Among the present spate of disputed incursions into native land areas currently underway in Sarawak, perhaps the most brazen is happening in Belaga, thanks to two companies identified as logging in areas previously already abandoned by Pusaka KTS in the face of native protests.

The operators have failed to put up the requisite signs, say NCR villagers, however the machinery and a licencing approval letter have shown respectively MM Golden (M) Sdn Bhd and UU Green Sdn Bhd to be involved.

The former belongs to none other than Huang Tiong Sii, the GPS member for Sarikei, YB for Repok and present Malaysian Deputy Minister of Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change appointed by the PH government.

That federal role has raised eyebrows amongst civil society and environmental groups, however it is entirely in keeping with the objectives and demands of the GPS party in Sarawak.

Since attaining the role of ‘kingmakers’ by flipping to join the PH after the December 2022 election, the GPS state leadership has pressed to gain every possible advantage, specifically in terms of as much autonomy as possible to control the wealthy resources of the state.

The GPS mantra has been a seemingly patriotic demand for ‘total environmental autonomy’ as its businessmen politicians and cronies have jostled to exploit what is left of timber and mining resources, along with oil & gas reserves and potential hydropower projects.

Part of that agenda has been to take control of the relevant federal environment portfolios and in December last year GPS achieved an enormous part of that goal when the former environment and natural resources department was split in two placing matters such as hydropower under the control of the GPS power monger Fadillah Yusof appointed Minister for Energy Transition and Public Utilities.

At the same time Huang was made deputy to Nik Nazmi, who had been left in charge of the remaining responsibilities under the  Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Ministry.

Fadillah is from a major business clan that obtained wealth thanks to concessions and contracts granted in the context of the family’s close political connections to PBB Sarawak and BN – his father had earlier been imprisoned for his ties to an anti-colonial group (recently identified as secretly backed by Indonesia) which carried out the knife murder of a former British governor.

Huang is himself a timber tycoon, whom Sarawak Report exposed back in 2016 for having extensive controversial logging interests in Papua New Guinea:

“PNGi has identified twenty-six registered companies which  are either wholly or partly owned by Tiong Sii Huang, the owner of The Golden Medallion hotel. The companies include nine logging companies. According to data collected by Swiss company SGS, over their lifetimes those nine logging companies have exported more than 8.5 million cubic metres of logs, valued at US$850 million. The logs were harvested from 27 different logging concessions spread across eight Provinces.  [PNG Investigates]”

Huang Tiong Siri’s Logging In Sarawak

Huang’s company MM Golden (M) Sdn Bhd has also been at the heart of clashes with native groups in Baram where land owners from Long Keseh and Long Na’ah issued police reports in 2016 at the height of the anti-dam protests complaining of illegal logging.

Despite this history, the then chief minister, Adenan Satem, controversially appointed Huang as a so-called direct candidate for the 2016 state election – one of no less than six timber tycoons who were selected in this capacity by a chief minister who had earlier promised “no more logging”.

Adenan was doubtless anxious for financial backing to reverse the troubling decline of his coalition’s share of the vote in the previous 2011 state election, and what better way than to give seats to timber tycoons anxious to reverse his pledges to protect Sarawak’s remaining forests?

[Indeed, those who argue that Sarawak’s ruling party is a classic manifestation of state capture by corporate interests need look no further than the likes of Huang, Fadillah and the GPS network of timber and plantation cronies to make their case.]

Anwar’s No Conflicts Rule

The issue has presented problems for the new prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, elected on a reforming ticket.  One of his demands for ministers assuming office had been that they should divest themselves of business roles involving conflicts of interest.

On Huang’s appointment last December Malaysian environmental groups immediately pointed to his business record as a logging menace and asked why such a character should be put in charge of the environment?

Huang responded by ostentatiously resigning his role as a director of MM Golden (M). “I have followed the law, what people say is their issue. We do not want to hide, because it will only cause problems later,” he told Malaysiakini.

However, as any search of company records makes clear, Huang’s daughter remains, as of the time of publication, a director of the firm and she is the only other shareholder besides her Dad who still controls a whopping 995,000 out of the one million shares (95%).

Ministerial Conflict of Interest?

The status of the company raises questions now that once again MM Golden (M) is at the centre of community protests over what they say is unauthorised logging on their lands.

