A website which highlighted the alleged abuses of power committed by the Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud in his 19-year tenure is not being monitored by the state's Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA).

An ACA official told malaysiakini by phone today that the agency was not investigating into the various allegations as stated in the website.

"Furthermore, our Internet connection is bad and we have difficulties in accessing Internet, let alone the website," he said.

The [#1] Sayot Taib website[/#] , set up by the anonymous "Sarawak lovers", listed several development projects which Taib (photo) and his family were alleged to be involved in.

The site attached various scanned documents, including what it claimed were letters from government departments, linking Taib and his family to the projects. In most cases, the site claimed the projects were given by the state government to companies run by Taib's family.

Officials at the CM's office refused to comment on this matter when contacted today.

In an interview with Bernama on Jan 14, Taib condemned the reported accusations of nepotism, describing them as lies and rumours. "I have never helped my children ... I have been the fairest chief minister around," he said.

He added that neither he nor any other state politicians were involved in awarding contracts.

He is also reported by Bernama on Jan 30 as saying that "the people in Sarawak are not influenced by the smear campaign against the state government and its leaders on the Internet allegedly carried out by opposition parties".

He said that people were beginning to see that a lot of things they read on the Internet were not true.

Even the scanned documents on the website, described as confidential government papers, were false, he said.

State secretariat investigating

It has also been reported by Bernama that Deputy State Secretary Dr Hatta Solhie said legal action, including under the Official Secrets Act, could be taken against any government official who leaked out confidential government documents.

He said he would carry out an investigation to determine whether the documents on the website were genuine or false.

"This is a very serious matter, if (the documents) came from a specific department, we will ask the head of department to investigate and take action on any officer involved," he said.

Officials at the state secretariat were not available to comment if any actions have been taken against any officers.

When malaysiakini contacted Sarawak Attorney-General's Chambers, an official said "it does not have anything in writing asking the chambers to look into the matter".

"If the CM's office wants us to proceed in bringing action against the webmasters, we must be given instructions in back and white," the official added.

Challenge to CM

The site alleged that Taib used other politicians and society leaders as proxies to hold shares in various companies that have timber concessions and other major contracts.

"After about three to five years, the shares will be taken over by Taib and his family," it alleged.

The site also alleged abuse related to Taib bringing development to Balingian to fish for votes in the coming state elections.

"Taib is widely expected to contest in this area instead of his current seat in Asajaya," claimed the website.

It has been reported that former defence minister Abang Abu Bakar Abang Mustapha will challenge Taib in the Asajaya seat to prove that the former still had the support of the people. Abu Bakar was not nominated by Taib to defend the Kuala Rajang parliamentary seat in the 1999 general elections.

Given the possible challenge, five assemblymen have offered their own state seats to Taib for the coming state elections and Taib is expected to move to contest in Balingian from Asajaya.