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Govt not interested to find out how Taib Mahmud is such a super rich Malaysian, owning 36% of land in Sarawak?
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 23, 2024: Sarawak Report has asked the so-called Madani Unity Government (UG) to re-open the unexplained wealth enquiry into former and late Sarawak chief minister and governor Taib Mahmud.
Now, isn’t that a fair request in the interest of the rakyat dan negara (people and country), and in particular Sarawakians?
No News Is Bad News reproduces below the Sarawak Report article that was reposted by The Coverage today:
The Coverage/News/Re-Open The Unexplained Wealth Enquiry Into Taib Family
Re-Open The Unexplained Wealth Enquiry Into Taib Family
23 February, 2024
Southeast Asia’s tallest flagpole is at half-mast and two days of mourning have been announced, as Malaysia’s top brass gather in a final admission that far from being “well and in good stead” the former strongman of Sarawak has long been too frail for office and is now deceased.
Beset by yet further government imposed ‘conduct codes’ and restrictions on reporting, Malaysia’s media has likewise been churning out obituaries focused on the all encompassing power and longevity of ex-Chief Minister then Governor, Abdul Taib Mahmud, without touching on how he achieved such an unfettered autocratic status in an alleged democracy.
There has been much talk of his ‘modernising’ role in converting the world’s oldest and most biodiverse tropical rainforest into a palm oil plantation, but little reflection on how and why he did so and who has benefitted.
Away from the formalities and the subdued streets of Kuching, on the other hand, social media has throbbed with talk of a different kind of legacy, namely the Taib family’s enormous inheritance of unexplained wealth that is now the subject of ugly rancour and court battles between his offspring and their younger stepmother, Ragad.
Ragad’s own family (who are Syrian) are now jointly managing considerable assets, acquired through her brokered marriage with the failing former potentate, from their base in Turkey.
These include properties and shares apparently signed over to her during Taib’s last weeks of life from the bequests made in his first wife’s will to the couple’s children – assets which are themselves unexplained. That matter is now before the courts which this week agreed to freeze RM50 million worth of CMSB shares pending judgement.
Netizens are meanwhile sharing data (much of it originally exposed by this website) totting up the extraordinary portfolio of properties, concessions, state enriched companies and foreign assets belonging to the Taib family, many of whose members have been arriving over the past hours in Kuching to be seen by the coffin of the man Ragad allegedly kept most of them away from during his fading years.
Secret Mansion Is The Second Most Expensive In KL
Sarawak Report can exclusively add to that list a till now unreported, valuable gem belonging to Taib himself. A vast mansion in KL, believed to be the second most expensive in the capital, has quite recently been bought in his name and developed to the tune of tens of millions of ringgit.
Multiple sources have identified Taib as the named proprietor of 5 Jalan Tunku Putra, Taman Duta, a luxurious property that is not far from his existing official residence, Rahmat Jelita, and the equally imposing house belonging to his sister Raziah a few doors up the road.
He purchased the 15,016 square foot property in October 2017 for an eye-watering RM 11,500,000, according to insiders, who say it has been treated as the project and possession of his younger wife.
Upon purchase, the original house was initially demolished and re-built, following which Ragad hired the fashionable interior designer Megat Sheriff to complete the project. He is currently putting the finishing touches and, according to those who have viewed the property, “the style is opulent and luxurious” with lots of coloured marble and granite pillars.
It is a plainly extremely valuable asset that adds to a billionaire’s trove of unexplained wealth in the possession of a man who spent his entire working career as a handsomely salaried but by no means legitimately wealthy public servant.
Even the multiple portfolio of offices Taib appointed himself to concurrently during his decades long career could not account for such an accumulation of wealth, and naturally none of those positions permitted him to conduct private business at the same time.
Today, the Bruno Manser Fund (set up in memory of the murdered Swiss eco-campaigner who challenged Taib’s land grabs) issued its own statement making that same point:
During his 60-year tenure as a public servant, Taib acquired an enormous wealth despite constitutional prohibitions for the Sarawak Chief Minister and Governor to get involved in commercial enterprise.
