Work Commitments...

I would have loved to write more over the past few weeks. Unfortunately relentless workloads have kept me at bay as far as blogging is concerned. I have not had time to even browse through some of my favourite blogs what more to post my own "stories".

My workloads are not getting any lesser but would actually gather more momentum over the next few months.

Hopefully by year end, I would be able to write more, especially when I make my annual trip back to Borneo...

p/s: I shall attempt to make mental notes on the happenings (especially those related to FELDA and PETRONAS) for future postings.

I am sorry but...

I am sorry, sad, disgusted and angry.

Why? FELDA is doomed!

Imagine an organisation that paid its debts ahead of time and then was able to build a reserve of approximately RM3 billion now has to sought to bank borrowings to do replanting...!

Whispers heard indicated that FELDA is talking to RHB Bank to take a loan of RM2 billion for replanting! This was unheard off during the good old days before Yusof Noor and Bakke Salleh!

So what has these two goons done to FELDA?

Plunder and rape it real good that it has to borrow...

Now it would be good reason to go for listing since all reserves have been siphoned out?

What bullshit (pardon for using the word!) is Najib talking about listing and need to go abroad?

The investment in US has gone BAD... Words around said that it is REAL BAD that employees there are deserting the company! How much was paid for the company? RM300 million or was it US$300 million?

It has been going abroad and it has been making money. The only thing it was not doing was succumbing to politicians whims and fancies...!!!! It was quietly doing business of making money without the interference of the likes of Yusof Noor and Bakke Salleh...

Now there are even whispers that Bakke Salleh is designated to take over from Hassan Merican (Pak Hassan) of Petronas. Previous whisper was that Bakke Salleh would take over from Rodzi in Amanah Raya. I suppose Amanah Raya is not as big a gold mine as Petronas.

After successfully raping FELDA dry, Bakke now must move to bigger pots and Petronas would be the biggest of them all. I am sorry Pak Hassan! You may still be in Petronas but only as a Non-Executive Chairman. You would cry your heart out if and when Bakke comes in to take your place... I am sorry!

If Najib wants to survive beyond his First Term as PM, then he should act quickly. Otherwise he would be in the annals of history as the FIRST Prime Minister of Malaysia and FIRST UMNO President to be the head of opposition!

FELDA Group of Companies are 51% owned by over 140,000 settlers/members of Koperasi Permodalan FELDA Berhad. Why the need for listing?

Najib, please rethink of the advises you get. Especially from the likes of Yusof Noor and Bakke Salleh.

It has been often repeated that Bakke Salleh is close to Rosmah. If that is true, would Rosmah then be the real Prime Minister of Malaysia?

I am just too disgusted, angry and sad that I am lost for words...

I am sorry for all the hard and diligent work of pre-Yusof Noor tenure as Chairman of FELDA...!!! All your hard work has gone into the trash!

Kewibawaan Petronas Wajib Dipertahankan - A Kadir Jasin

Komen saya terhadap tulisan A Kadir Jasin bertarikh 27 May 2009.

____________________________

Sdr. A Kadir Jasin,

Jikalau Petronas "jatuh" ke tangan individu-individu tertentu yang kontraversial maka "The Beginning of an Ending has set in...".

Saya dah lihat macamana FELDA telah diporak-perandakan setelah R M Alias bersara dalam tahun 2001.

Saya tidak pasti samada kemunculan golongan tertentu (termasok ahli politik) dalam organisasi strategic pernah membawa tuah.

Yang saya lihat, kemasukkan "tokoh-tokoh" tertentu (terutama sekali ahli politik) selalu membawa padah.

Segala usaha serta pengorbanan tenaga kerja Petronas selama ini akan menjadi sia-sia.

Sejak Petroleum Development Act 1974 diwartakan, Petronas telah dikendali dan diurus olih golongan profesional dan berwibawa. Golongan yang tidak mudah tunduk dengan telujuk para politikus serta suku-sakat mereka.

