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Sakmongkol ak 47

ariff.sabri@gmail.com

Monday 25 June 2012

FGV - The Settlers' Road to Serfdom( 2/2)


The UMNO president has turned football commentator. 6-0, 7-0, 14-0. Absolutely no class. Shouting here and there. Frothing at the mouth.  Well, he can say Gol, Gol as many times as he likes. Gol is the Pahang slang for mati or die! He will win only 3 states. So, we will let him drown in footballers’ stool. He’s speaking in front of UMNO crowd. His speech reported by Utusex Malaysia, carried by Berita Hairan, aired by TV ¾. What can we expect?
Let’s get back to FGV where he wants to rake in RM 6 billion to pay his way through the next General Elections.
 There are so many questions unanswered by the FGV listing. People like PNB, EPF, Tabung Haji are asked to take up to almost 20% of the shares. 5 state governments including my home state of Pahang are also arm-twisted into taking up shares. These (state own funds and state governments) will take up almost 30% of the shares. Why these people? Why is a high portion of existing shares unloaded into the market? Where is the investor demand that gives us the confidence that this FGV listing is going to be spectacular? One has the feeling; these entities are brought in solely for the purpose of shoring up the FGV counter.
What the public hasn’t been told is, only 20% of FELDA top management supported the idea of FGV’s IPO. 65% of the FGV staff thought FGV simply isn’t ready to list. This is a rush job. We must keep asking why?
The FGV prospectus is fast acquiring the stature of the bikini version of statistical information- what it reveals is suggestive but what it hides is vital. We have not been told, that only 3% of FELDA land bank is RSPO certified (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil). This means in future, we may find it difficult to sell CPO to the world market because much of the land bank from where the CPO comes from is not RSPO certified. Also, because we haven’t shown commitment to RSPO, FGV’s plan expansion of plantations in places like Indonesia, Africa may not progress as fast as FGV wants.
How did FELDA end up employing a person seen largely responsible for the loss of RM 120million in the company he worked previously? Now, he is helming FELDA and FGV together with a former teacher who is largely responsible for allocating state land to cronies in Negeri Sembilan? Will the Boston Consulting group, Hay and Aeon Hewitt recommend the government to terminate the employment of FELDA’s CEO?
This rush up job is likely to end FELDA and FGV like what ails MAS presently. The starting idea should have always been how to fortify FELDA and shape it up. We have saying right from the beginning, if settlers’ welfare and economics are the prime concern, then allow KPF buy out FGV. Then KPF owns 100% of FELDA holdings and all the assets therein. What is stopping KPF from forming or hiring a first rate management company to run its business?  KPF as the settlers’ keeper will then look after settlers’ welfare directly. FELDA doesn’t even have to list FGV as it’s out of orbit completely.
What is the immediate effect of the FGV IPO? It allows 94.5 % of the subscribers who are not even FELDA settlers ride on the broken backs of FELDA folks. That’s the immediate effect. FELDA settlers get 91 million shares. 1.3 billion shares are taken up by state governments, glcs, cornerstone investors. Inside that quantity, 420 million shares are set aside for rich individuals who must show they have a least RM 3 million in assets and companies worth RM 10 million.
The FELDA people whom everybody says the IPO is meant to benefit are left beached. FELDA Holds back 40% share. When people kept pressuring Cikgu Isa, he says 20% of the FGV shares will be parked under a trust Fund. In other words- gua takda caya sama itu koperasi bolo punya orang.
If we didn’t ask, he will not tell. His failure to tell suggests that` we will create a trust fund for settlers’ is an afterthought or an off the cuff reaction by a sly politician to get out of a sticky situation. What is the name of the trust fund? FAHc? 
Meanwhile, KPF the settlers’ cooperative is treated like a leper- FGV listens to the advice of the consultants not to touch cooperative. The settlers must now adjust themselves to the fact that they own nothing in FGV but holds 50% of FAHc. They derive profits and dividends from there – not directly from FGV. To put it bluntly, they have been suckered.
The settler ends up getting 810 units of shares. If the premium is RM 1, they get RM 810 less 200, they get RM 610 nett. Plus the RM 15,000 they got earlier because Najib is being charitable, they get RM less than RM 16,000. The Melayus who never set foot on FELDA land and who will touch FELDA folks with a 10-foot pole can get millions of Ringgit. So, so much for placing FELDA people first. They are first indeed, but first in the food chain of UMNO predators.
The first generation settlers need to think about the new wave of settlers too. With 360,000 hectares of corporate estates leased to FGV for 99 years, 2nd and 3rd generation settlers are forever denied the opportunity to own and cultivate land. 360,000 hectares can sustain some 80,000 more settlers. Where will they go? Not everyone goes to colleges and universities. Some FELDA born may want to become settlers as well as other landless and jobless in the villages.
They better start thinking hard. FGV will now own the corporate estates of about 360,000 hectares plus all the land not owned yet by FELDA. These include land that has been set aside by states for development purposes- the town areas in FELDA schemes, the land on which schools are built, community halls are constructed, land on which suraus and masjids are erected, even the land on which the new futsal fields are located. These are all taken over by FGV. You may need to pay commercial rates to play futsal now.
