Hot, Squirming Grill

Ever listened to BFM’s Business Grill? It’s often done live and sometime you can hear the “grilled” squirming in discomfort.

This morning it was FGV’s group president and CEO Dr Mohammed Emir Mavani Abdullah “appearing” and my God, it was a good grilling.

Of course, it was on no other but FGV’s proposed purchase of plantation assets from Peter Sondakh’s Rajawali Group in Indonesia.

FGV is buying a 37% stake in PT Eagle High Plantations Tbk for US$680mil (RM2.5bil).

Among the questions asked by (I think it was) Huang were:

Why FGV paid an over the top 23% downpayment:

FGV wanted to show its seriousness.

Is FGV overpaying?

Landbank

Is FGV overpaying again having done so in earlier M&A?

Landbank

Rajawali’s landbank is 1/3 planted, while the rest is unplanted nor without permit?

Landbank

Why did EPF sell of its shares to become a minority? Does it not believe in the vision / strategy of FGV?

FGV is a long term investment

I am paraphrasing, of course, and it would be better to wait for the podcast to come out.

The way Emir was answering the questions asked were not exactly suited to the Breakfast grill style.

He was going in a roundabout way of getting to his point of contention and the host had to interject quite frequently in order to get to the crux of his answer.

It sure made him looked “grilled”, really.

Why should we care if FGV is overpaying in its venture?

We should.

There’s just way too much hanky panky going on in this country where our “guardians” are concerned…

 

Treasonous Ingrates

During the course of an FB chat, a friend asks for my comments on a former reporter colleague’s posting of choosing between peace and prosperity, or freedom, rights, integrity and transparency.

In the Malaysian context, this is supposedly a Hobson’s choice.

As it was close to midnight, I yammered some incomprehensible reply before logging off but an article on the massacre of 57 people, including 31 journalists, on a November morningthree years ago in Maguindanao got me thinking again on the question.

Yes, we have been blessed with relative – the main blemish being the May 13, 1969 riots - peace and prosperity throughout the 54 years of the nation’s existence.

Why couldn’t we, then, put in place principles that upholds one's freedom and rights, governing integrity and transparency – and if I may add – moral and ethics into the way we administer the country?

Can’t we have both? What is it about the latter that is so threatening to the former that co-existence is supposedly impossible?

We are not talking about unbridled freedom and rights but in the context of the proper adherence to the Rule of Law; i.e. where EVERYONE knows exactly where the boundary lies and the penalties for transgressing this line.

Realistically, it is here that we have been found wanting for quite a while now with seemingly two sets of rules being in play: one for the politically favoured and, another, for the rest of us.

That, and the seeming politically-expedient way of our execution of some laws: the most recent being the charging of a Border’s bookstore staff over the banned Irshad Manji’s book.

At least, there is a Judicial Review on the matter.

The retroactive nature of the alleged offence and the seriousness of its outcome (for the staff’s livelihood and freedom) means that there shouldn’t be any other way forward than to contest the charge brought against her under the Syariah Enactment.

So, can it be argued that the Rule of Law is alive and well as such?

Before we come to the said conclusion, do remember that Borders is owned by Berjaya Books and in Malaysia, Berjaya is a biggie.

There shouldn’t have been a charging in the first place had the Rule of Law really been adhered to.

All things said, I have to admit that the country is a relatively peaceful place to live and work in.

Not necessarily play, though, (pun intended) – what with the, ahem, increased perception of lawlessness apparent amongst some of the populace.

What is also true, however, is that some of the natives are restless; a sentiment simmering just below the all-glossy,shiny surface of the nation’s peace and prosperity facade.

Restless over perceived and actual bias in the implementation of national policies, over the seemingly accepted culture of rent seeking as a valid method of earning a living, over a more apparent division of class on top of the already well entrenched polarization of race, over the increasingly burdensome chase of economic over social well being…

Perhaps these are just the middle class / urban suburban / Gen X manic responses to the crushing economic malaise of late.

Or mere ravings of the disgruntled, treasonous ingrates as purported by some of our politicians.

Sadly, the peace we’ve held for so long did not see the putting into place a system of governance where such grievances could have been amicably tackled.

I’ve often asked this question: how and when did the country go off tangent in its nation-building to come to this sad state?