Jika golongan profesional dan berwibawa ini di ganti dengan golongan berkepentingan, maka jahanamlah Petronas sepertimana yang dialami olih FELDA pada masakini!

Sekian.

Spending is ALWAYS easier than Saving

To build up an organisation from zero takes courage, determination, integrity and foresight.  

Not many people could actually claim to have such resolute during these "modern" days.  Now people are generally more susceptible to temptations that tend to make objective judgement difficult.

To repay debts is a huge challenge.  Repayment of debts ahead of time is often unheard off, especially among government agencies.

It takes an equally huge challenge for organisation to build its reserve.  But it takes less than a blink of an eye for the reserves to be depleted.

This is exactly what is happening to FELDA now!

Since taking over Chairmanship of FELDA in 2001 from R M Alias, Yusof Noor has proven without doubt that "Spending is ALWAYS easier than Saving..." and integrity, credibility and foresight are not prerequisite to being a good spender!

FELDA - Part 3 (The Beginning of an Ending...) would showcase the need to have people with integrity, credibility, and foresight to lead/head an organisation!

For MekYam

Salam MekYam,

I was browsing through my older postings and I notice a comment from you on the FELDA story.  I have since written more stories on FELDA.

For your information, I have changed my blog from "Quick Draw Botak" to "Dari Borneo ke Minang".

More "stories" about FELDA have been published...

Happy Reading...

FELDA's Investment In US...

Some time back, FELDA was asked to make a strategic investment in a company in the US.  The investment was supposed to be beneficial to FELDA's presence in the global market.  And the cost was RM300 million...! Or was it US$300 million...?

[NOTE: KPF was asked to take-up certain equity stake in the company but it "refused".  KPF was heavily criticised by a number of people from FELDA Holdings Berhad (including Bakke Salleh).  Ethos Consulting, too, criticised KPF for their reluctance...!]

There were reservations on this particular investment in the US by some prominent people.  The logic was not convincing, to say the least.  It has been quite some time since the investment was made.  According to some stories that have since emerged, the investment has gone sour.  Not bad yet but nevertheless sour...

What happened? What happened to the reservations voiced by R M Alias to some (key) ex-FELDA staff?  Was due diligence done?  If it was undertaken, what was the result?  Was it in favour of such investment?

There are quite a number of questions that remained unanswered.  One fact is clear - FELDA overpaid for this particular investment in the US.  

Paying for over-priced investment seems to be a culture among Malaysian government-related agencies or companies.  

Over paying is bad enough but making bad investment is worse and government-related agencies or companies seem to be making such decisions by the dozens these days...

New Chairman of FELDA

Whispers from the grapevine...

New FELDA Chairman is an ex-Minister....

Let's hope that it is not Jamaluddin Jarjis (JJ)!

Let's hope that JJ is made Ambassador to the US as reported in The Malaysian Insider...

Why FELDA is important to me?

I have been commenting about some of the happenings in FELDA.  The question that comes to mind is "WHY?".

The answer is simple.  What FELDA does affects me!

I am one of the more than 140,000 members of KPF.  KPF has substantial investments in FELDA Group of Companies.  What FELDA does affects FELDA Group of Companies which in turn affects KPF and ultimately me, the member!

What little investments I have in KPF comes from my hard-earned salaries.  So it is important to me to keep track of whatever little savings I have in KPF...

Plain and simple...

Federal Land Development Authority - FELDA

Whispers from the grapevine said that Yusof Noor's tenure as Chairman of FELDA would not be extended.

The same whispers also said that a candidate for Chairmanship is Jamaluddin Jarjis or fondly known as JJ.

My take:

If JJ is appointed as Chairman of FELDA, then it is like jumping from a frying pan into the hot burning flame.  

Between the devil (JJ) and deep blue sea (Yusof Noor), I would rather chose the deep blue sea.  At least I have some hope of surviving...

Once sold to the devil there would be no redemption...

