Where did the money go? (Part 1)

SPECIAL REPORT ON SABAH’S LOGGING SCANDAL
Raja Petra Kamarudin

FOCUS, on page 20 of yesterday's (13 February 2005) print edition of The Sunday Star, carried a story on Sabah entitled ‘Dealing with new political equation’. You can also read this story online so we will not reproduce the entire text. What we would like to do, however, is quote some excerpts from this article.
Sabah takes bottom rung when it comes to poverty. Five of Malaysia’s 17 poorest constituencies can be found at the northern end of Sabah, said Kota Marudu MP Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili, the Minister in charge of national unity in the Prime Minister’s Department. He represents one of them. From standing proudly as one of two of Malaysia’s wealthiest states, Sabah’s timber reserves have long been over-logged. For Sabah, Prime Minister Datuk Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s recent appeals to states to hand out timber licences judiciously come two decades too late. Where did the money go?Sabah tycoons mainly, and the leftovers apparently went to businessmen in the peninsula, who in turn backed Umno at general and party elections.Yes, and that is the title of Malaysia Today’s expose and special report today, WHERE DID THE MONEY GO? According to The Sunday Star, the money all went to ‘Sabah tycoons’, while ‘the leftovers went to businessmen in the peninsula, who in turn backed Umno at general and party elections’. And this has been going on for twenty years, reports The Sunday Star.Well, The Sunday Star said this, not Malaysia Today. Malaysia Today is just repeating what the MCA-owned newspaper said. And MCA should know as they are ‘number two’ in the ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional. And would MCA lie or try to discredit its own political party? Definitely not!Okay, and what amount of money are we talking about here?Nobody knows for sure. The amount has been conservatively estimated at anything between RM30 billion to RM50 billion. And, just like the question of whether Petronas has earned and finished RM600 billion or RM800 billion over the 22 years Dr Mahathir Mohamad was Prime Minister, the amount that has ‘disappeared’ from Sabah is equally a mystery. No one, other than those who have siphoned out the money, knows the actual figure. And they are certainly not telling for obvious reasons.And this money that we are talking about all came from just one source (as there are many other sources, which we have already covered before this); that is, the timber extracted from Sabah’s forests that have over these last two generations been grossly over-logged. And those guilty of raping Sabah’s rich virgin forests (which is certainly a virgin no longer) these last 20 to 30 years includes Prime Ministers, Finance Ministers and Chief Ministers of both Sabah and Sarawak.Yes, the money is big, so the players are also big, and such a colossal daylight robbery could never be pulled off unless the Prime Minister and Finance Minister are part of the deal and members of the conspiracy.This story is actually not new. For all intents and purposes, Malaysia Today is merely resurrecting an old story, though not quite flogging a dead horse.The vehicle used by Sabah and Sarawak to rip off both states’ timber resources is Dewaniaga Sdn Bhd, a company jointly owned by the powers-that-be of those two states. On 12 June 1989, Sabah’s Daily Express carried a story called ‘Status of Dewaniaga: Bumi Chamber to take up claims in report’.Dewaniaga is owned by the Sabah Bumiputera Chamber of Commerce (SBCC) and the Sabah United Chinese Chambers of Commerce (SUCCC). At one time, Sarawak too had an interest in Dewaniaga but it has since been split into two separate entities, one for Sabah and another for Sarawak. The split was the result of a quarrel between the Sabah and Sarawak ‘shareholders’ as to how to divide the spoils.With that amount of money going around they still need to quarrel?Anyway, before becoming Sabah’s Chief Minister, Musa Aman was the President of SBCC. When he was appointed Chief Minister, he handed over the Presidency of SBCC to his nephew, Hasnul Ayub, to ensure SBCC will always remain ‘in the family’, Musa Aman’s family that is. And that family has its hands on billions of Ringgit. (And now they control Yayasan Sabah as well, Sabah's 'crown jewels'). No wonder Musa Aman is able to brag that he is worth RM300 million. One can assume this may not be quite true. He may, in fact, be worth many more times that. But then only he would know. (And he was not born into a wealthy family mind you, so guess where all his wealth came from).Understandably, SBCC denies it has any direct interest in Dewaniaga. But then of course it would! We would be surprised if they had said otherwise. In Malaysia, however, one needs not own any direct interest in any company to own all the profits. It would be better that your interest in a company that is ripping of the state’s wealth be held under nominees for safe measure. After all, when you have the power and authority to issue licences and permits, and are able to award sole rights in the timber business at will, why do you need to worry about holding any direct interest? To get a better idea of what is going on one would have to read Sabah's Daily Express news item of 12 June 1989. And this is what the Daily Express said:
STATUS OF DEWAN NIAGA BUMI CHAMBER TO TAKE UP CLAIMS IN REPORTKOTA KINABALU, Sun – The Sabah Bumiputera Chamber of Commerce (SBCC) says it has engaged a lawyer to look into certain claims made in an Asian Wall Street Journal report, involving a company called Dewaniaga Sdn Bhd.The report published by the Journal on March 14 1989 and reproduced by Daily Express on June 9 and 10, 1989, was entitled ‘Sabah Log-Shipping Cartel Defeats Rivals.’The SBCC in a statement issued by its secretary-general said it will be calling a Press conference on the matter soon.The statement added that the SBCC Supreme Council met on June 9 and unanimously agreed to give a mandate to its president, Musa Haj Aman and its secretary general Sabdin Ghani, to attend to the affairs of Dewaniaga Sdn Bhd.Dewaniaga is a company jointly established by the SBCC and the Sabah United Chinese Chambers of Commerce (SUCCC) with the former holding a 60 per cent equity, and the latter 40 per cent, according to sources in the SBCC.The SBCC is understood to be concerned about certain sections of the report published in the Hong Kong-based Journal, in particular, one which reads as follows: ‘Although Dewaniaga was publicly conceived and described in press reports of the time as a joint venture between the chambers, Datuk Wong (Chik Lim, now Tan Sri), in a written reply to Journal, says that ‘it is incorrect’ to call Dewaniaga a joint venture of the two chambers. Instead he terms it ‘a private company owned wholly by individual shareholders (no relationship with either chambers) to perform agency work.’Daily Express understands that the SBCC deems Dewaniaga as its subsidiary and is compiling relevant information on this. SBCC officers and members are believed to be ‘very surprised’ at Tan Sri Wong’s denial that Dewaniaga belongs to the two chambers.Dewaniaga was set up in 1979 in an apparent attempt to create a monopoly on logs shipped from Sabah. It was set up with $6 million paid-up capital and its chairman then, and now, is Tan Sri Wong who also heads the SUCCC.At the time of its formation, all six of the company’s shareholders were senior officials of the SBCC and SUCCC and the company’s registered office was the same as the headquarters of the SUCCC.And what did the Asian Wall Street Journal report of 14 March 1989 mentioned above have to say about this?Well, stay tuned for part 2 of this special report