Rafizi to Shahrizat: Yes, I'm not the victim, the cows were

PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli has agreed with Umno Wanita chief Shahrizat Abdul Jalil that he is not the victim in the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) controversy.

"I think she is right. As much as it sounds like a joke that the cows were the real victims, but I think they suffered for a while," he said in an interview with Malaysiakini.

Many of the cows died during the shipping from Australia to Gemas, Negeri Sembilan, he said.

More died in Gemas as they were not fed the right type of grass, he added.

"That was the story that started it all. The auditor-general went to audit the place and it was full of lalang and acacia trees which were not suitable for breeding cows.

"I had my evidence as a countermeasure because they (NFC) did not have the right type of grass for the cows.

"The cows were fed dedak (animal feed), palm kernels and some of the cows died from choking," Rafizi said.

The remaining cows had lost a lot of weight due to a lack of nutrition, he said.

"If you had gone to Gemas and saw the cows yourselves, they were lacking nutrition and they were not the fat cows that they were when they were first taken in from Australia," he said.

As much as the cows suffered, he said the real victims of the NFC controversy were the Malaysian taxpayers, who had to pay for the RM250 million allocated to NFC.

But the biggest victims, he said, were the "poor farmers" and cattle breeders who could have benefitted the most from the plan to achieve beef sustainability.

"(What) if the government had approached the whole idea differently?

"Rather than give RM250 million to Shahrizat so that Shahrizat can breed more cows, what if they just gave about RM10,000 each?

"How many thousands of young cattle breeders could we have created?" he asked.

From bad to worse

Things have gone from bad to worse for the bottom 40 income group in Malaysia since 2006 when NFC was first conceptualised, he said.

"Some of them (cattle farmers) would have become middle class or quite rich by now if the RM250 million were given to them in 2006 instead of NFC.

"So Shahrizat should go and spend some time with these people and reflect," he said.

Shahrizat had said on Thursday that Rafizi was not the victim in the NFC controversy as he "abused" the Whistleblower Protection Act 2010 to achieve his political goals.

She said the real victims were those who paid dearly for his manipulation.

On Wednesday, Rafizi and former Public Bank clerk Johari Mohamad were each sentenced to 30 months' jail after being found guilty of leaking banking data from the accounts of NFC.

The judge allowed a stay on sentencing pending appeal.

Rafizi has since said that he does not regret his part in exposing the NFC controversy.

Do the right thing, and the world is with you - Rafizi

-Mkini