Where is Sulaiman?
Sarawak Report
Kuching is once again awash with rumours about the health of the ‘heir apparent’, the Chief Minister’s son Sulaiman Abdul Rahman Taib. Because government controlled newspapers dare not allude to what has clearly become a serious problem, Sarawak Report regards it as its duty to demand that the Taib family explain to the constituents of Kota Samarahan what has happened to their elected representative to the Federal Parliament?
Sulaiman, who was elected to his father’s old seat in 2008, resigned from his post as Deputy Tourism Minister back in December last year for what were described as ‘personal reasons’. The speculation at the time was that he wished to return to Sarawak to begin taking over as Chief Minister, which is clearly his father’s keen desire, if only to protect the family fortunes.
Disappeared!
However, the truth is that young Sulaiman had spectacularly under-performed in his role as Deputy Tourism Minister, as with nearly every other role that has been conferred upon his youthful shoulders. Sarawak Report detailed in previous posts how he failed to manage the property companies which his father bestowed upon him in the United States and it is common knowledge that he was later removed from the Board of RHB Bank owing to his non-performance as well.
Indeed, far from coming back to Sarawak to take over, Sulaiman has now disappeared entirely from public view. Opposition MPs point out that he is in fact the only MP who has not put one foot inside the Federal Parliament building for the entire past parliamentary session and they are criticising him, quite rightly, for failing to perform the job he is paid by the public purse to do, which is to represent his constituents.
The DAP member Charles Santiago has told Sarawak Report that he will be raising a question in Parliament shortly if an announcement explaining Taib’s absence is not made.
Is Sulaiman suffering from a life-style related disease?
Sulaiman Taib – famously fun-loving
This brings Sarawak Report back to the rumours. Why not announce it if he is ill, when people would surely sympathise? The failure to explain the situation is giving unfortunate credence to the widespread and powerful rumours that the MP may be suffering from a self-inflicted, lifestyle disease.
This would indeed be tragic for the Taib family, but in their public position they cannot conceal it if he is no longer able to carry out his duties. Neither should a party like BN, which whips women who have a drink and bans homosexual activity on the pain of decades of imprisonment, seek to hypocritically conceal matters when one of its favoured sons falls foul of its own prohibitions.
So, if Sulaiman is not ill could the family please retrieve this previously high-profile dilettante back out of the closet? Conversely, if he is ill and being treated in Canada (as insiders suggest) it is their duty to tell us that he is and what for.
