Malaysia urged by Swiss NGO to freeze late Sarawak governor Taib Mahmud’s wealth

An environmental activism group named after a Swiss who vanished in Sarawak in 2005 during a mission to defend an indigenous tribe from loggers has urged Malaysian authorities to freeze the assets of the late former Sarawak governor Taib Mahmud.

Taib, who died on Wednesday aged 87, had said over the years that the drive to establish vast palm oil plantations and infrastructure schemes was necessary for the renewal of the state on Borneo island.

In the process, the projects greatly boosted the fortunes of the vastly wealthy politician, who was estimated by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index to have assets worth over US$1 billion in the early 2010s.

In a statement, BMF Executive Director Lukas Straumann urges the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to immediately freeze Taib’s personal bank accounts and other assets before his family members could appropriate them.

“We call on the MACC to reopen its investigation into Taib assets, which was closed in 2016 for political reasons”, Straumann said.

The Malaysian authorities need to get to the bottom of the “enormous wealth” of Taib and his family, Straumann added.

In 1999, Manser flew a motorised glider above Taib’s residence as part of a publicity stunt to highlight the governor’s environmentally devastating policies, which led to the arrest of the Swiss and subsequent deportation back to his country.

Manser returned in 2005 to Sarawak, where he disappeared and was later presumed dead.

The unresolved mystery has led to multiple speculations on his whereabouts — that he went into hiding with the indigenous nomadic Penan tribe which he had made his life mission to protect; was being imprisoned by Sarawak authorities, died as a result of natural dangers he faced in the jungle or