The article pointed out to the achievements of some young entrepreneurs in setting up fine dining and upscale steak houses.
Something that you find when reading what food critics normally say about famous steak establishments like Morton’s for example.
The article tossed phrases such as ‘enervating decor, inspiring ambiance and fine cutlery’ and all that.
The article identified the young entrepreneurs as children to the Minister of Welfare, Family and Community Development Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.
I thought these were heartwarming achievements indeed as I knew of these young people when they were small children.
Rapacious greed
I remember reading further that their supply of beef came from an integrated farm which the family runs somewhere in Negeri Sembilan.
Fantastic I thought, as I took that as a credit to the father of the children who is a doctorate degree holder and who taught at UPM – when it was known as University Pertanian.
He must have majored in some agricultural sciences and the opening of a cattle farm would be a close fit to his area of specialty.
I have every reason to believe as do many Malaysians, that their business, both the upstream (cattle farm) and the downstream part (upscale restaurants) will be a success story.
I held on to my subjective perceptions, until I come to realize that all the beef comes from the National Feedlot Centre (NFC).
I was simply appalled to learn that daily, some 20 cattle are slaughtered to be supplied to the family-owned fine-dining restaurants – Meatworks, Senor Santos and Brawns.
With the surrounding controversy now engulfing the NFC, I have come to realize that business people like the children of the ‘Welfare Minister’ thrived on money allocated by the government on very favorable terms.
Eventually this money misused and misapplied negligently and perhaps even wrongly.
These scions of powerful and famous politicians are just a bunch of pirates having a chance play out their rapacious greed.
They become celebrities on top of that, because the Malaysian public endear themselves quickly to fairy tale success stories.
Blatant unfairness
Our children will not have that chance and free rides as the children of the famous and powerful.
We and our children have to slog it out.
Because of this blatant unfairness and possible misappropriation of funds, the public has got every right to feel indignant over the pompous response of those responsible over the NFC.
Here are the reasons why.
- The National Feedlot Centre (NFC) was envisioned to become a center of production for beef and beef products in Malaysia.
- As a High Impact Project under Ninth Malaysia Plan, National Feedlot Centre project will be instrumental in attaining the 40% self-sufficiency for beef production by 2010.
So how is the record so far?
NFC has failed to do so and while failing at that, has sucked out a lot of our money.
We must feel pained by this failure and must ensure that those responsible for stealing public funds will not think that they can get away unpunished.
The National Feedlot Corporation Sdn Bhd is owned by Agroscience Industries Sdn Bhd with participation from the Government of Malaysia.
Its business is the development of a planned, integrated and sustainable Malaysian beef industry by setting up a fully integrated livestock farming and beef production facility.
How does it intend to accomplish this aim?
It does this by managing the importation of livestock, feedlotting, slaughtering, processing, packing and marketing of beef in Malaysia.
Ghost cows
The starting point to investigate the NFC is to look at the expenditure on the purchase of livestock.
Examine the money spent to acquire X number of cows and then do a headcount whether X number is there.
This is necessary to avoid hearing horror stories about paying for non-existent cattle.
Many years ago, a similar project was undertaken by a government-linked corporation (GLC) in Pahang.
A lot of money was spent on ‘ghost cows’.
The number of cattle imported didn’t match the amount of money spent.
The Pahang government has undertaken a similar project currently in Bandar Muazam. We have not yet heard of its performance. But that’s up to the Pahang lawmakers to find out.
NFC a failure
The fact of the matter is the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) has failed in purpose to supply 40 percent local beef demand. We are still importing cattle and beef.
And the persons benefiting from the monopoly of importing beef since the days of former premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is still at it and laughing at the stupidity and failure of the NFC.
He knows the NFC will fail just as Pahang Beef long time ago went down and if strict business ethics are not observed, similar fate awaits DARAbeef also in Pahang.
Our country has only achieved 5% of the target while spending a bomb. The government was supposed to spend RM6.37 million to breed 9,000 cattle.
Instead it has been forced to spend RM141 million to rear 8,000 cattle for three years which is 22 times more costly that the ministry’s estimation.
The number of cattle heads is lower, but the money outlay has risen disproportionately.
The huge difference between the actual amount and the estimated figure should have triggered alarm bells and caused investigation into the matter.
What kind of cattle was the centre importing?
Could it be another case of NFC not comparing prices which is fast becoming the standard answer by the Chief Secretary to the government in explaining why departments are paying above market prices?
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