It begs the question whether this government-managed and ‘protected’ fund has really been run in the interests of pilgrims or for the rich and powerful in Malaysia?

Indeed, way back in January 2016, Sarawak Report exposed a devastating warning by the then Governor of Bank Negara that the fund faced bankruptcy owing to its frequent use to invest in and bail out non-profit-making crony ventures – one might say in true, traditional Malaysian style of the sort the newly installed coup coalition fondly intends to return.

Thanks to the installation of ‘PM8′ Najib, who was booted out at the last election, is now back part of the ruling administration as one of the leading figures of UMNO.

Likewise, over past months Sarawak Report has also reported how the fund (along with the Employee Provident Fund, also controlled by government) has handily ignored the market to buy out huge numbers of shares in the Sarawak Taib family company CMSB belonging to the governor’s son Abu Bekir, thereby boosting the price of the company which had collapsed with the advent of a ‘reforming’ government in 2018.

It is established that Tabung Haji was used by Najib’s government to purchase outrageously inflated plots of public land, which were originally gifted to 1MDB, in order to cover payments owed on billions stolen by himself and others. The pilgrimage fund paid out hundreds of millions of ringgit from people’s savings for land given free to 1MDB.

When challenged on the mark ups in 2015 (the same year the THP plantation went into action) Najib claimed the Tabung Haji purchases were a bargain and the fund would sell on at a profit within a month. Yet the plots remain unsold and the loss has been to ordinary pilgrims, whose money is supposedly protected by the government oversight of Tabung Haji.

This latest questionable investment by the hard-pressed pilgrims’ fund would seem to represent just the latest in a string of scandals indicating that this fund, raised from the savings of devout muslims wishing to pay for a pilgrimage to Mecca has too often been cynically abused as a piggy bank for powerful figures, particularly the Pahang MP, Najib Razak, who still faces mass kleptocracy charges from his tenure as prime minister.

Yes agree, did you guys know Tabung Haji , a pilgrims’ fund or a piggy bank for powerful players in Malaysia?

Haha lastly our tax got burn just like that for saving those creeps ass....

“We discovered the development in September, but it is only recently we have worked out how huge this area is, a vast 8,000 hectare project in Pahang. They are already in deep financial trouble, so we cannot understand why THP would invest so much money in such a controversial plantation. They are already in deep financial trouble, trying to sell off other plantations, they will be blocked out of the international market if they act this way”” one NGO observer has told Sarawak Report.

Indeed, evidence from a leaked environmental impact report from the approved timber accreditation body SGS (based in Switzerland) implies that originally far more land, as much as 50,000 hectares, had been earmarked for de-gazetting and clear fell destruction under the project.

And, in a further apparent violation of terms agreed by Malaysia’s Timber Council, there is no sign of any attempt to ‘off-set’ the de-gazetting by designating other areas for protection, which is the rule for any timber harvested from formerly gazetted areas post-2015 – the so-called ‘Recovery Liability Compensation Scheme’.

Logging campaigners say although the practice provides an easy loophole for Malaysian actors to plunder valuable remaining forests whilst replacing them with degraded areas of little natural value, that requirement ought to have been fulfilled. However, in the Pahang case not even this gesture has apparently been attempted to replace the damage from this brand new plantation project.

“It is as if this company thinks because they are protected by the government and because they represent sensitive investors, the pilgrims, they can get away with ignoring the rules and the suppliers will not hold them to account. But, those suppliers will themselves be held in violation.” the NGO observer continued.

Tabung Haji comes under the direct purview of the Prime Minister’s Department. However, the concern is perhaps less that its may consider itself ‘untouchable’ but rather that it is vulnerable to political pressure and abuse, given that Najib, who is himself from Pahang, is on record for exploiting the fund to cover up 1MDB amid other suspicious investments.

Sarawak Report has also viewed a copy of the Environmental Scoping Information (ESI) report for the THP Pahang project. It confirms that ‘the Project site is located in Yong Forest Reserve’ in which ‘there were several components considered as an environmentally sensitive area (ESA)‘. Nevertheless, thanks to a string of licences granted by the state planning authority mainly between 2015-2017, the entire forest permitted to be clear felled and converted into the plantation and the question is why?

