Five years after Sarawak Report first exposed Taib Mahmud’s questionable links with Adelaide University, the university’s Vice-Chancellor has recognised that there are problems with association with Sarawak’s ruling elite. Australian and International campaigners in solidarity with the indigenous people of Sarawak are calling for swift action from the University and Australian and Tasmanian Governments. In […]

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad Miri, Malaysia 22nd January 2015 Re: small-scale energy Dear Tun, With great interest we have learnt that you will give a keynote speech at the International Energy Week in Kuching upcoming this 27 to 29 January. We would like to use this occasion to call your attention to the findings of

(LONDON, UK / SEATTLE, USA) Mishcon de Reya, a British lawfirm acting on behalf of Sarawak Governor Abdul Taib Mahmud („Taib“), has confirmed that „members of Abdul Taib Mahmud’s family“ secretly acquired a 9,000 square foot mansion from the son of one of Sarawak’s wealthiest timber tycoons, Samling founder Yaw Teck Seng. The mansion appraised

The unprecedented onslaught of rain brought widespread devastation, catching everyone off guard. Not forsaken were the Orang Asli who, already making up for disproportionately high incidences of hardcore poverty in Malaysia, were severely effected as flood water ravaged their subsistence farm plots and cash crops. “Our members were sending Whatsapp photos of their roads cut

MIRI – Baram villagers are appalled by the government’s acquisition of their 38,322 hectares (or more) of their Native Customary Rights land (NCR) for the Baram Hydroelectric dam development of reservoir site. Notification of the gazette dated the 22nd December 2014 was published in Borneo Post on the 8th of January 2015.    Based on the gazette notification,

(London, UK) Abdul Taib Mahmud, the former Chief Minister and current Governor of the Malaysian state of Sarawak, has been challenged to explain his wealth at a public debate in London on Friday 16 January 2015. “We invite your client to publicly explain how he acquired his wealth on the occasion of the UK launch

Date: 10.12.14 Dato Sri Mohammed Najib bin Abdul Razak Office of the Prime Minister Main Block, Perdana Putra Building Federal Government Administrative Centre 62502 Putrajaya, Malaysia Via facsimile: 60-3-8888-3444 Via E-mail: [email protected] YAB Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Haji Adenan Bin Haji Satem Chief Minister of Sarawak Dear YAB, Re: Respect The Affected Natives and Peoples

Miri: There is a resounding response from the people of Baram to the comment by Penghulu Paul Kalang published in the Utusan Borneo in its Saturday 29th November issue. Besides those who are actually residing in Baram, the dissenting comments are from Baram people who are working in various places in Malaysia and elsewhere. In the article, the

KUCHING, Sarawak, Malaysia – Regional advocacy group PAN Asia Pacific (PANAP) held a forum on the state of indigenous people’s rights with the European Union (EU) Delegation to Malaysia at the Hilton hotel in Kuching, State of Sarawak last 26 November. The forum was also co-organized by PANAP partner Sarawak Dayak Iban Association (SADIA). Fifteen

(SEATTLE, USA) Amazon, the American online retailer, is being criticized for withholding deliveries of a book on Taib Mahmud, the governor of the Malaysian state of Sarawak. Amazon customers from the United Kingdom have complained with the Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) that they cannot order the book “Money Logging: On the Trail of the Asian

Media Contacts: Sze Ning, Jaringan Orang Asal SeMalaysia | Tel: 60-12-606-1592 | Email: [email protected] Serene Lim, SUARAM | Tel: 60-12-547-7989 | Email: [email protected] Kuala Lumpur – To mark the International Women Human Rights Defenders’ Day on the 29th of November, women members of the national indigenous peoples’ organization, Jaringan Orang Asli SeMalaysia (JOAS), announced the

MIRI – Save Sarawak Rivers Network (SAVE Rivers) is disappointed with Penghulu Paul Kalang, the Community Chief of the Kenyah in Telang Usan, Baram for making sweeping and irresponsible statements in an article in the Borneo Post today, with regards to the proposed Baram HEP Dam project and abusing the Sarawak National Kenyah Association (PKKS)