FELDA HOLDINGS BERHAD - The milking by Bakke Salleh

When Yusof Noor became the Chairman of FELDA, the government agency, he introduced a lot of changes.  A lot of these were in FELDA Group of Companies.  He condone interference of politician with personal agenda of draining these cash rich organisations.

Bakke Salleh was made the Group Managing Director of FELDA Holdings Berhad (FHB) not long after Yusof Noor became Chairman.  It is not proven whether he was brought in by Yusof Noor or he was parachuted in by Najib/Rosmah.  There were many insinuations pointing to many directions.

According to some, prior to joining FHB Bakke Salleh was in Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad (BIMB).  It has been reported that his stint in BIMB was not spectacular.  In fact, some even termed it as a failure...

When Bakke joined FHB, he brought in his honchos, giving them generous salaries.  Some say these ranges from RM30,000 to RM50,000 before benefits.  These salaries were easily two to three times the salary earned by the previous Group MD.  In all likelihood, Bakke's salary should be in the range of RM50,000 if his honchos were paid RM30,000...

The latest talk around town is that Bakke is rewarding himself and his honchos with 10 months' bonuses!  Of course, not directly.  It was done "above board" though the Remuneration Committee...

[Bakke appointed Ethos Consulting (directly or indirectly) to draft strategies for FELDA Group of Companies at a cost of RM1.2 million without any visible and quantifiable results.  It was whispered that the strategies were "shot" down (rejected) by the shareholders.  I am not surprise at all after browsing the RM1.2 million "strategic" folder...]

From a strictly commercial perspective, it is fine to award such high bonuses if performance has been rather spectacular...  However there is no noticeable and spectacular performance from FELDA Group of Companies... Have you noticed  anything spectacular...???

The majority shareholder of FHB, the Koperasi Permodalan Felda Berhad (KPF), should exert their rights to right the wrongs being done in FHB now...  

Being a shareholder, KPF has fiduciary duty to remove those rotten apples (including Bakke) from FHB.  If KPF fails to do that then KPF has failed their members...

[Now Bakke has one foot in Amanah Raya Berhad (ARB) and has been appointed as Chairman of its Investment Committee.  The good works of Ahmad Rodzi Pawanteh would be wasted...  I am sorry Rodzi, you efforts would come to a nought and you don't even have a say in it...]

FELDA - Part Two

In the first part, An Introduction, I wrote a really summarised history of Felda. I skipped quite a fair bit of details as I do not have the liberty of time to write a better piece. Nonetheless, in this Part Two, I would tempt to recall what has been said to me by friends and acquaintances.

Someone once said that Felda's reserved has dwindled to about RM1.5 billion from RM3 billion since Yusof Noor took over chairmanship from R M Alias a few years ago. I do not have any evidence to confirm or deny this statement. However, if we were to use simplified logic (maybe flawed), there are grounds to believe that this could be true. Since Yusof Noor took over, the following has been planned, of which some has been implemented:

(1) Felda sponsored Car Rally championship

(2) Felda United, the football club was formed

(3) More than RM100 million loan has been extended to Pahang state

(4) Investment of over RM300 million in a plant located in US

(5) Construction of a hotel resort worth about RM50 million

(6) Felda University has been approved but yet to be implemented

(7) Goodies handed out to settlers during the run-up to the 12th General Election

There are many other plans being put into place with some implemented. For now, let us examine each of the above and objectively determine the logic of each of them.

(1) Car Rally Championship
What has Felda got to do with a rally championship? For all intends and purposes, I do not understand the rationale for sponsoring this event. Officially excuse used is "Felda needs to establish a brand name". Establishing a brand name, yes but not through sponsorship of a rally championship! Felda is not in the business of producing auto parts and rally championship is way off its business activities!

