Sarawak Chief Minister, Taib Mahmud being investigated, says MACC

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has confirmed that it is currently investigating Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud over allegation of timber corruption.

Its commissioner Datuk Seri Abu Kassim Mohamed said MACC was in the process of gathering more information regarding the matter.

"As I said earlier, we are investigating Taib Mahmud and whatever our action is, we cannot reveal at this moment," he told reporters at a function in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, 9th June 2011.

Abu Kassim was responding to a question on whether the MACC was looking at carrying out a similar action as the Swiss Anti-Corruption Agency, which recently froze the assets of Taib Mahmud over the allegation of timber corruption.

According to a foreign news report, the Swiss Federation president Micheline Calmy-Rey was reported to be aware of the allegations and had forwarded the information about Taib's assets in Switzerland to its regulatory body FINMA (the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority) for investigation.

Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib bin Mahmud is Malaysia's longest serving Chief Minister and has served under 4 Prime Ministers (Tun Hussein Onn, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and the current Premier Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak).

Taib, a Melanau was born on 21 May 1936 in Miri, Sarawak is the fourth Chief Minister of Sarawak and is also the President of Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), which is part of the Barisan Nasional coalition.

On April 2011, the 75 years old Taib led PBB to a clean sweep of all 35 seats contested in the 10th state election, winning an eighth consecutive term as chief minister.

However, the Barisan Nasional coalition despite winning 55 out of 71 seats, suffered its worst performance ever in a Sarawak state election, with coalition partner Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP) suffering badly, losing 23 out of 19 seats due his poor standing among the Chinese community. Even SUPP President, Tan Sri George Chan lost in Piasau to a newcomer from DAP, Ling Sie Kiong.

The DAP won 12 seats overall, while fellow oppositon party, Parti Keadilan Rakyat, PKR won 3 seats while an Independent, Baru Bian won the remote Ba'Kelalan seat.

The Star Online / Bernama news agency/ wikipedia