The Forest Keeper

Despite whatever that has been said and written about Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman in the past, he certainly seems to have done some things right.

Sometimes, you have to give credit to a man when he deserves it.

A source disclosed to Sabah Ground Zero that a foreign-based publishing house is coming up with a book on the CM and his efforts to preserve nature.

The title of the book is 'The Forest Keeper' and it goes on to say 'an untold story of Musa Aman the conservationist'.

Nature lovers and conservationists might want to read it once its out.

The pix below is the cover of the book.

It seems that the publisher is keeping mum on details of the book, which is believed to be over 100 pages and is due to be out early 2014.
 

 

 

From Pom Pom to Washington...

THE sheer scale of America’s surveillance capabilities is remarkable.

The U.S. and its allies Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand jointly participate in a spy group called the "Five Eyes" network.

Australia backs Washington by keeping tabs on Asian countries.

Many dirty secrets of the Five Eyes’ spying activities (some of it very crass in nature) have surfaced in the public, thanks to the damning disclosures of whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The Huffington Post has an article on the Five Eyes network and its link is here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nikolas-kozloff/geopolitics-of-racism-nsa_b_4206263.html

The murder of a Taiwanese businessman and the kidnapping of his wife in the idyllic island of Pom Pom on Nov 15 is how the story of Sabah gets from bad to worse.

Security breaches, kidnappings, killings and etc will continue to occur in our shores.

Unraveling this latest incident on the early hours of Nov 15 could lead all the way to Washington.

This incident emphasizes a strong need for our security forces to wake up and understand the game being played out by the world’s superpower and its Five Eyes network.

There is a gross lack of intelligence on our side and this has proved to be our Archilles’ heel.

We lose a lot of ground when we do not know who we are facing and what we are putting up with.

Despite setting up ESSCOM and ESSZONE with enhanced security and advanced mechanism to combat terrorism, we suffer yet another serious security breach similar to the Sulu Army intrusion last February.

At the crime scene at Pom Pom Island Resort and Spa, police found two 5.56mm and two 6.62mm spent casings and these are cartridges used in heavy assault rifles such as M-16 and AR-66.

The 5.56mm rounds are widely used by NATO safekeeping forces and also by the US special force.

                     
In the U.S-led war against Iraq in 2003, 46 million 5.56 mm rounds, 30 million 6.62 mm and 60 million .50 caliber rounds were used, according to U.S. Army records published by the National Defense Magazine.

Abu Sayyaf, which is being blamed for the incident, has access to a large cache of these assault rifles, rocket launchers and handguns.

Interestingly, the Star newspaper first carried an article on a group of obnoxious and rude Caucasians working as dive masters and managers of these resorts.

The Star labeled them as White Rajahs and highlighted how they tried stopping journalists and policemen from entering the resorts, and one of them yelled vulgarities at a female journalist who went near the resort in the aftermath of the incident.

A lot of answers can be found if our security forces are brave enough to round up every single of these Caucasians working in dozens of private resorts and diving locations in Sabah and carry out background checks on each of them.

By doing this, we might incur the wrath of the very nations spying on us but at least we would have passed them the message that we know what they are up to in our backyards.

In Bali, the U.S. has agents just lazing around as beach bums; in Philippines, there are a dozen agents living in Manila and Angeles City, and in Thailand, you will be surprised to find them running a bar in downtown Bangkok and living with a Thai wife.

The U.S also has a team of highly skilled soldiers in Southern Philippines to help train local troops in their ongoing fight against Abu Sayyaf. This matter has been widely reported in the press so a simple Google search will point one to the right articles.

The truth is often overlooked in a sea of lies and mischaracterizations.

The truth is that the United States comes up with a lot of bullshit to cover up the only activity it intends to pursue - spying.

How effectively could the U.S, which lost the Vietnam War, train local troops in Philippines to fight Abu Sayyaf?

Or is the Abu Sayyaf group being manipulated to carry out attacks on countries such as Malaysia?

One can never trust what the U.S is up to.

And why all this is happening?

The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a 2008 report that the South China Sea has potential oil reserves of more than 213 billion barrels, larger than all the oil left in the Middle East.

And China is spoiling the party by claiming exclusive rights to virtually all of the South China Sea, including its vast reserves of oil, gas and ocean resources.

 You can read more here:  http://nation.time.com/2012/07/15/the-south-china-sea-from-bad-to-worse/

Is Salleh Said Keruak eyeing a comeback as Sabah CM?

