Taib “Highly Corrupt” – Secret US Documents Put Pressure on FBI!
By Sarawak Report
Secret US Government documents have stood up Sarawak Report’s allegations about corruption in Sarawak.
A dossier of US Embassy dispatches to Washington, compiled by the Bruno Manser Foundation from the Wikileaks site, has now revealed that the United States Government has been well-informed about the extent of Taib Mahmud’s abuse of power in the state.
The revelations raise fresh questions about the judgement of America’s top law enforcement agency, the FBI, in choosing to house one of its key facilities in a building owned by the Chief Minister in the United States.
For example, one confidential cable from the US embassy in Malaysia to the State Department in Washington, dated 13 October 2006, noted that:
“Taib and his relatives are widely thought to extract a percentage from most major commercial contracts – including those for logging – awarded in the state. … Embassy sources outside the government uniformly characterize him as highly corrupt.” [Bruno Manser Foundation report]
In a further passage that will embarrass some of Taib’s key political cronies, including Alfred Jabu and James Masing, the report also says that a source had told the US embassy that Taib appointed “compliant local leaders” from various tribes into “financially rewarding” government positions as a means of stifling potential opposition.
The US embassy’s Political Section Chief, Mark D.Clark, concluded:
