Plantation Boss Wanted Over Bill Kayong Murder - WORLD EXCLUSIVE
16 Jul 2016
WANTED – Dato’ Lee Chee Kiang
So politically well-connected is Dato’ Lee Chee Kiang that it seems that no one has so far dared to name him in Malaysia.
However, we can reveal that he is squarely cited in the charge sheets
against others arrested over the fatal shooting of the land rights hero
Bill Kayong, where he is named for having abetted the murder.
Lee is believed to have fled Sarawak for Australia at about the time
Kayong was shot dead in his car at a traffic light in Miri, yet there
has been no public notification so far that a Red Notice Alert has been
issued for his arrest and we ask if the Australian police are aware
that a wanted Malaysian suspected killer is at large and believed to be
in their territory?
After all, the charge sheet against Lie Chang Loon who appeared in
court last week together with the man accused of shooting Kayong plainly
reads:
“..you together with Lee Chee Kiang (I.C. No.: 710816-13-5079) and other persons at large.. abetted one Mohamad Fitri Pauzi ..in the commission of murder of Bill Anak Kayong..”
Named as an abettor in the murder of Bill Kayong in the charges laid against Lie Chang Loon
Tung Huat Plantation Battle
The murder of one of Sarawak’s best known land rights figures was
immediately widely suspected as being linked to the gangster timber
politics of the state.
Temenggong father and son were the original Directors of the company – note the ID number matches the charge sheet above
Indeed, the criminal nexus between land grabbing timber/plantation
companies and top politicians, who hold undue influence over the forces
of the law, has been perfectly illustrated in the case of Tung Huat
Plantation, where Lee Chee Kiang is a Director and key shareholder.
For years native landowners have been locked in legal battles against
the company, supported by land rights lawyer Abun Sui and campaigner
Bill Kayong, who are both linked to the opposition PKR party – Kayong
was a candidate at the state election.
Temenggong Lee (left) received his extension from SUPP Vice President just before the murder
Lee Chee Kiang, on the other hand, is very closely linked to BN’s
SUPP party, whose local election battles have been heavily financed by
Najib personally (as million ringgit cheques signed by him at the general election bear testimony).
Lee’s father and fellow director, Lee Sie Tong, is none other than
the present Temenggong of Miri, known to have close ties to the SUPP.
On June 1st that post was extended in a ceremony officiated by an SUPP Vice President, the Tourism Minister Lee Kim Shin, who openly congratulated Temenggong Lee for having “been instrumental in getting the community to support the Barisan Nasional (BN) government“.
Together with his son, the Temenggong is not only a Director of Tung Huat Plantation they are the major shareholders also.
Father and son – Major shareholders and directors of Tung Huat plantation, as well as movers and shakers in Miri politics
Despite this prominent communal role the struggle involving Tung Huat
has been one of the worst examples of violence and bullying towards
local communities in recent years in Sarawak. Radio Free Sarawak has
reported on the issue since 2011 and civil rights campaigners have
raised ongoing major concerns throughout this period.
Tua Rumah (headman) was attacked with parangs in his car Central Miri
Bill Kayong himself and other campaigners had received unrelenting
verbal threats from Lee himself and gangsters allegedly paid by him for
months, often receiving up to 20 phone calls a day, according to people
close to the case.
Meanwhile, a series of appalling violent attacks had been launched
against the local Iban community affected by the Tung Huat Niah
Plantation in Sungai Bekelit.
In one incident late last year the headman was run off the road by
gangsters, who were in a vehicle registered to the plantation company
and slashed with a parang.
In a string of other incidents cars have been burnt out, houses firebombed and gangsters have been reported numerous times arriving at the village to intimidate locals
who had mounted blockades. In some cases they were reported for
deliberately running people over in their vehicles, landing them in
hospital.
How Radio Free Sarawak reported the issue on Friday 27th November
Impunity?
Yet, despite the unrelenting violence against villagers, local
leaders and campaigners have complained that the police did precisely
nothing to protect their safety.
Brought to court yesterday – Mohamad Fitri Pauzi
T
o the contrary the villagers’ legal representatives found that
instead the company had started mounting cases against them, denouncing
them in the courts for incitement.
After months and years, during which local people were forced to
stand their ground without the support of the forces of law and order,
campaigners believe that the owners of Tung Huat Plantations came to the
conclusion that they could act with impunity.
And in the case of the fugitive Dato’ Lee Chee Kiang it appears from
the present charges that he decided that he could threaten the main
political campaigner against his plantation and then order that those
threats be carried out.
Accomplice – Lie hired Fitri according to the charges
Sarawak Report has been told by those with knowledge of the case that
Lee Chee Kiang had started asking around for local mercenaries in the
absence of any police action against the earlier outrages, which had
plainly been carried out by those associated with his company.
It is alleged that Lee approached Lie Chang Loon (one of the two in
custody), who in turn sub-contracted the shooting to Mohamad Fitri Pauzi
(also now apprehended and charged).
Yet, when the two men were brought to court yesterday and remanded on
these charges there was no mention by the jubilant police force of the
names of the other suspects they are hunting. Nor did the local papers
name the key suspect for commissioning the crime, although they too have
had access to the charge sheet information.
All the Borneo Post dared hint was that “A Dato’ ‘Mastermind’ is on the run“!
“Lie was charged together with one Lee CK and two others still at large for abetting Mohamad Fitri in the commission of the murder of the activist”
was the only coy reference to the identity of the “mystery Dato’ from Borneo Post.
SUPP Connection
Happier
days! Ex- SUPP Chief Peter Chin stands arm in arm together with the
alleged shooter Mohd Fitri Pauzi (centre) on the BN campaign trail!
The shocking extent to which the SUPP/BN political connections of
this suspected gangster, Lee Chee Kiang, continues to protect him in
Sarawak could not be clearer than the failure to even name him as the
prime suspect in this murder.
Meanwhile, Sarawak Report has obtained the above picture of the very
man accused of pulling the trigger, earlier standing side by side with
the former SUPP boss Peter Chin on the BN campaign trail. The tall and
muscular hit man, Mohamad Fitri Pauzi, has his arm draped over the
shoulder of his political leader in a gesture of close affection.
Bill Kayong – a popular campaigner who got in the way of financial interests of politically connected Tung Huat Plantations
Had the young man seen his contract to eliminate a charismatic
opposition figure, who was getting in the way of the financial interests
of SUPP-connected figures, as somehow part of a political mission in
Sarawak?
It is time that the rulers of the state end their deafening silence
over the shocking circumstances of this case and denounce the
politically connected company, which benefited from the failure of the
police to stand up to their criminal behaviour.
It is also time that Peter Chin spoke out to clarify SUPP’s position
with relation to the Tung Huat Plantation company – in particular does
he or any other SUPP politician hold shares or interests (or nominee
shares or interests) in this company and, if not, why does he believe
the police have for years failed to address its gangster activities
against the locals whom SUPP are supposed to represent?
Finally, it is high time that the violent intimidation of the natives
of Sarawak by greedy companies, who have raped their lands with the
full support and backing of the political establishment, was ended.
Chief Minister Adenan Satem has claimed he wants more autonomy, but
what hope is there for natives that their interests will be any better
protected by a stronger state government, which has allowed such a state
of affairs to develop?
A violent campaign which ended in murder at this traffic light in Miri – and with the powerful main suspect on the run
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