Salleh Said Keruak, the son of former Sabah Chief Minister Tun Mohd Said Keruak, is certainly up to something judging from the way he talks and moves in recent weeks.

Salleh was the 9^th Chief Minister of Sabah between 1994 and 1996, and had to vacate his post to Yong Teck Lee under the CM rotation system.

The 56-year-old Salleh is currently the Speaker of the State Legislative Assembly and Sabah Umno liaison deputy chairman.

In a critical time when he is supposed to help strengthen and solidify his party, especially with the looming polls, Salleh’s actions is seen by many as going on the contrary.

First, Salleh suggested that CM Musa Aman should contest the Vice-President’s post knowing very well that incumbent VP Shafie Apdal is going to defend his post.

This is because Shafie first announced his decision on July 21.

Read here: http://www.thesundaily.my/news/775806

Knowing very well that Shafie is going for the candidacy, Salleh tried to cajole Musa into the ring by openly voicing his support for Musa on Aug 3.

Read here: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2013/08/03/musa-an-ideal-candidate-says-salleh/

Not only that, Salleh was alleged to have mobilized several divisions to voice their open support for Musa in a hope that Musa might get into the fray.

Salleh was reported to have said: "Musa is a committed party worker and delivers what he promises unlike some leaders who just play politics and create his own grouping”.

Then when Musa dropped a bomb by refusing to contest the VP’s post, let alone defend his supreme council post, Salleh was caught off guard because Musa did not even disclose his decision to Salleh.

Now that Musa was out of the race, Salleh should have, as a good leader, rallied behind Shafie, especially when Shafie had supported him many times in the past.

But Salleh had this to day: “There is no quota for any leader or state for the posts of vice-president and supreme council members in the coming party election.

In other words, Salleh’s words can be interpreted as telling candidates that there is no incentive to vote for Shafie.

In fact, Salleh's actions can be seen as contradicting Musa who had this to say: "View the election as a family matter”. (htttp://bernama.com/bernama/v7/po/newspolitics.php?id=984980)

Many of Sabah Umno members are now asking this question – What is Salleh up to?

Since Musa is not going to contest in the elections, why not support Shafie and get the entire state party machinery to throw their support for the Rural and Regional Development Minister.

Or is there a hidden agenda?

And since a few strong indicators point that this is Musa’s last term as CM, is Salleh eyeing the state’s top post?

After all, he did not get to enjoy a prolonged stint in 1994-1996 due to the rotation system that cut short his tenure as CM.

So, is this comeback time for Salleh?

The story of Sabah’s two most powerful politicians and their gentleman’s agreement that screwed the plans of a third force...

The current political landscape in Sabah is dominated by two heavyweights – Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman and Federal Minister for Rural and Regional Development Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal.

It is a fact that Musa Aman and Shafie Apdal are currently the two most powerful politicians in Sabah, each with their own supporters and detractors.

But it is also no secret that Musa Aman and Shafie Apdal don’t see eye to eye, let alone talk to each other.

Even if their paths do cross inadvertently, be it at official functions or party gatherings, they quickly shake hands, mumble greetings and turn the other way around.

But more than a decade ago, both men were good friends.

Situation, circumstances and the people surrounding them is certainly to be blamed for the animosity between these two astute, intelligent and shrewd politicians.

There is also a third force active in Sabah politics that want to see both men removed from their respective positions and this was the group that initially started to pit Musa with Shafie, and vice-versa.

This third force comprises few shadowy characters within Sabah Umno itself and from component parties in Sabah, not to mention those who have a beef with either Musa or Shafie.

Some party veterans in Sabah claim the political rift between Musa and Shafie is beyond repair, but others believe they will readily bury their hatchet if the situation warrants the need for them to work together for a greater cause.

Shafie hails from a family with deep political ties with Umno.

His uncle (mother’s brother) is Tun Sakaran Dandai, Sabah’s first Chief Minister from Umno.

For more than three decades, the families of Sakaran Dandai and Shafie Apdal have worked and struggled for Umno.

There is no question on their loyalty to the party.

Sakaran Dandai and his colleagues prepared the framework that played a pivotal role in Sabah Umno becoming a dominant party in the state in the 90s.

Shafie is a close confidant of Prime Minister Najib Razak and served as Deputy Defence Minister when Najib was Defence Minister between 1999 and 2004.