In 2021, a legal opinion commissioned by the Bruno Manser Fonds found that Taib’s involvement as a director and shareholder of Malaysian company Ramah Jelita Sdn Bhd had breached the Sarawak constitution. The company was involved in land deals in Sarawak.
Taib has also been accused of abuse of public office and corruption when allowing the privatization of CMS, Sarawak’s largest state-owned company, into the hands of his closest family members in the early 1990s. During Taib’s tenure as Chief Minister, CMS benefited from public contracts worth over MYR 4.9 billion (USD 1.4 billion).
Despite this obvious concern and the plain rules of office, close political cronies such as Karim Hamza, have notoriously advocated in Taib’s defence that Sarawak politicians ‘deserve’ to be able to conduct businesses and be wealthy at the same time as making the decisions affecting those very enterprises as a ‘reward for their public service’!
So little mystery as to how Taib’s wife, siblings, cousins and, from a very young age, all his children came by astonishingly large holdings of shares and concessions in Sarawak, many of which are being listed in the papers once again with the news of his departure or shared on social media:
These aside from Taib’s fleets of Rolls Royces; the flaunting of gems and valuables; his grand Kuching Residence with rolling acres and the mysterious cash that flowed into the network of companies controlled by his family members in North America and the UK.
Following Sarawak Report and BMF’s extensive reporting on Taib’s wealth and his style of governance (better summed up as a Godfather rather than Father of Modern Sarawak) investigations were opened both in Malaysia and in certain foreign jurisdictions a decade ago, ironically initiated by the government of Najib Razak.
Yet a convenient rule instated by Najib’s own corrupted government, sought to exonerate senior decision makers from self-dealing over secretive contracts and concessions, as long as it could be shown that the beneficiary was out of the room at the time underlings signed off on the plunderous arrangements.
This was used by MACC officials as an excuse to suggest they could not therefore proceed against high level corruption conducted from behind closed doors.
Instead, Najib leveraged the over-mighty Taib from his political positions and pushed him upstairs to the Governorship on the agreed (but by no means constitutional) grounds that as head of state he was accorded immunity …. and the investigations closed.
Following the removal of Najib in 2018 law officers again addressed the matter of the notorious billionaire Governor of Sarawak. However, again also, the elderly power monger’s longstanding network of cronies and collaborators worked to close investigations down.
Taib sank into his final years and a second term as Governor, increasingly inactive in his role and separated from family members, some of whom appeared to be cashing and moving out as much as possible from their Sarawak holdings.
Foreign investigators who came over to KL to seek assistance over money laundering enquiries related to the Taib family empire were turned away, according to informants familiar with those proceedings.
Re-open the Unexplained Wealth Enquiry Into Taib Family
Now that Taib is gone; the electorate has voted for a ‘anti-corruption and reforming government’ and the Taib family are quarrelling over what remains, is this not at last the proper time to open up enquiries once and for all into the gross corruption and kleptocracy that has afflicted Sarawak for the past decades with a view to restitution to the impoverished peoples of this wealthy state?
The secrecy hanging over what ought to be a matter of public record – the disposal of concessions and awarding of contracts – should end. How Taib distributed his largesse and for whose benefit should be subjected to proper scrutiny, along with royalties paid, taxes owed and the backhanders as well.
Just today a senior state minister from the hey day of Taib Mahmud offered what he clearly felt to be a tribute to his style of government, yet in the process revealed just how the Godfather of Sarawak distributed public wealth to cronies and allies as if he owned it personally:
“Personally, I was touched by his concern when, during his final year as Sarawak chief minister, he asked me if there was anything he could do to help my constituency in Kapit, without me asking first.
“And when I applied for a piece of land to be developed, he just approved it. That’s what I mean about his true nature. He was a generous man and he did not forget those who were with him,” Alexander Lingi Nanta said when interviewed on Bernama Radio today.
