Taib Steals His Electricity – Exclusive Expose!
Sarawak Report
At a time when people are struggling to cope with the rising electricity costs, Sarawak Report has established that the Chief Minister thieves electricity to keep down his own bills !
This astonishing information came to us from senior insiders, who are in a good position to know what is happening in Taib’s household. We have subsequently obtained corroborative evidence from the chief technician in charge of maintenance at his grand residence at Demak Jaya.
What we have learnt is that the Chief Minister has deliberately installed a secret, subterranian electricity cable, which by-passes the meter outside his house. The cable links the mains directly to the line entering the house. This means that while some of the supply still travels through the meter at least half of it does not, thereby slashing Taib’s electricity bill!
How mean is greed?
Huge residence, means huge electricity bills!
Given the legendary wealth of Taib Mahmud, the idea that he should go to these lengths to avoid such a relatively small outlay as the monthly electricity bill seems staggering.
But, as Taib has pointed out himself, he is not used to paying out money or even bothering to have it on his person. All his family deals are funded by others in return for his political patronage. Since the Taibs expect to take, not give, it must make regular bills like the rest of us pay seem something of an outrageous imposition!
However, we should bear in mind that Taib has already compensated for the annoyance of having to pay for electricity. There was plenty of comment some years back when the State Parliament voted through a handsome annual allowance to assist in the Chief Minister’s electricity bills, presumably on the understanding that he has to do so much entertaining in his huge house.
By contrast, Sarawak Report is mindful of the many people throughout Sarawak who suffer from the harsh policy of the State-owned Sesco electricity monopoly, which is to ruthlessly cut off those people who cannot afford to pay the escalating costs being charged.
Far from free electricty! The poor communities of Sungai Asap often face electricity cuts
The policy is particularly galling for those displaced families who were moved into ‘resettlement’ areas to make way for hydro-electric dams. Part of the incentive that people from both Batang Ai and Bakun dam areas were given to move was that they would get free electricity as part of their compensation. However, both communities are now being asked to pay the full price for their electricity and many are regularly cut off by Sesco, because they can’t afford it.
The Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sesco, coincidentally, just happens to be Taib’s own superbly wealthy cousin, Hamid Sepawi. The son of the Deputy Chief Minister, Alfred Jabu, is also on the Board. Sepawi and the Jabus have been given so many jobs and concessions by the Chief Minister that there is certainly no need for them to worry about such basic bills. And, while he is stern to his poorest customers, Sepawi is clearly lenient to his wealthy relative, since the fraud that his cousin indulges in is fairly easy to detect !
What the technical manager confirmed
Too grand to pay his full electricity bill?
In order to confirm the almost unbelievable information we had received about such petty pilfering, we thought we should seek corroboration from the man who was reportedly in charge of installing the by-pass system.
This was the head technician in charge of Taib’s estate at Demak Jaya, Jong Ka Chin. We were told that Jong had also helped out Taib’s sister next door, Raziah Mahmud, who had heard about the device and wanted one too! Raziah is also fabulously rich, but clearly does not see why she should pay the same bills as everyone else.
So we decided that it was time to request if he could do a similar favour for Taib’s older son Abu Bekir. After all Abu Bekir has just settled his wife’s divorce claim of RM 400 million, so he must be looking for ways to save some money! We called the technical head, Jong Ka Chin, on his personal mobile in the guise of Abu Bekir’s secretary to ask him to come and discuss the matter with the Datuk:
