‘KEMAJUAN DAN PEMBANGUNAN’ KEMANAKAH WANG ITU PERGI?
Thursday, February 17th, 2011 GMT This post is also available in: English, - Petikan Dari Sarawak Report

Ketika Ketua Menteri Sarawak, Taib Mahmud dan kroni-kroni pembalakannya memanipulasi tanah-tanah NCR milik masyarakat rumah panjang dan kampung, mereka juga menaburkan janji-janji yang sama. Mereka menjanjikan ‘kemajuan dan pembangunan’. Kebanyakan orang tempatan tidak mendapat apa-apa dari pokok-pokok yang ditebang dan juga dari tanah-tanah NCR yang telah diasingkan dari kawasan yang telah dibuka oleh nenek-moyang mereka. Bagi mereka yang menerima pampasan beberapa ringgit, mereka hanya boleh membeli beras sekilo-dua sahaja. Namun, mereka diberitahu bahawa Taib akan memperbaiki hidup mereka dengan memberikan segala kemudahan yang harus ada di zaman moden ini seperti bekalan air bersih, bekalan elektrik 24-jam, jalan-jalan raya yang baik dan berturap, sekolah yang kondusif untuk anak-anak mereka, hospital dan klinik yang dikendalikan oleh para pakar, peluang-peluang yang luas untuk melanjutkan pengajian dan juga peluang untuk mendapatkan pekerjaan.

Namun, setelah 30 tahun, apakah yang dapat kita lihat dan nikmati? Apa yang kita tahu adalah Taib dan rakan-rakan penyangak pembalakannya telah menebang sebanyak satu setengah juta hektar hutan kayu keras tropika bernilai berbilion-bilion dollar US di Sarawak. Mahkamah-mahkamah di Malaysia pula sedang membantu orang-orang tempatan ini mendapat kembali tanah-tanah NCR mereka. Tetapi orang-orang tempatan ini masih hidup serba kekurangan dan daif. Orang-orang tempatan ini tiada lagi hutan untuk membekalkan buah-buahan, makanan dan haiwan-haiwan buruan untuk membolehkan mereka menjalani hidup berterusan, dan sungai-sungai mereka yang jernih dan indah pula telah dirosakkan dan dicemari. Ikan-ikan sungai banyak yang mati dan hampir pupus, dan air sungai pula tidak lagi selamat untuk diminum dan memasak makanan ataupun kerja-kerja mencuci dan pembersihan. Pengangkutan melalui sungai tidak lagi selamat kerana dipenuhi oleh rumpair yang hidup subur oleh baja-baja dari kawasan-kawasan perladangan. Sementara itu, pendatang-pendatang dari negera-negara jiran pula dibawa masuk untuk bekerja di ladang-ladang kerana sanggup diupah dengan murah, mana kala kaum lelaki orang-orang tempatan yang tidak berpeluang bekerja hanya duduk sepanjang hari dan ramai yang terlibat dalam kegiatan pengambilan alcohol yang tidak terkawal, yang mudah didapati dari kedai-kedai dengan tiada sekatan undang-undang kerajaan pimpinan Taib Mahmud.

Sarawak merupakan negeri yang terkaya di Malaysia dengan bilangan penduduknya yang kecil, dan penduduknya juga adalah di antara yang termiskin di negara yang telah merdeka selama lebih 40 tahun. 30 tahun dipimpin oleh Taib, Sarawak masih lagi tidak mempunyai akses jalan yang baik, tiada bekalan air bersih, tiada bekalan elektrik 24 jam untuk semua penghuni rumah panjang dan perkampungan. Anak-anak mereka yang baru berusia 7 tahun dipaksa berdikari dengan menghuni asrama di sekolah-sekolah yang berada jauh dari kediaman mereka – ada di antara kanak-kanak itu diperkosa oleh para pembalak dalam perjalanan mereka ke sekolah. Kemudahan kesihatan dan perubatan di negeri Sarawak juga sukar diperolehi atau dikunjungi oleh rakyatnya, seperti yang telah kami dedahkan dahulu. Kadar kematian di kalangan kaum ibu semasa bersalin adalah 3 kali ganda dari kalangan ibu-ibu di negeri-negeri lain di Malaysia, dan 10 kali ganda berbanding dengan di UK dan Australia. Ke manakah pergi semua wang itu? Siapakah sebenarnya yang menikmati kemajuan dan pembangunan? Ketika Taib Mahmud akan meraikan ulangtahun ke-30 sebagai Ketua Menteri, kami mengambil keputusan untuk menerbitkan beberapa gambar dan imej yang telah dihantar oleh pembaca-pembaca setia kepada Sarawak Report. Taib bersaudara terdiri dari 10 orang , dan beliau mempunyai 4 orang anak dan ramai lagi ahli keluarga yang lainnya yang turut mendiami rumah-rumah mewah seperti beliau.
Keluarga-keluarga para kroni politik dan perniagaannya pula, di mana gambar-gambar rumah mewah mereka juga kami terbitkan di sini, adalah golongan individu yang paling bertuah yang telah menerima dan menikmati hidup hasil dari pemberian tanah-tanah NCR yang diasingkan dari NCR orang-orang asal, oleh Taib Mahmud sebagai ketua Menteri, juga selaku Menteri Sumber dan Perancangan, juga selaku Pengerusi Perbadanan Pembangunan Industri Perkayuan Sarawak (STIDC), juga selaku Pengerusi LCDA, dan jawatan-jawatan utama yang lain yang memberikan beliau segala kuasa ke atas Kerajaan Sarawak dan sumber-sumber asli negeri ini.

