COMMENT The Chief Minister of Sarawak, Taib Mahmud, has remained strangely silent over documents posted on the Sarawak Report website, showing he was a founding director in 1987 of Sakti International, a property company in the United States.

Sakti is now worth RM250 million. According to the website, Taib had set up a "system of private deals, which enabled the chief minister to conceal his ownership of the properties...and the extent of his enormous wealth".

NONE Taib has also failed to respond publicly to the shocking news that Ross Boyert, Sakti's former Chief Operating Officer and employee of 12 years, had been found dead, with a plastic bag wrapped around his head, on October 3.

Boyert ( left ) had been sacked from Sakti in 2006, and had then sued Sakti for shares he said Taib's family had promised him.

Boyert later lodged numerous police reports, alleging he had been harassed and followed by strangers. Boyert had told Sarawak Report that Taib's family had "unleashed the forces of hell" on himself, his wife and daughter.

It remains unclear whether the death of Sakti's former manager was self-inflicted, or caused by unknown assailants.

Official response is silence

The Chief Minister has not made any comment on Sarawak Report , nor on Malaysian news portals that have published the descriptions of the Taib family's property empire in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.

According to the Sarawak Report , in a letter Boyert had written to Taib in 2006 asking for his job back, Boyert had related how Taib's son-in-law, Sean Murray, had told Boyert that the company enjoyed access to over RM3 billion in funds, and had boasted of a "seemingly effortless" RM300 million transfer to an American bank on demand.

Taib's purported status of being a ‘dollar billionaire' would come as no surprise to those familiar with the profits generated by Cahya Mata Sarawak.

This conglomerate, owned by Taib's family, has been awarded billions of ringgit worth of state contracts, during Taib's tenure as chief minister. Furthermore, the alleged timber kickbacks in 2007 were described in Malaysiakini as "the tip of the iceberg".

siby by-election nomination day 080510 mahmud taib 02 Taib ( right ) is in total control of acquiescent newspapers and journalists in Sarawak, and would be perfectly able to launch a furious counter-attack on Sarawak Report .

Such a campaign would be expected to employ the usual tactics of attacking "foreigners" for being "jealous" of Sarawak's success and attempting post-colonial "interference" in Sarawak's politics.

But the newspapers have held their fire.

Sarawak Report is a website staffed by investigative journalists, able to perform painstakingly detailed research in industrialised nations.

The authors describe themselves as "a group of citizens and onlookers deeply concerned about the situation in Sarawak". The fact that these journalists appear to operate outside Taib's sphere of influence suggests they are not based locally.

The website obtained most of its impressive arsenal of documentary evidence and leads from Boyert. Boyert had met journalists from the Sarawak Report several times, and provided crucial inside information.

He had also made e-mail contact with Malaysiakini on two separate occasions, perhaps hoping to volunteer his insight into the Taib family's holdings.

No repeat of defamation lawsuit

Taib launched a defamation lawsuit against Malaysiakini in 2007 for publishing reports of Regent Star, a Hong Kong company linked to his family, receiving at least RM32 million in kickbacks from Japanese importers of Sarawak timber.

Taib also sued Sarawak Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) leaders, for handing out leaflets to the Sarawakian public, containing these reports. The case is still working its way through the courts.

Taib's immediate legal riposte in 2007, a fortnight after the timber kickbacks story broke, contrasts sharply with his current refusal to defend his reputation. This uncharacteristic silence has given rise to inevitable speculation.

Is Sarawak Report's documentary evidence incontrovertible? Is the chief minister worried that a court case might expose him to further revelations? Are legal proceedings being delayed until after the upcoming state elections, to reduce the risk of political fallout?

Leading witness

Boyert would have been a leading witness in any legal action brought for defamation. Following his demise, any defamation suit might reasonably be expected to have a greater chance of success, yet Taib has not made any public announcement regarding these damaging allegations of corruption.

Any government facing such a devastating scandal must take urgent damage control manoeuvres to restore its credibility. Sarawak's reputation has suffered significant harm, and Sarawakians must be hoping that a public statement might clear the air.

Burying one's head in the sand and hoping that the ‘Sakti-gate' scandal will simply blow over does not appear to be a viable option.

Taib's silence speaks volumes about the widespread local perception that he has no answer to the allegations of corruption, and of persecution of Ross Boyert.

DAVID SELING has more than two decades of experience of reporting on Sarawak's political economy.