Sarawak: THIEF MINISTER STOLE ELECTION

THIEF MINISTER STOLE ELECTION !

TUESDAY, APRIL 19TH, 2011 GMT

A tiny cabal, like thieves in the night, hijacked the machinery of the state and denied the will of the people in Sarawak at the weekend.

Like the perpetrators of a palace coup, a handful of family members, bomoh’s and loyalists mounted an outrageous and blatant rigging of the count. Then, immediately, in an unprecedented act at 10.30pm at night, before even the last votes were counted, they bundled the old Chief Minister into the governor’s office to be sworn back in before the matter could be contested.

But contested it will be. If these plotters and cheats think they can claim legitimacy for Taib, they cannot. All Sarawak knows he is a fraud and that his desperate supporters are seeking to protect the billions they have stolen from the State by keeping him in office.

Sarawak has changed whether they like it or not

The unprecedented and enthusiastic crowds who turned out and rallied for change in all the major towns across Sarawak last week tell us all we need to know about the real election result.

The biggest crowd in all Malaysia’s election history gathered in the small capital of Kuching and made the feelings of the people perfectly plain, as Taib’s armed and aggressive riot police attempted and failed to provoke and harass them.

Police try to disrupt Kuching rally for PR - a record 40,000 peacefully campaigned for the opposition

By contrast the BN rallies failed hopelessly. Sarawak has changed and all Sarawakians know it. Taib also knows it as he sits in his headquarters at Demak Jaya aware that all around him the people of the capital, his home town of Bintulu, Sibu, Miri and across the country have mobilised against him and want him out.

So strong and so obvious was the unity and determination of those population centres that Taib did not dare cheat too heavily and obviously in the urban areas (apart from some outrageous exceptions, like Senadin, see below) and the opposition swept to victory, more than doubling their seats and wiping out BN as a force in the cities.

But, Taib cheated blatantly and obviously everywhere else, determined to snatch the election by abusing his power over the tiny, rotten rural boroughs. The Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak, colluded in this and he too deserves international disdain and condemnation for allowing one of the most corrupt examples of a sham election to ever take place.

He will get that condemnation. Sarawak Report is invited, together with other observers of Malaysia’s shameful actions in Sarawak, to report to the UN’s Human Rights commission imminently in Geneva and we will tell exactly what happened.

The facts will be made known

Because Taib is a known and serial election-cheater his tactics were anticipated and they have been widely noted and recorded. Reports are being carefully compiled and Sarawak Report will be covering the information as it is gathered over the coming days. Much of this election is going to be contested and a re-election will be demanded.

Today PKR leader YB Baru Bian, who was one of just three PKR members who managed to get a seat, despite massive attempts to destabilize him, confirmed that there had been systematic and widespread cheating. Even so, the opposition won 41% of the acknowledged vote – getting just 21% of the seats thanks to the deliberately skewed and corrupt system developed by BN in Sarawak!

So what forms of rigging were used?

Taib used sister-in-law Gertie to bring the money!

Gertie Chong - Taib s brother Arip s 2nd wife

Just consider how Taib went about saving his own skin in Balingian, a constituency where for the past five years he has pillaged the timber and grabbed land from the poor.

We have received inside information that his own sister-in-law, Gertie Chong (widow of Arip) was the one who was charged with bringing the bags of money over from Sibu to bribe and bully the impoverished voters. This is how small and desperate the circle of Taib’s supporters has become.

She handed it out to the PBB workers who then went round the houses distributing a full RM1,000 per door to people, so impoverished by their Chief Minister and State Representative, that they lack even enough barrels to capture sufficient rainwater to drink.

Taib’s ‘development’ has caused the pollution of their rivers and streams – they would dearly love him gone.

But, Gertie brought them RM1,000 per door! Last election it was only RM50 ! More than anything, the wild inflation of Taib’s bribes tells you the level of his deep unpopularity.

