Wednesday, 30 May 2012 06:55
105,282 acres of Malay reserve lands in Felda Global listing
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The mortgage of Felda Plantation’s 847,362 acres of land to Felda Global Venture Holding, the key ingredient in the mega-listing of the latter, has come under the spotlight again with the revelation that 105,382 acres are part of Malay reserve.
PKR strategic director Rafizi Ramli pointed out that in the mortgage agreement between FGVH and Felda dated November 1, 2011, the land development authority grants FGVH full control of the lands.
The lands belonged to Felda Plantations, in which a majority stack is owned by Koperasi Permodalan Felda (KPF), the Felda co-operative which was snubbed in the listing plan.
Among the 847,362 acres of land, Rafizi said 105,382 came under the gazetted Malay Reserve Lands.
“This raises a serious question on the status of those lands because mortgaging the lands to FGVH violates the original objective of gazetting lands as Malay Reserve Lands,” he said.
Rafizi said FGVH could no longer be considered as a Bumiputera company after its listing on Bursa Malaysia as it would be owned by various parties, including Louis Dreyfus, an international company led by a renowned Jewish family from France brought in by Felda chairman Isa Samad.
Yesterday, PAS vice president Salahuddin Ayub lamented the fact that 120,000 Felda settlers were allocated a mere 2.5 percent, or 91 million shares, as opposed to 3 percent or 109 million shares to employees of Felda and 11.5 percent or 420 million of FGVH shares to government approved Bumiputera investors.
Rafizi said prime minister Najib Razak and Isa should come clean on why Malay Reserve Lands were mortgaged to facilitate the listing of FGVH.
“What guarantee that these lands will not change hands or its development is not against the original spirit of gazetting the lands over the past 100 years?” he asked, and called on states to reject the inclusion of such lands in the FGVH listing.
--Harakahdaily
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Okay, UPDATEd on an olde promise on THAT PROFILE-INTERVIEW of a rising star in PKR! RAFIZI RAMLI**** above refers!
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Okay, UPDATEd on an olde promise on THAT PROFILE-INTERVIEW of a rising star in PKR! RAFIZI RAMLI**** above refers!
afizi Ramli - From unknown to exposé man
Posted on 24 May 2012 - 05:28am
Last updated on 24 May 2012 - 12:49pm
Last updated on 24 May 2012 - 12:49pm
PKR strategies director Mohd Rafizi Ramli was little known outside his party until in November last year, when he started revealing, in tantalising bits and pieces, what would become known as the National Feedlot Corporation (NFCorp) scandal.
But unlike other spurious allegations made about ministers and agencies linked to the government, the NFCorp exposé was backed by documentation on the misuse of a RM250 million government soft loan for the National Feedlot Centre, a cattle-breeding project under NFCorp in Gemas, Negri Sembilan.
Part of the money was used to purchase luxury condominiums, vacations and a Mercedes-Benz car – the details kept coming, so much so the wife of NFCorp executive chairman Datuk Seri Dr Salleh Mohamed Ismail, the then Women and Family Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, ended up resigning under pressure.
“It is all mere common sense. The fact that they blundered, made it all the more easier,” said Rafizi, insisting that all the facts for the NFC scandal were obvious and all one had to do was put two and two together.
A Petronas scholar in the UK, Terengganu-born Rafizi became “political” only after the 1998 sacking of the then deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
He became actively involved in the Free Anwar Campaign and when PKR was set up in 1999, he joined as Youth Exco. His family had no political affiliations before 1998.
“After Anwar was sacked, we saw the other side that we never knew existed before – the manipulation of the media, and the whole trust you had in the police and judiciary suddenly is gone. All your life you had one version of truth from the media,” said Rafizi in an exclusive interview with theSun recently.
Although he did a degree in electronic engineering at Leeds University, he took up chartered accountancy and practised in London for two years at Jeffreys Henry Chartered Accountants.
Rafizi was appointed PKR strategies director after the 2008 general election.
In 2009, he was appointed the Selangor Economic Advisory Office CEO, a post he holds till today.
He said that NFC is not actually something new when he exposed it on his blog in November 2011.
“I work on Anwar’s speeches every time he attends parliament – and one of the things we brought to parliament was NFC. We brought it up for two years but nobody noticed – until the Auditor-General’s 2011 report brought it up. We wanted to get more details to bring it up to parliament but the more we dug, the more dirt we found.”
His accounting expertise helped when he began investigations into allegations of misappropriation by NFCorp.
