In response to the corruption of Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud, indigenous groups and environmentalists are organizing protests in the UK and Canada.
Demonstrations will be held outside Taib-controlled properties in downtown Ottawa and central London. Swiss Bruno Manser Fund released earlier this week a blacklist of 49 secret Taib companies that includes both Sakto Corporation and Ridgeford Properties Ltd.
Indigenous leader Mutang Urud from Sarawak, who’s been living in exile in Canada since the 1990s, will lead the protest in Ottawa. Sarawak Indigenous Peoples’ Association (SIPA) leader Mutang was arrested by the Taib government and put in solitary confinement in February 1992. The plight of Sarawak’s indigenous people was highlighted by Mutang at the 47th UN General Assembly in New York on 10 December 1992.
Clare Rewcastle Brown and Peter John Jaban will lead the London protest. Radio Free Sarawak’s DJ is Peter John Jaban, a London-based independent shortwave station. His grandfather was an Iban headhunter from Sarawak’s rainforests.
Sarawak Report is a news website focused on governance issues in the East Malaysian state on Borneo run by former BBC journalist Clare Rewcastle Brown. Earlier this week, the London Evening Standard featured Radio Free Sarawak and Sarawak Report.
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