The Shin Yang connection

And where did this money come from? It came from Shin Yang. The crony timber and plantation company which has relied on Taib for the fat concessions that have turned its owner Ling Chiong Ho from being a barge handler in Sibu, working for Taib’s brother Onn Mahmud’s Achipelago shipping monopoly just a few years ago, into a multi-millionaire.

So, of course Shin Yang had to cough up. As far as Taib was concerned he was calling in favours – the sort of favours that gangsters call in. Just look at the evidence on Shin Yang’s palm concessions alone, all handed to them via private deals with Taib Mahmud’s Resources and Planning Ministry.

In just one case alone, Shin Yang is the major shareholder of Sarawak Oil Palms Bhd, which used to be a government venture. Taib, in a typical move, privatised it into a public company in 1990 and Shin Yang was allowed to buy over 37% of the company.

Since then Sarawak Oil Palms says it has expanded its land-bank to 65,000 hectares, with 35,000 planted with oil palm in Sarawak. All of course thanks to concessions given by Taib.

Gerald Rentap Jabu, son of Deputy CM Alfred Jabu (who also bought his way into scraping back his seat) is also on the Board of Sarawak Oil Palms. Until recently, Taib’s brother and proxy, Onn Mahmud, held shares in the company through his own nominee, Shea Kin Kwok, identified as a key player in the Japanese timber kick-back scandal.

Onn s proxy shareholding in the former state asset.

However, the concessions that have come Ling Chiong Ho’s way are far more extensive even than this. The current land registry document published by Sarawak Report in March shows no fewer than 75 lots handed to numerous of companies controlled by Ling Chiong Ho.

Danum Jaya Sdn Bhd, Linau Mewah Sdn Bhd, Mazama Plantations Sdn Bhd, Shin Yang Oil Palm Sdn Bhd, Sarawak Oil Palm Bhd, Dataran Danum Sdn Bhd, Danum Sinar Sdn Bhd, Dataran Seping Sdn Bhd, Linau Sinar Sdn Bhd, Selangau Plantation Sdn Bhd, have been handed huge areas at rock bottom prices.

Just one enormous chunk of this land, some 90,000 hectares, has been acquired in Belaga, the area that Taib had cleared for the Bakun dam project. Shin Yang has already been slammed by NGOs for its handling of the timber concessions given to them by Taib in the Belaga area and disregard for the native communities.

We can also see from the land registry that further huge tracts of plantation land have been handed to Shin Yang in the other planned Dam areas of Baram (13,000 hectares) and Murum (16,500 hectares). [see list of companies and concessions at the bottom of the article].

And Taib’s own constituents of Balingian have not been let off the hook either.

Shin Yan has taken land in Taib s own constituency.

Ling Chiong Ho has also walked off with fat plantation concessions in Mukah and numerous other concessions in the Bintulu area.

Land taken in Bintulu by Shin Yan - well over a hundred thousand hectares in total

So, the money with which Taib was buying his voters was money taken from the removal and exploitation of their lands in the first place! RM1,000 was of course a lot to Taib’s impoverished voters. But it would have been nothing to them if Taib had fairly developed their land and ensured they got some of the profit!

Go getter Gertie

Bag Carrier - Gertie Chong was the one who brought the money from Shin Yang in Sibu to buy votes in Balingian.

It is of little surprise that Gertie Chong was the family member chosen by Taib to carry out his dirty work in Balingian. She is the 2nd and favourite wife of his favourite brother Arip and her name pops up as a major shareholder in a good number of Taib crony companies. She is a major shareholder of Jaya Tiasa, the company based on plantations handed to her husband by Taib and then sold on for a fat profit to the tycoon Tiong Hiew King of Rimbunan Hijau Group.

Gertie is also a fellow director and shareholder with Taib Mahmud himself in the company Mesti Bersatu, a shareholder in the Royal Mulu resort and Miri Properties, which owns the Marriott in Miri among other ventures. She also is a shareholder in Lanco Plantations, along with Taib himself.

Indeed, Gertie has been associated with so many of the Mahmud family business ventures that have taken advantage of their political stranglehold on the state, that it is no surprise that she was brought in to help with the emergency operation of keeping them in power at whatever cost – in fact RM1,000 per constituent is a very small cost indeed by comparison to what they have made and doubtless intend to make in the future.