Over the years, Shafie has earned Najib’s trust and their relationship has grown beyond politics.

Najib feels secure when he is with Shafie. He never has to second guess or doubt Shafie’s loyalty unlike a few other politicians within the party.

Musa on the other hand, never had that kind of relationship with Najib.

But he made efforts to become close with the First Family and eventually earned the trust of First Lady Rosmah Mansor.

It is a known fact amongst senior Sabah politicians that Musa has Rosmah’s ears.

And in his own way, Musa has proved his loyalty to Najib and takes great effort to maintain strong ties with Putrajaya.

Much of the bad blood between Musa and Shafie started more than a decade ago when both politicians’ careers started to rise.

Shafie rose to prominence in the Federal scene while Musa took the top job of running the state.

While it is not really possible to pinpoint the one single cause that led to the cracks in their relationship, many believe it was over the way Shafie and Musa handled the state’s coffers.

Shafie was known to be generous while Musa was very selective about spending, to a point that prudence was the keyword.

Camps aligned to Shafie become unhappy with Musa’s management of the state while camps aligned with Musa became unhappy with Shafie’s way of doing things in the state as well as federal level.

All this infighting gave a splendid opportunity for the third force within Sabah’s political echelons to further aggravate the situation between Musa and Shafie.

There are also stories on how Shafie’s powerful Rural Ministry with billions under allocation refused to hand over it funds for Sabah to Musa because of the people associated with Musa.

It is learned that Shafie’s camp was concerned that the funds might not reach the intended people but end up in the wrong hands.

Musa’s camp, on the other hand, was angry that only people deemed aligned to Shafie were getting lucrative infrastructure contracts.

Each time the rift became wider, and more controversies surfaced, the third force was smiling gleefully.

But unknown to Shafie or Musa, the third force was actually monitoring their each and every move, and were secretly hatching more plans to topple them.

It will not be wrong to say that the controversies involving Musa (over the Michael Chia money laundering scandal) and Shafie (for his alleged affair with an actress) were linked to the third force.

But controversies alone were not sufficient to bring down any of the two.
In fact, both Musa and Shafie walked away unscathed from their scandals.

Shafie continued to enjoy support as Umno vice-president while Musa gave Barisan Nasional its two-third majority in the State during the May 5 General Elections.

As the nominations for the Umno elections drew closer, elements of the third force at work surfaced again.

Musa was being pushed by 'some' quarters to contest for the VP’s post and several divisions immediately threw their support for Musa.

This started to give PM Najib a headache.

Not wanting to take sides, Najib picked up the phone, called Shafie and Musa and told them both to sort things out amicably and revert to him on their decisions.

Some insiders say Najib told Musa to concentrate on the state as he was doing a great job but nevertheless, did not force Musa to stay away from the contest.

On the morning of Sept 15, Musa called Najib to inform his decision and then later the same day, broke his silence to the media by announcing that he is not contesting the VP’s post, let alone defend his post in the Umno Supreme council.

Musa made his intentions clear that he is just going to concentrate on developing the state.

Shafie heaved a huge sigh of relief at this news and immediately thanked Musa for the decision – albeit not personally but through the media.

All this was done in a gentlemanly manner by both Musa and Shafie.

Shafie went on to say in an article which appreared in the Star on 23^rd September 2013 (page 7): “I do not have any personal conflict or ill-feeling towards Musa. Maybe we have some differences in our approach but that is normal. To say that we cannot work together at all is not right”.

Suddenly, those who made noises from the background became silent and retracted to their hiding.

The third force was caught off guard. Their plans backfired.

For the first time, Shafie and Musa nailed them at their own game.

 - / -

Uncovering the plot to topple Musa Aman

It all began with oil…

Sometime in 2007, a group of businessmen approached Sabah CM Musa Aman to discuss ways they could explore and benefit from the state’s lucrative oil & gas industry.

Now, these are the same group of people who benefitted greatly from the state’s timber resources via Yayasan Sabah and other channels for many, many years under previous Sabah Chief Ministers.

They became very wealthy over the years, so much so they could afford to blow a few millions a night in casinos.

Well, the Sabah reforestation plan and conservation programme that was put in action by Musa since he became CM in 2003 was taking a toll on this group of businessmen.
They could not make as much money as before and therefore, needed another cash cow.

Unlike the millions they made in the timber industry, the petroleum industry has the potential to make them billions!

