Hindraf to help track down Sarawak’s assets abroad
By Joe Fernandez, Free Malaysia Today
Hindraf Makkal Sakthi is prepared to help civic action groups in Sarawak to trace, claim and bring back any ill-gotten gains salted away abroad by local politicians. This includes making forensic accountants available from London and other key western financial capitals for the institution of class action suits.
The ad hoc apolitical human rights movement made the offer in the wake of a website report last week that shed light on some of the assets allegedly accumulated by Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud in Canada and other countries.
The assets, as the accusations go, do not commensurate with Taib’s known sources of lawful income as the chief minister since 1981. Taib currently draws a monthly salary of RM 20,000 as chief minister.
“Since 9/11, the international laws against money laundering and terrorism have become extremely tough,” said the London-based Hindraf chairman P Waythamoorthy in a telephone call last Friday before leaving for Singapore. “There are also laws in western and many other countries against Third World or other dictators parking their ill-gotten gains in their places.”
Ill-gotten gains abroad, said Waythamoorthy, can be frozen by the courts pending the disposal of class action suits.
He said that as far back as the post-Marcos era in the Philippines, civic action groups have successfully persuaded various courts abroad to freeze and return ill-gotten assets.
“Our (Hindraf) role is to study and advise civic action groups on the various international options to bring Taib to justice and return what belongs to the people of Sarawak,” said Waythamoorthy, a British-trained lawyer. “This is not just about Taib but anyone in Sarawak who needs to be brought to justice.”