Despite this Taib’s majority in Balingian was slashed from some 6,000 to around 2,000 on the day, so sickened have his people been by his greed and landgrabbing.

Gangster CM used gangster tactics to grab the election

Sarawak Report will be accumulating the details of this election theft as reliable reports and evidence is collated from the different districts over the next few days. However, our report to the UN will include the following points:

- The Mass Disenfranchisement of much of the population of the interior, which enables Taib to operate a ‘rotten borough system’, where seats are decided by just a tiny number of people whom he can pressure and influence. 470,000 natives of the interior do not have voting rights out of Sarawak’s 2.5 million total population. Taib has deliberately pretended that he finds it ‘difficult’ to register remote communities who resent his destruction of the jungle. However, while he says he cannot reach them, he has sure managed to reach their trees!

- BN has used this ‘rotten borough’ system to achieve 77% of the seats with just 55% of the votes, creating what they call their ‘fixed deposit’ of seats in Sarawak. PR gained 41% of the votes at this election (despite all the cheating) only to receive 21% of the seats. Equally, seats in the towns consist of up to 30,000 voters, whereas those doted around the interior amounted to 6,000 voters and these are easier for BN to bully, bribe and control.

- The illegal touting of projects and votes by BN politicians, including the Prime Minister, in the run up to the election. These are used as a direct bribe and form of blackmail as it is made clear to voters that they will not get the projects and worse may be discriminated against in the provision of basic amenities if they do not vote BN.

- The abuse of postal votes. Only allowing government workers to use them and pressurising these employees to vote BN. Also the outrageous targeting of postal votes at single constituencies they want to influence, rather than the constituencies the voter actually comes from. The practice of doubling up by sending in postal votes eg by the army and then bringing in plane loads of the same soldiers to vote in person as well! The introduction of suspicious last minute ‘postal votes’ in order to try and boost BN’s tallies far later than legally allowed.

- Use of gangsters to intimidate and turn away voters from the polling stations.

- Abuses by the electoral commission, which include switching voters’ polling stations away from their home areas to distant places they cannot get to, suddenly on the day of the vote. The hiding of ballot boxes for periods of time, so that agents cannot tell if they have been tampered with and illegally withholding (on the direct orders of the Election Commission) the Form 14 information that confirms the tally of each box, so that a proper monitoring can take place of the count. Switching off the lights and ‘counting’ in the dark.

- The cutting off of mobile phone networks on the day to inhibit the opposition from keeping up with what is happening.

- The naked bribery by BN of poor voters the day before the vote. Offering money in return for their ID numbers and then paying the remainder only when they have proved that they have voted for BN! The scale of these bribes went sky high at this election, indicating just how unpopular BN is and how much they had to pay to get people to give in and vote for them.

Senadin – one case history

There will be more examples with back-up information of BN’s gangster tactics, but Sarawak Report will be presenting the case of Senadin at the UN this week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyiSfJ0DzVM&feature=player_embedded#at=24

- PKR was leading the vote by 1000+ during the last ballot counting.

- Suddenly a blackout conveniently occurred happened during the last ballot counting in the Miri City Stadium.

- Blackout lasted 1 hour+ and the Election Commission continued counting with a sudden appearance of bought votes and ‘postal’ votes at an illegally late hour.

- SUPP were declared ‘winners’ with slim majority 58 votes after postal votes

- There were announced to be 158 ‘spoiled’ votes favouring PKR

- The SPR refused a recount, despite the fact that there was a clear case for a recount.

In this way the 20,000 crowd which had gathered in Miri to support PKR on the night that less than 100 were prepared to attend the rival rally by BN’s George Chan, just a few days before, were denied the obvious representative of their choice. Instead one of Taib’s key supporters was forced upon them to help the Chief Minister in his attempt to continue his gangster government.

No legitimacy

PR are contesting this election on a number of fronts. The BN Federal Government will use all means at their disposal however to continue to prop up Taib who keeps them in power.