Such was Taib’s legacy of autocratic leadership where due process, native land rights and lawful procedures could be swept aside by a personal decision of one man to be “generous” with public wealth that he was elected to administer but did not own.
Too often, as everyone in Sarawak knows full well, Taib took advantage of his power and mastery to be most generous of all towards himself. Much of that loot is now purloined by others – family or those who took advantage of his later years.
Malaysia’s forces of law and order must now re-open the files and launch a proper investigation into that rotten legacy so as to return Sarawak’s stolen wealth and repair its institutions so that its future governance can put the people first.
Source : Sarawak Report
Friday 9 February 2024
Taib family clan owns land 5 times size of Singapore? Why no MACC probe?
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Taib family clan owns land 5 times size of Singapore? Why no MACC probe?
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 10, 2024: Does the family clan of former Sarawak chief minister and governor Taib Mahmud own land in the state five times the size of Singapore?
It is certainly shocking to Malaysians, particularly Sarawakians, but not to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the federal government.
If the MACC and the so-called Madani Unity Government (UG), are shocked, why is there no probe launched on the alleged land grabs by Taib?
No News Is Bad News reproduces below reports on the allegations posted by The Coverage:
The Coverage/News/The List Of Taib Landgrabs : Owning 357,980 Hectares Of Land In Sarawak – 5 Times Larger Than Entire Singapore
The List Of Taib Landgrabs : Owning 357,980 Hectares Of Land In Sarawak – 5 Times Larger Than Entire Singapore
9 February, 2024
A pro-Pakatan blogger has accused Abdul Taib Mahmud and his family of owning 357,980 hectares of land in Sarawak or nearly 3.5% of the total land in the state.
Kelantan-based blog named Perisik Rakyat (People’s Spy) in his latest posting alleged that Taib, in his 30-year rule of the state, had amassed the landbank in the state which has over 12.4 million hectares of land.
The blog, which does not reveal the name of the blogger, claimed that Abu Bekir Taib, one of Taib’s sons, was the biggest “landlord” in state with ownership of 142,550ha in almost every part of the huge state which is as big as Peninsular Malaysia.
The blog claimed that Abu Bekir owned 70,000ha in Sri Aman, 4,400ha in Lawas, 20,000ha in Limbang, 500ha in Miri, 5,000ha in Sungai Teru and Batang Baram, 26,100ha in Sungai Karap, 4,000ha in Tinjar, 4,500ha in Sungai Tutoh, 4,000ha in Mukah and 9,000ha in Sungai Machan Tengah.
The blog also accused Taib’s family – Hamid Sepawi (cousin), Hasmi Hasnan, Teresa Toyad (relations), Raziah Mahmud (sister), Ibarhim Mahmud (brother), Elia Geneid (nephew), Robert Geneid (brother-in-law), Arip Mahmud (brother), Yahya Ibrahim (nephew), Mahmud Ibrahim (nephew), Azerina Mohd Arip (sister-in-law) and Fatimah Abdul Rahman (cousin) – of holding the massive landbank on behalf of Taib, also known as the White Rajah of Sarawak due to his white hair.
The blog also named several people which it claimed to be Taib’s close associates or cronies who owned land on behalf of him. They were, alleges the blog, Naroden Majais (a BN politician), Mohamid Morshidi Abdul Ghani (Sarawak BN secretary), Ahmad Su’ut (a traditional healer), Abdul Hamid Sepawi (a proxy) and Lau Hie Ping, Wong Kuo Hea, Lim Choo Tad, Siew Meng Kun, Chai Min Kian – all from the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP), a BN Sarawak coalition member.
‘Taib must be brought to justice’
The blog claims that among the land “hijacked” by Taib and his family were 31,000ha of NCR land in Long Lama through Merawa Sdn Bhd (a subsidiary of Samling Global), 15,000ha of NCR land in the Penan Ba Jawi via Samling Plywood (Miri) Sdn Bhd,13,000ha in the Bawan River Basin and 15,000ha in Bruit island.
FMT spoke to a real estate agent based in Kuala Lumpur but familiar with the property and land markets in Sarawak, who expressed shock over the claim.
Source : Malaysia Today
Taib’s Landgrabs – The Breakdown
Bruno Manser Fund’s research team have done the world another favour. They have conducted a careful and painstaking analysis of the leaked Land & Survey Department information that we first revealed on line here on Sarawak Report [click for land grab map and data].
From the BMF report we can now see clearly, in black and white, the extraordinary extent of the theft carried out by the Chief Minister and his family of Sarawak’s native and state-owned lands.
In the name of ‘development’ Taib has filched an area three times the size of Singapore for himself and close family members. Indeed, the Chief Minister, who claims he ‘does no business in Sarawak’ is himself an owner of the company which has received most of all in terms of land, Delta Padi.
Dirt cheap (or free)!
Just as outrageous is the fact that these handouts by the Chief Minister to himself and his family were made either for free or for a ridiculously low cost. According to BMF, 50% of the land handed to Taib family companies were given out for free under the guise of “payment in kind”!
This means the poor people of Sarawak did not even get a proper premium for the land that has been taken from them, which could have at least paid for some compensation or basic amenities for the state.
What kind of government carries out this sort of theft against it people?
Kleptocracy
Taib Mahmud runs what is known as a kleptocracy, from the old Greek word ‘klepto’, which means I steal.
Taib is himself a kleptocrat, which means that his primary motive, from the moment he gets up in the morning till he goes to bed in the evening, is to abuse his power to grab as much as he possibly can from the people who have placed their trust in him.
Sarawak has given a thief all the keys to the nation’s wealth and he has been stealing from them ever since!
The headline figures of the BMF report are that 200,000 hectares of native lands have been handed out to 31 Taib related companies over recent years to chop down and turn into oil palm. Altogether these companies have paid a mere RM100million in premiums for that land, a fraction of its worth in terms of timber and palm oil production.
Take Taib’s brother Onn’s recent advertisement for his own Achi Jaya plantation lands for example. He has been asking RM31million per acre, which makes a price of RM77million per hectare. This would place a worth on the 200,000 hectares grabbed by Taib at an eventual RM15.4 billion!
Compare that figure to the miserable RM3.47 million that Taib’s BN state government just announced was all it could afford to allocate this year to alleviate hard-core rural poverty!
Consider what Sarawak could do with RM15.4billion to help the impoverished communities of the interior. What a mistake to allow such wealth to pass through the hands of greedy old Abdul Taib Mahmud!
Source : Sarawak Report
SENARAI HARTA YG DI MILIKI OLEH Taib Mahmud
1. 750 hektar … di Sungai Lubai Tengah, Limbang Srwk Plantations Entiti perniagaan ini tlh diswastakn, 60% pegangan saham dimiliki olh Hamid Sepawi (sepupu Taib) & Hasmi b Hasnan.
2. 4,400 hektar … di Sungai Medalam, Lawas Celerity Design Sdn Bhd – Abu Bekir Taib (anak Taib Mahmud).
3. 9.000 hektar … di Batang, Limbang Future Atmosphere Sdn Bhd Abu Bekir Taib.
4. 11,000 hektar di Ulu Medamit, Limbang – Dataran Aras Sdn Bhd – Abu Bekir Taib.
5. 3,000 hektar … di Tinjar,Miri – Amazing Green Sdn Bhd – Teresa Toyad (keluarga Taib yg berkahwin dgn bekas Setiausaha Kerajaan Negeri) & CEO kpd SCORE Wilson Baya Dandot.
6. 750 hektar … di Jalan, Miri.
7. 2,000 hektar … di lokasi penting lapangan trbang, Miri – Kumpulan Parabena Sdn Bhd & Mesti Bersatu Sdn Bhd Taib Mahmud & Raziah Mahmud.
8. 500 hektar … di Sungai Sibuti, Miri – Premium Haven Sdn Bhd – Abu Bekir Taib.
9. 5,000 hektar … di Sungai Teru & Batang Baram – Essential Straits Sdn Bhd – Abu Bekir Taib.
10. 1,100 hektar di Sungai Karap Umpama Mantap Sdn Bhd – Abu Bekir Taib.
11. 10,000 hektar di Lot 1208 Sungai Karap – Abu Bekir Taib.
12. 50 hektar … di Jalan Tusan, Sibuti – Ukiran Mantap Sdn Bhd – Abu Bekir Taib.
13. 4,000 hektar di Sungai Bok, Tinjar – Log Oak Promotion Sdn Bhd – Abu Bekir Taib.
14. 4,500 hektar di Sungai Tutoh Syarikat Radiant Lagoon – Abu Bekir Taib.
15. 5,000 hektar di Sungai Karap & Sungai Kulak – Amgreen Gain Sdn Bhd – Ibrahim Mahmud (abang/adik Taib).
16. 50 hektar … di Sungai Karabungan, Niah – Hamid Sepawi (sepupu Taib) & Hasmi b Hasnan.
17. 31,000 hektar … tanah NCR di Long Lamai – Merawa Sdn Bhd (anak syarikat Samling Global).
18. 2,600 hektar di Jalan Setium – Mega Bumimas Sdn Bhd (anak syarikat Ta An – Hamed Sepawi (sepupu Taib).
19. 10,000 hektar di Similajau – Sahua Enterprise Sdn Bhd – Mohamid Morshidi bin Abdul Ghani (Setiausaha BN Sarawak).
20. 4,500 hektar … di Similajau – Derawan Sdn Bhd – Mohamid Morshidi bin Abdul Ghani (Setiausaha BN Sarawak).
21. 15,000 hektar … tanah NCR kaum Penan di Ba Jawi Samling Plywood (Miri) Sdn Bhd.
22. 1,600 hektar … di Setuan – Hasmi Hasan (proksi Taib).
23. 10,000 hektar di Sungai Takan & Ulu Sungai Nyatak, Tatau – Ikrar Bumi Sdn Bhd Elia Geneid (anak saudara Taib).
24. 8,000 hektar … di Balingian (sebahagian besar kawasan ini asalnya adalah hutam simpan Setuan Besar) – Saradu Plantations Sdn Bhd, Organic Treasure Sdn Bhd & Kumpulan Parabena Sdn Bhd – Raziah Mahmud (adik Taib) & Robert Geneid (ipar Taib).
25. 10,000 hektar … di Ulu Mukah – Sarawak Plantations Entiti perniagaan ini telah diswastakn, 60% pegangan saham dimiliki olh Hamid Sepawi (sepupu Taib) & Hasmi b Hasnan.
26. 5,000 hektar … di Mukah – Delta Padi Sdn Bhd (Taib Mahmud) & LCD (pengerusinya ialah Taib Mahmud).
27. 5,000 hektar di Sungai Bawan – Palmlyn Sdn Bhd Taib Mahmud & Arip Mahmud.
28. 13,000 hektar di Sungai Bawan Golden Star Ace Sdn Bhd – Taib Mahmud & Arip Mahmud.
29. 4,000 hektar di Sungai Sikat, Mukah – Bella Magic Sdn Bhd – Abu Bekir Taib.
30. 5,000 hektar di Kenyana Rajah Mutiara Sdn Bhd Taib Mahmud & Arip Mahmud.
31. 2,000 hektar di Loba Kabang – Victoria Square Development Sdn Bhd Ibrahim Mahmud (abang/adik Taib).
32. 2,050 hektar di Penasu Igan – Victoria Square Development Sdn Bhd Ibrahim Mahmud (abang/adik Taib).
