Too Old and Forgetful? – Taib Forgets his Own Businesses!
By Sarawak Report
Taib Mahmud has been forced onto the defensive throughout the first first week of his election campaign, as he has fought to shake off allegations of land grabs, corruption, nepotism and the siphoning out Sarawak’s wealth into foreign banks, businesses and property companies.
His advisers had insisted that he face up and address these issues to restore his credibility with outraged voters. A strategy was devised with a series of staged video interviews answering pre-prepared questions by friendly reporters (including one hired by a foreign PR company). The edited answers were then put onto Taib’s flock of new websites in an attempt to win back ground in the ‘cyber-war’
Better to have kept silent?
However, the old boy is clearly uncomfortable in the unfamiliar role of answering ‘tough’ questions on subjects he would far rather ignore like deforestation, his own wealth and the problems of native land owners – and the result has been a series of calamitous mistakes!
In the latest clanger Taib once again tried to put to rest allegations that his children and family have benefited from his money and political patronage. However, his extraordinary excuses raised suspicions of impending senility and forgetfulness:
“My children are well-educated, they have gone to do business outside. I had to do business outside more than 30 years ago. Simple reason is I don’t want conflict of interest to haunt me all the time. [if] I do business inside the country, people will say I use my influence to enrich myself, so we did it outside the country”
What the old man seems to have forgotten, but the rest of Sarawak will definitely have not, is that his family and in particular his own children, DO own huge amounts of business in Sarawak. What’s more, most of that business was ‘privatised’ from the State of Sarawak into the hands of those family concerns by Taib himself and these businesses mainly benefit from the huge government contracts Taib makes sure always come the way of his family businesses!
Starting with CMS and moving on to Titanium Management!
