Industry players in the agriculture sector say the relentless rhetoric by Rafizi has set Malaysia back by 10 years from meeting the government’s objectives in its National Meat Policy (Ruminant Sector) 2006.
Fabiani Azmi
A New Straits Times report has quoted the Attorney General as saying, “The investigation did not reveal criminal breaches as far as the Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Ministry is concerned.” Will the government then immediately revitalize the NFC project? Will it expedite the construction of the important Export Quality Abattoir to meet the slaughter numbers? Will Malaysians then stop consuming tough buffalo meat imports (Malaysia is the largest importer of Indian buffalo meat termed misleadingly as Cara beef). Fabiani Azmi talks to those that matter and is told ..
It would appear that Malaysians have not been given the right impression on the issues confronting the National Feedlot Centre (NFC) and National Feedlot Corporation (NFCorp) which otherwise would have been a highly viable and profitable venture for entrepreneurs especially contract farmers who were targeted to raise beef sufficiency levels to 40% by 2015, one big step towards Malaysia’s food security.
The suspension and silence adopted by the government had allowed the opposition led by Anwar Ibrahim and his slanderous strategy honcho Rafizi Ramli to fuel lies, distortions and misrepresentations on the NFC beef project and NFCorp.
Industry players in the agriculture sector say the relentless rhetoric by Rafizi has set Malaysia back by 10 years from meeting the government’s objectives in its National Meat Policy (Ruminant Sector) 2006.
It has never been the intention of Anwar Ibrahim and the opposition to see Malaysians benefit from government initiatives. The Felda Global Ventures Holdings Berhad (FGVH) IPO re ignited by the prime minister to lift the welfare of farmers is a perfect example. By listing Felda, Najib had upgraded the position of Felda from a group of local farmers into a mega international conglomerate, the listing of which is the second largest in the world this year. But the opposition’s incessant vile attacks on FGVH to wreck government initiatives were evident in the lead up to its listing.
In NFCorp’s case, the opposition’s primary aim was to derail the Wanita UMNO Chief Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil who commands a membership portfolio of over 1.3 million women voters. Shahrizat is married to NFCorp chairman Datuk Seri Dr Salleh. The opposition was never really concerned that the beef project was important to Malaysia’s food security. Their zeal and fervour was to knock Shahrizat off from the government machinery by running down the NFC project and NFCorp the company to demolish the government.
So for months, Malaysians were fed with lies, distortions and misrepresentations. Among others, the opposition had harped on the findings of the Auditor General’s 2010 Report.
For the NFC beef project to have been successful, an Export Quality Abattoir (EQA) designed to slaughter 350 heads of cattle a day was vital. Without the EQA in place, the contract farmers under the Entrepreneur Development Programme (EDP) would not be able to slaughter 186,000 heads of cattle in 2014. Neither could NFCorp for their 60,000 heads of cattle.
This foremost point was never clearly brought to the public’s attention by the Auditor General in his previous 2010 report. Nor did the opposition in their politically motivated attacks.
The EQA deferment meant that the EDP programme could not be rolled out. Nor could the feed mills and the bio gas plant (which relies on volume abattoir waste) to generate electricity, be feasible. Nor could more cattle be imported as there would be a surplus with many left to idle and languish in the farms.
And currently there is no other such EQA of this capacity in Malaysia. The EQA meets world-class standards and is an imperative requirement by international hypermarkets and supermarkets in Malaysia before the slaughtered beef can be sold to consumers at their outlets.
The AG’s lack in co-relating this crucial missing link of the EQA in the NFC equation had contributed to misperceptions. Instead, concerns were on beef production shortfall, delays in the construction of ancillary facilities such as the feed mills and a bio gas plant, the deferment of the EDP and satellite farms, government infrastructure and other weaknesses.
As a result, the opposition used these points to their advantage and created a political stir against the government, NFCorp, and robbed 310 potential contract farmers of a lucrative opportunity for a better livelihood.
The latest 2011 AG Report released recently reported the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the Attorney General’s Chambers mulling civil action.
NFCorp said in a statement that it was the MOA’s prior act of default on the Implementation Agreement that had caused all the needless shortcomings and set backs in the NFC project. The statement sought the Attorney General’s indulgence to be fair in assessing the truth of the situation in all fairness to the parties before plunging into any civil action.
It is understood that as early as 2007, NFCorp had been reassured in meetings with the MOA that the EQA would be completed by 2008. However, the MOA had only tendered the EQA construction in 2009. In May 2009, the ministry called off the EQA and suspended the NFC project.
The reason given was that a Viability and Business Model Study had to be undertaken. Despite two years with NFCorp on track with the NFC project, one wonders should not this study have been done first before tendering the project?
It was also really unnecessary to halt the NFC project. NFCorp had already succeeded in importing 8,897 heads of cattle, 11 per cent more than the planned target for 2010.
The government-commissioned independent study by UPM Holdings had pointed, “On the whole, the NFC Project represents a viable project both from an implementation and profitability standpoint, and is in line with the aspiration to develop entrepreneurs in the feedlot sector provided the project is carried out as outlined in the Implementation Agreement.”
Today the EQA and NFC project remains deferred. The MOA defaulted on its obligations in the Implementation Agreement. There is really no basis for the government to take civil action, lawyers tell.
The AG had also come out to say in an NST report that “The investigation did not reveal criminal breaches as far as the Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Ministry is concerned.”
If that is the case, what is next for Malaysian Halal beef consumers in this predicament?
The NFC beef project has been suspended. The EQA has yet to be built. The Government’s National Meat Policy (Ruminant Sector) 2006 to ensure Malaysia’s food security has been jeopardized and set back by the opposition by 10 years. Will we continue to be eating Buffalo meat imports?
“All this is so illogical without any sense and sensibility,” said housewife Noorjanah Abdul Samad on a trip to the market to procure beef for her rendang that she intends to cook to celebrate Hari Raya Haji. She finds it hard to distinguish between Indian beef and the genuine beef. She asked why was Indian buffalo meat referred as Indian beef?
Will she and many other unsuspecting housewives end up with a periuk of tough Indian buffalo rendang?
In this quagmire, Fabiani believes this is tantamount to labeling kangaroo meat as Australian beef.
About the Writer
Fabiani Azmi is an avid reader of Malaysia Today, intelligent mainstream newspapers and Internet news portals. When not reading, he also enjoys the company of sapiosexuals. It’s a stimulating discovery for him.
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