He said that the expose has charted a new territory in Malaysian politics. “Now we have documents to back it up. Before this, statements were made but they disappear. Allegations fly around but it dies there.”
“For once, it is so documented (inside people gave information) and our presentation captured the public imagination like a soap opera.”
“We did not target Shahrizat. We targeted NFCorp – it is so scandalous! It is RM250 million that was supposed to benefit the poorest of the poorest of society, farmers and cattle herders. If you talk to the kampung people, they will tell you that they can’t even get a RM500 assistance to start a farm. They go up and down.”
“Then you find that the government gave RM250 million and 5,000 acres of land – not to thousands of farmers – but to one minister’s husband. Shahrizat just happened to be that minister. But that does not absolve her from the blame – if the project were to be given to a different minister we would have pursued it the same way.”
Rafizi insisted Shahrizat’s resigning over the scandal is collateral damage.
“Track back our statement from the first exposé until now – it was never about her resigning. What we’ve always asked for the government is to be open and admit that there was a complete breakdown of accountability and governance when they awarded the project in 2006,” said Rafizi.
“You had six bidders, five whom were clearly not qualified – including NFCorp – because it was recently set up and had no track record in farming. The only one really qualified was Felda Farm Products, which had 15 years of experience in farming.
“You have to question the government how it evaluated the bidding – when instead of giving the one company which has the chance to make it happen, it gave it to a minister’s family? Clearly whoever is responsible know there is a conflict of interest. You have to ask ‘why was it not an open tender?’ It was a closed bid by invitation.”
“Clearly corruption and abuse of power have taken place. All we ask is for the money to be recovered and given to the people who need and deserve it,” said Rafizi.
To get the proper documentation, Rafizi relied on whistleblowers, all of whom were anonymous.
“I have never met anyone personally. All communication has so far been electronic or they drop off documents at the doorstep. These sources gave inkling or leads – we had to dig on our own. Like the Singapore condominium units and the steakhouse linked to NFCorp. It was talked about in forums and such, and we actually went to Singapore and went to the Land Office and we just checked. We got the title and then it was just putting two and two together. It was about asking the right questions,” he said.
He alleges that the misappropriations were being done so blatantly, and with impunity.
However, he thinks his private investigator days seem to be over after this exposé as people already know him now.
“Sometimes I drag a friend or two when I go poking but I can’t do this again. When I went to the Gemas (NFC) farm I claimed to be a taukeh lembu asking about cows. Likewise, I went to Singapore to track down the condos – I said I was from KL, wanting to buy condos.”
He said there were two dimensions to this scandal. One is the public’s right to know and the other is to get the authorities to find those accountable and hold them to it and that was of course through police reports and to Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission right after the exposé.
Rafizi’s motive was to get Malaysian politicians to be more wary of public pressure, and warned that everything they do and own will come under public scrutiny.
The 35-year-old said that he has many more exposés lined up but is playing his cards close to the chest as “they are not fully developed”. But that doesn’t mean politicians can sleep easy.
“We won’t wait for the elections honestly. Because we don’t have the might of the media on our side. If we drop it during election, it won’t have enough time to gain traction. If we stumble upon another scandal, we will drop it now,” Rafizi said.
He knows very well that there is now a price on his head for all his doing. Already, he and PKR wanita chief Zuraida Kamaruddin have been slapped with a RM100 million lawsuit by Shahrizat and several other suits are pending. He has also been threatened.
“I am not walking around with a bodyguard but I would not mind if the party gets me one!”
“Some bloggers have been on full-force – speculating about my personal life, my sexuality, even claiming my wife wants a divorce. Suspicious people leave things at my house – it bothers me because it bothers my wife.”
“Thank God so far nothing physical has happened,” said Rafizi, who is contemplating standing for the next general election.
“I don’t think I have much options now with what has happened in the last few months – I must walk the talk.
“I cannot go around lambasting the Barisan Nasional – but when it comes to me standing in the line of fire, I can’t say I don’t want to. It’s not an option.”
To Mahathir, it may well seem that his plans have suddenly gone into disarray right in front of his own eyes. He can't accept that it could be him at fault and instead is blaming his successors for not clamping down harder on the people.
As every facet of Malaysia goes down one by one, Mahathir remains in a state of denial. Publicly, he says he can’t bear to see Malaysia sliding within his own life time and he can’t do anything about it. But don’t rush to empathize, one might be mistaken.