Speaking on terms of anonymity one resident told Sarawak Report that the companies turned up in their NCR (Native Customary Rights) land area around the villages of Uma Kenyah Long Bangan and Uma Sambop Long Semutut on the Belaga river, about a year ago.

First there were teams of surveyors who started evaluating the land but who acted in a secretive fashion and refused to answer questions from the local people about why they were there and what they were planning to do.

At a meeting last July, they did however provide a document purporting to show they had been authorised by MM Golden  (M) Sdn Bhd, described as a “logging contractor” in an officially stamped government form that was not signed by the licencee.  That permit is now time expired.

The involvement of MM Golden (M) was borne out by the labelling of the machinery that has been used by the workers to start clearing the land in the face of the local’s protests and police reports.

The village head was also provided with a map, say residents, to represent the concession obtained by the licensee which represents the exact same concession that had been earlier abandoned by Pusaka KTS in the face of long-running protests against their earlier attempt to log out the native land rights area.

Were these new companies confident of having even more power and clout to ignore the angry local people and their rights than the powerful KTS logging dynasty that locals had driven out?

It would seem so. The final document offered up by the company men was an apparent licensing approval letter made out to a completely different company that is apparently the official provisional concession holder which has hired the Deputy Environment Minister’s private company to carry out the work.

This company is UU Green Sdn Bhd, registered in 2021 and owned by two Sarawak based shareholders.

The document, signed in May, indicates that as of that date permission had yet to be granted pending further requirements, even though machinery and logging activity has now begun.

Of even greater concern to locals and campaigners is that, according to the document, a so-called Letter of Approval from the Regional Forest Officer of Bintulu, the licence apparently has received an extraordinary exemption.

Lines have simply been crossed through the standard requirement that all logging concessions should conduct an EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment).  Could this be because they have simply taken over the concession dropped by Pusaka KTS?

If the Department claims an EIA has already been completed, the native community are asking why they were never consulted and have never seen it?

Clearly, none of the basic certification requirements involving consultation and compensation to native people have been fulfilled.

These requirements are mandatory in Malaysia which has signed up to the UN’s UNDRIP declaration on indigenous rights, so why have they been ignored and the EIA apparently hidden or set aside by the Forestry Department for this logging operation?

Given the sensitivities of a logging operation that is being carried out by the Deputy Minister of the Environment himself there is surely a requirement for the most stringent adherence to due process, transparency and consultation, instead there is an appearance of secretiveness, the cutting of corners and even special exemptions.

This quite apart from the total lack of provision in Sarawak for any form of legal aid to assist native communities in standing up for their land rights against wealthy marauding timber companies with powerful government ties and indeed ministerial positions.

The owners and directors of the provisional licence holder, UU Green Sdn Bhd, are based in Sarawak:

 

The company has two shareholders and 20,000 shares and is cited as a building contractor, renter of production space and also “carrying out part of the forestry operation on a fee or contract basis for logging service activities”

Sarawak Report has requested an explanation from the Deputy Minister through his departmental bosses about this arrangement between his own company and what appears to be a company that has received privileged access to a native owned forest.

We have asked what are the terms under which UU Green has obtained the Pusaka KTS discarded licence and contracted to work for MM Golden (M) or visa versa?

Meanwhile, the people of Belaga are rightly concerned that the involvement of the minister’s own company in the unannounced logging on their lands puts untoward influence over the decision making of the departments responsible for issuing and monitoring such licences and ensuring correct approvals have taken place.

A residents’ spokesman has told Sarawak Report that the villagers consider there to be a conflict of interest whether or not the Deputy Minister has formally ceased to be a director of the company he 95% owns.

“It’s very strange because our prime minister asked all his ministers to resign from any companies they are in. It came up in the paper that he [Huang] had said he had resigned from all his directorships of the companies he owned.  To me, basically, he is cheating on the country and the prime minister; and he is also the minister of the environment isn’t he?”

Says the spokesman, who does not wish to be identified.

Sarawak Report has not immediately received an explanation or response from the Environment Ministry and will publish one if we do.  However, the dispute ought to give pause for thought as Sarawak’s GPS leadership pressures for more and more autonomy over the environment.

There is a need for checks and balances and a role for federal oversight that is not conflicted.

The naked self-interest of the businessmen who control the state government – and now much of the federal government’s oversight of resource management as well – should not be allowed to cast aside the rights and welfare of the people of Sarawak and their valuable natural heritage.