Sabah has Malaysia’s top oil reserves and the Sabah Basin is projected to produce oil for a much longer period than any other oil-producing states in Malaysia.

All they had to do was get Musa’s blessings and the money from the petroleum industry would start pouring into their coffers.

But the unimaginable happened.

Musa, despite being 'friendly’ to them, refused to entertain their demands and deemed it not right for them to put their hands in the petroleum ‘cookie jar’.

Many attempts were made to smooth talk Musa, and numerous meetings and lobbying sessions took place – but Musa kept them at bay.

Angry and bitter that Musa had cut them off the lucrative petroleum sector and denied them a chance to taste a slice of the billions in oil money, this group hatched a plan to get rid of Musa.

They vowed that Musa must be removed at all cost.


Timber tycoons run out of trees to chop...
 

Proceeds from the timber industry in Sabah were in the past used intensively to fund political activities.

The forests of Sabah became the ATM machines for Sabah politicians.

Musa Aman is the 14^th CM of Sabah since Tun Fuad Stephens first took office in September 1963.

The other 13 CMs were Tun Fuad Stephens (1^st term 1963-1964), Peter Lo Sui Yin (1965-1967), Mustapha Harun (1967-1975), Mohamad Said Keruak (1975-1976), Tun Fuad Stephens (2^nd term 1976), Harris Salleh (1976-1985), Joseph Pairin Kitingan (1985-1994), Sakaran Dandai (1994), Salleh Said Keruak (1994-1996), Yong Teck Lee (1996-1998), Bernard Dompok (1998-1999), Osu Sukam (1999-2001) and Chong Kah Kiat (2001-2003).

There are dozens of timber tycoons, or sometimes known as timber mafias in Sabah and they played instrumental roles as the political backbone and controlled the purse strings of the political elites.

As a matter of fact, Sabah had the highest concentration of millionaires in the country during the 80s and 90s, all cultivated by the backwater political system backed by timber proceeds.

When Musa took office in 2003, the state’s timber resources were fast depleting and getting out of control.

Illegal logging was terribly rampant and something had to be done fast, especially as the timber mafias were creating a lot of problems for Yayasan Sabah with their demands for more concessions/contracts/favors/etc.

The Yale’s School of Forestry and Environment Studies, in its Yale Environment 360 publication had this to say on their 12^th June 2012 issue:

Forests not only became the state’s principal rainy day fund, but eventually came to be seen as a piggy bank for politicians. The biggest potential beneficiary was the chief minister, who controls both Yayasan Sabah and appoints the director of the forestry department, obliging the most senior forest official to abide by his orders. 

Soon, the push to generate more cash began to take a toll, and in the 1970s logging accelerated in forests across Borneo, including Sabah, due to rising global demand for timber products. The situation for forests outside the area designated as permanent forest estate was worse due to the emergence of a new and highly profitable crop: oil palm. Oil palm plantations in Sabah grew from almost nothing in the mid-1980s to covering nearly a fifth of Sabah’s landmass by 2010.

Inside the Yayasan Sabah concession, logging was rampant, with companies cutting ever-smaller trees and using helicopters to harvest steep slopes. Yayasan Sabah’s revenue plunged with declining timber yields. The situation reached a crescendo in 1998 when the then-chief minister signed off on a massive pulp mill to be run as a Malaysian-Chinese joint venture. The mill would require nearly a third of Yayasan Sabah’s concession to be cleared and planted with fast-growing acacia. When Sam Mannan, then director of forestry, objected to the project, he was relieved of his post by Sabah’s chief minister.

Parts of Yayasan Sabah were laid to waste, but it was all for naught, as the pulp project never materialized. Even with the official abandonment of the mill project in 2001, logging continued, eventually serving as a catalyst for early re-logging of nearly three-quarters of Yayasan Sabah. Logging generated a short upswing in revenue for Yayasan Sabah, but it wasn’t sustainable. The long-term economic outlook for Yayasan Sabah was bleak.

You can read more at:

http://e360.yale.edu/feature/a_desperate_effort_to_save_the_rainforest_of_borneo/2540/

Musa’s secret game plan to curb excessive logging… 

When Musa assumed office in 2003, he set the wheels in motion that slowly and steadily dried up the money supply of these timber tycoons/mafias.

Sustainable forestry was introduced and Sam Mannan, who got back his old job, was given more power to carry out the reforestation initiatives.

