KUALA LUMPUR: The curiosity revolving around Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s billions of ringgit worth of international properties and his allegedly extensive business interest in his home state via family-owned Cahaya Mata Sarawak (CMS) and cronies has not ebbed. New and candid revelations are popping up throughout the blogs and tales of his direct and indirect links are filtering through the Internet.
On record, Taib and his league of Barisan Nasional “bandits” are unperturbed by these disclosures although Taib has directed his office to clamp down on mainstream media’s discussions of his wealth and ordered his political party, Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), to set up a unit to monitor and “counter the lies”.
Taib’s hope is that the “lies” won’t reach his “fixed deposit” -- the Bumiputera voters whom he has confessed are “poor and grateful to BN” because they “need BN”.
How far-reaching these disclosures will affect Taib and BN’s influence over Sarawakian voters is left to be see.
Meanwhile, online portal, Sarawak Report, which first launched its explosive series on Taib’s billions abroad, has sought to correct a point in its reporting in reference to the chief minister’s official monthly salary.
To date, the commonly asked question is, how did Taib who earned RM20,000 a month as chief minister amass such wealth?
Mystery money
Read below Sarawak Report’s peek into the mystery:
“We have frequently questioned how (Taib) Mahmud’s reported remuneration of RM20,000 per month could have supported a multi-million-dollar property empire across the globe.
We are now advised that the chief minister’s official salary is actually RM13,000 per month (excluding allowances or perks, such as the sole, exclusive use of a personal jet courtesy of the Sarawak taxpayers).
Nevertheless, it is important not to forget the numerous other salaries that the chief minister has simultaneously obtained through awarding himself a number of key top jobs at once.
On top of his chief minister’s salary, he has also enjoyed his MP's salary of RM10,000 per month and his state assemblyman’s salary of RM8,000 per month.
With great energy, he also commands the two other key financial offices of Sarawak in his roles as finance minister (salary: RM9,000 per month) and state planning and resource management minister (another RM9,000 per month).
In total, it is a very attractive RM49,000 per month, the sort of salary that any chief of state would be pleased to receive.
However, we remain baffled as to how such a salary could begin to support the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of properties across the globe, which we have unveiled as belonging to his family in recent reports.
By contrast, for example, Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, has been much criticised for a collection of family properties that now extend to three houses and a couple of flats. Yet, his resources to pay for these relatively modest properties are easy to identify.
His wife is a high-flying UK barrister and he now occupies a number of directorship and positions.
The couple have also both been paid for their books and he gets a huge amount for speaking engagements.
But where does (Taib) Mahmud get his wealth, which is exponential in comparison with Blair?
Perhaps those simultaneous three roles as chief minister, finance minister and state planning and resource management minister are part of the answer.
For what can get done in Sarawak without the say-so of this trinity -- wrapped up so conveniently in one?”
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