Where are the fundamentals to support the business? The productive trees? The market? The price? The industry?
Over 50% of the trees in FELDA plantations need to be replanted. That translates into higher costs. The cost of cultivating a new field is about RM15, 000. If 53% of 355,864 hectares need to be re-planted, it will cost RM2.8 billion on replanting alone, spread over 5-years. And if you find additional planting areas, you can only reap what you sow in 3-4 years.
New areas to be planted means more cost and a waiting period. Demand from big buyers is slowing down. China and India for example are cutting back their purchase of CPO. Malaysia isn’t the only supplier of CPO. Indonesia is becoming more competitive and can unload its CPO into the market dampening the price of Malaysian CPO.
The fundamentals are not favorable. That being the case, you can’t sustain the price post listing for long.
Whatever profits they make will depend on the premium at opening day. Wait longer, the price may fall below RM4.55/unit and the settler ends up owning the bank money. But UMNO and BN don’t care about this. All they are interested is the price on the opening day so that they and their cronies and fortunate and deep pocket members of the public can make a killing on that day.
Out of the whole exercise, the settler makes RM 15,000(paid in 3 tranches) and the proceeds from the sale of the FGV shares which they bought. One settler gets 810 shares while those not related to FELDA at all make a killing at the stock market, riding on the backs of the FELDA folks.
The interest of FELDA folks is looked after by their cooperative. But where is KPF which owns 51% of FELDA Holdings- whose assets are absorbed into FGV in the scheme of things?
Someone asked where is the FELDA Asset Holdings Corporation (FAHC) in my earlier article? It will soon come. It will hold the 40% of the shares not traded. Isa Samad has said that we will allocate 50% of the FAHC shares to KPF.
Read carefully. KPF which will give up its 51% in FELDA Holdings will be given 50% shares in FAHC. What does this mean? This means, later KPF will get its profits share and dividends from FAHC not FGV. Here now is a middleman created to take care of settler’s interest on trust. Isa Samad and the whole gang do not believe KPF can look after the interests and welfare of settlers and employees.. Because, the existence of the FAHC or a trust fund wasn’t mentioned in the IPO prospectus, that is worrying.  
Where will the RM 10billion be parked? I suspect, FELDA will get only RM 4 billion. The bulk goes to the minister in charge of FELDA. Maybe it goes to the UMNO war chest whose last remaining arsenal in its armory, is to buy out its way through. That’s something which the UMNO president is an expert in.
Even if FAHC, the holder of the 40% of FGV shares, gets RM4 billion, KPF will not see any money. It was supposed to be cashless transaction. What FGV gets is 50% in FAHC which has 40% equity in FGV. It won’t get cash but only promises of future dividends and share of profits. Maybe that RM 4 billion is held in the accounts of FAHC to finance at least one year’s of whatever is left of FELDA’s operations.
What about the 5 states which have provided irrevocable pledge to subscribe to the FGV shares? Pahang State Government – 5% (182,407,575 shares), Sabah State Government – 5% (182,407,575 shares), Terengganu State Government – 0.28% (10,000,000 shares), Negeri Sembilan State Government – 0.16% (5,837,070 shares). Perak State Government – 0.40% (14,957,421 shares)
How do these state governments pay for the shares? In the form of land set aside for FELDA plantations? If the payment is in the form of land converted into equity, does the cessation of land violate the terms of the GSA? Under the General Settlement Act( GSA 1960), FELDA is entrusted to develop land on behalf of settlers and not own land itself. Since 1990, when it stopped recruiting new settlers, it has done precisely that.  That’s the 360,000 hectares of land it manages through FELDA Plantations.
I suppose its land already assigned to FELDA’s current cultivation that is converted. Now that FGV is taking over, make sure all the premiums have been paid. So that the states can get money and pass it on to the rakyat.
Settlers have voices only in FAHC. They don’t realize the moment FGVH is listed; they have practically no say whatsoever as all the 360,000 hectares of land and all assets therein in FELDA Holdings and in 12 other subsidiaries are leased to FGVH for 99 years. According to the terms of the lease, FGVH must pay FELDA RM248.5 million (or RM698.24 / hectare) annually together with a fixed percentage of FGVH’s plantations operating profit. But remember, the rental is revisable at 20 year intervals.  And compare this lease fee for example to what Boustead pays at RM3, 500 / hectare, then you realize that the settlers were made suckers for such a cheap leasing rate.
That is, you jump up and down when your FELDA is underpaid by a whopping 400%!
As I have said, what’s not said in the prospectus is more important. The FGV prospectus is like the bikini or the G string. What it reveals is suggestive but what it hides is vital!
This is the con job that will consign PM Najib to the dustbin of the rogues’ history.  He is deep into pork barrel politics nowadays- now he’s giving out RM 520 to taxi drivers to buy tyres. That’s bribery by any name. Who is supplying the tyres? Some ketua Bahagian UMNO somewhere?