33. 5,000 hektar di Antara Batang, Oya & Batang Mukah – Kub Sepadu Sdn Bhd – Hamid Sepawi (sepupu Taib).
34. 10,500 hektar di Sungai Retus – Hariyama Sdn Bhd Taib Mahmud & Arip Mahmud.
35. 768 hektar … di Pasai Siong, Sungai Retus – Masretus Oil Palm Plantation Sdn Bhd Ibrahim Mahmud(abang/ adik Taib), Yahya bin Ibrahim (anak saudara Taib) & Mahmud bin Ibrahim (anak saudara Taib).
36. 400 hektar … di Tulai Meradong – Delta Padi Sdn Bhd (Taib Mahmud) & LCD(pengerusinya ialah Taib Mahmud).
37. 2,000 hektar … di Batang Lebaan, Sibu – Delta Padi Sdn Bhd (Taib Mahmud) & LCDA (pengerusinya ialah Taib Mahmud).
38. 100 hektar … di Sungai Lengan, Sibu – Delta Padi Sdn Bhd (Taib Mahmud) & LCDA (pengerusinya ialah Taib Mahmud).
39. 600 hektar … di Sungai Melayu, Meradong – Sarawak Plantations – Entiti perniagaan ini telah diswastakan, 60% pegangan saham dimiliki olh Hamid Sepawi (sepupu Taib) & Hasmi b Hasnan.
40. 1,113 hektar di Batang Lassa – Europalm Sdn Bhd (anak syarikat Ta Ann Holdings) – Hamid Sepawi (sepupu Taib).
41. 1,500 hektar … di Jin Matu, Daro – Europalm Sdn Bhd (anak syarikat Ta Ann Holdings) Hamid Sepawi (sepupu Taib).
42. 90 hektar … di Kampung Tebang, Batang Lassa,Daro – Multi Maximum Sdn Bhd (anak syarikat Ta Ann Holdings) Hamid Sepawi (sepupu Taib).
43. 15,000 hektar di Pulau Bruit – Eastern Eden Sdn Bhd & Poh Zhen Sdn Bhd – Arip Mahmud (abang/adik Taib), Ali Mahmud (abang/adik Taib) & Azerina Mohd Arip (ipar Taib).
44. 7,700 hektar di Paloh Delta Padi Sdn Bhd (Taib Mahmud) & LCDA (pengerusinya ialah Taib Mahmud).
Source : Edisi Siasat
Leaked Sarawak Concession Map Shows Taib’s Secret Stranglehold Over Borneo Rainforest
The Bruno Manser Fund, has released one of Sarawak’s best-guarded secrets, a map of all the timber and plantation concessions in the northern part of Sarawak, a state on the island of Borneo that accounts for 25% of the world’s exports of tropical logs. The map was prepared in May 2010 by Sarawak’s Forest Department and was never intended to be made public.
For over three decades, kickbacks for timber and plantation concessions have been one of the most important sources of political funding and personal enrichment for Sarawak’s long-term head of government, Chief Minister Taib Mahmud (“Taib”). As a consequence, the Sarawak government has done everything in its power to keep secret the precise figures and dates on the timber and plantation concessions granted to Sarawak companies. Not surprisingly, the leaked Sarawak forestry map provides strong evidence that large tracts of the state’s forests have been handed over to family members and cronies of the Sarawak Chief Minister.
Most concessions in Northern Sarawak have gone to the Samling group, which exploits 1.37 million hectares of timber and plantation concessions in the area, equivalent to 36% of the total land mass of Northern Sarawak (3.79 million hectares) as is shown on the map. Samling is owned by the Yaw family, a Sarawak Chinese family with close ties to Chief Minister Taib Mahmud. 5.4 % of Samling shares are held by Ahmad Bin Su’ut, the Chief Minister’s spiritual medium (“bomoh”). Another 5% are held by Abdul Hamed Sepawi, Taib’s first cousin. Both are thought to be nominees for Taib himself.
