Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Vol. 37, No 21. August 28, 1974

Malaysian high life

Malaysian high life

Dear Editor,

Enclosed is a news report of the impeccably corrupt manner in which the Chief Minister of Sabah conducts himself. I hope you will print it, as recently there appears to be some political awakening among Sabahans — and this brief news report shows how outrageously the Chief Minister is misusing the country's wealth.

Pissed Off Sebahan

From the Far Eastern Economic Review, July 22, 1974:

"The Chief Minister of Sabah. Tun Datu Mustapha bin Datu Harun, is not a men who believes in doing things by halves. He is disdainful of public air transport — and boasts his own fleet of two executive jets to fly him around the world. The fleet is to be expanded with the purchase of a Boeing 707 which could fly non-stop between Sabah and London. A Hefner-type aircraft, it will feature two bedrooms, a sauna bath, an executive office — and seats for less then 40 people.

His recent — unpublicised — marriage to an Australian shopgirl, 21 year-old Helen Moore of Queensland, provided more excuses for generous splurges. The Tun has built her an S(A)1 million "modern palace" — an 11-bedroom, air conditioned house with indoor and out-door swimming pools, a sauna bath — and a chandelier in each room. The house is protected by en electrified fence costing $85,000 with electronic "eyes" at all strategic points.

But that Is not all. The Tun has bought up the venetian-blind factory where his father-in-law worked, and made him a director. And for another $80,000, he bought up a lawn-mower business where his brother-in-law was a worker and made him its manager.