Felda EGM fiasco: Who will Najib sack?

Mohd Ariff Sabri Aziz | March 1, 2012

The cancellation of the extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of the 224,000-strong Felda cooperative KPF is a huge embarrassment for Najib Tun Razak and heads must roll.

Last week, we heard that the highly anticipated EGM of Koperasi Permodalan Felda Malaysia Bhd (KPF) was cancelled after the Kuantan High Court granted four KPF members a temporary injunction blocking the transfer of shares from the cash-rich cooperative to Felda Global Ventures Holdings (FGVH) Bhd.

Efforts toward securing the injunction had in fact begun as early as January 2012.

In which case, my question is: what were Umno lawyers doing? Especially that chap (former chief justice Zaki Azmi, who is also the former deputy chairman of Umno’s disciplinary committee and party lawyer) who got the RM2.2 billion Kinrara-Damansara (KIDEX) highway contract?

Perhaps he was too busy imagining counting the money from the highway project, to care about what’s happening to FGHV.

Felda Global is on its way to a listing on Bursa Malaysia, expected to be as early as May.

Once listed it would “create” a RM21 billion corporate behemoth, according to Ahmad Maslan, the deputy minister in charge of Felda.

The cancelling of EGM, which was to have been attended by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, is a huge embarrassment for the Umno president. Mind you, the injunction was the third application.

Heads must roll

The National Felda Settlers Children’s Association (Anak) had filed a similar action twice, one of which was to prevent KPF from holding its EGM in December last year.

My only conclusion is that Umno lawyers must be sleeping. Since his lawyers could not preempt the injunction, then heads must roll.

The first person Najib must sack for this fiasco is Isa Samad (Felda group chairman).

Perhaps Isa is too busy playing the resident politician at Felda headquarters in Jalan Semarak where he dispenses his homegrown wisdom laced with the usual sardonic phrases and of course, cash belonging to Felda.

The next person Najib should sack is the head of the legal team representing Felda and Umno in this injunction application.

Better, he should terminate the RM2.2 billion highway contract.

If Umno lawyers cannot even circumvent the injunction by four ordinary people, how can they look after the construction of the highway?

You want this kind of lawyers to look after Umno? They are only good at executing disciplinary measures on dissenting members.

No benefit to shareholders

But beyond that, what is really at stake?

First and foremost, Felda settlers through their KPF must pressure Felda to stop allowing FGVH to do a reverse takeover.

It’s clearly a case of a smaller, loss-making business entity, managed by incompetent people, planning to take over Felda Holdings.

Why should losers and incompetents take over Felda Holdings? Felda Holdings should take over FGVH or better still, sell off FGVH.

See whether there are takers for FGVH? Isn’t that called wide asset unbundling?

The objective of the injunction was to prevent KPF from disposing of all or part of its equity in Felda Holdings Bhd to Felda Global.

You may remember that KPF owns 51% of Felda Holdings while the remaining 49% is owned by Felda Global.

Among the grounds for the application was that the KPF’s proposal to dispose of its equity in Felda Holdings and other subsidiaries, worth RM3.13 billion, to Felda Global would not benefit them or KPF shareholders.