Helping himself – Taib Lifts Prime Plots from Pelita [Exclusive!]
The Sarawak Chief Minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud, who is also the Chairman of the Land Custody and Development Authority (LCDA), which manages state land under the title of Pelita, has been using his control over the government agency to steer prime bits of land the way of himself and his family!
Sarawak Report has found documentary proof that a huge area of 700 acres of valuable state land at 13th Mile Kuching, which had formed part of the Rajah Brooke Memorial Hospital site next to the Semengok National Park, has now been absorbed into the Taib family property empire.
The Chief Minister himself holds substantial shares in the property. In his guise as Chief Minister and Chairman of the LCDA, he himself would have approved and overseen the deal from which he has so directly profited.
A deal marked “CONFIDENTIAL”!
We have established that the land was originally ‘alienated’ from the Hospital and placed under the ‘custody’ of the State in in 1984. Three years later in 1987 the LCDA then saw fit to transfer the custody of this land, which forms an extension of Semengok National Park, to a company called Lanco Plantations. Semengok is the last remaining sanctuary for Orang Utan in the entire region and as its name indicates, Lanco Plantations tears down natural habitats and plants palms. The biggest single shareholder in Lanco Plantations is the company Mesti Bersatu sdn bhd, which is owned by Taib Mahmud himself and members of his brother Arip’s family.
The the details of this shameful transaction are stamped ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ in the Land Registry, doubtless in an attempt to conceal the dishonesty of the deal. Sarawak Report would like to inform readers that a great number of the transactions registered in the Land Registry are likewise marked “Confidential” and we will leave you to draw your own conclusions.
