COMMENT | It was a coincidence. On the same day that I mentioned Abdul Taib Mahmud in an article on the Sandakan by-election, Malaysiakini ran a story quoting the Sarawak governor’s press secretary, Jameson Ahip Nawie, as reminding the public that the MACC has absolved Taib of any wrongdoing.

In my article on May 10, I concluded on this note: I wish my fellow Sarawakians were of the same breed as Sabahans. But no, Sarawakians are more docile, more apathetic and, I have to say this, more paloi (stupid). We allowed Taib to be the chief minister for 33 long years, giving him free rein to suck our homeland dry. Are we, Sarawakians, not paloi?

Jameson said in a statement that the MACC has exonerated Taib from any wrongdoing, in the wake of Taib being linked by the Swiss-based Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) to an allegedly illegal land-clearing operation just outside Mulu National Park.

Jameson pointed to a July 3, 2018 press conference held by MACC chief commissioner Mohd Shukri Abdull in relation to 15 separate investigations opened into the Sarawak governor.

He stressed that the MACC chief had said there was no case against Taib, due to lack of evidence regarding his involvement in the decision-making process...