Leading Sarawak land rights lawyer sued by Chief Minister for distributing leaflets

By BMF

BMF

2007-05-22 | PRESS STATEMENT: 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 law firm that is handling a large number of 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."

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