FGV HAS HELD 11 BOARD MEETINGS SO FAR THIS YEAR

For example, last year FGV held 13 board meetings or almost one a month. This year FGV has already held 11 board meetings so far and it is not even half a year yet. In May they held three board meetings and in the first week of this month another three.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Mohd Isa Abdul Samad has 22 years experience as the Menteri Besar of Negeri Sembilan. However, in his wake he left a trail of destruction that took his successor three years to clean up. Even then until today places like Port Dickson have not fully recovered from the misguided adventures that Isa embarked upon.

And Isa brought this ‘experience’ to Felda with drastic results. What used to be a cash cow became Isa’s petty cash to be milked for all it was worth. And even as the non-executive Chairman of Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (FGV) Isa managed to run the company like it was his family business.

For example, last year FGV held 13 board meetings or almost one a month. This year FGV has already held 11 board meetings so far and it is not even half a year yet. In May they held three board meetings and in the first week of this month another three.

The management has to spend so much time preparing the papers for these frequent board meetings that they have very little time left to run the business. Board meetings require days of preparation and just as soon as one board meeting is over you need to start working on the next one.

These frequent board meetings are actually the way in which Isa runs the business. That is how he transforms his post of non-executive Chairman into Executive Chairman. And that is how he also leaves the management no time to ‘interfere’ in the running of the business when, in fact, it is Isa who is interfering in the running of the business.

Isa would like to have weekly board meetings if possible, just like how when he was the Menteri Besar of Negeri Sembilan he had weekly Exco meetings. But then he was told companies normally hold quarterly board meetings, or four board meetings a year, and not weekly board meetings or 52 board meetings a year. So Isa had to settle for monthly board meetings although in the last three weeks he has called for six board meetings, which is even more frequent than the weekly Exco meetings.

Isa needs these frequent board meetings so that he can micromanage the company as though he is the Executive Chairman instead of the non-executive Chairman. He has so many cronies he has given projects to that he needs to be on top of things. And the only way he can do that would be through these board meetings. Basically, through these board meetings Isa would dictate the day-to-day running of the business instead of focusing on just policy matters like what a normal board of directors would do.

Shahrir Abdul Samad, Felda’s Chairman, the sole-owner of FGV, said he will be meeting Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak tomorrow. When asked what is going to happen after that meeting, Shahrir said anything is possible but would not elaborate on what he is going to recommend to the Prime Minister.

One thing we do know, however, is that the Prime Minister has given Shahrir until Hari Raya to resolve this crisis. And that is less than two weeks more.

Oh, and each board meeting you get paid RM2,000. I hear that is more than what the Felda settlers sometimes make in a month. So are the board members looking after the welfare of the Felda settlers or is it the other way around?