[916] Of takeover of Nanyang Press and possible benefit for Rimbunan Hijau

So, a company related to Rimbunan Hijau through its chairman, Hiew King Tiong, has taken over 20% stake of Nanyang group from MCA:

PETALING JAYA: Rimbunan Hijau group founder and chairman Tan Sri Tiong Hiew King has taken control of Nanyang Press Holdings Bhd through his private company, Ezywood Options Sdn Bhd.

Ezywood Options paid RM64.7mil to acquire Huaren Management Sdn Bhd’s 21.02% stake in the Chinese newspaper at RM4.20 per share on Oct 9.

Ezywood Options now owns 44.76% of Nanyang and will be required to extend a mandatory takeover offer for the remaining shares of Nanyang it does not already own.

Now, it’s easier for Rimbunan Hijau to prevent news of its illegal, unsustainable and unethical timber harvesting activities in Papua New Guinea from reaching the Malaysian public, especially Chinese Malaysians.

While that happens, The Australian reports that the logging company is hiring specialists to repair its image:

WHAT do you do when your logging company can’t shake off continuing negative publicity about illegal logging and human rights abuses, generated by a never-ending series of reports by international financial institutions, aid donors, journalists and non-government organisations?

If you are multinational logger Rimbunan Hijau, you call in a team of Australian spin doctors to give the company a makeover.

Rimbunan Hijau, a company controlled by Malaysian billionaire Hiew King Tiong, dominates forestry in Papua New Guinea. The company and its subsidiaries run five of PNG’s 12 largest logging projects, the country’s biggest sawmill and its only veneer plant. So when evidence continues to show most logging in PNG is illegal and unsustainable, fingers inevitably start pointing at Rimbunan Hijau.

Is this a pure coincidence, or a calculated move instead?

Another project violates a forest reserve without an Environment Impact Assessment:

PANGKOR: A company building an organic farm-cum-resort near Teluk Dalam is felling trees and levelling hills without an Environmental Impact Assessment report.

A visit by the New Straits Times to the 0.75ha tract of land at the North Pangkor Forest Reserve found excavators being used to level hills which were at least 30m high.

Trees felled in the area were chain-sawed into beams and used to build several structures there, while a pond was dug to pump out groundwater flowing along a water channel.

There is work going on to build a make-shift jetty on the beach using boulders, timber and sand from the forest reserve.

Is the Department of the Environment too weak for anything that many ignore the department altogether with impunity?