Mysterious purpose?
The reasons given in the ESI report, published just this year, seem wholly unconvincing given the bottom has fallen out of the palm oil market and THP itself has been losing money hand over fist. The ESI Statement of Need alleges that, despite these circumstances, there is a need for the extra plantation in this environmentally sensitive area and makes the further extraordinary claim the plantation will be “environmentally sustainable”:

STATEMENT OF NEED

The oil palm industry forms the economic backbone of Malaysia and continues to face new challenges in the face of globalization. The growth of the palm industry in Malaysia has been phenomenal. From mere 400 hectares planted in 1920, the hectarage increased to 54,000 hectares in 1960. Since then many more areas have been opened up for oil palm cultivation, either from virgin jungles or from the conversion of plantations that originally supported rubber or other crops….

Among the beneficial aspects of the project are:

The Project is aimed to stimulate economic development and subscribe towards fulfilling national policies under the Eleventh Malaysian Plan (2015-2020) ….;
The Project will support palm oil mill operations and other related downstream industries;
It will provide and increase job opportunities amongst the population i.e. business opportunity and employment in agricultural sector;
.. The project will transform a forest into a plantation site which will be environmentally sustainable;

Another Tabung Haji scandal?
Against such a background it is perhaps of little surprise to discover the government-backed pilgrimage fund is right at the centre of the latest eco-scandal about to be highlighted by NGOs.

Sarawak Report has sighted leaked information from a damning report on malpractices by the fund’s plantation arm, Tabung Haji Plantations (THP), which has caused a number of documented problems in Sarawak, Sabah and Kalimantan on the island of Borneo.

However, the latest scandalous transgression, which has been apparently only been recently discovered, is in the state of Pahang – in the form of a massive plantation development initiated by the fund in 2014 at the height of the Najib government.

According to the documentation, over 8,000 hectares of protected forest was de-gazetted by the state authorities in one of Pahang’s most famous beauty spots, the Yong Forest Reserve, which is directly adjacent to Taman Negara National Park. Leaked reports, including one from the timber certification auditor SGS, show the given purpose was to convert the land for yet more oil palm – the licence holder being Tabung Haji Plantations.

By 2015 complaints began to roll in that the area was being dramatically cleared. It is now evident that despite cutting back on its wider plantation business, which has been losing money during the market collapse, THP is continuing to invest its fundholders’ money in rolling out this new plantation on forest land, which appears to violate several of the agreements for sustainable palm oil which buyers from Tanbung Haji Plantations have signed up to with European partners.

The question forest NGOs are asking is why this massive, rule-breaking project continues to be supported by THP at what can only be enormous cost to the fund and its investors, despite the fact that the bottom has fallen out of the saturated palm oil market?

THP has been selling off several of its existing plantation interests as fast as it can over the past year elsewhere to cut hundreds of millions of ringgit worth of losses, so why has it mysteriously continued to invest pilgrims’ savings in planting up this brand new deforested area in Pahang which will not even be productive for years to come?

Investigators who discovered the existence of the project late last year told Sarawak Report that this de-gazetting of permanent forest, clear-felling and present plantation by THP is a clear transgression of agreed environmental standards on sustainability and yet THP claims it is a sustainable producer and holds a Malaysian Palm Oil Certification.

THP is currently a major certified provider of crude palm oil to key suppliers for the European market, such as Sime Darby and Wilmar, who pledge to these major clients that their sources abide by agreed environmental standards, which include not sourcing from areas planted in zones deforested since 2012:

One of the most depressing backward steps during the past days of the coup coalition government has been the unseemly rush by the supposedly humble and religious party, PAS, to extract what more they can out of Malaysia’s diminished natural resources – despite global scientific concern about the consequences of extinction and climate change.

On March 13th, Sarawak’s Borneo Post reported a triumphant declaration by the as yet unconfirmed new ‘Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities’, PAS’s Mohd Khairuddin, that he plans to end the moratorium on further logging and conversion to oil palm plantations promoted by the Harapan government, which was seeking to engage with European markets concerned by Malaysia’s record of reckless environmental destruction in recent years.

This is the same Kuala Nerus MP, who brushed off criticism of his high living before the last election, saying that PAS Islamic party MPs (who represent some of the most impoverished people in the land) have every right to lavish and expensive lifestyles.

When bailed out (after feckless state spending) by the Harapan federal government just before their coup, his fellow party leaders in Kelantan made it their first priority to buy a fleet of top of the range (non-muslim) Mercedes cars for them to drive around in with money intended for staff salaries and services.

There been little surprise that this ‘religious’ party made a bee-line for the various environment posts as the rivalling parties carved out deals over cabinet positions. The two PAS controlled state governments (Kelantan and Terengganu) have spent the last two years cavilling at federal attempts to restrain the rampant greedy and destructive logging of their remaining state forests and blatant abuse of the established rights of the indigenous peoples who live there.

