Abdul Taib Mahmud

Yang Amat Berhormat Pehin Sri  Abdul Taib Mahmud
Abdul Taib Mahmud in 2005
Chief Minister of Sarawak
Incumbent
Assumed office  26 March 1981
Governor	Abang Muhammad Salahuddin
Deputy	George Chan Hong Nam Alfred Jabu Numpang
Preceded by	Abdul Rahman Ya'kub
Member of the Malaysian Parliament for Kota Samarahan
In office 1970 – 2008
Succeeded by	Sulaiman Abdul Rahman Taib
Member of the Sarawak state Assembly for Balingian
Incumbent
Assumed office  2001
Born	21 May 1936 (age 73) Miri, Sarawak
Political party	Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) part of Barisan Nasional
Spouse(s)	Laila Taib (Deceased)
Children	Jamilah Hamidah Taib Mahmud Abu Bekir Taib Sulaiman Abdul Rahman Taib Hanifah Hajar Taib
Occupation	State assemblyman
Religion	Islam
Website	http://www.cm.sarawak.gov.my/

Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib bin Mahmud (born 21 May 1936 in Miri, Sarawak) is the fourth and current Chief Minister of Sarawak. He is also the state Planning and Resource Management Minister. Taib is President of the Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), which is part of the Barisan Nasional coalition. He is of ethnic Melanau descent.

Taib is informally known as Pak Uban, which translates into "white-haired uncle". Among Chinese speaking communities he is known as Bai Mao (白毛) which means "white hair". Another informal name for him, in reference to the British Brooke family that ruled Sarawak as White Rajahs in the 19th and early 20th century, is "last white rajah" or "white-haired rajah".^[1] Holding the post of the Chief Minister of Sarawak since 1981, he is the longest serving Chief Minister in Malaysia.

Family

On 29 April 2009, Taib's late wife Laila died of cancer. She was buried at the Demak Jaya cemetery in Kuching the following day.^[2]

On 3 June 2009, Taib's four-year-old granddaughter, Celestia Lulua Mahmud Abu Bekir, died two days after slipping into the swimming pool at her home at Duta Nusantara Condominium in Kuala Lumpur. Celestia was admitted to the intensive care unit of the Kuala Lumpur Hospital when she lost consciousness after the accident. The girl was buried at the Bukit Kiara Muslim Cemetery.^[3]

Personal life and education

Abdul Rahman Ya'kub raised Taib even when he was a boy.^[4] Taib undertook his early schooling at the St. Joseph's Primary school in Miri and St. Joseph's Secondary school in Kuching. The decison for taking up law was made after his uncle, Rahman Ya'kub persuaded him to do so.^[5] Due to his excellent performance in Senior Cambridge Examination, he was awarded the Shell scholarship to further his studies in University of Adelaide in 1958 before receiving a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Adelaide in South Australia in 1960.

Early political career

On returning to Sarawak, Taib worked in the Crown Council from 1962 to 1963. Then, he joined the State Legislative Council of Sarawak on 22 July 1963, where he was appointed as state minister for Communication and Works from 1963 to 1966 and as Minister of Development and Forestry in 1967. He represented Parti Bumiputera Sarawak (BUMIPUTERA), which was a component party of Sarawak Alliance, in Malaysian general election, 1969. During the resumption of parliamentary election for Sarawak in 1970, he was elected as the member of Malaysian parliament for Samarahan seat. He was later appointed to numerous portfolios including Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (1970-1972) and Natural Resources Minister (1972-1974), before succeeding his uncle, Abdul Rahman Ya'kub, as the Chief Minister of Sarawak.^[6] Rahman Ya'kub was Taib's political mentor for 20 years.^[4]

Tenure in office as chief minister

After winning the Sebandi (now Asajaya) by-election in 1981, he was appointed as Sarawak's Land and Mines Minister before becoming the fourth chief minister of Sarawak. He defended the Sebandi seat until 1987 before elected as state assemblyman in Asajaya constituency. In 2001 state election, he decided to contest in Balingian.

The Ming Court Affair in 1987

The dissatisfaction of Taib leadership was started in early 1985 when a group of politicians claimed that the interests of Bumiputeras were neglected. This was due to the close relationship between Taib and SUPP. It was alleged that many big projects, timber concession areas and large tracts of land were given to the Chinese and SUPP. Therefore, Tun Abdul Rahman Ya'kub, the former governer of Sarawak, who is also Taib's uncle, headed a group of disappointed Sarawak politicians from SNAP and PBDS to gather in Ming Court Hotel in Kuala Lumpur in order to move a motion of no confidence against Taib's leadership by signing letters collectively. Tajem, a former deputy chief minister, Moggie, and Rahman Ya'kub were the main plotters of this affair. Seeing such a political crisis, Taib immediately called for a snap election which he narrowly won.^[7] His coalition won 28 out of 48 seats in the state assembly and later received another 8 defected assemblymen from PBDS, decreasing the original seats for PBDS from 15 to 7.^[4][8] PBDS remained in the opposition until it was readmitted into Sarawak BN in 1994. The internal bickering of SNAP and PBDS has benefited the ruling of Taib in the years to come.^[7]

The progress and development of Sarawak under his leadership

Since 1981, the GDP(Gross Domestic Product) has grown from RM 6.5 billion to RM 19.7 billion in 1995 and increased further to an estimated of RM 29.9 billion in 1999. In 1995, 31.9% of the population was living in poverty and 10% in hard-core poverty. By 1997, the incidence of poverty was down to 7.5% and hard-core poverty went down to 0.7%. In 1980, only 31.8% of people of Sarawak had water supply, but in 1995, the figure has reached 85% of the population. He also brings political stability to Sarawak by leading Sarawak BN to large majority in each state election.^[6] He also hindered the entry of UMNO into Sarawak. The entry of UMNO into Sabah since 1991 has caused much dissent among the local politicians and people as they claimed that their rights and interests are eroded.^[9]

2030 vision for Sarawak

During his celebration of 28^th anniversary as Sarawak chief minister on 26 March 2009 at Dewan Suarah Bintulu, Taib envisioned Sarawak as the richest state in Malaysia by the year 2030 while delivering his speech. In the future, there will be enough high-skilled workers helping to develop the state for the betterment of economic administration. The Sarawak will become the land of opportunities for the people who seek greener pastures. The second wave of economic development will be started as soon as possible.