33 comments:

Anonymous,  25 June 2012 at 09:00  

This is a clear cut case whereby UMNO again has suckered the Malays (FELDA settlers). UMNO is the silent enemy of the Malays!

Anonymous,  25 June 2012 at 09:43  

To sum it up, this is a total con job by Najib. Dato, I don't think the settlers know what is in store for them. The whole listing procedures sound complicated even to the initiated. The poor folks are taken for a ride for sure.

bruno,  25 June 2012 at 09:58  

Dato,Najib is the head cheerleader for FGVH,his sidekick Isa as the assistant with QD and gang forming the last line of defense,in lieu of the silat exponents.

Najib knows that if FGVH shares tanked the first couple of weeks after listing,Umno/BN's Felda safe deposit votes will vanished into thin air.That is the reason of so many cornerstone investors.The name speaks for itself.Trying to corner the FGVH counter.

Maybe they should have to ask Dr M and gang what happened when they tried to corner the tin markets in London.The London tin exchange changed the rules and bite off their fingers.

Then ask them again what happened in the forex markets.BNM at that time was the biggest forex player.Things look good until forex players caught wind of their tactics.Always using the same tricks,over and over again and mostly late in the day.Putting big bets.The end results.The forex players bite off their tails.

Now if FGVH shares goes to the dogs,which is looking more and more like a possibility as day by day goes by closer to the listing,it will bite the tail off Umno/BN in this coming GE.Markets sure has a way of punishing the crooks,the brutal water torture way.

Anonymous,  25 June 2012 at 10:40  

persoalan:

1. macam mana anda cakap 20% shj top management setuju dgn ipo fgv? mana sumbernya? 65% cakap rush job. Mana dapat data?

2. kpf sbg settlers keeper? sejak bila plak kpf jadi settlers keeper? tak pernah plak ayah saya dapat apa-apa faedah dari kpf. sebab yang dapat untung hanya yang membeli saham kpf. tak ramai yg mampu beli/tambah saham kpf sampai 250,000 unit. yang untung dan kembung hanya ahli lembaga koperasi di felda-felda. itu fakta yang berlaku.