(2) Felda United
Creating a football club to compete in the Malaysian league is a waste of time and money! Malaysian football scene is nothing more than a farce and sponsors are probably "arm-twisted" to sponsor the whole league. With very low turnout at stadiums and low viewership on television, there is simply no desired impact for sponsors. Such waste of time and resources, typical of Najib and Yusof Noor!

If the argument is to employ settlers sons to play for the club, then it would be another "bullshit" to put it mildly. Who actually gains? My guess is as good as yours!

(3) Loan to Pahang State
This piece of disturbing news came from the grapevine. According to unconfirmed sources, Felda extended more than RM100 million to Pahang State in the form of loan/advance. I do not have the details but I was told that the decision has been rectified during Felda Board of Directors meeting.

My take? Yusof Noor's tenure as Chairman of Felda depended very much on Najib. To applease Najib, Yusof Noor had to "provide support" to the ailing Pahang State coffers. It has been said that the loan/advance assisted in extending Yusof Noor's Chairmanship.

It bugs me to see a federal agency "providing support" to a state government when it is none of their business to do so!

(4) Investment in US
I was told that Najib insisted that Felda takes over a plant in US. Location? Some "ulu" place that is accessible only by train and road. Reason? I do not know but the official one given is nothing more than a crap!

The investment cost Felda more than RM300 million (of was it US$300 million). When an acquaintance mentioned this to me, my first reaction is "Shit!" Another waste of fund. Apparently now the plant is not really generating the money it was suppose to. Surprise? Not at all. In the first place, I think Felda overpaid for the investment. Second - it was purely an exercise to siphon money from Felda.

(5) Hotel cum Resort
Another scam to siphon money! If my memory serves me right, the hotel cum resort cost more than RM50 million. Location? You guess it right - Yusof Noor's home state! Rationale? Figure it out...

(6) Felda University
Yusof Noor also wants Felda to set up a university at an estimated costs of more than RM300 million. Why? Beats the hell out of me...

(7) Run-up to the 12th General Election
Prior to the 12th GE, Najib was busy handing out goodies by the dozens to settlers in and around Pekan. He learnt his lessons well. During 1999 GE (if I am not mistaken), Najib almost lost and only won on recount. The settlers actually shied away from him and refused to vote him in. Najib only won on recount then. During the 12th GE, he was not about to make the same mistake and there was a real danger that he could lose. So he made sure goodies were handed out by the dozens to settlers, just to make sure the votes goes to him. His strategy worked extremely well and he was voted with higher majority when other BN candidates won with fewer votes!

The above would suffice for now.

Part 3 would focus on Felda Group of Companies and the new management!

Federal Land Development Authority - An Introduction

Federal Land Development Authority or Felda as it is popularly known now was (officially) the brainchild of Malaysia's 2nd. Prime Minister, Tun Abdul Razak. Throughout the years, many people have been involved in developing Felda until it achieved great success. There were failures along the way but overall it was a huge success. Millions have benefited from Felda and their schemes either directly or indirectly.

The early days of Felda was difficult. Fundings were from the Government as well as through borrowings from World Bank and Japan, to name a few. The pioneers of Felda presevered and by 1989, Felda succeeded in redeeming ALL their loans and became selfsustaining. Since then ALL Felda expenses were funded through internally generated funds. The last non-politician chairman of Felda was R M Alias, a very strict no-nonsense disciplinarian. Under his stewardship, Felda managed to build a reserve of approximately RM3 billion. (RM3 billion then was equivalent to approximately US$1.2 billion). Despite such successes, Felda's employees (including top brass) remained very down to earth and publicity shy bunch of people.

Some of the keys to Felda's success was their ability to avoid shout for accolades, praises and wastages. Official vehicles were used until they were no longer economical to maintain. This culture were in sharp contrast to those practised by other government agencies.

The current chairman, Yusof Noor, is a politician and with his entry marked the decline of Felda's stature as a well-organised, well-managed and well-run government agency. This has been further aggravated when the PM assigned his deputy, Najib, as the minister-in-charged.

To Be Continued...