Cakap cakap...Taib Mahmud

What do you think will be Taib Mahmud’s last conscious thought on this earth when it is time for him to go ….to leave this wonderful world in which he has had more then his fair share of everything – wealth, power, fame or infamy (any which way you want to look at it)  - what would be his last conscious thought?

Will he be desperately trying to negotiate one last deal with the devil to prolong his time on earth? Maybe….but he will know soon enough that all the Kings horses and all the Kings men will not be able to help him there.

Is he consciously working out who is around his bed? Is he surrounded by his children? Is Sulaiman there? When will they start fighting over his estate? Will his new wife be satisfied with what he has left her or will she, like the late Nicole Smith, go for broke and start a lengthy legal battle with his children for a bigger share of his estate ?

Will he be assessing his legacy to Sarawak? To the people of Sarawak? Or will he  ask forgiveness from the indigenious people for taking their land, their livelihood and for leaving them with no hope of building a decent future for themselves and their  children?

Was his life adequate? Are all his business on earth finished? Has he done what is important in life? Who will miss him? Who will cry for him?

All his money, all his property….and in a while he will be worm meat! Maybe he is now able to understand what is meant by “you cannot take it with you”.

Or he might think about what the paper will write of him? What can they say? Will they write that he died a billionaire but left many people of Sarawak as paupers? And what will they write of him in his biography. Now that is a real worry! Greed, arrogance, the delicious mix of money and politics….he knows that will be his legacy to the people of Sarawak and to his life.

Or will his friend say of him as Voltaire said of someone” “He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend - provided, of course, that he really is dead”.

In his last conscious thoughts on this earth maybe Taib will understand that what is important is not to live forever but to leave for Sarawak something that will – maybe the possibility of a decent future for the people of Sarawak!  But at this time of his life, it is all too late. In these last conscious thoughts of his life on earth I am sure all these thoughts will flash through his mind and his pain in knowing that it is all too late will be punishment enough for all that he has done while Chief Minister. Amen.

“Naked a man comes from his mother’s womb,

and as he comes, so he departs.

He takes nothing from his labor

that he can carry in his hand.”

King Solomon quote