Some of the steps proposed include the settings up of more higher learning institutions in order to diversify the future economy of Sarawak. This is to ensure that the younger generation will be able to exploit the depleting natural resources more efficiently. He also mentioned the need of synergy, cooperation and teamwork spirit between leaders and understandings of Sarawak people in order to facilitate the planning and implementation outlined by the state government for the benefits of the people.

Sarawak Cabinet reshuffle

Taib announced his cabinet reshuffle on 8 November 2009 which saw changed portfolios for some ministries while six new faces were appointed as assistant ministers. Five out of the six new appointees were sworn in on 21 November 2009 before the state governor, Tun Datuk Patinggi Abang Muhamad Salahuddin in the state assembly. The remaining assistant minister, Abdul Wahab Aziz, was on a pilgrimage.^[10] The new cabinet line-up took effect on 1 December 2009 ^[10][11]

Taib, who retained the Finance, and Planning and Resource Management Minister portfolios, said the reorganisation was meant to prepare Sarawak for new development policies and approaches that could take place some time in the 10^th Malaysia Plan (10MP) or after the next state election. He also said that with the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) coming up, he would reform Syarikat Sesco Berhad (SESCO) in the next one or two years.^[11]

Alleged Corruption

Accusations of deep corruption and nepotism have surrounded Taib on several occasions and the dominance of Sarawak's political elite including Taib's family in the logging industry is well documented.^[12] In 2007, it was reported that nine Japanese shipping companies, which transported timber from Sarawak, had allegedly failed to report some 1.1 billion yen in income over a period of up to seven years. The report claimed the money was paid as kickbacks to Sarawak officials via a Hong Kong agent linked to Taib's family.^[13] Taib, however, denied totally the above allegations by presenting a 10-page clarification in the state assembly. He said that he have no knowledge about the bribes given to Sarawak officials and the evade of the income from timber production.^[14]

The results of the logging industry under Taib is that less than 10% of Sarawak's primary forests remain, logging many of the ancestral lands of many of Sarawak's indigenous communities, despite their continued petitions and road blockades, where forceful dismantling has led to several deaths and regular violent coercion by the Malaysian army, police and logging industry enforcers.^[15][16]

The excessive logging in Sarawak and Sarawak’s forest policies has gained international attention and criticism since 1987 where various foreign governments and international organisations protested against the dramatic rise in timber production from Sarawak.^[4] In 1988 and 1989, European Community banned the hardwood imports from Sarawak. Other countries such as Germany, Netherlands, and Austria also restricted the import of tropical hardwoods. In 1989, a staff mission was sent to Sarawak by U.S. House of Representatives and a report was published which criticize the state logging policies and the treatment of natives in Sarawak. However, Primary Industries Minister, Dr. Lim Keng Yaik, warned the Austrian government in 1992 that Malaysian government could also do the same for the chocolate products from Austria for environmental reasons.^[4] The involvement of Taib's family in logging industry is specifically mentioned in a report published by Forest Monitor.^[17] In 2009, the 2008 annual auditor-general's report labelled the forest management in Sarawak by state government as unsatisfactory. However, Sarawak's Second Minister of Planning and Resource Management, Awang Tengah Ali Hassan questioned the validity of the report as he claimed that the auditor-general's department did not have the expertise in forest management.^[18]

Taib's son, Dato Sri Mahmud Abu Bekir Taib, was appointed as Group Executive Director of Cahya Mata Sarawak Berhad (CMSB) on 23 January 1995. He is currently the Deputy Group Chairman of CMSB.^[19] Abu Bekir Taib's siblings, Datuk Seri Sulaiman Abdul Rahman Taib, Jamilah Hamidah Taib, Hanifah Hajar Taib and his late mother Laila Taib are substantial shareholders in the company.^[20] Sulaiman Abdul Rahman Taib joined the board of CMSB when his brother Abu Bekir Taib, first became the Group Excecutive Director of CMSB. Sulaiman Abdul Rahman Taib was the Group Chairman of CMSB from May 2002 until June 2006 and the former Non-Excecutive Director of CMSB.^[21]

In the 2008 general election, Taib's son Datuk Seri Sulaiman Abdul Rahman Taib won the Kota Samarahan seat in the Malaysian parliament previously held by his father^[22] and became Deputy Tourism Minister in the new cabinet.^[23] Prior to this, he did not have any political experience.

Taib's sister Roziah Mahmud is one of the most powerful businesswomen in Sarawak with extensive holdings in property and timber business.^{[citation needed]}

Taib's brother-in-law, Tan Sri Datuk Amar Haji Abdul Aziz Bin Dato Haji Husain, was appointed state secretary by Mahmud in 2000 and when he retired in 2006, he was appointed as the group managing director of Sarawak Energy Berhad since 2007.^[24] He also holds directorships for Eksons Corporation Berhad, Mlabs Systems Berhad, Syarikat SESCO Berhad and other companies.^[25]

The domination of Taib's family on the economy of Sarawak is well-reported in an Australian newspaper in 2003.^[26]

References