The Minister for the Environment is none other than the Deputy President of PAS, Tuan Ibrahim, and the Deputy Minister of Agriculture is also from the party.

Saddest of all for Sarawakians who voted for change at GE14 has been to see the new Puncak Borneo MP, Willie Mongin (now Deputy Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities) defecting and now supporting his new PAS boss in the rush to announce plans to get right back to logging and rolling out more of the mass plantations that have created environmental disaster in the state.

The duo promised to ‘increase production and plantation areas’ in defiance of Malaysia’s existing high value European customers with all their tiresome sustainability concerns and claimed that they can drum up new markets, in such places as the Middle East instead – a region in need of biofuel?

All this before this government can even be confirmed in office. Mongin, a PKR defector, is clearly thrilled to have a deputy minster’s post (and official car and all the rest) as his reward for selling out his constituents. However, for him to have acted as a key enabler for this coup coalition government consisting of bigoted PAS, crooked UMNO and Taib henchmen is an extraordinary betrayal. He has so far refused to come out in the media to give a proper account of himself for whatever excuses he may claim to have.

The fact is Malaysia is presently facing the consequences of an over-saturated oil palm business faced with contracting demand, plummeting prices and far stricter sustainability criteria from the most valuable European markets on environmental grounds.

It means the PAS led grab to convert yet more forest and peatland into loss making plantations, primarily because ‘someone’ stands to make vast profits chopping down the remaining timber, will do enormous economic damage to Malaysia.

Yet the grandly titled ‘Deputy Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities’, Willie Mongin, is going to help them in Sarawak. And the Taib family, who have been pushing to cash in on massive licences they corruptly handed to themselves, will thank Willie for his betrayal of native landowners who thought he was on their side.

Religion vs Greed - New Tabung Haji Scandal Looms Over The PN Government? EXCLUSIVE

all the business owners in Malaysia.........well...malay unity government don't need u..............

Lock down minimum to end April.............

policemen harassing the public..... now act like gangsters only.

shut down sign order only,so easy.who don't know how to do?

extending to end April is a guarantee

the ugly truth..... even Vietnam seems to handle the virus and economy better than us.

in the meantime, police want to charge a doctor for jogging..... in China / Singapore.... they are projecting doctors and nurses as heroes

already starting.... millions of poor daily wage workers turning to crime to survive.

靓女 phoon phoon lock down is minimum 6 weeks

if GOVT organised any more mass gatherings like meet at police station again then must start all over again with another 6 weeks.
02/04/2020 3:45 PM

when bringing a sledge hammer to the problem, and in the hands of our police and politicians, .....its a failed state in the making.

we must know Italy, Spain and New York do not have a history of mask. unlike SARS Asia

perhaps we do not need to follow Italy into total lock down.... just need masks and common sense

the difference between success in Asia and failure in the west could be as simple as mask

China still talk big on blaming Its the american soldier who bring wuhan virus to wuhan? Eat more exotic animals china, later you will blame God for bringing More and more death to china, hehe

Agree, as you can see why hongkong and taiwan oppose china kaw kaw, never wanted to be a part of china. No one see clearly why, haha i just throw that 2 fly i smash back onto that cow manure

Got cash in business will face the prospect of explosive sales n revenue like the Tech business!

Please choose the correct counters to invest with your hard earn money. Excited, i also just smash 2 funny looking fly that stand on cow manure yuck! phui

Do you know that by 2030, Malaysia will have more old people compare to young ones! Yeah, those in their 20s already 30s in 10 years time! Those who are in their 30s already 40s! And yeah, by 2030, Malaysia will have explosion of retiree from civil service! Not all new intake! Just fraction! Harapan fail to curb full pension!

It was Najib who bloated our civil service with useless extra 1 million! No thoughts that future generations will be overburden with pension welfare for this bloated 4 to 5 million retirees! In the end, Malaysia will spend 60% of it's annual budget feeding useless civil servants!
Be firm! You don't give pension to non performers! You are cultivating lazy culture! Only get pension to deserving and talents teachers, core medical staff, and so forth! Be very selective! Pension for those who are useable in time of crisis! Example, during current pandemic, you can recall those retiree doctors and nurses and pay extra on top of their pension! It's worth it! Tell me, what do retired clerical civil servants do! When half of they working life spend playing around!

Construction sector is back, GO Ageson GO..Seize the opportunity, the wind blow to construction sector..

chicken dinner chicken dinner! Salute Ageson!

Winner winner chicken dinner! Salute Ageson!