This is despite the fact that he daily embarrasses and shames Malaysia through his corruption and his greedy exploitation of his impoverished people. Najib would dearly love to be rid of the old parasite, but he is yet to find a way. Certainly, the Prime Minister’s election promise that if Taib ‘won’ for BN he would shortly step down will be one of many, many, many promises made by BN at this election that will not be fulfilled.

Taib has no legitimacy. He knows it, Najib knows it and the people of Sarawak know it. The rest of the world will know it too.

[Below are the concessions given to Shin Yang's Ling Chiong Ho in recent years. No wonder Taib was expecting pay back time. Shin Yang paid for his election bribes].

Ling Chiong Ho s plantation concessions - but it was payback time at the election!

Sarawak: Sure, keep the activists out, but you cannot stop the wind of change from blowing in

April 14, 2011

The immigration staff who attended to my detention and eventual deportation from Kuching back to KL last night were generally courteous.

The AirAsia staff who were detailed to ready my return ticket and escort me on to the plane were most pleasant, despite my making life difficult by refusing to have my return ticket pre-booked for tomorrow converted to facilitate my deportation last night, although I suspect they went into their system and did precisely that.

I know you were merely carrying out instructions from higher ups. I am grateful that you did so with courtesy and kindness. Thank you, all.

Thank you to the many who sms’d me to say they were praying for me.

Now, pray for Divine guidance for the people of Sarawak, that they may have the courage to vote out BN and Taib this Saturday.

Reports from operatives on the ground indicate that the opposition is within striking distance of doing what was hitherto thought to be impossible : denying BN a 2/3 majority in the Sarawak state assembly.

It is, though, well within the power of the people of Sarawak to go beyond just denying BN a 2/3 majority, and to go the whole distance and bring this corrupt regime to its knees.

For this to happen, Sarawakians must be resolute in not succumbing to the crumbs that will be tossed at them from the BN banquet table in the coming days.

In these same days leading up to polling on Saturday, there may yet be other activists headed to Sarawak who will suffer the same fate as Steven Ng, Chin Huat and I in being refused entry.

My gut feeling is that this latest round of abuse of state power will count for nothing.

The wind of change is already blowing gale-like through Sarawak.

God willing, we will see a tsunami this Saturday.

Sarawak: BAKUN DAM ‘UNSAFE’! – EXCLUSIVE EVIDENCE ON CORNER-CUTTING AND SLOPPY CONSTRUCTION PRACTICES

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13TH, 2011 GMT

It is well-known that the Chinese contractors were under extreme pressure from the Malaysian Government during the period up to 2009 to get the dam finished as quickly and cheaply as possible, after a series of delays and cost over-runs.

The informant who spoke to Sarawak Report told us:

“We compromised all the time to speed up the project”

The total failure of Quality Control that amounted to negligence

Ready to inundate - Bakun was Taib's pet project. It has been bailed out by the Employee Provident Fund, Malaysia's main public service pension fund.

Bakun has been filling since last October and it is now just 15 meters short of full inundation. An area the size of Singapore has been flooded to accommodate the hydro-electric project, which sits up-river of tens of thousands of inhabitants, including the major city of Sibu.

However many believe that it will turn out to be a White Elephant as no genuine use has been found to justify its construction. Now the whole integrity of the project is thrown into question by the major concerns our information will now raise over the safety of its construction.

The key problem, according to our informant, has been a total failure of the Quality Control measures, which are supposed to ensure the dam is built to proper specifications.

He complains that there were “definitely not enough” Quality Controllers hired for the project and that therefore it was impossible to carry out adequate supervision across the many different work points on the enormous site.

Dams are constructed according to carefully calculated specifications, he explained, particularly with regard to the mix of ingredients for the concrete that is used. The quality of the concrete is vital for the strength and safety of the structure and the so-called ‘design’ of the preparation takes into account the specific conditions of the particular project.

Dangerous short-cuts and cost-cutting

There were two dangerous malpractices that have been particularly highlighted by the Quality Controller, who has spoken to us. First, he says the contractors habitually substituted higher grade mix with lower grade cement in the composition of the concrete to save money.

