Sarawak Chief Minister sues leading land rights lawyer

Media information, Bruno Manser Fonds, Basel / Switzerland
>
> 22 May 2007
>
> Leading Sarawak land rights lawyer sued by Chief Minister for
> distributing leaflets
>
> Taib Mahmud attempts to silence opposition and media over his alleged
> involvement in a timber corruption scandal
>
> Sarawak Chief Minister Adul Taib Mahmud has filed a lawsuit for
> alleged defamation against See Chee How, a leading Sarawak land rights
> lawyer, at the High Court in Kuching, the capital of the East
> Malaysian state on Borneo. See's alleged offence consists in having
> distributed leaflets containing news articles from the Japan Times and
> Malaysiakini in a shopping centre in Kuching.
>
> Taib’s filing of a lawsuit is the latest step in a political scandal
> which started two months ago with reports by the Japanese press that
> the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau had found irregularities with nine
> Japanese companies involved in shipping timber from Sarawak to Japan.
> According to the Japan Times, the shipping companies failed to
> properly report some 1.1 billion yen (9.2 million US dollars),
> alleging the money constituted kickbacks paid to a Hong Kong agent
> with a connection to Taib Mahmud and his family. See Chee How, who is
> also a legal adviser to the opposition party PKR, is now being sued
> together with the state PKR chairman and the Malaysian media that
> reported on the affair.
>
> "It is interesting to see that the Chief Minister is going after me
> when there were more than 30 people distributing leaflets", See said
> when contacted by BMF. It can be suspected that Taib's lawsuit is part
> of a vendetta because of the lawyer's strong involvement in
> indigenous land rights cases. See is one of two lawyers with Messrs.
> Baru Bian, a lawfirm that is handling a large number cases filed by
> indigenous communities against the Sarawak State Government and its
> concessionaires, in particular the landmark Iban case of Rumah Nor as
> well as a prominent case filed by rainforest-dwelling Penan
> communities.
>
> Taib, a passionate Rolls-Royce driver, is one of the main culprits for
> the extensive damage done to native lands in Sarawak by logging and
> plantation companies. He and his family have substantially profited
> from the deforestation of Sarawak, where less than ten per cent of the
> primeval forests are left intact.
>
> During his 26 years in power, Taib has repeatedly been linked to
> corruption and bad governance. In 1987, he was accused by his uncle
> and predecessor Rahman Yaakub of having awarded 1.6 million hectares
> of forest concessions, worth several billion US Dollars, to his
> friends and family. In May 2007, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption
> Authority (ACA) started a probe against Taib over the alleged kickback
> payments by Japanese shipping companies.
>
> "This is the first time in Taib's career that he is suing anyone", See
> Chee How commented. "He is very bitter these days." According to See,
> a few lawyers have volunteered already to help defending him and the
> other defendants: "We are confident we will win the case once it will
> come to court."
>
>
> Attachment: Portrait of lawyer See Chee How (Copyright: BMF)
>
>
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