Govt only fighting for ‘rentier’ class

A Felda settler earned RM607 in profit at the close of trading on June 28 as opposed to the 'rentier' class which raked in RM750,000 to RM3.75 million.

COMMENT

It was like a bingo night on June 28 as suited people gestured excitedly like lollipop-licking children. These were the people gathering around at Bursa Malaysia scoreboard urging the Felda Global Ventures (FGV) stock to go up.

The bell tolled sweetly for the market players, but for Felda settlers and Felda workers it was a bitter knell.

It’s chief executive officer, the man who lost RM120 million when he was heading Golden Hope, said the closing price was not bad.

If he holds two million shares, of course it is not bad.

If he had unloaded his stock the same evening, he would have pocketed RM1.6 million.

The Felda settler, however, holds only 810 shares.

At the closing of the stock exchange, the premium the settler got was 75 sen. That gives him a RM607 profit.

Now deduct RM200 being the loan processing fee (remember the settler borrowed from the bank to buy the shares). The settler now has a net profit of RM400.

Add this RM400 – a trifling amount to the advanced bribe of RM15,000 – the settler gets RM15, 400.

Vulgar disparity

Meanwhile, the bloodsuckers and leeches riding on their backs made big money. They were not even “linked” to Felda people in any way.

For every 100,000 shares, the owners made around RM85,000.

And these selected Bumiputeras held anything from one million to five million units of share.

These people will get anything from RM750,000 to RM3.75 million.

What can you call this kind of disparity? It’s usurious.

So we ask why the settler gets RM600 gross when those not at all related to Felda are able to get thousands and millions of ringgit?

Those with RM1 million worth of shares get RM750,000.

The settlers bought the FGV stock with bank borrowings too.

If the same facilities were extended to Felda settlers, they would have also been able to get more money.

The borrowings then would be entirely secured anyway.

Unjust listing

The Felda settler could have got 50,000 units per household yielding them a gross profit of RM35,000.

FGV’s payout to them would only amount to RM3.9 billion. That would be around 30% of the total earnings raised from this listing of around RM11 billion.

The government has deceived the settlers by making it out that they are looking out for settlers’ interest.

But the truth is that the interests that the Umno government is fighting for are the interests of the “rentier” class.

If the listing is not carried out, then the “rentier” class cannot milk the cow.

The most unsettling feature about the FGV listing is that it is unjust.

The writer is a former Umno state assemblyman but joined DAP earlier this year. He is a FMT columnist.