Who Sold Out Sarawak’s Petroleum Resources To The Malayans?

The answer to this is of course Taib! The Malayans under Tun Razak at the time made him the Federal Minister of Primary Industries with the sole intention of using him so that Sarawak’s (and also Sabah’s) vast petroleum resources would end up under Federal control.

A trap was laid for him, into which he promptly fell, thereby opening himself up to blackmail by the UMNO-controlled Federal Government, so much so that to save his own skin he co-operated in handing over Sarawak’s petroleum resources to the Federal Government for a mere 5% royalty to the State.

How it was done was alluded to in Sarawak Headhunter’s open letter to Taib dated 1.11.2008 “Time’s Up, Taib! Just Go!” where it was mentioned “Remember Shaheen and how you and Adenan sold a whole ship tanker-load of Malaysian crude oil – which promptly “disappeared” – when you were Minister of Primary Industries – without an L/C, to a group of “Arab-looking gentlemen”? Are we to believe that you, with your photographic memory, didn’t even remember their names?”

Taib and Adenan made a lot of money on this deal and the culprits (their co-conspirators) were never found and probably never even pursued – together with the ship they just disappeared, causing great loss to the country. Imagine what one whole shiptanker-load of crude oil would have cost at that time just after the Arab Oil Embargo of the early 1970’s.

A Parliamentary Enquiry found no evidence of wrongdoing and merely admonished Taib as the Minister responsible for this fiasco. In exchange Taib facilitated the UMNO Federal Government’s grabbing control of Sarawak’s petroleum resources.

The grateful UMNO Federal Government rewarded him with greater responsibilities until he rose to become Minister of Defence and Minister of Federal Territory before going back to Sarawak to become Chief Minister in 1981.