BN
top dogs scrapping over NCR land – MP Aaron Dagang (left) and Raziah
Mahmud, sister of Chief Minister Taib Mahmud are rivalling to lay hands
on Sampadi
NCR landowners in Sampadi have learnt the hard way how nothing can be
trusted in the hands of BN, with party top dogs now fighting with each
other to get hold of their lands.
In July a group of 12 villagers from Kampung Gerunggang had decided
to sell some of their NCR (Native Customary Rights) land to a keen
buyer.
That purchaser, no surprise to learn, was none other than a BN
politician. Aaron Dagang is the PRS MP for Kanowit, who will be
standing again for office in the up-coming federal elections.
Dagang seems to think that his salary for serving his constituents is
not enough for his needs and had set about parting this poor community
from their birthright lands for what is doubtless a good price that will
give him a good profit.
The agreement shows he planned to buy the 77 acres, not far from
Kuching, for RM231,000, which is then to be converted to yet more oil
palm.
Given that Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s brother Onn Mahmud has been
touting his own oil palm plantation at RM31,000 per acre, this land should eventually be worth ten times the price that the villagers have agreed to sell it for.
From
the agreement drawn up between the PRS MP Aaron Dagagang to buy 77
acres of Native Customary Rights Land from villagers in Sampadi
So, Dagang must have been pleased at the way he was ‘looking after
the interests’ of the trusting people, who had voted for BN and were
then selling him their heritage for what to a poor person might seem a
life-saving amount.
Encouraged by the prospect of the sale and following the advice of
the Land & Survey Department, the villagers spent a considerable sum
of money to get their land properly mapped and surveyed and they were
informed by the Land & Survey Department that their plot was 155
Block 8 Sampadi District.
‘Lot 155′ – expensive mapping that was to prove a waste of money!
Raziah had got there first!
However, as the parties set out to finalise their transaction
concerning the purchase of Lot 155 Block 8 Samapadi Land District, they
made a discovery that was shocking to both sides.
‘Replaced’
by Lot 154 – the Lot 155 which used to belong to the villagers has been
absorbed without notification or of course payment!
It seemed that Lot 155 had suddenly disappeared from the records!
After much research and many weeks it emerged that the lot had
somehow become “replaced”. According to a note in the Land Registry,
this meant it was now part of the neighbouring Lot 154.
And it turned out that this very much larger Lot 154 had already been
granted by the Land & Survey Department to another company in 2010.
This meant that the villagers are no longer the officially registered
owners of their NCR land. Yet they had never been told a thing about it
and had even been encouraged to go ahead spending money on useless
plans!
So, who was the influential person that was able to achieve such an
alteration to the Land Registry without even a notification being made
to the rightful owners?
“Replaced” – the scribbled alteration in the Land Registry that removed these people’s land and gave it to Raziah Mahmud!
A search of the Land & Survey Department shows that in 2010 Lot
154 (now including the old Lot 155) was granted by the Department in the
guise of ‘state owned land’ to the company Saradu Plantation, which
grows bananas.
From 2010 – 2070 – the land is being made available for Nil cost, apart from an apparent rent of RM425 a year!
This company used to be named Emerald Discovery as can be seen in the
official records and it largely belongs to Taib’s sister Raziah Mahmud!
Saradu Plantation, previously Emerald Discovery is run out of Raziah Mahmud’s offices in Kuching.
Saradu Plantation has in fact benefited from a good number of sales from the Land & Survey Department, according to our
leaked copy of the secret registry,
which has enabled us to at last reveal exactly who has been the
beneficiary of handouts by Taib’s Planning and Resources Ministry over
the past 30 years.
In case there is any doubt as to who controls Saradu, let us take a look at the entry from our leaked document.
Saradu
Plantation, formerly Emerald Discovery Sdn Bhd, is listed in the land
registry under the name of Taib’s sister Raziah Mahmud.
Taib’s sister Raziah is the person listed as the contact for the
company. As in the case of Lot 154 Block 8 Sampadi District (below)
there is no evidence in the registry that she paid anything at all for
the privilege of taking the land.
ZERO PAYMENT! – the 170 hectares of ‘State Land’ in Lot 154 includes the 77 acres belonging to the villagers!
The Land records (above) strangely do not mention who was the
recipient of Lot 154 Block 8 Sampadi, however our separate Land &
Survey Department documents prove that the banana plantation refers to
Saradu Plantation Sdn Bhd.
Proprietor of Lot 154 – Saradu Plantation Sdn Bhd
Saradu Plantation
Put simply, our investigations show that this NGO land has been taken
for free and given by the Land & Survey Department to Taib’s own
sister Raziah Mahmud!