“When you prepare concrete you need to add water, sand and aggregate and the process must carefully follow the design and quantities of all the ingredients”, he explained. “You also need to put in chemicals to strengthen the concrete and make it slow to harden. Any deviation or substitution of lower grade materials can seriously compromise the quality of the concrete”.

Secondly, he says that when the mixed concrete was then taken from the batching plant in cement carriers to be pumped into the dam, workers were then responsible for another regular malpractice that was endemic on the project and had far-reaching implications. This was the adding of extra water to the mix to make it more fluid and easier to pump. He would reject batches of concrete that he caught being weakened in this way, however he says that he knew that with so little over-all supervision on the site many others got through.

Rejected - this batch of concrete was rejected by the Quality Controller because water was introduced, but its believed many more got through.

The informant has provided us with numerous photographs of this practice taking place at the dam site and has also sent us video, clearly showing workers hosing in water into the cement carriers.

“They did this practice all the time when I was not around. It happened all over. They were doing it to make it easier to pump the concrete and to stop their pumps blocking”.

The Quality Controller explained what dam experts have confirmed to Sarawak Report, which is that any tampering with the mix of the concrete at this stage undermines the strength of the concrete and forms a serious risk.

Watering concrete

The UK construction expert Dr Andy Hughes from the company Atkins Global acknowledges that there is a frequent temptation for workers on dam sites to water the concrete, which is hard to handle in the correct state:

“People will cut corners, which is why you have supervision”, he said. “Any watering of concrete should be rare on a dam site and it should be controlled and done for a specific purpose”.

When we explained the practice at Bakun by workers on site, he insisted “Any changes should be done in a managed way. The most important thing is that you have consistency across the dam. If they were doing it ad hoc in a patchwork quilt all over the dam you would not know where the strengths and weaknesses are”.

At it again. Our informant says this is another occasion when he caught workers watering down the concrete, but that his bosses did not take it seriously.

Dr Hughes surmised that the actions by the workers might have been further prompted by the tampering that was taking place earlier in the process, which would have altered the consistency of the concrete.

“If they have changed the ingredients they may need more water. It is like playing around with the ingredients of a cake”, he explained. “The specification will have been designed according to the conditions of the area and the nature of the available materials. Any changing of the design mix should have gone through a formal process”.

The bosses ‘didn’t want to know’

Our informant tells us that he constantly reported the problems to his bosses at Sinohydro, including at their daily meetings. However he got little response or support:

“I used to raise this issue and nobody took any notice of it. They would just say ‘OK let it go, warn them not to do it next time’, that is all”, he told us. “If I found them adding water to the concrete I would reject it as sub-standard, but I could not be everywhere all the time and I know it was happening when I was not there”.

Sarawak Report has photographs of these rejection notices (see above), reporting that water had been added to the concrete. However our insider is certain that the vast majority of this tampered mix was not rejected and was used in the construction of the dam.

Dangerous negligence that undermines the safety of Bakun

Powerful energy - starting to fill up.

Our investigations have shown that the seriousness of these findings cannot be under-estimated in terms of the long-term and short-term safety of the dam. Our informant confirms that:

“The mix was used for the spillway, the intake point, the plunge pool and the face slab, which are all very critical features of the dam. If these features of the dam give way then the reservoir will break”.

It is a prognosis confirmed by Dr Andy Hughes, who acts as a spokesman for the British Dam Society. Bakun is a concrete faced, rock filled dam. The concrete is laid in slabs with critical joins. He told us:

“The integrity of that slabbing on the upstream face is what keeps the water back. This is a critical element and there have been numerous problems with the cracking of the upstream membranes of these dams, particularly in South America… Personally, I always worry about the design of these things as we are still not sure how to really design them”

Hughes went on to say:

“The spill-way in particular is also very important. It has to have very high strength concrete, because of the high velocity of the water passing through. There are very high forces here”.

High time to investigate !

