A Sarawakian blog has unearthed new allegations of a land acquisition deal that earned ‘instant’ profits of approximately RM15 raziah mahmud million for Quality Concrete Holdings Berhad (QCHB), a company partly owned by Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s sister Raziah @ Roziah Mahmud ( left ), Taib’s cousin Hamed Sepawi and Taib’s brother-in-law, Abdul Aziz Husain.

Socio-political website Hornbill Unleashed posted information from this year’s annual report of listed company QCHB, and the Bursa Malaysia website, detailing QCHB’s purchase of a ‘dormant’ company, Protoreka Perunding Sdn Bhd, on Oct 30, 2008. QCHB announced the investment cost was a mere RM10.

At the time of its purchase by QCHB, Protoreka’s intended principal activities were investment holdings and oil palm cultivation, but Protoreka had no assets to speak of. Protoreka had been incorporated on April 13, 2005 with a paid-up capital of RM2.

A change in fortune

Following QCHB’s takeover, Protoreka saw a sharp upturn in fortune. On Aug 27, 2009, Protoreka, described by QCHB as “a dormant company since its incorporation”, somehow acquired two parcels of land encompassing a total of 1,734 hectares, with a net book value of RM1,518,930 as of Jan 31, 2010.

These two plots of land were in Menuku land district and Sebangan-Kepayang land district, covering 810 and 924 hectares respectively. They were described by QCHB as “agricultural lands, currently vacant and undeveloped” and “currently free of encumbrances”. This implied they were commercially viable ‘state land’.

ncr land sarawak and palm oil plantation A major ‘encumbrance’ to the development of large oil palm and other plantations is the Native Customary Rights (NCR) claims to land by traditional native communities, both Dayak and Malay.

QCHB has been recently slated for hiring a logging contractor, Loyal Billion, to extract logs from 3,101 hectares of Iban NCR land in Sebangan, Sebuyau. The land conflict led to villagers’ blockading the loggers’ access road, and ugly scenes of arrests of seven Iban leaders for alleged arson at the loggers’ camp, and anger among 15 local longhouses.

QCHB then informed Bursa Malaysia on July 8, 2010, that it was selling Protoreka to a Leonard Sabu anak Kheng Boo, 42, for a startling cash sum of RM14,606,705. QCHB mentioned that the plots of land had been valued at RM15 million by a firm called City Valuers & Consultants Sdn Bhd, and that the land lease will expire in 2069.

QCHB was able to turn a phenomenal profit on the sale of Protoreka to Leonard Sabu anak Kheng Boo, less than a year after buying Protoreka. In QCHB’s own words, in its stock market announcement , QCHB’s “total cost of investment in PPSB (Protoreka) was RM10.00. QCHB is expected to realise a gross gain from the disposal at Company level of approximately RM14.6 million.”

Minister for land and natural resources

Taib has been the Chief Minister, and also minister in charge of land and natural resources, since 1981. The vast bulk, 95 percent, of Sarawak’s petroleum and natural gas royalties go to the federal government, but Taib controls Sarawak’s only other remaining money-spinners: land, forests and rivers. Taib’s government has exploited these resources aggressively in the last 29 years.

Land has been utilised, via his New Concept policy of establishing industrial-scale oil palm plantations using wealthy companies.

Forests have been logged by timber conglomerates. Timber and plantation companies have demonstrated their political allegiances clearly, during Taib’s era.

bakun dam and electricity electric Now, rivers have been dammed, with 12 enormous hydro-electric projects planned. These dams have already displaced more than 10,000 native villagers and have provided even greater access for loggers to the natives’ vacated land.

The dams also provide money-spinning contracts for construction companies linked to Taib’s family, including CMS and Naim Holdings, and will generate electricity for a proposed aluminium smelter to be run by CMS in Bintulu.

CMS is a company under the control of Taib’s sons and family. Sarawak Energy, the privatised utility company spearheading the dam-building, and Naim Holdings, are both chaired by Hamed Sepawi, Taib’s cousin.

The land deal struck by QCHB provides some insight into the wealth creation methods of companies featuring shareholders from Taib’s family. In QCHB, for example, Hamed Sepawi and Abdul Aziz Husain, former State Secretary and former chief executive of Sarawak Energy, rank among the top 30 shareholders, while Raziah is a shareholder and non-executive director.

Taib has remained tight-lipped over allegations of corruption posted globally by websites such as Sarawak Report . But Bloomberg news has quoted Taib telling Bernama , in an interview in 2001, that “I am not involved in the award of contracts. No politician in Sarawak is involved in the award of contracts…I never ask anybody to do any favours.”

But according to Hornbill Unleashed , “The company history of QCHB is available in the public domain for us to review. There is not much head-cracking required to show Taib’s road to riches is, plain and simple, corrupt practices through his high office.”

KERUAH USIT is a human rights activist - ‘anak Sarawak, bangsa Malaysia’. This weekly column is an effort to provide a voice for marginalised Malaysians. Keruah Usit can be contacted at keruah_usit@yahoo.com .