| His foray into the new media smacks of the first wave of campaigning for the coming state polls.
Less than a month to go for the 10th Sarawak state polls, the nation's longest-serving chief minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud, has launched a cyber campaign to fend off various allegations against him, including his family's global business empire.
NONEIn one of the video interviews uploaded onto the popular video sharing portal Youtube, Taib explained that his daughter Jamilah's business was initially funded by his gratuity as a federal minister, which his daughter through her business acumen expanded into a global empire.
In the four-minute footage titled 'Jamilah's business in Canada is successful because she is good' , uploaded by a Youtube user identified as therealsarawak on Tuesday, Taib explained that Jamilah's property business was founded 20 or 30 years ago.
"Well, my children make money, yes, quite big. I don't know whether what they said 100 million is correct... in Canada.
"But it all started (when) I gave money to my daughter. I was resigning from the federal government. I got gratuity, I gave some money to her to start a new business, it thrived.
"It is a property development company. When our town was still small, they had foresight to buy pieces of land and sell them quickly," he said.
azlanTaib was appointed to the federal government in 1968 and held various portfolios in Kuala Lumpur until his return to the Sarawak state government in 1981.
During the interview, he denied that Jamilah's initial capital came from public funds.
"(The business started) around the time when I was still chief minister, yes, so I made money out of chief minister? You know what kind of country I inherited in 1981?
"Nobody could afford to give me money then. Sorry lah, I mean... (but) now, yes, if I want to be corrupt, I can get a lot of money. "
He then rose to Jamilah and her Canadian husband, Sean Murray's defence, saying that their good judgement in property investment had paid off.
"But do you know that if my daughter is stupid, or my son-in-law is stupid, they would not make that much money, (then it) is not an issue. Probably I would have to support them today (laughs).
"But they were quite successful, from successful they go do business in London already, buying a building, rehabilitating it, and then selling it, that's fantastic."
Ijamilah taib ottawa palacet has been reported that the couple owned Ottawa's second most expensive house, worth RM28.3 million.
According to the popular anti-Taib website Sarawak Report, Taib's family owns a multi-billion global property empire covering UK, the US and Canada, mostly controlled by the couple.
'I don't know the Browns'
The interview was divided into six parts, each lasting from one to four minutes, showing a cheerful Taib, clad in a black blazer, fielding questions from more that one interviewer, while enjoying fruits on a dining table.
NONEHowever, the identity of the interviewer and the date of interview were not disclosed.
In another part titled 'I don't know the Browns', Taib claimed that he does not know or has met Clare Rewcastle Brown, the person behind the Sarawak Report.
However, he said that he was informed about Brown's trip to Sarawak during the Batang Ai by-election in April 2009.
"The sister (sister-in-law of former British premier Gordon Brown), I was told, true or not true, came during the by-election. She told people she got a sneaky feeling that she has been tailed all the time.
"But the police were not trying to engage in spying in the Batang Ai by-election - no security risk and it was a straight forward fight and a safe constituency, why should we tail her? So she must have felt somebody was watching her, I don't understand this."
Taib then claimed that he had revealed much information in the early days in answering to his critics.
"But they refused to (accept), I think they had made up their mind," he said.
Inviting international inspection of forests
Other parts of the interview focused on Taib's claims that the state government had practiced sustainable logging and taken various measurements to preserve Sarawak's tropical forests and wildlife, contrary to international environment protection groups's allegations.
Besides the Youtube channel, the newly launched pro-Taib website Sarawak Reports, a clone of Brown's Sarawak Report, also aired a separate video interview of Taib.
penan 030609 rainforestIn it, Taib announced plans to invite independent and international inspection teams to visit Sarawak in order to verify that most of state's rainforests remain intact, a move obviously to rebut allegations from international environmental critics that 90 percent of the forests had been destroyed.
Taib said that state officials would provide full cooperation and assistance to inspectors from any certified international industry or environmental organisation.
"I know that there are exaggerated claims that 90 percent of Sarawak's forests have been destroyed by logging
"These are probably claims by people who are well-meaning and care for the issue of deforestation just like I do. But the fact is more than 70 percent of our forest are still intact," he said.
It is believed that these video interviews are the first wave of BN's cyber campaigning ahead of the April 16 state polls.
After the setbacks suffered by the federal BN in the 2008 general election, as well as Sarawak BN in the 2006 state polls, the ruling coalition has been emphasising that it should beef up its campaign in the cyberspace, which has been dominated by anti-establishment opinions, in order to engage not only more of the young but other urban voters as well. |
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