Malaysia's Al Capone

• 22 April 2019
• 0 comments

Most Malaysians have heard of Al Capone, an American/Italian gangster who built a crime empire around a series of major criminal activities. The US law enforcers found themselves helpless to deal with him because any potential witnesses were either intimidated into silence or murdered to ensure it.

Eventually a solution was found. Neither Capone nor any of his criminal associates had ever paid any taxes. Prosecuted for tax evasion he and they went to jail for a very long time.

The situation in Sarawak is a mirror image of the Capone syndrome. All those who have been exploiting Sarawak’s tropical forest have been able to do so because the Chief Minister, now Governor, and his criminal associates held all the levers of power and so were and are able to steal the State’s timber for personal enrichment.

The one thing about personal enrichment is that it carries a legal obligation to report it to the tax authorities. If the Taib/Capone gang have reported any taxable income at all it will certainly have been under-reported and THAT is a criminal offence.

So if the MACC cannot do what is needed to clean out the wholly corrupted State of Sarawak the Income Tax department can certainly do so.  It is their duty and failure to do that duty caries penalties. So let loose the tax inspectors. Even if they cannot immediately uncover all the past and current tax evasion they will be able to prove some. Start with the timber baron tokays and proceed from there to the crooked politicians. Prison is prison whether for murder or tax fraud.