3. malah koperasi felda di banyak tanah rancangan mati sebab banyak yang hisap darah. banyak yang tak jujur.

4. tanah kebun yang 10 ekar milek gerannya nama ibu bapa 1st generasi pun tak dapat diusahakan oleh anak anak. banyak anak anak yg tak mahu kerja kebun lagi. indon pulak yg banyak usahakan. inikan mahu usahakan tanah lain milek felda plantation yang bukan atas namanya?

anakpenerokafelda

walla 25 June 2012 at 12:59  

This IPO is supposed to be the second biggest in the world after Facebook. Yet of all the thousands of investment bank analyst reports out there over the last one year, only three have been published on FGVH and only in this month. The houses are Affin, TA and ECM Libra. Their reports are perfunctory on both the investment risks and value proposition of this listing.

What about the big investment banks? If the deal is so good, why are they exhibiting a mystifying silence? Perhaps they have concluded as much as Profundo(http://is.gd/UJlsyf).

In fact, you can search high and low and yet not be able to pin down even one communication by Najib's own Umno propaganda organ on how the listing can really benefit our Felda settlers and their families in the long run. There's no recognition of their effort and sacrifice on land they have worked for generations in the last fifty years. In fact, it looks like they have been bulldozed over. Doesn't that look familiar, if one still remembers all the past big projects?

That is why Sak's series on Felda is very important to both the settlers and their families. His posts have exposed how Najib's Umno government is going about trying to get the rakyats' money for its own cronies and political objectives. Except that this time it is doing so through assets of their state governments and deposits of their pension funds.

The deal is bad. Even before listing, it is announced the overseas downstream operations will be restructured. Why wait until listing to restructure what have been bleeding overseas investments for years now, you can ask next. And how much restructuring can one do until listing day in order to create a sense of positive change that can be translated into investor confidence, your next question is already on your lips even before this sentence is completed.

In fact, the thought would have occurred to you faster but you were already engaged wondering how Najib can only now talk about abolishing taxi license monopoly when our taxi drivers have been enslaved by Umno's cronies for years.

Next. The one thing you can't miss that leaps out at you from the numbers in the prospectus is how disproportionate are the share allocations. The settlers get a pittance while Umno-linked organizations get the mother lode. And Umno has the nerve to say the listing will unlock value. For who, you can now ask with unfeigned scorn.

It is also because the share distributions have already been preassigned that this listing is standing at the cliff.

A good listing should have majority free float shares to flex price elasticity. The understanding now is that most of the shares are forced onto the pension funds like the civil service pension fund and the EPF as well as selected state governments, agencies and cornerstone investors.

walla 25 June 2012 at 12:59  

2

It has also been mentioned some of them will be embargoed by a moratorium not to sell their allotted shares for six months after listing.

So how many free float shares will there be for the market to sell and buy in the weeks after listing?

If one cannot sell, there is no demand to buy. Without demand to buy, the price won't stay up for long. Any euphoria will evaporate very quickly because the pricing momentum of an IPO bull run will fizzle out once buyers realize it's already a wired deal favoring selected shareholders. And just by looking at the size of the wired shares, people will conclude as much.

So if the share price falls after listing, those pension funds and state governments involved will lose the value of their investments which means the dividends they can afford in years to come that should be given to their own shareholders, namely the rakyat and civil servants, will also be much less, in addition to subpar shares they will be holding that locks in their own liquid and solid assets. With such an opening record, it would take a miracle for the share price to leap up even six months later.

Share prices leap up in anticipation of gain. For mining companies, announcement of new finds, for banking houses, realization of forecast profits, for construction companies, development of land and large-sized building contracts in burgeoning economies. But for listed plantation companies? Only if the demand for their agro-products is sustainably high that will earn them high profits to reduce their debt overhangs while affording funds for expansion of their production.

In the case of Felda, the market is tepid, the debt is high, the asset needs massive replanting which has a long gestation period to produce yield, new competitors are ramping up with bigger land banks to change the entire market dynamics, and past diversification projects have not derived high profits, only bad losses.

