Felda doesn’t belong to Najib and Co

ARCHIVES 2012

By admin-s On Feb 29, 2012

Jeswan Kaur, FMT

Najib has shown neither concern nor interest in making a clean breast of the mystery surrounding Omar’s agenda vis-à-vis the FGVH.

All is not well with the Federal Land Development Authority or Felda, which has been “infected” with the cronyism and nepotism viruses as evident from the appointment of Isa Abdul Samad, the former Negri Sembilan menteri besar, as Felda chairman two years ago.

If selecting Isa was not pathetic enough, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has invited trouble through his move to “hand over” Felda to ambitious “youngster” Omar Mustapha Ong.

Omar, who previously served as Najib’s special officer, is said to have played a role in the proposed listing of Felda Global Ventures Holdings (FGVH).

In getting the Omar Ong-FGVH jigsaw right, Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Kamarudin in his Feb 21, 2012 posting alleged that the person close to Najib had the advantage of cashing in on FGVH’s going public.

According to Raja Petra, Omar advises Najib on his corporate moves and has been doing so even back in the days when Najib was still just the deputy prime minister.

“Omar Mustapha Ong is a member of Khairy Jamaluddin’s ‘Fourth Floor Boys’, the team that helped Abdullah Ahmad Badawi run the country when he was the prime minister. They not only ran the country. They ran it into the ground,” Raja Petra had written.

Omar, who is also an independent, non-executive director at Petronas, is the co-founder of Ethos, a management and strategic consulting firm.

Just as perturbed by Najib’s move is the opposition alliance of Pakatan Rakyat which wants the premier to come clean on the role played by Omar in the controversial listing of FGVH.

Saving Najib’s skin

Thus far, Najib has shown neither concern nor interest in making a clean breast of the mystery surrounding Omar’s agenda vis-à-vis the FGVH.

With the questions yet to be answered, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of Felda matters, Ahmad Maslan, tried playing saviour by claiming that the listing would make FGVH a blue-chip company in global plantations.

This justification comes from a politician out to save his boss Najib’s skin. But as far as the PAS- aligned National Association of Settlers (Anak) is concerned, it objects to FGVH turning public, the worry being that the listing would shortchange some 200,000 settlers in Felda schemes across the nation.

Under the listing proposal, settlers would swap their 5% stake in Felda Holdings – which made RM760 million last year – for a 61% stake in FGVH.

These protesters were lucky as a temporary court order was issued on Feb 21, 2012, to block the transfer of shares from the co-operative to the Felda’s investment arm.

Najib’s silence on this issue is only going to worsen matters. The settlers in particular and the rakyat in general have every right to know who really is the mastermind behind FGVH going public.