Another 18 % of the land mass (700,000 hectares) have been concessioned to four state agencies, Yayasan Sarawak, Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation, Sarawak Economic Development Corporation, and the Land Custody Development Authority, which are ultimately controlled by Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud.
Other private companies with very significant concession areas are logging giants Shin Yang (384,000 hectares), Rimbunan Hijau (295,000 hectares) and KTS (156,000 hectares).
Other operators related to the Taib family are Titanium Management, a company owned by Taib’s son, Abu Bekir Mahmud, (55,000 hectares of plantation concessions) and Ta Ann (33,000 hectares), which is controlled by Taib’s cousin, Abdul Hamed Sepawi.
The Bruno Manser Fund is calling on the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) to investigate the granting of timber and plantation concessions in Sarawak as part of its ongoing corruption investigation against Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud.
Source : Borneo
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Update
The Coverage/News/MACC Must Step In To Prevent Taib Young Wife From Leaving Sarawak – Taib “Absconded” From Hospital ICU Against Doctors Orders By Raghad!
MACC Must Step In To Prevent Taib Young Wife From Leaving Sarawak – Taib “Absconded” From Hospital ICU Against Doctors Orders By Raghad!
5 February, 2024
The grim official silence over the situation with respect to the recently removed Sarawak Governor, Abdul Taib Mahmud, has not been able to cover up increasingly frantic and now shocking developments behind the scenes.
Yesterday, just before midnight, according to a police report sighted by Sarawak Report, Taib’s younger second wife, Raghad, who is now estranged from all his immediate family, turned up at the private Normah Hospital in Kuching, where her spouse had been returned owing to his deteriorating condition.
There, in the hours of darkness and with the help of a butler and a team of body guards, she set about removing her husband from the Intensive Care Unit where he was connected to life supporting medications, and had him placed in a wheelchair to be whisked out of the hospital and returned to Demak Jaya in a black Toyota Alphard.
This was despite a confrontation in the hospital lobby with doctors, who explained to Ragad that her actions were putting her frail husband in the way of harm!
The medical staff were also forced to advise Raghad that the centre had been passed a copy of a legal notice she had received that very day from the lawyers representing Taib’s sons to demand they be notified of any such attempts to remove their father from clinical care.
In the face of her forceful removal the clinic was obliged to formally record that Taib had been removed against medical advice. The clinic was then obliged to file a police report to notify of the incident in which the wording used left no doubt as to the seriousness of their concern:
“At around 2356 hours at Normah Medical Specialist Centre, the patient named Abdul Taib Mahmud [was] absconded by his wife Raghad, despite being advised to have the patient stay in the hospital for proper and adequate treatment.
It was also informed by the staff nurse from the ICU that Raghad has voluntarily removed all medications attached to Tun without alerting the ICU staff on duty. The patient was brought together by Toh Puan’s butler and body guards and was put on a wheelchair and was carried aboard a black Alphard at the main hospital lobby entrance….[where the doctors] tried to explain again to Toh Puan that her action of taking Tun Taib from our care may cause harm to the patient”
Kept Away From Medical Care And From His Own Family
This move in the middle of the night in the middle of the weekend, one suspects, was in direct response to that legal demand by Taib’s sons that their father must be kept under medical supervision in a place where they can visit.
Taib, who has experienced deteriorating health over the past several months, is believed to be now suffering from a life-threatening brain infection.
Visitors, including his own children, are now reportedly being banned by Raghad from his bedside and it is understood that she has been taking long-distance advice on his care from Turkish medical doctors over the phone.
On Sunday afternoon a 4.30pm visit by the new Governor to see his ailing predecessor was also cancelled.
There can be very little doubt that the Governor is now within an inch of his life and yet removed from proper care and even from the comfort and support of those dearest to him, his own children and siblings with whom Raghad is now in open warfare over their disputed inheritance.
