Taib engages Apco and US cyber-troopers
By Mariam Mokhtar, Free Malaysia Today
Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is having sleepless nights over Sarawak and its Chief Minister Taib Mahmud. Najib cannot decide which is worse – a strong opposition movement galvanised by his arch rival, Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim, or Taib whom he deeply mistrusts.
The effective onslaught on the ground, by Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian has severely dented Taib’s reputation. In addition, Taib faces an unseen enemy, Clare Rewcastle Brown of Sarawak Report and Peter John Jaban of Radio Free Sarawak. The combined effort of Baru, Clare and Peter has finally made Taib enlist outside help.
Meanwhile, Najib knows that Sarawak is his vote bank. He needs BN to win. So with or without Taib, Najib will do all that he can to keep control of Sarawak.
So, in comes Apco to do the dirty for both Taib and Najib.
The Najib administration is reported to be Apco’s single largest client. Najib has told Parliament that Apco’s fees, amounted to RM77 million. Pundits disagree and say that was only for the first year. Apco’s contract has been renewed and its new remuneration runs into hundreds of millions.
It appears that Taib has also enlisted the help of an American radio podcasting website to discredit Clare and her brother in-law the former British premier, Gordon Brown.
Taib is new to cyber-warfare and would not have a clue where to start. This is where Apco comes in handy and it is probably Apco which arranged for the American based news site, with its following on twitter, to tell the world how marvellous Taib is and how he has done much good for Sarawak.
A look at these sites will reveal how nothing is mentioned of the destruction of the rainforest, the endemic poverty, the polluted waterways and the systematic abuse of the indigenous people of Sarawak, by Taib and his cronies.
There is no mention of Taib’s corruption, his billion dollar empire and his land grabbing.
One name that sticks out is that of Rachel Motte. Taib has engaged her to help spread propaganda.
Motte and Ummi
For those who are unaware, Motte has been praising Najib and claimed that he is good for Malaysia because Najib is pro-business, pro-American and is a staunch ally of the Americans, unlike Anwar.
Moreover, according to Motte, Najib is a moderate Muslim and not an extremist.
Motte also claimed that Anwar had “direct connections to terrorist organisations” and described him as an anti-Semite, in an article in the New Ledger blog on April 29, 2010.
But two months later Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin contradicted her, and said of Anwar: “We know for a fact his ties with pro-Zionist groups.”
So between the two of them, they cannot decide if Anwar is for, or against Israel.
Motte is also the person who wrote a derogatory article about former USA ambassador to Malaysia, John Malott and called him a “pet” of Anwar. Her article was picked up by Utusan Malaysia, reproduced and translated into Malay.
When Malott threatened to sue Motte, she quickly retracted her article and it has disappeared from her website.