Official records confirm that Saradu Plantation is very clearly a
Raziah family company. In fact the first Director listed is none other
than her youthful daughter Eliah, who is well-known for her party-loving
behaviour and her acquisition of other large tracts of land from the
State of Sarawak (and NCR landowners), thanks to her mother’s
interventions at the Land & Survey Department.
Raziah’s
daughter Eliah is a Director – the biggest shareholder of the company
is Organic Treasure Sdn Bhd, which is largely owned by Raziah Mahmud and
her husband Robert Geneid.
Raziah Mahmud is obviously concerned that her daughter should become ever more pampered and rich by taking NCR lands, even
Eliah
Abbas/ Geneid – has acquired a clutch of lands and directorships in her
name, thanks to the influence of her mother, who is Taib’s sister. The
fact that these lands actually belong to natives of Sarawak seems not to
trouble the family.
though this has deprived the people of Kampung Gerunggang of the
small opportunity to make some little profit out of the sale of their
plots.
The main shareholder of Saradu plantation, furthermore, is a company
called Organic Treasure. Organic Treasure is largely owned by Raziah
herself and her husband Robert Geneid.
Various other BN cronies also have stakes in Saradu Plantation.
With an election coming in just a few weeks, surely these Sampadi
villagers, who previously voted for BN, must be starting to wonder if it
was wise to put their administration in the hands of such a greedy
family as the Mahmuds?
After all Taib has destroyed all the normal checks on his power,
purely so he can give out lands as likes. Why else would he take on not
only his own job of Chief Minister, but also that of Finance Minister
and of Planning and Resources Minister, the position that controls state
lands?
For an old man to hold on to all the three big jobs in government makes little sense under normal circumstances.
However, as our many researches have shown, for the last 30 years
Taib has used this unnatural power to enable him to grab more than half
of Sarawak for his own family, his political supporters and business
partners.
The people of Gerunggang are his latest victims amongst many others in Sarawak.
The
company Organic Treasure is the largest shareholder of Saradu
Plantation and look who owns the lion share of that – Raziah and her
husband Robert Geneid
Tengah connection?
Questions are now arising as to how Raziah achieved this latest land grab?
Some
are asking whether Raziah’s close relationship with Taib’s Deputy
Minister of Planning and Resources, the unaccountably wealthy Awang
Tengah, could have provided the crucial contact who arranged her land
grab in this case?
Tengah’s own record of grabbing lands from local peoples has already been
examined by Sarawak Report.
We ask at what stage are local people going to realise that the only
way they can protect themselves from these notorious land grabbers is to
vote them out of office and appoint a government ruled by law?
Powerful ally for Lot 155, but what about the other NCR landowners of Gerunggang?
Life is such a party for the fabulously rich Geneids, who have stolen an area larger than Singapore from the state of Sarawak
At least in this particular land grab case
the poor village victims may for once have a powerful ally from within
the government itself!
MP Aaron Dagang is said to be outraged and
furious that he has been done out of his land deal by a willy Raziah,
who managed to get hold of the land not just for cheap but for free by
using her influence at the Land & Survey Department!
Dagang is apparently now making
representations and fighting for the Lot 155 to be removed back out of
the Saradu concession, which may mean that eventually the NCR land
owners are in a position to sell it over to him.
However, while the BN bully boys fight it
out, this case has opened up concerns for all the other NCR landowners
in the Gerunggang area.
We understand that much of the rest of the
170 hectares of comprising Lot 154 Block 8 Sampadi is also being farmed
by their NCR owners, who until now were oblivious that Raziah and her
husband and daughter, together with their business partners, now ‘own
the concession’ and are planning to raze their rubber trees and orchards
so that they can cover the area with bananas.
Election time is coming
Is it time to finally call time? BN’s record of greed and excess is out of control.
The people of Sampadi stand warned and so
do the people back in Kanowit, where Aaron Dagang (left) was returned to
Parliament in 2008 without even having to fight any opposition
candidates.
If the people do not take action this time around it is plain that their land will all be taken.
Both these areas do now have strong
opposition candidates who are arguing that it is time for change, before
all the last remaining trees and lands are taken and destroyed for the
benefit of the jet-setting Mahmud family and their friends, who now
spend most of their lives in other countries.
Of course, Taib cheats in elections, but a
determined people must now resist this cheating and take their chance to
end these land-grabs and restore their country.
Time to save Sarawak from Taib’s land-grabbing “development policies”?
Its national advisor N Ganesan (left) said whichever political coalition endorses it in a "formal treaty" would receive its support.
However, the movement's de facto leader and Human Rights Party chairperson P Uthayakumar was absent from the event.
