The Coalition of Malaysian NGOs (Comango) today called on the government to form a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to investigate the wealth and far-flung business interests of Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud and his family.

"Taib's unseemly wealth, while so many indigenous people are living in abject conditions or have been unceremoniously displaced from their ceremonial homes, warrants an investigation into how such wealth has been accumulated during his 30-year reign," the group said in a statement.

Made up of more than 40 NGOs, Comango said the wealth widely believed to have been accumulated by the Taib family "does not befit the income of a civil servant", especially when the rest of Sarawak was so poor.

"The government wants an RCI on the sex video case... we believe that is elementary policing. It should instead form an RCI to investigate Taib's wealth because the trail is clear," Suaram president Kua Kia Soong told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

Suaram is one of the members of Comango. Also present were representatives from Bersih 2.0, All Women's Action Movement (Awam), Permas and Komas.

The group also called for Taib's resignation and the recovery of the massive wealth it claimed had been "siphoned by the PBB leader" and his family.

"It is clear that even Premier Najib Razak knows that Taib is a liability to the BN in the Sarawak election and that is why he is at pains to stress that the CM will go," Kua said, citing newspaper reports of Najib promising that Taib would step down as chief minister.

Comango's call for the RCI on Taib's alleged corruption comes on the footsteps of several reports in whistle-blower website Sarawak Report detailing companies and assets abroad that it said are owned by Taib and his family.