The Yale Environment 360 article goes on to say this further:

In addition to trying to turn around the situation in Yayasan Sabah, Mannan has so far successfully protected some of the last remaining lowland primary forests in Sabah.

Indeed, if you travel far enough in Sabah, some of Borneo’s most treasured forest still exists.

“Sabah is still way ahead of Sarawak and Kalimantan: surviving primary forests areas are being conserved, reforestation and forest restoration is happening, and encroachers have moved out of forest reserves,” said John Payne, a conservation scientist with the Borneo Rhino Alliance.

Musa Aman’s plans were slowly bearing fruits.

He was slowly cutting off one timber tycoon after another in the food chain.

To enforce his plans, Sam Mannan came up with a set of stringent guidelines under the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), an eco-certification body.

Various internationally recognised systems such as the Pan European Forest Scheme (PEFC) and the Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme (MTCS) were introduced and put in place.

The Sabah Forestry Department set 2014 for full certification of Sabah’s forest concessions. At the same time there is experimentation occurring in parts of the Yayasan Sabah concession, including the world’s first Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) project.

The forestry department’s strategy to enforce the FSC guidelines is to bind loggers to compliance.

Even if a chief minister or a politician wishes to use the forest revenue as a personal ATM, it becomes very difficult and controversial because the areas are FSC-certified.

Short-term licences that cause tremendous damage to the environment are being drastically phased out and Sabah’s forest management credibility is at its highest — an open-book philosophy whereby logging and forest management areas are all open to third-party and NGO scrutiny.

Long-term logging licences have been subjected to third-party auditing (independent audit) since 2010 so independent auditors would detected any illegal felling.

The size of forest reserves under the Totally Protected Areas (TPAS) category is now reaching 1.3 million hectares or about 20 per cent of Sabah’s total land area, exceeding international standards of 10 per cent.

By 2014 when all rules and regulations come into full effect, many timber tycoons/mafias still existing in Sabah will be out of business and the remaining players have to follow strict international guidelines. The party’s over.

 

Frugality and tight grip on purse strings created enemies for Musa…

Musa entered politics as a wealthy but prudent businessman. Contrary to popular belief, he made hundreds of millions as a businessman first before becoming the CM.

When he assumed office in 2003, Musa’s asset declaration exceeded a whopping RM280 million.

His company Musman Holdings started off with stevedoring and later diversified into construction, real estate, shipping, plantation and banking.

He also made a sizeable fortune selling his stake in City Finance Berhad to EON Finance Berhad.

City Finance itself is an interesting story…

When Tengku Razaleigh was Finance Minister in 1976, he issued a banking license to the late Tun Said Keruak with the aim to establish a Bumiputera-based bank in Sabah.

To qualify for the license, Said Keruak gathered a few qualified and capable Bumi businessmen, including Musa Aman to become shareholders.

Only one of the shareholders was a Chinese, a retired bank manager by the name of Thomas Chow.

Besides Musa, other shareholders included Herman Luping, Ben Stephens, Lawrence Sinsua and Simon Jenkins – all of whom had equal shares except Said Keruak who had a higher amount of shares. 

They used their own money and even borrowed heavily from banks to finance the venture.

As time went by, the dividends were not forthcoming and interests on bank loans obtained to purchase the shares were mounting and this became a heavy burden for the shareholders.

All shareholders, except Musa, agreed to sell their stakes when a Chinese property tycoon from Kuala Lumpur approached them to buy over City Finance.

One person who resisted the deal in the shareholders meeting was Musa – who was keen to ensure City Finance remains a Bumi company.

After a series of negotiation, Musa agreed to buy over the shares held by the directors and shareholders, thus making him the major shareholder and chairman of City Finance.

The company eventually started to grow and was on its way towards becoming a major finance company in the country until the new banking policy under Tun Daim saw it merging with EON Finance Berhad.

Musa made a sizeable profit from the merger and eventually moved up the political ladder to become numero uno in the state’s administration.

However, he is known to be very frugal. He has very tight grip on money – his as well as the state’s.

This made some people very unhappy, even those in his inner circle – and this includes the timber tycoons aka timber mafias.

It was becoming very hard for these timber tycoons to influence Musa because he was captain of his own ship and had his own money to do things as he pleases.

While CMs of the past had to curry favour with these timber tycoons, with Musa it was the other way around.

There are close to 14 timber tycoons that have been around in the state for decades and they still have very strong influence on Sabah’s political elites.

