly involved in logging in Tasmania, its operations
should not be targeted.
Instead,
Ta Ann relies on wood that is logged on its behalf to produce veneers at
its manufacturing plants.
However, Ta
Ann Tasmania now needs to show that the resources it has used to set
up operations in Australia are not the proceeds from the blatant corruption
that has favoured its parent company in Malaysia.
Source : Sarawak Report
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