When did we make peace and prosperity, and governance, rights, integrity and transparency a Hobson’s Choice?

To some, this was when the Doctor was in the house.

Was it? Why did we let it be so?

Did we want our people to be forever in hand outstretched for crumbs mode?

The Tyranny of Thanos the Titan

Culinary Kupangs

Dua Ringgit Tujuh Kupang the sum total
A breakfast dish of fried noodles, egg and sambal
Coffee own brewed at the office pantry
Company supplied, shared with colleagues and all sundry

Lunch time is always headache routinely expected
Of finding a place to eat, to nourish a stomach depleted
Mamak, Thai, Western or Bakery, which shall it be
Choices prompting expenses of differing degree

Prompt service is the Mamak’s promise
Titillating the tastebuds the Thai’s forte
Western’s plenty the halalness self perceive
Bakery’s safe, cheap and cheery a tad taedium vitae

There’s always the food court with menus plenty
Servers zipping one table to another all abuzzy
A heady mix of chats, laughs and office talk all gossipy
Not a place for one seeking an hour’s solace definitely

Whichever the choice have at least a Sepuluh Ringgit ready
With small change returned for the cheaper variety
Others look to add a few more notes blue, red depends
Good enough filler while waiting the workday ends

Dinner is a often a household chore
Between a quickie fastfood tapau the kids adore
Or a swift sauté, pan, and deep, all frying styles encore
To fill hourly window as the evening night restore

Once in while we’re allowed indulgence
In entrées and main courses in plush ambiance
Of menus exotic amidst so stylo an audience
A risque wallet adventure of sheer extravagance

That’s usually a plus plus affair
As pricing components queue up and pairs
Smiling cashiers exuding cheerful air
At their side, in bowls, some free chocolate éclairs

As you pay up daring the littlest in despair
Of money concerns and budgetary impairs...

Why Now?

(Myopia : A visual defect in which distant objects appear blurred because their images are focused in front of the retina rather than on it; nearsightedness.)

Utusan Malaysia carried this huge headline of “Bangkitlah Melayu” today.

It sounded like a battlecry and I was piqued to see just what it is that the newspaper wanted us Malays to wake up to.

It turns out to be a rhetoric from firebrand MP Ibrahim Ali, the gist of which, asking for a wholly Malay formed government.

Utusan did not however quote Ibrahim Ali verbatim (peculiar this..) but chose to instead paraphrase his words as such:

Katanya, jumlah kerusi terbanyak di Parlimen adalah milik Melayu dan ia cukup untuk membentuk sebuah kerajaan berasaskan wakil rakyat Melayu semata-mata di negara ini.

Katanya, justeru, dari segi politiknya kerajaan itu sepatutnya memenuhi apa sahaja yang menjadi kehendak Melayu kerana mereka adalah majoriti dan bukan asyik bertolak ansur dengan bukan Melayu.

Ah.

And there I thought Utusan Malaysia (Melayu?) wanted Malays to wake up to the fact that Malay household formed the biggest percentage of those earning RM1,000 and below at 301,000 from a total of 5.8 million household polled in 2007.

Or that Malay millionaires and billionaires represent a mere 7.9% in term of wealth accumulation for the country’s top 40 richest last year.

There are more that ails the community but the two mentioned above are pertinent to Ibrahim Ali’s wanting the Malays led government to fulfill the “kehendak Melayu”.

So what does Ibrahim Ali thinks that we Malays want really?

For the Malay-centric Umno and PAS to come together? Surely not, as two by-elections with the two combatants squaring dealt the losing hand to Umno.

A re-distribution of wealth, perhaps? Especially seeing how this is skewed in favor of non-Malays.

But this is a dangerous line of thought to pursue.

Perhaps we should concentrate in creating a much bigger cake; one that allows the participation of all communities and that raises the income level parity by doing away the "cheap labor is Malaysia" concept that had long depressed our labor market so effectively.

I seem to remember a once-great Statesman who pushed for the “enriching of thy neighbor” so that everyone would be able to reap the benefits.

In the course of the nation’s short life so far, we’ve managed to help enriched some, but not all.

But all throughout, it’s the same Malay majority government who was in administration.

So why does Melayu Perlu Bangkit now?

Bill Sienkiwicz's Elektra