Taib’s ‘land grab’ infuriates party faithful
By Keruah Usit
In an unprecedented show of dissent by members of Abdul Taib Mahmud’s own party, Parti Pesaka Bumiputera (PBB), Malay and Bidayuh villagers from Sampadi, Lundu, gathered at the Kuching High Court yesterday to voice their anger.
The villagers were dismayed at the takeover of their smallholder oil palm farms by Polar Horizon, a subsidiary of Titanium Management, a conglomerate owned mostly by Abu Bekir Taib, son of chief minister Taib Mahmud.
A large crowd of villagers from Lundu cheered when a sub-branch chairman of Taib’s own party spoke out against the provisional licences to 1,500 hectares of land around their villages, awarded by Taib to Polar Horizon, benefitting his own son.
As self-appointed minister of planning and resources, Taib wields power over granting or ‘alienating’ enormous parcels of land for ‘development’.
Earlier this month, the Sampadi villagers were given summary notice to vacate the land within 30 days.
“They never informed us … we were taken by surprise,” said Jamain Mahmud. Jamain, no relation to Taib, is the former ‘ketua kaum’ or village chief, and current PBB sub-branch head, in Kampung Sungai Cina in the Sampadi area.
Read more at: http://hornbillunleashed.wordpress.com/2011/02/12/14791/
Watch videos at: Taib’s Brute Land Grab – BN PBB Members and Supporters not Spared
