Elia Khadijah Abas, 36, a niece of Sarawak governor Taib Mahmud, has been identified as the leading beneficiary of of a 7,000 acre land alienation exercise in Bintulu, according to documents obtained by state opposition lawmakers.

Copies of provisional leases, obtained from the Sarawak Land and Survey Department, and share capital reports submitted to the Companies Commission of Malaysia listed a total of 7,002.81 acres of land in Sungai Takan, Tatau, Bintulu that were wholly alienated to Ikrar Bumi Sdn Bhd. The transaction had a total premium of RM2,099,994.00, or RM300 per acre.

The alienation exercise was carried out in March 2, 2015, according to the title print-out issued by the Bintulu branch of the Land and Survey Department.

Elia Khadija Abas owns 198 shares, or 99.8 percent of Ikrar Bumi as of Jan 30, 2014, according to accounting firm Statcom Services. The remaining two shares are owned by Wong Ko Chung. Both have listed addresses in Kuching. Company directors at the time of the transaction were listed as Ong Siok Ching and Ewan Saufi Abas.

Elia Khadijah is the daughter of Raziah Mahmud and Robert Geneid, an Australian businessman.

Eighty percent of the total shares in Ikrar has since been transferred to Normah Hassan and Mohd Solehin Abdullah in March 2015. Both were appointed as new directors of Ikrar.

Malaysiakini has contacted the Sarawak governor's office and is awaiting its response. Attempts to obtain Ikrar Bumi’s response, however, have been unsuccessful.

The DAP said all the information it obtained is publicly available.

The DAP charged that the land was transacted without public tender and was actually worth between RM3,000 and 8,000 per acre in market value, not RM300 .

At RM8,000, the balance of difference would be RM53.92 million for the entire transaction.

“The change of shareholdership and directorship shows that the state land has been used as trading goods for personal profit,” said DAP state assemblyperson Wong King Wei, whose law firm had requested copies of the transaction from the state Land and Survey Department.

Wong accused the ruling government of trading off Sarawak’s resources to its cronies. “(It was done) at the expense of all other Sarawakians,” Wong told reporters in Kuching on Tuesday.

State DAP leader Chong Chieng Jen said a 270-acre land parcel near Batu Kawah New Township (MJC) may see similar transactions: “The title has not been issued but the agreement has been signed.”

Satem challenge to list alienated land

“It does not matter if (Chief Minister) Adenan Satem disallows his own family members to apply for state land or not. Ultimately the state land, although it did not go to his own son or wife, it ultimately went to BN cronies,” Chong said, adding that DAP has challenged the state government to list out all land that is alienated.

Previous untendered land transactions publicised by the opposition party include 3,000 acres of state land in Lundu that was alienated to Genuine Formation Sdn Bhd and 6,700 acres of Balingian land that was alienated to Perak-based Greenpro Farm Sdn Bhd. The land in both transactions had an average premium of RM300 per acre.

Genuine Formation shares the same Kuching address as Titanium Management, a construction that is majority-owned and directed by Mahmud Abu Bekir Abdul Taib. Titanium Management owns 11,728 hectares of land in the state, according to a court-ordered audit in 2013 after Mahmud Abu Bekir’s wife Shahnaz Abdul Majid sought RM400 million in divorce settlements.

Additional reporting by Alyaa Azhar