Felda New Challenge ??

Felda should first restructure before going global
Malaysiakini: Dr Collin Abraham | Jun 29, 09 6:36pm

The announcement that Felda will be setting up a new entity, ‘Global Ventures’ is only to be welcomed as being relevant and meaningful if, as implicitly correctly suggested by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, the forthcoming ‘restructuring’ of Felda ‘pays attention to the needs of settlers’.

This means, in effect, that ‘Global Ventures’ demands the pre-requisite of settlers being involved as stake-holders jointly participating in the organisation and administration of Felda at the highest points of decision-making.

This, in fact, has never been the case, especially as clearly highlighted by the failure to provide ‘listings’ for settlers on the stock exchange, as repeatedly requested by both former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and indeed Najib himself.

As regards the other ‘failures’ to develop a viable settler community involving the second/third/and even fourth generations, the record speaks for itself, where settlers even successfully obtained legal remedies in connection with a successful court case of cheating against Felda. Another similar legal case is currently pending.

With the greatest of respect and in humility, I have to reiterate therefore that unless the proposed ‘restructuring’ amounts to the radical transformation of Felda as an institution, the new entity of ‘Global Ventures’ will amount to nothing more than the continuation of the cases of ‘pagar makan padi’/’empire-building’ that have repeatedly been ‘exposed’ in the past.

These are very strong negative assertions and this appeal to Najib, therefore, is to make it possible to re-direct and intervene in these new development projections to ensure that they are in line with the founding ideology of Felda, so spectacularly projected by his late father, Razak.

This is a very serious matter that strikes at the heart of the concept, theory and implications for agricultural-industrial plans and programmes particularly in multi-cultural societies, not only for Malaysia but also for Asia and indeed the rural development scenario in the wider world.

Therefore, it is imperative to emphasise that the assertions being made here are based inter alia, on my experiences as a member of Razak’s 11-man national committee for Gerakan Maju (where incidentally I was the only non-Malay and the youngest officer) at a time when we were very much involved in new thinking and research for Felda.

More recently, as the lead consultant and sole report writer for the UNDP social impact assessment of Felda (2002), I was directly concerned with the kind of questions and issues arising from Najib’s statement that ‘Felda (is) set to grab global opportunities’.

It may be useful to ‘highlight’ some of the main observations in the report that have ‘direct’ implications for meaningfully ‘grabbing the global opportunities’ as mentioned by Najib.

1 The structure for reform

Group Settlement Areas Act 1960, Act 530 (amended 1996)

The promulgation of this amendment made it possible for Felda itself to move directly to develop new land settlements on its own accord, because the government had decided to cease doing this since 1990.

‘The implications of this amendment in the context of the objectives of the original 1960 Act appear to be so ‘reactionary’ as to require another full-scale study and re-evaluation of the social impact of this amendment on Felda’.

This is because while the organisation successfully managed to enhance its oil palm production activities, increasing emphasis in its expansion plans and programmes began to focus on non-agricultural areas centered on ‘empire building’.

Because no attempts were made to get settlers listed on the stock exchange, it meant that the shareholders were limited to Felda management and other professionals, who would be the main beneficiaries of the various new subsidiaries and other ventures initiated in its expansion programme.

2 Future sustainability for diversification.

Felda has brought ‘independent’ title-holding settlers completely under its management. This has generated intractable dependency relationships between the settlers and management rather than enhancing the process of social change through motivation, capacity-building, creativity and entrepreneurship as was the basic and fundamental objective in the original Felda ideology.

Because no attempts were made to involve settlers in the management of the schemes, they ‘have little confidence in decision-making and indeed seem helpless to take control of their lives and to move on. They, therefore, leave it to the management to take over and organise their ‘freed’ land titles as soon as they receive them’.

There is a low-level of diversification of economic activities associated with oil palm production particularly through down-stream/up-stream new products resulting in settlers not being exposed to flexible knowledge-based training.