Notice that the state governments and civil servants will also be affected this time from what is considered a federal project.

Let us close the loop. Let us make a raw assumption that there is no moratorium on the favoured shareholders. In other words, let's assume they can sell immediately upon listing. The question then remains - sell to who?

Let's say those Umno-linked organizations unload all the 1,900 million shares onto a market which has 273 million shares held by the public and Felda settlers and staff. In the passive and conservative investment climate, where is one going to find enough buyers to sponge up those 2,173 million shares and avoid the perception there is a run on the listed vehicle which will vertically drop the price?

walla 25 June 2012 at 12:59  

3/3

Therefore, does one honestly think the price won't go into a tailspin? If and when it does, how are our Felda settlers going to service the bank loan they have had to take to pay for their shares now worth peanuts? That RM15,000 payoff will already be consumed by then; the KPF new dividends won't amount to much either.

So we have a situation that the price is going to be affected by big chunks of Umno-linked shareholders who either can't sell for six months, or can sell but have no buyers. Can the price stay up in such a situation? If the price cannot stay up, what is the worth of those 810 shares to the settler?

Thus the situation before us is like Umno trying to get the tail to wag the dog. In our local jungle, that's getting the tail to wag the elephant.

It remains to ask whether Najib's Umno knows what it is doing. Looking at Umno's record of running national finances these past few years, a chorus of no's seems imminent.

You can already draw rich hints of palpable window dressing from Refsa's exposure of Pemandu's massaged numbers for ETP. The RM190 Billion of ETP projects is now found out to be only RM13 Billion for 2011; in addition a wafer-fab plant is said to be up when its investor company is already belly-up. That figure of only RM13 Billion looks remarkably like what Miti would have gotten by way of inbound investments a year so it looks like taking credit for other peoples' work. In this case, those inbound investments have gone into the states of Selangor and Penang. Oops.

Thus Umno's spin of numbers cannot be trusted. This political animal is just playing musical chairs with your money. It covers one loss using bonds issued just for the purpose. When those bonds mature, it will issue another bond to pay up the maturity of the previous bond so the net effect is just passing debts to future generations. Debts are a reflection of bad management and leakage. If management has integrity, corruption would not happen.

The conporate shareholders of tomorrow's FGVH will be the driver of Felda's operations. Motivated only by profit and growth, they will marginalize our Felda settlers even more. As Sak has clearly pointed out, there are ways those urban shareholders can push policies that affect the livelihood of the settlers, the costs of their purchases, and the conditions under which they have to operate daily. The market is sentiment-agnostic. It doesn't care for people and what they have to go through to eke a living or how much a piece of land they have worked on for fifty years has more than assignable commercial value. They don't care about lifeblood, just what to do to cut a bigger profit for themselves. The settlers will have no voice in the matter. By that time, their cooperative will be made obsolete.

This is not fair. This is unjust. Especially to poor, honest, hardworking and simple folks.

Anonymous,  25 June 2012 at 14:15  

After 50 years of hard work, it was the settlers' time to benefit from their labour and sacrifices...but our so-called " leaders " have no hesitation to take it ALL from them.

Anonymous,  25 June 2012 at 14:45  

Tun Razak was genuinely wanting to help the landless and poor peasants to earn a decent living during his time; but the same cannot be said about his son who is the current PM.

I bet TR cannot rest peacefully if he knows what his son is doing to the settlers whom he cared so much.

OneMalaysian,  25 June 2012 at 15:22  

Dear Sakmongkol

The jigsaw puzzle is nearly complete, and we can see quite clearly the picture, though I am not sure the settlers are seeing it as the non-settlers do; they are momentarily blinded by that Rm15,000 carrot.

You said in your previous article that the settlers are on the road to serfdom. I agree. Why has FELDA the authority stopped recruiting settlers since 1990? And why has it stopped giving out these 360,000 hectares to people who work the estates and instead retain the land in FELDA itself?