For years Sinohydro and the construction contractors have refused to take adequate action in response to the official complaints of under-resourced Quality Controllers at Bakun. Now the project is completed, the dam is being filled and the story is out.

This is not the only safety issue related to the construction of the dam. It has already been raised as a matter of concern that Bakun has been constructed in a region comprising several fault lines that could be strained by the added load of the water. Minor tremors have been recently recorded, but these issues have been likewise ignored.

Tens of thousands of people live down river , culminating in the major coastal city of Sibu. To refuse to thoroughly investigate concerns raised by the projects own experts would be a form of negligence of the utmost seriousness.

There has been yet another attack on Sarawak Report today. This time our site was temporarily disabled by a deliberate hacking exercise. We suggest the proper avenue for the authorities is to address this issue and the many other serious matters that we have been trying to raise in recent weeks and not to persist in trying to shut us up instead.

Rare Earth - Greed to cause human sufferings

Anti-Lynas group tells MB to back them in rare earth fight

By Shannon Teoh

April 01, 2011

March 20, 2011 file photo of Kuantan residents signing a petition against the Lynas plant.

KUALA LUMPUR, April 1 — Kuantan residents campaigning against the rare earth refinery being built in their backyard hit back at Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob today, challenging the Pahang mentri besar to lead their fight to halt the construction of the plant.

“We are not against the government but we are wondering if the government is against us,” said Vincent Jiam, chairman of the local residents group that calls itself Save Malaysia, Stop Lynas.

“If he (the Pahang mentri besar) himself wants to lead us in the petition against Lynas, then we will all sign up with him,” he added.

Adnan said yesterday that the state government had given Australian miner Lynas Corp approval to construct the plant after a series of strict screening processes, and gave an assurance that it would not produce radiation once it begins operations in September.

“The proposed construction of the plant was politicised by certain quarters, masterminded by opposition parties,” he said.

Two years after the green light was given to build the plant in the Gebeng industrial zone, rising fears over the potential radiation hazard have forced the Pahang government into holding a series of townhall talks later this month to safeguard the RM700 million project.

The current radiation crisis in Japan after a nuclear power plant was crippled by the recent tsunami has compounded worries that the Lynas plant will be a repeat of Malaysia’s last rare earth project which has been blamed for causing at least eight leukaemia cases, with seven resulting in death.

March 20, 2011 file photo of Fuziah speaking at a forum against the plant in Kuantan.

The plant in Bukit Merah, Perak, operated by Mitsubishi Chemicals from 1985 to 1992, is still carrying out a massive RM300 million clean-up, nearly two decades after being shuttered.

Jiam also accused the mentri besar of dragging politics into the matter when, in fact, the protesters were willing to work with anyone to achieve their target of stopping the project.

“But we know he is not willing to help us stop the plant,” he said.

The group’s communications manager, Jonathan Wong, said both the state and federal governments were not willing to engage the local residents.

“So then who is going to help us? We go to Fuziah Salleh because she is our MP,” he said, referring to the PKR vice-president.

“If anyone wants to politicise the issue, then please play your ball game elsewhere,” Wong added.

Lynas has repeatedly stressed that its rare earths ore is obtained from its mine in Mount Weld, Australia and contains only trace amounts of the radioactive element thorium which, it said, is roughly 50 times less than those found in Bukit Merah.

It expects to receive a preliminary operating licence from the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) before September to begin refining the rare earth metals.

The company hopes the plant will bring in RM8 billion a year from 2013 based on current prices for the refined metals that are crucial to the manufacture of high-technology products such as smartphones, hybrid cars and bombs.

My note: If the rare earth is so safe why not process it in Australia, Why bring it over here???

Sarawak: Dirty tricks of Taib - Apco and Motte.

Taib engages Apco and US cyber-troopers

Mariam Mokhtar

| April 1, 2011

Taib is new to cyber-warfare and would not have a clue where to start. This is where Apco comes in.

COMMENT

Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is having sleepless nights over Sarawak and its Chief Minister Taib Mahmud. Najib cannot decide which is worse – a strong opposition movement galvanised by his arch rival, Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim, or Taib whom he deeply mistrusts.

