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<div><p>It has been many months since
Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem declared war on corruption
and deceit in the multi-billion ringgit illegal logging saga in Sarawak.
When
he first exposed the issue early in the year, there were statements and
comments from enforcement agencies like the Sarawak Forestry, the
Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, police and local politicians
supporting Adenan.
A series of raids on illegal logging camps and seizure of logs ensued. Now, all seems so quiet at the enforcement front.
So far, we have not heard of any illegal logging kingpins or masterminds being detected or arrested in Sarawak.
Why? Are the forestry, MACC or police making any major headway in this war?
The
illegal logging activities in the state could involve high-level
internal conspiracies that had enabled up to RM100mil worth of illegal
logs to be traded in the black market annually.
Money from the illicit logging had fattened the pockets of those who plundered the natural resources from Sarawaks forests.
The
rakyat have openly wondered out aloud how huge bulks of illegal logs
could have been exported to foreign countries without being detected for
years.
In March, Adenan held a meeting with the enforcement
agencies in Miri and he later told a press conference that it was a fact
that illegal logs had been exported in bulk.
I was informed
that illegal logs had been taken out from our forests to ships waiting
in the sea (South China Sea) for export overseas, he said, stressing
that he had asked the maritime authorities to investigate the export
routes.
At the same event, I asked him: Tan Sri, so far among
those suspects nabbed by the Sarawak Forestry for illegal loggings, are
there any masterminds, or are these just the small fish so to speak?
Adenans reply was candid: Well, it will be good if they can get the mastermind.
That statement speaks volume. It simply means that so far, no masterminds had been arrested.
We ordinary Sarawakians are puzzled.
Almost everyday for the past few months, tonnes of illegal logs were being seized, but who were masterminding the operations?
Until
today, only 29 timber workers had been nabbed. These are just the small
fries, not the ones planning or executing the export operations.
Surely
there must be some powerful and influential people involved for illegal
logs to be extracted from the deep forests, shipped to the coast and
loaded into ocean-going vessels without being stopped.
Are there enforcement people on the take, officials paid to close their eyes?
Ordinary
people like us are fed up with the fact that there could be powerful
people plundering our resources and getting away with it.
It is
good to see Adenan flexing his muscle to try to stop the scourge of
corruption and deceit and the rakyat will support him all the way.
However, we are keenly awaiting for some big fish to be netted.
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