Under the previous rotation system of CM, all had some form of accessibility to the state’s riches.
But since Musa took over, many saw themselves being cut off from action and from the opportunity to mint money easily, even corruptly.

The group of businessmen which we mentioned earlier then started their secret operation to ‘finish off’ Musa.

the plan to topple Musa…

The clandestine operation to get Musa removed from his seat of power got into action in 2008 with the infamous Michael Chia case.

Much has been said and written about the RM40 million money laundering case involving Michael Chia.

But unknown to many, the telephone call to Hong Kong anti-graft body ICAC originated from this KK number: 088-4XXX83.

The ICAC received the information from KK via line +852 2587 9813 two days before anti-graft officers ambushed Michael Chia at his luxurious hotel suite.

Michael Chia was entrapped so that information on Musa and his proxies could be squeezed out of him by the authorities.

(Some timber tycoons from Sabah have Hong Kong registered companies, where one director is enough to open a limited liability company, and have corresponding banking accounts in HSBC or Standard Chartered, giving them ease to carry out parallel transactions in HK or KK)

Chia had escaped the dragnet on 2 different occasions a month earlier because he diverted the money to other locations around the world at the last minute.

The anti-graft authorities - both in HK and KK, managed to extract only a certain amount of information from Michael Chia.

But additional information, that were essential to the success of this elaborate operation to pin down Musa, came from an individual by the name of Lo Man Heng, a KK based timber businessman.

He was Michael Chia’s partner and the two later had a fallout due to money issues.

Lo Man Heng and Michael Chia were involved in a legal battle at the Singapore High Court following the fallout.

Now, what is interesting about this little-known Lo Man Heng is that he became a strong supporter of PKR supremo Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim immediately after Michael Chia’s arrest in Hong Kong.

Photographs of him standing next to Anwar were found hanging on his office wall.

In fact, Anwar introduced him to Clare Rewcastle Brown, who is behind Radio Free Sarawak and Sarawak Report.

Lo Man Heng was the deep throat that Clare boasted about in her website when she was attacking Musa before the 13^th GE.

The conspirators tried hard to bring down Musa but so far they have been unsuccessful.

Despite coming up with an impressive chart on the money trail (see below), nothing much was accomplished.

 

Among the key reason why the money trail chart above had little impact was that the account number registered to Musa was opened on 14 June 1999, four years way before he became CM.

The argument that there was abuse of power while in office as CM could not be pinned down on Musa.

MACC officers who questioned Musa found that the money paid to his sons was carried out by his trusted aide, who conveniently used the funds from the UBS account. And the lawyer who supposed to ensure no such complications or conflict of interest arose was clearly sleeping on his job. 

Next, in 2010, the conspirators tried to ruffle the feathers in BN component parties to come up with a vote of no-confidence on his leadership.

If you read here http://akimomogun.blogspot.com/2010/08/salleh.html, Sabah Umno deputy chief Salleh Said Keruak openly disclosed that certain leaders of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) were in cohorts with certain quarters to topple Musa Aman.

He warned that Sabah BN would not be intimidated by any attempt to hold the coalition at ransom by mounting a veiled threat on its Chairman-cum-Chief Minister.

"We are prepared to face the worst challenge," Salleh was quoted as saying.

Salleh questioned the rationale behind LDP Deputy President Datuk Chin Su Phin's outrage and claimed it was part of an on-going plot to oust Musa.

Chin was quoted as asking PM Najib to remove Musa because his party could no longer work with the CM.

Then in 2012, stories of Michael Chia and Musa reappeared, making their rounds in the various media.

This time, whistleblower site Sarawak Report, which had their guns initially trained at Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud and the rainforest issue, shifted their target to Musa. 
 

Scores of allegations were made but none of this came close to even warrant a misdemeanor criminal or corruption charge in Malaysia or Hong Kong on Musa Aman, or even Michael Chia for a fact.

Any charge on money laundering on Michael Chia by the Hong Kong authorities, or say the MACC, could have had a devastating effect on Musa’s political career.

But for all their worth, they were just hot air. 

Then, stories surfaced that Musa was asked to take a leave by PM Najib but these were also found to be false and malicious articles.

The operation to topple Musa is still active, even after the 13^th General Elections.

The conspirators are trying everything and will continue to do all they can until they succeed in bringing down Musa.

But Musa is a battle hardened veteran who has survived much worse battles and he is not to be brought down by a bunch of disgruntled businessmen or politicians who could not get what they want.