The effective onslaught on the ground, by Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian has severely dented Taib’s reputation. In addition, Taib faces an unseen enemy, Clare Rewcastle Brown of Sarawak Report and Peter John Jaban of Radio Free Sarawak. The combined effort of Baru, Clare and Peter has finally made Taib enlist outside help.

Meanwhile, Najib knows that Sarawak is his vote bank. He needs BN to win. So with or without Taib, Najib will do all that he can to keep control of Sarawak.

So, in comes Apco to do the dirty for both Taib and Najib.

The Najib administration is reported to be Apco’s single largest client. Najib has told Parliament that Apco’s fees, amounted to RM77 million. Pundits disagree and say that was only for the first year. Apco’s contract has been renewed and its new remuneration runs into hundreds of millions.

It appears that Taib has also enlisted the help of an American radio podcasting website to discredit Clare and her brother in-law the former British premier, Gordon Brown.

Taib is new to cyber-warfare and would not have a clue where to start. This is where Apco comes in handy and it is probably Apco which arranged for the American based news site, with its following on twitter, to tell the world how marvellous Taib is and how he has done much good for Sarawak.

A look at these sites will reveal how nothing is mentioned of the destruction of the rainforest, the endemic poverty, the polluted waterways and the systematic abuse of the indigenous people of Sarawak, by Taib and his cronies.

There is no mention of Taib’s corruption, his billion dollar empire and his land grabbing.

One name that sticks out is that of Rachel Motte. Taib has engaged her to help spread propaganda.

Motte and Ummi

For those who are unaware, Motte has been praising Najib and claimed that he is good for Malaysia because Najib is pro-business, pro-American and is a staunch ally of the Americans, unlike Anwar.

Moreover, according to Motte, Najib is a moderate Muslim and not an extremist.

Motte also claimed that Anwar had “direct connections to terrorist organisations” and described him as an anti-Semite, in an article in the New Ledger blog on April 29, 2010.

But two months later Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin contradicted her, and said of Anwar: “We know for a fact his ties with pro-Zionist groups.”

So between the two of them, they cannot decide if Anwar is for, or against Israel.

Motte is also the person who wrote a derogatory article about former USA ambassador to Malaysia, John Malott and called him a “pet” of Anwar. Her article was picked up by Utusan Malaysia, reproduced and translated into Malay.

When Malott threatened to sue Motte, she quickly retracted her article and it has disappeared from her website.

Motte is someone who when challenged, will run off with her tail between her legs. She is not prepared to stand behind what she says, and not prepared to back her statements with proof.

Motte is the western equivalent of Ummi Hafilda Ali who was recently asked to do BN’s dirty work. Both have one thing in common – to spread lies that favour BN.

UN intervention?

It is ironic that when engaging Motte and the other USA cyber-troopers, Taib knows that he has denied his own Sarawak people, freedom of information and freedom of speech. He is happy to pay people from outside the country to use both these forms of freedom, to glorify his image.

It is ironic too that people like Motte would have been detained indefinitely without trial, under the ISA, had they been in Sarawak or Malaysia, when spreading their stories.

Apco and Motte have chosen to work for dictators based in Malaysia. When the elections are over and if both Taib and Najib refuse to relinquish power, will the United Nations be forced to intervene, just like in the Ivory Coast?

Will Motte be considered a traitor to her own country for supporting an enemy of the state? The USA government is not known to be kind to its own people especially those who support dictators in foreign lands.

Motte will not be let off that easily and may suffer the same fate as the alleged source of the WikiLeaks diplomatic cables, US military analyst Bradley Manning. Manning is being held at a Virginia Marine Base under extreme conditions and faces the death penalty.

Motte has no idea what and who she is dealing with. She may be happy to receive money now to make Taib, Najib and BN look good.

But when things fall apart, that money may not help her but she’ll have all the time in the world to repent at leisure.

Mariam Mokhtar, a petroleum chemist and an environmental pollution-control scientist, is a columnist with FMT.