Given the power and influence of the Taib family in Sarawak there can be little doubt that with such a state of affairs law enforcers and the courts will be kept busy over the next hours and days.
Raghad may have taken control of the situation for now. How long this lone woman, surrounded by packing cases and apparently ready to make her move the moment her husband dies, can be expected to hold off Taib’s angry relatives and the forces of law and order is a different matter.
Who would have imagined such a dramatic final act in the life of Taib Mahmud or thought to wish it on anyone?
Where’s former Sarawak First Lady going?
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 4, 2024: Pictures of former Sarawak First Lady Ragad al Kurdi, 44, packing boxes of hard cash and a mountain of luggage and boxes have been posted in social media.
Obviously she is preparing to move, but to where?
Will she still stay in Sarawak or return to her home country, Turkey.
The following are another two images found on social media:
No News Is Bad News reproduces below a Sarawak Report write-up on Ragad’s “big move”:
Is Ragad On Her Way Out Of Town?
2 Feb 2024
Her imperious finger is pointing a clear instruction, “out!” to whoever has been tasked with loading and removing a vast sea of boxes, packing cases, suitcases, rolled up carpets and wrapped up furniture that have been stacked up in the grand entrance hall of the Taib mansion at Demak Jaya.
The former Governor’s second wife, Ragad al Kurdi (44), looks to be in the process of moving out lock stock and barrel, according to pictures that have leaked out through WhatApp groups.
Wholesale move underway with dozens of boxes and cases packed up – some with the official Governor’s stamp
Meanwhile, Sarawak Report is informed that following further treatment at the Normah Hospital her elderly spouse, Abdul Taib Mahmud (87), remains languishing upstairs presumably not in the best of health.
Just days ago, following leaks which had been denied, Taib was unceremoniously dumped from office a month early and replaced without advance notice by Wan Junaidi.
As her husband has declined Ragad has enjoyed her spell in charge – now over.
So far, there has been no statement whatsoever from the previous incumbent, despite months of determined claims that he was in perfect health (barring minor treatments abroad) and capable of performing the duties of his office.
At the fore-front of all those claims was Ragad, uploading videos and photos of the happy couple on vacation in Turkey (where she has bank accounts and assets) in which Taib’s besotted young spouse could be heard crooning “because we all love you so much” into the billionaire geriatric’s ear.
Over that period a series of court cases have been opened up by Taib’s sons, in which Ragad is a defendant (along with her fragile husband) accused of procuring Taib’s signatures onto documents which have over the past weeks signed huge assets in the form of property and shares into her name.
Such are the burdens of great wealth, dubiously acquired, for all concerned. As the House of Taib has slowly crumbled around her it is purportedly Ragad herself who has ordered a gag against any statements on the present situation whatsoever.
No resignation statement, no health bulletin no grateful thanks to the people of Sarawak, just silence.
Yet, as the saying goes a picture can tell a thousand words.
Carpet, boxes and chairs piled high – book the cargo plane (long distance0
The message these pictures tell is that Ragad al Kurdi is leaving her spouse at home but not leaving empty handed.
What the picture does not reveal is what is to become of her husband who just passed her RM50 million in CMSB shares and put several of his properties in her name? Exactly how sick has Taib become and who is to care for him going forward?
Demak Jaya is bequeathed to Taib’s second daughter Hanifah in the event of his eventual death, meaning that at such a time Ragad would indeed be expected to move elsewhere. Are these scenes an indication that Mrs Taib is of the opinion that moment has become so imminent that she’s starting her packing now?
If so, it is perhaps all his family can hope that the deposed Governor is beyond being aware of what is going on around him or what has happened to his official status.
Maybe she plans to transport her ailing husband and pampered offspring to a controlled retirement in her favoured spot in Turkey?
In the absence of any proper statement, the questions folk in Kuching are asking is how much time the busily packing Ragad has had left spare to comfort her dearly beloved husband, whether she will take or leave him or if she will bother to even hang around until the end?
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