My guess is that the government in 1990 came to the conclusion that this Felda idea is a mess because of inheritance and management issues. It was a good idea in the 1960s, but it seems that idea has outlived its usefulness in the 1990s.

So by doing this FGV IPO the government achieves 2 aims. First it once and for all takes control away from KPF the cooperative. If the settlers had agreed with government’s idea of putting their 51% in Felda Holdings, the main money earner, that aim would have been more complete. Now they have to face the inconvenience of KPF holding out and giving future headaches. Second, by forcing this IPO through at this time it gives the PM billions for election bribes. The end result is that the settlers are indeed on the road to serfdom, with the government clearly abandoning Tun Razak’s dream of uplifting the livelihood of the rural poor.

External and overseas consultants care not a dime about social economic policies. They are expensive mercenaries brought in to devise financial schemes that can be sold to foreign investors. If our government doesn’t care enough for its rural poor, can we expect foreigners to?

Anonymous,  25 June 2012 at 16:24  

Dato,
Your detailed analysis is commendable. You may be proven right later but right now, many settlers are already too 'drunk' with their durian runtuh to worry about tomorrow. Its such a mentality that UMNO has managed to con the country for umpteen years. Malaysia needs more fair minded politicians like you. More power to you mate.

Anonymous,  25 June 2012 at 18:05  

Ya Sak, about the RM520 the poor taxi driver sods are getting? RM520 buys 4 tyres. A taxi probably wears out the tyres in about 6 months? So RM520 gets them One tyre change.

And yet the MSM says they're jumping up and down with joy. Poor Sods get taken for a (taxi) ride.

pak yeh 25 June 2012 at 18:51  

Salam Ariff/Pak Yeh.
Issue FELDA ini impact tinggi untok tarik undi FELDA dan para petani. Tetapi kenapa tidak di optimisekan oleh Anwar dan PAS.???
Saya ada tulis cara simple untok rakyat faham. Syabas atas usaha2 sdra dalam menerangkan yang keroh hal2 ekonomi.
Rujuk.. http://warongpakyeh.blogspot.com/2012/06/konspirasi-felda-najib-bunoh-tun-razak.html

Anonymous,  25 June 2012 at 19:38  

"Tetapi kenapa tidak di optimisekan oleh Anwar dan PAS.???".....pak yeh

Do you think Anwar has any ghost of a chance to enter a Felda settlement to give a ceramah? They will burn his car.

There is no point in Anwar speaking about Felda to urban folks in KL and Penang. He has to go to those gullible and naive settlers.
I think Mazlan Aliman is doing a good job but the problem is the Felda folks are those "who knows not he knows not".
They have been zombiefied by UMNO.

One day, they will learn the hard way and then knock their heads for not believing Sak's many warnings.
By then they will be like the Indian rubber tappers of yesteryear.
This a the great FELDA ROBBERY!!

Anonymous,  25 June 2012 at 19:38  

Many taxi drivers will be selling out the vouchers for RM400-450 to tyre shop taukay. Taukay gets between RM70-120 out of the vouchers without selling any tyres. KL taxis normally don't change to new tyres. They buy used tyres for between RM30-50 each.

Anonymous,  25 June 2012 at 21:25  

When come the time PR the government we jail The Cekgu and the officer

Anonymous,  25 June 2012 at 22:13  

UMNO is building an "unsinkable" Felda Titanic with Najib as its captain. Now everyone on board is irrationally exuberant, thinking that even God could not sink the Felda Titanic. There are parties aplenty from day to midnight; bands are playing the joget as couples are dancing happily. Suddenly, an iceberg appear just a tip above the sea and it is too late for the Felda Titanic to avoid a collision. Will Najib be the last person to leave the Felda Titanic while the UMNOputra rats are desperately trying to commandeer any available lifeboats to save their own lives?

bruno,  25 June 2012 at 22:21  

Dato,some people think that for CPO prices,the sky's the limit.That it has ways and ways to go.

In the eighties when I was asked to commission a rubberwood processing plant in Medan,there were ample supplies of rubberwood logs.Lorries were waiting in line just trying to dump their logs.The rich tycoons were felling old rubber trees like tenpins and growing oil palm.