Therefore the potential of innovative capacity especially among youth is not tapped. As a result Felda has not sustained a strategic role as catalyst in industrialisation and modernisation.

Related Article:
http://malaysiainsider.com/index.php/business/30948-felda-to-seek-listing-soon

Raising Unemployment..

Saturday June 27, 2009
Rising unemployment despite green shoots
Economic Matters
By Cecilia Kok of StarBizWeek

DURING her recent trip back to Malaysia, Aileen (not her real name), an executive at an oil and gas company in London, told her friends who had been applying for some professional jobs in Britain, to put their plans on hold because current opportunities were scarce.

She pointed to the lack of activity in the once lively and busy streets of Canary Wharf, the trendy financial district of London, as a sign of how badly the British economy has been hit by the global financial crisis.

Many people have lost their jobs since the acceleration of the financial crisis in the third quarter of last year, and many more are expected to suffer the same fate in the coming months as companies across industries experience severe slowdown in their businesses.

While most of us are not there to experience first-hand the depth of the crisis in Britain, the official data tells the story. The British government recently reported that a broader measure of unemployment in the country rose 232,000 to 2.26 million for the three months to April, taking the unemployment rate to 7.2%.

Despite the talk that the worst is over, the Confederation of British Industry expects unemployment in the country to peak at 3.03 million, or a rate of 9.6%, in the second quarter of next year.

Worsening unemployment is not a problem faced only by Britain, but also by many other nations. For instance, the unemployment rate in the United States is expected to exceed 10% this year. It stood at 9.4% last month, up from 8.9% in April.

Over the week, the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said it projected the average unemployment in its 30 member countries, comprising some of the most developed markets in the world, to reach 10% by the end of next year, up from 7.8% in April.

Unemployment is usually the public’s best gauge of the intensity of the current economic storm. Although recent indicators have shown signs of diminishing economic damage, and have pointed to possible recovery for some countries by the second half of this year, labour markets worldwide are expected to languish over a longer period of time.

The International Labour Office (ILO) director-general Juan Somavia recently explained that past experience had suggested a considerable lag of four to five years in the recovery of labour markets after economic recovery. He said there was a risk of the global jobs crisis persisting for the next few years.

In the Global Employment Trends Update released last month, the ILO projected the total number of people unemployed worldwide this year to range between 210 million and 239 million, or between 6.5% and 7.4% of the global labour force.

For the South-East Asia and the Pacific regions, the United Nations agency projected the total number of unemployed people this year to range between 16 million and 18 million, or 5.4% to 6.2% of the regional labour force.

A country with a persistently weak labour market poses a high risk of experiencing slow growth for a number of years, even if its economy does turn around by the end of the year. Rising unemployment also means that more people will fall into poverty, and this could weigh on consumer spending, a key component in most economies. For instance, consumer spending represents about half of Malaysia’s gross domestic product and 70% of that of the United States.

The Department of Statistics is expected to announce Malaysia’s unemployment rate for the first quarter of 2009 by the end of this month. The country’s unemployment rate last year stood at 3.3%, and is expected to reach 4.5% this year.

On Tuesday, the Manpower Department director-general Datuk Ismail Abdul Rahim said there had not been a massive retrenchment in the country so far. He estimated that the total number of employees who lost their jobs since last August to be 37,000.

Economists polled by StarBizWeek recently also agreed that retrenchment in Malaysia had not been that widespread but affected mainly employees in the electrical and electronics manufacturing and export-oriented companies.

Further improvements in the labour market, nevertheless, will depend on the effectiveness of the fiscal expenditures by the Government in creating new jobs.

Test Your Personality

PERSONALITY TEST

MAKE A WISH BEFORE BEGINNING THE TEST!!

A Warning! Answer the questions as you go along.

Put the following 5 animals in the order of your preference.
Cow Tiger Sheep Horse Pig

Write one word that describes each one of the following:

Dog
Cat
Rat
Coffee
Sea

Think of someone (who also knows you and is important to you) that you can relate them to the following colours (do not repeat your answer twice).