25 November 2014 (KUCHING, MALAYSIA) Last week, Adenan Satem, the new Chief Minister of the Malaysian state of Sarawak in Borneo, stunned the world by summoning six of the world’s most powerful timber tycoons – the heads of Rimbunan Hijau, Samling, Shin Yang, WTK, KTS and Ta Ann – and by compelling them to sign

  21 November 2014 SUARAM condemns the arbitrary declaration of the Sarawak Association for People’s Aspiration (SAPA) as an illegal organization and demands that the Home Minister immediately and publicly reverse the decision. We further call for an end of the systematic and politicized intimidation and harassment of peaceful civil society organizations and movements in

By SUARAM, Save Rivers, Jaringan Orang Asal Se-Malaysia, Asia Indigenous People’s Pact and Bruno Manser Funds. Kuala Lumpur – As the International New York Times’ Energy for Tomorrow Conference gets underway at the Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur, human rights and environmental groups will be outside raising concerns about the ethics of the meeting’s main corporate

Miri: In solidarity with the blockade which is on-going in Baram, a demonstration and handing over of memorandum to the Miri Division Forestry Department and the Miri Division Police Department was led by the Gerakan Anak Sarawak (GASAK) or Sarawak People Movement in the city today. Meanwhile villagers against the Baram dam reinstated the barricade

Following strong calls by this blog and local/international NGOs for an end to corrupt dams in the state, the government has now been urged to seriously reconsider building 12 more dams in Sarawak by Opposition leader Baru Bian. “It appears that the government is determined to build dams and invite foreign investors to establish industries here by offering

12 November 2014  Explosive documents released on the occasion of the Canada book launch of Lukas Straumann’s Money Logging: On the Trail of the Asian Timber Mafia – Royal Canadian Mounted Police criticized for their inaction over Taib family assets in Canada (OTTAWA, CANADA). A major real estate development in the Canadian capital, Ottawa, has been secretly

Long Kesseh Baram: The tussle between the villagers opposing the Baram dam and the illegal loggers who are supported by the Sarawak Forestry Corporation is heating up. Under the watchful eyes of the police from the General Operation Forces (GOF) and officers from the Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC), the villagers, again, removed a road barrier which

The Malaysian government is currently stepping up its efforts to stop a critical book on Sarawak governor Abdul Taib Mahmud. Earlier this week, the Malaysian delegation at the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) managed to ban a book presentation by the Bruno Manser Fund at the ITTO’s 50th session in Yokohama, Japan. According to information

4 Nov. 2014 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contacts: Peter Kallang, Chair, SAVE Rivers | Tel:  60-13-8331104| Email: [email protected] Sze Ning, Jaringan Orang Asal SeMalaysia | Tel:  60-12-606-1592 | Email: [email protected] Serene Lim, SUARAM | Tel:  60-12-547-7989 | Email: [email protected] Tanya Lee, International Rivers| Tel:  60-19-438-0539 |E-mail: [email protected] Kuala Lumpur – Malaysian and international human rights organizations are uniting to publicly denounce the actions

3 November 2014  MIRI – 13 members of the Sarawak People’s Movement or Gerakan Anak Sarawak (GASAK) lodge separate reports to the police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on the alleged corruption and abuse of power of the current Sarawak Governor Abdul Taib Mahmud during his tenure as Sarawak’s Chief Minister and Minister for

(YOKOHAMA, JAPAN). Malaysia’s delegation to the International Tropical Timber Organisation, ITTO, has orders „from the highest levels of government in Kuala Lumpur“ to stop the presentation of a book by Lukas Straumann, the executive director of the Bruno Manser Fund. This was confirmed tonight to the Bruno Manser Fund, a Swiss NGO, by Rob Busink,

BMF director Lukas Straumann’s new book on corruption in the Malaysian state of Sarawak was warmly received and widely covered by the press on the occasion of a surprise meeting in Kuching on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Sarawak Governor Abdul Taib Mahmud has instructed his London lawyer, Mishcon de Reya, to stop the international launch of Money

30 October 2014 MIRI – Save Sarawak Rivers Network (SAVE Rivers) view the actions of the Sarawak Forestry Corporation enforcement officers (SAPU) together with the police to collude with a company doing illegal logging to dismantle the blockade at KM15 Long Kesseh, Baram as plain disgraceful. What is more shocking is that the one of