On the way to Lake Toba one can see miles and miles of oil palm plantations,joined by other recently planted ones. That was about 25 years ago and a little red dot on the map.What about the rest of the country.By now Indonesia should be one of the biggest producer if not the biggest producer of palm oil in the world.

And if they continue to open new forest for oil palm plantations,there will be an oversupply of palm oil.Add in the coming bust in commodities,do not be surprised to see CPO trading below RM1,000 in the near future.

Yet people are pricing in huge expectations of a big payday come this FGVH IPO debut,because off all the hype from the PR guys.Many are going to come off dissapointed when they are left holding coin rolls instead of stacks of 100 ringgit bills.

Quiet Despair,  25 June 2012 at 22:57  

Wo Wo, suddenly we see a profligation of Felda settlers' champions, protectors, sympathizers and defenders.
And overnight we became experts on the lives of the settlers and their predicaments.
I just don't believe this coming from people who have never even seen how a Felda scheme looks like.
At least I have visited at least three - the biggest in Jengka, Lurah Bilut and Kampong Awah.
Among us, only Sak knows what he's talking about. He's got the right to as he was an ADUN from Pahang and well-versed in the Felda schemes.
The rest are just pseudo learneds who know nothing but pretend to be caring for their plight.
Hmm I dont think you really care. Just jumping on the band-wagon to belittle Najib's plan for a better life of the settlers.
Sometimes rats urine can be smell from afar.
Since when are the plight of the poor Malays your concern?

bruno,  26 June 2012 at 02:59  

Quite Despair,

the company I was working with in the seventies supplied prefab timber houses to the Felda plantations.Have you seen the Felda land bare naked or with small oil palm trees just planted.You were to young to remember or maybe you wouldn't know what the word Felda stands for anyway.Hahaha.

Quiet Despair,  26 June 2012 at 07:11  

I was born in the 80s.So you have the advantage of age over me. Dulu makan garam etc.
I hope you didn't cheat on the quality of the houses to the Felda people or the factory in Medan. LOL.
Got an early start to rip them off, Hahaha.
So many people have taken advantage of our poor rural folks years ago but now we seem to be pin-pointing Najib of doing it.
Let me tell you many of the Chinese traders have already secured orders of furnitures, fridge and other luxury goods from the settlers.
Only a pittance was set aside for the shares.
Which is better? Enriching the Chinamen or ourselves?

Anonymous,  26 June 2012 at 09:02  

Felda IPO is subcribed mostly by local funds, few smallish foreign funds.

What I am afraid is that local funds esp EPF is being used to play up the shares to make it a success

Anonymous,  26 June 2012 at 09:39  

" Since when are the plight of the poor Malays your concern? "

" Which is better? Enriching the Chinamen or ourselves? "

As expected....it's Malays' problem and Non Malays should stay out.

What a disgrace...shame on you!!

bruno,  26 June 2012 at 09:52  

Quite Despair,

the FGVH IPO will proceed as planned this Thursday.Time will tell whether the settlers will be better off pre-IPO or post-IPO.

Felda has been in existence for almost four decades and nobody complained that the settlers were doing badly or starving.The only complain I heard was that the settlers were not happy about what they were paid for their harvest.Many believed that they were shortchanged.

Why now suddenly the Umnoputras wanted to list and made the Felda a publicly listed company.Is it to make the settlers or Umnoputras and their cronies richer.Commonsense will tell us that it will make the Umnoputras and their cronies richer.

Usually when CEO's or controlling shareholders take their company public,it is to enrich their company and their personal bank accounts.At the same time using public funds to expand their businesses.

But in the FGVH case it is the politicians and their cronies taking the Felda public.What is the RM15,000 Najib promised the settlers going to do for them.Make them rich.Rich in a sense that it is not enough for them to buy a make in Malaysia Proton mini,while Umnoputras go on a buying spree for mansions,luxury cars and mistresses for RM200,000 a pop.