‘Progress and Development’ Where Did The Money Go?
Thursday, February 17th, 2011 GMT -
Next Taib's house and second house House of someone who missed out on 'wealth and development' Daughter Jamilah's Kuching House House of another 'shirker'? Taib brother Ali Mahmud's house - DUN Assemblyman for Muara Tuang No palm oil concessions for these natives clearly! Narodeen Majais, Assistant Minister in Chief Minister's Department's house. A recipient of thousands of hectares of alienated lands Less grand.... YB Hamden's house - Sarawak Plantations Manager, Assemblyman Belawi No eagles to guard the gates? Taib's brother Tufail Mahmud's house, 27 bedrooms..... One room... Taib's sister Zainab's beach house... as opposed to her town house Poor person house, no gates YB Daud's house - Assemblyman for Tupong, Kuching A bit broken down - do we detect some broken promises as well from Taib's BN government? Sister Raziah's beach house... as opposed to town house .. or luxury jungle resort hotel.. Daughter Hanifah's beach house... as opposed to her other town house... Ordinary Sarawakian house Through the key hole - Hanifah's informal style appropriate for a beach house... Zainab's walled compound to keep out hungry or curious outsiders Deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu's Kuching house - the older wing - has been the recipient of numerous native lands Jabu's Kuching house - from the new side! A poor person's house - the east and west wings are included in same photo... Taib brother Ibrahim Mahmud house - fruits of a career as a policeman? Poor person's house... Sister Raziah - another house.... daughter in foreground Collapsed poor house..... Taib brother Arip Mahmud's family house Taib's house with optional water transport Chris Chung, business partner with Taib's son Mahmud Taib (beneficiary of native lands) and his two brothers' houses - three mansions in a row New top Taib favourite Awang Tengah is starting to build his house. He is 2nd Minister for Resource Planning Perhaps this person is not related to Taib Mahmud? Or maybe they are not a crony who is in Parliament and received native lands? Taib's garden accomodation - separate from main house... Brother in law, State Secretary Aziz Hussein and Taib sister Fredeham's house Unimportant person's house. No one related to the Chief Minister. Deputy Chief Minister, George Chan's house... golf course next door! Asfia's house - he is the Speaker of the DUN State Parliament This post is also available in: Iban, Malay

When Sarawak’s Chief Minister, Taib Mahmud and his logging cronies strong-arm the longhouse communities out of their Native Customary Lands they always promise the same thing. They promise the people ‘progress and development’. Most of the local people have received nothing for their valuable wood and lands. Those who did get some compensation received just a few ringgit to buy some rice. However, in return they were told that Taib would transform their lives and bring them into the modern world with roads and running water and electricity, schools, hospitals, further education and jobs as well, so they could afford modern lifestyles. However, 30 years on, what do we see? We all know that Taib and the logging gangs have cut down one and a half million square kilometers of valuable hardwood jungle worth billions and billions of US dollars in Sarawak. Malaysia’s courts have ruled time and again that these were rightfully the Native Customary Rights territories of the local communities. Yet these people are now poorer than ever. They no longer have their forests with fruits and animals to sustain them and their wonderful rivers have been destroyed. The fish have died and the water is polluted and unsafe to drink or wash in. River transport has been made dangerous by clogging weeds, which have grown because of the fertiliser from the oil palm plantations. The waters are brown with the earth that is being washed away now that the trees have gone. Meanwhile, it is immigrants who have been brought in to work on the plantations, while the local men get drunk on the virtually free rice wine that has been promoted by Taib. Sarawak is Malaysia’s richest state with a tiny population, yet it has some of the country’s poorest people. 30 years on there are still no proper roads, no running water, no electricity for so many of the longhouse communities. Their children have to be sent away aged 7 to boarding schools because there are no local teachers – many as we know have been raped on their journeys by loggers. There are scarcely no medical facilities for these communities where, as we have exposed, the deathrates among women in childbirth are 3 times as high as the rest of Malaysia and 10 times as high as in the UK or Australia.

So where did all that money go? Who has enjoyed all that progress and development? As Taib Mahmud looks forward next month to the 30th anniversary of his position as Chief Minister, we have decided to publish some of the pictures which have been sent in by readers to Sarawak Report. Taib of course has 10 siblings and 4 children and numerous family members, who all like to live in the same grand style as the small selection of homes that we have featured in this photo-gallery. All the fortunate wealthy family members and political and business cronies, whose homes we have featured, have been the recipients of generous handouts of ‘alienated’ Native Customary Rights Lands or State Lands, by Taib Mahmud personally in his joint multiple capacities as Chief Minister, Minister for Resources and Planning, Chairman of the Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation, Chairman of the Land Custody and Development Authority and all the numerous other key positions that give him total control over Sarawak’s government and resources.

PS: Kemana perginya wang peruntukan pembangunan yang bernilai berbilion-bilion ringgit untuk rakyat? Adakah wang tersebut digunakan hanya untuk projek rakyat atau digunakan oleh kroni-kroni BN? Pemimpin BN kena jawab persoalan tersebut. Jadi sebagai rakyat kita berhak mengetahui kemana perginya peruntukan untuk rakyat tersebut. Untuk mengetahui kita perlu pakat-pakat menyokong dan menumbangkan kerajaan BN yang korup dan telah menyalahgunakan wang rakyat. Bah sokonglah PAS dan PAKATAN Rakyat demi kesejahteraan rakyat. InsyAllah pasti ada perubahan.