Name just one person for each colour.
Yellow Orange Red White Green

Finally, write down your favourite number and your favourite day of the week.

Look at the interpretations below: (but first before continuing, repeat your wish.)

This will define your priorities in your life.

Cow Signifies CAREER
Tiger Signifies PRIDE
Sheep Signifies LOVE
Horse Signifies FAMILY
Pig Signifies MONEY


Your description of dog implies your own personality.
Your description of cat implies the personality of your partner.
Your description of rat implies the personality of your enemies.
Your description of coffee is how you interpret sex.
Your description of the sea implies your own life.

Yellow: Someone you will never forget
Orange: Someone you consider your true friend
Red: Someone that you really love
White: Your twin soul
Green: Someone that you will remember for the rest of your life

Is it True???
Fwd by boonchert on 16/6/09.....

CPO Theft & FAKE DXP Seeds

TIMELY ACT FOR THE AUTHORITY. THESE CULPRITS MADE TONS OF MONEY AND DEMOLISH OUR OP BUSINESS IN FUTURE. ACT NOW OR PERISH LATER...

THE NST: Plugging the palm oil leak
By Ooi Tee ChingPublished: 2009/06/11

Malaysia plans to step up enforcement against oil palm seed scams and theft of palm fruits and oil, which are costing the country billions in lost revenues.


The Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok has told the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) to buck up as these crimes have been going on for a long time.

"I want MPOB to step up enforcement immediately. All these oil palm seed scams and oil thefts must stop," he told Business Times in an interview in Putrajaya on Tuesday.

For a start, Dompok gave the green light to MPOB to licence palm oil transporters. This is allowed under the Malaysian Palm Oil Board Act 1998.

"I want to tighten up the loopholes. The transporters need to be licensed and we'll put in place a whistle-blowing scheme. Once MPOB board of directors give their consensus, it will come back to me for my signature and then we'll have it gazetted," Dompok said.





The companies will also have to install global positioning systems on their tankers to keep tabs of their movements. "Transporters must take responsibility for the actions of their drivers and pay the price if their tankers are involved in illegal activities," he said.

Under MPOB (Quality) Regulations 2005, whoever steals or contaminates crude palm oil can be fined up to RM250,000 or two years' jail or both.

In a separate interview, Palm Oil Refiners Association of Malaysia (Poram) acting chairman Yong Chin Fatt said refiners have suffered much from oil pilferage.

Refiners have no way of knowing whether the palm oil brought in by tankers are stolen or not.

"We're all established and we only accept oil that come in tankers, not in drums. These tankers come with the necessary documentation from the millers," he said.

"In fact, we incur additional costs when we're duped into buying contaminated cargo. We suspect such highly-organised crimes, that have spread to Sabah and Sarawak, are by syndicates. We appeal for more stringent enforcement," he added.

Dompok has also told MPOB to be more vigilant in stamping out oil palm seed scams.

"These scams have serious implications on the livelihood of thousands of smallholders and the country's average oil palm yield," he said.

It was recently reported that there are syndicates deceiving planters into buying low-yielding seeds that are not dura and psifera (DXP) crossbreds currently sold by the 19 genuine producers.

Last year, MPOB managed to seize 6.13 million fake DXP seeds and this amounted to RM11.35 million in opportunity loss for genuine producers.

However, the potential revenue loss runs into the billions in the long term as the fake seeds will not produce as much fruits.

Malaysia's oil palms are the most productive in the world because of government policy to use high-yielding crossbred seeds of the mother palms of the DXP strains.

Regular seeds from existing oil palm trees will only yield five to 10 tonnes of fresh fruit bunches in a year compared with 25 tonnes for DXP seeds.

Cross breeding of high-yielding DXP seeds takes time and the seeds are sold for RM2 each.

Happy Agong Birthday

Happy Agong Birthday.
Raja agung raja disembah..
Daulat Tuanku.