Before the settlers felt like they were bosses of their own land.After the listing the settlers will be like ordinary workers,working for the landowner.There is a lot of difference in their personal feelings and the way that they were being treated.

Najib and his cronies better make sure that the settlers are better off in working conditions and financially,and that the shares of FGVH do not tanked days or weeks before the GE.Or else they will be chased all the way to Zimbabwe.

Red Alfa 26 June 2012 at 12:21  

@QD 07:11

"Only a pittance was set aside for the shares.
Which is better? Enriching the Chinamen or ourselves?"

So is this the rationale for Malays shall accept wholesale and unquestioning why and how for UMNOputras are entitled will be enriched?

And we are being and always told only UMNO represents the Malays for the benefit of all Malays!

Kantoi! Harapkan pagar, pagar makan padi.

Anonymous,  26 June 2012 at 12:59  

LET THEM STUPID SETTLERS BE. MILLIONS OTHER POOR FOLKS NEED ATTENTION.

Anon,  26 June 2012 at 13:45  

Not just rat's urine, wild boars (some extra dollars from sale, on the quiet, to the Chinaman one buys one's fridge from!),cobras, zillions of mosquis,the monotonous hoot hoot of owls,the slippery muddy paths, etc. That's why taking 94.5% of the loot makes it the crime of the new millenium. That's why using consultants from the US makes this conspiracy doubly cruel and immoral. Ask Dr M, the foremost expert on immorality in modern business - creation of capital and profit without a proportionate increase in real products or services. Now we know Soros wasn't alone playing in the foreign exchange casino, thanks to Dr Rosli Yaakob.

Red Alfa 26 June 2012 at 14:24  

@anon 12:59

No. This must be clearly made out and continously explained as Dato' is doing to the Malays in UMNO and in Felda as to how the cheating of the poor Malays were being done.

We should hope that with the understanding the Malays will be demanding justice and be wanting the hides of the cheats and that nowhere can these robbers/oppressors will hide.

Thank you Dato' and please be the pit bull terrier, bite and do not let go!

stk,  26 June 2012 at 17:19  

I don't know how far it's true,recently my friend's father in law a felda settler at Serting applied a 30 K loan from Felda in 2008 for house renovation,but it was rejected than,but just 2 months back suddenly the loan was approved,but there is a catch,all the building materials,contractors and what not, was all pre arranged without their knowledge and yet to see the cash and the beautiful part is he got to pay 10% to the ketua kampung(commission?)
I think my friend's father in law was ripped off left and right and it seems to br a norm in Felda.Can someone verify this?

Anonymous,  26 June 2012 at 19:50  

QD say that again ....their predicaments.

Precisely their predicaments have become our predicaments which keep us awake and our adrenalin pumping for real justice, their rights restored to them !

don't ask garbage, which is better, enriching the Chinamen or ourselves?
extracting the rakyat's sweat and blood money to enrich the umno bin maha infinite plunderers, elite umno baru & cronies mca & mic leaders !

Enriching secara wang zakat lesap ?

Whist the rakyat slog to or unable to make ends meet, you enjoy "foie gras" and kobe beef over chilled sparkling juice for dinner followed by a cruise to your putar jaya ?

Anonymous,  27 June 2012 at 17:00  

Ha ha ha..

QD...I got my junior Blog talking about his Peneroka father..

His Father got a FGVH pink form..it's only 800 share..so only few thousand ringgit. So his father ask Felda Officer if he can use cash instead of using CIMB. The office reply he only can buy share using loan from bank...ha ha ha.

End up..his father not buying his share..reason dia tak mahu berhutang..

So how many Peneroka who kena lipat kaw-kaw dengan Bank untuk beli saham FGVH...ha ha ha.

Stk,  27 June 2012 at 23:43  

QD,you should preach to the Felda settlers,800 shares you need to loan from banks and charged rm200 processing fees. Go,QD go makes a suckers out of the settlers ,and hope you can sleep well and like what Isa pendek cakap semua orang Akan jadi JUTAWAN. Is Santa Claus coming to town for a early Xmas?

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